Still Navigationally Challenged

OK, so neither my map reading or direction following skills have improved since last Monday's 'mishap'.

Today TJ and I headed out to the Brisbane Ranges National Park to undertake a moderate 10km circuit from Anakie Gorge to the Stony Creek Picnic Area return.

The first problem was that we didn't have the Tom Tom GPS in the car and I hadn't printed a map of directions and the Brisbane Ranges are not in our UBD - off the map! So I more or less had to guess our way there because the directions to the start of the hike were from Melbourne, going via the Western Freeway and we went via Werribee and Ballan Road. Given that it's a National Park, I thought it would've been well sign posted.

So it took us about an hour to find the starting point (and only about 45 mins to get home).

We started walking with just our light camelbaks and a bit of food. Very different to last Monday's effort with about 35kg of gear between us.

We completely missed the sharp left turn uphill and continued on the same path. I should probably say 'I' as it was me with the map and guide. I'm sure TJ would resent the 'we' connotation.

We soon realised what we'd done but we decided to continue on the same path and follow the directions in reverse order - something I swore I'd never do again. Fortunately this time it turned out OK. Instead of one long steep ascent, we got two shorter steep ascents and an awful descent down a very rocky and steep non-path. It was hard to know where to go and the ground was slipping under our feet with every step. We were glad to get back on the track at the bottom.

Some nice views from the summit and it was good to see this area regenerating after the 2006 bushfires. 2 wallabies, 0 koalas and 0 snakes.

According to my Garmin:

11.09km
549 Calories burnt
680m ascent
707 descent
2:44

Navigationally challenged

I took TJ on our first overnight hike together last Monday. We drove out to Blackwood and found where we could join a section of the 'Great Dividing Trail - Lerderderg Track'. First mistake, we were following direction if the guide book in reverse - I'll never do that again. It's really hard trying to follow the directions, backwards.

We were looking for a picnic ground at the 7km mark with toilets, picnic tables and a shelter to have lunch but it didn't appear and according to my Garmin (GPS watch) we were about 1.5km past where it should've been. Alarm bells should have been ringing but we just wrote it off as 'Stupid map'. Um, won't write the map off as being stupid in the future.

12km into our hike we suddenly realised that we were back at a junction of another track - the Lerderderg River Historic Track and that we'd been following markers for that rather than continuing on the Great Dividing Trail! Doh! Oh the horror of it. It was like we were in the Wombat 'Blair Witch' Forest.

Neither of us could remember how far we were from the car until we came to a small 'warning' sign which I remember seeing about a km or so from where I first suspected the Picnic Ground should've been... so I knew that although we'd come about 14km, we still had a fair way to go. Double Doh!

At that point we decided to just get back to the car and then go home.

We carried about 35kg of gear and water and food between us over a 17.5km circuit!!!

Good exercise and my achillies held up really well - not even sore. Amazing. My lower calves are still a bit tender and tight but they're getting better every day. Whoohoo!

Now I have to convince TJ to come with me again...

Garmin stats:
17.43km
4:54
1756 ascent
1775 descent
657 calories