Dookanelly Campsite, Western Australia
Third time's a charm. I've had already 2 catastrophes trying to write a blog about my hike. The first, with pics and all, won't open again so that I can upload it. Just crashes this app. The second attempt the other night I lost when my phone died before I could Save it:(. Since we have wonderfully long afternoons in the shelters, I'll try again. Words only for now. Don't want any problems.
I started this hike Monday, the 7th at about 5 pm. Peter, my Warmshowers host, drove me out to Kalamunda after work. That worked out well for me because I had some resupply boxes with map sections to mail that day anyways.
I had decided to let him drop me a ways up the trail do I only had a short hike to the first shelter. I'm not a purist so skipping 8 kms didn't bother me. At the shelter I met Chris and Kirsty from Scotland, a young couple living here and on their first long hike.
I should probably orient y'all a bit about the Bibbulmun. It's one of the longest tracks in Australia at 1020 kms give or take. (That's roughly 600 miles for those who need me to do the conversion. I'm finding I need to convert because my hiking mind works in miles, but I'm doing it less.). It's in Western Australia (a state) in the southwest corner from east of Perth down to the southern shore and then east to Albany. This trail is a popular multi-day hike but I have no idea how many end-to-enders there are in any year. Right now there are 8 that I know of that are within a day or two of me.
The shelters are a bit nicer than the ones on the Appalachian Trail (hereafter referred to as the AT). They have a picnic table perpendicular up the middle and double wide bunks on either side sleeping eight. Other ones have the bottom bunk continuing all the way across sleeping 4 more and a large long picnic table out front under a roof. There's usually a fire pit and always a water tank with rain water collection as our source. It says to treat it but I'm not. None of us are. Rain water tastes do good and the tanks are closed. Most of Australia drinks tank water!
The next night I was alone in the shelter. And that was fine. I started slowly going hut to hut, about 5-8 miles a day. My body is used to sitting all day and my feet are no used to walking much less carrying 28 lbs. Have to break her in slowly. I did get some foot spin early on, but it has subsided. I ache, for sure. And struggle up hills. But this old body is still strong and loving the challenge.
The third night I had 2 older guys who are E2Ers. (End-to-enders.). Bob and Terry. And also Ari was camped. The next morning Ari said he, like the 2 guys, had double hutted that day and with the heat and the weight of his pack, he did himself in. He'd decided to go slower so we've been at the same huts ever since. And he's been named Waugal because with his dark completion and his yellow and black raincoat he looks just like the Waugal emblem for the trail markers.
The weather has been mostly dry and sunny. We've had some rain and wind but nothing too bad and only a day or two. Daytime temps in the 70s I'd guess. But nighttime is cold! Brrr. High 30s, low 40s. I'm using all my gear to stay warm. There's nothing extra. Most nights I'm in the shelter. When a large group of women were on the trail for 3 nights, I used my tent. After Spacey, my backpacking tent seems so small. Not seems, IS! Makes me love and miss Spacey (Big Sky Revolution 2P with Porch) all the more!! Luckily won't have to use it too often. But some campsites don't have a shelter due to fires last fall. And you have to use a tent.
The following night, Lorna, a Brit in her 40s, who's been traveling the world for 14 years joined us. She's now The Littlest Hobo. And the following day, Samantha, now Comet, blazed in! And that was our merry band of hikers for a week or two.
The park folks do prescribed burns in an attempt to control these highly flammable forests. And during the first week one night we could see a forest fire way off in the distance lighting up the sky. Quite a sight!
