Chance Happenings v2.0

Written and occurred March 07

I didn't think my group had it in us to 1-up the "Moke Experience," then again, maybe we haven't. Judge for yourself.

"Blue Mountains 'Camping' Excursion" included 6 people: Jon Leaman (me), Dan Lawless, Adam Connaker, Anneli Dahl(my roomate), Rachel Paeper, and Amy Mulder. It all started in the late morning on Friday. Five of us (Dan excluded because he slept over his bosses house which happened to be in the town where our trek would begin!) did some finishing touches and made it to the train station around noon. So far so good! We miss two trains!!! One of which sat in front of us for 25 minutes.
"Are we sure we need the train on platform 12?" says Amy
"Yes." I say
Turns out I was wrong...

Never-the-less, we make it to Katoomba around 3, and wrestle around with out packs until 5... We make it to the head of the "6 Foot Track" (ironically enough, considering Australia is with the metric system) at 5:30. The "camping" begins!
A beautiful start to our trek down the side of a canyon starts everyone off in a great mood. A very enthused and healthy group, if i do say so. We some some kangaroos... some birds... ants... We make it to the private property we were warned about and keep on trekking, an expected challenge. There were many rolling grassy hills with great views of canyon cliff faces and wildlife. Were still on the private property when we come to the top of a ridge and the light is dwindling. We have a decision to make: 1) Go back 4 or 5 kilometers to a known camping site, risking not finishing the 6 Foot Track in the given time frame. 2) Camp on the private property (not really an option considering there was ample signage warning us not to camp there and a shotgun going off in the distance by a nearby house) or 3) Go on and try to find a camping spot.
*
At this point in the story I am going to take a break and let you know of the pros and cons of how prepared we were as a group
The good:
-water proof matches
-some water
-two nice tents
-3 nice packs
-great food
-great people

The bad:
-two flashlights
-some water
-1 bottle of absinthe
-1 bottle of vodka
-3 bad packs
-no one has actual hiking boots
*
We trek on into the night! Minor debates along the way, and brief stops slow us down but after about 3 or 4 kilometers we find a great campsite. Everything is great. We start a fire, eat some food (not much at all though, we all agreed we weren't that hungry), and drank some drink. I think I can agree we were all a little sloppy, some more than others (I later find out that they banned absinthe in the States because of its alcohol content, not its hallucinogenic qualities, which we didn't experience).

Saturday Morning:
We did, from what i remember, split the sleeping 3 and 3, so needless to say, waking up next to 4 people was a surprise. Regardless, we wake from our sleep to the sound of about 1,000 middle-aged to aged people running by. A marathon! I discover however, before I even manage my way out of the tent that I am so crowded because someone got sick in the other tent. Unlucky for us considering much of our food was left in the downhill corner... I'm working off my sleepy eyes as I peer into the other tent.
"I think it rained last night" says Dan
"No, you just puked" I say
All over our food, a sleeping bag, and various other gear. A rough start to the day but the marathon brought new high hopes to the team. With each passing marathon runner needing to pass through a three person gauntlet of double high fives, both ourselves and the runners could not stop smiling. We (dan) didn't work out of our morning troubles all that easily though. I'll use this instance of Saturday morning Dan:
Many runners are running by, some much older, some as young as 30. As far as the 6 foot track is concerned, we've just begun our "camping." So needless to say these runners need to find allot more in themselves if your going to make it though this marathon. Which for the most part, we do a great job at boosting there spirits with great cheers and high fives. Two older people make it near our campsite and one gets passed, a decent spot to pass because there was some extra room to make it around, I barley noticed he got passed when i hear "You just got passed by that old guy! Hurry up! Catch up!" We couldn't believe our ears! It was a low point for dan, but he worked out of it when he got into giving smelly high fives to runners (what do you expect, we made him clean it)
Okay, the runners pass and we begin our trek of Saturday. We need to cover alot of ground to keep on schedule even with the last nights progress. We make it over an awesome bridge about a kilometer down the track, pause for some recovery, and continue. My knee is hurting me and Rachel has two blisters the size of half-dollars (American half-dollars, but if you know anything, Australia doesnt even have half-dollars, or quarters, which changes the drinking game 'Quarters' to 'Fifths' with a similar sized twenty cent piece). Not 2 more kilometers down the track I decide I cannot go on. Its a decision of limp painfully 14 or so kilometers forward, or 6 kilometres back. Me and Anneli split from the group with the bad tent and some food and some water. So the story makes a split for the first time. I will name each group now for easy reference. Anneli and I will be group '4x4.' Dan, Adam, Amy, and Rachel will be group 'I-Hike-Too-Much'. (Keep in mind the point of view of this note because i know i will get shit for that one)
'I-Hike-Too-Much' leaves '4x4' behind at a camping area we made it to as the entire group. They took one of the tents, 2 of the good backpacks (i stole a good one cause of my injury), and most of the water. They keep on trekking with full backpacks up the steepest part of the entire 6 Foot Track. I wasn't there but ill try to deal it justice. The sun was incredibly hot, if any of them thought they were thirsty yesterday, they would soon realize why the term came about. One of them had bad blisters (I am talking the size of golf balls, from wearing sandals hiking), two of them had shitty backpacks, one of them had a hangover, and all of them were thirsty. A decision needed to be made: 1) Go on, risking running out of water 2) Turn back, knowing they could make it home safely by Sunday afternoon, probably short of water. Obviously they went on, but the decision became more serious as their water levels fell. As the water level fell, so did the moral of the group. Everyone was fighting and everyone was very angry with one another. I wish i was there.

