Hale Hike Mica Diggings Williamstown, South Australia, Australia
By ajtmb on 30-May-12. Waypoint GC3MGCN

I was pleased to find this one fairly quickly

Good spot, but the cache needs a bit of TLC as the booklet has gone manky. Great walk.

I've been meaning to do the 4 km hike in the Hale Conservation Park for a long time now, and today was the day, with sunny skies and a coolish temperature. Enjoyed a very scenic walk with some great tracks and nice views over the landscape. A great diversion from the main track to check out the mica diggings and do the research on an unexpected earthcache! Thanks for the cache ajtmb!

Stopped just a little further for lunch on the rocks, what a view. It was a clear blue sky and well worth a fav point.
Tftc

Found while orienteering with some friends. Really cool spot with some great views not far from the cache. A more robust container might be needed though.

Found it

Amazing to find a mine so far in a CP / scrub. TFTC atjmb, and placing it here so that we all get some exercise with a break just when the ticker's about to go into AF! (joking).

Quick find, great day for hiking. Tftc HouseofJones

TFTC - log book on its last legs. Very weather worn in a temp container

Found it

Will go for a walk soon to do a maintenance run

Tftc

Unfortunately the container(s) and log book need to be replaced. Water is this ones enemy.

The sun shine on the trail as I hiked along the diggings. TFTC

My husband came along with me but he was busy with his metal detector. An enjoyable walk around Hale Conversation Park. No luck for my husband Lol

The log book is soggy but I just managed to sign it.

Found it nice and easy.

Thanks ajtmb for the cache

We all enjoyed finding this one. TFTF

Out for a walk in Hale Conservation Park for Father’s Day today. Great weather and no DNF’s lead to a great day. This cache is one that was found on our loop.

Find #4538 on 4 Sep 2022.
TFTC ajtmb!

Lid broken

I recently completed the one cache find in each of the 360 degrees from home location challenge. I have now decided to continue and aim for five finds in each of the 360 degrees. Today I was targeting specific caches in missing cells for this challenge and a few solved mysteries along the way. Very enjoyable to be out and about in the glorious sunshine.

This trail through Hale Conservation Park was the main target of the day. This is my favourite type of caching where I can park my car, strap on my hiking boots and hit the walking trails.

Sadly no animal encounters today but some nice views along the way and of course a good amount caches to keep me busy.

Thanks for the cache ajtmb.
# # #11343 # #

Found with hubby while out for a walk this morning. All nice and shiny! Was very therapeutic peeling a few of the mica layers apart trying to get just one clear piece. Cache was found quickly as it looked like it had just been thrown off to the side. The container lid is starting to crack and it doesn't snap shut properly so the contents were a little wet. I signed the log and placed back near where it was found with a camo pile on it to hopefully keep the weather out until it can get replaced. TFTC! *fav point added due to the location and the shiny mica*

Great spot! Thanks

Surprise find - hadn’t opened up the app, were just enjoying a bush walk, but what a fun find. Amazing mica

All that sparkles is not gold. Mica is so cool. It was used extensively in the electronics industry years ago as an insulator in capacitors and between transistors and heatsinks.
Thanks ajtmb for a cool location.

Found I plain site. Could do with a new (waterproof) container and book. I will keep that in mind next time I’m up this way. TFTC

Found with JayG10 and fluffymaxi

I've been thinking about doing this hike (and caches, of course) for a while, having passed the reserve a lot of times. Today was the day. I found all except one. A very pleasant walk on a nice cool day. Thanks ajtmb.

No luck for me today. Will come back with hubby for a look as he'll enjoy the mica diggings.

Found it log soaked

TFTC ajtmb

Saturated lol. Tftc!

Found near some very mysterious rock. Cache is very sodden, lid cracked and letting water in. Tftc

Cache requires replacement. Lid cracked and disintegrating.

Lots of glittery rocks about.

