Worst walk ever....

[ILUVSWTAS]

Hi all, there's always a few "best walks" threads, so I thought i'd head the other way and ask people whats the worst walk you've ever done?

This thought started while doing a recent circuit around the Labilladere peninsula on Bruny. I had always wanted to do this walk, and in the end it was 5 hrs of boring, boring boring.... all flat the way in with minimal views, 20minutes on a nice beach, then back along a muddy old 4wd track through burnt out plains with nothing to see except 5 large tiger snakes. It was just sooo boring!

[Bluegum Mic]

Mine would be 10 years ago walking the great north walk Sydney to the hunter. After copious amounts of planning and training walks (especially for the benefit of the two non experienced walkers) one of the non experienced walkers who never seemed to come on any training walks as she was supposedly doing them closer to home, rocked up with an ill fitting pack and squeaky clean new looking leather scarpas. She battled through a couple of days quietly. The third day (28km) was high 30's with a great deal of it meandering very close to civilisation all with perfect mobile reception. It wasn't till we'd wandered 10km off the beaten track at the foot of a very steep incline in dense bush that she declared she'd injured her back and rotator cuff muscles and couldn't go on. Not once had she indicated any pain or problems prior. By the time we split her pack up to carry (some 20plus kg of gear), got her up the mountain, phoned a friend of hers who lived 5 mins from where we were earlier in the day (grrrr) who then spent an hour trying to locate the entrance to the service/fire trail (trashing his car in the process) we were bringing her out on. Needless to say it was a frustrating day all round. I think what was most annoying was we asked why she didn't say anything earlier she said she was determined to finish. Considering we had 4 days to go (not to mention it took 12 months for her to rehab and recover) I would have thought common sense would have prevailed earlier. I just wished she said something vs charging along.

[Nuts]

I did some work on that track with a ATCV team SWT, it was heaven after a wet cold autumn at Cradle.

Many of mine are health related, trying to stand up (let alone walk out) from Waterfall with the effects of rye neck (i hobbled sideways like a crab for 8/9hrs) a raging sudden virus at Pelion made the walk to Arm River an epic, climbing to Marions with a 40kg pack and wolloping hangover.

Probably among the most 'boring' was the last day/walk out on the South Coast track, seemed to drag on forever.

[ILUVSWTAS]

I did some work on that track with a ATCV team SWT, it was heaven after a wet cold autumn at Cradle.

Many of mine are health related, trying to stand up (let alone walk out) from Waterfall with the effects of rye neck (i hobbled sideways like a crab for 8/9hrs) a raging sudden virus at Pelion made the walk to Arm River an epic, climbing to Marions with a 40kg pack and wolloping hangover.

Probably among the most 'boring' was the last day/walk out on the South Coast track, seemed to drag on forever.

Yes that south cape range is awful!!

[Nuts]

ha ha lol... i meant the walk up from the coast to cockle speedy, south cape was a day (or two) earlier..

[ILUVSWTAS]

ha ha lol... i meant the walk up from the coast to cockle speedy, south cape was a day (or two) earlier..

Oh ok, well that only takes about 2 hrs you whinger...

[NickD]

Yeah I'd say the final two hours of the South Coast Track are the biggest anti-climax in any Tassie walk. South Cape Range is beautiful!! How dare you ILUVSWTAS

The YoYo track is pretty horid in spots.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Yeah I'd say the final two hours of the South Coast Track are the biggest anti-climax in any Tassie walk. South Cape Range is beautiful!! How dare you ILUVSWTAS

The YoYo track is pretty horid in spots.

Haha sorry Nick... tree roots and mud for 6-8 hrs.... urghhhhhhh

Yoyo wasnt as bad as I was expecting, went through there 2 years ago to find the track had been recently cleared. I was expecting it to be a constant up down up down experience, but it was over before I knew it....

[NickD]

Ah I see. Yes it was around 35 degrees when I did the walk, the slippery eucalyptus leaf litter on a hot day was a terror for myself and my guide weight pack. Tree fall a plenty kept my face mud smeared all day long too.

