Walking Journal and Walking Stories

What littlek said!

Good morning, tsar & fellow walkers ..

I think perhaps I did reach some kind of walking nirvana last night .. or complete relaxation, or some ultimate state of tiredness, or something .. almost fell asleep at my keyboard & have no recollection of anything after my head hit the pillow. What a sleep that was!

Tsar, I've always understood "Indian summer" as a belated spell of post-summer weather. Like when the seasons should have changed, but (amazingly!) haven't. In the Indian (as in India) sense. But maybe I made that up?

Yes, the lost dog in that woman's arms was a lovely, gentle little critter. He looked rather pleased to be in that situation, actually, so I wondered if he'd been dumped, poor thing. I felt for the woman (who was last seen knocking on doors). I related like crazy. That's the sort of situation I usually find myself in - with cats. But I felt very confident that the dog would be properly looked after ... & very relieved that it wasn't me, for a change, stuck in that sort of situation late on a Saturday afternoon. I have this strong feeling that that woman now has two dogs! K, yes, every single dog I met was a happy tail wagger! You'd have loved meeting them, too! They certainly enjoyed the extra attention.

OK (the rest of you can scroll now ), here's the list of DVDs I chose, tsar. I have no idea of whether they're any good or not. Totally unknown quantities.:
Days of Being Wild - Korean film. ("A masterpiece of contemporary cinema" (! ) )
Scoop - A woody Allen I've somehow missed.
Corroboree - ("a haunting experience of intense beauty & restraint. A must for anyone who loves cinema" (!) ) Australian.
The Girl in the Cafe - BBC film -for a bit of light balance!

Do come over anytime, tsar! There is enough chicken, lentil, pumpkin & spinach curry to last a week, at least! Any other hungry walkers are most welcome, too. Bring Tupperware containers for takeaways!

Today: a slighter less challenging, more relaxed walk would be a good idea, I think!

Good morning Madamoiselle!

Days of Being Wild : I don't think I have ever seen this one but the director, Kar Wai Wong is one of my favorite director's of all time. He's a master of cinematography: light and color in his films are breathtaking.

Scoop: I really liked this underrated Woody Allen ghost story/comedy. Scarlett Johansson is quite talented and it shows in this one.

The Girl in the Cafe: What a cute political romantic comedy!

Oh good!
They could have been a bunch duds for all I knew!

Good evening to you, tsar!

I did the same walk as last weekend today. No Snapping Turtle this time. We did see some opened lady slippers. I also brought a booklet about the sites on the historic trail so I could dish out some history. We saw wild sarsaparilla all over the place!

After our more than 1.5 hour hike, four of us wanted to walk farther. So, we set off toward one of the reservoirs. We wandered around and started to loop back when one of us saw smoke. When we went to investigate we saw a tree on fire. It was a big, sick hemlock - maybe 35-40 tall. It had broken at its base and tipped back against a neighboring tree. The bark was loose and the embers were crawling up between it and the old wood. We called the police, but had little hope they'd get anyone out there. So with our pint-sized water bottles we started filling up at the reservoir which was only a few steps away. We doused repeatedly and kicked the fallen bark into the path (out of the underbrush. We licked out the flames, but not all the embers. Hopefully that was enough.

The odd thing was that it had just started. We'd been by that way and didn't notice smoke. Very nearby was park ranger truck with a boat trailer which had backed up to the waters edge. The ranger and boat were gone. We saw that empty truck coming and going.

Any speculations? Perhaps the ranger was off chasing someone who had been doing something unlawful and that person chucked his cigarette before he raced off in his own boat....?

The handy-dandy reservoir (spot pond)


The burning tree

Oh, that shouldn't have happened in such a peaceful place, k! Not right!
(I have this mental picture of you all trying to put out the flames using your little water bottles. )
I hope this didn't completely spoil your walk.



I hope you can share some of that with us, on your future walks, too!

I agree.... too peaceful a spot for a random fire. It was a funny image even to me as we battle the blaze one pint at a time. Well, it wasn't ever really a blaze, but...

The history: The whole area started to be developed with industry in the early 1700s. Speculators came to find suitable places to run water-powered mills. The found good water supplies and sufficient elevation drop offs to make this area work for them. The portion of the Fells we were in is 7 miles from down-town Boston, yet it seemed to be nearly wilderness to the settlers then (at least the booklet I have makes one think so). In this part of the wood there are stone walls that once marked the edges of farmland (which are all over the forests of New England) and stone foundations of mills and homes as well as graded roads.

