Mount George from Bridgewater

Elevation: 520m
Total climb: 130m
Duration: 1 hour run (could be done quicker) 1 1/2 to 2 hours walk (return)
Road Walking: None
Views: 180 degrees from ridge track
Travel time from Adelaide: 30mins by car/ 1 hour by bus
Features:

• Bridgewater Inn
• Bridgewater Mill Restaurant 
• Bridgewater Greengrocer & Cafe
• The Bridgewater Fairy Garden
• Street Art

Mount George, on the Heysen Trail between Bridgewater and Piccadilly is one of the more underrated short walks in the Adelaide Hills. While the section of trail between Bridgewater and the Mt George Picnic Grounds is very popular, less people frequent the little 520m summit.

Start and finish in Bridgewater, there's loads of parking, public transport, the pub, cafe (next to the supermarket) and the Bridgewater Mill restaurant. My personal preference is start with a coffee at the cafe, and finish with a pint at the pub. But do adjust this regime to suit your own personal fitness level.

The trail, heading west follows Cox Creek, and is largely uneventful apart from the two tunnels you pass through, which support some of the better Adelaide Hills street artists.

While most of the Adelaide Hills is known for it's serenity, this section of trail is an exception - passing under both the main rail and road routes linking Adelaide to Melbourne.

One highlight of Adelaide Hills quirkiness is the fairy settlement at the Deanery reserve just before the tunnel under the South Eastern Freeway.

No one is entirely sure how the fairy colonisation began, but many of the mounds of dirt and tree stumps of the area are now fairy habitat. The impact on indigenous fauna is yet to be determined, but for now a healthy balance seems to have been achieved.

On the other side of the freeway tunnel, the Mount George Picnic Grounds provide a large open area to suit a range of recreational activities. The most popular of which is dog walking. Dogs are prohibited within the conservation area that contains the summit, but are permitted on a lead along the trail to the picnic grounds. 

The lake at the picnic grounds is popular habitat for a variety of wildlife. 

If you continue along the Heysen Trail from here, you pass though Mt Lofty Golf Course and Woodhouse Scout Centre before reaching Piccadilly.

The trail to the summit is a little hard to find from here, you need to find this track, up hill across the car parking area from the lake:

And then go through this pedestrian gate (gate 5) beside this little shed:

You are then within the conservation area, remember, no dogs!

After this sign, follow the path around the dam to the left, until you find the start of the Ridge Track, it's all windy and fairly easy from there.

Following the twisting trail zig-zagging across the southern face of Mount George, you are finally rewarded with views like this from a series of weathered rocky outcrops looking across the stringy bark forests toward Aldgate and Stirling, with Mt Lofty and Mt Bonython Summits to the west.

While the view is pleasant, it is not quite serene. At dawn the chorus of birds is beautiful, and at times you can hear Cox Creek flowing down below.. but only in the breaks in the near constant noise of the traffic on the South Eastern Freeway.

The summit proper, like many in the Adelaide Hills is rounded and covered in trees. It's only a few metres higher than the rocky ridge before it, so the lack of view is no big deal.

The summit is accessible via a small side track linking to a fire track on the left not far from the views along the rocky out crop.

To return to the picnic grounds follow the ridge trail along, which joins the Lewis fire track for a section before finding your way back to gate 5.

Once following the Heysen Trail back to Bridgewater, the Inn has a good range of beer wine and cider, as well as a rather nice creekside outdoor dining area. Definitely worth a look after climbing one of the Hills' easiest mountains.