I Was Being Humbled By Country, But Listening to the Signs Helped Me Avoid Potential Disaster on the Trail

During a week of exploring the Grampians with his two-and-a-half-year-old son, Josh found himself in over his head on a trail that he’d underestimated. It took listening to the signs for him to find the real success of the day – turning around.

We Are Explorers acknowledges that this adventure is located on the traditional Country of the Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali peoples who have occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them as the Traditional Custodians and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

With all the gear packed (kid carrier, water, snacks, first aid kit, and Teddy) my son Huey and I set off on the 2.5km return hike to Hollow Mountain in the Grampians. The pièce de résistance of our day in the mountains.

Hollow Mountain gives breathtaking views of the Wimmera to the north and the Grampians to the south, and is home to some of the Grampians’ most iconic climbing routes, which I was keen for Huey to see.

Together we’ve walked, run, and biked plenty of trails. But this one was different. It literally stopped me in my tracks and made me take a hard look at how I measure a successful day on the trail. Stopping for a quick scan of the signage at the trailhead, I noticed something that wasn’t the norm for an easy toddler-friendly day hike, and became the first of many alarm bells ringing in my head.

The Time to Distance Ratio

I’ve been running with my son in the pram since he was born. So I loosely use that framework (5km = 30 minutes) as a baseline for measuring how much time is needed for an adventure. On this occasion the sign at the trailhead said 2.5km = two hours. Sure we weren’t running this time, so 15 minutes was totally unreasonable. But 90 minutes should be more than enough, I thought.

Alarm bell one.

Underestimating Heat and Exposure

For anyone who’s partaken in any form of outdoor activity on bare rock, you’ll know how hot it can get, even on a mild day. The day we were out enjoying our hike was nothing crazy, about 27°C, but the heat radiating off of the rock path made it feel a lot hotter.

My calculations for how much water we needed were far finer than I’d normally like to play it.

Alarm bell two.

Read more: How to Hike in Hot Weather

Reactions of Other Hikers

Although it wasn’t peak hiking season, there were still a bunch of people out enjoying the trails. The trail we were on definitely isn’t considered tough by Grampians standards, but the further we went, the more we came across hikers who’d seemingly been caught off guard by how steep and exposed the trail was. Some had even turned around.

How would I be able to ascend, and more importantly descend, with a kid and supplies on my back?

Alarm bell three.

Tough Terrain

For the first half, the trail was immaculately groomed with a wide and smooth surface and well-spaced stairs. But that changed quickly. Soon the smooth gravelly surface gave way to uneven, undulating, and at times, unrecognisable, rocky terrain, which involved more scrambling than traditional hiking. Not something that’s easy to do with a kid on your back, particularly if a simple fall can have major consequences.

Bing bing bing bing! Alarm bells and red flags were going off inside my head.

We found a spot to have a drink and discuss our next move.

As we sat there pondering, a group of climbers came down the track, having already been out for their day’s climb.

‘Nice work to get this far, little fella’, one of them said to my two-and-a-half-year-old who was sitting in the shade of an overhanging rock face.

It suddenly all became clear to me.

We enjoyed our drink and snacks and chatted to other people as they passed. Then we packed our gear up, I loaded Huey into the kid carrier, and we started our slow descent back to the trailhead.

Read more: Remember to Leave No Trace

As we successfully descended the last of the steep scrambles and my son requested to walk by himself, the real success of the day became clear. In my pre-dad years, getting to the summit or the end of the trail was the only option I’d consider. Anything else was, well, a failure.

But as my son and I chatted about reading the signs around you and listening to Country, it was now apparent that success wasn’t, in fact, reaching the summit. It was something far more valuable.

This trail showed my son that real success is being able to read the signs and being happy with the decision you made, whether it’s turning back or maybe not going at all.

As we approached the trailhead again, I felt an overwhelming joy that I’d made the right decision and that my son understood why.

Continuing the Tradition of Learning on Country

As we’d cut our hike short, we had time up our sleeve to walk an easier trail to Gulgurn Manha Shelter. As we made out the artwork on the walls, we noticed a number of small ochre-coloured hands spread throughout the cave. Somewhat unique to this site, it’s believed the artworks were likely made by young people or children.

Were they here to listen and learn from Country and their Elders? Did they leave here with important knowledge to see them through life? In the case of my son and me, yes. Country spoke, we listened, and we learnt a valuable lesson that we’ll both take with us.

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