One common problem, if you are using a map on a long trip, is keeping it in good condition. Constant opening, folding, stowing and reopening all inevitably damage the map. Then there is the rain, wind and other conditions that can destroy it in minutes. After a couple of days, the map ends up in four or five pieces, damaged and degraded.

About 8 Overland Track trips ago, to save pack weight, we scanned and colour printed the maps for each day from John Chapman’s Overland Track book. Sue then laminated them and they have lasted very well for every trip. In fact, they are still in great condition.

This week Frank heads off on the first of 14 trips planned for the Great Ocean Walk between October and May. One map will not survive that many trips, so laminating sections of it is the best solution.

Frank reading the full version of the map

The Great Ocean Walk Map produced by Parks Victoria is a ripper. Set at 1:25,000 it is incredibly detailed and contains many notes, pieces of information, highlights and advice. This is great stuff but not all relevant if you just want to use the map, well as a map! It is a handy thing to take en route to show clients where they are,  judge  relative distances and where pick up and drop off points are located.

The “process” we followed:

• You do need access to a scanner and colour printer. We  upgraded recently to a very simple HP unit.
• Look at the whole map and, using a piece of blank A4 paper,  work out the  areas on the map that will be scanned on each pass.
• We just focused on “the track” part of the map i.e. where we are actually walking
• The GOW map is large so we needed 10 sections
• Carefully fold the map so the relevant section is about A4 size and scan it.  We used a higher resolution (dpi) than normal to get a good copy.
• Save the file as a .jpg (picture file) for simplicity
• Double check you have all the track covered, trying to overlap slightly the edge of each section
• Print out the m,aps. We used colour but black and while works just as well.

You now need a Laminator.  We picked up one at Officeworks but they are commonly available at stationers or Aldi, for example.

Feeding the scanned map through the laminator

The process is quite simple, Sue is the expert here. Just feed it through the machine. We did trim a few millimetres off one side and the end so there was a wider seal than normal. Hopefully this will increase the durability and reduce the potential for delaminating.

One large map into 5 sheets - laminated back to back

We laminated the sheets “back to back” , 2 map sections per page. This resulted in 5 sheets for the whole walk.

Reading the laminated map - much easier to handle

Because these trips are based off track and use shuttles to different points on the GOW each day, Frank only needs to take the relevant section of map for that day’s walking. The original map will be used for briefings and only really opened once a day.

What do you do with your maps? Take the original, take a photocopy?

Have you tried laminating sections? How did it work out for you?

Welcome to Diane Campbell who recently shared an article with us about her guided walks exploits. Diane is semi-retired and has been cheerfully getting lost by herself or walking on tracks with friends for more years than she will admit to. Currently living near the Eastern end of the Yurebilla Trail and not too far from the Heysen, she has bushwalked in every state and won’t admit to a favourite

In Australia I will nearly always be alone or – preferably with a friend or bushwalking group – on day walks. If I visit an area which is new to me and has a lot of great short walks – such as first visits to the Flinders Ranges, or the Blue Mountains – then I will plan and enjoy lots of day trips.

Cox's river crossing on the Six Foot Track

If I wish to do a through-walk and a Supported walk is available, then I will choose that. The main reason is that walks which must include an overnight stay often include tracks of variable grades, and I don’t want to carry a pack with tent and sleeping bag and water for 2 days or more. Its not just the extra work, its a safety and comfort issue. Some people are natural athletes with excellent balance, and some of us are not and struggle to keep up. This occurred to me at least 50 years ago when a kindergarten teacher in high heels was trying to show me how to hop. (And why would anyone wish to do that?) If I’m on stepping stones then a pack with much more than my lunch in it will pretty well ensure I go into the drink. Or the mud.

One can’t visit the Grampians or the Six-Foot track without tripping over a school group or troop of Duke of Edinburgh Award contenders – and in any largish group, a sizeable number look unhappy, or tired, or appear to be gritting their teeth.

I walk for pleasure. I like to wake up warm and dry with clean dry clothing to wear.

Then again, if one is equipped mainly for day walks, it may be more economical to do the very occasional through-walk with a firm which provides all the equipment than to spend Real Money buying the lightest and best tents, sleeping bags, perhaps buying or hiring an EPERB or satellite phone. The guides will usually be carrying satellite phone, first aid kits, emergency shelter, all of which represents extra safety as well as weight that I need not carry. Transfers will be arranged. This saves some expense, and because the transfers are optimal one may even be spared the cost of an additional night in a hotel. Some companies have permanent shelters with stored dry foods (Cradlehuts in Tasmania) and others use four-wheel drive vehicles to meet walkers at the campsite where they have set up camp and dinner (eg lifesanadventure). Each time I have done a supported walk the food has been unbelievably good, generally better than one would expect to find in the average pub or restaurant – and I don’t have to carry it or cook it!  Most Guided walks seem to represent real value for money even if you compared them with just staying in town and eating out!

