Mount Cygnet

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Mount Cygnet

Tuesday 26th November 2013

Mount Cygnet

I had been planning to do this walk for some time, but had no information on it, as I guess no one ever goes there. This was fairly evident from the route that I walked as nobody had been that way for a very long time.
I drove past the last house on Garden Island Creek Road and found a place to park the car just inside the State Forest boundary. I was expecting to come across a locked gate but there was none.
After kitting up I headed off just after 0800. The first obstacle was Garden Island Creek, but that was quite easily forded whilst keeping my boots dry.
After that it was a short steep climb up a ridge to find an old forestry track. When I say track, I mean it was a track maybe 10 or 20 years ago, but any resemblance to a track now was in one's imagination.

Forestry "Track"-the good bit

The track did start out okay, but soon became a mess of tangled foliage, downed trees and further up cutting grass. There were many large trees down across the track which had to be climbed over or under and the track disappeared in places requiring a scrub bash to pick it up again. I lost it many times but just kept heading up the ridge where I would occasionally find it again.
It took a little over 2 hours to finally reach the top of the ridge where Mount Cygnet was situated. This was now a highway compared to where I had been walking and in about 20 minutes I reached the small cairn that denoted the summit. There were no views at all along the ridgetop but I had anticipated that would be the case. The plan was to keep walking along the ridge top and to then return via either of 2 tracks shown on the map, thus completing a small circuit. These tracks did not exist which I find quite common and I was more or less expecting that to be the case.

Highway along the ridgetop

I then had to walk back uphill and return to the car via the way I had come. The track seemed to be a little harder to follow going back down and I continually lost it and had to refer to my GPS quite a few times. It was pleasing to finally hear Garden Island Creek as I neared the car. I did end up with a couple of leeches on me which is a rarity down here, unlike in north Queensland where they are numerous and ferocious.
Overall not a great walk, mainly because of the scrub bashing and lack of views, but it was rather pleasant walking along the ridgetop through nice forest.

Distance: 9.9 kms.
Time: 5'30"
Ascent: 660 metres
Click here to download GPX track.