Training Log Archive: Brooner

Bit of the Observatory Hills session with the boys. Legs pretty toasted.

Today started with more rocky ridge scrambling from Tabletop to Horseshoe Point, then the lovely open forest quickly turned into horrible scratchy bush - my shins were more scratches than skin by this point.



We had to go in search of what we'd been assured was a good water source, but after the best part of an hour hunting we made do with a bit of a pool strained through my buff, as it was a good 12km to the next likely source, we were both low and it was pretty warm. Desperate times!

After this though we were on an old overgrown trail and able to run pretty freely to Damper Trig (meeting a baby wombat on the way), and from there home it was 13km of firetrail all the way so a decent pace, despite some really steep pinches.

Bit too lazy getting out of camp, so weren't moving until well after 9, with a big old climb up onto the ridge towards Scout Hat - some nice open forest before before some grot, but once on the main ridgeline it was pretty nice on the whole but pretty slow going climbing over 500m in about 2km.



The ridge from Scouts Hat to Tabletop was pretty awesome, some long exposed rocky scrambling taking me a bit out of my comfort zone in places (but in a good way). Progress was pretty slow though, trying to find the right lines, and getting onto Tabletop involved a very sketchy scree slope scramble.








Given the slow going we decided we didn't have enough daylight to carry on to Horseshoe point where we were going to camp, so setup on Tabletop instead, and went on a mission to find water which was a bit of a bush bashing challenge but very thankfully successful, given what the next day threw up...

Event: 2017 Australian 3 Days
 

First day of a pretty incredible weekend fastpacking in Deua NP, a couple of hours SE of Canberra. Was our fourth choice for the weekend and very last minute planning with the rain scrapping our Barrington Tops plans, then snow vetoing Kosciuszko & Jagungal options. I wasn't particularly enthused by this one as I knew it would be rough and potentially not much running, but it turned out that the scenery and challenge more than made up for it, with some of days 2 & 3 going a bit beyond comfort zone in a few places. The whole weekend felt like an adventure race mixed with Barkley Marathons, and being somewhere with nobody else seen for days was pretty cool.

Started with a big descent and then a big climb on firetrail for 5km before finding & turning off for a rough, vague "horse trail" heading south. Lost it pretty quickly going down to a couple of creeks then bush bashed up to refind it again, the main indicators being chopped logs and a bit of a trod through ferns. Once on the spur the forest opened up to provide beautiful running down a broad spur, still with no real trail to follow but instead notches cut from trees every so often to keep you on the right track (crazy Barkley reminder 1).




Once at the bottom of the spur we had to contour a hillside, cross a creek, then follow it along to our evening campsite in a nice clearing near the river, all of which was rather rubbish bush bushing with lots of stabby things, but we made it with enough time to gather firewood & water & setup camp for the night.

Event: Moonlight Madness #4 - Clontarf