It is six years since I did the Overland Track with Cradle Huts .  Absolutely magical walk. Great guides; they provide 2 for a maximum group size of 10. One stays late at the “hut,” cleaning up and setting bread for the next lot, and one lopes ahead early after lunch, so that when one arrives the place is warm and afternoon tea with fresh muffins or scones is waiting. The “huts” are really lodges, with comfortable bunks in twin rooms, hot showers and drying rooms.

And the best thing? The guides carry the heavy stuff!

The Great Ocean Walk last year was done with Bothfeet which was perhaps the most hedonistic. Great Ocean Walk is unusual because of the number of access points; it is possible to do the entire thing without staying actually on the track, and there are a lot of options for “support” including from backpackers and camping grounds offering shuttles up to five star accommodation. It was summer, so packs and clothing were light, and BothFeet was based at the lodge and we were bussed to the walk each day. Wonderful food such as oriental salads for lunch kept cool with frozen drinks – and we were frankly pampered, with the collecting bus providing ice and iced towels on hot days. There was a demand from the walkers that the chef write a recipe book at the end….

I did the six foot track (Katoomba to Jenolan) last month with Life’s an adventure and really enjoyed it; it is a great example of a walk which requires one stay on or near the track so one must choose between carrying a tent and a supported walk. Again, well organised, great cooking, comfortable pace – I have booked to go to Bay of Fires with them in a couple of weeks! The first night was an “ecolodge” which was backpacker sized and worth mentioning because they will arrange shuttles and accommodation for independent walkers. (Pickup at Katoomba, be driven to Jenolan to stay overnight at Caves House and leave early the next morning, stay overnight at the Six Foot Lodge and get to Katoomba the next day.)

Maria Island is another spot to consider a supported walk. Visitors must be entirely self-sufficient, including water, for the duration of their visit – one of the guides had a mountain bike with a trailer for that reason. We went with Adventure Seekers . I enjoyed it very much, but they insisted we use their backpacks (my 32 Litre would have been adequate & a lot more comfortable) to carry a sleeping bag and mat as well as personal kit, and even with my considerable endogenous padding I had blisters from the waist band which made walking less enjoyable. I gather that there are safari tents used by another group and that might be the way to go.

If I have a real plug its for the various National Parks services. Cradle-huts has been “grandfathered” in – permission to keep permanent buildings in the national park which won’t be given to anyone else. They are discreet and environmentally friendly, and I think that perhaps there is room for more of these sorts of buildings in our national parks to make them accessible to the average walker and decrease the number of people crapping in the woods. Even simpler and more reasonable – lockers.

There are companies escorting punters to the Overland Track and Walls of Jerusalem, but one must still carry a tent and food. Lockers for tents and water would be inexpensive, minimal environmental impact, and improve the safety and comfort of walkers.

I would support a levy on through-walkers for more enviroloos to be built. Some greenies and some guides seem to think its cool to advise “ducking behind a bush” with the result that its rarely safe to drink creekwater and some parts of popular tracks are frankly soiled… I did the Gordon-Franklin raft trip with a group decades ago, and it simply isn’t possible to go the requisite 100 metres from any creek in parts of it, that’s why the only way down is by a raft!

Many thanks to Diane for sharing her adventures. We really enjoyed reading about her adventures into the “bush”

Have you participated in a guided walk?

What were your impressions? Good? Bad? Worth doing?

Leave a reply below so others can learn from you, just like we did with Diane’s article.

Georgie Bull, one of our contributers,  has been sharing her “Get Fit” program in preparation for Hiking the Overland Track in Tasmania in September.

This last couple of weeks she has been struck down with “the flu” but is finally on the mend.  In this piece she muses over how her fitness campaign is progressing:

Over to Georgie:

Regrettably, my fitness regime collapsed two weeks ago when I picked up a nasty dose of the flu.

I am a miserable patient and spent a lot of time mopping about, just willing my lungs and head to clear and my energy level to bounce back.

I felt better on Sunday, so decided to walk up to Montville. I got just past my letterbox before I felt my heart rate increase dramatically and my chest tighten. And my legs stopped wanting to work. I was tempted to turn back, upset at this rotten setback – muscles gone to jelly on their holiday from the gym, and cardio fitness obviously gone backwards.

Thinking, ‘I am doing the OT in four weeks’, I decided to push on.

