Trig #17 - Isaacs Ridge

It was a cold and windy Saturday afternoon, but I felt like walk (who even am I?!), so I popped over to Isaacs Ridge, which is only about 7 minutes drive from my house.

I parked on Long Gully Road, where there were a few other cars, but despite that it is obviously very popular with mountain bikers, walkers and horse riders, it was the last time I saw anyone else for the whole time I was there. It’s so nice when I have the trail to myself. 

I had a rough idea of which direction I was headed but wasn’t too fussed on the right trail,

so I wandered along until I found “The Spine”, which is a marked mountain bike (and walking) trail. It looked nice so I decided to go that way.

It was a pretty, well defined trail with a gradual climb that ran parallel to the fire trail below. It took me through the pine (and a few gums) forest, past a big crop of granite rocks,

and eventually up towards a different fire trail towards the top, where I rejoined and made my way towards the trig. By this stage I was at the top of the ridge, so I could enjoy some really lovely views.



It was still a bit of a walk to the trig, with a couple of uphill parts, but nothing really steep.

Despite the icy and strong winds (perhaps why no one else was out!),


the view from the trig was (as always) lovely. In the east I could see right across Queanbeyan and the airport to the Great Dividing Range, west across Woden to the Brindabellas and then the quarry, city and Black Mountain Tower in the north.

There is lots of Patterson’s Curse up there too. It adds a lovely purple to my photos but it’s sad that it’s gotten that far out of control.

I thought it might be good to go a different way back to the car, so I headed south along the ridge towards the big radio antennae that are a feature on Isaacs Ridge.

There was some steeper climbing there; not too horrible but it did get my heart rate up!

Then, it was a pretty steep walk down along a rocky fire trail, which made me very glad that I hadn’t picked that way to go up. 

There were some nice sights to keep my mind of my knees though! There wasn’t much wildlife at all. A few birds, and one rabbit but I didn’t see much else.

I came off the trail on Long Gully Road and walked the last 200m along the road back to my car. There is a fair bit of litter along there, but I interestingly it was the only hint of the nearby Mugga Lane Tip, which I could see from the ridge but definitely couldn’t smell.
I got back to my car just as it started raining. Good timing!

Isaacs Ridge
Elevation gain - 835m
Time to trig - about 50 minutes (via “The Spine”)
Difficulty - medium
Best part - the views at the top right along the ridge. Especially the eastern view.