Kanangra to Katoomba - in a day?

[jonnosan]

I got picked up by a very generous friend at 3:45am, reached Kanangra in time to see the walls at dawn, climbed up Mt Cloudmaker, signed the last page of the logbook there about 10:00am then carried on to Katoomba.

I have done a bit of walking in the Wild Dogs and around Narrowneck before, but this was my first journey to Kanangra and the hike from Cloudmaker down to the Cox's was a lot rougher & steeper and therefore slower than I'd anticipated. As seems to be traditional, I got lost leaving Dex's Creek after a coffee break; I actually lost the track about 5 times between there and the Cox's, but was able to reconnect with the track by navigating with the OpenStreetMap map I had loaded on my phone. Thank you to whoever took the time to load that track in!

I hit the Cox's about 1KM downstream of the Kanangra Ck junction a bit after 2pm and although I was interested in seeing Konangaroo Clearing, and had planned on picking up water from Kanangra Creek, I was feeling pretty knackered and decided against adding another 2KM to my journey so just crossed over the river where I was, then quickly found the path that heads up Yellow Pup Ridge. I was moving pretty slowly due to fatigue so I was happy to make Mobbs Swamp before dark (about 5:45pm), although the water there looked so gross (stained brown by leaves) it would have been better if I couldn't see it. Good thing I have a filter .

I briefly considered overnighting at Mobbs but since I only had a jacket + 2 space blankets to keep me warm, the thoughts of a warm bed was enough motivation to push on into the dark, with a headlight on the footpads and using the light of the moon on the firetrails. I only lost the trail once between Mobbs and Medlow Gap, but bush was easy enough to bash through and I used the OSM map again to reconnect.

At Medlow Gap I thought about heading to Carlons and phoning a friend to pick me up, but I would only have saved a few KMs by doing that, and was keen to finish what I had started so I boiled some water and ate some 2 minute noodles then headed up Mt Debert. This part of the track is very well travelled and easy to navigate by torch light. On the few occasions I took a wrong step, the distinctive sound of treading on fresh leaves instantly alerted me to my mistake.

When I got to Tarros ladder (about 9PM) I briefly considered looking for the alternate way up (the "Wallaby Track") but after checking the climbing spikes by torchlight the ascent seemed easy enough, so up I went.

The final slog along Narrowneck was boring as always.

When I started at Kanangra there was about 20 cars in the carpark so was expecting to meet a few other parties on the trail, but the only sign of other humans I saw was a tent at Mobbs.

The track notes I used say the total ascent K2K is 1350m but my GPSr logged the ascent as as 2100m (and 2100m down as well). Maybe I took too many wrong turns. At 18hrs 20 mins it took a lot longer than I'd hoped - I made it to the locked gate on Glenraphael drive at 9 minutes past midnight so not 100% sure if I can technically claim to have done the K2K "in a day" but sure feels good to have finished it.

I took a lot of photos on the trip until it got dark - these are just random snapshots of the track ahead & or the "views" from the track (distant mountains filtered by trees) so as to create a feel for what the walk was like. These [along with my gps track] are uploaded here

[matthewdean]

Great Trip mate,

Very Fast going to complete it in that time! I've attempted this trip in reverse but got as far as the cox and headed back due to weather but am always curious to hear about other walks in the area...The Tarros are fun at night

Matt

[jonnosan]

The ladders weren't any problem with the headlamp on. I was happy the rain held off until I was on the firetrail though - I imagine the spikes would get slippery when wet.

I did a trial run a few weeks back (out from Katoomba, down the chains at Carlon head, back up Tarros ladder) to make sure I was familiar with the area. I definitely wouldn't want to attempt Carlon Head in the dark.

[tom_brennan]

The track notes I used say the total ascent K2K is 1350m but my GPSr logged the ascent as as 2100m (and 2100m down as well). Maybe I took too many wrong turns. At 18hrs 20 mins it took a lot longer than I'd hoped - I made it to the locked gate on Glenraphael drive at 9 minutes past midnight so not 100% sure if I can technically claim to have done the K2K "in a day" but sure feels good to have finished it.

Probably my notes, since that's what the sum of the ascents for the three days are. However, as per the notes to the notes:
"Ascent is the distance from the lowest point to the highest point on the walk, and is taken directly from the topographic map. It is simply an aid to gauge difficulty. It does not take into account walks that have multiple ascents or descents [my bold]- for this you should read the walk description and look at the relevant topo maps."

cheers

[jonnosan]

Hi Tom

Yes I was indeed using your notes - it's a great resource you have created, thanks very much for sharing them. I also used your notes when I did my 'trial run' of Carlon head / Tarros Ladder. Thanks for the explanation about how you categorise the altitude - it gives me a bit more confidence in my GPS.

[tom_brennan]

It's difficult to decide how best to present ascent for walks which have multiple climbs. The idea is that it is an aid to gauge the difficulty of the walk. If you include every little up and down, you probably end up overstating how hard the walk is.

My feeling is that the largest climb + sum of any other climbs over 100m is probably a good measure. Perhaps I'll get around to changing it ... sometime!