K2k Kanangra to Katoomba hike water availability march

[rustyjus]

Hi everyone,

Im planning on walking the K2K Kanangra to Katoomba over 3 days in the next few weeks...

Its been pretty dry this summer and was wonder in anyone has any info on the water availability on the track.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[rcaffin]

Ah, but what route?
Dex Ck - Yellow Pup - Mobbs Swamp
Murdering Gully, Kanagra R, Coxs R - Breakfast Ck - Carlons Chains
Dex Ck - Nurla Morella - Howling Dog ...
One could expand outwards for a long way.

Dex Ck and Mobbs Swamp will be a bit doubtful without better info (or good rain). Kanagra R may look dry but there should be holes. Coxs R will be OK. Breakfast Ck will have lots of holes.

Cheers
Roger

[rustyjus]

Thanks Roger..

yeah... we will be walking from Kenangra -- dex creek -- mobs swamp -- katoomba.

Its our first time up there, fingers crossed for some decent rain I guess...

Thankyou.

[Hughmac]

If we don't get reasonable rain before then I'd think twice about it. If you go be sure to carry a PLB. It can still be quite hot in March.

[ribuck]

Does anyone know whether the water below Hundred Men Cave is more (or less) reliable than water at Dex Creek?

[tom_brennan]

As others have said, if there isn't rain, consider doing a different walk.

Does anyone know whether the water below Hundred Men Cave is more (or less) reliable than water at Dex Creek?

Based on when I've been there, I'd definitely be saying Dex is better.

Last edited by tom_brennan on Thu 15 Feb, 2018 4:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[roysta]

Does anyone know whether the water below Hundred Men Cave is more (or less) reliable than water at Dex Creek?

Water supply at Hundred Man Cave is always going to be worse than Dex Creek. At Dex you have the swamp and the pools of water there are fine. Given there hasn't been rain for quite some time, even the swamp will wind up dry. As suggested, do another walk.

[rcaffin]

NOT a wise trip in this weather. Water would be scarce or worse.

Cheers

[wildwanderer]

Some data based on nearest weather stations/ river gauges.

Closest govt run weather station I can find is Mt Boyce. (granted is 30km from Dex Creek). BOM says it has had 65mm in January and 13mm in Feb

There is a personal weather station (PWS) not to far away from cliff drive Katoomba that records 63mm in Jan and 14.2mm in Feb. (25km from Dex)
For a valley perspective another PWS in the megalong valley. (about 20 km from dex creek) records 6.6mm for Jan and 3mm in Feb
Another PWS near Jenolan (25km from Dex) that shows 8.4m in Jan and 5mm in Feb.

Cox river @kelpie point has very low water levels currently. .20mm for the last 4 days.

So not a great deal of water especially for Feb in the lowland areas

*disclaimer. edited a couple times as I researched more.

[rustyjus]

Thanks everyone for contributing information!

[Turfa]

All that good input...and then it pours with rain .........of course !

BOM Radar.jpg (206.54 KiB) Viewed 14460 times

[Allchin09]

Walked down Arabanoo Creek to the Kowmung from Kanangra Walls on the weekend and can confirm the area was very dry.

Arabanoo Creek was just a series of small puddles, with many long dry sections with no water. The Kowmung itself was just a few pools, there were sections of dry land that crossed its width!

Not sure how much any rain from Monday would have helped.

[wildwanderer]

Walked down Arabanoo Creek to the Kowmung from Kanangra Walls on the weekend and can confirm the area was very dry.

Arabanoo Creek was just a series of small puddles, with many long dry sections with no water. The Kowmung itself was just a few pools, there were sections of dry land that crossed its width!

Not sure how much any rain from Monday would have helped.

Wow! I came down Bullhead Ridge/Sullen Tor last Oct and the area where the decending ridge line meets the Kowmung (around christy creek/Arabanoo canyon) had a lot of water. The Kowmung was wide and fairly deep!

Its suprising because I felt that this summer had actually been wetter than last winter. but I guess that the rain didnt fall around the Kanangra region. (the dump in the last day non withstanding)

[rustyjus]

So recent forecasts show that its raining quite a lot in the area and we are expecting a lot more rain next week...
So how much rain do we need to feed the rivers and creeks?
Is there any data or any way to know with out having to see it in person?
Cheers

[wildwanderer]

So recent forecasts show that its raining quite a lot in the area and we are expecting a lot more rain next week...
So how much rain do we need to feed the rivers and creeks?
Is there any data or any way to know with out having to see it in person?
Cheers

River heights can provide a estimate of surounding creek/waterway levels. (within the catchment)

for example. http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDN60233/IDN6 ... .tbl.shtml
Shows the Cox river at Kelpie point is currently (25th Feb) at 0.07m.

It was at 0.18m on the 21st so the river level is dropping again after the rain on the 20-22nd. I checked previously on the 17th (before the rains) and the river level was at 0.02m.

So you can see the table is a fair indication of the impact of significant rain in the area and its impact on nearby river/creek systems.

You do have to be careful of catchment boundaries etc. eg Dex creek feeds into Ti Willia Creek, which feeds into the Kowmung which eventually feeds into the Cox but just below kelpie point. So the Cox river gauge at Kelpie is not capturing water that is coming from Dex, Ti Willia and the Kowmung but from catchments further upstream. Dex creek is 9.5km as the crow flys from Kelpie Point. Also the Cox river catchment is huge whereas Dex creek catchment is tiny by comparison.

As far as im aware there is no river gauge (or weather station) that captures the Dex, Ti Willia creeks to give an accurate estimate. Personally I wouldnt be counting on water at Dex or 100 man cave until there is a first hand report from after the rains.

[Warin]

There is a rough estimation .. but it is rough...
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/rain/ind ... ly&area=ns
You can scan forwards using the 'later' button .. but there is no rainfall there. There may be some today ... but that won't show up untill tomorrow.

[Walk_fat boy_walk]

As far as im aware there is no river gauge (or weather station) that captures the Dex, Ti Willia creeks to give an accurate estimate.

This one's a couple of k's upstream of where TW creek spills into the Kowmung, but still useful as a guide on local trends: http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDN60233/IDN60233.563039.tbl.shtml

[wildwanderer]

As far as im aware there is no river gauge (or weather station) that captures the Dex, Ti Willia creeks to give an accurate estimate.

This one's a couple of k's upstream of where TW creek spills into the Kowmung, but still useful as a guide on local trends: http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDN60233/IDN60233.563039.tbl.shtml

Cheers. Good to know.

[tom_brennan]

There are a variety of rainfall and river height indicators on the BoM site - some more useful/accurate than others. This one is quite good at looking at a largish area daily over the past week.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDN60170.html
Basically there was around 20-70mm across the area yesterday.

If you're going out over the next few days (or this weekend), there should be a decent amount of surface water around. But if you look at the river height gauges, they've barely moved. So it's probably not going to make a long term impact unless there's more significant rain - which is not really in the forecast.