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Patonga North Run
Posted by
plu
,
09 June 2012
·
265 views
Patonga North Run
Hi all,
This report is for my benefit. I have called it the Patonga North trail run because I don't really know what to call it. It is Map 17 and 18 of the GNW100 course maps. Though I did not use them rather I used the Broken Bay and Gosford topo maps.
I am going on trails because it is better for my foot though five hours worth might be a bit much. I thought I could meet up with Phil and Andy who are running this weekend the 250 km of the GNW from Newcastle to Sydney.
I studied the maps last night and was going to join them even further north off Woy Woy Road. I decided to go from Patonga Drive incase I missed them on the maze of trails further to the North. The key thing was to get the timing right and after a night of dreaming about them running I woke up and resisted the temptation to head out early. I did some marking and got the call from Luke that they had left Mooney Mooney at midday.
So I drove to the track head and headed north towards them. I was very cautious and nervous about getting lost. It is amazing how accurate topo maps are and I was able to track each corner, gully and elevation change quite confident I was going in the right direction. After 30 minutes I met the connecting walking track between two firetrails separated by a valley and two peaks with a sandstone ridge between them.
All was fine till I hit the ridge. The trail seemed to disappear and I was only comforted by some well placed, in concrete, in the sandstone GNW arrows. This section was only 1.5 km but it was taking me a while because every now and then I turned around to assess where I had come from for the return trip in case I did not meet Phil and Andy. Though this actually made me more nervous because I actually could not see where I had come from.
I had a borrowed Garmin Forerunner 305 but could not get the satellite to connect though the heart rate monitor was fine. Mind you it was not needed for directions as I was running with a topo map in my hand. It would have been good to see my pace. Anyway I was monitoring how long I was running for and it was over an hour now. Which meant if I turnaround around then I would be back at the road by 3:00pm.
I could see on the map there was a fire trail but I seemed to be going up another peak. So I checked more closely the topo and could see there were two peaks on the ridge so my fears were allayed and rationalized I had to climb over this one and the fire trail would be on the other side. Now I know seasoned runners of this course are fine but I stopped to look around and every direction I looked was bush and I got edgy and I noticed my heart rate go up. The only thing I recognized was Brisbane Waters in the distance.
Eventually, with relief I reached the fire trail only to become really confused. I stood on the trail and there was a left and right hand turn to make then I saw a single trail ahead 5 m through the bush and another fire trail going left and right. I now looked closely at the topo because if I went the wrong way I might have missed them. I went through the gap and decided to go left and soon realised I was going the wrong way and turnaround and went the other way. I came to a section with a left hand turn and straight ahead but my topo map had run out. It was after 2pm and I thought gee I cannot really go on without a map and I was also concerned about light. If I continued on and finally met them it might be really late and I did not have a light. I did not want to be a burden for their run if I had no light.
I probably turned earlier than I needed to I wanted to be safe. It was he right decision to make. Going back was as difficult as I thought it would be and I was annoyed I forgot to bring a compass because now I could not work out if the arrows were pointing to where I had just come from or to where I was meant to be going. It was like I had put on a blind fold and was spinned in circles. I was relieved to be off the ridge and heading down into the valley because the path was pretty clear.
Now feeling much more relaxed I decided to run back to the car and then run back down again hoping to meet them on the return run. Since I had turned at the end of the map I needed to give them some time to come towards me. The return run down the hill and up the single trail was good fun the second time around since I had already done it. I got to the top of the climb and decided to just sit in the sun and not go along the ridge. I did not want to risk the light and missing the trail.
So I it was about 3:45 and I knew I had an hour till sunset. So I sat in the sun for an hour watching the sun go down behind the peak Phil and Andy were to come over. I decided when the sun was halfway over the peak and was no longer warming me that I would climb back down into the valley, put on a jumper and wait for them at the firetrail. Just before I left I did a cooeee in case they were nearby and heard no reply.
My next decision was to work out how long I could stay at the bottom of the valley as it was getting dark. I decided I needed to get moving before dark and I knew I had 27 minutes to run out. The Garmin told me sunset was 4:53 so I said to myself I would go at 4:40 so I would be near the top at dark. Then I heard voices in the bush and about 5 minutes later Andy and Phil came out onto the fire trail.
They had been on their feet for 36 hours and had covered 180+ km. So I just talked away up the hill as they worked their way up to the peak for the final descent down to Patonga and the boat a friend was bringing across to take them to Brooklyn. It was dark as and very cold for the last 30 minutes of the trip to my car at which point I said farewell to Phil and Andy. I was freezing when I went home and they had another 80 km to do....
So I made a few good decisions today. Though I was conservative I was being sensible and gained a lot more experience and some confidence on the trails.
I spent 5.5 hours in the bush of which 4.5 hours was running. This was probs a bit too much for the foot but it was good fun and I had a sense of accomplishment when I got home.
