Judbury Conservation Area

Thursday 16th July 2015

Judbury Conservation Area

The Judbury Conservation Area is a small area just before Judbury on North Huon Road in the Huon Valley. I have driven past countless times and often wondered what was in there. Now I know.
I only wanted to do a short walk today, but because of the fog, I didn't get going until later on when the fog had lifted to some extent. It did not matter. Because the area is close to my place, I walked from home.
I did not have much of a plan as there did not appear to be any old tracks that would be useful, so I was expecting a bit of a scrub bash. I entered the Area near the south east boundary and started climbing.

A structure someone has built in the bush

Fire has been through at some stage

Climbing up after the initial scrub

The initial section was a little overgrown with light scrub and bracken, but not bad really, and once I attained some height the bush really opened up to become a lovely forest. I continued climbing and came to what appeared to be an old track and followed this up the ridge to a more open area which appeared to have been logged in the past.

Bush up higher

Evidence of past logging

Old track

I finally reached the north eastern boundary where there was a pine plantation and a very nice waterhole.

Approaching the pine plantation

Nice Waterhole

Forest Reflections

I walked along the boundary until I came to private property and then walked back and branched off  to walk around the start of a creek on to another ridge. This ridge consisted of quite open forest and was easy to walk along. The ridge descended very gradually and when I reached the point where it became steeper, I stopped for lunch. Here were views of Rimons and She Oak Hills.

Rimons Hill

She Oak Hills

From here I walked around another creek's origin before scrambling up to another ridge. This had better views and I could see the snow on the Snowy Range.

Rimons Hill again

Snowy Range

I kept descending on the ridge, availing myself of the numerous animal pads. The descent was reasonably steep in places but I eventually made it back to the road and walked home.

Glimpse of the Huon River through the trees

This was an enjoyable short walk. It was much better than I was expecting. I will return in the future to check out the bits I missed.
Distance: 4.6 kms.
Time: 2'39"
Ascent: 304 metres
Click here to download GPX file.