17 August 2010 Mt Palerang and Lowden Forest Park

Maps: Bombay and Bendoura 1:25000

Getting There

This walk was organised and led by me as an irregular CBC Tuesday walk:

Tuesday 17 August - Mt Palerang- M/M. Mt Palerang seems to be the current place to go (Jeff B last month and Stan M next month), so the Tuesday walkers may as well go there too. Ascend from the SW and descend to the N. Good views. Around 10km and 400m climb. Map: Bombay. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$60 per car.

6 of us met and Kambah and we picked up a seventh in Queanbeyan. We drove via the Captains Flat Road, Briars Sharrow Road, Plains Road, Hoskinstown Road, Forbes Creek Road and Mulloon fire trail to the ford over Mulloon Creek at UTM 55H 733304-6075398 (MGA94). 61km from Duffy. Possible in a 2WD car in good weather.

Further Information

Thanks for the hints from Peter W and Jeff B.

Photographs

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Walk 1 - Mt Palerang

Track Mt Palerang

I was going to park on the W side of the ford and start the day with wet feet, but Max has great confidence in my car (Mazda Tribute), so we crossed the well-filled creek. Thankfully Ken had been willing to drive, so the Forester followed. A very pleasant little picnic/camping area.

Away by 9am and up through the dry sclerophyll forest coming down to the side of the picnic area. Some lovely mature and unburnt gums. The spur which we climbed to the E provided an excellent handrail - in fact, the entire spur and ridge system was a great approach and gave great views (thanks Peter and Jeff). Easy walking. After around 1.7km the vegetation on the side of the spur opened up and we caught our first glimpse of Mt Palerang to the NE of us. Morning tea was called after a further 1km, after which we changed direction on the ridge from generally heading E to generally N. The saddle at around the 1100m contour was an obvious feature.

N of the saddle, we ran into a small cliff line. You can see the kink in our track as we traversed W to get round it. A little band of tight scrub at the top to force through. Then lovely views to the W opened up. We could see over to the snow covered tops of the Brindabellas - Bimberi Peak and Mt Gingera stood out.

Climbing further up the narrow S spur, a marker cairn came into view high above us and made a nice photo when Mt Palerang was visible behind it. Then, a couple of hundred metres S of the top another huge view to the horizon, this time to the E. We could pick out Mt Owen and The Castle.

First sight of Mt Palerang on the ridge E of Mulloon Creek ford at around 1050m	Going down to the saddle about 1km S of Mt Palerang	View W to Brindabella and Tidbinbilla Ranges approaching Mt Palerang on the S spur	1 Mt Palerang from the S spur cairn	Budawangs (Mt Owen and The Castle central) from S of Mt Palerang

We reached the summit trig at 11am. It looked very like the picture in Graeme Barrow's book (this walk - well, up and down from the N - is walk #21 in his 30 Family Bushwalks in and around Canberra). The visitors book is no longer there; folk now write on the vanes of the trig! We could see Lake George as a sheet of water to the NW, over the shoulder of the Butmaroo Range.

2 The party on Mt Palerang trig	Mt Palerang visitors book

We headed off the top at 11.15am, following a well worn pad which headed down the spur to the NE. Needed to sidle across the face of the hill after a while, in order to pick up the NW spur going down to the intersection of the Mulloon and Palerang fire trails. 1.4km and 300m down in 33mins. From here, 5.6km back along the Mulloon fire trail to the cars in 1hr, passing some nice sone work at a creek crossing the fire trail. Lunch was taken.

Nice stonework on the Mulloon fire trail NW of Mt Palerang	Mulloon Creek ford recreation area

Distance: 11.3km Climb: 500m. Time: 9.00am - 12.50pm (3hrs 50mins), including 15mins for morning tea and 10mins on Mt Palerang.
Grading: M/M,X; M(10)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Mt Palerang

Drive

I'd always hankered to get to Lowden Forest Park to see the water wheel and other things there, as described in Graeme Barrow's book, walks #25 and #26. So, as we were out this way and with sufficient time, my companions agreed to go.

Driving back along Forbes Creek Road, our way was blocked by a substantial fallen tree (no wind today, wouldn't like to have been driving under it when it fell!). We alighted and inspected, reading the handy note 'Shire has been informed'. As we surmised how long we'd have to wait, or how long it was back along the fire trail and out to Braidwood, Garry remarked that he knew the adjacent land holder and that we could drive around through his paddocks (always need someone like this in the party for such a time as this!). So he trotted down to the farm house to get the OK and we backed up to the appropriate gate. Drive through the paddocks we did. At one stage a little further excitement as my car began violent steaming, but all gauges OK and an engine bay inspection giving a similar result (I'd noticed when driving across the ford that the Tribute generates a substantial bow wave - maybe water gets in places which take some time to steam off). Back on the road on the good side of the tree, we passed the council truck coming in, but no doubt it would take a couple of hours to remove the tree.

Back out at Hoskinstown, we turned left and drove a further 21km via Hoskinstown Road, Rossi Road, Lowden Road and CPT 2429-1 Road (!) to Lowden Forest Park.

Tree down across the Forbes Creek Road

Walk 2 - Lowden Forest Park

Track Lowden Forest Park

A pleasant little picnic and camping area tucked away. One other couple there. We inspected the water wheel, which was stationary as only a dribble of water was available. Engineer Eric no doubt wanted to give it a going over. We wandered up the Hopkins Pond walk, looked in the dry pond hole and went further (incorrectly) up an old logging track - trust we didn't lead the other couple astray. Returning, we found the loop walk, through some ferns and a little bridge over Lowden Creek. Next we completed the Fern Gully loop walk down the creek. Quite pleasant - a smaller, but more natural, Botanic Gardens fern area.

Great machinery scattered about the picnic area. Again, Eric and Max wanted to get the steam engine going.

3 Lowden Forest Park water wheel	Tree fern and bridge on the Hopkins Pond walk	Tree fern and lawyer vine on the Fern Gully walk	Reminder of times gone by at Lowden Forest Park	Reminder of times gone by at Lowden Forest Park	Reminder of times gone by at Lowden Forest Park

Distance: 2.3km Climb: 50m. Time: 2.30 - 3.20pm (50mins)
Grading: S/E,X; VE(3)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Lowden Forest Park

Nothing left but to drive home with a good collection of cans and bottles people had left lying around the Mulloon Creek picnic area.

Thanks for your fine company Andrew P, Eric G, Garry M, Ken W, Jenny H and Max S.

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This page last updated 20Aug22