Mt Emerald Rocky Creek, Queensland, Australia
By GeoDash on 02-Oct-05. Waypoint GCQT8Z

We couldn't find a way through the private property, no trespassing

We had noticed an old cache on top of Mount Emerald, and as we have a few days in Atherton, we decided it was time for a good walk.
Our last long walk had been in the Paluma mountain ranges and that was in the rain.
Fast forward to today, and the weather is absolutely beautiful again. Little wind, blue sky and temperatures well below 30.
We hatched a plan last night to get up early and give this one a go. It looked to be quite challenging, and we were prepared to turn around if it was not suitable for us.
Not having four-wheel-drive, we parked at Anderson Road, and set off in high spirits.
We came across a gate, and wondered if we should cross it as it looked like it could be a private property, but since this seemed to be the only way forward, over we went and up we went.
Indeed up we went and the views became more beautiful along the way.
At one point we stopped and looked, and there, way in the distance, up high, was our destination. To get there we would need to walk down another valley and then directly up again, across the ridge and up to GZ.
And so our adventure continued happily. Some slow uphill, and also some slow downhill.
Despite the fact it is autumn, there were still plenty of wildflowers along the way, and a number of birds set off screeching alarms as we walked noisily through the bush.
And finally, there we were, at GZ.
The rock cairn that hides the cache, is unmistakable.
Due to such infrequent visits from geocachers, the log did need some maintenance.
It is still sitting on the west side of cairn.
So that people do not feel the need to dismantle the rock cairn, the hide has been carefully placed under the plastic flowers (which are now somewhat faded and covered in ants), and in the tube that was previously there.
Inside the tube now is a bright blue waterproof bison.
It is waiting for the next intrepid adventurer.
We have attached photos of the hide, to make things a little easier for those who endeavour to adventure to the summit of this beautiful mountain.
Our return journey was somewhat shorter than our outward journey. We were walking for just over 5 hours, and that included a good half hour or more at GZ where we stopped to rest and have a drink. Our distance was about 11.5km
Log signed! Another day, another great walk and some spectacular views of 360° from the top
Thanks GeoDash
Domsky

Took a little while to find the right track (around a gate or two!). What a lovely hike! The view at the top is certainly worth it.

Happy to say i found this. Certainly didn’t pick the time of year or day even to do this but want to finish my 81 matrix this upcoming week. I’ve got about 400ml of water to get back to the car and get out of here. It would have to be one of three of the most physically challenging caches i’ve done, the other two being GC7T1EY South Pinnacle 700m ASL and GC7R701 Summit Fever. This may have been nicer in the cooler months. Thank you for the both the challenge and the view. Log book is somewhat mouldy but dry at the moment. I did bring a piece of pipe and a rubber coupling from another cairn and put it in that on the same Cairn to help protect it from the harsh elements up here. Cheers. Can’t believe i didn’t get a photo of the log!!! ???

TFTC and by the looks of the log there have been many of muggles who have enjoyed the spot too!

If anyone wants to do this one in the next few months, can you contact me to join you please? I'd love to do it, but fear it might be a bit silly to attempt it alone.

We thoroughly enjoyed our hike up Mt Emerald on a fine, sunny but windy day.
Like previous finders we were able to reduce the walk considerably by taking the fourby as far up the track as we dared go

I'm sure we would still be up there looking for the best way to get up or come down if it wasn't for that marvellous stuff which we call 'hikers friend'.......plastic tape. Although overgrown in some places we could always see where to go because of the tape tied to vegetation.

We were very grateful for previous finder 'Walterhellmut's' co-ords to tell us where to turn to take the right way to the top.[^]

The plane crash site reminds us all how important it is to enjoy every day we have on this earth as you never know when your time is up

The cache itself is now just a log book, pen and ziplock bag (which had a hole in it) so we added another bag. Didn't have a replacement container with us but I suspect that all the muggles who find and sign the log would probably decide to misappropriate it anyway

Many thanks for enticing us to visit this beautiful place GeoDash[^][^][^]

The steep walk in (and up) was well worth the effort. We love Mt Emerald.

First one I've done (ever). Great idea, thanks.

Being a fine day I decided to have a go at this cache. Left the van at 7.15 and headed to where I thought the parking waypoint would be. On arriving there I noticed that you could drive some of the way up, so managed to get half way up. Parked the car before the steep bit and walked the rest of the way. Once at the top I veered left onto the walking track and continued on to the cache.

