The 12 Foot Track

Having now run the 6 Foot Track, a friend had suggested trying the 12 Foot Track and I was intrigued to this "new route" that I'd not heard of before. Little did I know that it was not actually a new route, but the name for running the 6FT and then turning round at Jenolan Caves and running back to the start in Katoomba!! 

When I finished the 6FT I did say "Never Again" but the idea of the 12FT did kinda niggle away in the back of my head, and when my friend Julian and I both had a day off, we discussed a cheeky trip up to the Blue Mountains. Julian is a keen walker and had some new routes to check out (or old routes that he hadn't done for ages) and I looked at the 6FT. I didn't have the option of just running to Jenolan and getting a lift back as the final section of road to the Caves has been closed due to landslip/storm damage, so the only way in and out for me was on foot. 

The "12 Foot Track"

The weekend's weather forecast hadn't been good, but as Saturday had been nice and sunny, we decided to risk it and headed up early on Sunday morning. As a reward, we were treated to a lovely pink sunrise over the hills, which seemed to bode well for the day, and so I set off down the track expecting an enjoyable (well semi-enjoyable anyway) day out!! The first section of the run is always a rude reminder to me that I am neither a downhill nor a technical runner, as the first few kms are a constant descent.....initially down a rough forestry road, then steep uneven steps which disintegrate into little more than a stream bed, and then finally on a runnable single trip (well, runnable when you manage to get past all the slippery tree roots!). 

Amazing how fresh you can look BEFORE you run!!

Despite it being well past dawn, it was still quite dark under the thick canopy cover as I descended Nellie's Glen, but it was so much more enjoyable than the last time I was there. This time, I had the place to myself and could go as slowly as I liked, with no-one to see my flailing "girlie arms" and multiple slips and stops, whereas last time it was a "race situation" and although I'd started at the back of my starting pen, I had the constant fear of slowing down the fast starters of the next pen. 

On reaching the forestry road at the bottom of the valley, I reminded myself to look for the turnoff onto single track, as I'd missed it in the past. Despite this, I missed it yet again and so added an extra km or so of detour onto my route. My excuse is that the sign pointing towards the track is parallel to the way you are running, and so is almost impossible to spot, and I was taking notice of the depth markings warning about a ford crossing just at that precise location. Grrrrr......I could have kicked myself when I found myself having to run down and then up a steep incline just to get back to where I should have been!! 

I remembered the next section as being quite enjoyable, undulating up and down across some open countryside and then alongside the river....but unfortunately this time the weather decided to take a turn for the worse. It started spitting with rain before I'd even run 10K and so I debated turning tail and returning to Katoomba but I didn't want to interrupt Julian's walk as he was going to go to a cafe to fuel up before setting off, so I told myself to "zip up my mansuit" and get on with it. 

The mansuit zip got a bit of a workout to stay done up as thunder rolled in, and then the sky lit up with lightening on several occasions. I did feel very exposed as the only moving thing for miles around (even the wallabies that had kept me compony earlier had run away), and my biggest fear was that the lightening would strike as I climbed over one of the metal stiles......but luckily I made it out of the open and onto the riverside trail. Unfortunately the rain moved a lot quicker than I did and so I got rather wetter than I'd hoped!! 

I could hear the Coxes river alongside me and although I thought it sounded rather loud and strong, I figured that I'd just not really noticed it in the race due to the fact that I'd been in a little train of people trying to keep moving forwards whilst not being knocked over by fast guys trying to race past on the narrow trail. I passed the turning to the "alternative route" of the bridge over the river, but didn't think that a high exposed metal bridge was really what I wanted to be on during a huge storm.....and as it hadn't been raining for that long (and Saturday had been lovely and sunny) the river wouldn't be that high would it? 

The river in drier times....

I hop, skip and jumped over the first part of the river and was smugly congratulating myself on it not being that bad after all.....but soon came to regret that as I waded into the main river itself. Not only was the current rather strong but I was soon up to my neck and losing contact with the bottom. My panic swim would have shown a bit of a semicircle as I got swept slightly further downstream than expected before hitting the far side......but luckily there was no-one there to watch (I guess that would have been "unluckily" had I gotten into distress). 

