2018 Bibbulmun Track
I manage to get away from Mount Cooke just after 7:00am. My original plan was to stay at Canning campsite tonight but in an attempt to reach the Mundaring Weir Hotel for lunch on Wednesday I decide to make up some time either today or tomorrow and given that Hellena campsite is out of action today, it seemed the best choice. So instead of staying at Canning as planned I pushed through for a 38km day doing the extra 10.7km to reach Brookton. This means that tomorrow instead of staying at Bearking, I will instead reach Waalegh campsite which will make for a quicker day into Mundaring Weir on Wednesday.
Today was a harder day than yesterday with the trip to Monadnocks campsite requiring me to summit Mt Vincent and Mt Cuthburt in quick succession. Neither mountain was difficult but the tracks down required careful foot placement which slowed me down although I did reach Monadnocks in under four hours which wasn’t bad considering the terrain.
After filling in the hut book and taking photos, I pressed on to Canning. I only passed two other hikers, both southbounders, who knew who I was and after a quick chat pressed on. A bit different from the 18 hikers I saw yesterday. I’d given myself until 3:30pm to reach Canning if I was going to press on to Brookton and managed to reach there at 3:00pm.
The trip to Brookton was reasonably easy with no major hills so I reached the camp shortly before 6:00pm. I’m definitely noticing the days getting longer. What surprised me was that I’m alone tonight. I didn’t think I’d have a hut to myself for the rest of the trip.
Brookton is a rammed earth hut so I feel like I’m rattling around such a large area. I managed to get sopping wet feet today so may break out the dry socks tomorrow if it’s not raining. In the meantime I have everything hanging on hooks at the moment in an attempt to dry things out.
My body is definitely feeling this trip and it was a struggle to do a 38km day but having done so I only have around 65km to go to the finish the track. Potentially I could finish in two days but with Helena out of action I’m likely to take three days of shorter length to give my body a rest. I may change my mind but that’s the plan.
The wildflowers are out and about as I approach Perth