[corvus]

No walk in Tasmania is bad IMHO especially if you are fit enought to do it some just take longer or more cleaning up of gear upon return
corvus

[mjdalessa]

Possibly Mt. Mangana even though the walking was quite pleasent. No reward at the top. Very short too, but I guess its the worst I've done.

[forest]

My worst walk was up the "corker" in Barrington Tops on New Years day 2011.

Love the actual walk but circumstances dictate all.......

Spend a fair amount of money and effort to really lighten my pack and load, My friend on the other hand turned up with a 24 kg pack for a "One" night trip

Well we made it up the hill about an 45 minutes, I was charging along up the incline with a 9kg loadout, my friend.... well he was doing it hard and the thermometer was on the rise.
I swear we had to stop every 50 meters.
20 minutes later and he let rip that he wasn't lugging his gear any further.... and wanted to go back down

Being good spirited I ended up lugging his pack full of junk up the hill and he tore off up the hill with my pack.
Still have the scars on my hips from his i'll fitting 24 kg pack, it was about 38°C by the time we made it to Careys peak.

Then the mother of all thunderstorms rolled in from dark to 4am..... least I slept ok in my hammock

[Bodysurfer]

Many years ago I did a 4 day walk in Northern Wilson's Prom. I have no idea what it's like now, but back then it was rarely visited, and indeed, although it was summer school holidays, we didn't see another soul on the trip.

Possibly dampening the appeal is that access is by a big road bash with little or no shade, After that there was a beach bash, then a scrub bash, and finally the road bash home.

But that would have been fine, were it not for the flies. Bush flies, march flies, flies, flies, flies. Never before or after have I seen flies in this number. At dusk there was a blissful 20 minutes when the flies retired. And then the mozzies came out... And none of us had thought to bring any repellent.

One can be sure about few things in life, but I am certain that I will never return to Northern Wilson's Prom.

[JamesMc]

I love the Northern Prom. It is exposed to the sun / wind, and the road is a bit of a trudge. But that only takes a couple of hours, and is no worse than the walk to Junction Creek. The scenery is great, the beaches are superb, and you see almost nobody.

JamesMc

[DJohnson]

For some this may fit into the category of the 'best walk ever'.... When my mother in law snapped her leg and dislocated her ankle on the track near Split Rock. Not a fun day! And I swear I didn't push her!!

The second time disaster has struck was when I knocked over a full bottle of port on day 2 of an 11 day walk. Not happy!
(yes I was struggling to think of another example of my worst walk)

Now that I think about it I haven't had too many walks that I regret or didn't enjoy. Maybe I'm just easily pleased!

[ollster]

My pack got dropped halfway down the notch on the Mt Anne circuit once. Blew apart a wine bladder in the pack - messy. The damage to the frame actually made it more comfortable though, so not all bad.

Other than that, every friggen walk that I've ever twisted my ankles. There have probably been >10.

[Bluegum Mic]

Ha! Yes thankyou for reminding me. We once left the wine bladders in the car over a three dayer in the blue mountains. I was tempted to walk through the night to retrieve them

[Stibb]

Haven't had a really bad Tas walk yet. I think one of my worst walks was a non-planned walk into , for us, unknown territory in Thailand close to the Burma border in 1991. we had managed to get a "guide" who was going to take us into Burma for a day visit. Turned out to be the incredibly annoying type who was relentlessly monkeying around yelling "photo photo photo" every time there was anything remotely interesting (which was, to be fair, quite often). He was the "driver" too, drugged out of his mind most of the time. Suddenly, he stopped and declared that we were going for a walk to a waterfall, "not far, not far". Three guys with machine guns turned up to accompany us. What do you do? Not too many options really so we started to walk in our thongs and not much water. Very muddy, HOT, mosquito galore and a constant yapping "PHOTO PHOTO PHOTO". We did eventually (after 2 hours or so IIRC) find a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the rain forest where we had a really nice swim before we headed back VERY thirsty. The armed guys waved good buy and we continued to Burma...

