[SUBW-A] Trip report: Mt Solitary, 7 Sept 2008

[Mitchell Isaacs]

Party: Jo Boyd, Mitchell Isaacs
After battling with the weekend trains, I met up with Jo in Wentworth Falls
shortly after 11. With just the 2 of us, and nice weather, we decided to
head from Kings Tableland, over Mt Solitary, to Katoomba.

Walking through part of the Sydney Catchment protected area, we were glad to
see logical decisions had been made, with earthmoving equipment in use on a
road where bicycles were prohibited. After descending on the road through
the cliffline, we soon turned off onto the track to Mt Solitary, noting an
early blooming Waratah. The track continued to the crossing of the Kedumba
River, then the steep climb up to Mt Solitary. We stopped for lunch with
fantastic views at the logbook (which has mostly disintegrated), noting only
one other SUBW entry. The water levels in the dam also looked encouragingly
high.

After lunch we continued along the top of Mt Solitary, and much to our
surprise, found an abandoned tent, sans poles, at the main campsite near the
creek. All we could work out was that someone must have forgotten it(!), or
possibly decided to leave it behind because they didn't want to carry it
anymore, not really fitting in with minimal impact walking! We took the tent
back with us, so if anyone would like a cheap dome tent missing its poles,
you're welcome to it!

The rest of the day continued without incident, climbing up the Golden
Stairs to take us back into Katoomba, nicely timed for the train back to
Wentworth Falls.