Jon's HIKING page

.. There are 2 ways to live
last updated December 2006.
For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed exploring the bush, probably started with Dad & Mum taking us camping early on. My hiking days really got going on the famous week-long SU "Hiking Camps", where I was a camper from 1987-1989, following the yellow triangles of the Bibbulumn*.
I won the "Roadrunner" award, and had heaps of fun along the way, while learning about things that really matter (i.e. God and how I can better relate to Him),
hanging out with cool!, friendly people, providing the leaders with a few headaches *LOL*, enjoying awesome views from places like Oakley Dam, really appreciating food, climbing "cardiac arrest" hill, crossing streams, camping at "the swamp" (no luxuries like "long drops" there), learning about the infamous dropbears, playing slaps, throwing milk powder on the campfire, kicking a footy, and many other good times.
In 1990 I went as a Junior Leader, which was also a very rewarding experience. PACKS ON!

Hope to do more serious hiking in the Stirling ranges around the Bluff Knoll area..See Here for link to someone elses experience of hiking the Arrows Circuit...
October 7th/8th 2006 A.D.;
Arrows Circuit (Half Stirling Ridge Walk) hike; Surprise Bucks Weekend with Dave and Nathan; 15 hours on this tough hike Go to my Hiking the Stirling Ridgewalks page to read the full exciting account of this adventure, and view the photos......
Here are a few quotes from my narrative to whet the appetitie of the reader and provide some written snapshots of this truly epic struggle of a hiking experience...;
The first afternoons hiking; "Boundary fence firebreak to Arrows Firebreak (North Mirlpunda track), and then an extremely difficult ascent (especially with my 20kg pack), where I spent the final hour taking rest breaks about every 3-5 minutes, as my calves just kept fatiguing, and I kept getting too tired to go on..." "Got out my Explorer sub zero sleeping bag (minus 5 degrees Celsius rating) and spent a scary,surreal, incredible night perched in this tiny cave about 800m above sea level..."


Summiting the next day; "We traversed around the heavily vegetated cliffs of Pyongoorup Peak (1060m-2nd highest peak in Stirling Ranges), and then summited this massive buttress of a peak...We took a few moments to admire the incredible majestic rugged beauty in all directions from Pyongoorup....We continued our hike along this narrow ridgetop from Mountain to Mountain arriving at Ellen Peak next where I encountered a small greenish dugite? snake blocking my way" in a heavily vegetated area...After avoiding mr snake I caught up with Nathan and Dave as we summited the 1012m Ellen Peak which is the 5th highest peak"
Descent from Ellen Peak to Gnowellen Rd; "northern cliffs of Ellen peak scrambling down rock ledges with packs on was very hairy experience and for the second time that weekend I hoped we would avoid serious injury or death...Eventually Nathans attempt to pathfinder his way back to the gully was aborted especially with the howling strong southerly winds buffeting the cliff on the south side...Dave decided we would retrace our steps so we ascended up the rock ledges not spending too much time looking at the yawning chasm of a valley below, but shaking with the nervousness of trying to make it up to the next rock ledge handhold above without losing our grip or our nerve..." "vertical dirt slippery slopes grabbing on to small shrubs and rock handholds to keep the giant 50-100m slide from being too fast a descent..."...."Then it was rock scrambling again, and a long downward hike for an hour or two with the Quadriceps getting a workout this time until reached the plains below".... "An Epic 10 hour hike following on from the tough 5 hours the previous night and we were ready to drive the gravel tracks and roads back and finally rest our weary bodies...What a hike!"

Go to my Hiking the Stirling Ridgewalks page to read the full exciting account of this adventure, and view the photos....


