Trigventures (and great walks) with Mel: Trig #15

In my first post, I mentioned that One Tree Hill was the one that started it all. So I’ve been keen to do it again and reach the summit. I’d heard that it takes 2 hours, so I’d planned to leave work nice and early and get it done before it got too dark.

Well...the best laid plans and all that. But I’ll get to that later.

I started out with lots of energy and excited about getting out into the lovely afternoon. The trail really is very nice, with amazing views over north Canberra all the way along.

It’s a (mostly) smooth, well maintained trail on a steady but gradual incline, and there are lots of different types of vegetation along the way.

The wattle were flowering,

there were plenty of birds and a couple of kangaroos,

and I saw 3 other people the whole time I was there. It was lovely and quiet and peaceful.

For some reason, I had it in my head that it was 3km to the lookout, but I’d got it wrong, it’s actually 4. I started to think it was going to be too late and too dark, but my good old stubbornness kicked in and I ploughed on, wishing I’d left work earlier but determined to make the trig before sunset.

The summit path is about 150m of stairs up a pretty steep hill. And the steps are quite high, so it was a bit tough on my old knees. You could stop at the bottom of these steps and still see some magnificent views, but I was that close I had to make the climb.

I got to the summit before sunset...but only just. The sun was just on the horizon. A little voice inside my head told me it was going to be a dark walk back, but I ignored it for a moment, taking in the amazing views across Gungahlin and other the beautiful (and at the moment green) rural land on the other side.

Needless to say, it got dark pretty quickly! The last half hour was in almost complete darkness, but with the help of my iPhone torch I made it back in one piece, with the frogs singing me along the way.