Kingiman Ridge

Garmin, Strava, and likely most other apps and devices that track your activities also gamify everything. Perhaps a whatever works strategy is good given how difficult it is to motivate modern humans to live as humans not zoo animals. Personally, I don’t need gamification for motivation as every time I do something I think, I wonder if I could go further, farther longer. Doug and I have been riding the new trails on the weekends and every weekend now is a mission to do more distance and elevation gain than the weekend before. I think a good goal is to hit 1000 metres of vertical which we used to consider minimums back in my days skiing with the Kootenay Mountaineering Club (I doubt anyone does minimums in the new old KMC now).

My original plans for Monday were scarpered by strong winds – gale force winds, the ocean was quite a sight to see - so I opted instead for a long run day. My long run days are pretty sporadic, in fact, the last was over a month ago when I jogged around the Durras Mountain circuit on a stormy day. Somehow, by dint of keeping active, I manage to be able to run a reasonable amount “off the couch” although, of course, it’s not really off the couch as I frequently run the local 5 km Park Run and do some type of self-powered activity every day. It’s gratifying, however, to be able to complete a decent distance at zone 2 in a reasonable time anytime I feel like it and not be crippled the next day. That really is the goal of training: to be able to say “I’m in” at a moments notice.

Almost every time I drive to Sydney I think about taking a side trip along Kingiman Ridge on the way back, but, heading south, as I drive through Ulladulla and all I can think about is getting back home. I can, however, drive to Kingiman Road in under an hour from home which put a run along the road well into the acceptable “drive to adventure ratio.” Not sure what condition the road would be in and it being a very, very windy day, I parked right at the junction of Kingiman Road and Woodstock Road and headed off.

The first couple of kilometres to a junction with a road servicing a bunch of properties down near Boyne Creek was a very firm good gravel road, but beyond that junction, the road runs through deep forest with patches of rain forest, ferns and palms in wet areas, and big boulders along the road side. It was a pleasant forest run, even with the howling wind in the trees above, mostly heading north until the road makes a turn to the east and traverses around below the short cliffs of Mount Kingiman.

I thought I might find a bit of a track heading up Mount Kingiman but nothing appeared and as I was dressed for running not bushwacking I passed on the final 100 metre vertical scrub bash to the top and turned about. It’s possible to follow a gated fire trail down to Jindelara Creek, and, if you keep going west you’ll pass Pigeon House Mountain and eventually come out at Yadboro. If you could convince someone to run in the opposite direction, and swap car keys, that would be a good one way trip.

Back at the Princes Highway, I was only about five minutes drive from Ulladulla so I drove out to Warden Head to view the spectacular of the big storm blowing through. As you can see from the photo, the surf breakout would take some power endurance!