Finding the Carrol Trig (Davidson)

This is a late afternoon bushwalk, to find the Carrol Trig Station. The walk starts on Sir Thomas Mitchell Drive, passing behind a few houses before the start of the Carrol Trig Firetrail.

Just before the trig station is a narrow track, which is the “Double B” single-track mountain bike trail. It descends fairly steeply to The Cascades in St Ives. I only go a short distance, as it’s getting dark – but it would make a nice bushwalking trail down to Middle Harbour Creek. (This track forms part of the Carrol Trig to Cascades Loop, which is a fantastic bushwalk that I discover on my next trip out here.)

Just after this track is the Carrol Trig Station, one of thousands of these now abandoned trig points. Some are pretty hard to reach; this one is just metres off the firetrail.

I continue down the firetrail  a bit further – on both of my maps (the Hornsby 1:25K topographical map and AllTrails) it seems to go another two hundred metres. From the firetrail there’s a great view of North Sydney in the distance.

While the firetrail ends where it should, according to the maps, a bushwalking trail continues descending the ridge. I follow the track for about 500m, and it seems to continue down to Middle Harbour Creek. This would allow a nice loop walk, down to Middle Harbour Creek, along Middle Harbour Creek and back up the “Double B” track.

As I head back up this unnamed track, there’s a nice outlook toward the south, with only the electrical pylon marring the view of the North Sydney and Sydney city skyline.

I’ll be back to complete the loop down to Middle Harbour Creek – it’s a nice area (just outside Garigal National Park) and I suspect these tracks will be fairly quiet even on a weekend! The walk to the Trig Station and back is about 800m – the total walking distance today was 2.7km.

More informatkon on the Carroll Trig bushwalk

The walk to the Caroll Trig is very short; continue for 200m for some nice views. Or you can go descend all the way to The Cascades on Middle Harbour Creek, returning the same way or via a different track to form a loop (Carrol Trig to The Cascades loop).

For more bushwalks (as well as mountain-biking trails and swimming holes) in this area, have a look at the Guide to Garigal National Park. This includes 25 bushwalks in Garigal National Park with links to detailed track notes and online maps.