Stories Along the Way

Originally written in 2019

I was supposed to do a longer hike today, but the tracks between Crystal Cascades and Copperlode Dam were closed because of fallen trees.

Apparently the damage was enough that hikers who weren’t familiar with the trail could easily become confused.

So I changed plans.

Instead, I decided to hike all the Arrow tracks at Mt Whitfield Conservation Park.

I started on the Red Arrow, continued onto the Blue Arrow, then the Green Arrow, before finishing at the Yellow Arrow.

About 15 kilometres altogether.

The Yellow Arrow was the only one I hadn’t done before, so at least I still managed to add something new to the day.

And after seeing the condition of some sections, I could understand why other walking tracks had been closed following the cyclone.

There were fallen trees and places where the track wasn’t as obvious as usual.

Even though I’m very familiar with most of these trails, I still found myself stopping occasionally and thinking:

Hang on… where exactly does this go?

So perhaps closing the more damaged and remote tracks was a very sensible decision.

The original long hike didn’t happen.

But Red, Blue, Green and Yellow in one outing?

I’ll take it.