[Tofu_Imprint]

The worst walks for me have being finishing the actual walk and then having to walk another 12-20km on a gravel road to get back to my car (when solo and no reception for pickup on some short loops i've done.
That and injuries. I got achilles tendonopathy doing the Heaphy track in NZ recently (78km), and it has severely impacted on my work/personal life. I have truly learned a lesson from this!

[davids]

I think I agree with DJohnson that a really bad walk is better than a really good day at work.
But also agree with bodysurfer about the N.Prom. We got a boat over to start the trip at Tin Mine cove,so didn't have such a long road bash. It was quite a few years ago and after a fire and regrowth the track was overgrown with really spikey bushes that played havoc with bare legs.

[1iron]

My worse walk was my first overnighter in Australia, decided to do an overnighter on the Burrup Peninsula in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Had a new tent and one of the those foam sleeping mats and wanted to check them out.

It was in October with shade temperatures in the mid thirties and as there was no water on the peninsula I decided to carry eight litres for the two days.

What I did not allow for was the amount of reflected heat of the rocks along the way, at the end of the first day had drunk nearly six litres of water. Camped on the sandy beach with the foam mat and it was as hard as concrete and could not sleep at all. Set off back very early the following morning trying to conserve my water, ran out of water about half way back, but fortunately met some fishermen in a 4wd and got some water from them and made it back ok.

Bought a Thermarest as soon as we went to Perth.

[north-north-west]

Difficult.

There was one day in the Gammons, a loooong day, when i walked out to Bunyip chasm and back. Despite being very hot and very dry, it was great until I was passing the old homestead on the return, where I made the big mistake of topping up my water supply. The stuff tasted foul, but I needed water and that was all there was.
And then I got sunstroke. It took something over two hours to stagger - in between regular bouts of vomiting and dry-retching and nearly fainting from the pain in my head - the last kilometre back to the car, which I reached a little after nightfall. I don't even remember anything after reaching the gorge, it's just a grey haze in my mind. I just dropped my pack, swallowed as much codeine as I could without risking death, and crawled into the sleeping bag for the next 18 hours.
Hellish.

Then there was the time I had a migraine start when I was coming back down from Johnnies Top. I missed the first easterly curve, spent an hour bashing across two gullies, through brambles and scrub, to get back on track, and then missed the second turn and ended up hitting the creek miles downstream from the flats, with hillsides too steep to contour so I had to climb back up to work my way around and by then it was dark and my head was about to explode, so I spent the night huddled in a space blanket on the hillside, wearing everything I was carrying - thermals, waterproofs, gloves, etc. At least it didn't rain.

And then there was the time I believed someone (who shall remain nameless) who assured me there was a good, easy to follow, track all the way up Jukes, and so spent half a day bashing through soaking wet scrub in the pouring rain, trying to find a track to follow . . .
I hate pushing through soaking wet scrub.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Difficult.

And then there was the time I believed someone (who shall remain nameless) who assured me there was a good, easy to follow, track all the way up Jukes, and so spent half a day bashing through soaking wet scrub in the pouring rain, trying to find a track to follow . . .
I hate pushing through soaking wet scrub.

Hahaha dont blame me for not finding the track.....

[Tony]

My worst ever walk was probably my first.

The year was 1975, I had just finished my apprenticeship and I was on a 3 month hitchhiking trip around New Zealand, I was staying at the Youth Hostel in the Mt Cook/Aoraki Township, a group of us (4) decided we would do a day walk along the Hooker Glacier to the Hooker Hut, this was probably my first ever walk/tramp. From memory the day stared out nice, the walk up was great, we had no problems crossing the many streams on the way, the views over the glacier where magnificent, the glacier was making lots of noises as it slowly made its way down the valley and great chunks of ice where occasionally crashing down, we had lunch at the hut and started the walk back down, it was then the heavens opened, it started to rain like I had never seen it rain before and the rain was bitterly cold, none of us had ever experienced anything like this before and we where not properly dressed, my oily japara rain coat (which I still have) kept a bit of the rain off me but my clothes (which where probably cotton) where totally inadequate.