I replaced the container and added a new log book in a zip lock bag left the old book.

Excellent views from here, very panoramic!

Thanks for placing this cache for our enjoyment.

TFTC bit of a hard climb at the end and had trouble follow the track, but absolutely worth it for the amazing view!!!

We can see the communications tower on Mt Emerald from our place, so I've been meaning to go up the hill, have a look around, and find the cache. The weather looked pretty good today, so I rode up as far as I could on my trusty dirt-bike, and then walked the rest of the way. The track is in fair condition, and though it is reasonably steep in parts, I had no trouble getting up to the summit. The cache container requires replacement, something has chewed through it, and it has seen better days. The log-book is still in place, however it is pretty much full. Fortunately it is still dry enough to write in. The views from the summit are sensational, and are certainly worth the effort to walk up there. Thanks for the cache.

Yahoo, finally made it up to this wonderful and windy spot. 1.5 hours up and 1 hour down, following the pink tape. Cache very chewed but log still ok. Thanks GeoDash for bringing us to this stunning place.
TFTC

WOW!! What a brilliant hike. So beautiful. I compare this hike to child birth - the pain is worth the reward. It was my b'day so what better way to celebrate than doing a geocache that I've been putting off for a while as I knew it would be huge. Thanks heaps to Walt for the co-ordinates to the turn off. That was a HUGE help. We were a bit confused to start with as we were travelling away from the cache before we got closer probably wasted an hour before we got started just on confusion but once we were on the right track it was all good. I'm pretty unfit so this took us (no joke) like 9 hours. I estimate about 3 hours of rest stops along the way (including birthday phone calls as reception was brilliant the whole way and the emergency phone wouldn't stop ringing with well wishers). We lost the track a couple of times on the way there but it was easy to pick up further along and we didn't lose it at all on the way back. Powerfully emotional experience. Once again, brilliant day out I was on a high for a week after. Definitely deserves a favorite. Picked up a GC. A huge TFTC

3 Times I've been up here and 3 times I've enjoyed it thoroughly! TFTC

What a great walk. Very rewarding finding container with log book in it.

We met Walter and Ingrid at the end of Anderson Road, before we all proceeded in their 4 wheel drive about another 2.5km along the dirt track.
Visibility was poor, with low cloud obscuring any views towards Mount Emerald on our approach, but the trade-off was that it was cool.
After parking the car, we walked another 900 or so metres to the turn off to the Mount Emerald walking track. Walter took some co-ordinates for the turn-off and will post with his log entry.
We followed a set of tyre tracks that quickly deteriorated into an overgrown path, but the yellow flagging tape reassured us that we were on the path.
After descending a saddle, the steepest part of the walk followed as we ascended the other side.
Once at the top, the walk was a little more straight forward, even though you kept gaining elevation as your proceeded.
We came to the Communications Tower and the debris field of the plane crash. We continued to follow the path towards the summit of Mount Emerald, which was probably only another couple of hundred metres away to the West.
We arrived safely, located the cache, took some celebratory photos, before we replaced the cache container and log book.
The new cache is a 1 litre plastic container, with a screw-top lid. We took the old container and whatever couldn't be salvaged back with us for disposal.
After a quick bit to eat, with the cloud now starting to lift, we set off on the return journey.
It took us two hours to complete the return walk and drive back in Walter's car to the end of Anderson Road.
All us we estimate that the drive and walk took 5 hours in total.
Thanks GeoDash for the placement of this cache. It was a most interesting and historical experience.
Thanks also to Walter and Ingrid for the use of their 4 wheel drive, as it did remove a lot of uphill walking.

It was a really enjoying venture to this peak together with Wazza & Kara. We had problems to find the right track, but finally hit the goal.
Walter and Ingrid
walterhellmut
!!! The turn off to the left is at
S17°11.816' E145°24.779' !!!

This entry was edited by walterhellmut on Wednesday, 02 May 2012 at 10:47:01 UTC.

picked the wrong day to do this one as visibility was down to about 30 meters and the wind was blowing 30 knots.
GZ was perfect and led me straight to the cache.
entire contents are soaked and not a good day to dry them
left a new log book and zip lock bag but needs a new container
TFTC TNLN

Made it to the top on a magnificent cloudless tableland day. Didn't find the cache though, maybe next time.