As you know, by this stage, I should be well into my interval training and ready to add some weight work. But I would be happy just to do the 10km round trip. After a lot of grunting and puffing, and quite a few stops to catch my breath, I made it up to the Montville bakery. I bought my sourdough, and headed for home – which is thankfully downhill all the way.

This little story was to have been a brag about how fit and ready I am for the OT, probably telling you how hard my interval has been, but that I was managing it, and how I was about to start adding weight to my backpack, building up to 18kgs over the next two weeks. I am sorry that it isn’t. I am not quite sure where I go from here – try to catch up, modify the trip to just day walks …  A work in progress.

If you have been following my regime, and have been lucky to been virus free and diligent with your training, your muscle strength will have increased without stress, and your cardiovascular system improved with the gradually increasing demand. Now it’s time to strap on your backpack, and add some weight to your walk.

Start with a 5kg load for a week or so, then add another 5kg, and keep carrying that until five weeks before your trip. At the five week mark, gradually increase the weight each day until you get to the weight you would normally carry – for me this is18kg max. Increasing the weight gradually builds muscle strength and reduces the chance of muscle, ligament or tendon damage.

The week before your trip, give your body a complete recovery time, so you can start your walk in top condition. Keep up your daily distances, but ease back to a slow speed, and unload your backpack to just your water bottle, jumper and jacket.

My regime was intended to get me to a good fitness level to tackle the OT, and hopefully it will still stand me in good stead, despite this setback with the flu.

If you have ever got sick a month or so before a big trip I would love to hear what you did once you started feeling better.

Regards

Georgie

Image: Diego Ibacache – via Flickr

How is your exercise routine coming along?

In this article Georgie Bull continues her getting fit for a multi-day hike series.

If you are new here, we suggest  you read the three previous articles which will give you some background about how we got to this point.

- Getting fit for a multi day walking trip – some personal experience
- A hiking fitness program – 16 weeks to get fit for a trip
- Getting fit for hiking – a 12 week program

Over to Georgie:

If  you have followed either closely or loosely my pounding the pavement, week by week, build up programme, or added some weight training as Amanda suggested, you will now be feeling fitter and stronger for those multi day walks.

In preparation for the hills and slush of Tasmania’s Overland Track in September, I have increased the resistance exercises in my gym workouts, and done a couple of good long up and downhill walks, and can definitely feel a big difference in my cardio ability and core strength.

So now it is time for me to get serious about adding some interval training into my routine.  I can do this, as I know I don’t have heart problems, high blood pressure or cholesterol, or joint problems and am not on any medication.  If you answer Yes, to any of these, you should check with a medical practitioner before adding interval training to your own routine.

OK, so after the first 4 weeks of gentle exercise, I gradually added some strength and resistance training – adding some hills, climbing stairs and weight training.  This slowly but steadily improved my cardio and aerobic systems and my muscles for the long slogs on the OT.  But now I need to push those systems a bit further with interval training, to get me easily up Marion’s steps, and Pelion and Du Cane Gaps – those short, lung bursting exertions I had found so difficult on my previous OT walks.

Interval training demands 90+% of your maximum heart rate, so it can only be done in VERY SHORT bursts, and only every second day.  Interval training hurts and has the potential for damage, so the slow build up to this stage is important, it should not be undertaken too early in your routine, and make sure you have a rest day in between.

Interval training involves an equal time mix of hard, fast exertion and recovery.  The length of time should be determined by your cardiac fitness.  It is important it be long enough that the hard and fast exertion gets you out of breath, but not so long that your heart rate goes back to resting rate in the recovery.  I will start with 3 sets of 30 seconds hard / 30 seconds rest, and build up to my goal of 5 sets of 3 minutes of each before I set out on the OT.

I am excited about starting my first sets of interval training exertion.  I plan to start with three sets of fast 30 second uphill power walk and cruisey 30 second downhill walk on my local hill.  I will increase the length and number of sets until I get bored, then switch to my stationary bike on the verandah at home, and use the gears and speed  to crank up the intensity, and freewheel as recovery.  I am not sure yet what I will do when I get bored with that – maybe swimming laps at the local, heated, pool.

This all sounds great, but I will let you know how successful I am in keeping it up and adding more each week.

Good luck with your own endeavours.
Regards
Georgie

Image: Vern and Skeet via Flickr

In this article Georgie Bull continues her getting fit for a multi-day hike series.

If you are new here, we suggest  you read the two previous articles which will give you some background about how we got to this point.

Getting fit for a multi day walking trip – some personal experience
A hiking fitness program – 16 weeks to get fit for a trip

Over to Georgie:

So, how did you go using those rectus muscles.  Did you manage to plant your feet directly underneath your hips.  Did it feel a bit strange at first, but you soon got used to it and then found it SO much easier to lift yourself up hills?  Great!

