22 April 2008 Reedy Creek from Shanahans Mountain Photos
Map: Colinton 1:25000
Getting There

This walk was organised and led by Max S as an ad-hoc FBI Tuesday walk:

(Tuesday 22 April - Shanahans Creek area - From Shanahan’s carpark, down Reedy Creek, across a small range at SH 1387 to Shanahan’s Creek. Up Shanahan’s Creek to the end and return to carpark. About 15 km or so and a couple of hundred metres or so elevation. Nearly all off track. Leave Kambah shops at 7.30 am. Say 6-7 hours walking (Note – If less than 4 this will not be a sanctioned FBI walk) Confirmation of those interested appreciated.).

6 drove from Canberra to Shanahans Mountain car park. Lovely walking when one is picked up at one's door and delivered back some hours later. I did have a ziz - on the trip there and on the trip back.

Walk

Our good leader had a rocket in his boots and we dispatched 1.2km and 100m climb to Shanahans Mountain from the car park in 22mins! He barely slowed and we were away N along the ridge to SH1426 (see pic 1) then down 160m to the saddle to its E. A lovely open area draining S into an arm of Shanahans Falls Creek and N down Reedy Creek. We sidled the creek on the E side then dropped into it for morning tea just after 10am. 4km in 1.5hrs to here. An observant party member spotted a possible piece of petrified wood in a stone (see pic 2) and, at this point, Reedy Creek had no water or reeds (see pic 3).

We then followed Reedy Creek down for 3km, sometimes in the creek, sometimes just above, crossing and re-crossing for the easiest way. Water appeared and disappeared several times - at one moment is was trickling, then next moment gone. We surprised ourselves by having gone further than planned. But the climb back up to the ridge on the E side was pretty daunting wherever we looked. Max coaxed us up the 350m climb with the promise of lunch, which we found around 600m NE of SH1387 on the ridge.

At this point it looked like we'd not drop over to Shanahans Falls Creek and tackle the almost 400m climb back up, so we elected to remain on the ridge and came along through SH1387, near SH1314 and SH1337 to the saddle at the top of Reedy Creek. The ridge had plenty of bumps and a mixture of going, close in places so it was reasonably slow. From the saddle it was only a 160m climb to the Booth Range and SH1426, 160m being a little kinder than a 400m climb as the sun was westering. We retraced our track to the cars.

A good day in a new area. Thanks Max for rocketing leadership and to Dick, Henry, Madeleine and Philip for enjoyable company, as usual.

Distance: 15.2km  Climb: 700m.  Time: 8.40am - 4.35pm (call it 8hrs), with 35mins of stops.
Grading: L/R; H(12)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Reedy Creek from Shanahans Mountain

Click on a thumbnail below to see the full sized picture
1 Reedy Creek from Shanahans Mountain
2 A piece of petrified wood embedded in a stone
3 Reedy Creek at morning tea

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