Found it but it's in bad shape;container cracked & log saturated despite bag. No bugs/coins. Nice spot- lucky cloud passed for great view.

Needs new container & log. Left it as is as unfortunately had nothing with us

After being stopped by bad weather on our last attempt we (I) was determind to come back to Atherton after our trip to Cape York. We are camped for a couple of days at the Rocky Creek Campgrounds and first thing this morning loaded our backpack with food and drink etc and armed with my new hiking stick which I made from a branch I found up the Cape we set off up the hill. What a fantastic day to do it too, the sun was shining and there was almost no cloud to block the views.

After a few ups and downs we found ourselves at the sight of the 1991 plane crash and spent a while taking photos of what is left of the wreckage and talking about how difficult it would have been to have reached the area for the rescue or rather retrieval of those unfortunate souls. We decided that perhaps the rescue crews must have used a chopper. From there it was onward and upward to the cache! We arrived having started the hunt only 58 minutes prior - not bad going we thought. We sat down to a very late morning tea whilst we read through the log book, it seems there are more finders who are not geocachers mostly scout groups it seems. As said before there weren't any trackables present and the container does have a smalll hole in the corner and needs replacing, last time we started out equiped with a new container but unfortunately this time we didnt bring it having used it to replace a previous find. Ekkk.. The log book is well wrapped in a new ziploc bag though so it should be protected for a while yet.

Many photos where taken before our second battery went flat - ah the joys of having spent the past several weeks camping out without recharging! Gen set is running flat out now though so that it doesnt happen again when we retry Leeches Cave!

Many thanks for this extremely enjoyable hike - 10/10

Sue & Ian
Western Australia

Ye ha Grandma!! We finallly got this one today. This is our third go at this one the first time we had already done a big one early in the day and had not realised how tired we were, therefore slowing us down so we ran out of time. The second time made a bad judgement about direction. Third time lucky. There is no trackables in this cache. SL TFTC

We tried! We set ourselves up for the walk and took a new container and log to fix the existing one after reading the previous log, the day was windy and wet especially as we arrived at the top of the first hill. We got to within 850 metres but there was a long climb down and back up to reach the cache as it looked like the weather was not going to improve we found ourselves having to call it a day.

We went up Mt Emerald a second time and looked for the cache. Unfortunately the container has a crack and is messed up with things not needed. The logbook seems to be full so that we could not write into it.
Walter and Ingrid
walterhellmut

Found our first Geocache today. Left a pink paper daisy. Lost the track a few times, it was very overgrown in places. But the view is spectacular from the top.

The Cult of Skaro visited this site today. There were 7 of us and we walked up from the end of Anderson Road. Saw the plane wreckage and enjoyed the views from the top. Ended up at Tolga Wood Works where we all had a wonderful lunch and great coffee.

The rest of the Cult of Skaro all had better things to do today so off i went up Mount Emerald on my lonesome. The views up here are amazing. Signed log took nothing and left a fishy travel bug. All in all it took just under 4 hours.

[This entry was edited by darlek_caan on Sunday, November 01, 2009 at 12:56:39 PM.]

We have been waiting for the weather to cool before doing this cache and the middle of winter is about as cool as it is going to get. We had some friends ask if they could tag along so this morning we boarded their 4X4 and headed up. Thankfully the 4X4 managed to get us 2ks past the parking area and reduced the walk to a 6.5km round trip. Spent some time wandering amongst the wreckage from the crash which occurred here nearly 20 years ago. Views were hazy due to high winds and low cloud but 360 degree view from top was worth the effort. All up spent about 4 and a half hours exercising and socialising with great company and all of us enjoying the experience.
Took coins
Left Toy Dog
TFTC
Found at 10:05

Today was the day we made our attempt to the summit.
We rode the quads as far as the track would let us and with 600mtrs to go we slogged it out on foot.
What an amazing walk this is and the views that can be seen are amazing. There were thunder storms menacing Atherton and surrounding district but thankfully left us alone.
We spent quite awhile looking through the remnants of the plane wreckage that are strewn around the area.
This cache hadn't been logged for over a year so I didn't know what to expect, but it was in perfect condition and there were quite a lot of entries that don't appear on the site.
TNLNSL. TFTC.

