Then she tells me, “Not that one.” She was eyeing up another much bigger one that went up Mt Graham, then Mt Freycinet, and then around the perimeter of the peninsula and then came back to Wineglass over the isthmus. Uh, that looked pretty far, but I do like the views from a big hill and it was a clear, blue day. I agreed to at least go to the top of Mt Graham and then see if we felt like coming directly back or taking the long way, which is about four times as far. We'd need an early start.
The climb up the northeastern face from the beach wasn’t too bad, except for the steep part right near the summit. Most of it was at a reasonable ten percent grade, which is definitely uphill, but not like climbing an endless staircase like some of our more recent trails have been.
Climbing up from the beach - with plenty of opportunities to enjoy the views
When we got to the top, we were rewarded with clear views fifty miles in each direction. We decided it was early enough and we were still feeling perky enough to consider going home the long way.
A study of the map revealed that there were almost no prolonged stretches of uphill along the whole route. It was a long way, but it would all be varying degrees of downhill the whole time. Off we went.
The route down the west face was so much steeper than the way up. Each step was a down big drops, many waist high. It was the kind of descending that is almost as hard as going up. By the time the trail finally levelled off at the saddle between Mt. Graham and Mt. Freycinet we had what Maryanne calls “Jelly Legs”. Turning to look at the wall behind us, we knew there was no way we were going home by going back that way. Our only choice was to push on.
It was on this stretch that we started to encounter several backpackers going the other way. They do a slightly longer version of the loop as a two-and-a-half day trek. They were all heading for the campground at the beach where Begonia was anchored for the night. We didn’t envy them climbing that killer stretch to the top of Mt. Graham with those heavy packs.
One of the funniest things we saw was a guy who, like us, had decided to do the whole loop in one day, saying that his friends at his campsite were all too hung over after New Year’s to want to join him. He correctly guessed we were on a day hike based on our one small pack between the two of us and only a couple of water bottles. This guy had just a tiny pack and was practically running everything that wasn’t too steep. The funny part was that for refreshment, he was carrying a carton of soy milk in one hand. Soy milk? I’ve done a few endurance events in my day and I have never seen anybody sucking down soy milk.
We saw him pause at the trail junction for the spur to the summit of Mt. Freycinet for a few seconds and then go bounding up it into the trees. When Maryanne and I got there, it looked like a mirror image of the trail we had just come down, so we decided to skip it and save our energy for the rest of the loop.
Maryanne had a head start on me while I packed up after our lunch, saying she was starting to get sore and knew she would be slow, it was better for her to keep moving. I arose on creaky bones myself, so I expected it to take longer than she thought for me to catch her. Soy Milk Guy passed me again an hour after his descent from Freycinet. He looked as fresh as ever. I decided to keep pace with him until we caught Maryanne. That was good exercise, but there was no way I was going to keep up that pace for the rest of the day. Looking at the map, I couldn’t help but notice that we were still going away from the boat.
Downhill was TOUGH - but we were very glad to finally make it to the beach at Promise Bay
At length, we finally made it back to sea level and joined the coast trail on the opposite side of the peninsula from Begonia. We made it to the southern end of the Promise Bay beach just as a cold rain started falling. We were both starting to feel pretty miserable by then, but were very glad the beach was nice firm sand and not the soft, hard-going stuff.
Crossing the isthmus back to Wineglass Bay - at least it was relatively flat
By the time we traversed the isthmus track, we were that all-over-sore that made the final staircase to the beach look like an unnecessarily cruel impediment. Our legs and backs barked at every step. Whew! Now all we had to do was walk the two-mile long beach.
Or did we? I had been keeping track of our progress and had noticed that we had just completed a half marathon since leaving this morning. If we went back the way we came…
Maryanne patiently heard me out and then started down the beach, presumably because it was getting too late in the day to finish the other half in daylight. She has a point.
When we got back to the dinghy, we both stood there staring at it for a while. What the hell are we going to do now? I offered to talk her through launching it. She offered to hold my head underwater until the pain stopped. We decided to compromise and let me row back after we both launch the dinghy together. It wasn’t so bad. The trip was downwind and those muscles hadn’t been used for hiking.
After little exercise since leaving QLD - I may have taken on a bit too much combining distance and altitude. We were certainly glad to arrive back at Begonia!
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