This walk was organised as a Wednesday walk by the combined CBC/FBI/NPA clubs, led by Doug F:

('Wed 4 August 2004 - Walk will start at Oakey Creek in the cleared Pierces Creek Pine Forest area and go up Pierce Hill and Camels Hump, mostly on fire trails. Return via Tidbinbilla Range fire trail. 9 km, 500m climb. Meet at Weston Shopping Centre car park (MacDonald's side) 8.30am. Map - Tidbinbilla 1:25000.').

8 of us walked.  We met at Cooleman Court at 8.30am and drove through Cotter along the Paddys River Road to near the Sugarloaf feature.  Here, we turned right into the unsealed Laurel Camp Road and drove as close as we could to the Tidbinbilla Range at GR735845 (GDA94).

We headed through the bare ex-pine forest, cleared since the fires, along forestry trails.  We missed a turn and headed towards Pierces Creek, but soon were climbing steeply onto a track which joined Tinbinbilla Range Road.  45 minutes in we hit the first patches of snow, which got thicker and thicker as we walked up along the road.  Soon the road was completely covered.

We followed the road to the southern end of Pierce Hill, thought briefly about going on to Camels Hump, but instead turned and climbed the steep and deeply snow covered track (?) up the fence-line to Pierce Hill and its trig.  It was absolutely magic sitting in the snow on the east side of the hill, looking down across the dishes of the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, over Bullen Range to Canberra.

We took the track north off the hill, rejoined Tidbinbilla Range Road and tramped through the snow till, sadly, with diminishing height, it was gone.  We took a sharp right turn in Tidbinbilla Range Road where we had joined it in the morning and followed the road down to closer to the cars.  With them in sight, we took a forestry track back to our transport.  A tremendous experience of snow, for me, close to Canberra!

Distance: 13.5km  Time: 9.20am-2.20pm with 30 minutes of stops.