Jake Smith (Jake)

Track Towns and Supplies

• How many days did you stay in Track Towns? 3
• Did you have any issues finding food/supplies? No
• I posted food drops for main meals and most breakfasts, using the track towns to stock up on lunches and snacks as I walked.

Particular Track Towns that you would return to:

• Kalamunda
• Dwellingup
• Balingup
• Donnelly River Village
• Pemberton
• Walpole
• Denmark

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Your Story or Advice for Others

General Comments
After a few years of sedentary living studying Master’s, the Bib was the perfect disconnect and reset. Everything I had hoped it would be.

Your Best Equipment
Aarn Featherlite Freedom pack: game changer. Believe the hype. My osprey pack is purely storage now. 18kg in the Aarn genuinely feels lighter than 14kg in the Osprey. Zero back compaints the entire track

Your Worst Equipment
Sawyer Squeeze. Dodgy out the box (rubber rings falling out each re-fill), and entirely unusable by Collie (leaking from the mid-seam and no longer filtering). Picked up a lifestraw peak which saw me through til Albany - much better despite the inferior reputation.

Advice for Others
If in doubt - hike the Bib.

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Trip Details

How you completed the Bibbulmun Track:

• All at once

• How many days did it take you to complete the Track? 46
• Who did you complete the Track with? Solo (primarily)
• Was undertaking your hike the PRIMARY/MAIN purpose of your TRAVEL from where you currently live? Yes
• What first prompted you to walk the Bibbulmun Track? Word of mouth/friends
  

What did you use to navigate the Track?

• App (please specify)
• - The Bibbulmun Track App by Findyourfun. Fantastic!

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Your Experience

• Availability of information: Great - Shout out the trail angels I met at the first hut out of Kalamunda - you guys gave me a great intro to the BTF and insights for the hike itself.
• Amount of Wildlife Encountered: Great - The tawny owl on my night walk by Beedelup; the emu families out of Collie, vibrant blue wrens galore and the angry dugite that had serious beef with me on my final day at Sandpatch :’)

Favourite Section
1) Kalamunda - Dwellingup 2) Walpole - Denmark 3) Northcliffe - Walpole

Highlight of your trip
My favourite day of hiking was Frankland to Rame Head, via Giants. Most diverse day of scenery on the Track; moving from river’s edge, through the Valley of the Giants, before popping out to a double rainbow over conspicuous cliffs. Simply magic. Bizarrely, the day I had to swim out of Pemberton and bush bash what would later become the flood diversion was also up there - memorable carnage! Alls well that ends well. Special shout out to Mia, Hayley, Paul and Terry, who made great companions at various stages.

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