Bushwalking Log Books

[Allchin09]

Hey,

What's everyone's opinion on the bushwalking log books that are spread throughout the areas which we visit?

I for one quite enjoy stumbling across one and spending the time to read about other people have visited that same spot and what sort of adventure they were undertaking. I wonder if some people object to as they feel they detract from the beauty of our Australian bushland?

I am also interested as to whether anyone has compiled a list of log books, and what the situation is regarding the placement of book in a new location, or what to do with a log book once it is full.

[DarrenM]

A ships log of sorts.

A good record of travellers through an area IMO. In places like KNP I tend to keep it simple with date, time and weather etc and in any case of misadventure, it becomes a valuable resource. Last I heard in this particular area, old logs are kept at the visitors centre.

[Tortoise]

I loved reading them, though there tended to be a lot of rubbish written in the well used areas. We 'got to know' other groups who regularly walked in the Snowies, and occasionally met some of them in person. It was kinda cool to go back to a more remote hut years later and find our entry still in the same book.

The logbooks often provided historical interest, and good entertainment. A part of the high country experience I enjoyed.
Btw, are any of the 'Eco-vandals' (nice fellas, really!) or the Lads Unperturbed on this site by any chance?

[jonnosan]

Here's the bushwalkers log books I know of in the Blue Mountains
Mt Solitary
Mt Cloudmaker
Mt Paralyser
Mt Guouogang
Darks Cave
Redledge Pass
Harmil Pass
Lion Heads Pass
Knights Deck
Splendour Rock (Mt Dingo)
Dash's Cave (Lindeman Pass)

I believe that when log books are full it is common to send them to the state library.

[DaveNoble]

There are quite a few more in the Blue Mts, including -

Mt Colong
Yerranderie Peak
Colong Caves (2)
Church Ck Caves
Sometimes one on Kalang Falls
Bimlow Peak
Black Coola
Lost Rock
Empress Falls
Pantoneys Crown
The Island

Like cairns, I think there is no case for there being log books in wilderness areas. Perhaps that is why there are none or very few log books deep in the Wollemi Wilderness. There are also very few log books in SW Tassie (Federation Peak, Mt Anne, PB and the Charles King Hut?) and very few, if any, in the wilderness areas of New Zealand.

However - in the Sierra Nevada Mts of California - just about every substantial summit has a logbook (summit register) - and some of the ones I saw went back to the 1930's - and these were in iconic places like the John Muir Wilderness and the Ansel Adams Wilderness.

I think the main reason log books are in huts - is to prevent people writing on the walls. Better for them to graffiti in the logbook! Some logbooks I have seen have quite amazing works of art or poetry. One entry I remember done by a science student in the Lake Vera Hut logbook during a stormbound period, was a long mathematical derivation of a formula that allowed one calculate the please obtained by bushwalking. It had terms for scrub, pack weight, weather, mud, height to climb etc. The derivation went for several pages..... however another later reader, had noticed a mistake in the third equation (a wrong sign!).

Dave

[Allchin09]

I think the comment on them as a record keeper for misadventures is interesting. Maybe that is a reason why there are so many in the Sierra Nevada Mts that you mention Dave?

Reducing graffiti make sense, I'm sure many people want to leave their mark in the places that they visit, so why not provided them with a non-destructive method of doing so. Interesting story about the formula, quite an amusing concept!

I have recently visited ones at:

Mt Yellow Dog
Crafts Wall
Esgate Pass
Dunphys Pass - which actually had a list of other log books in the area, however I forget what it listed...

I have read about one at Mt Mouin and I am unsure as to whether it exists or not. I also can't remember if there is one on Black Horse Ridge as I could be confusing it with the one at Knights Deck.

It is interesting that some places have little to no log books but others have many. Take the RNP for example, not a wilderness area, well visited and the oldest NP in Australia - but I've never heard of any log books in the area?

[jonnosan]

Where is the Esgate Pass log book?

[Allchin09]

Where is the Esgate Pass log book?

Down the bottom near when you do the funny switch back.

[michael_p]

I remember signing a book at the Coal Seam in KBNP.

[Allchin09]

I remember signing a book at the Coal Seam in KBNP.

I was going to add that one, again I wasn't sure if I found one there or not.

[perfectlydark]

Just a few on the gnw ive signed. I like it to be honest

[Allchin09]

Just a few on the gnw ive signed. I like it to be honest

Do you know how many there are along the GNW?

I know that the Hume and Hovell as a few along its length.

[perfectlydark]

Not sure allchin. Theres a couple between the berowra-brooklyn section at least and one near mt wondabyne that I know of

[puredingo]

Mathamatical Equations! Poetry?....and here I was thinking they were put there entirely for the purpose of school kids to display their obligatory "*&%$#! and balls" motif????

[perfectlydark]

People looking for "dingas and (a term used for female dogs)" apparently as well as per some ive read

[Haematocrit]

Beloon Pass logbook was almost full (half of last page left) when I crossed on the June long w/e.

[Webguy]

The camp cave near Pisgah rock has one as well.

[vieve]

Not sure allchin. Theres a couple between the berowra-brooklyn section at least and one near mt wondabyne that I know of

There is definitely one between Hornsby and Berowra too. I did this walk last weekend and from memory it was just before Galston Gorge heading North.

