Bushwalk Australia

Hey guys,

As I've mentioned to some of you, I'm trying to increase my fitness at the moment and I've recently started doing the 1000 Steps every weekend (or in the case of today, Lyrebird Track - the one parallel to the steps).

It's a bit of a ridiculous drive from my place though, so I was wondering if anyone knows of alternative tracks of a similar distance and total ascent (according to MapMyHike.com it's just under 500 metres ascent and just under 3 kilometres long)?

I'm in the inner-north so the closer to there the better, but I'd be interested to know of alternatives all around Melbourne.

(Disclaimer: If I get a bunch of good alternatives I'd love to turn this into a blog post ).

Cheers
Neil

Mount Dandenong has so many Neil and much longer and more interesting than the 1000 steps.
I don't know any out your way but have a look at this park note - http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... l-Park.pdf
Maybe try parking at the corner of Glasgow Rd. and Sheffield Rd. then follow your feet. You can walk straight up, across and up and all the way to the very top via various tracks.

Thanks for the tip! Might have to give that a go next weekend.

The Parks map is a bit of a graphical representation but OSM has a close update of almost all of these tracks.
If you have a Garmin GPS download the routeable set Australia file dated around 29/3/2015 osm_generic_gmapsupp.zip.

Go to http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ select oceania, Australia click download now and you will see an ftp folder to choose your maps from.

Thanks so much neilmny!

Off the top of my head I can think of 3 alternatives : Flinders lookout in You Yangs, very popular amongst joggers, 200 m elevation, 1,6 km, steps, hard ground, it's fairly easy. The surroundings are more wild and charming. Cathedral Peak via Neds Gully track, in Cathedral Range state park, about 800 m elevation in I think less than 2 km. I haven't seen joggers there, but it can be done, and it'd be challenging. Last one is the hardest, Mt St Leonard in Yarra Ranges NP from Healesville, detailed here : http://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot. ... ional.html . 1200 m elevation, so you need to be in great shape.

Hallu wrote:............ Last one is the hardest, Mt St Leonard in Yarra Ranges NP from Healesville, detailed here : http://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot. ... ional.html . 1200 m elevation, so you need to be in great shape.

Oh yeh, forgot about that one, very hard yakka..............come to think of it up the side of Mt. Donna Buang is another. But then again not on the north side of town.
https://trainingadventures.wordpress.co ... nna-buang/

I'm not sure how long it takes to accesss the Lerderderg area from the North of Melbourne but there are some good steep consistent climbs there that certainly get the heart pumping.

Also in the west the Werribee Gorge circuit only takes a couple of hours and is a good fitness circuit.

another is Macedon township to the memorial cross at Mt. Macedon.
or,
Macedon to Mt. Towrong. both pretty steep hard climbs. of about 500m elevation gain.

Inner North Melbourne why not something longer and flatter? Darebin Creek Trail? Yarra Bend NP?

Snowzone wrote:I'm not sure how long it takes to access the Lerderderg area from the North of Melbourne but there are some good steep consistent climbs there that certainly get the heart pumping.

A

trickos wrote:Macedon township to the memorial cross at Mt. Macedon

+1 both of the above. The walk from Macedon to the memorial cross definitely fits what you are after. Both are easily accessed (via car) from the inner north.

You could also consider the Pyrete Range part of Lerderderg. Walk to Mt Sugerloaf, or as part of a longer day walk, the walk up White Rd extension from the creek is a very steep consistent climb.

Further to axcarmil's suggestion of the Pyrete Range, the Whites Extension Road climb up from Pyrete Creek going north is about 230m elevation in roughly 2.5km. There's another steep track (unnamed) off Hobbs Road in the NE corner of that park. It's about 1.5km with a 150m elevation up from the same creek.

How about staircases in city buildings? You'd have to do a bit of exploring to find some with a view. Older buildings probably more likely to have windows than newer ones.

Forgot about Mt Macedon. It's not the most interesting of walks, but it fits the bill. As for Werribee Gorge, it's a good one too, plenty of climbs with tracks good enough to run on, the Centenary Walk is for you.

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions guys! Awesome.

I've done Flinders Peak in the You Yangs before but didn't remember it being that big a climb. Will look back at my notes.

Lerderderg and Weribee Gorges would probably be the closest I think... Anything there that'd be 3km's return with a decent climb?

I'm definitely looking for steep climbs though rather than longer and flatter. I've got so little time at the moment that I'm looking for something a bit more intense.

The problem with Lerderderg is that to access the steep tracked climbs, you generally do need to walk into the river. The shortest walk in meeting your criteria for a steep climb is to walk about 2klms from McKenzie flat to go up Link Track 1 (1.3klm) . Link track 1 is steep and would be a good workout. A bit longer but providing quick access to the river is to park at the tower on Mt Blackwood, and go down and up the Lower Chadwick. The walk back from the river is a constant climb. Another short access to a steep climb is to park at the commencement of the Hogan Track, take the Watties track which will take you down to a gully, it then connects to a track up to the Lerderderg track, once at the Lederderg return back down the gully to Watties and up to the Hogan (this would be getting to about 7klms, but has a lot of very steep ascending and descending) and is relatively close to a car access point.

From the inner north, the driving time to Lederderg and Mt Macedon are about the same. The stairs at Mt Macedon are probably the closest to what you are after.

Thanks so much axcarmil. I might give Macedon a go this weekend but will check out some of the others in future.

