24 April 2012 Johns Peak, Tidbinbilla Peak, Snowy Corner, Cascade Trail

Scrambling to Johns Peak

Map: Tidbinbilla 1:25000

Getting There

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

Tuesday 24 April - Johns Peak, Tidbinbilla Peak and Tidbinbilla Mountain - L/R. Wander up the Camel Back management trail then U-turn onto the Tidbinbilla Ridge. Scramble up to Johns Peak. Walk the crest to Tidbinbilla Peak and Tidbinbilla Mountain. Descend through Snowy Corner to the Lyrebird Trail and visit the waterfalls on the Cascade Trail. For strong walkers. Around 14km and 1200m climb. Map: Tidbinbilla. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, 0417 436 877. Transport: ~$5 per person.

8 of us drove in 2 cars to TNR and up the back to the Mountain Creek car park.

Further Information

Poms, convict stock, squatters and currency lasses all welcome. But Avi's mate had a bad foot, so they couldn't come.

Photographs

You can access all photographs here.

Walk

Track maps: thumbnails are active - click for a larger picture
Track overview	Track 1	Track 2

Several lessons for me reinforced today:

1. Tailor the walk description to attract the appropriate party (which I did and had) - or tailor the walk for the party
2. Have additional exits planned
3. Know the weather forecast (I did for Canberra and was expecting it colder 1000m higher, but didn't know snow was forecast down to 1600m)
4. Always carry the right gear for extreme conditions
5. Always have a route card - it sure helps when the weather turns bad
6. Sticks (especially across your line of travel) and rocks are dangerously slippery in the wet. Don't step on timber, step over
7. Extremities get cold quickly - head and hands
8. A familiar place in ideal conditions looks and feels different in poor weather
9. Always be willing to consider advice from party members (thanks Max, the idea to slip around E of Tidbinbilla Mountain was excellent)
10. Never let the banter cease.

Not ideal weather as we wandered up the Camel Back management trail. 1hr 20mins for the 5.6km. Plenty of chatter, so it can be done quicker. Spotted Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, a few more later in the day.

Doubled back onto the old overgrown access road to the burnt out radio transmitter. I was not looking forward to travelling number 1 through the wet scrub, but everyone (wisely) stood back and let me. Soon damp (not sopping) - note to self: put raincoat on sooner. The cloud was blowing in strongly from the W as we went up the ridge. No view. Showers started. Some footpads developing in the area, but not on the scrubby knolls. We scrambled up onto Johns Peak (this leg 1.5km in 55mins) and had a brief morning tea on the lee side of the crest.

On to Tidbinbilla Peak, again a combination of footpads and scrubby areas. We enjoyed the one open area. This leg 1km in 50mins, including 5mins of morning tea. At 1561m, this was the high point of the day. That spectacular view W to The Pimple, was non existent today.

Cold and in wind-driven showers, we went the 250m S to the cairn near SH1556 which marks the exit to the SE from Tidbinbilla Peak. This was a chance to wimp out but, sadly, no one suggested it. 11am. I suggested Tidbinbilla Mountain then return to here and down; Max had a better idea of towards Tidbinbilla Mountain, sidle across its E face to Snowy Corner, then down the spur from there. Eminently reasonable.

We headed SW-ish along the ridge through alternating hail and snow flakes, over scrubby and rocky knolls and down through saddles full of (wet) regrowth. A very pleasant time. I had the cairn marking the turn off to The Pimple (which is very near SH1555) in my GPS and we hit that. We continued on towards Tidbinbilla Mountain, propping down in the saddle to its NE for a slightly sheltered short lunch. From the SH1556 cairn to lunch 1.3km in 45mins. 11.45am, the earliest (but shortest) lunch I've had for a while.

From here, we sidled across the E side of Tidbinbilla Mountain to a waypoint I had leading to the N end of Snowy Corner. A relatively easy (can't remember already - less burnt?) 500m in 12mins.

Not so quick through the rocky ridge and scrubby area of Snowy Corner. Perhaps the regrowth is a little easier since my last visit, as it is growing taller and the ground to head height growth is pretty bare. But slow going on the slippery rocky bits. We passed by the cairn in the one open area. 640m in 35mins.

The weather wasn't quite as bad as the photo of the Snowy Corner cairn might suggest - the lens on my iPhone was fogged. Another note to self - iPhone ain't much good in wet conditions, not waterproof, so spent most of the day in my jacket pocket.

The wind eased as we started down the E side of the Tidbinbilla Range. Quite a footpad on the crest of the spur going down, so well marked with cairns and tape that I only lost it a few times. Ran out of battery for a while - hence the discontinuity. From top to bottom, at the boulder on the old Lyrebird Trail, is a drop of 460m. 1.6km across the ground in 1hr 10mins. A bench for taking in the view around half way down!

The track from near the boulder is benched - I think this is the pre-fire Lyrebird Trail. However, it appears to end - at another bench! - on a rocky knoll. The track must go on, but we backtracked a little, wandered over the gentle spur line through relatively open bush and onto the new Lyrebird Trail at a GPS waypoint I had.

Did a crazy loop of the Cascade/Lyrebird Trails, but got to see the lovely waterfall and tree fern nook that I like so much. Some of the signage in the area confuses poor old me. Anyway, with only one circle, back to the cars.

An excellent party for tough conditions. Thanks Chris R and Cynthia B, Eric G, Ian W, John H, Max S and Stephen M.

Distance: 14.3km Climb: 900m. Time: 7.50am - 2.40pm (6hrs 50mins), with 30mins of breaks.
Grading: L/R,ptX; H(13)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Johns Peak, Tidbinbilla Peak, Snowy Corner, Cascade Trail

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This page last updated 29Aug22