I had a pretty bad day, so I knocked off early and went for a walk before going off to the meeting at a charity I help out with. The walk was to Percival trig, which I have to say was one of the more boring trigs I've been to. Some of the forest nearly was nice enough, but the trig itself is stranded out in boring grasslands. Meh. [kml: 20150630-1]
My team at work is trying to get a bit more active, so a contingent from the Canberra portion of the team went for a walk around Red Hill. I managed to sneak in a side trip to Davidson trig, but it was cheating because it was from the car park at the top of the hill. A nice walk, with some cool geocaches along the way. [kml: 20150629-3]
Jacqui and Catherine kindly agreed to come on another test walk for a possible cub walk. This one was the Sanctuary Loop at Tidbinbilla. To be honest this wasn't a great choice for cubs -- whilst being scenic and generally pleasant, the heavy use of black top paths and walkways made it feel like a walk in the Botanic Gardens, and the heavy fencing made it feel like an exhibit at a zoo. I'm sure its great for a weekend walk or for tourists, but if you're trying to have a cub adventure its not great. See more thumbnails [kml: 20150620-1]
There was another walk option for cubs I wanted to explore at the wetlands, so I went back during lunch time yesterday. It was raining really quite heavily during this walk, but I still had fun. I think this route might be the winner -- its a bit longer, and a bit more interesting as well. See more thumbnails [kml: 20150618-2]
I've been exploring possible cub walks for a little while now, and decided that Jerrabomberra Wetlands might be an option. Most of these photos will seem a bit odd to readers, unless you realize I'm mostly interested in the terrain and its suitability for cubs... [kml: 20150617-2]
Today's lunch walk was around Tuggeranong Pines again. At the back of the pine forest is the original train line from the 1880s which went down to Cooma. I walked as far as the old Tuggeranong siding before turning back. Its interesting, as there is evidence that there has been track work done here in the last ten years or so, even though the line hasn't been used since 1989. [kml: 20150604-1]
I went for a short geocaching walk at lunch today. Three geocaches in 45 minutes, so not too shabby. One of those caches was at the Melrose trig point, so bagged that too. There is some confusion here, as John Evans and I thought that Melrose was on private land. However, there is no signage to that effect in the area and the geocache owner asserts this is public land. ACTMAPi says the area is Tuggeranong Rural Block 35, but isn't clear on if the lease holder exists. Color me confused and possibly an accidental trespasser. [kml: 20150602-1]
I'm not really sure why it took me so long to write this set of walks up -- I think I just got lost in preparations for the most recent OpenStack summit and simply forgot. That said, here they are... Tony, Steven and I mounted an expedition to Mount Franklin, which is one of the trigs I hadn't been to yet. Its right on the ACT border with NSW, and despite not being a super long walk its verging of inaccessible in winter (think several feet of snow). So, we decided to get it done while we could. [kml: 20150426-4] We also tacked on a trip to Square Rock based on the strong recommendation of a good friend. Square Rock has amazing views, highly recommended. [kml: 20150426-2]
The cubs at my local scout group are interested in walking to a trig, but have some interesting constraints around mobility for a couple of their members. I therefore offered to re-walk Tuggeranong Trig in Oxley with an eye out for terrain. I think this walk would be very doable for cubs -- its 650 meters with only about 25 meters of vertical change. The path is also ok for a wheelchair I think. [kml: 20150415]
Paul and I set off to see two trigs today. One Tree is on the ACT border and is part of the centenary trail. Painter is a suburban trig in Belconnen. Much fun was had, I hope I didn't make Paul too late for the wedding he had to go to. [kml: 20150412-1] [kml: 20150412-2]