Black Mountain to Stromlo Forest Park, Centenary Trail - December 2020

The track circumnavigating Black Mountain is a sweet one.

My fourth day on the Centenary Trail started off at the base of Black Mountain almost within sight of our apartment, so consequently I was on the track at a reasonable hour this morning. Looking back in hindsight the early start was a good thing as I spent a fair portion of the rest of the day geographically embarrassed! Setting off from the car park at the top of Frith Road everything was good for awhile as I slowly shuffled my way up towards the Black Mountain Summit, however arriving at a 4 way track junction to find Centenary Trail markers pointing in all four directions had me thinking that I may have some navigational conundrums to contemplate in my near future. With one marker pointing up the mountain in the direction of the summit I figured that heading that way was a pretty safe bet... and 15 minutes later I was indeed standing at the lookout on Black Mountain below the huge concrete Black Mountain Tower.

The day started off fairly easily.

I had a fairly obvious navigational reference to keep me heading in the right direction.

The Centenary Trail climbing Back Mountain.

The ascent of Black Mountain is solid - without being super steep (this is looking backwards-obviously!)

This four way intersection had me scratching my head a little.

I've made it to the summit. I didn't pay to go up to the lookout tower this morning...

... I checked out the lookout platform near the car park.

Leaving the lookout I picked up the marked track which soon looped back and I once again found myself back down at the aforementioned mentioned 4 way track junction. Now I knew that I wasn't really going to get too bushed here as there are numerous tracks heading into the bush at all tangents on the slopes of Black Mountain, however the exact route of the Centenary Trail was far from intuitive. So... I decided to head left on what I was guessing would be a circumnavigation of the mountain. This section of the walk was a very nice walk, the track did indeed contour around the steep slopes of the mountain and the open forest combined with the steep slopes meant that the views were better along here than they had been from the summit lookout. All good things come to an end though and sure enough I found myself back at my four way track junction having explored all four arms, hmm.

Back down at the four way junction I headed around the mountain. 

The circuit track gave me the best views on Black Mountain. This is looking back towards Belconnen with One Tree Hill in the distance.

Looking back to our accommodation down in Acton.

Nice walking on the circuit track.

Hey, hey, I started down there four days (and may kilometres) ago.

Still on the circuit track. 

I'm going to be slowly making my way down there.

Black Mountain circuit walk.

More views on the circuit walk.

Scribbly Gums on Black Mountain.

After a bit of hard scratching I decided to drop further down my ascent route and see if I could pick up a track heading in the direction that I needed to be going. After dropping down the sealed track for awhile I found an old 4wd track dropping steeply off to the left and decided that it would do me. Arriving at another 4 way intersection after a few minutes of steep descent I once again found some Centenary Trail Markers, and once again they were pointing off into the scrub at various tangents. Consulting the map I took the left had variant and thankfully after awhile things started to match up on the map with what I was looking at in front of me... for awhile. Shortly after passing beneath Caswell Drive the Centenary Trail headed off on a section of the walk called the Frost Hollow Walk and once again things got a little cryptic. The walking track through the Frost Hollow was very sparsely marked and that, combined with knee high grass and a very counter intuitive route meant that once again I had to concentrate a bit. 

After scratching my head for awhile once I was back at the four way junction I dropped down the track that I'd climbed the mountain on before picking up this unsigned old 4wd track...

... emerging a bit lower down the mountain a found a track marker...happy days!

Hmm, options again.

Progress off Black Mountain was now being made.

Black Mountain Reserve

It was turning into peach of a day!

The Centenary Trail passing beneath Caswell Drive.

Climbing over a stile I joined the shared path that runs beside the William Hovell Drive for a few metres before passing beneath the road and climbing steeply for a few minutes and heading into the Cork Oak Plantation in the National Arboretum. This short section of today's walk was beautiful, the well marked and maintained soft track flowing beneath the cool shady canopy, life was pretty sweet again... little did I know! My next navigational issue was my fault, instead of climbing up to the National Arboretum Visitor Centre I started climbing a little bit early and found myself at the Wide Brown Land Lookout. Now that shouldn't of been a real issue as I knew where the visitor centre was and I easily made may way through the arboretum across to the visitor centre. Arriving at the National Arboretum I consulted the map of the arboretum and found the Centenary Trail was contouring along the slopes below the visitor centre, all was sweet as the open grassy slopes would make it easy to get back on track. So anyway after a break at the visitor centre I set off to re-join my the Centenary Trail. After dropping down the grassy slopes I found the track that I was looking for heading into a pine plantation... what I didn't find was any signs or track markers? After a bit of head scratching and a lot of map reading I decided to continue on through the pine forest, judging by the bike tyre and footprints on the dusty track then people were obviously coming through here. Well as you've probably guessed I made it out the other end of the pine forest alive, my best guess here is that this section of the track has been re-routed due to the bridge over the Molonglo River being out (it wasn't) and I think I might of missed the re-route due to the fact that I climbed up to the National Arboretum Visitor Centre too early... maybe?

