This walk was organised and led by me as a private Tuesday walk:
(Tuesday 12 June 2007 - Fire Trails in Uriarra Forest - M/E,X A wander down Bullock Paddock Road to visit Bracks Hole on the Cotter River, bag Condor Hill and visit Padovans Crossing. Map: Cotter Dam 1:25000. Leader: John Evans – jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235; contact me by 6pm the previous Sunday to discuss options. Transport: ~$5. Further details at www.pcug.org.au/~jevans).
I was devastated that no one wanted to walk with me! At the last moment Max was available. Good friend; could have been a better walk choice. We drove to around 1km past Uriarra Homestead on the Brindabella Road and parked just down Bullock Paddock Road.
Walk 
Walking by 8.40am at a good pace S down Bullock Paddock Road. Some patches of replanted pines, some areas naturally regrowing. A couple of groups of cars about the bare hills - maybe additional replantings of eucalypts. Good views up to Mt Coree and to the gentle N end of the Tidbinbilla Range as we wandered down the road.
Decided to reverse the planned walk, so headed towards Padovans Crossing over the tinkling Condor Creek. The mighty, but nearly bare, Condor Hill to the E. We continued S down Vanitys Crossing Road until Max suggested we climb a hill for the view. About the only puffing of the day. The ridge was SW-ering towards SH846, so we took the plunge off the side. Interesting walking through burnt and fallen pines, mixed with scrubby regrowth. Quite thick in places, but soon down and into the blackberry bushes and back onto Vanitys Crossing Road. Arrived at Vanitys Crossing at 10.45am (7.2km and 2hrs to here).
Took our boots off and waded across (see pic 1). The water was cold. Morning tea for 15mins. Continued up Vanitys Crossing Road a further 1.2km to a fine view of a loop in the Cotter River (see pic 2). A grader working on the road. Continued to the NE, then left the road to use fire trails and a little cross country to reach the tanks on the hill above the Pierces Creek Forestry Settlement. The caged ladder was not locked off, so I climbed for a good view, particularly S to the N end of the Tidbinbilla Range (see pic 3).
Then headed NW towards Bracks Hole on the Cotter River, missed the old fire trail down to it, took a little detour paralleling the Cotter for nearly a km, did a U-turn, then headed into the bush for the second and last time on the day to plunge down to the Cotter River. Crossed at the Bracks Hole ford at 12.45pm (13.2km and 4hrs to here).
A few hundred metres along the track we met some Environment ACT guys with 3 trout in a tank and plenty of gear. They were tuning the radio tags in/on the trout prior to release so they could monitor movement. Very interesting. One of the guys said he'd snorkeled 30km of the Cotter River, over several days, to check out the fish population! He'd seen around 80 snakes too!
On up out of the river valley to stop on the side of the road for lunch, 1.15-1.40pm. A good, all round view of most of our route, albeit a lot of it behind Condor Hill (14.7km and 5hrs to here).
Trundled the remaining 3km back to the car.
A walk which could be soon forgotten and never repeated, but it beats gardening. Thanks for humouring me, Max.
Distance: 17.7km Climb: 400m. Time: 8.40am - 2.15pm (call it 5.5 hours) with 40mins of breaks.
Grading: L/E,X; M(8)
KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Fire Trails in Uriarra Forest
