Bibbulmun Track - week 6 continued

October 16, 2015
Mt Chance Campsite

One of the first sunsets I saw tonight from the top of Mt Chance, a large granite rock with 360* views of the Pingerup Plains. Don't often get to see sunsets because I'm usually deep in the woods. Maybe that will change now that I'm nearing the ocean. One can hope:)

In the last few days we've spotted black, wild piglets, a blue-tongue lizard and my first snake. Others have seen upwards of 14 snakes so far. Mine was a baby...up on a dried stump. A training snake. I'm not ready for the bigger ones. Today a guy here at the shelter told of being nearly attacked by a tiger snake that he almost stepped on. As it flared up he whipped it away with his pole. No thank you. And me in sandals. Scary!

The wildflowers continue to be amazing. In the plains today we found so many new varieties. It's almost overwhelming trying to photograph them all. So many different types of blooms and stalks and leaves. Orchids are the hardest to spot. There's a couple now ahead of us by a day that have wicked orchid hunting ability. And they mark the sand with notes and arrows showing us the ones we'd have walked right past. I'm calling it the "Orchid Tour". Hope they keep it up!!

Yesterday and today we were on a diversion due to Feb's fire. This meant lots of road walking. But the diversion was shorter and that pleased us. But road walking is never easy and the temporary campsite they put up had a water tank and a porta-potty. We get in tonight and see notes in the journal that Lorna and Sam didn't do the diversion and the old site had a new toilet, picnic table, and fire ring. The just don't open the route because you have to wade through a river. Wish we'd known that:(.

Oh well. Phone is dying. Better sign off.

October 17, 2015
Woolbales Campsite

My anniversary of the completion of the Appalachian Trail...8 years ago!! Where has the time gone? And what a full life I've had since then. Oh the places I've seen!! And 8 years later I'm still plodding my way down a trail with a pack on my back, bitching and moaning about how hard it is, how my body hurts, how I wish this day would end, how lucky I am to be where I am doing what I'm doing....

Quityourbitchin:)

But my aging body hurts a bit more. My back aches through the shoulders. My feet hurt. Through the muck and the mud I plodded today. Black mud. Slippery mud. Sandal sucking mud. Heavy mud. But luckily the water levels are low or I could have been wading through waist high water. That's what the trail notes said.

And it's getting warmer. By 10 am (and I've been hiking 4 hours by then), it's hot. The umbrella seems heavy to hold. A rest break is torture because the marchflies find you and bite you...hard...painfully. Swish. Swish. With a small branch of leaves. Trying to keep them off my feet. I'm so exposed in a dress with bare legs. And sandals with socks. They bite through the socks. They were white. They're black now. From the black mud. The socks are worn to ease the rubbing of points on the sandals. They also help the bottoms of my feet feel a bit less tender. And I think they help protect my feet from sticks that jump up and stab my toes.

Yesterday we met a north bounder from England who had the biggest kit. He was carrying a 2 person Hubba Hubba tent. 6 lbs I think. He had had a military bivy sack to but ditched that. He had 2 stoves: a canister one and a Jetboil. He said his pack weighed over 60 lbs when he started. He might be down to 50 now. Yikes! He'll learn I guess. Makes my measly 28 lbs a breeze. But it feels heavy to me. And the only luxury it is a deck of cards...which had gotten quite a but of use. Waugal and I play gin rummy most nights. I'm winning:)

To keep my weight down I'm packing a minimum of food. So minimum that I worry I'll run out. I'm constantly hungry. And I have to stop eating just to save some for the days left until town. 6-7 days of food is heavy. Estimating how much snacks you want is challenging. Two days, one night left. I have 3 oatmeals, a bit of coffee, some almonds and a couple of dried fruits, a couple of crackers for lunch tomorrow and nothing for the day after, and noodles and instant soup for dinner tomorrow night...and half a large chocolate bar for desert. Pretty slim pickins! Food in town will be so appreciated!! Just 2 more days if we double hut the last day. Waugal says he has a bit extra food if we don't double hut that would see us through. He's saved my arse so many times this hike. He's carrying so much and I'm the ultralight moocher!! Always short on something. He gave me an apple today. How sweet was that?!?!

