Canoelands Ridge Trail (22km)

Notes:
Okay so before any of my regulars lose any sleep I’ll address the elephant in the room. My Suunto watch recorded the entire hike (thankfully) but before it uploaded to the Suunto app on my phone, some Gremlin stopped it doing so. Worse, it wouldn’t even connect to my watch without me resetting it. So instead, today you have a screenshot of my GoogleEarth session I used to create my usual GPX (GPS) route for my watch and, photos of the stats in my watch before I had to erase them all.

This hike may have only been 22km long but it was pretty brutal. 11km each way, the first 9.3km took 2hrs and the final push of 1.7km took an hour itself. National Parks NSW rated it Grade 4 (Hard) and forecast it taking 8-10hrs. A few interesting things fall out of the stats above:

It took me six hours to walk 22km on this hike and the same amount of time to walk 35km on The Bloody Long Walk
The altitude stat shows that massive ~190m change in altitude within a short timeframe. This was the descent and subsequent ascent down/up the mountain. I had to retract my walking poles and secure them to my pack because I needed both hands to safely climb it.
Although the total change in altitude over the 6hrs was 269m with a min elevation of -1m and max of 268m, the undulating steep hills across the route resulted in a 1.4km elevation gain and a 1.4km elevation loss. Incidentally, my first intended Stage of the Camino-Frances is a 1.5km elevation gain, a 700m elevation loss, and a total change in elevation of 1255m. Should be a good view from on top of the Pyrenees mountain range.
Some of those ascents sure got the heart going with a max rate of 172 bpm.
The calories I burnt was exactly the same as three medium Big Mac meals.

This was the fourth hike that I’ve recorded using my GoPro Hero 10, and the second I’ve uploaded to the new Walking with Strangers Youtube channel. The first to be uploaded to the channel was the Bloody Long Walk, and I recorded it in TimeWarp mode with a Wide FOV at 15x speed. All settings were the same on this hike except I tried the 10x speed to see how it compared. There was negligible difference in file size and battery drain, it was just 10min longer as would be expected. So why don’t you check ’em both out on the channel and comment below to let me know which speed you would like me to use when I walk the Camino-Frances in 6 weeks.

A Bloody Long Walk Indeed (**15x speed**) vs (**10x speed**) What Goes Up Must Come Down

Canoelands Ridge Trail Wrap-up

It rained for a short spell and,
- it wasn’t enough for me to bust out the rain pants and these may end up staying home if I need to shed some pack weight
- I used the hat rain cover but it looks so stupid, like I’m wearing a shower cap AND it actually contorts the hat shape – this too may stay in Australia
Tried the new Timewarp settings (10x speed) – compare the vids above and let me know your preference
The refinements I made to my water carriage system after The Bloody Long Walk held up to the rigours of this challenging hike, so I’m satisfied I’m onto a winning setup with the zip tie solution
I’ve now tried two of the three Hydralyte flavours (Orange and Apple/Blackcurrent) and I must say I enjoyed both. I’ll give Lemon/Lime a whirl at my next opportunity and see if it’s a winning trifecta.
I only started an hour later than I had planned this time around, so for once I wasn’t racing the daylight. I still walked like someone was chasing me though. Ha ha
The Grade 4 (hard) rating wasn’t just because of the relentless elevation changes and terrain, navigation was also a challenge. Even though I had the route loaded into my watch, there was no noticeable track up/down the steepest part of the mountainside. If it wasn’t for all the little piles of rocks left by previous hikers I could have easily lost my way and ended up in a situation.
I was forced to come up with a solution to securing my trekking poles to my pack. Given the steepness of the mountainside mentioned above, I simply needed both hands to climb down (and up) that section. At this stage I expect I’ll just use my trekking poles at all times on the Camino regardless of the terrain but I now know how I can affix them should I need to.
Noting the above point, if I were to do this hike again I would definately be looking to take a hiking partner with me. If I’d had a mishap, it’s pretty remote although I’m pretty sure it had good mobile reception throughout.