Hidden in the Blue Mountains, at Clarence NSW lies the currently abandoned Clarence train station. The area is heavily affected by the NSW bush fires of earlier 2020. The bush fires destroyed a large part of the Blue Mountain forest, including the touristy train ride. While most of the track is currently off-limits, we found an accessible part. This part became the set of yet another running adventure. For a bit of background on the tracks, Visit Australia has comprehensive writeup.
A small word of note here: this write up is in no way an endorsement to run or walk here. The path is dangerous, and there’s a high chance of falling trees, resulting in injuries or worse. Our advice is to NOT go here just yet, and wait for the trails to reopen.
With the track mostly closed, the Zig Zag trail is currently a very lightly trafficked route. This is especially true in the current (winter) season. At a height of 3500 feet / 1000m+, the temperature was close to zero. It was the first time in close to 10 years that one of us saw snow on the Australian mainland. While the track consists of a considerable portion of challenging train track, the snow added another dimension to our running experience. Luckily the sun broke through at times, and at moments like that, it was a blessing to run.
Since the start of the trail is no longer there, it took us a bit longer to find a good route to run. And even when we found a semi accessible part, the trail was extremely challenging but stunning at times. Most of the track is gone, so we were left to our imagination how to run.
Thanks to Alltrails and my Garmin Fenix 6 watch, we had sort of an idea of the trail. After several wrong turns (which seems to become a bit of our specialty) and wrong climbs, we had a bit of an idea where to go. A large section of the track is on the rail tracks itself, which is another reason to not go here unless you know what you’re doing. It’s hard, and it’s dangerous.
Was this run then a total disaster? Absolutely not. Running with the two of us on tracks, between abandoned train wagons, was amazing. With the snow in our face, and finding our support photographer on the way was an amazing experience. We will remember this for a long time, and it made the 2-hour car trip more than worth it.
The trail took us through burned down patches of forest, along slippery single tracks up and down the mountains. And most of all, a very challenging train track, full with loose pebbles and other obstacles. In summary; extremely technical and challenging, but amazing to be part of.
Finishing off with a healthy and well-deserved pizza and cider (btw, speaking of pizza: check out Pizza and Ultras. It’s a thing, and it’s magical!) at the Hillbilly Cider Shed. The Cider Shed is an amazing place for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic refreshments. It provides an excellent pairing with pizza. We’re sure the running played some part in this, but it was one of the best pizzas we’ve recently experienced! It certainly provided enough fuel for our 2-hour drive home. We’re slightly blistered, but toughened up, and many experiences richer.
Hopefully it’s obvious that this week’s photos are of much higher quality in this episode of our trail running report. All credits of the photos go to our new photographer, Blake Ong, who joined us in our trail adventure and will hopefully join us in future adventures. Check out his Instagram for more amazing shots!
