Scooter on the Andersons Blue Labyrinth, New South Wales, Australia
By Mr and Mrs Packo on 07-Oct-07. Waypoint GC16FNE

Time to move on with other things.

During my daily isolation exercise, I am looking to stay very close to home, but also go to places where there is no one else around. This cache was today's walk. I would have done it on a mountain bike, but I am still waiting for supplies which are in short supply due to the pandemic.

In total the walk was about 16km in mostly dry but very overcast conditions. It only started raining halfway back.

Unfortunately this cache felt the negative effects of the 2019 bushfires. I will attach photos, but the container has melted to the rock it was next to and was unsignable. The cache was found easily enough, but has sustained a lot of damage.

Thanks for placing a cache out here in the amazing Blue Mountains wilderness. A very interesting mountain formation to the south. TFTC

I had wanted to find this cache for a while now, but previous parents to scoot the Andersons were cancelled due to weather.
Today was the day it all went well. I dey out with a group of fellow bushwalkers/riders who were in the know of geocaching but not active. After a lot of rain in a short time after a long time of none made some parts of the trail a bit rough. I managed to get a good lead over the others when i reached gz, so by the time i found and signed the book, only one of the others had caught up.
THEN when we moved on by rear tyre went flat.
Lucky i had a spare tube. After fixing everything up we're continued on.
Then another had trouble with their brakes after crossing the creeks, but from then on it was all uphill push.
Thanks for the cache.

#4,970

This is one that I've had on my to-do list for some time, but kept putting off. Bikerbuddy has recently got back into cycling, and was keen on a 4th ride this week. He knew I'd wanted to do this one, so suggested it would be a good way to spend Sunday morning. In my innocence, I suggested that we could make it back to Springwood in time for a gozleme at Springwood markets for lunch. That didn't quite work out .

Anyway, we made it out the very bumpy road to the locked gate, and unloaded the bikes. I'm told the best way to do this ride is to catch the train to Wentworth Falls station, but trains were out this weekend and that option was not available for us. Instead we decided to park at the gates, ride to the cache, then ride back to the car. Not the full Andersons experience, but still a reasonable ride for someone like me who has not had a decent bike ride in about a year.

It's been so long since I've ridden that I'd even forgotten how to snap my cleats in place easily, and more importantly, how to unsnap them quickly. I had one little mishap where I was trying to unsnap as I stopped, couldn't get them out & fell over [:o]. Maybe I am fated to always fall over the first time I try any Mountains ride?

Minor little problems like that aside, this was a fabulous ride. This track is lovely, and in really great condition. Better condition in most places than the road to get to the gate! It was a perfect day for riding in the Mountains - warm but not too hot, clear air, birds singing in the bush. Couldn't ask for better.

Finally made it to GZ, and started to look around. Had to go carefully, bike shoes aren't the easiest shoes to clamber over rocks in. Once I got to the right spot, the cache was a quick find, as I could see the container sitting out in plain sight. Looks like one of the camo rocks had been knocked off, maybe in some of recent bad weather?

Cache signed & replaced, we had a quick snack, then got back on our bikes to ride back to the car. And boy was I glad to see that gate! Didn't see another person out here today, bikerbuddy thought that might be due to no trains running. But we did pass a few cars heading to the gates as we drove out, so I think we had good timing. Only bad side of the day was that I didn't get my gozleme

Thanks

Checked the cache on 24th October 2016. All OK. Beautiful day.

Great ride, shame about the motor bikes out on the track as well. TFTH

This one has been on my radar since I started caching. Avid mountain biker, but this is the first time I've done Anderson's since I got into geocaching, so it's a case of "at last." My Magellan had the cache a little off, but only by the usual +/- accuracy margin, but the spot where I found it seemed the best , so there it was returned. A great way to start the year - 30km of riding and a good cache. Thanx Mr and Mrs Packo.

had lunch here sitting on the rocks and watching the drizzle coming in. tftc

TFTC and thank you for the great location. Caches like this make it a worthwhile activity. The views were obscured by rain. Track was excellent. TNLN

Once at the start of the Andersons Firetrail whitemushroom and I commenced our walk to do our final scooter cache. After the endless windy curves and a creek crossing we ended up at a nice set of rocks to climb. After a bit of a search we found a cache that had been approached by a recent hazard reduction. The flames had just missed the cache as the rocks kept them at bay just. Whitemushroom and I found a nice spot nearby to have some lunch. Then came the two hour walk back. Once at the car we had done 22,700 steps, it was a little bit further to walk than the Oaks cache but not by much. All in all we did 4 hours of walking . Thanks Mr and Mrs Packo for the cache. This was the first time I have ever been to this area.

