Kowen Roo #01 - Introduction Kowen Pine Forest, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
By sacada on 03-May-15. Waypoint GC5TQ2P

Having solved the puzzle last night, I set off after work to find this geocache. I parked just off Sutton Road and started walking uphill.I was about halfway up the first slope when I met a guy walking back down hill. The conversation that followed when something like this...Me: I think I'm going the difficult way.Him: Have you been up here before?Me: No. I'm heading over there (points to next mountain).Him: That's a tough walk.Me: Yeah, I've got the contour map.Him: This first hill gets your heart rate up. Then you come to the bad part. The third part is also difficult, but only because you've done the first two; it's not as bad as the second hill.Me: Thanks for the advice. Enjoy your weekend.It was as I walked down a steep slippery slope that I began to doubt the wisdom of taking on this walk as the day approached sunset. I pushed on anyway. I had a similar thought again when I got to the creek at the bottom of the ravine at sunset, and looked up at the steep slope ahead of me. Knowing that it would be much darker on my way back down, I set off uphill anyway. I'd come this far so I may as well keep going!The next hill was, indeed, steep. And longer. I stopped to take photos of the sunset and fading daylight. I reached GZ during evening civil twilight. I found the cache easily; it is dry and in good condition, even after being unloved for over a year. It occurred to me that, since I'd come all this way, I may as well find another geocache. But I was conscious of the fading light, and decided to head off instead.I took another photo then headed off downhill. The rocky slope was a bit slippery underfoot, but at least I had gravity-assist. I sang a song in the fading light as I went.Rather than take the very steep slope back down to the creek, I followed the spur line then followed the creek bed back around to the uphill track. That was probably the hardest part of the hike. By the time I got to the top it was well into evening nautical twilight; there was enough light to see the road, barely. I was pleased to make it back onto the bitumen where there was less chance of me losing my footing in the dark.I got back to the car, went home, and enjoyed dinner and a drink while watching "14 Peaks". If you haven't watched it on Netflix yet, I highly recommend it! A great adventure documentary Thanks for the cache, sacada! I dread having to walk all that way again to keep going on the series; I'll see what your other suggested approaches look like...

Holy crap this was a hike and a half need some info trying to get her please we had to climb and we didn’t know where the track is but found it TFTC

Oof, was expecting a nice easy introduction to this cache trail - but getting to the starting point is itself a significant challenge.

TFTC! Fave point for the cache series as a whole

A very steep hike from the locked gate on the road. Not where I would have put it. Good views. TFTC

Found with Curloo. First mystery cache.

Found with Jondub, who figured out what we needed to do to find this one! TFTC

A day out in Kowen Forest with Nibletricecakes and Isopeda chiping away at The Roo. Today it was the tail and back leg. Caches were found in a mix of conditions and maintenance was done where needed. TFTC.

Great to be back out in Kowen Forest, its been well over a year since we were out here last. The goal today was the roo’s tail and back leg, and a couple of the waterside caches. I wasn’t always sure we would get through them all but despite the dense blackberries and landfall in some parts we did it! Most caches were in good condition but we provided a little maintenance when needed to say thanks for the cool geoart. All in all a great day of adventuring with isopeda and GLISS!

Teamed up with GLISS! and Nibblericecake to get some of the Roo and whatever crosses our path.

We walked uphill from another cache - it was really steep. Quick find at GZ.

TFTC

Out today to try and get the last of the CBR’s (and they are in the  Kowen Forest) and a couple challenge caches and a few random roos. TFTC

Day 3 already. Up early after another wet night. Temperatures have dropped and we are far away from summer, but nevertheless ready for caching. A few caches around Belconnen and then a park run. After the Parkrun back to doing adventure labs and weather suitable caches around Canberra. Kowen forest is diffetent navigating when it's wet!
TFTC Wilbert67

Seeing how many I can get today in kowen. Tfth. More to come

Wow this was quite the trek up. 2 splinters and lots of whining later cache was in hand. Thank you for the cache!

Well that was a trek and a half on the mountain bike from the parking space! Lots of hills but plenty of fun going down hill! Looking forward to more of this series.

A cool autumn weekday morning was the perfect chance to start my assault on the roo. I parked at the main carpark off Sutton Rd, waited for a logging truck to go through the gate then completed a 17km round trip in a roughly clockwise direction targeting the tail section.

A fantastic walk through the forest; most caches were found in surprisingly good condition. I'll be back for the next bunch of caches soon!

Thanks, sacada!

TFTC Today’s the day for my first attempt at the roo series, out on the MTB, partly walk partly ride. And oh these hills, short and sharp again and again

Grateful thanks to sacada for placing and maintaining the caches to entertain me on my journey.

Back at Kowen to knock off a bit more of the roo with McCosker. Many trips lefts to go...

Out with Scotty doing a bit more of the Roo, spider web central out here today.

Wow, what a day! I set out to see how much of the roo that I could find in a day. It was interesting to visit areas in different phases of growth. The head was a hilly challenge. Based upon previous logs, I decided to do the head first so that I would be fresh and I am really glad that I did. The clearcut areas were frustrating because everything looked like a hiding spot. Lots of rocks and lots of stumps. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the legs done. I shall return.

