Blacksoil/Scrub Creek Circuit

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HEADING part way up the Mount Nebo Road, I park at Wohlsen Smith Park. Heading a short distance off the parking area I find the Mount Nebo Road break which I follow back towards Brisbane for a couple of hundred metres before reaching the start of Black Soil Road, a rough dirt track heading down a spur. I follow this track down from the top of the range passing through increasingly thickening tall eucalypt forest. The soil here is a lot darker than the yellow brown soils of much of the rest of the range, giving this road its name. The decent is moderate most of the way down the spur, but it does steepen towards the end, as many of the tracks here do. Enoggera Creek cuts deep into this valley. The forest continues to darken but I soon reach the creek flowing placidly along its gravel bank shaped by past floods and the gnarly trees growing along its bottom.

I stop and rest beside the creek for a while, seeing an unusual frog leaping across some of the stones. It is very quiet here apart from the sound of the bubbling water, the distant cackle of a kookaburra and the occasional screech of a cockatoo.

After a good rest, I cross the shallow ford over some dry rocks sticking up above the small rapid before ascending the steep creek on the other side. The steep section lasts for about five minutes before I'm at the top of the ravine. Here the bush has lightened and the track moderated. It is still quite a steep climb in the summer heat, but I take it slowly through the forest deep with lantana undergrowth. Fortunately the track is clear. The slope is pretty constant the whole way up to Boundary Road apart from a small descent to a grassy saddle in the middle of the spur. After one last moderately steep ascent and crossing the top of a rounded hill with a water tank on top of it, I reached Boundary Road.

From the junction I follow Boundary Road descending back towards Brisbane for about half an hour before reaching Hell Hole Break, as far as I've been on the range before today. I rested there for a while before continuing for another twenty minutes to Centre Road, where I had reached yesterday. After a brief rest here I returned to the Black Soil Road Junction and continued hiking along Boundary Road generally ascending. The air did not get any cooler as I gained altitude in the brutal summer heat. The track continued for quite a long time before I reached the junction where Gold Creek Track heading down towards the Gold Creek Reservior with other tracks diverting from it towards Ipswich branched off. After resting here for a while I continued following the main track of Boundary Road as it started to turn towards the Mount Nebo Ridge. After another half an hour, I reached another junction at Scrub Road Remote Bush Camp. The camp was very basic with a nice little shelter and a large firepit, and spaces for three tents. There was nobody here so I relaxed here for a while.

After leaving the camp, I headed down Scrub Road which descended the valley initially gently but gradually steepening. The open eucaplypt forest thickened into dense rainforest as I descended eventually reaching Enoggera Creek. It was not much more than a trickle now being near its source. Once across the creek, the track rose moderately through the rainforest on the other side towards Mount Nebo Road.

It was nearly sunset when I reached Mount Nebo Road. Just below the road was the undulating Mount Nebo Road Break which I followed for another twenty minutes to return to Wohlsen Smith Park to complete the circuit from where I watched the sunset before returning down the hills.