We headed off early to do this one thinking we would get too hot otherwise. We need not have worried about that as it was quite cool on the mount with a stiff breeze blowing. The track started off very wide. If you were game you could drive your 4wd quite a way along it. As we progressed the trail got a bit harder to follow. We got to a mossy rocky outlook point and realized we still had to traverse to the next hill, took us a while to work out the way to go. When we did it was not too long before we got ourselves to where we wanted to go. The outlook from the top was superb though extremely windy. We took the TB to move along. The container and contents are in good condition. Thanks GeoDash. We also saw the wreckage from the plane crash shining in the distance after heading back from the cache.

One of the many caches Andy from Cooroy Scouts and I found on our trip to Tropical North Qld. or should I say wet, misty sometimes cold conditions, definatley not caching weather.

Started off just before midnight and followed the 4wd road come track. Looks like they are bulldozing an easment up the mountain maybe for a comunications tower but after Leeches Cave this was an easy find.

TNLN

Urdera and Cooroy scouts wild wet and misty north queensland geo hunt
after leeches cave we were dreading where this was to lead.
followed track/road to the cache.easy after leeches
tftc

What a totally different landscape and vegetation compared to "I SPY" we just visited at Vision Falls, surrounded by King Ferns. A very bright day with superb views to Atherton, Tolga, Bartle Frere and all the other landmarks.
We suppose DanielC didn't "see things". But we did and could really fix it on the chip: Not a goat, but a majestic eagle soaring a long time very fast in the peak area.
It was a really rewarding excursion.
The container is in very good condition. Unfortunately we could not find the Travel Bug "Japan or Bust!!", we expected among the contents.
L Unite for Diabetes TB
T N

TFTC
Ingrid and Walter
walterhellmut

Started early and enjoyed the walk up. This morning was overcast with a cool breeze so ideal for walking in the tropics.

We found wandering around the aircraft crash site fascinating, the wreckage is scattered over such a large area its astonishing.

Found the cache without difficulty, all dry and well. Left some coins from South Africa and a water pistol to help keep the next walkers cool, took nothing.

No sign of any travel bugs in this cache. SL and then enjoyed the down hill part of the walk.

[This entry was edited by Team Falling Numerals on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 at 12:31:15 AM.]

DanielC. Got there! Hot and windy. Lovely views. Left car Anderson Road at 12.20pm 25/11/06. Got back to car 4.25pm. I found it tough going, but then I'm 71 years old and have a crook knee. Knee no trouble going up. Didn't like coming down. Of all things, I met a large white goat just where the track leaves the vehicle track. I'd run out of water, but I don't think I was seeing things - well goats. No swaps. Cheers, Dan

Drop off BF TB

Arrived at the cache using the road/track in 1 hour 10mins. A clear day with great views, I could be wrong but I believe the water at Tinaroo dam is over the spillway. A great spot and a interesting walk. SL Took spinner and left aussie flag stickers. Thanks Geodash for another great cache.

Again, thanks for the cache, Very likely that I would never have hiked up Mt Emerald if I hadn't found out about it via the cache.
A few trees and branches across the track from Cycone Larry but doesn't present any problems for a hiker.
The crash site was interesting to visit.
The cache contained water and the items were wet, so I dried them as best as I could, and I made sure that the lid was tight and the container in an upright position when replacing it.
SL. Took "Hiker Smurf" travelbug, and left "Bear in a pot".

this is my first cache. I had no idea what I was looking for, so it took me 1/2hr to find it. So obvious now.

Left small tape measure, took finger pupet.

Took the dog she loved every miniute of it.

The views are still great even though I have been up before but never to get a cache.

After a week of rain on the wet side of the tablelands, nice to have a Sunday walk on the sunny side ... well, in hindsight that is. Did get a bit 'warm' going up in parts.

Cache itself a very easy find, and noticed quite a few people had logged visits, and the Japan or Bust TB was nowhere to be seen. If someone has taken it, maybe remember to log the pick-up on the website.

Nice views up there, had an hour on the top. 6yr old and 2yr old came up with us, and took about 2 and half hours up, 1 and a bit down. The first beer back home tasted bloody good!

-Bubbles
+Hiker Smurf TB

Got to cache and back in just over 4 hours with a 10y.o. and a 13y.o. and had a good half hour at the top. Great views today but pretty blustery. Took hacky-sack and left a metal finger spinner. Lots of evidence of wild pigs in the area, actually heard them on our approach to the summit but did not see them. The travel bug was not in cache! Some muggles had signed the book but had not tampered with anything else.

travel bug dropped into cache when placed

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