I'm about to enter the Frost Hollow Walk.

The Centenary Trail through the Frost Hollow was a little... vague.

I was now making progress as Black Mountain started receding into the distance.

Nice walking on the Frost Hollow section of the walk.

Leaving the Frost Hollow Walk I joined this sealed path beside William Hovell Drive for a few minutes...

... before passing beneath the road and almost immediately entering the Cork Oak Plantation.

The Cork Oak Planation was really nice walking.

The shade was very welcome today.

I passed by the Cork Oaks humpy.

I climbed too early up towards the National Arboretum Visitor Centre I think.

It was easy enough to head across country to reach the visitor centre though.

Once at the visitor centre I checked out the map and decided to drop down the slopes and re-join the Centenary Trail.

I followed this flowy mountain bike track down through the arboretum.

Leaving the arboretum and entering the pine forest I found old marker... and nothing else. I was really just working off my maps getting through here.

Walking through the pine forest was pretty easy really although a little uninspiring. 

I'm starting to drop down to the Molonglo River now. 

Once across the Molonglo River I picked up a shared another shared use trail that contoured above the river as I skirted the suburb of Coombs before I eventually I passed beneath John Gorton Drive. I was now climbing to enter Stromlo Forest Park along or beside some pretty quiet roads and while I still wasn't seeing any track markers things were pretty strait forward. Arriving at the large Stromlo Forest Park Mountain Bike facility I was hoping that I'd be able to purchase a cool drink (or two) however my mountain bike brothers and sisters let me down here and I arrived to find the drink and food vendor closed, hmm. After poking around a bit I did find myself a tap so I did help myself to some cold water while I sat in the shade for awhile. Now Stromlo Forest Park is one of the trail heads for the Centenary Trail so I figured that this would be a good spot to get back onto the official track and indeed I did find an official trail head signpost, although apart from the sign everything else was pretty vague still.

Looking back down towards the low level bridge that I've just crossed the Molonglo River on.

I followed this shared path as it skirted around Coombs above the Molonglo River.

I stayed south of this dam on Holden's Creek.

After passing beneath John Gorton Drive I followed the closed Urriara Road up the hill to enter Stromlo Forest Park.

Stromlo Forest Park

I was hoping to get a cold drink here... I had to settle for some tap water instead.

I did find a trail head sign though.

After ringing Sam to organise a pick up I shuffled off on the last section of my days walk. I was now heading for the Canberra Bushfire Memorial however straight away I had an issue, the sealed path that I was following was signposted as a bike only track? Once again I consulted the map and decided on a fairly meandering route through Stromlo Forest Park across to the memorial, it had been that kind of day really so a little bit of extra distance wasn't really going to hurt now! After safely making my way through the big mobs of Kangaroos I arrived at Canberra Bushfire Memorial and my days stroll was pretty well over. Once I'd checked out the poignant memorial I crossed over Cotter Road into Eucumbene Drive, reunited with Sam and headed off back into our apartment in town for a long shower!

Hmm.... I'll walk the grass then.

I tracked a bit east away from the bike only signs... and bumped into a mob of Roos.

This muscly bloke held his ground for a fair while.

The Canberra Bushfire Memorial is a poignant reminder of the tragic fires that ripped through here back in back in 2003. 

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 24.3 kilometres and climbed about 479 metres on what I'd call a medium-hard grade days walking. Over the four days that I'd been on Centenary Trail so far I've walked around 96.6 kilometres and climbed around 2176 metres. Like I've mentioned the Centenary Trail today was a little vague, now some of this was my fault and some wasn't however it didn't really matter in the end as it was still possible to end up where I needed to be. Once again the Centenary Trail was a mix of sealed and unsealed single track, shared use paths and closed 4wd tracks. To be honest today was probably my most under whelming day on the walk so far, although Black Mountain and the National Arboretum were both very nice in their own ways. I used the notes and maps out of the Woodslane book Walking & Cycling Canberra's Centenary Trail by Nina Hvoslef & Tallis Didcott, along with my GPS topos today.

Relevant Posts.

Centenary Trail, Previous Day, 2020.

Centenary Trail, Day 1, 2020.

Black Mountain tonight from the comfort of our accommodation in Canberra.

Looking south towards Stromlo (in the dark).