I took a 2 hour so this afternoon so I'm not ready to sleep tonight even though it's after 8 pm. I should though. 5:30 comes too quickly. And besides my phone battery is low again.

Bonne nuit!!

October 18, 2015
Long Point Campsite

The Ocean!! I made it to the Southern Ocean!



Quite exciting, I must say! But oh, the sand dunes are exhausting to walk on. And I'll be walking for the next 2 weeks on coastal dunes. Beautiful but challenging.

And today in the beach a wave caught me by surprise and soaked my feet. Then the sand stuck to them, chaffing under the back strap. So I switched to my crocs. Only problem with them is no back strap so there I am trying to scramble up loose sand in the dunes where each step slides down the hill anyways, and I'm sliding out of my crocs too. So I took them off and climbed barefoot. Which was fine when there wasn't scratchy pokey things stabbing my feet.

I made it to the campsite just the same. Waugal was already here. And it wasn't 30 minutes later that the skies opened up and it rained all afternoon. A coastal storm. So glad we were cozy and dry in a shelter:)

I just had enough food for this section. Dang I call it close. Too close. So hungry. Town tomorrow. But a 22 km double hut day to get there. I wouldn't rush but I have nothing left except a few nuts and 1 Snickers bar. It's been a week since I've had fresh veggies. Oh I want the biggest salad.

I'm really looking forward to walking this gorgeous coast line for a couple of weeks. I have 4 inlets to cross. One by canoe. The others depend on whether they've been recently dredged out. They may be walkable. Just have to wait and see.



Waugal and me at the ocean!!


Livin' the dream,

BagLady

Facebook: Kathryn Mossbrook Zimmerman

Bibbulmun Track - Weeks 5 & 6

October 10, 2015
Pemberton, Western Australia

This is the 4th town in 5 weeks. It's been a fun hike with 3 weeks left to go. While I'm walking I think of all kinds of great things to write about, but when I start writing my mind goes blank. Why is that? And typing with arthritic hands on my iPhone is not pain free. Whine. Whine. Whine.

I'm sleeping on the back deck at the hostel because the dorm room's windows don't open. I need fresh air. It's beautiful out here. Cooler tonight. Perhaps in the 50s. I'm hiking out in the morning with about 14 miles to go. And it will be quite warm in the afternoon. Maybe near 80*. That's nearly 7 hours to hike it. So probably not in until 3ish. Ugh! But have to stop for a latte and croissant at the bakery on the way out! I have my priorities.

I've learned so much about the flora and fauna on this hike. Waugal, the guy I'm hiking with, is also interested and quite observant so he helps to show me much that I would have missed. And we share our photos of our findings at the end of the day if we didn't hike together that day. He hikes faster than I do so spends much time waiting for me....probably glad to have an excuse to put his heavy pack down.

The wildflowers have been stunning! You'd have seen them on my Facebook page. And oh the orchids! So tiny and hard to see but magnificent when you find them. And so many different types. It's like a treasure hunt looking for them!

The bushes and trees have been quite interesting too. Mostly there are eucalyptus trees everywhere. But different kinds: jarrah, marri, yarri, and karri. The karri are here now. And so massively tall with no branches until the top. I almost topple over trying to look up them!

I've learned to identify several by the bark which can be distinctively different. Some bark is streaking up and down, others are like puzzle pieces. Paper bark gum is thin and flakey. It's fun figuring this all out.

But the most fun had been trying to understand the banksia tree and how it's big seed pods open. Also are the flowers and pods all the same or is there a male and female? I think the later is true.

And my absolute favorite are the grass trees with their broad black trunks and green spikes coming out the top. The green tops survive the bush fires. I haven't a clue how. And 6 months after a fire, the area is lush with new growth. Orchids are abundant. Everything is so green and healthy. Only the imported trees are dead. Aussie trees love fire! They sprout new growth all over their trunks. It's the funniest sight. I thought it was a green vine wrapping around the burned trunks but it was sprouts of new growth to catch the rain and sunlight to feed and heal the tree quickly. Then the sprouts all drop away when no longer needed by the tree.