[DaveNoble]

The camp cave near Pisgah rock has one as well.

And the Dadder Cave

[jonnosan]

Re Coal Seam Cave - I believe there was one there a few years ago, but not at the moment.
Re Esgate Pass - I am still a bit confused - can you tell me where it is in relation to the chains? (I have done the chains a few time but only done the full pass once and not sure I did it the 'proper' way as we went from Esgate round to Blacks Ladder and ended up doing a bit of bush bashing around the nose of Megalong Head)

[Allchin09]

Re Esgate Pass - I am still a bit confused - can you tell me where it is in relation to the chains? (I have done the chains a few time but only done the full pass once and not sure I did it the 'proper' way as we went from Esgate round to Blacks Ladder and ended up doing a bit of bush bashing around the nose of Megalong Head)

It was at the bottom of the chains, but I can't exactly remember where abouts. Tom Brennan makes reference to it in his trip report here if that helps - http://ozultimate.com/tom/bushwalking/2 ... /index.htm

The section around Megalong Head was a bit overgrown and it felt like we weren't going the right way, but if you follow the route as shown in Jim Smiths "How to see the Blue Mountains" 2nd Ed. it's not an issue. We traversed from Blacks Ladder to the chains however, so it may be different doing it in reverse.

[tom_brennan]

The Esgate Pass log book was on the wide ledge where the chains end, under the overhang I think. Can't remember whether it was there on the more recent trip (2011), but probably.

The two times I've rounded Megalong Head, we stayed high. The ledge gets very narrow (< a foot) for about 20m, but it saves you dropping down a fair way.

[juxtaposer]

Like cairns, I think there is no case for there being log books in wilderness areas.

Dave, it's interesting you say there is no case for cairns in the wilderness, but doesn't one person have the same right to build a cairn as the next has the right to knock it over? Personally, I advocate that people do neither, because there are still a few cairns out there that were put there by the likes of Myles Dunphy & co, and other early explorers, including the aborigines.

[Allchin09]

I do think the cairns in the wilderness debate is an interesting one - Another topic maybe?

[Grabeach]

I have a different take on log books to some. I reckon they’re great when they’re in rarely visited, but significant, places. By significant, this usually means passes through major cliff lines or 'stand out' out of the way peaks. These books usually contain useful route information and may contain names that are a good starting point for further research. Like a small strategically placed cairn, they have nil environmental impact. And let’s face it, if we are that concerned about ‘wilderness,’ we certainly wouldn’t be camping in it!

I’d suggest that once a route or peak becomes popular the ‘quality’ of the log book declines. Firstly in that no new information is being inserted and secondly graffiti like entries start to appear. Places like The Castle in the Budawangs come to mind. The usefulness of a log book will also depend on the person reading it and their familiarity with the area. For instance, the Redledge book isn’t going to tell me anything new, but may be a wealth of route information for a first time visitor. Conversely, a log book in say the Nattai, where I haven't been for decades, would probably fascinate me.

With regard to Blue Mountains log books Frank Bendeich placed a number in rarely visited, though within a few hours walk from the car, places. Few of these have been mentioned above. I only know they exist because every so often I would stumble on one. Some places had not been visited for 25 years. Strangely some of the relatively popular ones have disappeared in recent times. They could not have been full.

I admit to placing the book on Dunphys. Also the one on Orang Utan. The former was rarely used at the time, and the later virtually never. Both books now show what affect the publication of a guide book have on an area. I also placed one at the bottom of the coachwood tree in Mitchells Ck with the aim of recording the length of the spikes. This one disappeared within five years. And, no, I didn’t place one on Rock Pile, though I had thought of putting one there on a 25th anniversary walk. My knee put paid to that idea.

Some things about log books that annoy me:-
Duplication - there has been one at the top of the west pass off Lions Head for probably 50 years, yet someone in more recent times put one on the end of Lions Head itself.
Taking up a whole page to record two names.
Putting an entry on the diary page that shows that date (as if they put a new book there every year!)

[Lindsay]

Not sure allchin. Theres a couple between the berowra-brooklyn section at least and one near mt wondabyne that I know of

The ones I know of on the GNW are just below the top of the ridge on the southern side of Galston Gorge, on the flat section along the ridge south of Joe Crafts Creek near Berowra and near the top of the Lyrebird Gully side track near Mount Kuringai. There may be another on the Cowan-Brooklyn section, can't recall at the moment.

[perfectlydark]

Yep lyndsay, from memory its somewhere near where taffys track branches off

[juxtaposer]

This is quite apart from log books, but I would add to my earlier comment, that every so often in a committed bushwalker's career they do something that is very special to them, and specially challenging. The most intrepid do this more often than most, I suppose, but to most those sorts of undertakings are few and far between. Those who hold a very strict line will disagree with this, but I have no problem with a brief note recording a trip like that being left along the route somewhere, just as I have no problem with the next person who comes along removing it. I think you are fully entitled to do both.

[jonnosan]

I always assumed that one of the motivations for log books were to potentially give information to searchers about arrival times and planned routes in the event of a search being required.

[perfectlydark]

That was my impression. If not a direct use it could at least help in the case of a search