I guess the next challenge is to return for the entire Stirling Ridge Walk which Rob Olvers Dawn to Dusk book describes on page 129 as the "quintessential wilderness hike of the Stirlings and one of the greatest challenges for bushwalkers in south-western Australia".....
October 1st/2nd 2005 A.D.; North Bannister to (via Gringer Creek) Whitehorse Hills, (and then return) on the Bibbulumn Track. Went with my girlfriend of 5 months now (KL), and 4 other friends (who continued onto Dwellingup, while KL and I returned to North Bannister). Did about 18km on both days. More uphill on the way to Whitehorse Hills.
I carried pretty heavy pack (Caribee with waistband, which I needed since I had 15-25kg or more of gear.), KL had a very full small pack (no waistband), lots of light rain, and a climb up to a small mountain about 500m in elevation, beautiful views! not as high as the 612m Mt Cooke, but probably in the top 3-5 highest points on the Darling Range including Mt Cooke.
Pretty solid pace of hiking, up some neverending hills. One creek crossing where water was up to my knees on the return crossing. Was exhausted and very sore after 5 hours UTG solid hiking Saturday and 5 hours Sunday. Also did a 36minute run on the Saturday evening with D & N who are training for the Rottnest Marathon (which I am not doing this year, taking it easy in the 10km), but its also good preparation for the 45km 6-inch track Marathon, which I am considering doing, links on my marathon 2005 blog here. Photos coming soon! Awesome!
September 26th 2005 A.D.;Mundaring Weir to Hewitts Hill and back on the Bibbulumun with KL! We enjoyed "The Golden View" along the way, saw a large lizard, and had some very special chats, and lots of fun on this short 2hour 40 min relaxed walk. A little hilly in parts.
May->September 2005 and beyond... Did lots! of 60min->3hour short hikes/walks/(some running) with KL in John Forrest National Park, most weekends. Sometimes a small day pack.
December 2004;Return to Swampy Oak with D and I;
Hardcore hike from Dwellingup to Swampy Oak with detour to Baden Powell to visit "natural spa" and have lunch, then a swim at Charlies Flat in the Murray River
before rejoining the Bibbulumn and reaching Swampy Oak Hut pretty exhausted after 18km of 5-6km/h hiking in the heat for almost 4 hours + our two breaks.

First thing IB says when I picked him and D up before we started;"so I'm going walking with you two nutters!", to which I replied "YEP!"...... Very hot conditions, combined with my 20kg pack being badly packed,waistband too loose (i.e too much weight on my shoulders---also on the "weight on my shoulders" cliche;--the hike was a good way to get rid of some mental baggage from my job coming to an end also), reminds me of a Nobody Special song lyric from the "Call it whatever you want" album....

We carved it up on the bush tracks and hilly! hot gravel roads, in 30 degree Celsius+ heat, and lots of flies!,
at more than 5km/hour for the 3.5 hours on the Saturday afternoon 18th December.
Kookaburras aplenty at this campsite. Next morning up b4 0500hrs, before the mosquitoes changed shift with the flies. I followed D on a bush run for about 3km, couldnt stay the pace (about 4.10 per km I estimate) any longer so ran easy the 3km back to the hut. D went for about 13-18km....
0745hrs we were back on the Bibbulumn again for another 2.5 hours and 13km of hiking, total of 31km of whirlwind hiking in the space of 24 hours.
It was 35 degrees + that day, so we were glad to get into Dwellingup before 1200 noon. Went through over a litre of powerade, and more than 4 litres of water during the two days.
On Day 2 I finally remembered from Hiking Camp days that my waistband needed to be tight and that gave my shoulders some respite
so I would be equally sore in the hips the next day or so.
Also battled bad chafe on the thighs on Day 2. Would tape my nipples next time as well.
We climbed some big! hills near some pine forest harvesting area, which was used to test Rally Cars for RALLY Australia in November, the signs were still up.
A tough,demanding hike, but an awesome!!! weekend!!!
I think D will be better prepared for his NZ challenges and adventures (e.g. the offroad Half-Marathon) after this weekend of hiking.
Hills Note; Also got to showcase the hillsprint tradition in all its glory, after speaking of it to D in the Rotto Marathon. Remember; as someone said to me in the Perth Marathon; "hills are your friend", although there wasnt any really in the Perth Marathon....