Thanks to sacada for the geoart and thanks to Joolay for setting up access to the forest.

This cache was a straight forward find but still a milestone. I started at the head so this felt like it should be the half-way point but sadly it is not.

TFTH

The last nice one along the path before I had to dive down.

Another organized approach on the Roo in Kowen forest (thanks Joolay!) I started at sunrise to have a few hour before the event in the late morning. I roomed around for about 4 hours and manged to complete most of the trail which felt like a nice achievement. A few more TE caches in the mix made for a great morning. Came a bit late to the event (plus left soon after for some FTFs but still made it. Big caching day for me.

Thank you sacada for putting the cache out and maintaining it.

I joined Smitten Granny for the day, starting with the event at Kambah, then a multi to meet my daily challenge and the rest of the afternoon caching around Kowen forest.

Thanks for the cache sacada

29832.12 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & 2009 5th Ann Compass Rose Silver A#137

**Albida**

I was out with Albida today. The nearby challenge caches were to be our main priority today but we wanted to grab some in the Kowen Roo series as well as any others that we might pass along the way. It was a beautiful clear sunny day more like our usual autumn weather which helped make it a very successful day. Thanks to all the COs involved for the incredible work that went into all these caches. All caches we attempted out herevwere found and in excellent condition. Logs were signed mostly as SG. Thanks sacada

Not sure about the terrain - definitely wasn't a 2 the way I came And took a bit longer than expected out for my daily sanity check. TFTC.

Wish I'd read that it was a challenging walk before I set out to start the Kowen Roo!!! That first hill is a cracker!!! TFTC!

After not doing much caching lately, plans were made with FFLL to seek a permit into the Kowen Forest for the October long weekend. We were granted day access for the Saturday and Sunday, but due to another group seeking exclusive use, camping was not permitted. Thats all good, we were not intending on camping anyways

Today I came out solo with the intentions of scoping out the roads situation and grabbing as many caches that FFLL has already found on her previous trip out here quite sometime ago. I was very happy to have found all of them by the end of the day. I contacted the CO prior to coming out and brought along some spare caches to see if the regrowth was underway at the logged sites. And yes, there is new trees growing in all the logged sites that I visited. So I placed new caches at 84,85&86 (all located within stumps at the GZ coordinates based on a Garmin GPSr), the CO has since enabled these caches. Number 80 was also replaced as the original "pulley" was gone, however there was part of the "pulley" still in the dirt. A new sistema has been placed beside the item.

Thanks for the fun out here today sacada and apologies for the generic logs will be back out tomorrow for some more with FFLL

Had a few hours spare this morning so I headed to make a start on this interesting looking series. Although we only had limited time the few finds we did were great and I will have to come back again to finish the rest. TFTC

Beautiful scenery and challenging walk. Caching with Bulldozer72

We were given the opportunity to try and find some of this stunning geoart so couldn't pass it up. Earthbound Chief, Geoturtle37, OzHockeyChick and I set off to find as many as we could. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to find them all, although we found most of what we looked for. We did have a couple of dnf's and the logging certainly made a couple extremely hard to locate but Mrs Chief certainly found a needle in a haystack at one location. We will not have the time to get back and finish the series this trip but hope to do so sometime in the future. We had a great day with wonderful company and many laughs. Thanks for placing and maintaining this series.

As much as I love geoart, I didn't think we would have the time to get to do this great picture. Fortunately, Earthbound Chief, papi4506 and OzHockeyChick were up for the challenge to see how many we could find today. Although we didn't get the chance to look for them all, we found most of what we looked for. Mrs Earthbound Chief made a spectacular find of one particular cache that had been well and truly "logged". A couple of dnf's doesn't seem too bad when you see the extent of logging. Thank you for placing and maintaining this series. We do hope to get back and finish sometime in the not too distant future.

Today we found Kowen Roo #01 - Introduction on our travels. On what is going to be a long day while attending the Clear Waters Mega.
Thanks sacada for being part of our geocaching fun.

#7142
A fun day out with Papi4506, Geoturtle37 and Earthbound Chief, making a start on this interesting geoart. A couple of dnfs, a couple of needles in haystacks found, and one particularly fun extraction. Thanks for an adventurous day.
Cheers sacada

For some time, as with many around these parts, I’ve wanted to tackle the Kowen Roo. With the Summer heat over and the Winter chill yet to arrive I thought it most opportune to start this most monumental of tasks. Having researched the job ahead, taken into consideration the lay of the land, most advantageous entry and exit points, I thought bugger it, I want to start at #1. No delusions of grandeur today, the goal for the day was to complete the tail, as well as a few others caches located close by.

It was a relatively early start to the adventure, I only had half a day before family commitments kicked in. Parked at the gate on Kowen Road and headed steadily up the sealed road. As it turned and continued climbing Westwards I kept my line and headed straight into the trees. Deciding it best I skirted along the ridge at level around, and around, rather than heading down, up, down up. The growth not too thick or heavy under foot so it was a constant pace all the way to the dry creek bed directly below the first target of the day (#01). Turned and headed straight up to the track above, eventually on clear ground it was a quick find, the coordinates (to all roo mystery caches) calculated over 18 months ago.