Great to see the diggings, watch out for low tree branches while searching around your feet - I managed to walk right into one!

In and around Williamstown for the weekend, first walk around Hales, fortunately it was in the open, hidden at base of tree.

TFTC

Visiting from Tassie and out on a geocaching day trip with gridge98 we had Hale Conservation Park on our itinerary. Beautiful!

A nice walk around the loop to this cache, an interesting area with some great geology here, the cache was easily found and is all good

Today Nettieknows and I headed to Hale Conservation Park to complete the loop walk before going to the Barossa for lunch and collected a few caches on the way home. Total of 19 caches for the day.

Thanks for the cache

Found

Tftc

An awesome spot! Take time to do the Earthcache while you are here.

Besides the mica, note all the carnivorous plants too.

Cache was rather exposed, I’ve provided some cover for it.

Thanks for this great series ajtmb.

TFTC

Shiny

Found by the Aussie branch of Dobie's Pride & Nick plus a million flies

Thanks for this cache. Found it today on an almost perfect day for hiking - not too hot not too cold except for a very brief rain shower that had a bit of wind. Found by the Aussie branch of GronwoldFamily/Dobie's Pride along with Nick - first timer, and a million or so flies.

Yay!!

Another quick find for this mornings Hale hike SL TFTC

We were about to go on a maintenance walk around Hale Hike when Ian and Penny, who were camped nearby, said they were going out to grab this series. They offered to take some spare new containers from us and replace those that needed it, as well as check on the others. Big thanks to them for helping us out with this. Cheers, ajtmb.

Geocaching with jesswrigley on a nice Autumn day. The plan was a hike around Hale Conservation Park that took a few hours, which was a nice walk seeing mica deposits, a dry waterfall, and views of the surrounds, followed by a stop for afternoon tea at a Kerrsbrook cider place.

What a great place to see all this mica! We were impressed to see all the sparkles here, and various diggings. The geocache didn't take long to find here, and logbook was in good shape. Thanks ajtmb.

Beautiful day for a hike around the Hale Hike Loop! We were lucky enough to get a day off work and enjoy the weather!

i there ajtmb.

We found your cache **"Hale Hike Mica Diggings"** at 11:26:00 AM today. (This makes our find count 22036).

We started the day off by heading out to do the Hales" loop walk. We headed out in an anti-clockwise direction, because we thought it would be the easy way. We (well Ian anyway) thoroughly enjoyed our trip around the area. We ended up finding quite a variety of large container types hidden along our route.

We found 10 caches today & DNF'd 1. Thanks for placing the cache here, without geocaching as our guide we would never have found so many interesting places on our travels.
##Thanks for placing a large cache here. It made us feel really glad to find a large, kid friendly cache (with swaps) here. ##

**Coordinate Accuracy:** We found the cache around 2m from where the GPS said we should be looking.
**Cache Condition:** The container and log book are in good shape. We found it in the open, so re-hid it under SPOR.
**Took:** Nothing.
**Left:** A Smiley Badge.

Thanks for the hunt today,

Regards

Ian & Penny.

TFTC

Happy accident! Wasn't planning on getting any caches today - just wanted to stroll through the bushland. Stumbled upon this while we were looking at the mica digging site. Definitely planning a return trip to pick up the rest of the caches along the way! TFTC : )

This took longer than it should hwve but i got it tftc

Nearly got a DNF, which would have been frustrating after the walk here, but spotted a wee bit of blue and had it. TFTC cache in good nic.

