VK2/MN-169 and MN-168, The Glen

VK2/MN-169 Craven and VK2/MN-168 No Name, by David, VK2NU/P 16/10/2017

 Park entry, on Glen Road

Both of these summits are in The Glen Nature Reserve, which can be accessed via Glen Road, off the Bucketts Way.

Neither of these summits have been activated before, are in a Park I've never been too, and I had no prior knowledge of access and the state of the Trails. It was therefore far from certain that I would manage to activate the summits, but surprisingly, things went well, and this would have to rate as one of my 'smoother' activation's.

The park is an easy 2.5 hour drive from home, so I had a sleep in until 5.00am, arriving at the park around 8.00am. Freeway, Pacific Hwy, Bucketts Way, and a 10km drive along the unsealed Glen Road, brings you to the Junction of Glen Road, and Craven Trig Road (Trail), which was where I left the car (Blue Circle on Map Below).

 VK2/MN-169 Craven

 Info from Adam, VK2YK suggested that the Trail to Craven VK2/MN-169 was overgrown in places and access to the summit was difficult. This info was a few years old, and it would appear that some work has been done on the Trail. Whilst I opted to walk the 3.2km to summit, the Trail would have been easy for 4WD vehicles, and I would have been happy to take my 2WD Hyundai I30 pretty much right to the summit.

Trail well signposted

Craven Trig Trail, or is it Road?

Trail still good nearing the summit

After an initial dip to cross the Wards River, the Trail rises steadily, but is a pretty easy walk (total climb 277m). The side Trail to summit is easy to find, and also good enough for vehicles. This section of the walk is marked by the blue line on the map.

Summit access Road to the left, looking back down Craven Trig Trail

Sign on Craven Trig Trail, just before the final turnoff to the summit. This was taken in August 2019, on my second activation of the summit, and was not spotted the first time around.

If you scroll back up to the map, you will see a Red X, which is around 300m NWW of the summit marker on SOTAMAPS. The Red X actually marks the Trig Marker on the summit, and I can only assume that SOTAMAPS is a little off in this instance. I walked to area of the SOTAMAPS summit, which requires some easy 'bush bashing', and cannot see how this point is higher than the Trig. However, the whole area is pretty level, and either site would be easily in the activation zone.

 Trig marker #1, apologies for the photo

Trig Marker #2.... Yes that is a pair of undies wrapped around the Marker (not mine I hasten to add).

There is a large open area near the Trig Marker, so set-up is easy, although as usual I left a fishing weight and section of line in a tree, after a wayward catapult shot.

My meager QSO count from MN-169

I was on air by 09:10 am (22:10 UTC on the 15/10/2017), but whilst the walk had been good to me, the propagation certainly wasn't. Only 5 QSO's in 1-hour, including tuning the 40 EFHW to 80m, to work VK2IO on CW.... Just as well the KX3 will tune about anything...

Oh well, at least I had activated the summit... Hopefully better conditions from the next one...

VK2/MN-168

Access Road to Craven Summit... The Road to MN-168 (aptly named Graded Road), is just to the left of the large tree in foreground.

The next section of the walk (marked in purple), takes you along Graded Road, and then turns Right onto Cypress Trail. Unlike the names suggests, this road is poorer than Craven Trig Trail, but intrepid 4WD enthusiasts should have no issue.

 Trail still OK (Graded Road)

Says it all..

The walk to VK2/MN-168 (from MN-169) is about 3.5km, with the last 300-400m being very steep and tiring. The summit/activation zone is pretty much on the Trail itself, so no 'bush-bashing' is involved.

VK2/MN-168

Plenty of branches to hang antennas, as well as lose fishing weights... Number 2 for the day is still hanging from the tree pictured below..

Beginning to think this Catapult thing wasn't such a great idea..

The glare obscures the second meager log page of the day.. 6 uniques including 1 S2S

Propagation hadn't improved any and I was beginning to wonder if the antenna had a fault. However, still managed to activate the summit and work VK2JDL, Phil on VK2/HU-047.

Breakfast and lunch, my wife's homemade Chocolate Brownies... recipe on request!

Homeward Bound

My original plan was to backtrack to car the way I had came, but with plenty of time up my sleeve, I headed back to the Graded Road, and then turned south on Sams Gully Trail (Route marked in yellow on the map). This actually worked out really well, as the Trail winds between the 2 summits, and cuts out a substantial climb back up to Craven.

I'm guessing the sign would have read... Sams Gully??

The track again was good, and would be fine for 4WD Vehicles.

How many Trail photos can a person take... Sams Gully

Total return walk was 6.3km, only stopping once to take a few pictures. My last QSO from MN-168 was at 12:40PM and I was back at the car by 02:30PM, this included packing up.

Have to work on my selfie skills.... Junction of Sams Gully and Glen Road... 700m to go..

Quite happy with things all up...

Pro's

• 2 new summits.
• A good walk (about 13km all up) with just the right level of difficulty.
• Good Trails, easy to access summits.
• Great Weather, about 22ºC and partially overcast.

Con's

• Propagation... short skip none existent, none of the usual VK3's in the log.
• 2 lost fishing weights.
• 1 leech, which got squashed mid feed in my boot... Bite was still bleeding at 9pm that night!

Animal sightings

• Lots of bush turkeys and several large lizards sunning on the trail. Sorry, too slow for pictures....