Training Log Archive: Brooner

Barrington tops adventures day 3: Polblue Plodding




After yesterday's private land and ridiculous hills I changed the route up and we headed back to junction pools via Polblue Falls, where I enjoyed a dip and we belatedly had our porridge, then Polblue Trail, then little Murray campground to junction pools. Really nice trails again, we even did some cross county routes which were very pleasant, as were most of the trails.







Left shin hurting towards the final 5km.

Barrington Tops Adventures - Day 2: Mt Barrington & Beyond

We had originally planned to spend this day casually exploring the tops, before heading off east on the Link track to Gloucester Falls, but bushfires in that direction closed off our route out of the area so I'd come up with an alternative route west to explore some lesser visited parts of the park.

Lovely start to Carey's Peak, some trails I'd run before back in 2013, then continued to Mt Barrington which was pretty rubbish but a few good views along the way.


From there (after trying to find the non-existant Bicentennial trail) headed off along the rather pleasant Stewarts Brook & Hungerford Trails, along an undulating ridgeline descending off the tops that opened up to present stunning views.



Descended off the ridge through some private property (oops) and then had to go hunt some water (and a brief dip) before the long climb to Moonan Outlook and camp. Had hoped to hit this in time for sunset but the climb was a beast - 700m in <5km (again, with an extra 3l of water on my back) so had to crack the wizard sticks out again, even then there was some ridiculous 2 steps forward, 1 step back action on some of the steeper bits.

At the last of the light (around 5hrs/30km) in I gave up reaching the lookout, and waited for Nicole to catch up, and we walked the final few km from there, both pretty stuffed by the end - a long day out. Was really just the last couple of hours of water hunting and climb which blew the day out - 2 hours for 8km at the end.

Barrington Tops adventures - Day 1, up The Corker.

Bit late in getting away from Sydney and started - arrived to Lagoon Pinch after 4pm and I didn't start until 5, so clearly wasn't going to make the planned sunset at Carey's Peak - especially upon leaving the car park and being met with a wall of a climb (160m climb in first 1km) which was actually nothing in comparison to what was to come.

Was very glad to be trying the Wizard Sticks for the first time (thanks Murray for the correct terminology) as with 10+kg on my back (too much water, 3/4 days food) it was hard going for the first few km and the sticks certainly helped, even if I was feeling a bit muggle like in using them, thankfully the gradient did get more runable as it went on.

Caught sunset halfway up, so did the last 5km or so in the dark, somewhat surprised to find another group at the campsite but probably not as surprised as they were at us turning up in darkness with very little kit.

Kit:

Second shit week of training fail in a row, too much work, too little sleep, zero motivation. 4 day weekend in Barrington tops avoiding bush fires should hopefully make up for it.