October 11, 2015

I'm at Warren Shelter tonight. First campsite out of Pemberton.

First stop today was at the Gloucester Tree. You really should google it because my description won't do it justice, I'm sure. In areas with no high points for fire towers, they used to find the highest karri tree and build a fire tower in the top of it. Then to get up to the tower the put iron rods into the tree spiraling up to the top 53 meters. Can you believe it's open for anyone to climb? How crazy is that?!?! I started to go up. Got about 10 rungs up and could not go further. Too scary! I'd need a harness to be that exposed and that high up. I know I have a fear of heights. Not going to be that crazy!!

It seems coming out of town after a zero is tougher. The pack is heavier and the legs stiffer. I'm having my usual achy feet problem. They get so painful during the day. And after a rest, I'm hobbling for a km or so.

Today my sandals created a new issue. There were many many sticks on the trail and I'd pick one up between my sandal and my toes carrying it horizontally forward where it would bang into to back of my other ankle then twist and scrap along the inside of the ankle as my foot completed the step. Ouch!! My ankles were a bloody mess by the time I arrived in camp.

October 12, 2015
Schafer Campsite

This has to be the most beautiful site ever for a shelter!! Appalachian Trail included. It's on a pond/reservoir with a swimming area. And today, arriving just after noon, it was hot enough for a swim. Yippee!!

An early start. Up at 5:30, out just after 6 am. But it still was hot when I finished. Ugh! The heat and humidity just saps me making the hills even harder to get up than they were. The terrain is quite rolling. Up over a hill. Down to a river. Up over another hill.

Some people we were hiking with, Rock Star and Orchid, have seen 14 snakes so far. As many as 5 in one day! What really worries me is I haven't seen any. And it's probably that I'm just not noticing them! Yikes!! What if I step on one?!?!?!! These are Tiger snakes usually. And poisonous! I like to hike with Waugal about 50 paces ahead of me to scare them away. But he's only seen one or two.

We have long lingering afternoons in camp. I'm usually done when I arrive after 12-14 miles (20+ kms). Then the eating begins as I graze my way through my feedbag:). Perhaps a nap. Collect firewood for an evening fire where I'll boil my water for dinner to save fuel.

The flies are getting worse. When I stop on the trail for a break they find me. And call their friends over. And some get to biting. That's it! Up I get. Get walking. Today, for the first time, they were around camp. And annoying me. Biting. Ouch. I had to out my thermals on and sox to protect myself. In this heat! Ugh.

I sure enjoyed the swim though. First one on this hike. Reminds me of the lakes in the Adirondacks. A bit homesick. I could use a canoe to travel in about now:)

Many times on this hike I'm having AT flashbacks. The trail looks the same. The AT has more blazes though! And I have to remind myself this is only 2 months, not 6! Less than 3 weeks to go. Just when I'm in good hiking condition it will be over. In some ways, too short.

But I'm sitting on a log (getting bit by ants) looking out over this calm lake, and for the moment there's no place I'd rather be. This new life of mine is truly about living in the moment. And the peace that brings. There's times I try to think about: what next, but no answer comes to me. So I know it's not time for me to know.

Oct 14, 2015
Maringup Lake Campsite

What should have been 3 easy days: 14 kms, 15 kms, 17 kms, we managed to make into 2 tough days. How the hell did that happen, I'd like to know? Yesterday we hiked the 14 kms into Northcliffe by 10:30 am. Done! We'll find some place to camp near town, I thought. We go eat and hang with Rock Star and Orchid (they double hutted yesterday and got in last night). We got our resupply and we were hanging around when we got the idea of hiking 8 kms out of town (halfway to next hut), then hiking a hut and a half into here tonight. Sitting around wasn't really fun so let's take extra water for a bush camp and go. A couple of kms into it we were like "what were we thinking??!!!" We can do this. Just hike for a couple of hours. My back is killing me with the weight of 3 liters of water and 6 days of food. Ugh!! But by 5 pm we called it quits and camped on a sandy old road at the top of a hill in a burned out area. Beautiful evening sun. Then the wind picked up and I knew rain was coming. It rained most of the night. I love that, except when ya gotta go out to pee. (Miss my pee jar;).