From the there it was either along the trail, through the bush, up or down for the rest of the morning. Never found any gold, or encountered the dreaded blackberry growth. Black Cockatoos in full song as the sun started to rise above the tree line. As the temperature warmed to a comfortable level I continued along the back of the tail before cutting Westwards for the inner side. Here I came across a large recently harvested pine tree area. What a mess, but I guess you gotta be hard on these trees, they were trees and this was a forest after all. End result caches #84, #85 and #86 gone forever. Didn’t venture into the campground, but I understand a bit of work had also been undertaken close to that as well. Hopefully the CO can attend to these soon, if that is actually possible.

Slowly back along the inner side of tail, eventually ending up ay #94. From there as directly back to the geomoible as possible, then home to a hot shower and lunch, and a beer, and another beer.

Apologies for the generic logs, all caches were found in good to reasonable condition. Some a little damp inside or had a crack or two in the container. Any specific, important or remotely interesting details added at the end of the log.

Thanks to the COs, specifically sacada, for placing AND maintaining the caches, not an easy task in this neck of the woods

TNLNSL TFTC Favourite added as being the first of this magnificent series

Thanks for creating a beyond awesome power/art trail in fantastic surroundings and providing me with the opportunity to become fit while looking for these geocaches. TFTC.

I decided to have a go at the series and grabbed the dog and set off today about 830am and by the time we had got to the first one I thought this is going to be a long walk for both of us. Cheers

Found with cullum68 on a few days away thanks for the cache

Found with nissan 65 . After attending an event over the weekend we heard these caches may end up inaccessible due to logging in the near future so we hatched a plan to come and collect smiley faces. We headed up from the coast after work last night and stayed in Goulburn so we could get asn early start. Beautiful day out here today. Thankyou for a great day and very nice geoart series.

From November 5th to November 30th I studied English at ILSC. After these month I rent a car for traveling and driving to Melbourne because my return flight is from Melbourne. Today I came from Sydney to Canberra and began the Kangaroo Caches in the Kowen Roo Park. I had only time from 4pm to the evenning/night. Now I found 27 boxes. The start was heavy with strong ups and downs. But after the first boxes it goes easier. For some boxes I had search a Long time. The most boxes I found quickly. Some boxes were wet. The landscape is great and I saw a lot of Kangaroos.
Here I had only a short search.
Thanks for the cache from Bonn, Germany
Milka71

First day of our roo hunting. We are so excited about this amazing GeoArt. It was a quite long day through the Kowen forest.
We found 41 caches (0 DNF), and walked about 21km. We made the tail and back leg of the roo.
We found most of them very quickly, though for some of them our GPS was jumping. But with the hint (stump, stump …!) it was somewhat easy to find it. Some of the caches need also a bit a maintenance (logbook wet, container broken).
We really liked walking through all these pine trees. The landscape between #65/#70 changed. The forest has been cleaned.
All along the weekend we saw roos (plenty plenty), spider webs, different type of birds, one black snake and a fox family with 2 babies! So cuuuute!
The next day will be the head and the front leg. We plan to finish it soon
Thanks Sacada for this series and this GeoArt. 1 FP for the series.

TFTC - found with Darkmadviking and KingPin4 on our day of hiking today - beautiful day to start the Roo

Came out this way for a walk with Darkmadviking and Lighthouse princess and took out a chunk of the kangaroo's tail.

Signed the logs as KP4, DMV and LHP.

Thanks for the fun day Sacada!

This was the first cache in a big effort today to get as much of this kangaroo marked off as possible. It didn't start so well, with a much longer hike from the parking area than I'd planned for. But, that's how this game goes!

Pretty soon our little troupe was up the mountain with the cache in hand.

Thanks sacada for this series.

From number 94, I looked at the other half of ACachualAffair and said we can do something sensible like going back to the track and following it up to the road to get to number 1 or we could go all the way down into the gully and up the steep escapment on the other side through the bush. Of course we went through the bush and startled a wild pig along the way. To be fair he startled us too. This was some really tough going taking this level 2 cache to about a 4 terrain. Glad we did it but I'm paying for it now and may not be able to move tomorrow! By the time I made it up to the road, the other half had already found the cache and signed the log! TFTC.

Found with crunchers

Found with the Crunchers team (see note on #02). Beautiful day to be out caching - nice views from here. TFTC

Found with Kittykatch, DarkSideDan,ALL7, Lindachris31, Sebass14 and Lola1983 ready to have a go at the Roo. Knew it was going to be tough but gees the start from Sutton Rd was a killer. Nearly finished me off before I got the first cache and lots was hurting by the end of the day. Some caches were in good condition and some were in great need of maintenance. Some were in areas that had been logged and we replaced what we could. We did the tail and the back leg today and will try and come back soon to do some more. Thanks for getting us out and about.