On ANZAC Day we walked up Mt Tibrogargan, in Glasshouse Mountains NP, first doing the flat circuit at a cruisey pace and then climbing 300 metres of rocky steps up to the switchback.  My heart rate went way over 80% on parts of the climb, but, woohoo, I didn’t have to stop for scroggin!

I plan to walk the Overland Track in September, so am using the schedule below for the first 12 weeks of my wow! programme – the slog to specifically train my muscles for this multi-day walk.

Rather than just go on ad hoc rambles or flog the equipment at the gym, I sussed out a hill near home with inclines and distance similar to Pelion and De Cane gaps – so my training is specific to my needs.  The round trip of about 3 km takes about an hour.  Although I can easily amble 20kms with a full pack in a day, this schedule still includes a lot of flat walking, to maintain my endurance muscles with nice aerobic use.

Great preparation will help on long hills

However, to increase my fitness and muscle strength, I am adding a bit of faster walking each week, on the flat and up the hill, to bump up my heart rate and get my muscles thinking anaerobic.  This faster walk is not interval intensity  – as my muscles are nowhere near ready for that yet.

OK, so on to my 12 week workout.

Research recommends having TWO days each week where the muscles are allowed to rest, that is, only doing the natural exercise of daily life.  I chose two days when have early university – Tuesday and Thursday – and I do 90 mins at the gym two days.  The table below has these days blocked out, but you should choose whatever days best suit you.

Research also recommends that exercise duration be slowly built up to a set level for 21 days, then abruptly tapered off for the next 7 days, then abruptly applied again for another 21 days.  The 21 days establishes muscle memory, the 7 days lets them recover from any small injuries sustained.

This schedule is both strengthening my muscles and heart and getting them ready for the heart pounding interval training I will include in 3 of the last 4 weeks before my big walk. I don’t exceed the suggested MHR, to ensure my muscles are training correctly for the job.

Note:  Cerebral research shows that including regular, brisk walking as part of your lifestyle not only improves your health, but reduces the incidence and prevalence of dementia by about 30%.  You can check Professor Michael Besser’s work at www.abc.net.au/classic/throsby/stories/s3213692.htm

Remember to plant your feet correctly going uphill and look for the pinnacle schedule here soon.

Happy walking.

Georgie

Image: Colin Paterson via Flickr

It is really interesting reading your comments about how you get, or stay, fit for multi day walks.

When I got home from my first Overland Track (OT) trip I read lots of sports medicine research journals, to find out what I SHOULD have done to get myself fit for Marion’s steps.  (Marion’s is the first big uphill grunt on the OT and challenges many who are attempting it for the first time)

The research unequivocally argued that muscles should be subjected to specific sequences of levels of stress and rest to ready them for the demands of multi day walking – to get fit for the task, and without injury.

The without injury bit appealed, as I do a lot of physical work on our hobby farm  and although I want to be fit for walking, I don’t want an injury that would slow me down, even for a short time.

You might see this program as a bit slow, especially if you feel you are fit.  But  research suggests anyone not doing regular workout-level fitness sessions for at least eight weeks should not assume a good fitness level, and that it is important to train and condition muscles over time, using specific regimes to build muscle base, strength and endurance.

Research also suggests muscles can go from wobbly to wow! in just 12 to 16 weeks.  Unless you are a gym junkie, consider starting at the beginning to build wow! muscles, condition the heart and increase lung capacity.  It’s easily done with a bit of slog, but no injury.

How good does that sound!

Over the next two weeks we will look at how a slow and easy start, increasing endurance walking, and a bit of heart thumping interval training works.

But remember, I am not a qualified healthcare professional, and you should check with your GP before following this, or any other, exercise program. This information is intended as reference only and not as medical or professional advice

The 16 week program can be adjusted by how fit you are at the start.

I am older and was not very aerobically fit, so I did Basic Fitness for 8 weeks before moving on to Endurance, with a few minutes of slower pace interval training.  And now I feel good.

An cautionary note on interval training.

Interval training involves repeated short and fast activity with big rest periods in between.  It can do great things for endurance, as it pushes muscles to work hard.    As good as it sounds, interval training can cause significant injury if done too early or with insufficient rest between bursts.  Don’t convince yourself that more is better with interval training, because too much burst and not enough rest will leave your muscles fatigued and injured.

Another cautionary note on exercises

When doing any exercise, don’t lock the joints, eg knees, elbows.  Keep them bent, by stopping movements while the joint is still bent – the muscles should work fluidly and not put tensile – pulling – pressure on tendons and ligaments at the joints. Tendonitis is an uncomfortable and preventable injury.