The AWD GeoReindeer trundled along Tablelands Road to the Andersons gate. Afoot with bisygisy, the near 8km walk out to the GZ was under a winter's windless blue sky and along a relatively level track (well it seemed level, till the return). For a goodly length there has been a burn through, in parts opening the landscape. A few months for the new growth, and the area will sparkle. A disused and removed wooden bridge is a halfway point of interest. An eyedropper of as cache, given the 'walk', but in no way a difficult find. Enjoyed the walk, and a much thanks to Mr and Mrs Packo for this Cache.

forgot how nice andos is!

This one had been a long time on the radar, but pjmpjm and I decided that today would be the day.
It almost did not work out as the weather looked decidedly ready for a downpour. In any event we started from the Anderson Trail gate on the Kings Tableland Road this is a 6-7 km walk on undulating trail with no great change in elevation. It turned out to be a perfect day, cool temperature with the occasional mist to cool us down and the rain held off until we got back to the car just under 4 hours later.
No problem finding the cache, the coords are spot on in a very nice spot with great views of the Blue Labyrinth.
Thanks for a great walk and a great location.

After planning this 13 km round trip expedition for quite a few weeks, rogerw3 and I made it to GZ and back today in less than 4 hours, just before the serious rain began!

rogerw3's idea -- given that we were going to walk and forgo 'scooters' or wheels of any kind -- was that we'd park at the intersection of Tableland Road and the (gated) Andersons fire trail in Wentworth Falls. That would make for a shorter walk and, just as important, a much more level walk.

Checking the previous logs for this cache, it appears that no-one else has approached GZ from this end, which this afternoon proved to be an excellent idea.

The day was overcast, between 16 and 13 degrees, and actually quite a good one for walking -- nice and cool. We experienced a bit of mist at times, and for the final kilometre some light rain, but we preferred this to the hot sun baking down. And, of course, this part of the Blue Mountains needs some rain right about now. As we drove back up Tableland Road, the rain increased and it would be great if it would continue all night.

We picked the likely GZ area as we approached, and the cache container was only about 20 metres distant from the track, as we expected, not a difficult find at all.

The container and contents were in good order, well protected from the elements. TNLNSL.

Many thanks to Mr and Mrs Packo.

Longish ride but not too demanding.
Enjoyed the ride, taking it easy and not hurrying.
Thank you Mr and Mrs Packo.

Such a nice day I decided to take the kickbike out for a ride to check on this cache. Found all fine and dry. Worth the ride

I am not a bike rider, but this cache (and the related "scooter on the oaks") have been taunting me for a long time - they are the only bush caches in the upper blue mountains that I hadn't found. So I decided today was the day to go for a long walk and pick up two more smilies. The original plan was to park at Woodford, walk in via the Andersons to this cache, then do a fire trail + bush bash combo to link up with the Oaks, then exit via the Oaks firetrail. But it turns out today was the day the "Woodford to Glenbrook class" was on, meaning the Oaks would be full of MTBs and runners, so we altered the route a bit to start and finish at the Ingar camp ground.

We started walking at 7:30, and got to GZ in time for morning tea about 9:00. The logbook was slightly damp, but OK to write on. TNLNSL. The walk on the firetrails was very steep, although unfortunately (like most fire trails) there is not much of a view. The nicest spots on this leg were the ford (where the bedford creek track between Ingar and Murphy's Glen meets the Andersons at a creek) and the view from GZ.

Having signed the log and drunk a cuppa, we packed up and headed off to find the next cache...

