Route: Bruce's Walk

History

Bruce’s Walk was originally built as a maintenance track for power transmission lines in 1931 and designed by A. Bruce, the tracks namesake. Upon completion it was quickly promoted as a walking trail with a pamphlet circulated to advertise the walk. From World War II onward the track fell into disrepair and was forgotten.

A local man named Dick Rushton found a copy of the old pamphlet and set about clearing and marking the track and in 1980 led a party of walkers through the section between Bullaburra and Wentworth Falls and in 1983 wrote a guidebook for the track.

In 1986 Jim Smith and Wilf Hilder organised volunteers to again clear and mark the sections of the track between Bullaburra and Wentworth Falls and it was officially opened on May 26 of that year by Alderman David Lawton however this was condemned by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Mayor of the Blue Mountains City Council. Later that year the stretches of track from Wentworth Falls to Medlow Bath were also cleared by volunteers and subsequently opened.

The Track

Currently the track is patchy, largely without signposts and crosses multiple creeks, maintenance trails, roads and other single tracks. For the purpose of this FKT, and for convenience, the trail begins and ends at the Lawson and Medlow bath train stations.

East to West is the more difficult route with a net gain in elevation. While running West to East is a net loss you will still be adequately challenged. When running East to West the run begins at the Northern exit of the Lawson Train Station and ends at the Eastern exit of the Medlow Bath Train Station just west of St Albans Road. Reverse this if you wish to run the opposite direction. 

Following directions using a GPX file on a device will make navigating the trail much easier due to the mass of trails and roads it crosses. While the trail does follow the power lines you, unlike the power lines, will be descending and ascending steep and technical trails, crossing creeks and scrambling up rocky slopes. In between these features there is fire trail and road you might try a steady run on (provided it isn’t too steep). When travelling East to West the route finishes on a road with just enough of a gradient to punish you after a tough couple of hours so keep some fuel in the tank

Further information

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce%27s_Walk

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/australia/new-south-wales/medlow-bath-to-wentworth-falls-via-bruce-s-walk--2

http://david-noble.net/blog/?tag=bruces-walk

https://www.beyondtracks.com/walks/blue-mountains-national-park/bruce's-walk/