Johnny Boy's Walkabout Blog

18 July 2022

Monday 18 July 2022: Under Square Rock. A quick dash accompanied by great friends to be reminded of the route under Square Rock.

Summary

From Garmin Connect – Distance: 9.31km | Climb: 277m | Time: 2hrs 55mins including 30mins of exploring | Grading: M/M; E(7).

Photographs

Photographs are available here.

Track Notes

A quick in, explore under Square Rock and home.

Vandalism on the way in.

We named a rock.

Linda then led an explore underneath. At times I was hanging on for dear life (my balance and rock scrambling are shot and I was trying to video the way). Meanwhile she was bouncing around like a mountain goat nanny. Nice views, both across …

… and up.

Emerging at the top, we had a quick bite to eat whilst viewing the snow still on Mt Gingera and other parts of the Brindabellas.

Then headed for home.

Party

4 walkers – Linda and Peter, Phillip, me.

12 July 2022

Tuesday 12 July 2022: Lazy Walkers Unite for Square Rock circuit including Smokers Trail – M/E. A trip for mature gentlemen organised by Max.

Summary

From Garmin Connect – Distance: 13.52km | Climb: 369m | Time: 4hrs 30mins including 55mins of stops | Grading: M/E; E(7).

Photographs

Photographs are available here.

gpx File

The gpx file is available here.

Track Notes

The last recent times I did this trip were 5 Mar 22 and 8 Feb 22. Plenty more photos there.

Today’s trip was for old timers, although at 73 I was the second youngest in the pack. We’ve been mates for years. I learned a few things. One, instead of trying to keep up with young, quick walkers and maintaining friendships so they will take my ashes to Mt Namadgi, I should keep walking with these more mature gentlemen. Surely they will have the wherewith-all to hire a helicopter to do the job.

Very muddy on the initial part of the Square Rock Walking Track, in the sections where there are no walkways or steps. It obviously gets a lot of walkers.

Once up a little higher, a dry track and very pleasant walking. Company and conversation wasn’t too bad either.

A stop at Square Rock and reminiscing about trips on High Range over the other side of Corin Road. One thing I have forgotten is how to get under Square Rock and I have put in a ‘pretty please’ request to the person who took me under for a repeat visit.

A point of interest from our esteemed leader was the structures down off the side of the Link Track in the SE part of Smokers Flat. Initial thoughts were sphagnum recovery covers, but these had legs and a rigid top. Max declined the invitation to wade the Flat to investigate. A very grainy max zoom iPhone photo.

Update – The Namadgi National Park Visitors Centre kindly provided “The structures are used in a university monitoring experiment. Measuring rainfall and sub surface water levels.”

The last part of this round is a very nice new-ish (to me) route from near the old Smokers Track top car park down to Corin Hub. It avoids the fire trails.

We enjoy each others company so much that we had a cuppa and leader’s cake together before driving home.

Track Map

Party

5 walkers – Eric, Max (leader), Mike, Phillip, me.

What else did I learn?

Mike uses an app called Footpath with associated web services at Footpath Route Planner | Footpath Route Planner (footpathapp.com) to, wait for it, quickly measure the thousands of kilometres of rivers he’s paddling. Better than using a piece of string on a map, he says. Must have a play.

Phillip pointed out that with AllTrails, there is a free draw feature. When creating a map (planning a walk), turn off Smart Routing, hold down Shift and free draw with the left mouse button held down.

I live and learn.

Technobabble

Can’t resist one little bit of technobabble. Today’s temperature. Minimum was 4°C.