The next afternoon while resting in a shelter, a ranger pulls up (yup, every hut is accessible by road), and says the two prescribed burns got out of control and ran together. 50 kms of trail are closed ahead. No diversion suggested. Looks like we'll need to hitch down the highway. But I'm thinking, why not walk. It looked like the road was only 25 kms and I bike on these roads all the time. I told the group I was walking it. And since they all hike faster than me, they went ahead that day. Since my plan was to camp along side the road, I got extra water later in the day. Oh was my pack heavy then! So I took the forest road over to the busy road and checked the mileage on Google Maps. 39 kms! A bit further than I had estimated. Oh well. You're walking 600 miles, this is just part of it. So off I went. Wow! What a force the road trains made against me going by! On the bike the push me along. And there sure were a lot of vehicles. Then I notice a car on the other side (the direction I'm walking) pull over. Hmmm? Then it does a U turn and pulls up next to me. It's a mom and young son. Want a ride? I think for a minute and said No, I think I'll walk. But thanks!
And I continue walking. I start struggling with myself about turning down they ride. Do I really want to walk this godforsaken road for 2 more days? To prove what? If another car stops, take the ride, Stupid! And then, bam! Another car stops. I hadn't walked 3 kms down that road. So I took the ride and surprised my buddies when I arrived at the roadhouse in North Bannister. I get there and there's no cheap rooms left. That's okay. I'll camp up the trail. But I'll come back to join you for a drink.
One problem the fire diversion created for me was too much food. The first 6 days I had the opposite problem: too little food. The first leg took 2 days longer than I had planned. I'd stashed good 70 kms down the trail at a road crossing and mailed more to the roadhouse.
Waugal had too much food so he often shared stuff with me. Comet had extra toilet paper, thank goodness. And everyone heated water for me. Besides having too little alcohol for my cat stove, their methylated spirits didn't burn the same and big flames shot up around the pot not actually heating the water. That problem now resolved with having me Pocket Rocket back thanks to Jacko, the guy who had my bike for me at trail's end.
So I got my resupply stash by the road and then the very next day I'm picking up my box at the roadhouse. Too much food. But luckily Hobo had a friend who met up with us at the roadhouse and was meeting up again in our first town. She could take my extra food! Problem solved!! This trail has long distances between towns many places. It was12-14 days to the first town, hence the 2 food drops. Then leaving our first town of Dwellingup, I had to carry 7 days of food. Ugh! It's heavy! I'm not in shape yet. Luckily the huts are now about only 20 kms or 12 miles apart. I'm usually in by 2 pm for an afternoon's rest. Then I have to be sure not to eat everything up too early in the week because I'm starving! Such a bad bad diet on the trail. Nothing heavy is rule #1. Filling is #2. And I have to like it or I won't eat it. I know. I dumped a Back Country dinner down a hole one night because it was awful. I'll eat healthy again after this hike is over but for now it's just EAT something.
The trail has been quite beautiful because it's spring here and the wildflowers are in bloom. Massively! I can't stop taking pictures. Please do check out my Bibbulmun album on Facebook to see some of them. And I'm trying to learn some of the trees: jarrah, parrot bush, banksia, snotty gobble, and marri with the honky nut. Gotta love the names! Right now the trail is mostly in the shade. I'm afraid as it gets hotter we'll be out of the bush too. I lost my visor in the first week and haven't yet been able to replace it. That's the only eye shade I use. Gotta work on that.
In Dwellingup, Waugal and I took a zero (no miles walked) and Hobo and Comet hiked on because Hobo's friend, Suzie Snoozee, joined her for a night. This way at least, no one is hiking alone. There's do few E2Ers that one could end up doing a lot of it alone. That would be lonely, day after day. It's okay on my bike. But not here. And it helps with group thinking. We've got a fire diversion ahead tomorrow. The fire last February burned down a big old wooden bridge across the river. The diversion goes way out and around making for a 30 km day...18 miles. Not up to that. So I suggested we try and swim across. It's a quiet river. Waugal and I got garbage bags in town to put our packs in to float them across. We may build them a raft. The river is cold. It's just spring. We're hoping that the "summer crossing" on our map will be narrow and not too deep. The girls left us a note here at the shelter that they were planning the same thing. Hope it worked! We'll be there tomorrow! All part of the adventure:))
Livin' the dream,
BagLady
Facebook: Kathryn Mossbrook Zimmerman