Found with Kittykatch, DarkSideDan, Joolay, Lindachris31, Sebass14 and Lola1983 ready to have a go at the Roo. Beautiful warm weather today... Thanks

Found with Kittykatch, DarkSideDan,ALL7, Lindachris31, Sebass14, Joolay and Lola1983. We signed all caches with a team name "Krunchers" to save room in the logbooks

I Knew it was going to be tough and we did about 21kms today. Some caches were in good condition and some were in urgent need of maintenance. Some were in areas that had been logged so we replaced what was destroyed. We did the tail and the back leg today and will try and come back soon to do some more. Thanks for getting us out and about.

Found with crunchers

Only managed the tail section of the ‘roo’ today. Started at the end and went backwards. Lots of roo’s around! Only just made it back to the car before my phone ran out of batteries .
Thanks sacada

On our way to Canberra we spotted this lovely GeoArt. We hope to make at least a few of the caches.

Greetings from a german cache team on vacation.

To get to the first was really hard work!

T4T$!

Aquilus1 applied for a permit to drive in to the camping area both days of this weekend, to start on the roo, and she invited me to come with her if it was approved - which happened at the last minute ... I decided that Geocaching ... with someone crazy enough to invite ME to go with them - was a better plan for the weekend than my art quilt meeting Saturday or the Landcare working bee on Sunday ... so I was collected on Saturday morning (11/11/17 and off we went ... we parked at the campground and the 2 of us walked up the back, and around the head and front legs, and collected a couple of the last finds for the day as we drove out ... found 43 caches, in the 13 hours we were out there. Then on Sunday I was collected even earlier in the morning, then Aquilis1 drove down the other end of town and we collected CBRGrahams, who had not been able to join us on Saturday but was free Sunday, and we spent almost 9 hours out there finding more than 50 caches ... the plan was to do quite a few, and just have to come back for the tail or something later ... but the end result? - CBRGrahams has a nice long days walk to come out and do some other time, and Aquilus1 and I have done the whole roo! (Well - apart from the one missing cache, but we did also find about 3 extras that were in/around the 'roo
This was one of the Sunday finds ... with one more set of eyes than the day before
TFTC - I was lichen it up here but it was time to get down to the next one...

Day two of 'the roo' with CBR-Grahams along today and with Aykayem we set off much earlier than the previous day on a perfect caching day, mostly cloudy and only getting a bit hot through the middle of the day. A long but enjoyable day with good company and loved the varied scenery and lots of wildlife in a really nice area. Some challenging terrain at times but 54 caches found along the way today and pleased to have the whole series found in the two days. Thanks for the cache sacada, a great series and well worth the work to complete.

Found easily enough before slipping down the hill towrads the dry creek bed at the bottom of the valley. Quite a bit of fun but hard work up the other side!

It was a long, long day out at the Kowen Roo. I fell over flat on my back on a wobbly rock early on and got away with just a winding and bruised pride.

We shadowed another group of cachers: runner5ive and Aramil au, finally meeting up around bear the end of the tail.

My partners in the days caching expeditions: Aquilus1 and Aykayem had spent the day before out here as well, collecting 43 of the more difficult and further out caches. Today I joined them for a journey around the rear legs and the tail... All in all we found 54 today, so very sorry for the generic log. This cache was 49th

Out with Youban on a mild day to see how far we could come on the Roo (not far). It was a long way in from the parking to this cache, but it got a little easier once we started. After a steep trek we were soon at the cache which is in good condition. Tftc!!!

Having worked out the coordinates with dty73 yesterday we started our big caching day with a quick find. Kutgw

Time to come back and pick up a few more of these caches. Parked below the entrance gate on Kowan Rd and headed out on the pushbike. There were some critical decisions to make along the way, such as which fork in the path to take on the bike to minimize the amount of bush bashing. Failed on several choices and ended up pushing the bike through the trees a few times. At least the exercise was worth it. Had to give up around midday due to the national car rally having blocked off most of the eastern trails. Several wet logs, all in non-sistema containers. TFTC

When a weekend caching with the boys comes along you grab it by the horns, with kids weekend sport washed out steeba, Hoojar and myself headed south with a goal of completing the Kangaroo power trail in Kowen Forest.

Over 2 days we found 150+ caches, walked through 679 spiderwebs, saw 310 kangaroos, were surprised by 8 deer, patted 1 echidna and stepped over countless fallen, all in the name of fun.

Thanks to all the cache owners who contributed to our weekend and apologises for the generic log, but certainly doesn't detract from the hide or the fun we had.

Another fantastic weekend away with The Rats and Steeba.

We had been trying for some time to get the timing right to head back to the ACT to knock over the Kowen 'Roo series. On our previous attempt, the Forest was closed. We thought the same would happen this weekend, when we realised that we were clashing with the Mont 24, so we came up with Plan B.

However, Steeba came through with the goods, access was granted, and even a Permit to drive and camp in the Forest was obtained... Excellent! So our plans changed at the very last minute, and we were back on for The 'Roo.

