Craigow Hill
On our last
visit to the Belbins Road end of the Meehan Range a track marked Caves Hill was
noticed and that is what brought us here this time. Obviously, the track is created for bikes but
being a weekday meant it was low use.
The prior
walk to Craigow was 2005, and after reaching the saddle between Flagstaff and
Eagle Hills it was reasonably familiar, apart from not remembering having to
negotiate a fence twice. At the second fence line, there was a gate and then we
were on the Craigow Hill property and it was most apparent that it was managed
in a manner leaving the bush in a nicer state. Our lunch spot was in a patch of
grasstrees making it sheltered with pleasing surrounds. This was the far point
of the journey and marked where the other part of circuit started for the
return to the start.
 |
| Craigow Hill |
It was very
steep down from Craigow and we missed the descent track used last time. Although a pile of rocks was noticed the
track we were on was very distinct and it was not until we were much further
down that suspicions arose that the rocks may have marked the route. The 4wd track became very steep and didn’t
seem to fit with our memory of the previous descent, but by then it felt too
much of a bother to go back up. The
steepness continued with the slope averaging 1:5 and seemed to be taking us on
the Coal Valley side. At the bottom, we found ourselves in the correct gully
but at the wrong end, which was OK, making it a simple task of following the open
path until reaching the planned point for ascending to Golden Hill. The particular track used, apart from at the
very top, is not marked on maps.
 |
| Grasstrees Craigow Hill |
 |
| Ozothamnus |
It still wasn’t plain sailing though, because on
reaching the spot the GPS indicated the track up started, it was pointing 20
metres through a wall of thick scrub. Puzzling, so we continued walking until
the track crossed a creek, noticed a sign up the bank and found ourselves on a
completely different and much higher grade vehicle track. Fancy that two tracks running parallel in
this obscure spot; anyway, it explained things and it wasn’t long before we
were finally back on the planned route.
Incidentally
the sign was a PWS one indicating it was a reserve. It also was where a
management burn had been carried out and the unique Eucalyptus risdonii of the
slope were looking miserable with lots of dead leaves; hard to see how a burn
in the middle of a big swath of bush helps reduce fire risk and equally hard to
see that it would be of any value as regeneration tool in already healthy bush.
I had marked
in the GPS a couple of junctions and planned to use the second one, but for no
good reason took the first one, which although inadvertent, actually cut a bit
off the distance.
Distance
12.5k Total time with lunch 4:50
 |
| Track profile |
 |
| Blue = route taken red = planned route |
Comments
Post a Comment