All the Rivers Run - No. 5 Holt, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
By rbirtles on 30-Jan-10. Waypoint GC23G88

Decided to come for a walk along this part of the Murrumbidgee today to pick up some caches I had missed on a previous visit, as well as a new one that had popped up.

This was my first cache on the to-do list. Was sad to see this series archived and decided I would come and pick them up considering they have been forgotten about but still in place.

Came as close as I could by the fire trail, and then headed down the hill through the bush towards GZ. Spotted a good spot for an ammo can, and after reading the hint I realised it was probably above me. A short climb up the rocks later and I was sitting on the ledge with the CIH! Wooohooo!

Thanks rbirtles for the cache, have **removed** this container from GZ given it is archived and abandoned, and have sent a message to CO.

Allowing other geocachers the opportunity to use area.

#2362 at 16:35. 3rd from 4 today. I left the track and headed toward GZ. Sun was shining so the natural 'steps' where not slippery. Sitting right next to the cache was a big lizard thing. I saw its tail and thought it was on of those rubber toys, but it quickly russelled away as I spooked it. Signed logbook and replaced as found. TFBMH rbirtles.

We did not pick the best route down to this one but managed to make it to the vicinity of GZ eventually. A thorough scout but still no success. Despite the logs saying otherwise, Loki headed up. Worth it for the views regardless! Meanwhile, Pagan made the find, asking 'how did you miss this on the way up?' . Doh! Thanks rbirtles

Thanks for the cache. Just getting back into caching and this one was a great start. Nice walk in on a pleasant Canberra winter morning. Cheers.

Found after summiting Mt Coree with a great group of peeps, both cachers and muggles alike. Stayed on after they left for a few extra finds. An easy climb for a fun find. Was it up, or was it down? TNLNSL TFTC

Thankfully we approached the cache at the right angle, opting to scramble upwards rather than downwards. Once a path was decided on, the cache was found tucked away in its hole.

TFTC

What a great secret spot. Finding large caches is just as much fun as smaller ones. Thanks for placing it here.

#6441 @1100
A caching day around Uriarra Crossing (to get lots of exercise leading up to the world rogaine champs in a few weeks). My second walk for the day was to Woodstock Reserve. A enjoyable find here. A nice place to clamber around. TFTC.

Our last and 4th cache for the day starting at Shepherd's Lookout and heading to Urriara Crossing. We did get wet. We walked/ran climbed and fought blackberry bushed along the way. Our waiting car was a welcome sight after the epic adventure. Thanks rbirtles for the cache which was like a breadcrumb leading us to the end of our trip today.

Domsky

Found on a lovely morning of geocaching. We probably should have read more of the logs for this one! After examining the fantastic views from the top of the rocky outcrop, we realised that the cache was actually at the bottom of the cliff. Luckily, it wasn't a huge slope down to GZ, but still, after the massive walk that we just did, it was very difficult to climb back up. After getting down to the bottom, it was a short climb up to GZ for a very quick find. Awesome to find another ammo can! Great little location down at GZ. TNLNSL. TFTC rbirtles!

Found with Goldenwattle. TFTC rbirtles.

A lovely day for a walk and a couple of caches, with nice blackberries to eat on the way. This cache was a a challenge. For starters we weren't sure whether this cache would be hidden up top or down lower, so while Decrypter searched lower down, I scrambled up to the top of the rocky outcrop. I will say the view from up there was marvellous. Then I heard Decrypter shout he had found it, although it was a bit difficult to hear what he said from up top, as he was below the rock face out of view of me. Decrypter scrambled up to get the nice big cache and he had it by the time I managed to get off the rocky outcrop and join him. We took the number. This is our second cache in this series. We also found 'All the Rivers Run - No. 1' on the 14/Feb/2013, but being newer to caching then, we didn't think to get that number. Any chance CO of please getting that number[?][?].
TFTC rbirtles.