Thanks again to everyone! I really appreciate the help!

Would this be the walk you're talking about, Axcarmill? https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Mt+M ... !3e2?hl=en

No. You can start the walk to the stairs at the Old Scott camp site on Middle Gully Road. I haven't started it from there. I start a bit higher up fom the begining of Douglas Road. The track commences shortly after Douglas Road changes from bitumun to dirt. There is a small carpark. Alternatively, park near the corner of Macedon Road and Douglas Roads and walk up Douglas Road, it starts with a climb that is a good warm up for the ascent to the memorial cross. The track to the memorial cross is part of the Mt Macedon circuit http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... tracks.pdf

neil_fahey wrote:Lerderderg and Weribee Gorges would probably be the closest I think... Anything there that'd be 3km's return with a decent climb?

Ironbark carpark down to the Werribee River and return. 250m descent over about 1.5km.

neilmny wrote:Mount Dandenong has so many Neil and much longer and more interesting than the 1000 steps.
I don't know any out your way but have a look at this park note - http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... l-Park.pdf
Maybe try parking at the corner of Glasgow Rd. and Sheffield Rd. then follow your feet. You can walk straight up, across and up and all the way to the very top via various tracks.

I have done that walk. It's amazing. I went straight up as far as I could go and then zig zagged the rest of the way to the top. It was very foggy that morning underneath the transmission towers, so i couldnt really see out over the Bayswater/Wantirna area or Olinda on the other side, but it was an amazing walk all the same.

Was also thinking about doing it again this Saturday morning if you were willing to accept some company?

neil_fahey wrote:It's a bit of a ridiculous drive from my place though, so I was wondering if anyone knows of alternative tracks of a similar distance and total ascent (according to MapMyHike.com it's just under 500 metres ascent and just under 3 kilometres long)?

I'm in the inner-north so the closer to there the better, but I'd be interested to know of alternatives all around Melbourne.

Just had a lateral thought. This may not appeal to you, of course, but the entrance to the National Park is just 800 metres from the Upper Ferntree Gully railway station. No need for a ridiculous drive. Instead, you can use the time on the train productively to write, read, whatever.

get a copy of Glenn Tempests Melbourne's western gorges, just pick the steepest

2 shortish and steep come to mind
Werribee gorge western bluff & falcons lookout 5.2k and 740m of ups and downs (ish)
Lerderderg Ah Kow track to the river and Hogan track to the start of the fire trail and back (park at Lohs lane) car to river - 340m in 3.5k river to fire trail 180m in 600m (ish)
both closer and a lot more interesting than 1000 steps Tracks are not as manicured so adds to the 'training'
are you training for something in particular or just in general?

Sorry I haven't been back for a while! Thanks again everyone who's come up with other suggestions!

axcarmil wrote:No. You can start the walk to the stairs at the Old Scott camp site on Middle Gully Road. I haven't started it from there. I start a bit higher up fom the begining of Douglas Road. The track commences shortly after Douglas Road changes from bitumun to dirt. There is a small carpark. Alternatively, park near the corner of Macedon Road and Douglas Roads and walk up Douglas Road, it starts with a climb that is a good warm up for the ascent to the memorial cross. The track to the memorial cross is part of the Mt Macedon circuit http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... tracks.pdf

Did this today starting from the small carpark. It was tougher than I remembered (I did it back in 2010 - http://www.bushwalkingblog.com.au/dougl ... ictoria-2/), but that could be because I'm not as fit as I used to be. It's a beautiful spot and the climb made the trip well worth it. Quite a few others on the trail unfortunately, but not compared to the 1000 steps/Lyrebird Track. I didn't hang around for the view from the top, but I drove up there with my lady a couple of months ago anyway so I've seen it recently enough. This time I tracked it with the MapMyHike app and it came up as 3.6km with a 338m elevation gain, so it's a good enough alternative to the 1000 Steps. It's more of a bush track though, and some sections are steeper, so I found it much more tricky. I felt like I was going to die at one point - it was awesome!

neilmny wrote:Was also thinking about doing it again this Saturday morning if you were willing to accept some company?

Didn't notice this before. Sorry! Saturdays are no good for me anyway 'cos my lady works and I look after the kids. Also, if someone was with me today I'd have been terrible company. I was struggling hard.

peregrinator wrote:Just had a lateral thought. This may not appeal to you, of course, but the entrance to the National Park is just 800 metres from the Upper Ferntree Gully railway station. No need for a ridiculous drive. Instead, you can use the time on the train productively to write, read, whatever.

That's actually a great idea. Never tried working on public transport before but might be worth a try.

dicky wrote:get a copy of Glenn Tempests Melbourne's western gorges, just pick the steepest

2 shortish and steep come to mind
Werribee gorge western bluff & falcons lookout 5.2k and 740m of ups and downs (ish)
Lerderderg Ah Kow track to the river and Hogan track to the start of the fire trail and back (park at Lohs lane) car to river - 340m in 3.5k river to fire trail 180m in 600m (ish)
both closer and a lot more interesting than 1000 steps Tracks are not as manicured so adds to the 'training'
are you training for something in particular or just in general?

Already got that book. I love it! Had a flick through but nothing immediately jumped out at me. I'm really looking for something around the 3 km mark. Thanks though!

Cheers
Neil

EDIT: Whoops. Stuffed up the quotes.