Finally....the 6 Foot Track (only plus a tiny nav error.....whoops!)

Profile of the 6 Foot Track

I finally made it to the start!!

Having come over to run the "6 Foot Track" back in early March, it seemed slightly weird not to have even seen anything of the actual route, so when my friend Julian said that he was keen to go up to the Blue Mountains for a day and do some bushwalking, I jumped at the chance to go with him and check it out. He had said that he would kindly drop me at the Explorer's Tree (the start of the track), then go on his hike and drive round to Jenolan (the end of the track) to pick me up afterwards. It was a very kind offer, as the road to Jenolan had only just reopened and if I wanted to travel the route myself, it was going to involve very complicated logistics (Katoomba is about 2 hours by {a very slow} train from the centre of Sydney, and then it's a few kms to get from the station to the Tree.....and I wasn't convinced how accurate information about buses back from Jenolan was.....and to be fair we didn't see a single bus on the roads all day) and so I was eager to take him up on it.

Obligatory photo shoot :-) 

The drive from Sydney took about 90 minutes (a good chance to fuel up on coffee, banana bread and croissants) and so I was dropped off about 9:30am. The 6 Foot Track covers about 45km to reach Jenolan Caves so we figured it might take me about 5 or so hours, and as we doubted there would be phone reception there, we arranged to rendez-vous at Jenolan House as the café there had recently reopened.

After the obligatory start photo I headed off down the "track". Initially it was a fairly wide gravel trail....it descended relatively steeply but seemed just about runnable to me (though I wouldn't have been that excited to be going down it in a race situation when people would have been pushing and shoving and sprinting off the start). 

Wood-edged steps

I soon came across a clearing after which the trail narrowed and steepened to descend down Nellie's Glen. I could see why this part was marked unsuitable for bikes as there was about 300m of very rough, narrow steps through dense vegetation, under rock walls and officially "crossing a small creek many times". In fact it was rather dark, cold and wet with the creek running down the rock "steps" in many places. Some of the steps were edged by pieces of wood, but the soil had been partly washed away so the word stuck up to trip unwary travellers not lifting their feet properly.

Is it a creek or a trail?

This was really out of my comfort zone (note....if I ever do run the "race", I must start at the back of my starting pack or I'll delay everyone else and come a cropper myself) and I couldn't exactly run it. I used the excuse of taking pictures to make many stops and realised that it was going to be a very long day if I had to walk the downhills as well as the uphills I knew would come later (the route officially had 1500m of ascent and 1800m of descent). I wondered what I had let myself in for and briefly debated how to pull the plug on the whole adventure. Still, I figured it would help develop my "mental toughness" so I carried on, albeit rather tentatively. 

Happily flattening out

Luckily the trail flattened out considerably and became much better underfoot so I could relax, and start running along it to enjoy the scenery of the scribbly gum forest. I came out onto a dirt forestry road, waving a friendly greeting to a couple of hikers coming along in the opposite direction. I could turn my legs over nicely as the forestry roads were wide, clear and relatively straight so there was a lot of time to work out how to avoid the worst of the mud and puddles whenever I spied a tricky patch coming up, but the running itself still didn't feel too good. At least my hands etc had warmed up by now, so I gave myself a little talking to, as it didn't matter how slowly I "ran" or walked....the aim was just to have an enjoyable day out somewhere new. 

Prior route markings

The trail had been quite well marked up to this point, so I wasn't paying that much attention to my route....which I came to regret slightly further on, when I ended up on a sealed road, passing houses until I came to an unmarked t-junction. I was debating digging out my map when I spotted a sign that said the 6 Foot Track was 700m to the left.....oops! As it turned out, as the trail and all access to it had been closed for so long, some of the signs had been obscured by overgrowth whilst a few others had rotted and fallen down (though I still should have been paying much more attention). I kept the map out for the next kilometre until I finally rejoined the track where it crossed over the road I was now on (the sign saying 700m rather underestimated the distance which also caused me some minor confusion). Luckily that was my only nav error of the day (if I'm honest that's probably because I was walking a lot more later and so checked the map more frequently if I hadn't seen a sign for a while 😂).

Views=an excuse for a photo break

After rejoining the route, there was a short section through wooded land before I came to more open farmland. Sometimes the trail was on wider dirt roads and sometimes on narrow single track. At one point I had to descend steeply, cross a small wooden bridge and then climb up some steep wooden steps the other side. The views were great (which basically was another excuse for a photo break as I was really hot by this time.....not a cloud in the sky and not a breath of wind) and it was so different to the start of the trail. 

I met the only other person I saw all day on this section - a French walker going in the opposite direction - and so it really did feel like I had the whole of the countryside to myself. As I wound along the side of the valley I vaguely contemplated what to do when I spotted a sign for "alternative route when river flooded" but at this point I was feeling so hot and bothered that I didn't really think about it much, having also conveniently forgotten that people had told me about deep streams you have to wade through in the race. 

