9 April 2011 Pig Hill

Map: Umburra 1:25000

Getting There

This walk was organised and led by Stan M as a CBC walk:

Saturday 9 April - Pig Hill - M/M. This romantically named walk is on the eastern edge of the Brindabella National Park. The hill itself provides spectacular 360 degree views. From the locked gate on Doctors Flat Road above Dingo Dell, walk 2 km north on an old vehicular track through forest then diverge east, off track along a couple of ridges, much of it open, some of it fairly dense regrowth after the fires, for about 4 km before heading up off track to Pig Hill and then, on track, back to the road. Short car shuffle. 4¾ hrs actual walking. Map: Umburra 1:25,000. Leader: Stan M. Transport: ~$10.

21 of us met and drove via Uriarra Crossing, Fairlight Road, left into Mountain Creek Road, through the gate into Doctors Flat Road and on into Brindabella National Park to the W boundary just E of Dingo Dell. A car shuttle (yes, someone recently told me that it's a shuttle, not a shuffle) was arranged.

Further Information

An opportunity to visit Tinkers weir - examining the 1st edition Umburra  1:25000 map, I spied a weir marked on Tinkers Creek, around 500m from where Stan planned to have lunch (not shown on 2nd edition map). Stan was kindly flexible enough to allow those who wanted to to visit the weir.

Photographs

You can also access all photographs here.

Walk

Track map: thumbnail is active - click for a larger picture

Track

From our start point, we followed an unmarked (on both 1st and 2nd edn maps) fire trail N for 2.3km. With 21 starters, we moved as two parties and paired up. Then generally SE down a ridge for 0.8km to morning tea, a bit scruby on this leg.

A short hop of 0.6km E and NE through more open forest to lunch. Here we split into two different parties, 9 joining me to wander down to Tinkers Creek and the other 11 completing Stan's planned route.

Yet more open in the dry forest as we trotted 0.65m down the spur to Tinkers Creek, only the band along the sides of the creek becoming a little dense. The weir is a fraction upstream from the map-marked position, which we found by bashing up the creek. Being into weirs at the moment, you can find the story of them all here.

330m of fire trail took us up to the main fire trail on the ridge leading to Pig Hill. From here, it was 2.2km climbing 240m to Pig Hill.

Pig Hill needs a more salubrious name - it's a quite nice spot with a fantastic view over to Canberra and beyond. Unfortunately no hang gliders to entertain us. The top of the wind sock tower provided a high vantage point for views. Stan's party arrived a little later.

1.6km down the Pig Hill Summit Trail we arrived at the majority of the cars.

Thanks for another excellent walk to an area I'd always wanted to visit, Stan. A great party, with plenty of conversation, also enjoyed the destination - Amanda B, Lorna C, Judy D, Chris F, Di G, Ann H, George H, Nathan H, Russell H, Deidre K, Diana K, Nerolie P, Phillip S, Ian T, Anna W, Amanda W, Tim and Gabrielle W and Edwina Y.

Distance: 8.5km Climb: 350m. Time: 9.45am - 2.50pm (5hrs 5mins), with 1hr 15mins of breaks.
Grading: M/M; M(8)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Pig Hill

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This page last updated 25Aug22