We found about 150 caches over the weekend, the three of us, along with Juno my geo-puppy. We walked, cached, talked and generally had an excellent time, as we always do on our caching trips away. We especially walked through some beautiful scrub in Goulburn and Kowen.

Thank you to all of the cache owners that placed caches that we found over the course of our trip. Sorry about the generic logging, I promise it does not reflect my enjoyment of your cache!

Cheers

Another great weekend away with Hoojar and The Rats. This time it was down to tackle the kangaroo- last time we had attempted it the forest was closed.

We had an enjoyable time walking around the forest over the weekend with the varied landscapes. Thanks for setting this series up.

Found with my wife and geoson, TFTC

Easy peasy cheesy squeezy. TFTC Sacada

2 of 3 finds today. Drove as far as we could then walked the last 600 metres. Saw a dead baby bunny on the track. An easy find at GZ - getting very spidery! TFTC Sacada

Tftc easy answers and a quick find near gz, tftc! No room spotted so far, though

At the suggestion of Seemyshell, the group of 4 keen geocachers (Seemyshell, Aries44, Brewmaker and Pipes_down_under) headed down from Sydney for a geo-camping weekend to attack The Kowen Roo Series. Planning was undertaken for the routes to take was to allow us the maximum time to complete the series.
Initially were intended to do the complete series on Mountain Bikes for the Tail on day 1, Body on day 2 and Legs on day 3.
Not really knowing the terrain, day 1 was a good day of caching and slowly worked through the route but by day 2, the riding, walking, riding was taking its toll and it became evident at this rate, we would not finish the trail in the 3 days we had organised. Back to the campsite on Day 2 for lunch and reassess our commitment. The commitment was still there by us all but the means of attacking them was the trouble. Looking at the routes again we thought it may be achievable to complete with the assistance of a 4WD. Boy! was that ever needed as we found out the tracks on the way were indeed very difficult on bikes and was blessed by the capability of the vehicle.
Even with the 4WD it was doubtful we would complete it in our allotted time due to some of the caches taking longer to find. However, by upping our speed we managed to complete the series an hour earlier than our 'up-stumps' time.
Thanks Geo-buddies for a great 3 days.

But! KUDOS (praise and honour) must go to sacada for such an awesome geocaching trail. Unbelievable the time and effort in laying the caches and the informative and fun detail into each of the cache descriptions. It is a fantastic trail to do.

### TFTC ###

**OCW - Aries44, Pipes Down Under & Brewmaker. We came to the Forrest in an attempt to complete the ROO over 2.5days, camping out at the Old Homestead. We ended the days with only 2x DNF's.**

I Vlogged our adventure and it will be available to view on YouTube. In the mean time follow my Geocaching Adventures on all social media.

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Four Geobuddies (Aries 44, Pipes_Down_Under, Seemyshell & Brewmaker) headed to Kowen State Forest from Sydney to attempt the Kowen Roo series. Over three days we found all but two in the series, plus a few others for a total of 96 smileys.

We started off on pushbikes, but quickly discovered we wouldn't get through them all that way as the terrain is pretty tough at times, so we used the 4WD to get around the forest.

Thanks sacada for the effort and time that went into planning and placing the caches. Despite sore limbs, some sunburn and multiple blackberry scratches, it was worth the trip south to the ACT. We had a great time in this wonderful place and working through a great series. And we saw plenty of roos and black cockatoos over the 3 days. TFTC. #447.

Down from Sydney to attempt the Kowan Roo caches with geobuddies (Seemyshell, Pipes_Down_Under and Brewmaker) over a three day camp-out at the homestead. Managed to locate all except two elusive caches in the series, plus a couple of extras.

By midday, day 2 we realised it would be impossible to complete the series in the time available and some of the roads were very steep and required walking the mountain bikes. So we took to one of the 4WD's and just managed to complete the series on the afternoon of day 3. One of our number (Pipes_Down_Under) spent sometime prior to the trip, planning out the most efficient way around the series. I certainly recommend doing this prior to taking on the series.

A hard series but fun with some great views along the way and we all appreciate the work the CO has put into this series. I am going to give a favourite here for the whole Kowan Roo Series. TFTC(s) sacada.

PS Sorry about the "cut_and_paste" for my logs. I type slowly

A DNF but not of the true sense. We arrived at the western gate early today with steeba and Hoojar ready for a walk in the forest and the goal of completing the kangaroo. Regrettably the whole forest was closed off with over 600 motorbike riders doing an event over the weekend.
Oh well the kangaroo will have to wait till next time.

After a few weeks of planning, and a number of attempts to align calendars, this weekend I came down to Canberra and the ACT area for a big weekend of caching with The Rats and steeba. On bikes, on foot, and in the car, we targeted a number of series and Power Trails placed since our last trip down here. The weather was perfect, the company exemplary, and the numbers achieved exceeded my expectations. It was a very long and tiring weekend, but of course it was also extremely satisfying!

Sunday was supposed to be another huge day, we were planning on tackling the 'Kowen Roo.' However, sadly as we drove towards the Parking Waypoint we were stopped and told that the Forest is closed. Apparently there were 700 dirt bikes racing in the area today. In the spirit of not wanting to get bowled over, we decided that we would (with sad faces and heavy hearts) turn around, and come back here on our next trip into the ACT.