A bit about heart rates.

It's all about you heart rate

Get to know your  heart rate.  The optimal rate for muscles to burn fat and get stronger is 60- 70% of  maximum heart rate (MHR).  MHR is usually worked out with a simple formula, but not all research agrees this is accurate.

Men – 220 minus your age.
Women – 225 minus your age.

Basic fitness.
Brisk walking will get your heart rate up to 50–60% of MHR – and although this is great for your health by strengthening the heart, increasing muscle mass, burning body fat and lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, it won’t get you fitter – it won’t increase your strength or ability for endurance – like me on the treadmill.  You need to do lots of it.

Putting some low sloping hills into your brisk walk will increase your heart rate to 60- 70% , which is good for endurance training, but will still only result in a fairly low level of fitness.  The muscles burn stored fat for fuel, with oxygen, so you can walk all day at this pace and not get injured or over-tired – unless you are skinny and have little body fat to release.

Using the formula – for me this is 225 – 60 x 70%  or  115 beats per minute.

Intermediate fitness:
The next step up – 70 – 80% –  becomes a mix of aerobic and anaerobic – without oxygen – burning, and the muscles get fuel from both stored fat and carbs.  This rate will improve your functional capacity, by increasing your lung capacity and respiratory rate, but you need to eat beforehand, or you will get tired quickly.   You might feel a bit stiff the next day because the anaerobic waste by-product, lactic acid, makes muscles feel stiff and sore,  On the OT, my short legs were walking hard trying to keep up with my long- legged group and ran out of puff at the first waterfall – and had to be re-energised for the walk to Crater Lake with half a bag of sweet scroggin.

Advanced fitness:
When you take your  MHR higher than 80%, the muscles change to totally anaerobic burning of carbs, and no fat.  Muscles can’t keep this up for long – no more than an hour or so – before they tire and become damaged.

Next comes the biggie – interval training – with the MHR soaring up to 90-95%.  This exertion must only be done in very short bursts – a few minute, or a few metres – with a long recovery period in between.  Interval training hurts, and has the potential for damage, so must be done with great caution and only after building up heart strength from doing lots of  50-60% MHR.

If you are contemplating starting a fitness plan, take time first to get to know your heart rate.  Then prepare yourself to start by thinking how a good program is shaped like a pyramid – with the big base as a lot of time in aerobic preparedness, building to the great mass of endurance training in the middle, and the tiny pinnacle of interval training perched on top.

This coming week, go for a half hour walk with a difference every second day and a longer walk on the weekend.  The difference will be how you take your steps.  Remember this is getting fit for the task, and the following incline technique is quite different from street walking or running.

The incline technique requires you to lean slightly forward, push off on a small step and strike the ball of your foot on the ground first and directly under your hips.  Then push off on another small step with that foot, and place the ball of the opposite foot directly under your hips. You can put your heal down once you are stable.

At first it feels like a shuffle, but the idea is not to stride out using the bum and back of leg muscles– as we do enough of that in daily walking – but to use the muscles in the front of the legs to support the body and give energy to the next stride.  Your leg shouldn’t come out behind you – all the action comes from under your hip.  Picture the Johnnie Walker whisky man striding out – that is not what you want to look like!

Don’t let your heel strike the ground first, plant the ball of the foot directly underneath you.  Actively use that foot to push yourself forward for a small step, then plant the opposite foot to stabilise, then push off for another small step.  You will look like a little old thing shuffling along at first, but you will soon develop a good cadence and find it very easy and comfortable, especially going up hills.

When I first started doing this it felt like I was doing a slow jog or dancing, but still walking, with all the action happening underneath.  The added benefit of walking like this is that you will never fall over backwards with your pack on going up hills, as leaning slightly forward and the ball of your foot striking the ground under your hip gives you great stability.

While you are shuffling along, keep checking your heart rate – try to keep it under 70% MHR, but put in a couple of short 1 minute shuffly bursts uphill to take it to 80%.  The idea is to build your muscles and give them rest to recover – even if you are fit, it is good to do this for a week.

Do this for a week, and next week OHB will have a sample schedule of the first 12 weeks.

The following week we will see how to  progress to week 16.

Enjoy your shuffle – I mean – walk.
Regards
Georgie

Heart rate image – Yersinia – via Flickr
Walking image – ZedZap via Flickr

As much as I spend a lot of time on the internet cruising around local and international outdoor, hiking and bushwalking websites I am still surprised by what I miss. There is some fantastic (often free) resources available with great content is out there that has slipped under my radar.

Wildwalks is one of these.

