General Information
Grading: hardDistance: 11.4 kilometers
Total climb: 562 meters
Time taken: 4 hours
Maps: Childowla 8628-3S 1:25 000
Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO: 106 kilometers
Start point map grid reference: 55H FB 49112 30288
Destination map grid reference: 55H FB 46682 29680
End point: Same as start
Route
Description
We started this walk where Burrinjuck Road meets the Childowla Trail, just under 20 kilometres south of the Hume Highway. We walked up the Childowla trail, steadily uphill, through some pleasant forest.
After about 1.5 kilometers the trail forked, with Childowla Trail heading off to the right and Barrenjack Trail to the left. This is well signposted.
We followed the Barrenjack Trail, and here started a gruelling 300 metre climb over a 1.6 kilometre segment of the trail. At this point we came to a well-signposted walking track on the right which took us the short distance to Barren Jack Mountain (966m).
Not much of a view from the top due to the dense bush around it.
From the summit we started bush bashing, following the ridge northwards. At first this was quite pleasant walking through light undergrowth...
...but towards the end of the ridge it became thick and tangled, making progress difficult. This continued until about halfway down the northern end of the ridge, but at least we found a clear rocky space where we could have lunch and view Little Jack Mountain.
Not long after the thick and tangled undergrowth gave way to some clearer space and we were able to make good time down to the power lines between the Barren Jack ridge and Little Jack. We followed the power lines for about a kilometre before we reacquired the Childowla Trail, which we followed to the right. The Childowla Trail took us all the way back to our starting point.