Cheers Plu
Hi all,
This report is for my benefit. I have called it the Patonga North trail run because I don't really know what to call it. It is Map 17 and 18 of the GNW100 course maps. Though I did not use them rather I used the Broken Bay and Gosford topo maps.
I am going on trails because it is better for my foot though five hours worth might be a bit much. I thought I could meet up with Phil and Andy who are running this weekend the 250 km of the GNW from Newcastle to Sydney.
I studied the maps last night and was going to join them even further north off Woy Woy Road. I decided to go from Patonga Drive incase I missed them on the maze of trails further to the North. The key thing was to get the timing right and after a night of dreaming about them running I woke up and resisted the temptation to head out early. I did some marking and got the call from Luke that they had left Mooney Mooney at midday.
So I drove to the track head and headed north towards them. I was very cautious and nervous about getting lost. It is amazing how accurate topo maps are and I was able to track each corner, gully and elevation change quite confident I was going in the right direction. After 30 minutes I met the connecting walking track between two firetrails separated by a valley and two peaks with a sandstone ridge between them.
All was fine till I hit the ridge. The trail seemed to disappear and I was only comforted by some well placed, in concrete, in the sandstone GNW arrows. This section was only 1.5 km but it was taking me a while because every now and then I turned around to assess where I had come from for the return trip in case I did not meet Phil and Andy. Though this actually made me more nervous because I actually could not see where I had come from.
I had a borrowed Garmin Forerunner 305 but could not get the satellite to connect though the heart rate monitor was fine. Mind you it was not needed for directions as I was running with a topo map in my hand. It would have been good to see my pace. Anyway I was monitoring how long I was running for and it was over an hour now. Which meant if I turnaround around then I would be back at the road by 3:00pm.
I could see on the map there was a fire trail but I seemed to be going up another peak. So I checked more closely the topo and could see there were two peaks on the ridge so my fears were allayed and rationalized I had to climb over this one and the fire trail would be on the other side. Now I know seasoned runners of this course are fine but I stopped to look around and every direction I looked was bush and I got edgy and I noticed my heart rate go up. The only thing I recognized was Brisbane Waters in the distance.
Eventually, with relief I reached the fire trail only to become really confused. I stood on the trail and there was a left and right hand turn to make then I saw a single trail ahead 5 m through the bush and another fire trail going left and right. I now looked closely at the topo because if I went the wrong way I might have missed them. I went through the gap and decided to go left and soon realised I was going the wrong way and turnaround and went the other way. I came to a section with a left hand turn and straight ahead but my topo map had run out. It was after 2pm and I thought gee I cannot really go on without a map and I was also concerned about light. If I continued on and finally met them it might be really late and I did not have a light. I did not want to be a burden for their run if I had no light.
I probably turned earlier than I needed to I wanted to be safe. It was he right decision to make. Going back was as difficult as I thought it would be and I was annoyed I forgot to bring a compass because now I could not work out if the arrows were pointing to where I had just come from or to where I was meant to be going. It was like I had put on a blind fold and was spinned in circles. I was relieved to be off the ridge and heading down into the valley because the path was pretty clear.
Now feeling much more relaxed I decided to run back to the car and then run back down again hoping to meet them on the return run. Since I had turned at the end of the map I needed to give them some time to come towards me. The return run down the hill and up the single trail was good fun the second time around since I had already done it. I got to the top of the climb and decided to just sit in the sun and not go along the ridge. I did not want to risk the light and missing the trail.
So I it was about 3:45 and I knew I had an hour till sunset. So I sat in the sun for an hour watching the sun go down behind the peak Phil and Andy were to come over. I decided when the sun was halfway over the peak and was no longer warming me that I would climb back down into the valley, put on a jumper and wait for them at the firetrail. Just before I left I did a cooeee in case they were nearby and heard no reply.
My next decision was to work out how long I could stay at the bottom of the valley as it was getting dark. I decided I needed to get moving before dark and I knew I had 27 minutes to run out. The Garmin told me sunset was 4:53 so I said to myself I would go at 4:40 so I would be near the top at dark. Then I heard voices in the bush and about 5 minutes later Andy and Phil came out onto the fire trail.
They had been on their feet for 36 hours and had covered 180+ km. So I just talked away up the hill as they worked their way up to the peak for the final descent down to Patonga and the boat a friend was bringing across to take them to Brooklyn. It was dark as and very cold for the last 30 minutes of the trip to my car at which point I said farewell to Phil and Andy. I was freezing when I went home and they had another 80 km to do....
So I made a few good decisions today. Though I was conservative I was being sensible and gained a lot more experience and some confidence on the trails.
I spent 5.5 hours in the bush of which 4.5 hours was running. This was probs a bit too much for the foot but it was good fun and I had a sense of accomplishment when I got home.
Cheers Plu