Based in New South Wales, Australia:

Wildwalks is a free online bushwalking and camping guidebook for NSW.  There is currently detailed information on 938 walks, and more to come.

After checking out the great information on the site, I contacted Matt and asked him to write up a piece about Wildwalks for this site.  He sent the following across (weeks ago, sorry Matt) I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

Over to Matt:

My vision is similar to yours; I want a much great depth, breadth and quality of information on walking experience in Australia. I believe that the best way to protect our finite natural landscapes, is by encouraging more people to appreciate them. I know no better way to do this than by helping people have better experiences when walking in the bush.

I was once told that “from small things, big things grow”, and silly me was surprised by this. But it did give me permission to start something small and see where it goes. So, wildwalks was born based on a dream to build a definitive guide to bushwalking experiences in Australia. I am very conscious I am a looooong way from that goal, but this small thing is growing. So far we have documented over 900 walking experiences in NSW, mostly in the greater Sydney area and have around 1500 using the website each day.

I don’t want to simply provide a list of walks, I want to provide a lot of specific information about lots of walks, so that people are better able to choose which walk is best for them. Recently we have started referencing our tracknotes, so when we say you walk ‘over a bridge’ you can click on the link to see the bridge, if you are scared of heights you can decide if it OK for you.

Wildwalks runs as a small business, our costs are covered through sponsorship and advertisements. NSW NPWS is our biggest sponsor, and I have greatly appreciated their support, as well as the support of our other sponsors.

I work full time on wildwalks.com and spend as much of that time as I can, walking and writing up the tracknotes. James spends his week walking and writing tracknotes, cool job hey . My wife (Fi) also works a few days a week editing and cleaning up my (atrocious) spelling and grammar.

I can try to describe what this all looks like, but that would be silly when you can look for yourself, Have a look at a few walks in this list: Bushwalking and Hiking Kosciuszko National Park – South .

Whilst there, check out the printable PDF (and the topo maps), click on a reference in the tracknotes, look at the terrain profile, scan through the photo gallery, and if you have done the walk, why not leave a note in the feedback section? We use the same basic template for all walks, so 10 minute walks and 3 days hikes look essentially the same.

So where to from here?

 I am glad you asked, there is a long journey ahead. We have produced a couple of books  and are currently writing a few more. These books showcase a collection of ‘best’ walks in a region. We have plans for better search, an iphone app and stuff like that, but really the main focus is on documenting more nature based experiences.

The funny thing about sitting at the other end of a web server is that you really have no idea what people are thinking. I would love to hear any ideas, suggestions, thoughts on Wildwalk.com why not drop me an e-mail (matt at wildwalks dot com) or leave a comment below.

Georgie - crossing a river near Cradle Mountain - The Overland Track

I am not naturally fit.

I am a 60 yo female, weigh about 75kgs and lug 18kg in my backpack. I am short and naturally stocky.

I go to the gym twice a week with a personal trainer, where I do weight-bearing exercises and a light cardio regime, designed specifically to strengthen my muscles and heart to haul my body and backpack up Marion’s steps (short, intense) and Pelion and Du Cane gaps (endurance).

To prepare for my first Overland Track hike two years ago, I hired a treadmill for 6 months. How good am I! For the first month I walked sedately every day for 20 minutes. But I got really bored with that. Then I read the manual and found there were buttons I could press for different inclines. I was off. I used every one, but again only for about 20 minutes a day. By the end of 6 months I was ready for the OT – I thought.

My first shock was putting on my fully loaded backpack. Hmm, that’s heavy.  But my confidence soared as I set off along the boardwalk at Ronnie’s Creek – with adrenalin surging from the excitement of starting this iconic walk.

Then came the climb up through the forest to the first waterfall. I felt knackered. I had to take a break – and start on my day’s supply of scroggin – before I felt able to head off to Crater Lake. Yep, I had to stop for a rest BEFORE Crater Lake.

So what was going wrong – surely all that treadmill walking had prepared me for this.  Maybe it was the air – perhaps the air in Tassie is rarified and there isn’t as much oxygen, maybe it was the …

I knew I had a long way to go – and first I had to get up the steps to Marion’s lookout.  Looking up from the track below, I knew I wouldn’t manage that grunt– so it was either turn back or get help. There was no way I was going to turn back, and my kind son offered to take my pack up for me. Saved for the moment.

The climb up to Marion's Lookout - hard graft on day one of the Overland Track

While munching yet another snack on that rock ledge overlooking Dove Lake, I pondered my failure – and suddenly realised my mistake. I had done all those kms on the treadmill without my loaded pack – and had probably gained little benefit from my efforts. I knew I would easily walk the flat sections – but I had obviously not prepared my muscles, or my lungs, for these short, very sharp hill climbs – or the long ones.