Thanks for the cache, Mr & Mrs Packo

Some awesome downhills on the fantastic mountain bike ride! SL TFTC

Fantastic ride! Capped off with an easy find. SL TFTC

This entry was edited by Purplepeopleater on Saturday, 24 March 2012 at 07:59:49 UTC.

Wow, it's been a while since anyone has found this poor isolated cache. I incorporated this into my 60k MTB ride from Wentworth Falls to Glenbrook. Left another pen because the one in the container was stuffed. This really is a great ride, and beautiful down the bottom. The climb out on Murphy's Firetrail is pretty exhausting though. Thanks guys for a welcome rest break.

Found on a recent bike ride along the Anderson's Firetrail. Great ride. The cache took me longer to find than it should have. TFTC

This is log attempt number 2. Do you know that if you write a long and rambling log and the site times you out you will lose your log? Excuse me a moment - #@&*%$!!!!

Okay, that's better. I'm back.

Now, onto my log. This one's been on my radar since I started caching back in January. I don't ride the Anderson's as often as I ride the Oaks, but since the road works at Wentworth Falls have made a mess of the road, I've stopped riding it, since we normally ride up from the station, on to Tablelands Road.

Anyway, my mate Gippel (who happens to be my "bikerbuddy") told me he had a friend who wanted to try out mountain biking, and had settled on starting with the Andersons (of course). We were to drive up to Tablelands Road in cars to bypass riding on the highway. When we got there this morning I discovered that the number of riders had blown out to three other guys and their teenage sons. I think ten of us in total.

Anyway, Gippel and I found ourselves constantly ahead of the group, with long waits for them to catch up. This proved crucial to finding the cache, in the end.
Eventually, Gippel and me rode up a familiar hill where we stopped and checked our GPSs (Gippel has one as well. He actually did the LOST WORLD cache on his own, but since then he hasn't taken it up) We had overshot by about 150 metres, so we walked back down the hill and started looking for the cache. Gippel's GPS had him about 30 metres away from mine for the search.

"It's over here!" he was yelling, and I was yelling back, "That's nice. You search there."

Meanwhile, I was in a place that looked much more likely, but I had already pounced upon what looked like an obvious hide, only to turn up zip. I searched the area, but I wasn't getting anything, and I was concentrating on one side of the area because I figured the hide had to be at least a bit closer to Gippel's wayward GZ.

But then the other riders finally started to catch up, and Gippel was losing concentration. "I'm going back up with the others," he yelled over to me, which translated into, bugger this, we ain't gonna find it. But I figured it couldn't be that hard, yet I knew the pressure was on to move. But at the back of my mind was an assurance I had made to one of the other guys in the group that I would find it. He had been sceptical, and now I was starting to think about the colour and texture of an egg on my face. Bugger!

So I start to think. I've checked around here. Maybe, just around there, further away, still, from where Gippel had been looking.

"I found it!" I yelled back up the hill, but the sound of victory echoed hollowly into the bush. I signed the log, re-hid it, and walked back up the hill.

"You found it?" I received disbelieving looks. "Yeah."

So we were about to go, when I realised I'd left my backpack where I had been searching. One of the dads offered to come back down with me and look at this thing. Maybe he thought I was telling a furphy. Maybe someone had mentioned in a pub that they'd found the Loch Ness Monster last week. It can really raise your cynicism levels. So I showed him: see muggle-rider-whom-I-have-not-met-until-today. He was most impressed, because these things are actually out there, and that I'd managed to find it.

So that's the story of cache #197. A find was made and the world was made a better place, just a little bit, because one man discovered there really is wonder in the bush.
Thanks to Mr and Mrs Packo for placing this cache out there, too. And to think we might have missed each other by only minutes. Perhaps such serendipity, such a perfect synergy of positive forces could be fatal to the universe. Who knows?

I do carry on. Maybe I need to see a therapist.

Revisited the cache today, had to look around as it was in a different place from where we originally put it. thanks to the person who replaced the container. by strange coincidence we must have just missed biker buddy who had visited before us today. Scooter were in fine form today, you can certainly get some speed up on those hills.

