Corin Dam / Stockyard Spur Trail

EvanJames said :

Being a fat lazy bugger, I always preferred to go up Gingera from the Ginini carpark. No stairs! Haven’t been there since the fires though.

Yea that’s easier but ive heard they have shut the gate further back now near Mt Franklin so you cant drive to the Ginini car park any more might be wrong as I havnt been up there for ages.

Being a fat lazy bugger, I always preferred to go up Gingera from the Ginini carpark. No stairs! Haven’t been there since the fires though.

That’s a good point actually. Bit worried about this ‘stairs’ thing though – that can’t possibly be stairs all the way up?? Why would they do that??? It just makes it hard to lean forward and push on..

Well it still seems like a slightly higher altitude than Square Rock, possibly the highest altitude that can be reached in standard cars? I.e. on a paved road and then walk.

The Heli pad could be a good thing because when I used to do that walk up to Gingerra coming back some times at dusk or at night it was very easy to miss the turn off down stockyard spur and we use to put pink ribbon on a tree there to mark the spot. Otherwise it was bush bashing down to the cotter river below the dam. At least with the Heli pad you cant miss it.

I just remember from last year that we only really got snow toward the top so not sure if Square Rock is high enough.. Is it just as hard? It’s rated as ‘moderate’..

Square Rock is a mild walk with about 250m of vertical over approx 4.5km one way on a sensibly built and maintained track. There was snow there last year, but you’ll have to time the trip well. The views from Square Rock are excellent, and I reckon you’d have to go to Ginini or Gingerra to top them. It’s much more enjoyable than Stockyard Spur, and the rewards are greater.

The heli pad at the top of Stockyard Spur was recommended by a report into the bushfires. Still, it’s sad to see thriving native bush cleared in a wilderness area.

Found it… It’s about a 100m lower than Stockyard Spur it seems, but along the same road so should also be accessible.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-35.5483&lon=148.8646&zoom=13&layers=C

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/229542/Square_Rockwebversion.pdf

I just remember from last year that we only really got snow toward the top so not sure if Square Rock is high enough.. Is it just as hard? It’s rated as ‘moderate’..

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII said :

Since the work has been done on Stockyard Spur it’s a far more taxing walk then it was previously. The stairs are hell on knees and when you get to the top there’s a ‘pristine wilderness’ heli pad in a cleared area about 50mX30m to greet you. Far better day walks elsewhere, like Square Rock or Nursery Swamp. Square Rock often gets snow in winter.

Oh that’s a shame.. Anything higher altitude and accessible than Stockyard Spur? Sounds like they borked a really good track??

What’s the deal with the heli pad??

I’ll look up square rock.. I’ve given up on trying to find info about walking tracks from any official source, this forum is much better.

Since the work has been done on Stockyard Spur it’s a far more taxing walk then it was previously. The stairs are hell on knees and when you get to the top there’s a ‘pristine wilderness’ heli pad in a cleared area about 50mX30m to greet you. Far better day walks elsewhere, like Square Rock or Nursery Swamp. Square Rock often gets snow in winter.

Demosthenes said :

Fantastic.. So the track is walkable then… Reports of a cold front coming through this week too.. Curious though, how can night time temperatures be higher than down in Canberra, like last night?

If it’s windy for one thing, but also cold air flows down hill, like water. So it flows down and pools in the valleys.

Demosthenes said :

Fantastic.. So the track is walkable then… Reports of a cold front coming through this week too.. Curious though, how can night time temperatures be higher than down in Canberra, like last night?

Its often like that in the Mountains the valleys are colder than the peaks due to cold air inversion where the dense cold air sinks to the valleys. Same on the Main Range in Kosciuszko. Ive been ski touring and snow camping up there a lot and have had -20c in some areas up there at night but at the same time only -5 to -7 or so on the ridge tops above 2000m.

Curious though, how can night time temperatures be higher than down in Canberra, like last night?

Temperature inversion. Google it.

It was foggy in Canberra, so I would expect an inversion layer was the culprit. A layer of warmer air sitting above the colder air. And if the layer was level with Mt Ginini then the AWS there would have recorded it.
Plus cold air sinks, which is why you get frost hollows in the mountains, areas of open grassland in the valleys with wooded hills.

Fantastic.. So the track is walkable then… Reports of a cold front coming through this week too.. Curious though, how can night time temperatures be higher than down in Canberra, like last night?

Interesting cold front/s incoming, might see something friday morning, or later in the weekend. The resorts are talking it up (of course) but there’s potential.

Walked part of the way up a few weeks ago. They are renovating the track and have put a lot of work into new steps on the first section.