Like most of us, I got fitter as I walked. I fell in love with the Overland Track and decided I would do this walk every year for the rest of my life – but that meant being fit for those hill climbs.

When I got home I hit the net. The literature all stressed the importance of getting fit for the task – bingo ! – and that getting fit for a multi day walk can take as little as 16 weeks from scratch. Double bingo!  The words ‘interval training’ came up time and time again, so that was worth a deeper look in to.

Over the next three weeks OHB will look at these principles of walking-related exercise and interval training.

I feel I am on the right track – because walking hills is easier now and my legs feel less fatigued. I will soon be ready to introduce some heart pounding interval training. I like feeling stronger and fitter, and am looking forward to the cooler months when I can get out into the hills of the Blackall Range to add some endurance training.

I’ll keep you posted.

Disclaimer: I am not a qualified fitness or lifestyle coach. I do not claim any professional skill with which to recommend or advise on health or fitness regimes.

The information that will be presented in this series is not my original work. It is my interpretation of information readily available in the public domain on the benefits of low impact exercises and interval training for multi-day hiking.  It is the basis for my own fitness regime, but it may not suit all readers.

Do you follow a fitness regime before a long hiking trip?

What training do you undertake before a bushwalking adventure?

Have you ever ‘hit the wall’, like Georgie, on your first day out?  What happened?  Did you push on, or retire gracefully/relunctantly?

We would love to hear your story, so please share it below.

When you were out shopping for walking poles, did you notice some long and lanky, light, one piece poles that wouldn’t look out of place on a cross country skier .

These poles are especially designed for the latest fitness craze – Nordic walking

Ski field operators in the northern hemisphere agonised over how to attract patrons during the snow-less summer months, until an innovative bright spark dreamed up the idea of a fitness regime for deprived snow skiing enthusiasts using cross country-like walking poles to hurtle around their familiar, but now grassy, ski trails. The idea took off and Nordic walking was born.

And there is no doubt that Nordic walking will get you fit. No ifs, no buts – if you take it up seriously your fitness level will go through the roof.

The idea of walking with these long, light composite poles is to provide a high energy, low impact workout that strengthens and tightens the arm and leg muscles – read fidibiders here – those wobbly bits that mysteriously appear on the upper-under-arms as you get older!

Unfortunately, you can’t use your ordinary sticks for Nordic walking, as the poles are designed to make you use those upper arms. They have special right and left handed grips, and an always-useful wrist strap, pulled in quite firmly the same as your trekking pole, so you don’t lose the pole when you fling it forward as you stride out.

If you like to exercise or hang around with others, there are a growing number of dedicated clubs springing up all over the place, all eager to welcome new members- although if you do it really seriously you probably can’t chat. You can even learn how to do Nordic walking properly – a pair of poles and 4 introductory classes costs about $199. For those who do want to do it seriously, $239 gets you the poles, the 4 introductory classes, plus 4 advanced classes.

The good news is that, although you have to buy these special poles and maybe pay for a few lessons, the walking itself is free – you can do it around your streets, at the beach, up and down mountains –anywhere you fancy, and at any time you fancy.

Seriously though, there are real benefits to be had from walking with these poles. By using your arms as well as your legs, your upper body gets a good workout that strengthens and tones all the major muscles. Increased upper body strength and stamina would certainly come in handy for lugging that 75 litre pack on multi day walks, but the major benefit for bushwalkers is improved stability and balance – think sliding down tree root paths on the OT pushed along by your 75 litre pack, or hauling yourself and pack up those giant ranger-sized steps.

Sounds reason enough to investigate further, so check out a few website dedicated to this new fitness craze that is coming to a town or suburb near you. You will notice lots photos and videos of happy people walking along with big smiles on their faces, seemingly having lots of fun pushing along on their lanky poles, losing weight and getting fit. It might just be marketing, but you never know …

www.nordicwalkingaustralia.com.au
www.polewalkabout.com/
www.nordicacademy.com.au

Drop us a line if you are already a Nordic walker – as I am interested to know if it improved your fidibiders.

Regards
Georgie

Image: Hugovk via Flickr

In this article Georgie Bull continues the theme of being safe and responsible in the outdoors.

This follows on from last week’s article, Best Map for hiking From Cradle Mountain to the Walls of Jerusalem , where there were some fantastic comments from you, our readers.

Hi everyone.

Our discussion on whether blog sites should encourage all walkers to get out there into the wilderness got me thinking about how responsible we should be, as experienced walkers, to our inexperienced or ill-prepared fellow track users.