'I-Hike-Too-Much' leaves '4x4' behind at a camping area we made it to as the entire group. '4x4' sits for awhile, I'm tired and sore, and what I could read from Anneli was that she was just eager to get going, in whatever direction we chose. I as a man in a 4x4 if he knows the fastest way out and he informs me that it is a 6 km hike in the back the direction we came, i didn't want to do that. I would have pushed for a ride from the man if he didn't seem like such a large dick, so there at the camp site team '4x4' waited. about 1.5 hr pass before things get alil interesting. A line of 4x4's are crossing the river, 4 of them to be exact. The first 3 make it no problem, then a stock jeep wrangler gets stuck deep, with water pouring in they do all they can to get it out. With allot of effort they end up pulling it out with a broken winch used as a straight cable. Just as the jeep catches free it jumps forward and they all celebrate the success. Little to the jeep owner's (or anyone for that matter) knowledge as he jostled free the cable became loose and got wrapped around the front tire. This we actually did know but the fact that it pinched the brake cable, releasing all the fluid and cutting the line, was a surprise. We didn't ask him for a ride. We did ask Steve and David for a ride though. They were both very friendly and compassionate with our situation. We head off down the trail. Little did we know that from the very camp site that both groups split to the end of the track was all along a 4x4 trail. We we're going to make it to the camp site that was scheduled, what a surprise. After a short drive with some anticipation, we reach the other group. Waving blindly we see the empty greeting of our other group. After they realize it is us, however, they completely change there expressions. We stop briefly, pick up all their packs, leave them with a nice bag and some water and completely reverse their attitudes. We made one decision easy for them: Go on!
Our reunion was short lived with one goal in mind, meet at the far campsite.
Team 'I-Hike-Too-Much' found the rest of the trail easier than what they had just done (the steep with the packs). They also found good adventures, on what seemed to be just a basic off road trail from inside a 4x4. They managed to get a ride to a setup campsite that was only setup for the marathon by a fire crew of 4x4's. At the site they were greeted with an abundance of water and fruit! They trekked on! (at this point it might start becoming clear why I put camping in quotes in the beginning of the story) So they trek on and eat their fruit to their content and are having fun and joking. The 4x4 that picked them up caught up with them again and offered to bring them to a muding spot for some unexpected fun. I personally went thought this mud whole on my 4x4 cruise down the trail, and I assure you it was the best 4x4 spot on the entire 6 Foot Track. So they stop and are watching these guys go through the mud whole when the driver, making conversation with team 'I-Hike-Too-Much' offers to let Dan drive. Before the driver has a chance to reconsider letting a 20 yr-old stranger from the States with a 'RECKLESS' t-shirt on Dan is inside the truck with Rachel. As the story is told Dan's run through the mud whole was one of the best ones of the day, good shit! So they leave their friends again and head off toward the campsite.