On the trail by 6:30 am with 25 kms to go. The trail here is mostly loose sand which is exhausting to walk on. Oh my. And there was a bush fire in this area last February so lots of sunlight. That's tiring too. But by 2 pm I made it to camp. Tired but happy! First thing, off with the dress and into the lake! Ahhhh! Now this is living!


Livin' the dream,

BagLady

Facebook: Kathryn Mossbrook Zimmerman

Bibbulmun Track -Weeks 3 & 4

Oct 5, 2015
Tom Rd Shelter, Donnelly River, WA, Australia

I'm going to just post this. Every time I try to add more, the app crashes so I'd better just post it while I can.

So where did I last leave you? I think I was leaving Dwellingup with plastic bags and duct tape to cross the Murray River where the Long Gully Bridge had burned. It was to come the 4th day out so we had a bit of time to think about how to tackle it. Lorna and Sam (the Girls) had left the day ahead of us so they were writing us notes in the trail logs. I've given out a lot of trail names but they're not really into using them here so I'm giving it up...except for Waugal, my hiking partner.

I had a bit of a bang one day when hiking up this hill, the trail jumped up and slapped me in the face. It mashed my glasses into my head and I landed on my forehead. I was pretty thankful I didn't break my glasses:)

The shelters are pretty consistent in their structure of wide bunks on each side (big enough for 2+) and a picnic table down the middle. Then some newer ones have a platform connecting the bottom bunks and the table under the roof out front. A fire pit and another table...and a dunny (outhouse), often with toilet paper. We have a fire most every night and I heat my dinner water over the fire on this cast iron shelf that swings over the fire. There's also a hook to hang a billy (pot for boiling water, which Lorna is carrying and has been a treat to have).

So the day before the river crossing arrived and since we had a decision point about 15 kms down the trail, Waugal and I hiked together. The decision was whether we were going on to the shelter or taking the diversion and bush camping down the way. The diversion had you go on to the shelter then backtrack 4 kms to where our decision point was. We opted to cancel that if we took the diversion and shorten the long day a bit. When we got to the decision point we were at the river, just not where we wanted to cross it. This was where the diversion crossed it. We checked out the water level and it was low. More good news. Ok. We're going for the river crossing. Can you swim, Waugal? Enough. Our plan was to hike down to the "summer crossing" marked on our map and cross there. Should be low enough. So we hiked on to the shelter. When we looked in the trail log, Lorna and Sam had left us a note that they were going to the "summer crossing" and using Lorna's GPS to find it. They'd mark the sandy trail to show us where they went. Great. We didn't have a GPS and the map is often too vague. There are many more forest roads than the map shows so it's often quite confusing.

The trail to the river was mostly forest roads but quite 4WD and rutted. Also quite steep and with those tiny ball bearings. There was a moment when I lifted my foot to put it down and test the surface and it skidded. Whoa! Another time I was standing there with total fear of skidding. I wanted to sit and butt slide down but that would have hurt in a dress. I only use one pole and if I picked it up, I was releasing the force that was preventing me from sliding down the road. What to do? This is not fun! I have to get down somehow in one piece. I can't stay here. Go for it, BagLady! And off I went. Whew! Glad when I got to the bottom of that!!

We get down near where we think the cutoff is to the "summer crossing" but Lorna has an arrow that tells us to stay on the trail. Now what do we do? I say, let's follow her advice. She's got the GPS and she's a smart cookie. There's a reason not to cut to the river now. And on we go following arrows in the sand along these forest roads. Can she have gone all the way to the Long Gully Bridge crossing? Our map showed no crossings before there. Here's a turn towards the river. Is there an arrow? Yes. Over here. Down we go. Another intersection. Arrow? We search and search. Nothing. Let's just head to the river. Look. It's narrow down here. And there are trees we can cross on. Perfect. We'll have to scooch across. But we'll stay dry. That was easy! Sure better than a 30 km diversion!
Now where are we and how do we reconnect with the trail? There's a road beyond that brush somewhere...at least it shows on our map. But the brush is quite dense. There's a lot of wear and tear on the shoreline and rope swings over the water. It's obvious kids come down here to swim. We need to find where they come in. Follow the shoreline and voila! A road. That connects to our road. We're found!