We know of the dangers and the vagrancies of Australia’s wilderness areas and so take due care, but should we necessarily label as irresponsible all the inexperienced people who venture out there less prepared than us?

I know the OT is wet and muddy and the weather can change to lethal in an instant.  Knowing that, and knowing there will be undoubtedly be unprepared walkers on the track, how much extra should I do in preparation to help others?

I would gladly share my food and warm clothing – and maybe scroggin – with anyone in distress, but should I take extra in case I meet someone who needs them?

And does my knowledge of how Australia’s wilderness areas work make me ethically responsible to also know how to preserve another’s life out there if the need arose?  If I know the terrain in an area might mean that formal rescue could be slow, should I make myself competent in not just basic first-aid, but also in life-saving knowledge and skills?

How far should my responsibility go?

This question troubled me, so I surfed the net looking for organisations that offer courses in remote first aid and Wilderness Emergency Response.

The Wild Aid site is  upfront and transparent, and I would suggest it as a good baseline site to compare other organisations against.  Their courses range from the 2 day basic, up to 6 days for group leaders.  The cost made me gulp, as courses range from $3300 to $7700 just for the tuition, with travel and course logistics costs extra. Ed: these prices include up to 12 people in a group and are over 3 days (about $298.00 each) – thanks Ken.

St John’s Ambulance offer a Remote Area First Aid course which they claim covers even the potentially high level first aid needs of canyonning and caving, but they don’t supply many details other than their refund policy.  The cost for the 2 day course is $310, and the textbook is extra.

Doing a remote area first aid course would entail considerable cost, time and effort on my part, but do I have an obligation to be a well-prepared Good Samaritan?

How responsible should we be for the safety and well-being of walkers who, like us, want to get out and experience the wonders of our amazing wilderness areas, but whose lack of knowledge could unknowingly get them into all sorts of trouble.

Over to you!
Comments
Feedback
We would love to hear what you think.

Image: Thomas Sly – Flickr

Our Hiking Blog friend, Matthias, has an interesting tale of a young German walker who came across him recently on a walk from Lake St Clair, Pine Valley, Never Never, Walls of Jerusalem, Lake Ball to Dixon’s Kingdom.

Matthias was alone at the camp near Dixon’s hut, but just as the weather set in and visibility reduced to 50m, in strolled a young German backpacker.

Experienced walkers can tell hair raising tales of young travellers poorly prepared for the unpredictable weather encountered in Tassie’s highlands, but Matthias says this young fellow was extremely poorly prepared, with only street clothes and cross runners, a plastic poncho and three plastic bags of supermarket food.

Overland Track Pine Valley sign - not many of these in the

With no hiking boots, proper raincoat, gaiters, GPS, PLB or compass, this enthusiastic young man was planning to walk the opposite of Matthias’ walk – to the Walls of Jerusalem, Dixon’s Kingdom, Lake Ball, Junction Lake, Never Never and then the OT.

While the two of them sat in the hut cooking lunch and discussing the route, the German walker pulled out his ‘map’ – an A4 printout of a GPS plot. Matthias thought the picture looked familiar.  The young bloke said he had Googled the route and found the plot on a blog.

His ‘map’ was the GPS plot from an Our Hiking Blog post on Hiking from the Walls of Jerusalem to the Overland Track.

Matthias couldn’t believe that this young man, without any walking experience, was attempting to navigate the walk on a printout – without a proper map, the right clothing, GPS, PLB, compass – and not even aware that snakes in Tasmania are poisonous.

Matthias unsuccessfully tried to discourage him from walking on, as he had seen two tiger snakes the day before, so all he could do was give him his Overland Track map and watch him walk off through the mist in the direction of Lake Ball.

Lake Ball at dawn

Matthias says he is currently questioning the way he blogs about remote walks.  He knows  the community of hikers appreciate blogs, but also sees a negative side if they encourage people with no knowledge of Tassie’s dangerous weather conditions to venture out into the wilderness with the attitude  ’if they can do it, I can do it too’.

What do you think?

• how much detail should we share here
• should I take the ‘map’ down off the site
• do we have a responsibility for the safety / decisions of others here at Our Hiking Blog
• do you have any hair raising tales of under prepared hikers you have met

Junction Hut

Further reading: The current issue of Wild magazine (121) tells the story of young Jamie Neal, the young Englishman lost for 12 days in freezing weather in rugged bush terrain in the Blue Mountains last year.  ‘Surviving Solitary’ is an interesting read about Jamie, and about the 3 experienced bushwalkers who later tried to replicate his horror ordeal.

You can visit Matthias’s site, Matt Down Under by clicking here. He has some excellent information about bushwalking in Tasmania and takes a mean photograph (they are all his work in this article).