Team '4x4' arrives at the camp site shortly after leaving 'I-Hike-Too-Much.' We have 2 main missions, and 1 sub mission. Find a campsite and set-up camp (check). Find a spot for a campfire. (this campsite was campfire free, bummer) Find beer. (not reasonable, but we head tward the main road to see what we can find). We leave all of the packs in the tent and head out tward the road with small hopes of finding anything to even waste time on. At the road, the only thing in sight is a campsite across the road, maybe they know something. As it turns out they did know somthing, something about being awesome (ill get into this more later but basically they offered me a ride the next day to our final destination, the Jenoval Caves) So while we failed our sub goal our two main goals, and the answer to the mornings delema of hiking, was taken care of. We go back to wait at out other campsite, where we will be meeting up with our group. We see a small water holder of collected rain water next to the other occupants of the camp.
"Is this water drinkable?"
"Yeah, but I would toss a iodine tablet in it, do you have one?"
"No"
They gave me enough iodine for 8 liters of water, an overload considering. We chat and they get some of our story and after 10 minutes, i was treated with icy hot (applied by one of the nurses there), given anti-inflammatory, given pain reliever, and given two ace bandages! Life sucks eh?
We eventually all meet up just after sunset and we all let each other know of our adventures. Eager to set up fire and eat we quickly set off to the other site. When we arrived we set up, got the fire going (a very weak fire at that) to cook outr foil packs (very good ones at that). Our older ItaliAustalian friends noticed out plight and offered fire wook, and brought over some nicely started logs. They also gave us apples, off of Marty's tree, and marshmallows (heaven clouds) that tasted better than any marshmallow found in the states, and cripex's (candy bars). We ate our foil packs, or beans, and our hot dogs, then set off to bed with our alarms set for early, we got invited to breakfast!
Alarm at 6am, I go and check how things are going. Now from this point untill we leave them is a blur of undescribable awe. Marty tought 4 of us how to go mushroom picking and how to avoid the 'happy' mushrooms. Also how to cook and prepare them over an open fire, part of his bi-annual trip to this campsite. We each got two breakfast sandwiches, one ham egg and cheese, one barbeque and steak! We all tasted Marty's fresh fruit from his garden, three different types of prickly pair, more apples, and figs. We all counldnt be there at all times so some of us missed some fruit, while others missed the cake and other goodies (another bag of heaven clouds!). Our goodbyes were sad but sweet (not just because of the residual taste left in our mouthes from the amazing fruit) becasue before we left them we got the cards of Marty and another one of the amazing ItaliAustalians whose name escapes me, we plan on calling them for a reunion dinner. So we pile into two cars and they drive us to the caves. Amazing! Some of us went just over the rails into some unmarked caves, others hiked to devil's lookout to get an airial view of the cave's mouth. All-in-all it was a great, near end, to our 'camping' weekend. We met up with the nurses and chatted with them for awhile and were actualy on the same but home. We made it back to Katoomba and our own apartments in time to even get a small amount of studying in before our test the next day (which we talked of missing because if we hadn't made it to our final destination by 3pm it left without us).
So..
-if the runners hadn't come through we wouldnt have seen the 4x4 drivers.
-if i hadn't hurt my knee we (all of us) wouldn't have made it to the last campsite
-if the trail wasnt a 4x4 trail we wouldnt have gotten there packs, and therefore wouldnt have all made it to the last campsite
-if either of the two groups werent at the last 2 campsites this note wouldnt be as good, and i wouldnt have made it to the caves
-if we didnt split up, we would have never found the other campsite
Life is GOOD!

(to those of you who know, if i missed anything let me know)