2020 04 21 Mt Ainslie Walk
This was a nice walk of 5.6Km with Bob Salmond around the northern and north western slopes of Mt Ainslie as well as along some of the edges of the reserve along house trails adjacent to Ainslie in Canberra
Featured Image is of Bob on the Upgraded Track section below 5 Ways and above 132KVA East Powerline
This was a morning when two of us Melba Shed walkers got together again and decided to walk around part of the slopes of Mt Ainslie Nature Reserve in Canberra.
We started around 10.00AM from Kellaway St Car Park in Hackett.
We then proceeded east along Hancocks Road but then turned south along some ill defined cycle tracks, ending up in a heavily disturbed dirt area with numerous trails everywhere. Heading around to the east we picked up an old trail that took us right through to the West 132KVA Powerline Trail. \
We then headed south for a short distance before turning east up another well formed trail that we followed east, parallel to Hancocks Road and under a Powerline. We soon got to a location where several trails met, but we joined the East 132KVA Trail and took it south until we could turn right and head south-west up a section of the Canberra Centennial Trail that took us up to a point I have called the 5 Ways on top of the ridgeline. The lower portion of the trail up has been upgraded with wooden steps and crushed stone to help prevent erosion.
We then took the trail down to the north-west until it turned west again and which we followed right around until we joined the Ainslie Link Rd. We followed this north-west for 400m before turning left or south-west for 100m, then right down across the Socks Trail before reaching and joining the fence line track on the trench line which runs slightly west of and parallel to the Ainslie Houses Track.
We followed this all the way back close to the car. It afforded interesting views of the back of houses in Ainslie with many new updated houses and some in their old original status.
As usual there were great views out to the west towards Belconnen
We reached the car just after 12 Noon thus taking about 2hrs. We did 5.6Km. This was an Easy-Medium walk.
Map of Walk | More pictures in Google Photos | files including gps located in Google Drive
Notes re Maps: GPS map views provided using Garmin Mapsource with map base using OSM Garmin version | The area of the walk is covered by the NSW 1:25,000 topo map CANBERRA.
