Diary – Page 6 – Made by Mikal

Forster trig

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 21, 2015
Post category:Diary

Its been too long since I've attempted a trig walk -- 15 days to be exact. That's mostly because I've been really busy at work these last couple of weeks. That said, it was time for another trig, and this one was a bit of an adventure. Forster Trig is in the Bullen Nature Reserve and is one of the least urban trigs I've attempted so far, which is why this post is a bit more detailed than normal. Big Monks is probably the other trig walk most similar to this one. One of the challenges with this trig is that there is no track to the trig point. Reading John Evan's walk notes from his single assent of this trig, it seems that many people follow the 132kV power lines to the trig, but I consider this "cheating" as the power line is on private land and I didn't want to spend effort on getting permission to walk on someone's farm. Instead, I followed the Kambah Pool to Cassurina Sands track, and then turned right to bush bash to the trig when I got reasonably close. There wasn't any formed track this way, so I don't think this is…

Confessions of a middle aged orienteering marker

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 19, 2015
Post category:Diary

I was an orienteering marker for the kid's scout troop tonight -- I guess it could have been a trick, but I think they were genuine. The basic idea was I went and stood at where the mark on the map was, and then noted which kids found me. Nice little hill in MacArthur, with pleasant views. I think I've found a good place for a geocache as well. [kml: 20150218]

Little Black Mountain

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 18, 2015
Post category:Diary

I went on a walk on Monday with the Canberra Bushwalking Club up Little Black Mountain. Its a nice area and I mostly enjoyed the walk. I say mostly because the walk leader was quite un-welcoming. There was the lecture about emergency beacons, and then the lecture about how he's never been bitten by a snake. It was quite an odd experience. I think I might avoid that leader in the future. [kml: 20150216]

Geocaching in the evening, the second

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 12, 2015
Post category:Diary

I went geocaching while the kids were at scouts. Overall, a very successful evening. The first hour was a phone call with Tristan Goode, and what I learnt is I should call Tristan more because every call (based on a data set of one walk) is 5km. [kml: 20150211]

Tuggeranong Stone Wall

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 9, 2015
Post category:Diary

Its not every day that your walk is to a 140 year old stone wall that you've been driving past for years without even knowing its there. That however was today's walk, inspired by a walk post by John Evans. I really enjoyed this walk, and it was a good length too. It would have been nice to return by a different route though, although such a thing was not obvious to me while doing the walk. [kml: 20150208-2]

Point Hut Crossing to Pine Island

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 8, 2015
Post category:Diary

Andrew and I decided to walk from Point Hut Crossing (near our house) to Pine Island yesterday. Its a nice walk, about 4km and mostly flat with a track the whole way. We even found some geocaches along the way. I think this route would be a good one for cubs. [kml: 20150207]

Two trigs and a first attempt at finding Westlake

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 6, 2015
Post category:Diary

I have to do HR paperwork for work at the moment, so I was looking for a quiet place to progress such things. I ended up beside Lake Burley Griffin working away on my laptop, which was quite pleasant. While in the area, it seemed like a good idea to have a quick first attempt at finding Westlake, which is the ruins of an abandoned builders camp from when Canberra was being constructed. I found some evidence, but I think I need to go further west in a subsequent wander. [kml: 20150205-1] There was a planned walk to Davidson trig by the Facebook trig sweating group this evening, so I went along to that. Beforehand I was killing time in Yarralumla and bumped into the cub leader for my kids' troop. She's interested in trig walks suitable for cubs, so I am going to have to keep an eye out for some. Davidson was a nice on-track walk, probably suitable for cubs. [kml: 20150205-2] Davidson finished about an hour earlier than expected, so I dropped in to walk to Mike on the way home in an entirely unplanned…

Geocaching in the evening

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 5, 2015
Post category:Diary

I went geocaching while the kids were at scouts. Overall, a very successful evening. [kml: 20150204-2]

Big Monks

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 3, 2015
Post category:Diary

I'm going to be honest here and say I got this one pretty wrong. Looking at Google Earth, Big Monks is about 1.7 km from the access road (which I got right), what I failed to notice is that it is super steep and that much of the walk is off the trail. So... A walk I thought would take 30 or 45 minutes took 2 hours. I didn't die though, so that's good. Fantastic views at the top, and found a couple of geocaches. There is obviously a lot of walking potential in Rob Roy Nature Park. [kml: 20150202]

Cooleman and Arawang Trigs

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 1, 2015
Post category:Diary

Doug and I went out to walk Doug's dog at short notice yesterday evening, and managed to sneak in two trigs while we were at it. A nice walk, although it took longer than I expected it to, with our average speed only being about 3.5 kilometers an hour. I wonder how much of that was the two peaks to climb, versus the puppy in tow. Along the way we found this super cool telegraph line, which appears to still have an active Telstra service on it. I wonder if we'll one day see fiber strung on these telegraph poles? [kml: 20150131]