Nice

Well the huffing and puffing stopped here and it was a lot more swearing and cursing, as the path got overgrown and hard to follow, then daughter 1 took a stumble and hurt her ankle, Mrs Emily was on the Ventolin pretty good now.....time to rest and work out our plan off attack since Mrs Emily was so wanting to get to the waterfall.
Sadly daughters ankle was swelling pretty good, so we had to turn back here, a slow walk back to the car with lots of stops. 700m from the car Mrs Emily took a stumble and did her ankle. 500m from the car daughter 2 joined the party......we all limped back to the car forgetting the huffing and puffing, just laughing at what idiots we must look like all limping down the hill.
At the gate, Mrs Emily, who hates those little gates made for very skinny people to get through, took another stumble climbing through and had her knee caught in the gate......a lot more curse words, and the hale hike kicked our butts.
We sat for a coffee before deciding to come and try another day when we are a bit healthier and less accident prone. But thanks for a wonderful day finding our lungs.

Out & about on another adventure with froghoppin...today's destination Hale Conservation Park...
The ground shone as we walked over to the diggings...if the sun was shining more it would have been even more spectacular...we took some time to check out the mica & then we found the cache...
Thanks ajtmb

Out with Hevwalker for an afternoon walk around the Hale loop, what a fascinating spot enjoyed checking out the mica, cache was quickly found
TFTC ajtmb

A very shiny spot.

Thanks for the cache ajtmb.
Found on 25 Apr 2018 at 11:48:41 am.
Find #6400

Both Bri and Sal ventured out today for a lovely walk around Hale Conservation Park. We met up with Anymules and Kiwi Ozzie at the parking area for a clockwise loop along the Hale Hike Loop. What can I say, this walk is fantastic with ever changing scenery and terrain. [^] Finding 10 caches as we walked around was just a bonus. Then it was off for lunch in Williamstown. [8)]
Wow, what a spectacular spot for a cache. Quick detour to find the cache in the obvious hide although it wasn't where the GPS wanted us. This cache was in good condition. [^]


**Thanks ajtmb for this cache. **

Hope it’s all downhill from here! TFTC

The quickest of our finds today. The mica wasn't sparkling but when it does, it is spectacular. Tftc.

Found It!
Got a bit lost on the way to this one but eventually found my way back to the track. Strange 'rocks' at GZ!
TFTC

Finally found it

??

Out pack down hunted about and then the et al found the cache next to my pack. Shiny location for a picnic. TFTC

""Sneaky Squeaky" Woz ere" A quick but enjoyable find. From Me To You From SQ72 T.F.T.C

Headed out today with sneaky squeaky to grab the caches in the Hales conservation park, the weather was great for us today and we managed to grab all the caches in the area while grabbing the clues for the letterbox cache. TFTC

One of the geologically interesting spots along the trail
With all the recent rains,
the mica had turned to a sort of non-sticky mud [:o]
Weird

Cache found !!

TFTC.

A favorite, loved exploring this spot! Thanks for the hunt this afternoon: )

This one took a few minutes

Found the cache after a few minutes of looking.
Amazing mica diggings - so shiny - thanks for bringing us here ajtmb - this deserves a fav point due to the location.

4th find mica looks cool in the sun!

While staying nearby in Williamstown we took the opportunity to walk this very pleasant trail. 24 degrees and plenty of shade followed by increasing cloud cover made for a very enjoyable walk

How nice to walk a trail and find all containers in good condition and with plenty of swaps
This would definitely be a good trail for families

Many thanks for a great series and for giving us a bit of much needed exercise ajtmb[^]

Our last full day in the Barossa so we headed out with iluvtrekking to grab as many finds as we could. Took all the back country lanes - our type of caching. The two geo-men volunteered to do the walk and managed to find all containers and be back at the car within 1 hr15 mins. Thanks ajtmb

The last day of our SA caching holiday with richlink dawns and we are off to places a bit farther a field in a quest to grab as many smilies as we can in the time we have left. Thanks for your cache ajtmb the two menfolk set off on this little adventure while we waited in the car.

Unfortunately dnf for us... but a gorgeous golden stumpy... photos taken by Gugless next time. What amazing history. 800million yr old silver flakes called Mica. Beautiful.

Once again out in the Mt Crawford area with Debandy and the Geo son attacking another outbreak of cache. Many cache were defeated in the assault and much fun was had by all.

