Health & Fitness The Hangar Hiking Thread

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Yeah, pretty much. Most of the walks we did tended to be in places like the Brisbane Ranges, You Yangs, Werribee Gorge - easily accessible from the western suburbs where he is.

I remember one particularly hot day when we went walking in the Grampians, would have been Wonderland I reckon, and I reckon I complained like a little turd all day.

How times change...
 
So, fiancee and I did Mt Torbreck yesterday. Well worth it and a little challenging in parts.

It's not a very well known peak - partly because it's quite disconnected from the other alpine peaks in Victoria. The nearest larger one is Buller but even that is well over the other side of Lake Eildon and quite some distance away in reality.

Unlike all of the more well known peaks, it's also not in a National Park. It was actually briefly gazetted as a ski resort in the '80s, but that never got off the ground and it instead became a scenic reserve of some stripe. All of that means that it's neither well known, and nor are there really many facilities to speak of.

A really good hike though - about 8km return. The first 1.5km are on the Barnewall Plains Road, which is a steep and rocky 4WD track closed at this time of year because of snow, and then the rest was on a true walking track that was very rocky and quite steep. About three quarters of the way up we hit remnant snow. I'd thought the warm week that had preceded it might have already melted it all away, but thankfully not. It had become quite slushy as opposed to the pack snow you'd find in July or August, which is actually harder to walk on because you can either sink in (one time, well over my knee) and you can also go for a slide if you're not careful. But in the end we summited the peak, and the view from the top was pretty sensational; we could see Buller, Baw Baw, Lake Eildon, Lake Mountain, over towards the Wonangatta/Moroka section of the Alpine National Park and even as far away as the Dargo High Plains.

We also saw, no joke, not a single other human from the start to the end. Not another walker, nor a car parked either at the start of the walk or the picnic area where we left the 4WD track to even indicate that someone else was in the area.

It was a pretty darned good walk all told; I'd recommend it. It's near Alexandra and Eildon, so quite accessible from Melbourne too.
 
Doss said:
So, fiancee and I did Mt Torbreck yesterday. Well worth it and a little challenging in parts.

It's not a very well known peak - partly because it's quite disconnected from the other alpine peaks in Victoria. The nearest larger one is Buller but even that is well over the other side of Lake Eildon and quite some distance away in reality.

Unlike all of the more well known peaks, it's also not in a National Park. It was actually briefly gazetted as a ski resort in the '80s, but that never got off the ground and it instead became a scenic reserve of some stripe. All of that means that it's neither well known, and nor are there really many facilities to speak of.

A really good hike though - about 8km return. The first 1.5km are on the Barnewall Plains Road, which is a steep and rocky 4WD track closed at this time of year because of snow, and then the rest was on a true walking track that was very rocky and quite steep. About three quarters of the way up we hit remnant snow. I'd thought the warm week that had preceded it might have already melted it all away, but thankfully not. It had become quite slushy as opposed to the pack snow you'd find in July or August, which is actually harder to walk on because you can either sink in (one time, well over my knee) and you can also go for a slide if you're not careful. But in the end we summited the peak, and the view from the top was pretty sensational; we could see Buller, Baw Baw, Lake Eildon, Lake Mountain, over towards the Wonangatta/Moroka section of the Alpine National Park and even as far away as the Dargo High Plains.

We also saw, no joke, not a single other human from the start to the end. Not another walker, nor a car parked either at the start of the walk or the picnic area where we left the 4WD track to even indicate that someone else was in the area.

It was a pretty darned good walk all told; I'd recommend it. It's near Alexandra and Eildon, so quite accessible from Melbourne too.
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Once I’ve moved into my new place I’ll give this a go. Cheers
 

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hotkorma said:
Once I’ve moved into my new place I’ll give this a go. Cheers
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Well worth it. I wrote that three weeks ago and I would expect that snow would be mostly or even completely gone by now, FWIW.
 
mI0poB.jpg


:handok:
 
Doing some walking around Tassie at the moment, starting small preparing for the over nighter from cradle mountain.

Did a little one at Westmoreland falls today, as it happens we were the first to walk it in 3 days, according to the log book.

I was pretty much like Indiana Jones macheting my way thru, but it wasn't a sword and over grown trees....it was a stick and spider webs. I had to constantly walk swishing the stick up and down because the spider webs were Intolerable on my bald head!

Then on the way back, about a couple of km out I started getting webs again.. oh oh.. seems odd. Yep, lost, we lost the trail. Had to back track about 600m back up the hill to find our way to non spider web zone, like a weird Hansel and Gretel thing.

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Doing my first solo overnight hike tomorrow and Tuesday night down in Wilson’s prom. Have done plenty of day hikes this year but never camped. Sealers Cove to Little Waterloo bay was pretty much all I could book in at this time of year.

Weather will be tip tops luckily.
 
hotkorma said:
Doing my first solo overnight hike tomorrow and Tuesday night down in Wilson’s prom. Have done plenty of day hikes this year but never camped. Sealers Cove to Little Waterloo bay was pretty much all I could book in at this time of year.

Weather will be tip tops luckily.
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Fantastic! Enjoy.
 
Did Mt Donna Buang today. The first 1 or 2kms of that are as hard as you’ll get.

Bonus that one of my mates I went with took a secret 6 pack in his bag to open up the top.
 
So without much crossover with my planned big writeup of the South America trip...do you know what trend I'm noticing in my hiking recently which I am really beginning to despise?

Douchebags going on hikes with their portable subwoofas. * off idiot - you're in nature, how about just enjoying the sounds of it? And if you're that desperate to get your fix of Tiesto in the middle of nowhere anyway, there's a thing called earphones that you should try.
 
Doss said:
So without much crossover with my planned big writeup of the South America trip...do you know what trend I'm noticing in my hiking recently which I am really beginning to despise?

