1000 Steps, Dandenong

The 1000 Steps located in Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne is, at least on a pleasant day, a frenetic place to train or to even take a stroll as many seem to do, but there is good reason for it's popularity. The narrow stairs are, in places, hardly the width of two shoulders passing one another. There are regular gaps in the handrail to allow climbers a place of respite out of the way of the other stair-goers and water often collects on the trail making it extraordinarily slippery. It is, however, a beautiful trail. Ferns expand in either direction beneath the great eucalypts. Moss collects on fallen logs. Birds twitter and call and sometimes even flit across the path to hide in the undergrowth almost within reach of it. Through the trees, there is the most beautiful view. It is always slightly cooler and damper than the car park below.

It takes me approximately 15 minutes to scale the steps carrying packed weight. There is another 15 or so minute walk to get to the base of the steps from the car park which I tend to trot down afterward to get back to my car, pack bouncing against my back. I am not a fast climber by any means but I do not stop except for the occasional step aside to allow another significantly faster person to pass me. It is more important that I work on my endurance and longevity than to run to the top with many little breaks. Carrying a bag tends to slow me down. Newly back into training, today I carried 8 litres of water plus my day pack, a couple of bananas, wallet, keys, phone, fleece jacket and wet wipes. Around 9-9.5kgs in all carried up and down that muddy stair case 3 times over. Before Nepal, I was carrying between 16-18kgs and climbing the stairs 3 or 4 times but today was a good reintroduction. I only carried around 5kg here a few weeks ago and I hardly had the leg strength then to go down those slippery steps the second time, they shook so much from the exertion. I let myself get well out of practice.

It never ceases to amaze me the number of small children climbing the steps. Pint size 3 or 4 year olds, perhaps even younger, that really haul arse up that stair case quicker than some of the adults with legs 3 or 4 times the length of their own. Mum or Dad, brother or sister, aunt or uncle following dutifully behind them, maybe with a baby in a front or back carrier. Usually in casual clothes and not leggings and sweat shirts.

People that visit the 1000 Steps for the experience and people that go there to exercise are readily discernable, even in the car park, the latter looking as they would if they were walking through the doors of their gym and not a walk through the bush. Both carry water most of the time. Tension sometimes exists between these two groups.

Those that have come for the exercise do not usually block the stairs and almost always step off to the side to rest if they need to but they can be inpatient to pass other climbers, especially those that run the track even though they are not supposed to. Conversely, casually clothed persons are sometimes slow and very unaware, causing mass congestion by failing to remove themselves from the narrow stair when they are tired or want to take a photo. They can also be seen wearing the most inappropriate footwear: ballerina slippers or high heeled boots, ugg boots with foam soles. Anything that looks like it is not made to walk through the prospect of mud or lacks traction on the sole should be avoided in winter, it is just too muddy and slippery as my blackened legs could attest. Then there are people like myself that carry a day or full hiking pack and usually wear hiking shoes or boots. Occasionally, someone will have a single hiking pole, or a pair, or a stick pulled from the undergrowth. These can form a trip hazard for other walkers although I see benefit in descending with one as it can be very slippery and there is not always a handrail available on the left.

While the first climb is always anonymous, the serious trainers are the faces with which you become familiar because they, like you, are climbing the steps multiple times. The guy in the superman t-shirt. The woman in the increasingly muddy red sneakers. The person hand carrying free weights or wearing a weight vest or a day pack. Not all are thin and wiry, I most certainly am not, but enough are to kind of wish you were too. Just look at the definition of those calves on their third trip past you!

I don't usually find people training alone to be rude or obstructive. Personally, it is those climbing the steps in groups, even in pairs, that I find frustrating. The faster party will scoot past you and then you have to pass them again as they wait for their friend. Or the group rests together, only there is not space enough off the path to do so, so they obstruct some of the narrow pathway causing congestion. They are also harder to overtake going downhill as they are reluctant to separate but they descend slower because they are talking and one is constantly turning back.

There is something endearing about the place, though, even for all the foot traffic. Weekends are busy but they are also the only time that I can train there as I have to commute from the more Northern suburbs. I know that I should just go earlier, it becomes increasingly difficult to find a car park in the afternoon. I need to work on my love of sleep. Speaking of which, I need to right now. I'm riding my bike to work in the morning (it's only a measly 9k or so) and that's always better done rested than not or I become dreadfully forgetful.

There are still more Everest Circuit Rerouted to be posted for those interested.