Trip: Sunday, 13 Oct 2024
It was one of the best mornings weather-wise for a long time, and all of us gathered at Spotlight carpark in Queanbeyan were looking forward to a great day out in Tallaganda National Park. So much so that we were all there early! Even your trip reporter – 15 minutes early but last to arrive.
Participants:
- Trip Leader: Simon Nickson Toyota Landcruiser 76 Series
- Oliver Barlow & Tracey (visitors) Toyota Landcruiser Bundera
- Velko Gavran & Michelle (visitors) Toyota Landcruiser 79 Series
- Garry Vaughan & Fiona Winkler LR Series III
- David & Margo Wade Isuzu D-Max
- Bob & Gemma Zeitlhofer Toyota LC200
- David Darke Toyota Prado
- Kevin Phillips Mazda BT-50
- David Brown Suzuki Jimny
After welcoming our visitors (who are potential new members) and setting out the guidelines for the trip, Simon led us out of the carpark and onto our first stop of the day. We took Captains Flat Road, Briars Sharrow Road and Plains Road to Hoskinstown Community Hall, where Garry & Fiona who live nearby joined us with their LR Series III. Nice to have a Land Rover on the trip!
Leaving Hoskinstown we followed Forbes Creek Road onto Mulloon Firetrail and took a comfort stop at the lovely Mulloon Creek Campground. Easy driving so far. We followed Mulloon Fire Trail for another 5-6 km before turning left onto Gourock Range Fire Trail. At the turn Trip Leader Simon suggested (strongly) that we engage low range before proceeding. He was right! It was a good uphill climb, quite challenging in places, and took us through a beautiful mountain landscape. We all managed the ascent and after about 5km we turned left onto Butmaroo Firetrail which we continued on for 5km until its intersection with North Black Range Firetrail – at which point TL Simon declared morning tea be taken. It was now 10:15am so his planning was perfect.
Half an hour later, well-watered and refuelled, we fired up and turned left onto North Black Range Firetrail. A little distance along the trail TL Simon pulled up and indicated an almost invisible track to our right which he said was a good 4wd challenge, only 500m or so, uphill, tight, rutted, fallen trees and at the top a very tight turning point. He wondered if anyone was interested – silly question, we all were. So, 3 vehicles at a time we hooked in. It was a great little technical climb that would be well-nigh impossible were it wet. No view of anything but magnificent mountain vegetation at the top and well worth the effort.
Once that little diversion was over, we continued along North Black Range Firetrail to Mulloon Firetrail and turned left for about 200m (we had been on this bit earlier) and then turned right onto Bald Hill Firetrail. We were well out of low range country by now and heading towards our lunch break at Lowden Forest Park. We followed Bald Hill Firetrail, Palerang Road (aka Lewises Camp Firetrail) and an unnamed forestry track – 20km in total and we arrived at Lowden Forest Park at 12:30pm for lunch, impeccable timing by TL Simon.
Lunch was the usual leisurely affair we have on trips – lots of chit-chat and vehicle inspections and general relaxing until the whistle blew to get us going again at 1:35pm.
Leaving Lowden Forest Park we followed Lowden Road for about 8km to Coxes Creek Road and turned left onto it. After a couple of km’s we turned right onto Parallel Road and then left into Tower Road for a little bit before turning right into the low range track that took us up to — yep, the Fire Tower. It was a great little climb – short, sharp & rutted – and we all popped out at the top to spectacular 360-degree views. We spent quite a bit of time here absorbing the views, very easy to do. Sadly the area gets a lot of traffic and there was a bit of rubbish strewn around. Someone had cut a hole in the ring-mesh fence surrounding the Fire Tower, presumably so they could climb up to get a little higher and have a better view.
After a good soak up of the views we headed back down the low range track to re-join Tower Road and then we turned left into Main Range Road and continued to its junction with Harolds Cross Road at Foxlow Gap – about 4km. Here Main Range Road ended, and we continued straight ahead on Rocky Pic Road for 8km until turning left into Captains Flat Road for the final 9km leisurely dash to our trip endpoint – the Captains Flat Hotel. Road conditions varied after the Fire Tower – good dirt, bad dirt, rutted dirt, rocky, dusty (very good dust!) – and great forest countryside.
The Captains Flat Hotel has new owners and was doing pretty good business for 3pm on Sunday afternoon when we arrived. Great to chat with them and I hope they do well.
We had a very informal debrief over a coldie of whatever people fancied before TL Simon formally ended the trip. It was a great day – perfect weather and company – and well organised and managed by Simon. I clocked 120km from start to end and am looking forward to getting out there again soon.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Simon and all fellow trippers.
Author: Kevin Phillips