Enoggera Reservior and McDonald Circuit

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I HEADED up to The Gap and up to the Enoggera Reservior dam to watch the cloudless sunrise over the still lake. As the sky lightened, I began following the Aracuria Trail around the northern edge of the lake heading around low headlands and deep into the flooded gullies. The track rose along a forested ridgeline before I turned off along a firebreak track which continued the circuit heading around the rest of the lake towards its far side. This track was quite steep in places making for slow progress in the summer heat.

An hour passed before I reached Engoggera Creek, the main source of the lake flowing down the deep valley. I stop here and briefly explore the start of the now overgrown and forgotten Long Range Track through the dense rainforest. I don't get far though with a large patch of invasive lantana almost completely blocking the route which I was fairly easily able to get through earlier this year when I was last here.

Abandoning the Long Range Track, I return to the main track and continue heading around the track for another ten minutes passing a relatively flat area set aside to regenerate as a rainforest area at the head of the lake before reaching another trail rising along a spur. I follow this trail, the start of the McDonald circuit. It rises moderately out of the valley giving a few brief views of the lake where a couple of people are paddleboarding. The climb steepens but I continue rising gradually until reaching another track dropping down another spur. This is the other part of the McDonald Circuit which I will descend when I later return to the lake. I decide at this point to continue following the track up the ridge towards Boundary Road. The forest suddenly cleared as I passed a pylon with cables on either side spanning across the broad gullies to more pylons on the next ridges. After a brief stop I continued along the trail which is not as steep now, continuing to rise until it suddenly reaches Boundary Road.

I turned right following Boundary Road upstream deeper into the D'Aguilar Range. This is a rough gravel road following the top of the range used only by the park rangers. No other vehicles are allowed, so this makes a great walking and cycling track along the range, with uninterrupted travel back into Brisbane, and onward towards Mount Nebo, and with diversions towards Ipswich and along the range to as far as Mount Mee.

I followed this dirt road undulating along the top of the range gradually ascending until I eventually reach the junction to Centre Road, another track heading back down the valley and up the other side to Mount Nebo Road. Upon reaching the junction I returned along Boundary Road to the McDonald Circuit junction where I followed the track back down the hill to the pylon clearing. From there I took the side track to complete the circuit. Although initially a moderate descent, the track suddenly steepened to make for a slow descent. After quite a drop, the track suddenly reached the bottom of the valley near the lake. From here the track ran almost level through largely overgrown grass making it a bit hard to navigate in places. It was not long before I reached another junction where I turned right and continued following it for another hundred metres before reaching the main track going around the lake.

The main track continuing around the lake started easy going along the flats but soon became wildly undulating as the various spurs coming off the top of the range reached the lake. The track went over the ends of these spurs as it continued following the lake. Eventually it turned into a deep inlet along the lake where it followed to its end and headed back along the other side to reach a few spots where locals go to swim in the lake. From here the track swung around to reach the large concrete dam holding the lake back. From here the track ascended steeply for a few minutes to reach the end of Boundary Road, which I followed down the hill to cross Enoggera Creek outflow from the dam and continue a bit further around to where I had started this morning.

before continuing the circuit up to the end of the lake from where I hike the northern branch of the McDonald Circuit up to 69 Break, and continue to the top of the range where I follow South Boundary Road to Centre Road before turning back anddescending the steep southern branch of the McDonald Circuit and continue along the side of the lake back to the dam.