Walk Two: Judgement Day

8 Big Toes completed our second team walk yesterday, starting at Hawkesbury River Station in Brooklyn and heading along the mountainous path to Cowan.

To give you a feel for these localities, when we arrived at Hawkesbury River Station, a young dude was leaping down the stairs towards the platform yelling out "Wait up, wait up!" to the train guard. Sure, that's perfectly normal, no one wants to miss their train. But then he stopped at a Mount Franklin vending machine and tried (unsuccessfully, I'll note) to buy some water for his trip. Meanwhile four hundred people on the train are waiting for this genius to realise the station staff was telling him, "It doesn't work, mate."

At the other end is Cowan, a suburb of literally six streets and a boatyard. If you went into the middle of all these streets you could certainly scream something that the entire village could hear. Though their congenital defects almost certainly affect their hearing, so you'd have to scream it from a dirt bike. There was a group of four walkers hanging out at the station there. They stared at us a lot and never walked anywhere.

And you thought Berowra was bad! Just go a few minutes north!

Anyway, we started our walk up a fairly decent hill to what Dave assured us was the perfect photo spot. We never found this spot, hence you will have to imagine the trees, ocean and boats (which were possibly from the Cowan boatyard) all by yourselves. We set off with another group of three walkers, who seemed suspiciously nice and were almost certainly religious missionaries of some variety.

When we reached Brooklyn Dam, Dave took us on a shortcut. We crossed out the other end, turned left, and there were the religious missionaries heading towards us. Weird, because we were going towards the same destination. One party was headed in the wrong direction. We had a brief ponderance as to where we should really be going, then Dave took us up a rocky little creekbed which looked suspiciously like the unpath. The missionaries stood on the fire trail at the bottom of this path, looking dubiously up at us as we ascended. Dave had managed to very quickly kill our credibility and they didn't follow us up this shortcut, hence were left in our wakes and never caught us up mu ha ha!

The walk itself was fairly hilly but 8 Big Toes managed to knock it off in record time, completing approx 12kms in less than 3h, which is a solid pace for a tough track. There were none of the rivers from our first walk and the only real obstacle was a tree which had recently fallen across the path, which we had to clamber over.

Onwards to glory, and may the next walk be longer and tougher.

Pete, on behalf of
Team 8 Big Toes

Here is the GPS tracking of our adventure:
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/qznkaJv8y1A

Our walk schedule

For those interested in our whereabouts during weekends over the next few months, or walk schedule is below:

27th March - Brooklyn to Cowan 16.5km
10th April Mt Colah to Turramurra through Bobbin Head 17km
24th April Cowan to Berowra with Packs
Easter Monday Mt Solitary return 15km
8th May Sphinx Track Bobbin Head x3 30km
21st or 22nd May Royal NP Coastal Track 26km
5th June Part of the Oxfam trailwalker 15km
26th June Thornleigh to Berowra with Packs27km
10th July  Part of the Oxfam trailwalker 30km
24th July Part of the Oxfam trailwalker 30km
7th August Thornleigh to city (pancakes on the Rocks) return 50km
 14th August Turramurra Stn to Asquith via Bobbin Head with Packs 18km
27-29th August OXFAM TRALWALKER


Anyone interested in joining us is welcome - drop us a line!

A short stroll becomes an epic walk to remember

Team 8 Big Toes has kicked off their 2011 Oxfam Trailwalker campaign with a a series of river crossings rather than the planned training walk. 24hrs of rain turned the route, Artarmon to Thornleigh via the Rail to River Walk and the Great North Walk, into a sodden and flooded challenge. A cruisy 16km trail burn turned into a 2 1/2 hour epic struggle.


Dave, Pete and I met at Artarmon and legged it to Chatswood station where Brendon was waiting. A solid drizzle had already begun and by the time we made our first footprints on the sandy track we'd become resigned to a damp walk. Not that it was unpleasant. The temperature was in the mid 20's and the rain kept the number of other walkers to a minimum. Single track alternated with firetrail and the landscape was peaceful as water dripped from 4 metre Banksias and Blue Gums. The occasional road crossing and planes low overhead were all that reminded us we were still well and truly within Sydney.


At around the 10km mark we said a cheery "hello" to the second set of walkers we had met on the track, only to be greeted by a grumpy "You can't get through" and a couple of Gore-Tex clad backs disappearing back up the firetrail. With our team spirit high we all cried an internal "Bullshit!" and headed off to the sound of roaring water. 


The creek, normally a trickle between boulders, was a froth of white. It had rained most of the previous night and all morning. The resulting runoff from surrounding residential areas had pushed the river level up about a metre.


Shoes off and grab a stick, was the decision. Dave tested the depth and took the first hesitant steps, stretching his legs forward, feeling for a rock while balancing on the stick. slowly he edged forward, one rock being discovered by his probing Big Toes at a time.  Meanwhile, Pete disappeared back up the track. 


Dave made it and Brendon and I followed in quick succession. Meanwhile, Pete has backtracked, bushbashed, balanced on logs and was already standing triumphantly high on the other bank. It was only as we reshod our feet that he revealed, despite his smug grin, he was now lopsided and suffering from a waterlogged left foot. The tactic to head upstream hadn't been entirely successful in keeping his feet out of the river.


From this point on we followed a similar pattern. Trudge the trail for 10 to 15 minutes and cross the creek by either jumping between rocks or taking off our shoes and wading. At each crossing the water got a bit deeper. The first one had been just below knee level and by the third one it was mid thigh with a strong current. We upgraded our safety measures and got monkey grips on each others arms as we shuffled across, feeling and nudging with our feet for each foothold. 


By this stage the track has descended to run beside the river and at times was only a few centimetres about the bank. things deteriorated even further with 3km to go. River was high enough that it had diverted to be over the track and a strong current was flowing over the 4WD ruts.


Conquering this obstacle by shimmying along the line of vegetation we turned a corner and were confronted by a raging torrent where a series of stepping stones normally were to be found. Poking with a stick revealed that it was deep and Dave's attempt at finding the bottom with his left leg from his perch on a slippery rock almost resulted in an unplanned river rapids ride. Luckily, as Dave regained his balance and Brendon and I looked upstream, Pete, always the first to take the first step into the crossings, had managed to get himself halfway across and was in the process of clambering onto a large dry rock. Step, by tentative step, we other three followed him across. 


On the other bank the land sloped up to the ridgetop and, with Brendon leading a fast-paced final sprint to the end, we covered the last couple of kilometres from the crossing to Thornleigh oval in a short space of time.


Some chocolate, sandwiches and hot showers later Team 8 Big Toes had dried out and could begin to appreciate the onset of tomorrow's sore legs. 


The first walk is done. The way we worked together as a team and the relative ease with which we overcame the unexpected challenges this first training session laid down says to me that 8 Big Toes are going to have a ball preparing for and taking part in the 2011 Sydney Oxfam Trailwalker.


See where we walked... 
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/nfhhOnclGgs