The oldest mill the booklet tells about is a grist mill where grains were ground. The millers forced water to greater speed by lining the natural stream bed with stone to channel the waters (headrace). Water wheel turned a series of cogs and gears to move the mill stone. Later, near the end of the 1700s, a man named Bucknam built a dam to make a mill pond. The dam served as a bridge for a road as well. Water was forced again and fell some height then turning a wheel that lay flat in the water rather than standing vertically. The housing that the wheel sat in is still recognizable (though I don't have a photo of it).


Next up, slightly down river, was another mill pond which sits right atop a gorge - quite a steep drop for the area. A smaller bridge is here and the water wheel was a vertical one with water forced over the top of it.


Downstream and into more recent times comes a rubber mill co-owned by Goodyear (as in tires). He funneled the water under his factory. Look at these walls! They were built in the late 1800s. The arch at the bottom is where the water was forced under the factory. Or where it exited the factory.


In the late 1800s a large portion of this area was donated by a family as conservation land in memory of a young daughter who died. The rest of the reserve has been cobbled together over time.

These mill ponds are set in a mixed wood forest which includes hemlocks. the pamphlet speaks about the wonderful old hemlocks, one of the biggest and healthiest and oldest groves in the area. They are unfortunately all likely to die soon due to a fungal disease. Maybe some will survive.

Any storms? could it be lightening strike? the fact that the tree has been blown off its stump would indicate a lighning strike

Our local government have been developing a rail trail walking track. eventually it is hoped to extend the trail all the way to melbourne.
the first 4 km is ready for use.
Last weekend mumpad and i walked much of the 4 km. so in total 8 km.


Most of the tree that can be seen in the photos are Redgums. Euc camaldulensis




Grasslands dotted with trees is typical of the area




Butterfly on a plantain



Kookaburra sit in the old gum tree


The trail cuts through farmland here you can see barbed wire fencing in the forground


Just to throw your seasons off some holly berries growing beside the trail. Holly is not a native.


Back in town some art work created by local Autistic students



Sunset after a great day


Photos by MUMPAD

That looks a terrific walk, dadpad. (Great photographs, Mumpdad! )

What's the rough time-line on the completion of the track? It'd be wonderful to do the walk (well, part of it, anyway) starting from the other end!

Our section is supposed to open in June/july. I was mistaken it goes all the way to Seymour.
A branch line will link it to Alexandra and the Township of Eildon
The ulitmate vision is a route stretching across Mitchell, Murrindindi and Mansfield Shires linking the various townships together with over 130 km of trail.

It still sounds a wonderful walk, though.
Could be a great inspiration for a weekend "up the bush"!

I agree and it could be all done in stages or over a series of weekends.
Drive to Seymour walk to Yea one wekend catch the bus por walk back
Drive to Yea walk to Alex and/or eildon next week end.

somewhere i have pics of some/one of the tunnels along the line.

Yea to Bonnie doon is a big 2 day walk i think so stay overnight at Yark or molesworth, maybe camp along the golbourne river somewhere. Dont you love Yark, It sounds like a crows call...... Yaaaaaarrrrk

Chevoit tunnel. on the rail line between Yea and Manfield


I also note there have been calls to join the healsville Yarra glen rail trail project with our Goulborne river project, using some of the infrastructure (bridges) built for the north south pipeline.

Dadpad - that is great!

Yes, a terrific name for a tiny town, dp! Probably heaps of crows there, too!

as are yours littlek. We tend to forget that ordinary is exotic to others.
When I see your pics I particularily like the difference in forest structure and land formation and how it all fits together. There doent have to be some built environment (like walls), Although thats just as interesting.

When can you come and stay here?

Thanks to mumpad and littlek for brightening our day . . . across the planet!

I'd love to visit Australia again! I remember being up in Northern NSW and asking my host what tree is that? And that? What kind of plant is this? Why does that tree trunk do that? It got annoying for him. Then I realized that I wouldn't be able to answer those questions, necessarily, if he was here on my turf. So, I started paying better attention.

Looks good, dp.

Good pics, K