Summerleas Road to Leslie Vale 2019

Today we're walking a slightly new version of an old favourite. Favourite if you like hills, that is.

We park in the old quarry just off Summerleas Road on an overcast, low cloud day that has a hint of rain.

Never mind, it's not raining yet as we set off towards Kingston on Old Summerleas Road. Yes, it's a hill to start with more to come.

Up Old Summerleas Road

Low cloud and a dull day

It's not a bad temperature for walking and I spend the day just in shorts and a polo shirt.

Heading right when we reach Hackford Drive, we continue climbing to a junction where Jacobsons Place comes in from the left. Between the two roads, Picket Hill Track starts and we head up.

Picket Hill Track

Looking downhill towards the start

Still some good sized gum trees here

This is a nice track to walk, we follow it through various turns to Cades Drive where we turn right, continuing to the cul-de-sac where we pick up Picket Hill Track again. This takes us past a couple of houses at the end to a spot where we have a choice of ascending a nice little hill or descending a nice little hill.

Picket Hill Track at end of Cades Drive

Of course we chose to ascend the nice little hill. There are a couple of spots of rain as we start, but it amounts to nothing.

Going up!

Looking down

Old sawmill site to our right

The top is in sight. (Of this hill)

It's that time of day, but there are few places for Morning Tea. One group stops under a tree, while I show others some convenient rocks at the end of a turnoff on our track.

This turnoff so happens to be my new section, introduced today. It's actually all called Picket Hill Track.

Morning Tea

The other group is under a tree just around the corner at the bottom of this track.

I have a wander around as I've not been here before and find the top which would have been a good place to stop were it not for the weather.

I walk back down as everyone gathers together and we walk back up, passing the top of Picket Hill, heading down Parkdale Drive.

Summit of Picket Hill...

...but today's view isn't great

Heading down Parkdale Drive

Plenty of space on the sides for walking, but there's no traffic so down the middle we go.

After passing through road works at the end with a cheery flagman, we come to Leslie Road and turn right. Now we walk down, passing the Leslie Vale Oval that we have stopped at before, but not today.

We're heading to the junction with Bullock Drive where we turn off.

Bullock Drive, looking back to Leslie Road

This is horse country and we're heading for some of the bridle trails.

We pass the riding centre with someone training

The instructor called out a greeting, but I think there was too much conversation going on in front of me, so I acknowledged her when I passed.

We continue along Bullock Drive looking for the entry to the Leslie Vale Track.

As we reach the start of the track, a couple of locals come out to check us out. One is shy while the other is keen to join us.

Keen local

However, when we explained that Bob wasn't with us today, all the keenness dropped away and we were left to our own devices.

We walk up to a point where I'm momentarily confused by the number of tracks before recognizing that the one we want is behind us, slightly overgrown and partly hidden. Plus, I've not come from this direction before. If you require more excuses, feel free to contact me.

We follow the track up a wee hill and around past other horses who came hopefully to the fence, only to be disappointed.

On we go to McKenzies Road, crossing to pick up the track on the other side, heading towards Kingston, and parallel to the Huon Highway.

We make our way back to Leslie Road, crossing and finding a not very salubrious lunch spot, but one that offers plenty of rock seats for lunch.

Afterwards, we continue on what is now the Picket Hill Track again.

The weather has improved

It's not long before we pass our turn off spot from Morning Tea, to start our way down the hill, past the old sawmill site.

Going down

 Reaching the spot where we entered from Cades Drive in the morning, we bear left to start down another, steep hill.

The old mill site with old boilers etc.

This is a lovely steep descent which everyone enjoys. At the bottom we have to clamber down a steep bank onto a service road for the powerlines.

This was damaged by the floods last May and we have to look for a comfortable spot to cross the ditch, which is pretty wide and deep. The photo doesn't do it justice.

We stopped when someone spotted several mobs of kangaroo hopping back and forth over the cleared space you can see in the distance in the above photo. Too far to take a decent photo.

A short walk brings us to a small track off to the left, heading down.

Heading down the sidetrack

Plenty of scrub off to the sides

Our walks aren't always easy, you know

Soon we reach Fawcett Rivulet, which we cross without incident.

The track on the other side parallels the rivulet for a while before finally coming up onto Cripps Road which takes us back to the cars.

We had 10 walkers and covered 12.86km. It never really rained and was fine for the last part of the walk.


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