2021 Heysen Trail
Day -64
Day -64 Why July?
Snowflake
As Australian long distance trails go the Heysen Trail is just that little bit different. While other trails will very strongly recommend you don’t hike in mid summer doing everything they can to deter you from walking while on the whole keeping the trails open. Not so the Heysen Trail which typically shuts off sections around mid November and reopens them around May. This means you have a defined window if you wish to do an end-to-end thru hike.
For me the major contributor in deciding to start my thru hike at the end of July was the maximum temperatures on the northern sections of the trail. I am definitely not solar powered preferring cooler conditions. In fact if I am given the option I like my maximum daytime temperatures to be around 12-16 degrees Celcius – within that range I won’t overheat. I also won’t get overly cold and can keep walking quite comfortably for the entire day. I don’t mind the cooler nights, getting better sleeps when I’m not sweating off the excess heat of hotter climates.
When doing a long distance hike like the Heysen Trail, checking weather records for a few locations along the length of the trail is just one of the tasks. As an example the northern trailhead, located at Parachilna, has minimum temperatures that are cool but not cold (at least from my perspective), the maximums are typically below 25 degrees and the number of rain days is pretty minimal.
One other bonus of walking in July is that the water tanks are more likely to have been topped up but for me that’s a secondary concern.
So July it is!
As Australian long distance trails go the Heysen Trail is just that little bit different. While other trails will very strongly recommend you don’t hike in mid summer doing everything they can to deter you from walking while on the whole keeping the trails open. Not so the Heysen Trail which typically shuts off sections […]