Practice Trek – Perrys To Lockleys

[MTV]

Hi all,

In preparation for Kokoda at the end of the year / early next year my trekking partner and I are obviously going to do our best to train on some hard tracks nearby. I've seen reference to a few people having done the Perry's Lookdown trek into Blue Gum Forest but was wondering if anyone had done the trek from Perry's to Lockley's pylon on the opposite side of the forest?

We are planning to spend three days in the area, starting at Perry's on the first and trekking to Lockley's and back and camping back at Perry's overnight, then repeating the next day and the day after.

Any thoughts / advice welcome!

[tombar]

Hi MTV,
I completed Kokoda in July this year and part of my training included Perrys to Lockleys Pylon and return. We did it in a day and also did Perrys to BGF and return twice in a day.
Another walk is Pierces Pass to Perrys and return – but there is about 4km of level walk between the climbs.
This type of training will come in handy for Kokoda, and I can recommend it as being the closest to Kokoda experience you can get close to Sydney.
Good luck, Tom.

[peterh13]

Tom is spot on, its a good spot to train.

[Fluppy]

Where's a good place to train in QLD – Brisbane – Ipswich way?? With only 6 weeks to go, I would like some ideas please!!

So far have tried: Mt Cootha, Mt Mitchell, Cunningham's Gap, Mt Tibrogagan & Mt Ngungun (Glasshouse mountains for the last two). Where else can I go?

MTV – I wish I was near Sydney – where you picked is absolutely ideal

[MTV]

Thanks for the confirmation guys, the only down side is the lack of fresh water at the campsite. I'm currently thinking that I'll get a water tank, fill it with fresh water (probably about 40L worth?) and stick it in the back of the car which I can park near the camp site. That way we have a source to refill each night and a place to ditch food. Its crude, but should do the trick for three days. We'll be doing a one day trial run before then though just to scope out the area and gauge our fitness.

Has anyone camped at Perry's? What is it like? Does it get busy?

Fluppy – You're more than welcome to come down during the long weekend in October and run through it with us!

[tombar]

I think there is a sign there that states overnight camping only. Not sure if it's enforced as I never camped there.
Tom.

[peterh13]

There was a concrete water tank just next to the car park in the camping area,not sure if its full or not,it looked pretty old.The toilet there is worse than anything you'll see in PNG.
Ive been there a few times and the car park is always full but the camping area was just about empty, one or two tents.

[MTV]

Tom – Yeah I know that it is a single night only camp site, but often those places are fine with multiple consecutive nights so long as each day you pack up and move off the site itself, thus allowing anyone else who comes along to take your spot. I'll give the Park a call and check with them before we go though.

Peter – I think we'll go with our own water tank based on there only being an old tank as you say.

[johnnycash]

Gday Fluppy,
finding places around Brisvegas can be hard. I trained mostly at Wongawallen around Mt Tamborine and while nice and steep, they didn't last long enough, being able to get to the top in under an hour and down in much less. The up and down is good practice though, your legs will be screaming after going down but then having to change and go up takes some getting used to, especially when it's for 3-4 hours. Ideally training on a stairwell in a highrise in the weeks leading up to departure with a full pack and walking stick would be the way to go.

I have since found some walks in the Brisbane Forest Park that give everything (your body/gear) a good overall workout. The overnight camp down to English Creek and back up is about 18-20klm in total.

While not being the steepness of Kokoda, the fire tracks are rocky and hard and the legs do burn, especially on the all the way up and out the following day. A good test for the boots.

There is also a side track to take up to the top of Northbrooke Mountain, and this detour will definately show you a similar climb to the Kokoda Track itself in parts.

The campsite is next to a causeway and the creek was flowing a few months ago. The overnight will give you a good idea how your gear is with everything having to be taken in and taken back out.

Visit the EPA website – http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/parksandforests for a bit more info. You would have to book the campsite in advance on the website.

I have a scanned pdf of the topo of the area with the campsite marked, let me know if you would like it sent to you.

Good luck with the rest of your training, i remember how nervous i became as the date came closer.

Cheers
Dave

[Mrs Moo]

Fluppy, from memory Mt Mitchell is mostly stairs (I think we counted about 200) so would be a good training place from that point of view. I don't think it matters if you don't have somewhere to train where it takes 2 hours to climb – just going up and down gets the right muscles working.

Executive Excellence train their trekkers on Mt Coot-tha. Pick the closest one, as training 3 or 4 times a week would be ideal. I trained on a steep little hill (about 150m) near where I live, every week day except Friday. On Fridays I trained on a big hill (650m) on a very steep track, then changed and went to work. I also did a workout each morning to a DVD which included aerobics, weights, & strength training. Combination of these got me over the track with no problems at all.

Regular uphill training is probably more important than location.

[Fluppy]

Thanks Johnnycash and Mrs Moo. Sometimes I think I'll be fine and other times (like today when on my day off I was sore all over from a pump class and woke up with a headache) I think I will struggle. I guess consistency is the key for me

fluppy

[peterh13]

dont forget a proper died is essential,,plenty of hotdogs,doughuts and beer. It worked for me.

[MTV]

Hi all,

Just wanted to respond and say that we did the trek last weekend. My partner and I overloaded our packs (mine by two and a half times!) to 20kg and 25kg and managed to walk it without too much of an issue, although the uphill at Perry's at the end of the day was a fair struggle for me (all those damn stairs!) and took me about half an hour longer than I would have liked.

All in all though, this is a HARD trek, but well worth it. The views from Lockley's Pylon back over Blue Gum Forest towards Perry's Lookdown are spectacular and the sense of achievement at having finished a trek of that size and difficulty was phenomenal. Although I haven't made it as far as Kokoda yet, I can imagine that the difficulty we faced in making this trek with such heavily loaded packs should be close to the mark.

One point worth noting though, is that NSW Parks and Wildlife have confirmed for me that you may stay at the 'single night only' campsites for longer than one night if each day you clear all of your gear off the campsite and set it up again later in the day to allow other campers to use the site instead.

Cheers,

Mark

[crowie]

Hi all the Blue Mountain walks are great preparation, the steeper the better and the rougher the better, A great preparation walk is also Staircase Spur to Mt Bogong (near Falls Creek / Mt Beauty) 1 hour out of Albury. This trek is suitable only for out of winter as snow can be accounted from 900m above sea level. The mountain creek carpark is the start (550m above sea level) and its 6 klms to Mt Bogong (1984m above sea level) Mt Bogong is Vic highest mountain. Most people do this walk in around 6 hrs

[Author]

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