Thanks for the cache!

Out in the area again with Cows with guns and his calf finding many caches on such a beautiful day.
Thanks for the cache.

Out with the North of the Cross geocaching group doing a hike in some beautiful weather. Hale Hike loop was the plan for the day.

I had never really seen this much Mica before and luckily we had someone with us who knew a fair bit about and managed to tell our little group about it.

Found on a great day out with the Scouts. Very interesting place. TFTC

Thanks ajtmb for the cache had fun looking

Really enjoyed the walk down and around and up to this cache! Even Geo pet Winnie was in love with the mountain goat terrain!
When we arrived at GZ to see all the Mica castings all over the site was amazing. We have not seen a site with so much layered on top before. This cache really did provide a nice little journey down to it and what a neat and shiny surprise at the bottom
TFTC

Great views and great history this place has tftc

The kids were very impressed with the shiny environs around this cache. The rain has stopped and the sun has come out again making everything very sparkly. Roverrock and I were reflecting on the dedication of the individuals who decided to mine here; having to lug mining equipment, tents, food, water etc. through this scrub to dig up some shiny dirt. I wonder if they ever did find any gold. One of the interesting things we have noticed on the walk today is the amount of river rocks lying along the trail and embedded in the exposed rock. we new these must be very old and decided to do a bit of research and found the following interesting piece of information courtesy of the err... brochure we picked up at the beginning of the walk:

"The underlying rock is Aldgate sandstone, deposited about 800 million years ago as sand and pebbles in alluvial fans developing at the foot of an escarpment that lay to the west. This occurred within a huge depression known as the Adelaide Geosyncline.
At this time a shallow sea lay to the east covering what is now eastern Australia.
About 500 million years ago this sandstone was heated and compressed as a result of movements in the earth's crust. This changed clay particles, deposited with the sand, into mica. (The walk passes old diggings with large mica flakes.).
At the same time mineral-rich fluids were injected along cracks in the sandstone to form quartz veins and pods of mixed minerals called pegmatites, which may yield gemstones such as beryl."

Far out - the rounded rock I picked up near the cache is over 800 million years old. And here I was feeling old at forty-ish. Puts things in perspective.

On to the next cache - mind appropriately boggled. Thanks for the education and the cache!

An interesting spot on a great hike! Had a look but no gold for me to-day....but I did find a cache! Thanks ajtmb

Oops - we went cross country for this one through very thick scrub! A lot of scratches and prickles later we found it. Took 2 beads and a much needed band aid. Left soldier, metal clip, trashy and bugs bunny. TFTC.

TFTC.

Thank you ajtmb for placing and maintaining this cache for our enjoyment.
Found 6 June 2015 3:26PM Find # 349

Found with my Cubs who are going for their grey wolf badge

Did the hale trail to finally do some of ajtmb's (my parents) caches.

Fourth find on our long trek. TFTC.

With a bit more time to spare today I returned to walk the entire loop (& collect the rest of the caches along it[^])
This one did take quite a bit of searching but got there eventually! Must have been dazzled by all the glitter nearby
Left a traveller to enjoy the site as well
Cheers & TFTC ajtmb

Spent quite a bit of time here poking around the mica. As a young kid I often got distracted when orienteering around these parts when I came across mica, so shiney and see through.

Found this one while out with ttrogg for a great day in the hills.
TFTC ajtmb

Been wanting to walk this circuit ever since the Hale Hike series came out, hard to say why it's taken so long but finally, after getting DPA outa bed, today was the day.
And what a great little area it is, nice walking only path most of the way, terrain enough to get the heart working but not the legs hurting. Another new favourite area.
Thanks for the series and cache ajtmb

found with ryanmc05

Once again the phone gps only got us so close, eventually found it sun was shining today creating a lot of sparkle. Found with mrbuzzy

Found with MKMC TFTC

Found #7 for the day

Sparkly spot...found with ryanmc05