Thanks to the all of the cache owners for placing their caches. Sorry for the mainly generic logs.

Cheers

TFTC Kellie out with MGROCKS for the day.

Today was the day to start the roo, out with Kel Mar with a day to suit the terrain TFTC sacada

Gut vorbereitet nahmen wir die Känguruhwanderung in Angriff. Weil es schnell sehr heiss wurde und die Caches sehr weit auseinander waren und die Wege schlecht eingezeichnet waren, beendeten wir die Runde nach 5 Caches. Diesen haben wir dank dem guten Hinweis gefunden. TFTC and greetings from Switzerland.
TB out: Zombie Claus

Our first of the day with lookylookyloates, started around mid day and completed the tail section about 7:30pm. Great day out, no DNFs and plenty of roos. TFTC

Worked out mystery at home and found with Chad&sharon this is the first of the kangaroo the rest to go... TFTC

Trackable dropped

Took us a long time to get here -nearly 2 hours of deep ravines and snakes -but we found it .
Tftc

# 1923 Detailed log to follow

SL TNLN TFTC

Christmas = a free day and with the great weather, we decided to finally tackle Kowen Roo. We tried by bike - big mistake!! Although we do a fair bit of riding, we are definitely not mountain bikers and this was far too much for us to handle. There's a reason they are called pushbikes. Given the undulating terrain that never seemed to let up and the many caches that were off the path (that you warned us about in the description!) we got pretty tired quite quickly. I'm not sure how much time the bikes actually saved us in the end. Decided to just do a small section today and will be back some time on foot. Thanks sacada

This series of caches is the reason StumbleTrip and I came to Canberra. We had planned out our mode of attack the previous night and had our heart set on achieving quite a few of these caches.

After getting a lift by a logging muggle up the first part of the incline, we set off to find this cache. OMG! We were sooooooo not prepared for the gorge that we encountered - maybe getting that lift may not have been such a great idea. On the up side, if something were to happen, at least someone knew what we were doing.

At the bottom of the gorge we contemplated abandoning our plans to go in search of other, more easily achievable caches. But the GPS told us we were ONLY 300mtrs away from the cache. I couldn't NOT get this cache......we were sooooooo close. The only downside was that we now had to go UP the gorge!!!

So up we went and found ourselves completely out of energy, with a fence in front of us and at least another 80mts to travel to get this cache. Surely we don't have to climb over the fence!

StumbleTrip went looking for a way through the fence whilst I rechecked the details of the cache. Hmmmmmm.......rock? Well, guess it wont hurt to just check out a few rocks located nearby. Oh, whats under here......FIND!!!!

TFTC but it might be worthwhile rechecking the co-ords for accuracy (or it could just be ours was wrong)

This was our challenge this weekend. After getting a lift from a logging muggle up the first incline, we soon found ourselves scrambling through gorges to get to the first one. Our spirits sagged. If this is what it was going to be like for the next 94, we were going to be hitting out limit well before we'd anticipated.

Whilst the GPS was sending us over the fence, Stumble's Mate cried out FIND with what breath she had left and I stumbled over just to see where the damn thing was. Lovely spot in the countryside and we DID come to Canberra to try and get as many of this series as possible. Onwards!! TFTC sacada

# 886 Sacada, you have created a fine piece of geocaching engineering here, it is truly an unbelievable series of caches outlining that of a kanagroo. I don’t know how you worked it all out… But today I found roughly 61 of the 94 caches, with the green-martian. We bypassed 5 caches near the front leg of the kangaroo and the entire back leg, due to time restrictions. Total time was 11 hours 15 minutes covering 32.5kms on foot. I have never personally walked this far in any one given day ever before… not to mention the really steep uphills. Elevation ranged from 600 metres to 910 metres. We found cache numbers 1 to 47 and 81 to 94. (we could not find 25 and 26 due to logging at GZ). We missed 48 to 51, 53, 55 to 80. I saw the following during the day: pair of rubber gloves, pair of ladies shoes, a number plate, a chrome bumper, mudflap, dead fox, box cutter, some heavy logging machinery, 4 kangaroos, 6 tubs of blue paint and lots of black cockatoos. Kowen Forrest really does have millions of trees including a lot of fallen ones. We will be back to find the remaining caches…

Sacada, this series you created is a work of art. Normally when caches are placed in forests they are close to dirt rds thus easier to find, however as this series follows a massive kangaroo, it doesn't always follow set paths and this meant there was alot of bush bashing in between caches. The landscape in such a massive forest changed dramatically, with many steep inclines, ditches and obstacles like fallen trees. I wanted to complete the whole kangaroo in one day, but TheSkype was wiser and I realized that he was correct. By the time we got around to the kangaroos paws sunset was only 3 hrs away so we missed the paw and legs and just barely got back to car before the sun disappeared. That was 32.5km so with the legs and paw it would have been closer to 40km. That's tough in one day. We will complete the series in due time☺ anyway awesome series, Sacada you have surprised me how much effort you put into this. TFTC.

