Johnny Boy's Walkabout Blog

Sunday 27 October 2024: Pheasant Hill and beyond – 3A/B/D/E. Starting at Brayshaws Hut we climb Pheasant Hill and Boboyan Hill, then cross the top of Bulls Flat and continue to Lone Pine Homestead ruin and Lutons Crutching Shed. Return via Grassy Creek. About 20 km and total climb of 650 m. Mostly off track through open forest but some thick scrub and rock scrambling.

Summary

From Garmin Connect (recorded on Epix Gen 2) – Distance: 20.18km | Climb: 650vm | Time: 5:09 moving + 1:56 of stops = 7:05 | Grading: L/M; M(11).

Photographs

View photographs here. More photos in the album than are embedded in this report.

gpx file

Download the gpx file here.

Track Map

Here’s where we went.

Trip Report

I was last in this area on 7 Oct 23.

I was punching above my weight today. The leader and 2 others had walked Orroral Hill the previous Wednesday and Mt Gudgenby the day before today. The other 4 were strong walkers. It was a relatively easy walk, through open woodland and grasslands and on fire trail, but it exhausted me. I am running out of puff.

Nice to have the meet point opposite my old folks home and to be whisked by our driver to the Brayshaws Hut car park in the south of the ACT.

Walking at 9am, over to Brayshaws Hut.

A great route chosen to summit the hills, not one that I was aware of. The creek line provided an open going to just south of Pheasant Hill.

The southern flanks of both Pheasant Hill and Boboyan Hill were grassy and green; the more northerly flanks drier. This is to be expected with the amount of sun exposure of generally S and N facing flanks.

I was glad when we reached the open flats of Bulls Flat Creek, as lifting feet over small fallen timber is tiring.

Even happier when we spent some time walking Waterholes FT and a bit of Bulls Flat FT.

Leaving the Bulls Flat FT we went over a low ridge into another open grassland area.

Grateful to Philip for a short detour. A nostalgic visit to Alexander Brayshaw’s 1879 hut site. the oldest European site in Namadgi National Park. A line of stones is still visible and, behind them, three depressions in the ground, in a line, which could be post holes.

A few cow pats. Escaped animals grazing in the Park. Orchids and Billy Buttons about.

We crossed Sheep Station Creek via the causeway.

Philip’s objective was Crawfords Homestead (Old Station) site and its orchard.

Up to Lutons Crutching Shed for lunch.

Leaving at 1pm we headed S-ish through the lovely area where we usually camp and down to cross Sheep Station Creek. Not quite as dry as the causeway.

Tromped Grassy Creek FT to the Baby Crawford plaque.

Then across the FT to Lone Pine site.

There was talk of “up and over that ridge”, but (thank goodness) more of Grassy Creek FT and a bit of Bulls Flat FT took us to the turn off for next off-track leg. An unerringly straight SE line by Philip had us down to join the Waterholes FT and so to cross Grassy Creek.

A pause at Waterhole stockyards.

To Waterhole Hut for an arvo break.

Leaving Westermans Homestead for another day, we took the shorter leg of the Settlers Track, passing by the Grassy Creek sheepyards and dip.

Brayshaws Hut was a sight for my sore body.

Many memories. Thanks Philip and all. A wonderfully led trip.

Party

8 walkers – Ceilidh A, Jenny A, Joe C, Michael C, Jan G, Philip G (leader), Richard H, me.

AllTrails

The AllTrails map is here, where you can pan and zoom.

Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog FaceBook Page

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Additional Trip Reports

As I age, I’m doing a few more simple hikes. I don’t always produce a full trip report. If you’re interested, you can find details of them on the Completed Walks tab. There you can access the trip’s map segment, download a gpx file, see the distance, climb and grading, and link through to the photo album. Additional metrics are available by looking at the start waypoint on the map segment – moving time, stopped time, total time.