Trigs and Nature Reserves #6 – Hardy and Cotter trigs

Are you a list ticker? I am! Our Parks and Conservation Service list 66 trigs on public land in the ACT and 39 Nature Reserves in the Canberra Nature Park. Most are quite easily accessed. Over the next several months I will plan and lead a number of trips to these locations for our mutual list ticking enjoyment. I’ll even keep our records. Handsomely illuminated (digital) certificates will be issued at the end of the series 😂.

This hike begins at the gate on Pipeline Rd in the Pierces Creek Pine Forest area. We walk up an old fire trail to bag Hardy trig. Next is a nearly 2km leg along the crest of the Hardy Range on a deteriorating fire trail. From here, things get tricky. The next 2km is off-track through the scrub on the crest, before we turn NW and descend to Cotter trig (always interesting when you descend to a trig, 100vm descent over 1km). Finally, a 200vm plunge over 500m to pop out on Pipeline Rd. The hike is then all over bar the shouting, as from here it’s a road bash of 7km twisting and turning above the Cotter River and the gravity feed pipeline from Bendora Dam to your tap. The culverts directing water off the range are amazing, but once you’ve seen one or two there are several more to pass. Around 13km and 600+vm climb. Best suited for off-track walkers.
A few geocaches for you to find for me.