You Yangs bush bash

After a short run around the river with the dogs I drove out to the
You Yangs for some hilly trails. Took a loaded camelbak and had on
the Hardrocks but felt really tired and stiff to start off. Decided
to try the foot trails as opposed to the open gravel roads. Came upon
an intersection and chose the uphill direction on a path called
"Urinal Wall", I kid you not. Not far in and I came across some rock
climbers. Well, trainee climbers. I said hello and went straight up
the side of the rock face they were attached to by ropes. The only
problem was there was no trail when I reached the top of the rocks.
Choice: back down past the climbers looking like a dwebe or push on
through the scrub and pick up another trail or road higher up. There
are lots of trails and roads and the whole park is not that big with
a circumferential road so I wasn't worried about getting lost.

Well there wasn't any trail or road up there. Up, up I went. I was
making slow progress but figured there would be a trail at the summit
so kept going. There were sharp thorny shrubs everywhere. Bugger. It
was a secondary summit. I was a long way across from the real peak. I
stopped to eat a summer-roll. I worked out where I needed to go and
just scrambled the best I could until I was in open ground and could
get to a road. Took the best part of an hour to cover 1km. Good
training for the Barkley if I ever lost the plot and entered it. My
legs looked like I had been fighting with a tom-cat and lost.

Picked up a really good tempo on the open road and with the gentle
downhill gradient found myself clicking off 4 min ks. Hit a trail
that lead up to the summit and climbed to the peak. Really hammered
the downhill and wound it up again around the base of the hill back
to the car. 3 1/2 hours of hot trail. I think I should be recording
time not distance. Either way, I was surprised how strong I finished
after feeling so sluggish at the start. Maybe there's hope for me yet?