Sentry Box Rock views
Saturday 4 July: Sentry Box Rock from Old Boboyan Rd (South) – L/M-R. Starting from the Old Boboyan Rd (South) car park, walk the management trail to Lutons Crutching Shed. Continue up the Sams Creek Fire Trail and Maurice Luton Fire Trail to the border. A further 3km off-track and 350m climb through unburnt forest and easy granite slabs gets us to Sentry Box Rock and geocache GC1GP3Y Lonely Sentinel. Return the same way, calling in on Sean’s party for tea at Lutons. A long day, including night time walking. Around 35km and 500m climb, all but 6km on fire trails. Map: Yaouk. Leader: John Evans 0417 436 877 john@johnevans.id.au . Transport: ∼$15 per person.
A private walk, as no other takers. I drove to the Old Boboyan Rd (South) car park.
Further Information
The opportunity to grab a couple of more stages for the multi-cache GC1DZYD A-Z Namadgi Tours.
Summary
Distance: 49.0km, being 5.5km walking + 43.5km ride/push | Climb: 1320m | Time: 8.05am-5.55pm (9hrs 50mins), including 1hr 10 mins of breaks | Grading: M/M-R; H(13)
Track Maps
The published waypoints and tracks have bits excised to protect the integrity of the multi-cache GC1DZYD A-Z Namadgi Tours.
Track overview
Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Track 5
Profile
Photographs
Photographs are available, where you can start a large sized slideshow.
Video
Waypoint and Track Files
Download the .gpx file here. (Right click, Save Link As…, Save – if you want to use it.)
Download the .kml file here.
Track Notes
No takers for the advertised walk, so I turned it into a ride + walk to cover a bit more distance and hit some other objectives.
Rode the 6.3km to Lutons Crutching Shed in 30mins and dropped my stove and dinner. A bit of snow about on the track and on the southern side of the hills.
Next was 4.8km in 40mins up valley on the Sams Creek Fire Trail to the junction with the Maurice Luton Fire Trail. Had to get off and push through a few wet patches where the pools were iced.
2.3km in 30mins up the Maurice Luton Fire Trail to the ACT-NSW border. A bit more pushing, especially the steep initial section. Propped my bike against the DD blaze tree. Helmet off and gaiters on.
From here, the off-track walk up to Sentry Box Rock is a ripper. I’d recommend it to anyone. It’s a quick ride to the border in under 2hrs, but the walk in takes longer. The climb is through mainly open and unburnt woodland, breaking out onto gentle granite slabs 50m from the top. My up track is the best, following the border. The only downer is the ascent – from 1335m to 1673m is 340 vertical metres. So it makes you puff a bit, especially the steep bit. I covered the 2.8km in 1hr 20mins, calling in at border marker T84 at the bend.
Near the top I was treated to a wonderful Lyrebird song and display. I could see his tail spread out but, unfortunately, couldn’t photograph it.
Great views, although ladies should avert their eyes at the naughty shaped rock. Found geocache GC1GP3Y Lonely Sentinel, tweeted a pic and rang home.
Down in 1hr 8mins, navigation a little sloppy. A quick morning tea as I swapped walking gear for riding gear.
It took 55mins to ride the 6.9km back to Lutons.
As it was only 1.15pm, I rode some more to complete another couple of stages of the multi-cache GC1DZYD A-Z Namadgi Tours. Of course I have not published any information that would give anything away. I did score a bonus cache GC2JD8R Lucky Dip on my travels to the next valley south, the Grassy Creek valley. On the round I visited Waterhole Hut, the Grassy Creek sheepyards and Waterhole stockyards. Had to ‘swim’ (I still have cold and wet feet) Grassy Creek with my bike to get to the sheepyards. The 16.7km loop took 3hrs 35mins (including 30mins lunch). I used just about all the daylight hours, arriving at Sean’s party’s camp site at 4.50pm, and certainly used all my energy.
An impressive camp site it was! (Note to self – walk with this leader!) The four of them were sitting in comfortable chairs (Bob S, did you provide the chairs at Lutons?) in front of a roaring fire and under fairy lights. Perfect! Jacqui kindly gave me her chair. Warm clothes on, swallowed the last lunch sandwich and swilled the last of my thermos. That was enough and no need to break out stove and freeze dried tucker.
I left in last light at 5.20pm. Light on around half way back. 40mins for the 6.4km to the car.
A productive day. Cold, but nice when the sun finally appeared. Poor company, except at the camp site.
Party
1 walker – me.