I was at Uriarra Crossing with family, chilling out and enjoying the beautiful day, when I got a little curious and switched on the GPSr. Hmm, that cache looks within walking distance, I thought. So off I went to grab this cache. Up the hill and down the unsealed road, then a small off-road detour for the grab. At first I was too high and couldn't see the cache, so I went back around and down. Then I was a little low, but I could see something suspicious. So I climbed up and found a friendly ammo can. I dropped off a TB that I picked up in Farrer this morning. Signed the log, put everything back and set of back to the riverside. It was a hot walk back, and I had to move through some long grass. A few lizards gave me some scares but made it back to the unsealed road without any snake sightings. Then a power walk had me back with family fifteen to twenty minutes later. When I got home and looked at the map, I saw that there were three or four other caches along the way that I could have found, but I hadn't loaded them into my GPSr. Oh well, an excuse to come back some day.

Thanks rbirtles! This one is a little easier than Canberra's Toughest Challenge (still 19 caches to find to qualify for that one!)

The second and last on my quick walk this afternoon. Had a good idea where it was on approach, but on arriving there were lots of places to look. Decided to ignore the easier spots and thus found it fairly quickly.

Thanks for the cache and bringing me to an interesting spot.

Found on a walk along the Murrumbidgee River. Nice rock formation. TFTC.

This one was fun. Bit of a rock hop to get it. Tftc:)

Tftc

Beautiful morning for a walk after -5 degrees earlier. Clear blue sky and the GZ was a bit of a challenge. TFTC

I was out this way 2 weeks ago & it was warm & steamy. Today it was cold & wet. So I decided to head out along the Woodstock route & collect a few interesting sounding caches. This was the first encounter. Given the location I suspected where it would be, but being wet I was a bit hesitant to climb rocks. Indeed they were slippery, but I found a safe path & didn't take any risks & managed to reach the cache without incident. Sitting in the lid of the cache was perhaps the most bizarre looking spider I've seen. It was only about the size of a five cent piece, but it was completely flat. At first I thought it was just a shell, so I poked it with my pen & off it scuttled. Sadly I didn't get a picture. Signed the log & carefully descended. tftc rbirtles in this fantastic spot.

Wasn't attempting the rivers run challenge today, but was attempting a great hike from the Picture Perfect cache to the Woodstock Wander cache, plus a bit further.
Spotted the rocky outcrop from the path, and decided to try going a certain way, and if that didn't work out we would try the other way. Couldn't see the cache from where we were standing, so I climbed. After a neat little climb, I could just spot the cache! I positioned myself well to sign the logbook, then off we went towards the path. A great little area, despite the cut I got while climbing. Our thanks to rbirtles!

Looking at the pics now, maybe we should've climbed...

2559. I called in on this one after some other caching business a little further down the track. At first I found myself at the wrong elevation, but this did have its benefits. After a change in elevation and a bit of a scramble around, the very impressive container was located in excellent condition. It was almost like it and its contents had been placed here yesterday. This is my second in the series and from what I have seen thus far, look forward to the next. Not sure about doing them all in one day but!
TFTC.

Took the Woodstock route to this one. Nice stroll in and easy find. Then on to solve (find) the puzzle.

Pleasant walk along the dirt road with plenty of evidence that the recent rains had cause much damage to the river's edge. Good views from the ledge. Thx rbirtles

I walked down the path to this one, with a bit of cross country towards the end. There looks like there will be some nice blackberries here in summer - I'll be back then! I took the koala tb - great spot for a koala to be.
Thanks!

A nice leisurely walk through the reserve to retrieve this one. was considering going across the river for more on the other side, but the river is running very nicely at the moment, and the clouds were looking threatening to deliver more water to the area so decided to return from whence we came. Left Ella's Baby Bear TB here as it was looking for some native location for respite. Here amongst the gums, wattles and the two rivers seemed a wonderful place to rest. TFTC

1886+100=1986 with Captain Tomato

What a marvellous first hide - an entire adventure series! Excellent - thanks Rbirtles!

