Seems one of the hardest things to do in life is actually make a start. Recent years had me thinking I really should get back out in the “Bush”, have some exercise and enjoy the natural shapes of bush fire burnt organic carbon. Theres some kind of beauty to a burnt and mangled landscape.
Herein lies one problem, no…. a major problem…age, or at least my perception at 56 years old is I’m too old and decrepit to do anything outdoors again, and frankly why would I as I have a really comfy lounge called Shazza which gets a serious workout every day after lunch…..
We all hear the usual crap about age is no barrier to anything blah blah…….well that’s simply not true, lets face it the odds of me running a marathon are shall we say about the same as winning next Thursdays Powerball.
I digressed a bit, years ago I was watching Youtube and for some algorithm reason a channel popped up that caught my eye, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQhqmV26773qZhzqJz4VFcw . It has been interesting to watch over the years however personally it pressed a button that wouldn’t go away, a very annoying button. It for whatever reason sent me back 20+ years ago and a book I bought by Ray Jardine called “Beyond Backpacking”. A tome who’s name is probably appropriate as I think Im probably beyond it anyway it’s for those who pursue walking/ through hiking camping etc in the outdoors and how we have got it wrong! years ago we all carried too much crap and it was heavy, seems things in the outdoors have come along way in weight reduction. Jessica Mills the host of the above Youtube Channel on her first outdoor experience hiked the Appalachian Trail end to end. A gutsy effort by any measure….my own deluded thoughts were if she can do it then I can pick up a pack and go for at least a short walk…
Jardines general idea in Beyond Backpacking is going “Ultralight” in weight of equipment which should give one way more pleasure (if that’s ever to be had) more opportunity to cover greater distance. Jardine writes about all sorts of stuff, there are some gems in his work and the take away is half the crap we used to take outdoor years ago was simply stupid and waste of time….. back then we didn’t really know any better….
So after years of collecting bits and pieces of Ultralight gear the time was getting close to test myself against my delusions of grandeur…on my own no less so as to hide fear and embarrassment of stopping to catch ones breath after about one kilometre….the ever present thoughts about WTF am I doing here, do I in fact really want to be doing this?…after all I could be at home in my man cave making noise which the neighbours complain about endlessly or giving Shazza the lounge another serious workout.
Road to somewhere…..
The thing with Ultralight philosophy every thing is pared back to the minimum of weight yet still has function otherwise known as the “ultimate compromise”…in recent months Ive packed and weighed and re packed and weighed some more, wrote lists with weights, chucked stuff in the heavy bin, bought stuff, watched videos. Procrastinated terribly, weighed myself, tried the pack on with different weight/ gear combos and ended in a spiral vortex off doubt.
In the end I printed a gear check list I stole off “backpacking light.com” stopped over thinking it all, seriously how hard can it be?…and packed…I surprised myself with a weigh in of 8kg without water or food…
this included everything for a sustained walk with some semblance of comfort..packed some freeze dried and other important items like Coffee and Chocolate.
Drove the Mt Franklin road to the locked gate high in the Brindabella’s, started walking…felt a bit stupid as I could have been doing this adventure thing years ago….my Hyperlite Mountain gear pack felt good, I started thinking as soon as I started walking as one does about what I left behind, I left my watch, I didn’t have a map, and I didn’t know exactly where I was going other than skim reading Kate Grarocks trip report on Mt Gingera https://australianhiker.com.au/trails/mount-gingera-act-14-9-km/
I became lost in my own thoughts and had no idea how far I had walked, I came to a sign that said I’d walked four kilometres having one kilometre to go till Priors Hut, I was carrying way too much water i.e. 4 litres which equals 4 kilos, my knees started to let me know as did any uphill climb…I hadn’t struggled to this point which was a surprise although I must confess I did stop a few times for a breather…
Priors Hut circa 1950..
Priors was pretty dark and dingy inside…
Carrying on with no idea of how far I’d get having started late in the day, I came to the turn off for the uphill climb towards Mt Gingera summit, I don’t mind trudging up hills! there’s some kind of weird physical challenge to get to the next tree, over the next rise, one foot in front of the other all the while wondering what a heart attack might fee like. After a while I walked through the cloud base where everything became wet with daylight diminishing fast. Setting up camp on the only flat spot I could find under a tree, not ideal which turned out to be a nightmare.
I looked for probably half an hour around the saddle area where I stopped for possible tent sites but recent fires had burnt many of the plants to the ground leaving very sharp stubs of wood everywhere on what appeared to be level ground. Closer inspection revealed this would be a damn uncomfortable home for the night.
Setting up my ZPacks Plexamid tent is quick and simple, rain started falling so I was just in time, climbing inside and lying down the choices I made the far had been Ok….the trip to the summit would have to wait till daylight. One Big mistake was the amount of water I carried, not knowing if there would be water on what is essentially a ridge walk I did a rough calc on what I might need and packed it, turns out the place was running with streams!…I could have knocked 3 kilos off from the start…damn.
Dinner was freeze dried Beef Teriyaki which shall we say is Ok but only just…I didn’t feel hungry but ate the crap anyway. I’m thinking the amount of calories in the McDonalds I ate the day before is excellent walking food one load of that stuff and you can go for days. It didn’t take me long to fall asleep only to be woken by rapid fire water drops coming off the tree above which intern dislodged the condensate on the inside of the tent….this went on all night…on top of that when I did sleep I had the weirdest dreams, dog attack, wombats, kangaroos, galloping brumbies all the while when it rained I swear I could hear people or “something”….the bush was talking to me and I wished it would shut up for a bit…
Waking at 6.40 was a surprise as I normally wake at 5.00…still not hungry I decided to climb to the summit for a “Non look” the cloud was thicker and everything was still damp, I had to finish the job at hand…turns out it was a short walk/ climb which I suspect on a nice day would be spectacular. I have to say I was feeling slightly sore but to be fair I hadn’t carried a pack in years.
Mt Gingera summit.
Returning to camp and packing up was easy with the Hyperlite gear system, everything is packed into “pods“ and these simply stack up inside the pack with the tent being the last to pull down and go in. Compared to years ago Ultralight is fast in just about every aspect of travel, why hadn’t I thought about all this years ago…
Leaving camp walking down hill is worse than going up! carrying a pack and having knees that aren’t 20 years old anymore makes one take extra caution as an injury out here wouldn’t be fun…the walk back was uneventful and I couldn’t help but walk fast, not sure why. I know I’ve got arthritis in my hips and this was a constant pain towards the end but it well be muscular. I dropped back into Priors hut for a snack and a closer inspection…its pretty grubby. The log book showed no one had been there for days which was fine by me.
Summary: Everything worked pretty well although I couldn’t help but think how I could lose more gear weight, I forgot my watch, my Keen Targhee walking shoes are too hard in the sole for sustained walking, I should research more about water next time and that’s about it. In all not a bad for overnight out, subsequent days I was really sore, 15 kilometres total and no idea of how much up and down but suspect not much…didn’t see any Wallabies or Kangaroos, no snakes, very few birds, no insects, no people, no noise.