Wow!! What a climb!! Had planned on starting the roo today. After getting this far might consider it over lunch.
TFTC

Big walk. But we got here.

Today we found a few caches, making a start on this series. A nice day for being out and about. TFTC sacada.

7th find this afternoon while out with Goldenwattle and Decrypter. We cycled some of the way, sometimes pushed our bikes and also walked. Easily solved this puzzle. TFTC

I spent the afternoon cycling and walking between caches with Trodectus and Goldenwattle. Seventh find. TFTC sacada.

The start of the day

This one was my first for the day. It was a good start to a beautiful day with my mother in law

I discovered the Roo while prepare my visit to my dauhter and son in law and knew straight away I have to do it. We have contacted the owner prior doing the cache and have prepared ourselves well.
I already had some expectations as I have done many day hikes in Austria through the Alpes.
Soon we found a date together with my son in law which was as follows:
day 1
We reached the main parking area at around 8:30am and packed our bags for the day.
There was already a challenge to begin with when we had to cross great rocks and little gorges up and down. But then, we finally got the first cache.

We then followed the trail to the valley and later in and out of the forest straight through there. It sometimes took a bit of time to find each cache. We were able to find all caches except number 30 where we hiked back to our car.
We spotted many roos and were happy to see them in nature.
After the exhausting hike but many many breathtaking views and beautiful weather we returned back to the car at 6pm just in time before it got dark. Our goal for the day was accomplished.
it was the longest hike for my son in law to date.

Thank you to the owner for the many beautiful caches and this special day.
Team sissifalke

TFTC. Attempting one part of this series today.
Wow what a hike in! Already seen black wallabies and a fox.

I thought I had finished this series however dicovered that I had missed the first one so came back and bagged it as well as No 92. which had gone missing. TFTC.

8981 and 2nd of 37 found today.
[font=Verdana] [Green] We headed down over and across then up to this one from #94. I overshot GZ and as a consequence managed to take a 5 point tumble onto rocks. Not fun but I was confident that we had enough walking ahead of us to allow for the pain to be walked out. And I was right.

Glad we're back on a track for a while so we can chat easily again.[/Green]


Thanks for the cache [Blue]sacada[/Blue] and the Chow. [font=Verdana]

(517) Found with TikvaNZ on an overcast and sometimes rainy day.

Long time between puzzle for me. I suppose power trails will do that.

As I spied TikvaNZ's name in the FTF section of this log, I remembered the day this cache was published, when I was 250 km away, along with many other Canberra cachers, celebrating the 15th anniversary of the placement of Australia's first geocache, in Lane Cove, Sydney. TikvaNZ cleaned up that day, with so little competition around!

TN LN SL.

Tks Sacada!

Today was the day to make a start on the big Roo. Space was booked in the hectic McPhan social calendar, and Mr Winglen had plotted a route to take in the western half of the caches. Sadly the forecast for this morning was fairly dismal - rain expected by 9.00am and 30km winds but we decided to head out anyway, and see how we went. As it turned out we saw only the lightest of sprinkling rain and we avoided much of the wind by sometimes cutting through the forest for some shelter. There was even a bit of sunshine at times, but temperatures remained low. After starting at number 94, we plunged into the gully and were soon up the top for the second find of the day. Thanks Sacada for the effort in laying this series.

A sample of Kangeroo tail was on the menu today. Parked at West gate, headed up sealed road to "that" laughable thing the Montana insisted was a track. Downnnnnnn and Uppppppppp, don't think even a motocross bike would make that. Thankfully, the trail did eventually turn into a trail. Was an icy wind blowing but quite pleasant when out of its icy touch. A quick find at GZ and then pondered what my actual plan for the day was????? No 2 seemed reasonable at this stage. FP for the series

"Found with Jase90 on our epic weekend adventure in our Nation’s Capital. This expedition was partly inspired by the Geocaching Road Trip ’15 promotion and also because my goal was to reach 1,999 finds so my 2,000th milestone could be the final ever Geocaching Block Party in Seattle in September 2015. Jase90 and I left late on Friday night and, driving down, we made a few stops on the way down so he could find a few of my favourites along the way.

On Saturday morning, we targeted the HMAS power trail and managed to knock off all 90 from the series in less than 7 hours by foot, including Coppins Creek, Bernie's Boulders and Aerial Bold. Afterwards we headed back towards Canberra and we continued caching late into the night (in between breaks in the storms and bad weather). We managed to find the following before calling it quits around 11:00 PM: Gallifrey 2, Geocacher's Lost Lipstick!, Down and Dirty 3, Tourist Tips, Dominion of 2183, Foxy Place, Southwell Surprise, The Thirteenth Man, Sharkiefan's Challenge #3, Gungahleen Schoolhouse, One-Oh-Fore!, Hawkey's 2nd, Grate Expectations, Deep Extra Cover, Wally's Walk, Wally's Way, Harrison and Horsepark, Oblivion, Busy Bees, Heritage Site: ThereFore! A Cache., Liquidambar, Bug on, The Glassworks, and Can you hear the drums… err Bells Fernando.

