Kanangra to Katoomba(K2K) in a day

[St_Cook]

August 3, 2024, Saturday

This was a cold winter morning. It was my third time at Kanangra and my second attempt at the K2K hike, a challenging winter trek. Just like our first K2K hike on October 15, 2023, when it took us 19 hours to reach Scenic World, we were a three-person team.

We left Parramatta at 2 AM and reached the starting point in just under 3.5h. On the way, we hit a dead wombat (the three of us who were awake in the car screamed when we saw it) and encountered countless kangaroos and rabbits (one sudden brake almost gave us a heart attack). The temperature outside the car showed -2°C. Since we arrived early and the sun hadn't risen yet, and with the Blue Mountains having only level 2 light pollution, the sky was filled with stars.

We took 2h10min to reach Gabes Gap, 30min slower than the first time, because we wanted to take photos of the sunrise and sea of clouds. It took us 4h to reach Mt Cloudmaker, 40min slower than the first time. The first section had many fallen trees, overgrown bushes, and grass. I almost sprained my right ankle while passing a pile of rocks.

I won't go into much detail about the first section since it's relatively easy and many people have done it.

After signing the logbook, we continued to Dex Creek. This part was manageable, although we went off-track for a small section. We reached Dex Creek in 5h. This time, the creek had clear flowing water, unlike the previous visit when it was dry. Due to the cold weather, we didn't need to refill our bottles. After walking 200m uphill to the north, we encountered the first forest. The path was still visible here. After passing through this forest and reaching the second forest, the trail disappeared until we reached an open area before Mt Moorilla Maloo, where you can see Harris Hill.

We reached Mt Strongleg in 8h. The descent from Mt Strongleg was quite different from the first time, with many new bushes along the path. The last 200-300m to the bottom were still pathless. It took us 10h to reach the Cox. The river area hadn't changed much, except that Kanangra Creek now had flowing water. We refilled our bottles there as the water quality was better than the Cox.

We met two guys camping and fishing by the river. They said we could cross the river to the south, but it was too deep and cold, with high water levels (0.32m at Kelpie Point) and a strong current. So, we walked nearly 1k north and found a fallen tree to cross the river. It took us 2h from reaching the river to crossing it, and it was already dark.

The uphill path had several zigzag turns, and we could choose to take a direct, steeper shortcut. Though shorter, it was tiring. 2.5h, we reached the top of Mt Yellow Dog. We placed our phones on the ground to take photos of the stars and the Milky Way. I don't know why, but the photos taken with my iPhone had only a two-second exposure time, so they weren't very clear.

The remaining path was visible but required us to use our poles to push aside the grass to avoid losing the way. We often had to avoid sharp branches sticking out from above and below. It took us another 3h to reach Mobbs Swamp, where we found the campsite expanded with a new luxury toilet. However, the path to Medlow Gap was still narrow and wet.

After hiking for 21h, we reached the base of Narrow Neck. We struggled to find the path and took nearly an hour to find the route up Clear Hill. The final stretch was a 10k fire trail to Lock Gate. In the last few kilometers, I started seeing hallucinations of bushes everywhere, a sign of exhaustion. We reached the car just before sunrise, with many people already at the starting point preparing to run. We were extremely tired but relieved to have completed the hike safely.

I hope more people will challenge this route in the future. Doing it over 2, 3, or 4 days would be much easier, and you wouldn't have to wake up so early.

[Allchin09]

Wow, sounds like an epic - thanks for sharing! I've also had hallucinations walking that Narrow Neck firetrail at the end of a long walk before dawn so can relate.

[sandym]

Great report and well done. So 2 hours more than your last time? Is that due to conditions, that is regrowth, getting worse? Were you able to remember much of the route from your last trip, although given much was done in darkness which would make that difficult.

[St_Cook]

Great report and well done. So 2 hours more than your last time? Is that due to conditions, that is regrowth, getting worse? Were you able to remember much of the route from your last trip, although given much was done in darkness which would make that difficult.

Thank you! It took nearly 5 hours longer than the first time. The grass was much denser, there were more fallen trees, and crossing the Cox also wasted a lot of time. Once I've walked a route, I don't need navigation for the second time, except for the Dex Creek-Cox section where I still needed to follow the navigation. There were some faint paths on the other parts, so I didn't need navigation. I might go again this Saturday to attempt my personal FKT.

[St_Cook]

Wow, sounds like an epic - thanks for sharing! I've also had hallucinations walking that Narrow Neck firetrail at the end of a long walk before dawn so can relate.

A very bright headlamp is essential, without it, it’s hard to see, and hallucinations can occur.

[sandym]

. I might go again this Saturday to attempt my personal FKT.

Respect.

[Hoojar]

I have walked K2K in a day a few times (I think 2005, 2006 and 2008). I always thought that 'hisorically' it is walked on the Father's Day Weekend, as it has a good balance of daylight and temperature. I could be wrong though. I certainly walked it one Father's Day Weekend and there were four sepatare parties on the trail.

[Allchin09]

Sydney Bush Walkers (SBW) for many years was walking it the 1st Saturday of September. This mostly (but not always) aligns with the Fathers Day weekend (as that's on the first Sunday of September).