Although we did them all in one day, Captain Tomato says that we were looking to be put on the Gentlemen's Challenge Honour Board. It isn't his fault - he was held back by my feet which are still playing up since the Scabby expedition and my podiatrist stills says I shouldn't be "tramping". So we did it in the leisurely style - 35min 2km round trip from Coppins Crossing to wp1; 3.5 hours 8.2km round trip from the poo factory to pick up wps 2,3,4 and watch CT climb Cliffhanger whilst I listened to the water babbling beautifully by; 2.5 hours 6.7km round trip Woodstock Nature Reserve past Uriarra Crossing to pick up 5 and GZ. So a Gentleman's effort of 16.9km. The trick - staying very high on the fence bordering the Corridor whenever possible - this kept us in open gound.

What a marvellous, enjoyable day! What a pleasure finding nice ammox boxes at each waypoint and a nice big double one at the GZ! Rbirtles, here is the mtbikeroz seal of approval - well done - VERY WELL DONE.

#1 - an easy ramble to a nice rocky hilltop with some lovely views below.
#2 - a lovely spot to overlook a lovely wide rocky crossing area with flat rocks
#3 - gobsmackingly wonderful - I loved this location. My photos won't do it justice because the light was all wrong. An incredible gorge with steep cliffs and a long rock obstruction right across the river. I found the cache and then had to go back and find CT - he was obviously bored because he decided climb up a super steep cliff whilst hanging on to his blackberry thwacker. He scared the daylights out of me! We had come down off the corridor edge and followed an animal trail to the bottom of the western cliffs and then wandered around into the gorge proper - great fun scramble - I almost wish I had gone up the way he did - scary fun!!
#4 Another lovely high rocky location overlooking rapids and open areas.
#5 I loved this rocky little orange outcrop - the hide was well-positioned for fun! and so I scrambled up the rocky spine to the top for more fun.
GZ After carrying the blackberry thwackers all the way, they finally went to use for 10m. My arms were sore - and I said it would be easier going through Darkest Africa. Another great rocky location overlooking deep pools of water in the Murrumbidgee.

Back at the car at 2:30 for another coffee and then off for some more caching!

Thanks for the great cheerful company as usual, Captain Tomato.

Found with SecretSquirrel-BJC.

This cache was a fun location with some (un-scary) rocks to scramble across and another ammo box reward. Having obtained all the clues we set about the coords for the final puzzle cache. Yep, I know where that is - we can do that! So off we headed to the last of the series. Thanks for this series of caches Rbirtles. Good effort.

At this time in the RR challenge, Puk Ed, escapetheratrace and I were feeling the day. I'd just realised I was out of water as did Puk Ed. Escapetheratrace was alright of course but since he is a supremo planner I'm not surprised. I must admit my water bladder was filled with the Murrumbidgee for the rest of the day. (BTW, I lived to write this log with no ill effects although I was somewhat worried I must admit)
We nimbly hopped across the rocks of the Murrumbidgee and everybody made it across dry. Escapetheratrace found the cache and it was with some trepidation that I put in the final coordinates for the puzzle.
The feeling I got when I realised where the final cache was located was a bit like choosing the wrong case in "Deal or no Deal". I informed my colleagues and we discussed the route. Since I'd been in the area before I made the final decision. In hindsight, I think I'd like a do over.

Thanks for the cache rbirtles and the obvious work you've put into the series.

Note on the water: I started out with 3 litres on a nice 20 degree day. If you're contemplating the challenge...bring MORE! Or iodine tablets

OK this is the final clue one in the series and PUDDLE GANG and escapetheratrace and I were feeling pretty good about the find as we knew we only had one left. But the body was certainly feeling it! I ran out of water here and made the decision with PUDDLE GANG to try the river. Luckily it was upstream from "the plant". It wasn't too bad and no ill effects (so far). TFTC

Fifth one down and we are on our way to the illusive number six, great views and a good start to the weekend. Found with puddlegang and puk_ed. TFTC.

Lovely to wade through the warmish waters, my feet were certainly relieved (for a short while).

GZ had everyone scrambling about for a few minutes till Mr W came up with the goods.

We were determined to complete this series and score the mystery as well, so we took down the required information, did the math and on our way.

Thanks everyone in the group, and thanks rbirtles for this great series.