Douchebags going on hikes with their portable subwoofas. **** off idiot - you're in nature, how about just enjoying the sounds of it? And if you're that desperate to get your fix of Tiesto in the middle of nowhere anyway, there's a thing called earphones that you should try.
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What Shits Ya thread is over there m8 ->

P.S. good to have you back and glad the trip lived up to expectations
 
Pweter said:
What Shits Ya thread is over there m8 ->

P.S. good to have you back and glad the trip lived up to expectations
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You make a good point. But still!

And, thanks.
 
Heading to Lake Tali Karng over Easter. Going to do the river crossing route.

Does anybody know how deep they are this time of year?
 

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hotkorma said:
Heading to Lake Tali Karng over Easter. Going to do the river crossing route.

Does anybody know how deep they are this time of year?
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I would imagine this would be the best time of year to do any route crossing a river, especially in an alpine area. Barring a lot of rain in the next couple of weeks as well.

Rivers are generally lowest at the end of summer and before autumn weather turns bad.

The worst time for anything fed by snow melt is September/October.
 
hotkorma, I've done that walk; it's a ripper. Steep final push up to the lake though!

The lake is seriously nippy; unless it's an extremely hot day, probably not ideal for a swim.
 
Doss said:
hotkorma, I've done that walk; it's a ripper. Steep final push up to the lake though!

The lake is seriously nippy; unless it's an extremely hot day, probably not ideal for a swim.
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Brilliant. Looking forward to it. I’m bringin some contraband rum, so maybe that will keep me warm if we decide to dip the toes in.
 
hotkorma said:
Heading to Lake Tali Karng over Easter. Going to do the river crossing route.

Does anybody know how deep they are this time of year?
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How did this go, korma?
 
Doss said:
How did this go, korma?
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Yeah was damn good. You’re not wrong about the last little slog though. About as tough as it gets.

Next time I’ll do it over 3 days rather than 2.
 
I've realised I have officially caught the hiking itch. And no, that's not some sort of footrot from one too many occasions of feet getting wet, I mean I find I am constantly thinking about hiking and where to go next.

This has been the case since being in New Zealand a couple of weeks ago. We were there (in Otago) for ten days and, having a 7 month old baby in tow, we were obviously fairly limited in what we could do. We managed three walks, none of them difficult - Hooker Valley at Aoraki/Mt Cook (which we have done before but the scenery at Cook is that jaw dropping that I would return there every year if I could), Lake Sylvan just north of Wakatipu and Glenorchy (in the lower Dart valley basically), and from the beginning of the Clutha River as it drains Lake Wanaka. The first of these walks was 11km and the other two about 7km.

They are great walks in their own right, but also the sort where you are only scratching the surface in terms of what is possible in those areas, and the inability to do more this time because of baby in tow was pretty frustrating, I won't lie. And they have left me scouring the NZ DoC site furiously trying to plan what I should do; I've started compiling a bucket list of NZ hikes, but each time I feel like I've got a decent grip on what is possible in a certain area, I will notice a new valley shooting off an existing one, search for more info on that, and discover a whole new circuit or loop over a high alpine pass that I didn't know about. It's the sort of thing that starts to make your head spin after a while!

Anyway, while I'd love to be in NZ hiking every few months hiking, the reality is that visits there will be a little less frequent than that, so I need to set my sights a bit closer to home for the time being! Like anywhere else I gravitate towards the alpine stuff here too, but I am somewhat filled with a sense of dread about how much my favourite hiking areas closer to home have been severely damaged in these fires...
 
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One of the things I've really missed being able to do much of since my little one was born two years ago, and accentuated since Covid ****ed 2020, is hiking.

I've set about rectifying that recently. Did a 10km hike with my old man at Lake Eildon three weeks ago, it was the first time I'd been up there in about 15 years I reckon, was really nice. I've had two weeks off, so last Wednesday I did a long loop of Woodlands Park in Greenvale - 20km all up and very enjoyable. Also the best views of the airport you'll see in Melbourne, as a side note.

And then today I did the pick of the bunch - a 19km loop of Mt Macedon, starting and finishing right outside the pub in the town below the mountain. Followed by an obligatory pint to rehydrate, of course.

That area is so ******* pretty in autumn.
 
Took my bastard bad back to lorne for a few walks this weekend, figured out the kids won't walk out of sight on a track but will walk for hours over boulders or if there's possibility of river crossings. Partner did the long walk from Lorne beach to Erskine falls which they would never make but we stayed the night at Cumberland and did the 3hr walk up to Cumberland falls. There was zero phone reception which was part of the allure, the tent is more fun without tablets blaring!

Anyhow, on our third river crossing I was traversing a longish gap onto a slippy little rock, my back twinged and i nearly went over, but as I corrected everything sprang out of my pockets! Home Keys, phone , wallet... It was impossible to see in the water, was all rapidy but I made a few quick scoops and managed to grab my stuff unharmed.

Bout 5 mins later something didn't feel right....something's missing, I'm feeling about my pockets.. THE CAR KEYS!!!

oh s**t, no reception, 2 hours from anywhere. The keys possibly anywhere along this river. Crestfallen, I tell the troops...ummm bad news, keys are in there- somewhere. We have no spares. We are ruined, RUINED!

it's ok dad, we will find them... we are trudging back, The boy sources all his spectrum abilities, that's the rock, I remember it, looked like a scull, and that tree with one eye ....hmm ok, I'm looking in there at the rapidy water, impossible to see anything. The boy thrusts his hand in the water under a log, pulls out car keys. Unbelievable!

I still can't believe it now. Anyhow was a challenging little walk, the river was a little high so the crossings were a little bit tricky if you didn't want wet freezing feet.
 
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