On Sunday we decided to tackle the Roo geo-art power trail by foot and were able to complete 25 starting from the tail, as well as Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, Kowen Kamp and Reid's Ridge along the way. The terrain was much harder than we expected and the weather was freezing – we could see snow on top of the mountains in the near distance. We had to pick the coldest weekend in recent years to come down to Canberra didn’t we! In the evening we continued our hunt and found the following: The Edward Locomotive, Loch Be a Lady Tonight, carpark of shame, Close To Home, Heart & Soul of Parliament, Fore!midable Contribution, Granite Sphere & Questacon, Peace, Levitation? and Oz Rock - Cold Chisel: 'Cheap Wine'.

On an unplanned, extra day in the Australian Capital Territory, we felt our legs needed a rest and that they had done enough walking over the weekend, so we went for more park and grab type caches. We completed 20 of the JackaKid’s series, Little Miss Hayley, Big Sis Angela, Little Man Tristan, Guard Sei, Guard Quattro, Ingress to Forde, DNF #3, Tiptoe through the Tulips and OldFed 4. On the way home back to Sydney, we stopped found Collecta Cache, Cache-abet….Z and GWM 1914-1918.

Thanks to all of the Cache Owners for the hides and helping Jase90 and I have an amazing visit to Canberra."

Found at 11:05am with JordsAU.

The Dynamic Duo (JordsAU and Jase90) were on an epic adventure to the Nation's Capital for the weekend. A massive road trip indeed. We had left for Canberra on Friday evening a little later than we anticipated and desired, but escaping the Big Smoke proved to be no problem as we worked our way to our destination.

Once we were on the M5 freeway it was all engines go, myself driving and JordsAU being my handy navigating co-pilot, not to mention the very skilful DJ and great company.

'Kowen Roo #01' was our 109th cache of the weekend and our 1st for the day.

It's fair to say that we bit off more than we could chew with attempting this trail. For one, we didn't realise how mountainous the terrain was until we arrived and figured it out the hard way. We were a little sore from the 35km we had travelled by foot yesterday when we managed to achieve 100+ finds which we laboured all day for.

We woke up later than we would've liked this morning but it meant we could prepare properly by having a decent breakfast and to also pack our bags full of snacks for the journey which were much needed. The drive out to Kowen took about 20 minutes from point to point which wasn't too bad considering the distance between the forest and where we were staying.

The weather threatened to make our trek a lot more difficult, especially if the forecast during the week was anything to go off. We bit the bullet anyway and luckily for us we managed to avoid any major interruptions from the rain. There were a few showers throughout the day but fortunately they were very brief and also very light.

We only managed to get through 28 caches in the Roo-series including a handful of extra's along the way. We decided that at #13 in the series we would shoot across and finish the other side of the Roo's tail rather than continuing up the head and running out of daylight as a result. This turned out to be the perfect plan given that we were back at the car at about 4:30pm.

We struggled to have many long stints of running between caches today given the unpredictable terrain and the soreness from a full day of caching yesterday. We jogged and ran for a lot of the intervals in the HMAS series yesterday but today proved to be much harder.

Thanks for the cache sacada and for the well-constructed Kowen Roo series. We'll hopefully be back in the near future to obtain a whole kangaroo worth of smiley's

Today we completed the Kowen Roo series. i took us 5 visits and many more kilometres than we had originally anticipated. Today alone was 25 km trip, done as a run/walk and we were out for about 5 hours. The weather was perfect today-cold but clear and we had such a great time.

Sacada, you have put together a great challenge and a wonderful adventure. It is an adventure probably best done with two or three people given the distances and isolation of the area.
We loved the peace, the uphill and the downhill, and can't imagine the work that went into putting this all together.

many thanks for the workouts and the fun,

Domsky

Boy was the slog from #94 to #1 hard! What a steep gully! But - it had to be conquered! Thanks sacada.

Headed off with mcktcj, mtrax, and Strange Trousers today to conquer some of the roo!

Met at the west gate at 8.30am, at -2°, then took my car to near the North gate, and headed off. It was a freezing day, and it never really got above 2°, until the last two caches, where it managed to rocket all the way up to 6° at about 2.15pm. Thanks for the hand-warmers mcktcj – they worked unbelievably well – all day! (Turns out we did this on the coldest day of the year so far!)

Heard the sled dogs barking in the distance, were startled by some trail bike riders at one stage. The Black cockatoos were wonderful!

Had some lunch just before 12.00pm – thanks for the chilli-con-carne mcktcj, it was beautiful, and really hit the spot. Nothing like a hot meal when it’s freezing!

Came across impenetrable blackberry patches on a couple of occasions, and had to back-track. Also plenty of frozen puddles, and a frozen pond! All up about 15km for me (the others did a little further) and 29 caches for me.

Thanks sacada for the cache, and the series – amazing effort!

Favourite for this one - for the series! Fantastic! And cant wait to finish it, so that I will have a wonderful roo drawn on my cache finds map!