We love safe trail running in our stunning Victoria parks and forests. Prior to commencing any trail running tour we complete a series of safety checks to make sure we are best informed of the current and predicted conditions on the day. Sometimes we can makes changes to suit and sometimes we may need to reschedule a tour. Here are some simple trail check tips we do and you can too prior to hitting the trails…
1. Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) latest weather advice and forecast conditions. Temperature, wind direction, rain likelihood and weather warnings are all valuable information to help with planning. Find your closest weather station here: http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/map7day.shtml
2. Parks Victoria website. Check the park closures page and individual park pages before heading out. Conditions can change in parks, so keep informed on the most current updates. Parks Vic have some great general safety information on their website. Check out their Safety in Nature pages https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/get-into-nature/safety-in-nature
3. For closures in state forests check: www.ffm.vic.gov.au/visiting-state-forests/forest-and-road-closures
4. Set watch zone vic emergency app for incident and emergency information including fire danger ratings in your area https://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/
5. Forecasted fire ratings https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/warnings-restrictions/total-fire-bans-and-ratings
6. Forest Fire Management planned burns for any controlled burns happening in your area. You can subscribe for sms and email updates on specific locations. https://plannedburns.ffm.vic.gov.au/
7. Victorian Mapshare database for finding closed tracks and land/park information https://mapshare.vic.gov.au/MapShareVic/index.html
8. Do I have phone coverage there? https://www.telstra.com.au/coverage-networks/our-coverage. Remember that mobile phones can make SOS only calls from any providers reception. However in the absence of any provider reception there is no ability to make an emergency call from your mobile phone.
9. (For tour operators only) Land managers stipulate different permit rules and conditions. We check each specific permit conditions for our planned tour location.
Plan for success and have the best day out in nature knowing you are prepared and informed. There are so many amazing trails out there. Go run them all.
