Wummun (Mount Edwards)

Location: Moogerah Peaks National Park, SEQ
Date: 5th April, 2014
Distance: 6.5 km
Time: 2 h

Mount Edwards is the first particularly strenuous walk I've done since Peru last year, and the resulting minor heel blistering brought back memories of hiking Mount Barney in 2010, coincidentally on this very day 4 years ago.

Here the walk began by crossing Moogerah Dam, with views across the lake to Mount Greville. A sign warned me I might get stuck on the dam overnight if I finished the walk after 6pm.

After the dam, the first 20 minutes was mildly steep and brought me to a rocky outcrop with pleasant views. I felt as though I'd already climbed a mountain at this point (and had I been 500 m east across Reynolds Creek, I would have already summitted Little Mount Edwards). The path seems to be well used but given the number of spider webs I encountered, I was probably the only person to visit Mt Edwards today.

Little Mount Edwards, separated from Big Mount Edwards by a creek

From this point, the track became narrower, less defined and significantly steeper. I took many stops to catch my breath in this section, but was always deterred from breaking for very long thanks to the dull surrounding vegetation (most of the trees here looked dead). Despite being almost 4pm and on the shaded half of Mt Edwards, it was seriously stinking hot.

Several hundred metres before the top, the track levelled out and I was surprised to realise I had been surreptitiously surrounded by grass trees.

All up it took about 50 minutes to the top. I've read claims the clear views are a just reward for the effort to get here, but I have to admit I was disappointed that the lookout faces away from all the interesting scenery (i.e. mountains of the scenic rim), although you do get a nice view of Mount French.

Mount French from Mount Edwards

On the way down

Back at the bottom, most of the families had cleared off for the day... which was a shame, because the parklands were much prettier in the late afternoon light.

With an hour of light left, I took the scenic winding drive to Mount French to catch sunset at Logans Lookout (360 m along a paved track from the parking lot). The view from here was spectacular and much more impressive than from the top of Mt Edwards. Several other people apparently had the same idea as me so I wasn't alone, but everyone was mostly silent watching the sun dip below the scenic rim mountains to the west.

Looking back towards Mt Edwards

Sunset and crescent moon