Went for a walk on the weekend

[Webguy]

Was out for a walk on the weekend, doing some OSM track mapping and headed back out to a track at Faulconbridge that I had noticed on a previous trip, but it descended back into the valley again and since on that previous trip I had already walked in and out of the different part of the valley a couple of times, I did not feel so inclined to do that descent again, so at that time I just marked the spur of the track into OSM and said I would go back.

Went back on Sunday, followed the track and marking tape down into the small valley and came out into the most stunning bushland area, some of the most massive gum trees I have seen, grasses and ferns on the quite flat valley floor, hundreds of so straight gum trees and no sounds of suburbia, just bush sounds and bird song. Some of these giant gums would need 6-8 people to span around their base!

There was no track once I had descended to the valley floor so I just wandered around admiring the trees and how beautiful and peaceful it was here. All of this was just 15-20 minutes from where I parked the car.

I noticed a creek to the east so went for a look, was flowing and had plenty of life in it. Was heading north into another part of this small valley and noticed what looked like a track on the other side of the creek, so crossed and sure enough a feint track headed east, I followed that out of the valley to a very well defined walking track that came out to a fenceline and keep out signs.

These are on Facebook so I hope you can still see them...







If you cannot see them, let me know and I will put them somewhere else and re-link them.

[Webguy]

Oh, and no signs of anyone camping down there and apart from some rubbish in the creek from being washed down, could see no evidence of anyone really visiting the place.

[GPSGuided]

Nice! Where's X? X marks the spot. Looks to be hammock heaven.

[Webguy]

Hammocks would be great down there.

Approx 33' 40.899
150' 32.427

If you look at the OSM maps that start from the end of Shirlow ave at Faulconbridge you will see the track into there.

[kanangra]

That does look interesting.

K.

[GPSGuided]

Thanks Webguy! Will put it in my list of to-walk options. Good that you are contributing to OSM too. I think it's a wonderful way to give a little back. Been contributing here and there too.

[Lindsay]

That's not near the old sawmill is it?

[Webguy]

Hi Lindsay, not sure, did not explore the entire area. But possibly it is.

[Webguy]

Hi, just checked my maps, different valley to this one.

[kanangra]

Do you promise not to laugh even if I ask a silly question? Deal? OK. what is OSM?

K.

[Webguy]

www.osm.org - open street map

There are a few of us working on a long term project to map as many of the blue mountains and Lithgow area walking tracks into OSM. We have created a subset of the project for garmin GPS devices, a new version of the garmin map file gets generated about every month.

[GPSGuided]

Able to share the suppository for your monthly releases? Or were you talking about <http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl>?

[Webguy]

Our work will always show up an any variation of OSM, our version is JUST the walking tracks, 4wd tracks and a few other bits like campsites, gates etc, No contours or "normal" roads as other maps handle that fine.

I'll talk to the guy who outputs the file and see if he is fine for it to go "mainstream" lol.

[GPSGuided]

No problem given it gets enclosed by the main OSM dataset. All good. I thought you guys might be doing a special Blue Mtns edition, similar to what Ent has been doing. Something that's a little different. It's good to see the improvements on the OSM data set. Better all the time.

[Webguy]

Obviously we are more concerned with the Blue Mountains and Lithgow areas as our primary focus, but if I walk a track anywhere that is not in there, I add it, did a heap of material down at Currarong on the south coast a month or so ago.

When the file gets output, it is all of Australia, so whatever other material that matches the criteria, it goes in.

[Webguy]

If you have a garmin GPS, and it can handle map images, you might like to try this one...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51799987/osmtracks.img

Older garmins can only handle a single map image file, newer ones can handle multiple map image files.

Hope you find it of some use.

[GPSGuided]

Thanks Webguy!

[FatCanyoner]

That is a stunning spot. I was down there a couple years ago, and like you, I was surprised there were no signs of people camping. Just upstream is Peggys Pool, which is unfortunately silted up, but 50 years ago was very popular with locals. There's also some aboriginal grinding groves nearby, and a nice little waterfall downstream. We found the old track to Peggys Pool, which is still really distinct. The further downstream we went, the more it faded (especially among the ferns). Clearly not much visitation down there. The gums are stunning. In many ways it rivals the real Blue Gum Forest. Plus, you are still allowed to camp in this one. And the walk is easier. I've been meaning to take the kids down there for an overnighter some time...

I've got some details of my walk here: http://fatcanyoners.org/2012/03/16/wate ... conbridge/

[Webguy]

Yes, I have been to Peggys Pool, I saw a feint track leading downstream from there but did not follow it on the day.

I will go back here again soon I think, want to have a better look around as I was pressed for time.

Personally I think it is one of the nicest spots I have found so close to civilisation in the mountains so far.