Trig #12 - Mount Stranger

I haven’t been for a walk for almost 2 weeks, as the day after my last walk (Goodwin Trig), I ended up with a sinus and chest infection and had to endure a week of COVID test/isolation/rest/antibiotics. Luckily I’m almost back to normal, though the Canberra weather at the moment isn’t helping (sub-zero overnight, rain, snow, wind and temperatures below 10°). I am not a fan of winter!!

Still, with a bit of energy up my sleeve this morning and some enticing blue skies, I decided to go for a walk. I’d been told that Mount Stranger was a pretty easy trig to manage, so I thought I’d make it a bit longer and more interesting by starting at Pine Island. I guess that means I can do it again from within Bonython when I need a quick and easy walk! 😀

The path from Pine Island’s main beach is well-worn and easy to walk on. There were quite a few mountain bikers and walkers, but enough space for everyone I think. 

The path winds alongside the Murrumbidgee River, which was flowing quite quickly this morning, after some good recent rains. 

I didn’t really know where the path cut up to the Bicentennial Trail (I realised on the return trip that I’d missed it completely!), so I cut up through a little gully, where someone had planted a spade, 🤷

and came across a field full of kangaroos. Despite them being a daily feature of life in Canberra, it is always nice to see them.

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I followed a fence for a while, before I found a gate and  a path across the field to where it joined up with the trail. From there it was easy to pick up the zig-zagging path up the mountain.

There didn’t appear to be a defined path to the trig in this side, so I went cross country. Luckily the landscape on Mount Stranger is mostly grass, granite rocks and Patterson’s Curse 😟, so it was a pretty easy walk.

The views (as always across the western side of Canberra) are lovely. Today, there was some 

snow on the Brindabellas, so that made for some nice views. 

With the absence of a defined path, I barrelled down towards the houses at the base of the hill. On the way, I stumbled across someone's hideout! 😉

I hit a fence, but I followed it down the hill and eventually I found a gate and the Bicentennial Trail. A little way down I cut through a gate (ripping my pants in the process!), as I wanted to walk back via the river. It was then that I realised that I'd completely missed the track on the way in! Oh well. 

All in all, and despite a little back and forth as I wandered off the path, it was a nice walk. At the end I realised I'd done nearly 6km and felt pretty good, so I must be getting fitter (despite the couple of weeks off). It was slow, as I'm trying not to raise my cortisol levels too much, but still a good winter's walk.

Mount Stranger

Elevation gain - 660m 

Time to trig - about 45 minutes (I reckon it would be 15-20 from Bonython). 

Difficulty - easy-medium. While the incline isn't too bad, the track kinda disappears near the summit, so you've gotta go cross country. 

Best part - the trail by the river (and snowy mountain views!).

Trig #11 - Goodwin Hill

I didn’t have much time today, as it was already after 5 when I left work and I was racing the sunset. I’d noticed this trig on Google Maps earlier in the day when I was looking up a local address, so I knew it wasn’t too far away from work.

Goodwin trig is definitely a starter trig. If you were starting out on an adventure and felt like an easy walk, this would definitely be one! I drove past on a bit of reconnaissance and realised that if I parked next to the reserve and walked up it would only take me about 2 minutes to get to the trig. So instead I parked at Umbagong Park a little way down the road and wandered up a couple of streets that seemed entirely populated by dogs that like to bark at each other.

Even so, I got to the trig in about 11 minutes. It was a very easy walk and there is a footpath almost all the way up. There was a little bit of a hill between Umbagong Park and the Goodwin Hill reserve, but nothing horrendously difficult.

The view was quite nice from the trig. You can see our over New Macgregor to the mountains, and to Mount Rogers and the double cranes at Belconnen in other directions.

I still didn’t feel I’d done enough, so I wandered around the top of the hill a bit (there are a few paths circling round). There’s one part that looks like someone planted a garden a while back, and a few teddies in the trees too. I’m assuming the teddy bear trail concept from iso?

Back to the car again and the whole thing took me about half an hour. The hardest part was crossing Florey Drive in night time peak hour! But, at least I got a walk in. I had been sick over the weekend, so I was missing it a bit (who even am I?! 😂)

Goodwin Hill

Elevation gain - 615m (including the walk from Umbagong Park)

Time to trig - 11 minutes (probably 2 if you parked next to reserve)

Difficulty - easy. Paved all the way and only a slight incline.

Best part - a quick, easy, after work trig walk!