July 2004;Some short day bushwalking, (no packs!) at a leisurely velocity with R to the Avon River and later through a railway tunnel, quite a cool surreal, scary experience going through the tunnel.
November 2003; Hiked up the gravel tracks with a mate to "the gorge" from the Byford end.
We were hoping the rain would "bring it on" and on the way back it did, along with lots of low altitude cloud reducing our visibility to about 10metres in all directions. About an hour each way. Cool fun!
September 2003; A nice relaxed 7km hike from a spot on the Bibbulumn not far from Baden Powell (out from Dwellingup) to Swampy Oak with 2 others.
Then a 7km dash on my own, back to my car where I got lost along the way a bit, and battled to get back top my car before the sun went down. Cool experience.
October 2002; Return to the Bibbulumn* Track; 37km in 2 days, firing it up, with "the boyz", (which included an ascent of the 582m high Mt Cooke**, with close to fullweight packs along the way) in just 2 days, starting from North Bannister. Our speedy hiking pace, finished with the steep Sullivans Rock. A totally memorable!!! weekend! The beginning of the "hillsprint" with pack on, tradition...
November 2001; I got to see a little of the Appalachian Trail while walking to the summit of Roan Mountain (altitude of 1940m), in TN,USA.

My hiking days really got going on the famous week-long SU "Hiking Camps", where I was a camper from 1987-1989, following the yellow triangles of the Bibbulumn*.
I won the "Roadrunner" award, and had heaps of fun along the way, while learning about things that really matter (i.e. God and how I can better relate to Him),
hanging out with cool!, friendly people, providing the leaders with a few headaches *LOL*, enjoying awesome views from places like Oakley Dam, really appreciating food, climbing "cardiac arrest" hill, crossing streams, camping at "the swamp" (no luxuries like "long drops" there), learning about the infamous dropbears, playing slaps, throwing milk powder on the campfire, kicking a footy, and many other good times.
In 1990 I went as a Junior Leader, which was also a very rewarding experience. PACKS ON! ....Photos...here...
In 1989 I went on a Yr 10 Outdoor Ed. camp, hiking along the beach to Margaret River. Along the way I passed many sights including the one in the photo below;
....

*"The Bibbulmun" were a tribe of Aboriginal people who were known to take long walks to get to their ceremonies. The realigned Bibbulumn Track features the same old yellow triangles, but now with a snake on them, and probably more of them, and more importantly regular well equipped campsite huts. Seems to be a lot more thought going into protecting the bush, than when I went there in the late 80s.
**Mt Cooke is the highest point in the Darling Ranges which encompass much of the south eastern parts of Perth including Armadale, where I grew up. What we used to call the "gorge" is a valley with steep cliffs that runs from Wungong Dam near one of my old schools, (Emmaus aka Armadale Christian College), to South Western Highway on the way to Byford. On the map its called Wungong Gorge, and there is an old gravel airstrip landing area on the Byford side. The gorge was one of my favourite places to go bush in the school holidays.
Not-Hiking but related activities;
I also had the honour of going on two Warriuka camps in 1996 as an associate staff-member, where I enjoyed encouraging others in things such as forward run- down abseiling (rapelling) of a 60 metre cliff, and some canoeing in rapids on the Avon river (got thrown out onto the teatrees...*LOL* :-) ) Also abseiled some of the sea-cliffs in the south-west.
In 1999/2000 I tried (with little success in the short time I had) my hand at wind-surfing in Cervantes while helping out with the programs for kids there.
In April 2003 spent a few hours biking with two others around part of the MundaBiddi trail, looking for the site of an old POW camp....In April 2004 myself and SP returned, and with the aid of a better map from RC (who was not there in 2003), we successfully located the POW camp this time.

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Jon's Hiking Photos;


1989; near Margaret River, southern West Australia;
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