The water hadn't seemed that cold and the air still seemed muggy (obviously the rain didn't bother me now as I was soaked through anyway) as I ran-walked up the first of the big inclines away from the river but at least there was no more thunder and lightening. Unsurprisingly, considering the weather, I still hadn't seen another soul but it made me feel like more of an intrepid explorer as I trudged on munching on my cereal bars, wading a few more creeks and trying to avoid slipping base over apex in muddy patches. 

Places I remembered from the race came and went, and although I was going somewhat slower than on race day, I did wonder how on earth I would make it back, when I was doubting whether I would actually even get as far as the Caves. When I reached the road crossing and saw the sign marking that the road was closed up ahead, I decided to ring Julian and see if he fancied coming and picking me up if he'd finished his walk. I figured that even if he said it would take him a while, I could probably go down to Jenolan and then back up to that point whilst he was en route. Unfortunately, my phone appeared to be slightly worse for wear after its little swim (despite being in a plastic bag) and didn't want to play ball - gah!! Never mind, there'd probably be a public phone I could use at Caves House so I continued on..... 

I guess that few people go all the way down to the caves along the track now that the road there is shut, so the final descent was very overgrown but I eventually made it.....only to realise as I ran down the last few steep zigzags, that there was no point in looking for a phone as I didn't know Julian's number without using my phone. There was nothing for it but to fill up my waterbottles from a tap with a sign that expressly told me that water should be bought at the shop and not drunk out of taps, and to return back the way I'd come!!! 

About turn (well, except I went further down to
 the toilets and a tap and back) and back again!!

The climb out of Jenolan is a killer (I don't like "running" down it, but my tired legs complained equally about trudging back up it....and even the soggy wraps (rather worse for wear for their river dunking) I ate didn't make it much better. Finally I crested the steepest bit of the climb and summoned up a run/walk back to the road crossing. From there I decided to make the best of it and run the flats and downhills and not be bothered if I had to walk the climbs. To be honest, I hadn't realised how much of the middle portion of the run had been uphill on the way out - yes the long steep climbs were unmissable, but trail I'd berated myself for run-walking along as it was "flat" now showed itself as being downhill on the return leg, so I managed to get into quite a good running rhythm for several kilometres. 

No wonder there seems to be little "flat" running!!

The big long downhills weren't the fun I'd expected them to be as it was now raining again and so they were very rough, slippery and muddy......and did seem to go on forever! A few 4WDs passed me on those climbs and descents, and I guess they wondered if I'd actually escaped from a local psych hospital (actually, if there had been one nearby I'd probably have checked myself in!!). It was a relief when it flattened out on the approach to the river again, but as the thunder and lightening was back, I decided that a swim was a lesser evil than the chance of being electrocuted if I took the alternative high bridge option. 

What made the swim back funnier (or scarier depending on how you look at it) was the fact that my right leg cramped up as soon as I hit the deep water and so I had to do a wonky one-legged swim to avoid getting taken away downstream. On climbing back up away from the river on the other side I knew I was just counting down the kms now and would surely make it. I tried to take it easy and made sure that I ate all my remaining food as I moved along the valley floor as "what goes up must come down".....or in my case, "what you have come down, you must go back up" and so I knew that the final few kms would be a killer. 

Those steps were never-ending!!

The climb back up through Nellie's Glen to the plateau didn't disappoint me in its toughness....how my legs hated me but using my hands to work my quads certainly helped, as did just looking a few steps ahead of me so that I didn't get despondent about how far I still had to go. It was such a relief to get to the top of the steps, but I proved to myself how easy it is to forget that what seems a very short run down a steep forestry road, is actually a fairly long climb back out. Instead of "false summits" on a mountain, this road had "false corners" when you could almost swear that you were there. Still, the corners meant that I actually came across the final gate all of a sudden and lay down on the picnic bench at the top to gather myself. 

I'd actually made it back way quicker than Julian and I had thought so he was still in the pub down the road, but luckily my phone came back to life just enough for me to message him for a pickup and very welcome coffee and ice cream - what a day!!! I also managed to message my friend to say that I would not be doing any more crazy runs that she suggests, and she surprised me by saying that I didn't need to, as unbeknown to me, I had just set the FKT (Fastest Known Time) for that route - phew........never again!!!