SH1322, Johns Peak, Tidbinbilla Peak, (just) Tidbinbilla Mountain and The Pimple from the climb to Camels Hump


North arm of Burkes Creek and Camels Hump from the climb to Johns Peak

Tuesday 1 March: Camels Hump – M/E-M. From the Mountain Creek car park at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, up the Camel Back management trail to the crest of the Brindabella Range. A scramble up Camels Hump from the south for grand views. Exit back to the management trail via the NE spur. An opportunity to slip in south towards Johns Peak to see how the footpad is developing along the crest. Around 14km and 500m climb. Map: Tidbinbilla. Leader: Terrylea R. Bookings: John Evans 0417 436 877 john@johnevans.id.au. Transport: ∼$8.

4 of us drove in 1 vehicle to the Mountain Creek car park.

Further Information

A little recce for Terrylea. And a chance to check out the route which,  I understand, the TNR Rangers are marking from Fishing Gap to Camels Hump.

Summary

Distance: 18.6km | Climb: 1060m (GE) / 965m (GPSr) | Time: 8.10am-3.30pm (7hrs 20mins), including 50 mins of breaks | Grading: L/E-M; H(13-)

Photographs

Photographs are available, where you can start a large sized slideshow.

Video

Waypoint and Track Files

Download the .gpx file. (Right click, Save Link As…, Save – if you want to use it.)
To use in Google Earth, do File, Open… and select Gps or All files as the File Type.

Track Notes

Hats off to our leader, very competent! Doing a recce to put some of this walk on the CBC program later in the year.

Always willing to exchange information on trees and birds. Used a variety of navigation techniques, including map and compass, terrain, sun, GPSr, catching features and hand rails. Kept it up to the blokes following after her. Flexible, in that we included a couple of extra objectives and routes.

We wandered up the Camel Back Fire Trail, after a trip briefing and signing in at the bushwalking register. I got counted several times by the new counter. The first sign of the new route marking was a large cairn at the point where the old benched track to the burnt out radio tower leaves the fire trail. We propped the blue survey stick in the cairn, just to add some elegance.

A couple of cairns now grace the footpad up to Camels Hump, plus some branches discouraging going up over the rocky nose where one can also skirt around the side. New territory for our leader, who handled it most competently. The usual stupendous views. And a hooded orchid spotted by said leader!

Morning tea at the cairn at Camels Hump. The March flies obviously know the date, as there were quite a few about.

We descended via the NE spur back down to the fire trail and the decision was made to press on to Pierce Hill. Ascended to Pierce trig via the fence line footpad and took in the view down Oakey Creek and across to Spur 3. Came off via the fire trail down to rejoin Tidbinbilla Range Road at the 68 blaze.

Returned via the west of Pierce Hill and east of Camels Hump. Lovely daisies beside the road.

Back at the new cairn south of Camels Hump, we waltzed in along the old benched track, recently cleared by the TNR Rangers. At the radio tower we could see just a couple of tapes heading off along the crest towards the scrubby SH1322, but Barrie suggested we follow the benching past the tower (I hadn’t realised it went on) and flank SH1322 to the east. Most sensible! We then regained the footpad along the crest and strolled along it and then scrambled up to Johns Peak. Again, wonderful views, particularly back north to Camels Hump.

We enjoyed lunch with breeze and views at Johns Peak.

We’d discussed an exit from the crest to the fire trail on the way up, identifying a possible point on a scree gully. Terrylea sensibly extracted us back along the crest, then led us smack bang down a nice spur back to the Camel Back fire trail. We cannot hold her responsible for the few hundred metres of scrubby regrowth we had to traverse.

A wander back down to the car.

Cohesive and small group, great leader, huge views, lovely day.

Timings
From To Distance Time
Mountain Creek car park Camels Hump sign 6.2km 1hr 40mins
Ascend Camels Hump from the south 0.3km 18mins
Descend Camels Hump to the north-east 0.5km 27mins
Top of Hurdle Creek Pierce Hill 1.4km 30mins
Pierce Hill Old benched track S of Camels Hump 3.0km 45mins
Ascend Johns Peak 1.6km 1hr
Descend from Johns Peak to rejoin Camel Back ft 1.1km 52mins
Exit via fire trail to car 4.6km 1hr
Track Maps

Track overview

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3

Profile

Party

4 walkers – Mike B, Terrylea R (leader), Barrie R, me.

My next walk

Saturday-Sunday 5-6 March 2016: Cbr100Challenge – L/E. A wander around the Cbr100Challenge 100km route, dragging myself across the finish line around 24hrs after the start. Doing it for Beryl Women’s Shelter. PLEASE DONATE!

Next Tuesday Walk

Tuesday 8 March: Tinderry Range, Southern Knolls– M/R/X. We start at the junction of the Round Flat fire-trail and the Tinderry Road and head west to the crest of the range at GR 054434. We then track north for most of the day, across numerous small knolls and large areas of open slabs, before heading east to the Round Flat fire-trail and back to the start. This is an off-track exploratory walk and likely to be very scrubby, with numerous steep, rocky slabs to negotiate. Minimum distance: 10 km with 600 metres of ascent. Map: Tinderry. Leader: Ian W. Transport: 112 km return. Limit: 8.