Mount Jackson

Wednesday 7th January 2015

Mount Jackson

Mount Jackson is a smallish mountain north west of Judbury and can be accessed from Puzzle Road. However, is is only a short walk, so to make it worthwhile I decided to walk from a road off Plenty Link Road to check out some of the forestry tracks in the area. It turned out to be quite a good walk in the end.
To reach the point where I started, drive out from Judbury heading west, and at 5.5 kms. turn right into Plenty Link Road and follow to a road on the right at 488337 5248034. Drive down 1.3 kms. to a cross roads and park.

Puzzle River

The track headed downhill to the Puzzle River which was only flowing slightly. I had been here last year when I walked to Rimons Hill, and there was more water in it at that time. After the river the track climbed steadily and met up with another track that passed through a pine plantation. It was very pleasant walking through here.

Walking through the pine plantation.

I soon reached Puzzle Road and turned right and walked along for just over a kilometre before taking the Mount Jackson track on the left. The track was quite a good road and could probably be driven in an ordinary car and was not very steep. The track sidled around the western side of the ridge and once I got higher the views started to appear. Up towards the summit were flat sections of rock which provided an outlook to the east. The track actually ended before the summit, but a small scrub bash brought me to the uppermost flat section where I stopped for a snack.

Looking East

Looking North East

Flat section where I stopped

Looking North West

 From there I walked over to the cliffs and along the top of the cliff line in a southerly direction. The country and views were much better than I had expected even though there was evidence of forestry harvesting in the valley below. The cliffs were rather high, and, as I wanted to walk back to Puzzle Road through the bush, I had to keep going along the cliffs until the country became less steep.

Looking North West

Looking North West

Looking West

Looking over the edge

Cliffs

Looking down steeply

There were excellent views all along here.

Looking West

Looking West

Looking West

Eventually I found a gully that headed in the right direction, so I scrub bashed down steeply to an old overgrown track and followed this before walking through a break in the pine plantation to Puzzle Road. From here it was simply a retrace of steps back to the car.
This was a good walk with excellent views from the summit cliffs. Of course it could be made much shorter if so desired.
Distance: 11.6 kms.
Time; 4'20"
Ascent: 530 metres
Click here to download GPX file.