We still had 12 kms to get to the campsite. The shelter burnt down in the fire that burned the bridge. Brush fires are a common occurrence whether by accident or prescribed. Every shelter has a road access because of this danger so that if necessary hikers can be evacuated by rangers. The fire before the roadhouse the first week caused them to evacuate several hikers from the trail. They also drove into our shelter to tell us that the trail was closed ahead. Much appreciated. Gave is time to plan our way around the burn.

We got into Possum Springs campsite and a northbound hiker tells us that others he met southbound ing had gotten here and the water jugs were empty. They went down to the tiny creek and filtered water. Lucky for us, Lorna, who had gotten here the day before, had the wherewithal to call the rangers and request they resupply the water here. Good on ya! Good for us.

Now writing a couple of days later. It's 5;30 am. I'm awake and snuggled in my tent. Yesterday was a trying day and my longest day yet. I took off at 6:50 am and didn't pull into Beavis Campsite until after 3:30. Waugal was so worried about me he started hiking back up the track. I was long after the dad and his 11 yo daughter who are hiking this section. Here's what happened.

I had a great start. Beautiful morning. Feeling chipper. Loving the walk. And after 2 hours I was 8.5 kms down the trail...fastest time yet. Usually I'm only 7 kms. I'm breezing. I had read in the notes for this section that there were a fair number of hills and that's why I set out early. I was 20 minutes behind Waugal who's always first out. And then I missed a turn and hiked up this terribly steep and rutted 4 WD road that was the toughest hill I've climbed. And it went up and up and up again. Since it's not uncommon for there to be no waugal markers I've stopped looking for them. I did see a worn path so other hikers had been here. It must be the way. There hadn't been anywhere to turn that I saw. And near the top was a log across that had a chunk cut out to ease crossing. And a worn path. Which continued. Then at another downed tree there was a worn path around it. Still no waugals. But the thought of going back down that steep, slippery, rutted road was more than I could bear. Especially if I found out I was on the right track and had to climb it again. Better to continue. Surely there'll be a Waugal soon. Reading the notes was no help because I could never figure out where I was. It mentioned a steep hill we weren't suppose to climb but turn left at the base. There was no turn down there. Eventually I came to a T junction. Still no waugal. I follow the worn path left and arrive at a gravel road. Still no markers. I start to cry...and scream. Fucking waugals!!!! I can't go back down that hill!!!!! Shit!!!!! I'm so screwed!!! I sit down. Take a break. Have a snack. Get yourself together. Then do what you know you have to do. Go back until you figure out where you got off track. By the time I creeped my way back down that steep, slippery, muddy hill an hour had passed since I had started up it. Argh! And what is extremely obvious from this direction? A turn at the base. How did I miss it? It's clearly marked from this direction. Big post. (I was reprieved when everyone said it was hard to see from the other way and they all had gotten ready to start climbing when out of the corner of their eye after rounding a bush, they saw it. Miss Oblivious to Detail missed it!)

That was hard to recover from. My mood was shot. Shake it off, BagLady. Take lots of breaks. Enjoy the scenery. Have fun. So you lost an hour. You have plenty of time. It's only 21 kms today. Just over 12 miles. You're nearly halfway. So on I plod. And rest. Everyone must have passed me while I was taking "the scenic route". I'm seeing no one. Then I don't usually. An hour later, sitting having lunch, Comet comes up. You must have left late, I say. Enjoyed the empty campsite, she responded. She's named Comet for a reason! And she hiked with no notes, just a map and only using the profile. I don't like knowing what's ahead really, she tells me. And you don't get lost? No, just follow the waugals and path. Guess she's either luckier than me or more observant. Or both.




Livin' the dream,

BagLady

Facebook: Kathryn Mossbrook Zimmerman