It was a cold clear day - perfect for riding the Andersons fire trail. Found the cache easily. Left a 2nd pen in there as the other one was struggling to write on the slightly damp paper. Carried on down to the ford and then UP the other side. My mountain bike was getting a bit tired so I had to push it up some of the steeper bits.....

Thanks for a lovely day of riding.
TNLN
Jakkles

I just had to knock of the last cache within 10km of home to complete my 250th!

We decided to walk this one from near Murphy's Glen Campsite. That way all four of us could do it together. Took about four hours all up. There was about 6km walked and 200m descent and 200m ascent. Each way!!!

TNLNSL. TFTC.

We were going past this one again so thought we would check on it. Replaced the pen as the one in the cache didn't work. Also took a new cache container to replace the original which was cracked and the contents were getting wet. The log book is damp. We tried to leave it in the sun while we were visiting. It is not fully dry yet but it is better than when we visitied the first time.
We thoroughly enjoyed the ride again as it was a lovely sunny crisp winter day.
Took the coin, left a combination lock.
TFTC


[This entry was edited by Gamma Dei on Sunday, July 19, 2009 at 1:33:13 PM.]

Got up early to ride the Anderson - Oaks trails. Thought I would check out this cache on the way.
The cache was a bit damp from the recent rain but managed to write in the log book using some charcoal as pen was not working.
Easy find.
TFTC

Today was the day of a repetition on the Anderson Firetrail.
Nice ride and nice hide.
However at the Creek I got wet feet, 2 years agoe I could ride through the creek without that extra experience.
Anyway the water was may significantly lower...
TFTC
TNLN
Alpini

Nice ride. Although I had the combined resources of a magnetic compass and GPS, after about 15-20 minutes, I concluded that I could not locate it. The location was a good to GOTO because of another trail diverging from Anderson's. It helped navigate without heading the wrong way! Thanks anyway.

Nice find by the newbie.
TFTC
I haaate blisters while hiking..

TFTC guys. came out this way hiking. good little container. Once at GZ located the cache fairly easily.

TNLN
TFTH!

BELLY07

Found easily when hiking with other cachers
TFTC

Came hiking with the others.
Nice hide.
Took my time to walk up the rock, silly blisters.
TFTC
Greenblob

Just love this track as its so much faster than the pot holed, rock covered Oaks Fire Trail and its hordes of kiddies. The track was in excellent condition and very fast. Despite the sweat pouring in my eyes and glasses fogging up I still got maximum air on the water bars and any rock that had a bit of a drop off. Did not hit any trees or run over any small furry animals (that I was aware of).
The cache was reached in very quick time and the last time I had seen a container like that was when our neighbour was giving his cow a suppository. It was back on the bike and instead of continuing on to Woodford I nicked up the Ingar Fire Trail and then over to Lookout at Kedumba Walls where the other half had prepared a fabulous dinner and we watched the sunset.

We clattered in here on a short afternoon ride on the rain washed track. It was a short ride and an easy one which suited us just fine today. We didn't see anyone else either, although there looked to be a couple of tracks from other riders earlier in the day. Nearing the cache the track wends & bends a bit and for a while one is not actually getting much closer to the destination.

It was a pleasant sunny day after the previous couple of days of rain and storms - nice to be out in the mountains bush. The cache was soon located - despite it's small size. Too small for any of our swaps. Lid had a little split already but given it's hiding spot should not be a problem at this stage. Taped it up anyway. We picked up the coin to move along. Thanks Mr & Mrs Packo!

what a beauty. set out in the afternoon for some training on the bike . tracks in excellent condition with all the cool water bar to leap over.

got aquainted with all the nooks and cranies on the knoll .
nice and peaceful today had the whole track to myself .

Mr and Mrs Packo one of your legs have be bigger than the other , after all the scootering up and down the fire trails by now .


cheers Mr and Mrs Packo


[This entry was edited by foundem on Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 4:57:30 AM.]

Left the Bad Karma/Mojo Coin way out here! delivery was well within the 14 day quota.

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