On the way back, the little streams that we crossed on the way up where starting to flow fast, the sides of the valley where the track went, was very steep the water was moving very fast, and with some help from each other we managed to cross a few streams but we then came to one stream that was a raging torrent, we became trapped, the streams behind us where also no longer passable, we where starting to become hypothermic and could not see us waiting it out, so we decided to go down to where the stream flowed into a lake beside the glacier, we then tried to walk/swim around the torrent of in the freezing water flowing into the lake, we did this holding hands/arms together but this nearly ended in disaster as one person slipped and we had some effort to hold on to her, after regaining her feet we managed to get to the other side, we finally made it back to the car and the warm youth hostel, we where very cold and luckily no worse for wear but a bit wiser for our experience.

Then.

Not long after the Hooker Glacier experience, I went off for an overnight walk on the Routeburn Track with two of the Hooker Glacier party, one of the members of the party had just purchased some new boots in Queenstown, on the walk her feet where suffering very badly, that evening we decided to stay at the Routeburn Flats Hut as she could not make it to the Routeburn Falls Huts, in those days the Routeburn Flats Hut had canvas bunks sleeping mats where rare back then and my sleeping bag was crap, I had a very cold sleepless night, the next morning the state of woman’s badly blistered feet was not good so we decided to walk back to the car park, she hobbled bag in just her socks, fortunately it was dry. I had also just purchased a new pair of boots in Mt Cook/Aoraki Township and my feet where not the best either.

ony

[north-north-west]

Difficult.

And then there was the time I believed someone (who shall remain nameless) who assured me there was a good, easy to follow, track all the way up Jukes, and so spent half a day bashing through soaking wet scrub in the pouring rain, trying to find a track to follow . . .
I hate pushing through soaking wet scrub.

Hahaha dont blame me for not finding the track.....

I found it. Many times. Unfortunately, I lost it one time more than I found it.

[Liamy77]

as i havn't walked with the southern posse yet i'll have to come back to this topic i guess lol

[pazzar]

I think I just had my worst walk. I was attempting to do the Mt Gell/Cheyne Range circuit. After walking in at about 3pm yesterday, I made it up to the crest of the range between the Chimera and the Hippogriff, however I did not find the grassy plains that I had heard were in the 950m saddle. It was now dark and raining heavily, so I thought any space big enough for a tent would be good enough. I woke up in the morning with every single part of my gear wet, and it was snowing outside ever so lightly. I made the call to head out, figuring I would enjoy it more if I returned with dry gear. It turned out I was no more than 10 minutes walk away from the marshy saddle, which had numerous quality camp sites. I look forward to a return visit. The walking I found to be fairly easy once you got the route right. Buttongrass isn't my favourite, but its not hard. I even almost went for a swim in the Franklin on the way back out, all captured on video!

[stepbystep]

I think I just had my worst walk. I was attempting to do the Mt Gell/Cheyne Range circuit. After walking in at about 3pm yesterday, I made it up to the crest of the range between the Chimera and the Hippogriff, however I did not find the grassy plains that I had heard were in the 950m saddle. It was now dark and raining heavily, so I thought any space big enough for a tent would be good enough. I woke up in the morning with every single part of my gear wet, and it was snowing outside ever so lightly. I made the call to head out, figuring I would enjoy it more if I returned with dry gear. It turned out I was no more than 10 minutes walk away from the marshy saddle, which had numerous quality camp sites. I look forward to a return visit. The walking I found to be fairly easy once you got the route right. Buttongrass isn't my favourite, but its not hard. I even almost went for a swim in the Franklin on the way back out, all captured on video!

Geez, worse than being choppered out of the Warthurs or falling 3m onto your back off Sharlands Peak, must have been bad

[pazzar]

Only just. There's something about being soaking wet that isn't all that fun.

[mjdalessa]

How did you fall 3m onto your back? Did you have a pack on to cushion the blow?