Walking down The Oaks fire trail is pleasant in the early hours, as there aren’t too many cyclists whizzing past you. In the five kilometres I was on it I came across two types of cyclists. The first group came past so fast and close I jumped sideways into the bush in fright. I would imagine they would get to Glenbrook in under an hour. The second group cruised on by with enough time to say hi and a bit of chit chat about where we were all going. I imagine they would get to Glenbrook in 3 or 4 hours. I was happy to get to the turn off for St Helena fire trail as it’s nowhere near as popular as the oaks. I have never been on St Helena fire trail before and it is a very nice easy going walk following the ridgetop. After about 11km the fire trail heads off the ridge to the left. I followed it for a couple of hundred metres before turning back and finding a walking track that keeps following the ridge. It is quite overgrown and I would imagine that riding a bike through here wouldn’t be much fun. I did pass another man coming the other way along this stretch. It was quite strange as he wasn’t carrying a back pack and I didn’t notice he was carrying any water either, just a piece of paper in his hand. I said hi, he grunted, I kept walking. The turn off to the Lost World is easy to spot and it brings you out at a cliff top looking over Glenbrook Creek. I sat down and had a bite to eat before heading out to find the cache which was quite close by. I signed the log, took a few pics of the view and I was on my way again. Back at St. Helena track its only about 1km to the end. Finding the start of Kings Link, the pass down the ridge, didn’t jump out at me but with a bit of a look I found it. It is marked with a small cairn. Kings Link is a pretty good track. Half way down on a rocky outcrop you have a choice of going left or right and its hard to see which is the right way. I went left but I soon realised that both tracks meet up further down. Further down the track it’s a little harder to follow, and I would assume it would be quite hard to find coming the other way if you hadn’t been here before. Finding a good place to cross the creek wasn’t easy either. I had to back track and rock hop through some pretty rough terrain but I found it. I should of placed a waypoint on the GPS. Lesson learnt.
The walk through Sassafras gully is real nice. So many pools and places to camp it would be a wonderland in the hot summer months. It’s very well sign posted, and an area that is easy accessible from a few different tracks on various Springwood ridges. After I crossed the 20km mark I started to tire, and I still had a few kilometres to go and a bit of a climb as well. I must say I was glad to get to the top, even though it was back to civilization. The track ends close to Faulconbridge train station and it was here I had to make a big decisions. Catch a train back to Woodford… or walk.
Looking at the GPS it was telling me it was just under 7km back to the car. The time was just after 3 o’clock, my feet hurt and my legs ached but catching the train just felt like cheating. After 3 more kilometres I wished I caught the train. After a rest and a feed on some fruit, I found enough energy to complete this mammoth walk. It took just under 10 hours to do the 32km, and I got back to the car just before sundown.