2870. Yep, for me this stretch was the highlight. Walking past a deserted house, picnic tables and bbq and on to a river crossing. Some of us only got wet to our knees whilst others were a little more submerged. Yes indeedy very disappointed that a certain promised piece of attire did not (wait for it) materialise, however maybe that's been saved for another time.

Mr Winglen made the find after a bit of a scramble. With all the numbers we could now calculate GZ with confidence and we were off - up and over.

TFTC and the strip show.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Oh the excitement of a full river crossing - it would have been MUCH more exciting last week and sheer foolishness the weekend before! While decision making is not our strong point, McWindeLune outings are usually well planned, and today we all came equipped with old runners or sandals to cross the river, and towels. Someone in particular promised a gold g-string as fashionable river crossing attire, while most of us opted instead for zipping off the lower legs of our bushwalking pants. Arguably I (Mrs W) should have zipped off more because I was wet up to the hips and lower inches of my shirt while the tall ones only got their legs wet, but the crossing was uneventful and we emerged 50m from the cache. Mr W's turn to locate this one after a short climb, then we headed off for the GZ - or so we thought...

Moving on from number 4, we soon found ourselves (almost) knocking on someones door. No point though, certainly no-one living there - I think. So we just opened the gate and headed down to sealed road, past the no longer used BBQ's and picnic tables and down to the other river.

From here, it was a strip down to bikes nicks or unzip the trouser legs, and a change of footwear. Then the fun part of crossing the river. The water was certainly murky and any step could be your last on two feet, so to speak (with thanks to Redgum). Everyone made it across without mishap (photo attached) and then a not so quick change back to walking gear before heading off for the short 50 metres to find the cache.

That done, it was a simple matter of calculating the GZ from all the clues and heading off to find the cache.

Thanks rbirtles......a little more uphill, then off for the prize.

Found with Albida and Jusojara. I had said to Albida acouple of months ago hey maybe this be a good spot for a cache. We went from the bottom Albida from the top we came from the bottom. We both got to gz. TFTC

After parking at the top of the trail Albida, mr_roo and I made the short walk to this one and as we approached considered our plan of attack based on some previous logs. We started at the top and worked out was down until we eventually came across the cache. Great spot and it was amazing to see the evidence from the recent rains still visible along the river.

Visited Ra's Gecko - SL TFTC

We walked in from the fire trail, and had a few ideas about location as we arrived. I got a bit enthusiastic, but it was a good view. Eventually the right level was identified and a bog ol cache extracted. Thanks.

3232.10 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & Dark Side of the Cache A#83

Albida

Chooo ooo – my 3000th GC cache!!!

I was planning on the final in this series being the 3000th, but a FTF on a multi along the way upset that! But that is OK, this was part of the series that I have enjoyed immensely! Took me a little while to determine the GZ for this one. Was walking in from below, and although there were a number of nice potential hiding spots – no cache! OK – time to put in a little effort, and vertically up I went! After not too much time, I found the cache! As per normal, lovely spot! Found the final number I required to solve the puzzle, and did the maths! But – there was a problem! A MAJOR problem! – The final coordinates did not appear to be near to where I expected... A fraction of a nano-second later, I realized my problem! I had loaded these caches into my GPS when they were first published! – I now recalled that MTBO had a problem with the final coordinates, and that they were subsequently updated! But I still had the OLD description!!! OK, I figured, fire up the mobile, and get the new description... But no signal... Bummer... OK – I decided that I was not THAT far from civilization, so maybe a higher altitude would help. I climbed the nearby hill, and low and behold, managed 1 bar on the signal strength. (Fading in and out). That would have to do – after what appeared to be an eternity, (maybe 5 minutes), the cache details were finally downloaded, and I had the new formula. – The final location now seemed to be more logical, so off I went!

Thanks rbirtles for the cache, and the series – wonderful!

got up, oh its raining... oh that cache is unfound still, hmm not raining too much in the south yet, what the heck, its amazing how weather is so dependant on your point of view, after examining the map I chose my CP, but my Garmin unit wanted to take me another way no doubt on the wrong side of the river and given the rain, not a good idea, but a call home to verify my plan, sent me across the bridge, and to the start of the walk.
On reaching the area, I had two options, which I ended up exploring both of them , but with a bit of scrambling I had the GZ in hand (both hands), a victory shout.. *FTF* , great location and great hide.
I think I got wetter on the outbound trip, but not to worry I could enjoy a nice warm cuppa and bask in the warmth of a good hunt.

ok now the big rain can come...

