Possible routes from Faulconbridge to Linden

[Lith]

Creating a route to cross the mountains following the main towns while trying to avoid the highway as much as possible. Almost complete but I've got a gap between sassafras creek and the burgess falls track that I'm not sure how to bridge. Could climb up from the creek and walk along sassafras ridge fire trail but then that'd involve a slog along the highway. Instead I'd rather complete the victory track at faulconbridge station, cross at the lights and then continue north of the highway but I don't know if there's a route up there. I'd rather avoid any off track walking if possible. Has anyone done this before or have any ideas on where I could go?

[davidf]

Out of interest why go to towns? Apart from start and end why go into town on a short walk?

[Lith]

Out of interest why go to towns? Apart from start and end why go into town on a short walk?

oh I just meant the walks near the towns as there's other ways to cross the mountains like the grose river.

I don't actually plan to go into the towns unless I need to resupply which considering this walk will take ~7 days, will almost certainly happen.

[johnw]

I know the Sassafras Gully/Victory and Burgess Falls tracks quite well but haven't tried to link them. I thought it might be possible to follow below the power line from Ticehurst Park, BUT it looks like it traverses private property. An option with limited off track might be via Numantia Falls (pretty good track to them), aim to then pick up the fire trail to their WNW then along the railway line (looks like it goes further than the map indicates), and assuming it doesn't trespass into the rail corridor. It's only a theory though.

[ribuck]

Instead I'd rather complete the victory track at faulconbridge station, cross at the lights and then continue north of the highway

It depends how much length you're prepared to add to your route. From the map it seems like there's a viable route as follows:

Exit the Victory Track, and cross the highway at the traffic lights. Go 50m north along St Georges Crescent, then turn right (east) into Russell Avenue which merges into Meeks Crescent which takes you to Grose Road. Turn left (north), and follow Grose Rd for about 3km. Turn left onto the Faulconbridge-Linden Ridge Link fire trail. Where it ends, OpenStreetMap shows a foot path which crosses Linden Creek (the red section at the top of the screenshot below) and meets the Linden Ridge Fire Trail which takes you to Glossop Rd Linden.

I haven't walked this, so I'm not sure whether it works "on the ground".

[FatCanyoner]

There's plenty of options if you're willing to go off-track. Most of the bush in that part of the mountains is reasonably friendly.
A couple points to help with your planning:
1) Parts of the Sassafras Ridge Train and Numantia Falls themselves are on private property. But I believe this is the same landowner whose property is traversed by the upper section of the Victory Track, so I don't think there's any access issues for bushwalkers.
2) The Grose Rd option outlined above will definitely work to link you up from Faulconbridge to Linden (then continuing on fire trails past the wall of Lake Woodford over to Burgess Falls). It does require a lot of plodding along a road though.
3) A route worth considering is to come up the Victory Track, cross the railway line / highway at the level crossing, then head out St Georges Crescent. From here you've got a range of options. The track at the end of Shirlow Ave is an old fire trail that goes all the way down to Linden Creek, which you could then follow for about 1km downstream to join up with the trail on Linden Ridge (I think this is quicker and nicer than Grose Rd). You could also follow the trail at the end of Hillcrest Ave, which takes you to Linden Creek higher up. From here you can follow the ridge on the other side to Linden Ridge (I'd expect a bit of scrub on this ridge). You should also be able to go down to Linden Creek from the end of St Georges Crescent. There's a ridge just west of there (marked here: http://maps.ozultimate.com/?lat=-33.692 ... 9555988114) which I walked part of and found to be beautiful and open.
T2