Brearick Trig, TS5978 - Coolongolook, NSW, Australia - Australian Trig Points on Waymarking.com

I have tried a couple of times to gain entry off Kennedys Gap Road, but this time I came with my older son from Ferny Creek Road from the south. At some time before 2014 I had tried to drive east up from the end of Kennedys Gap Road, only to find it blocked with a fallen tree. Then in 2019 I walked up to the junction of Bales Trail and Brearick Trail while having to clear a walkable path. Only a few hundred metres downhill I realised that I didn't have my camera (nor phone) with me, so I retreated for another day. Then in 2021 I made yet another hiking attempt up Bales trail, using a machete this time, but didn't even make 1 kilometre up in an hour an half, so again retreated.

So this year with my older son at home for a week I thought that I would take the opportunity to have another go. On rechecking the maps I thought that we would have a different approach, and come in from the south, off Ferny Creek Road (which comes off Wootton Road). Not too far past the unimproved picnic/camp area off Ferny Creek we came to twin deep muddy ruts on the dirt road, were we parked, packed up, and took off to the north. It was easy walking until we reached were we had to turn to the southwest and up the ridge (at that turn point you could see into non-Forest private land).

As the trail went up from a southwesterly direction of ascent to west, and the to northwest the trail was frequently obstructed with lantana patches. I had brought a machete along, and that helped in the lighter sections. Sometimes it was easier to go off the overgrown 'benched' track when it couldn't be easily discerned, and go off to one side or the other into a clearer 'virgin' section of native forest. We stayed on to the left past a 'Y' junction where the map showed Brearick Trail heading downhill over a 'creek' before going back up towards the Trig. (Who knows if that way is any better, but I doubt it!)

The next kilometre of uphill took about an hour and a half, with us changing from one side to the other, trying find a clearer patch than the highly overgrown Trail. When we were about 150m from the almost parallel Brearick Trail it was clearer to head NE, than to continue NW which would have been about a kilometre longer. The almost level ridge section of trail SE to the Trig was clearer that many of the uphill sections. There was a small cleared section when we got to 10m from the Trig, and we wondered if it really was there. We had each taken a litre of water with us, and while we were almost finishing off our limited water we approached to 6m from GZ, when we could FINALLY just see the overgrown Hotine-style concrete Trig Point, with an intact name plate, plastic post and perforated semi-circular vanes (the black paint is almost totally peeled off). All good though. Then it was time to try and retrace our track - not so easy; but we got back to the car from a 5 hour hike with only minor lantana scratches.

Geocaching Australia website: (visit link) TP7131

Visited: 1543, Friday, 10 February, 2023

State: NSW Map Name: Wootton, 9333-2-N Map Scale: 1:25,000 Map Publisher: CMA

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