Took Kangaroo TB

Logs pretty much the same for all as I DID THEM ALL IN THE ONE DAY. Pics taken for all too.

Parked car at Coppins crossing in the dark at 6am, then proceeded to walk to #1. Arrived there at 6:15am by torchlight, light drizzle. My eyes coped with the pre-dawn overcast sky very well and I could see Black Mountain tower glowing over in the distance and dawn just arising. Nice little views of the Molonglo too. Nice spot #1.
Walked back to car, got out the Mountain bike, crossed the Molonglo, and then proceeded to ride and slosh down the track on the Nth side for some considerable distance until I was nearly directly above #2. Dumped bike, then I zig-zagged down the very steep embankment following well defined GOAT tracks. Arrived at #2 well hidden a la natural. Relieved the cache of its TB and Geocoin. Nice spot #2. Arrived there 7:50am.
Consulted GPS, Hmmmm, I need to cross the river for nos 3&4. So, I crossed there and then – LOTS of water flowing, but OK. Then it was a pretty severe bush bash, steep gullies, deep side creeks (all flowing vigoursly), having enough of this I made for MUCH higher ground and followed the fence line till I was on the spur leading to No. 3. Down the spur I went, found no. 3 – WOW – TOP SPOT! Seeing the water flow through here is quite something – it must be speccie when in flood. Arrived there 8:55am. Admired the geology and scenery for a while, then back up the hill a bit and headed off to #4.
Down again to the rivers edge for #4, another nice location. Arrived there 9:30am. Then I crossed the river there and went straight up and up and up till I had clear grass and an easy stroll back to the bike, admiring the gorge scenery from the heights as I went.
A drizzly ride back to car, hopped in car and drove to near #5. Met the local farmer and had a good chat as I wandered down the road. Onwards to #5 – approached from the high ground, got to GZ coords, but no cache – looked vertically down, hmmmm, it must be down there. So backtrack a bit, round I go, and there I find it – another nice little hide with trickiness. (easily retrieved in the wet as there were good footholds). #5 – another great spot. Arrived there at 12:10pm.

GZ calculated, off I go, some tracks, some bushbashing, some rocks, arrived at GZ – Hmmmmm, this is NOTHING like rBirtles would do, and nothing like the other wonderful locations. Blackberries and more blackberries in the middle of more blackberries. Hmmmm, consulted my numbers, yep, all OK. Arrived there 1pm.
(*^&^%^%^()*&(*^%(*&&* - There was clearly something wrong with the formula, and I had no idea what as the numbers and formula were quite specific. OK, whip out phone and call rBirtles – DAMN – no signal down here. UP I go and UP I go, ah, at last, a signal, nobody home. Double Damn. Wrung out all my clothes as by now there was a fair bit of rain, and I was literally STEAMING. Waited a while, tried again, nothing. Dejected, I then wandered off back to the car, found a much easier way back. Took off gaiters, boots etc etc, and was about to drive off, ring ring…..hello – Yay, mr. Birtles with the correct coords. A bit of chat, and OMG – That’s further than I went before, and the rain is still falling. Oh well, I’m wet, WARM & steamy, still OK after some lunch, so off I went. Some considerable time later (hey, after 15km walking and 16km riding one is allowed to slow down a bit), I found the elusive cache. Arrived there 3:30pm.
ANOTHER nice location. Then returned back to car, completing 16km bike riding and 21km walking for the day with considerable rock climbings.

In summary, 2 FTF’s (#2 and final Puzzle), [red], one top series of spectacular caches with simply excellent locations[/red], [blue] Easily #3 was the top spot, such a wonderful geological and scenic spot.[/blue]

Thanks rBirtles for the wonderful series, the sustenance and the geocoin too, well done.

Published

TB drop