1 November 2011 A search for GoogleEarth track off Spur 3
Map: Tidbinbilla 1:25000
Getting There
This walk was organised and led by me as an irregular CBC Tuesday walk:
Tuesday 1 November - A search for Google Earth track off Spur 3 - L/E-M,ptX. Google Earth shows a distinct 'track' coming off the Spur 3 Fire Trail in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and following a spur down 450m to the edge of the native forest. Let's investigate it. Around 16km and 800m climb. Map: Tidbinbilla. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$6 per person.
3 of us drove to TNR in 2 cars, leaving one at the bottom of the picnic area near the Tidbinbilla River and parking the other at the Mountain Creek car park.
Further Information
We walked to the top of it on 29 Oct 11. It starts as a cleared way through the trees, is covered in pea regrowth and has a track down it.
Photographs
You can access all photographs here.
Walk
| Track maps: thumbnails are active - click for a larger picture | ||
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| Track overview | Track 1 | Track 2 |
Nice to get walking to warm us up a little. 6.4km in 1hr 45mins to the top of Camels Hump. The grass was alive with Cantharid Beetles (Soldier Beetles) (thanks for the identification Rob). Some lovely paper daisies (which weren't out the previous Saturday), Bulbine lilies and other flowers that I'm waiting for Barrie R to identify for me (he's very patient with me during this fabulous Spring flowering season and hasn't got one wrong yet - he's a marvel). Still love that view to Johns Peak. Got me thinking about Bendora to Johns Peak, then walk out to TNR Visitors Centre. Down to the N (still a pretty lousy route from me), then on to Pierce Trig for morning tea.
NW from here down to the Tidbinbilla Range Road, just to do the loop and to see the 68 blaze again. S-ish to the top of the Spur 3 fire trail, then 500m down it to the start of the Google Earth track (which we'd visited the previous Saturday).
We turned right onto this track (not marked on either the 1st or 2nd edition Tidbinbilla 1:25000 topographic map) and the initial animal track soon turned into a pea-covered old fire trail/fire break. Easy walking down along it for 800m to the spot where a fire trail leaves it to the NE. This fire trail is marked on the 1st edition Tidbinbilla 1:25000 topographic map, but not on the 2nd edition. Our route paralleled a fence line. A further 450m along and down the route got us to the point where the Google Earth track peters out. All along our route the flowers were in full bloom - quite a pretty area in this season (I'd not expected it to be).
Things got a little more difficult from this point. The regrowth closed in and we descended nearly 200m vertically over 530m, taking 25mins. We paralleled the fence line most of the way, so easy navigation. Pressing through the shrubbery was not quite as easy. Scattered grass trees along the route.
Wandered a few tens of metres N along Gilmores Rd to see if the fence line came down, saw nothing, so turned SW towards Hurdle Creek.
With keen party members, we plunged into the looped fire trail corner of Hurdle Creek, looking for the old koala enclosure site (KHA site 788). Crossed Hurdle Creek - very pretty - and found some open areas amongst the mature trees. But not the green bottle heap that Murray A had told me about. Back on the fire trail, we headed towards Nils, taking in the eucalyptus still (further drying of the geocache), camellia garden and Hurdle Creek weir (where Philip kindly found my hat dropped there last Saturday - the hat I didn't care about, but the CBC cloth badge cost $10 and is now not available).
We crossed the creek and had lunch at the Ashbrook site. Eric commented on the bird song - with us all day.
We wandered back through Jedbinbilla and crossed the new footbridge.
I've not heard of anyone coming down here before. A nice round. Could make a useful Wednesday walk.
Thanks Philip G and Eric G for your company. Turned out to be a little more varied and interesting than I thought.
Distance: 18.2km Climb: 800m. Time: 7.45am - 2.00pm (6hrs 15mins), with 50mins of stops.
Grading: L/E-R,ptX; H(13)
KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: GoogleEarth track off Spur 3
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This page last updated 29Aug22