My week in pictures: Kickstarting the Year with Trig Bagging

Apparently there are 64 trig points in the ACT. I am going to attempt to 'bag' them all in a year. Some are easily accessible; others less so. Some are on marked paths; others have been dropped in the bush from a helicopter and there are no access tracks to the remote areas, requiring a two-day bush bash to reach. I may not manage to bag them all, but I decided to make a start with as many nearby ones as possible in the week before I have to return to work.

I began on New Year's Day with Mt Painter (practically on my doorstep) and the next day I rode with Him Outdoors to Kier in the Aranda Bushland Nature Reserve. There are wide forest tracks and some single track, which makes for good cycling.

The next day I ticked off Trig No. 3, which was Mount Taylor, down south. When we lived in Kambah, I used to hike (and occasionally even run) up here regularly on my way home from work. I'm not fit enough to run up it at present, so it was a very hot and sweaty walk accompanied by the Evil Genius podcast (Walt Disney episode).

I don;t remember that bearded dragon sculpture, so either it is relatively recent or I am extremely unobservant - either is perfectly possible. The track winds around the hill, climbs some steps and then evens out along a lovely-looking path before a brutal final push.

The deceptive false summit

Proof of summit

I've always admired this weird little bench on the descent round the other side of the hill.

As I have another enforced week off work and Him Outdoors has gone back, I am spending most of my time bogging trigs and attending exhibitions at museums and galleries. I'm also catching up on reading, but the to be read pile by my bed does not seem to be getting any smaller.

Bedside book pile

Another day; another trig point. Number four on my list was in Oakey Hill Nature Reserve - a new one for me. It was cooler today, although there were just as many pesky flies. This one was pretty accessible and I was able to run to it. The route up consisted of a couple of kilometres of gradually inclining wide gravel trails under power lines and through trees, with a short detour up to the peak itself. Once I again I was trigging solo, but I was accompanied by Stanley Tucci reading his memoir, Taste: My Life through Food. He is very entertaining and writes well. He has a voice I could listen to all day, although his anecdotes did make me hungry.

The descent down the other side had steps and it looked as though there were lots of other tracks disappearing into the trees, which could be fun.

That night there was a big rain storm featuring hail showers and a power cut. We lit the candles, cracked open a bottle of red wine and listened to some more of Stanley Tucci reading his memoir through the pre-charged-up portable speaker. It was delightfully atmospheric and rather pleasant for one night.

Still life with power cut

The next day I took myself off to Percival Hill Nature Reserve where I bagged Gugahlin Hill and Percival Hill (the boring ones, according to Him Outdoors). Easily accessible through suburban streets, it was actually a little difficult to tell where the correct point was. I'm not quite comfortable with those yellow poles as they don't scream TOP OF THE HILL to me (hence the slightly quizzical expression).

But there was a giant platypus back at the suburban shops carpark, so that must mean something... just not sure what.

Percival Hill was more obvious all round.

Him Outdoors doesn't work Fridays so we put our time to good use and after he had done his morning training, we headed out up some hills. We went to Bullen Range Nature Reserve and biked in along the trails until it got too steep and gnarly, and I had to walk. The first peak was Barnes, which was quite close to the main track.

Fatness test squeeze through gap

Trig in the distance

And up close

My hero

The slog to Brett Trig had some tough little grunts - I'm always disproportionately annoyed when a ridge track has downs as well as ups.

It's not entirely clear why he has to wear a life jacket

I was exhausted after that day and I feel I deserved my beer. Fresh air and exercise is one of my favourite combinations, however, and finally - after almost two weeks of not being at work - my mind has stopped cannibalising itself and I was able to get a good night's sleep.

Ready for the next day, which saw us head down to the south of Canberra for another couple of trigs. Number nine on my list was Mt Tuggeranong (also called Oxley Hill), which was in a decent park with tracks mowed through the very long grass.

Panorama view

Walking back around Lake Tuggeranong, we passed this artwork - now, I know it's on a toilet block, but it's still pretty cool.

We continued on to Pine Island where we parked in the carpark and then tried to find the summit of Mt Stranger. While there was a perfectly good track around the base, there was no track up it at all (well, there may have been once, but it was now totally overgrown with long grass where snakes like to hide, and many spiky thistles).