The Cox's River - deeper than it looks!!

When you cross the floodplain of the Cox's River to the river itself the path peters out and it becomes a case of just picking the best route you can. The river appeared to be a lot wider than I'd thought as it was divided up into quite a few sections. I managed to rock hop the first couple but there was no way to cross the main bit without getting wet. It's a good thing I was wearing shorts rather than capris as the water was thigh deep in one spot. To add insult to injury, the section from the river up to the campsite the other side was soft sand.....always a delight when you have sodden shoes! 

From Cox's River campground, the route certainly tests your mental strength as it felt like 5k of constant uphill grafting. There were a couple of small creeks to ford, but as my feet were already soaking wet, there wasn't much point in trying to get around them. There were signs warning any 4WDs of walkers in the road for the next 20k (which reassured me....after another mapcheck....that I was going the right way) but I only saw one vehicle the entire time.

Rather than completely lose the will to live dragging myself up those steep slopes, I decided to "make the most of it" and use it as a chance to get some more calories in....as there's no point carrying food in your backpack when you could be carrying it in your stomach now is there? An extra benefit of all my baking is that I'm not short of cookies or banana bread to eat.....yummmm!!

"Topping out"

I topped out, descended to another basic campground and got excited at some flat running along a valley floor, past some deciduous trees (a rarity in these parts) but the excitement was rather short lived as it soon kicked up again and I was reduced to another slow plod! Still, at least I knew (or I should say that I "thought") that this was the last big climb up to the highest point of the day and from there it would be mainly flat along a ridge and then down into Jenolan (or so the profile on the map led me to believe).

I was surprised to see the odd deciduous treee

Many kilometres (I would say many hours but I guess it wasn't really quite that long....though I was rather worried at how long Julian would have been waiting for me at the far end) later I reached the top of the ridge and from there it was actually really nice to run along the undulating fire trail through dappled woodland. I didn't have much of a clue of the time of day, as I'd had so many stops en route for photos, food, wades, mapchecks, "comfort breaks" etc, but the heat had definitely faded somewhat. It could have been that I was just a lot higher now, or that it was very shaded, or that I was much more tired.....but whatever the reason, I was glad of it (except for when I realised that my hands were starting to get rather cold again....I tell you, I'm never happy am I?). 

The distance ticked by as I made myself keep jogging along (the undulations were actually quite small so keeping the pace low meant no walking was needed) and the few intersections were well marked so I soon came out at the last campground on the Track....and just after that I passed the sign marking 10k to go.....yeay....the countdown was on!

Exciting - another National Park!

The last section still contained some cheeky bits designed to play mind tricks on you. I'd hoped that it was mainly downhill now from the ridge to the caves and the trail was quite nice and soft through woodland, but I was wrong.....every time I rounded a corner, I'd find another steep slope to climb! About 3k further along I crossed the sealed road to Jenolan (along with a sign welcoming me so I figured that I was almost there after all). 

Having crossed the road, the trail seemed to track alongside it for a couple of kms, winding up and down slightly through the trees (with some steps up and down) but mainly beside it.....now if I'd realised this, would I have just run along the empty road to get there sooner, or would that have been cheating myself out of covering the "proper" route?

I officially only had about 5k still to go when I got to the "Jenolan Caves Cottages" and the road sign proclaimed "windy next 11km" so I decided the track was by far the better/quicker/shorter option as the two routes diverged considerably at this point. The trail undulated for another couple of kms along the ridge before narrowing into since track and diving steeply off down the side of the valley. I would get glimpses of building below me through the trees as I descended (though they were just glimpses as I couldn't afford to be slack about foot placement and so needed to look where I was going). A rocky saddle and some descending timber steps put me out in a gravel clearing with a sign pointing back the way I'd come stating it was the "6 Foot Track". 

The end of the track....and relax!

Caves House...and more importantly...the cafe!!

This seemed to be rather an anticlimax for the end of the track as there was nothing there, so I looked around wondering what to do. I'm not sure why I hadn't spotted the "Caves House" sign straight away, but once I did I followed the arrow up a stone path (with a handrail no less....though luckily I didn't need it), past an amazing rock arch and then I zigzagged steeply down it to some concrete steps which led to Jenolan Caves House and the official end of the track.

Done!!!

Julian had been in the café a wee while waiting for me, but it meant that he'd had a chance to grab some food and catch up on emails, and could greet me with a very welcome coffee, ice cream, sandwiches and cake. We swopped pictures of our days, and then headed back to the city, tired but happy after a good day out in the Mountains (even taking in a viewpoint or two on the drive back).