White Horse Hills, Bibbulmun Track.

Hi All

I went out with my hiking mate Mark to hike the section of Bibbulmun track between Albany Hwy and White horse hills campsite.
We are now the official maintainers of this section of track plus the shelter. This is our first chance to get out and take a good look at the track plus the shelter. We have walked this section before a couple of years ago but this time the walk would be different.

We decided to hike straight to the shelter noting what needed to be done with the track on the way in and then on the way out we would stop and do any trimming that needed to be done. At this time of year we mostly just trim bushes and smaller trees away from the track. A lot of our bush can be very scratchy and spiky so we try to keep those trees pruned back. We also checked the water bars that are in place and checked to see if they need to be cleaned out.

A water bar is a small length of timber, a fallen branch works that is placed into the ground across the track so that water in winter the flows along the track is taken off the track rather than eroding it as it flows down the track.

On the way we saw an eagle soaring way up in the clear blue sky and I saw a small snake on the track, as we got close he just slithered away. We had to walk up and over Boonering hill and on the way down the other side we met a younger couple who were having a rest at a boot cleaning station. They were heading the same way as us but were loaded up with 100L packs. We met them later at camp.

http://teamgunnparker.com/images/pho...0/imgp3567.jpg

The rest of the walk in was very nice with all the wild flowers out, there was lots of colour every where I looked. We made it to camp and got the pot boiling for a cup of tea and about a half hour later the couple arrived. It turns out they were a younger couple from Germany. Who had travelled to Perth for a working holiday and saw a sign promoting the Bibbulmun track and thought, yea lets do it.

We spent the night sharing some red wine with them and chatting around the camp fire until it was time for bed. Funny thing about the wine was that they did not have any cups. They decided that they were too heavy and ditched them. They cut one of the plastic water bottles they had down and used it for a cup. In the morning after we ate Mark and I gave them our plastic cups, some Gatorade and a tea light, Mark also gave them some tape for blisters as they did not have any but had plenty of blisters.

We left camp for the three hour walk back through the hills and to the car. Along the way we saw two wallabies, another larger snake about two and a half foot long, and a bobtail lizard. We spent the time walking back pruning threes and marking spots on my gps that we would need to come back in winter and maintain.

Part of the track that we have to maintain is a side spur trail that heads up to Boonering hill; this is a nice little one way diversion that takes you to a huge granite hill that over looks everything for miles around. I took some video footage of the top of the hill as well as many spots along the track plus the campsite. I’ll edit it all and post it up to YouTube when it is finished.

I also took footage of my hammock setup in the camp and that is up on YouTube now, it shows my Nano-7 hammock, my Yeti under quilt, my DIY top quilt and my DIY tarp. Please take a look and I hope you enjoy it.

All the best
Gunn

That looks like a nice outing. Thanks for sharing!

Good looking gear Gunn. Might have to hit up a trip out your way soon. Good on ya for the track keeping. always underappreciated.

Wel done Gunn! Kudos for being an official track maintainer. Certainly gives a good excuse for a day off work: "There was a storm in Adelaide last night so I have to go check the track is okay..." :lol:

Nice Gunn ....... thankee for the video.
Shug

Thanks everyone
It was a good night out in my hammock. I went to bed and all was good but during the wind really picked up and was blowing enough to make the trees sway. At this point I wished I had set the tarp lower and had set up at right angle to the wind, but there was no wind when I did set up :)

So the wind was blowing through the open end of the tarp but I was nice and warm and only felt the cold when I rolled over and my butt or my shoulders stuck out from the quilt.

Cheers