360 on Loch Dinner Plain, Victoria, Australia
By malikaal on 21-Mar-10. Waypoint GC25BF1

The view was very nice. TFTC

Tftc

Looked for about 30min with the fam but could not find it unfortunately!

Found it after hiking the Alpine Crossing!TFTC!

Early start to get to the summit as the cloud cleared for a fine pano. Cache all good, found & signed.

A nice treat to find after the walk to the top Thanks!

Great find, followed the navigation directions

mount loch was popular this morning
the car park is so full they’ve blocked it off
the roadsides are jammed with cars
for those lacking the legs to reach feathertop, it seems here is the surrogate option

we saw a photo recently of the summit of everest
the highest junkyard in the world
all manner of fabrics and ice picks and shrines and photos littering the summit
an endless collection of frozen mementos
we hope the flag waving atop the cairn will not snowball into similar sights here

for as busy as the roadsides get
we like our nature natural

We found the cache easily and the walk to Mount Loch was superb on the first day of 2023. TFTC.

Solstice day run. First time on Mt loch. TFTC

Didn't find it, but nor did I look very hard, hence the "note" rather than "did not find".
Here are two photos, one is close to GZ (maybe actually GZ, I don't know). The other is the view from close by. As you can see, GZ was all iced in and I wasn't in the mood for digging!
Had a glorious ski in from Hotham with fantastic views all around.

Found on a nice winters morning. I had to smash some of the rocks just due to the fact that they were iced in. The cache container was a little damp, and that had frozen the lid on which made it harder to open. Cache found, log signed, returned maybe with a little less snow on top of it, ready for the next brave adventurer. Tftc

cool cache. thanks!!! good views

Our first detour on our way from Hotham to Falls Creek

I was looking for an afternoon run near dinner plains, and this seemed a spot worth visiting. Fortunately I read the status reports ahead of time to realise that the Loch carpark was currently closed, and parked at the Hotham info carpark.

Looking at the notes for the huts hike, late January - early February is best time for flowers. Well, it certainly seemed that was the case, the whole area was almost carpeted with flowers, including some of my favourites - the nice pink trigger plants and some button everlastings.

The weather wasn't really sure what it was doing - humid, warm (especially if sun was out), and with a thunderstorm or two around, though never quite where I was, thankfully.

The view from the top of Mt Loch was very good and the cache was well hidden in the first place I looked. After finding this I went along to Spargo's Hut and then down and back up via the hut track, ditch track and Edelweiss Link track (where I saw a nice sized snake across the path) and up the road to the General for dinner, then over Mt Higginbotham. That made for a good ~16km loop according to my phone.

Thanks for the cache, I enjoyed my time in this area.

Finally a bit of sun after some rain days, the views up here are brilliant, cache in great condition, thanks

On the last day of a hike around feathertop and hotham. We got up into the alpine from swindlers spur and then it was a pretty easy walk to the top of the orchard chair. We dropped our packs at the intersection and made the detour to this summit. It was a short little climb before we were up the top. After checking out the views we walked over to GZ and found the cache tucked away nicely. Signed the log and returned. TFTC

Fantastic hide! And the view is not half bad too!! Thanks for the hide

On our annual xmas trip to Victoria from the cenny coast of NSW via an epic 5-day geocaching tour. Today was day 5 where we spent our final day up around the Hotham Heights area to do some hiking and mountain bike riding. It is our first time up here ever and it certainly won't be our last. Been looking forward to this leg of the trip for about a year. We've just come from a couple of days hiking The Main Range in Kosciuszko NP where we'd describe the terrain there as "barren". Here in the Alpines we'd describe the terrain as "rugged". Today the plan was to ride the Machinery Spur here to Red Robin Mine (today's main aim), then return to head out on foot to a cache past the Big Dipper on the Razorback Track, and then slowly work our way back down to our camp at Harrietville via Rene's Lookout and Mt Smythe to The Twins via Twins Road. We had an awesome day although we didn't quite complete the day's itinerary simply because HALF of all that was enough to take in! So we will be back sometime for more!

We are on our way back from Red Robin mine where a stop at Mt Loch was made to visit the trig/ cairn up here. Found a cache as well @ ~3.05pm. TFTC, malikaal.
#1101

Firstly, apologies for the lateness in logging.
A week in Bright had us venturing further and higher on a 40degree day.
Nice to see some snow about up here too.
Thanks for placing this one malikaal

Yeah! A smiley face on Mt Loch
Spectacular sunny day! Great views in all directions

A really nice walk on the way there, beautiful views. The weather closed in when we were up the top so I'm glad I found this one quickly. It is late June, so we were lucky we could do this walk at all. Tftc, I love caches in remote areas.

After camping overnight at Diamantina Hut I decided I had enough time in the morning to go for a run before my appointment at the Alpine School. But where to go?
Looking at the map I decided Derrick Hut and Mt Loch. The weather had already started to turn, lots of cloud and strong winds, plus the temperature was dropping as well. The total run distance added up to 10km and I found two caches for my troubles. The final couple of km back to the car the cloud got thick and visibility was very low! And the car was rocking thanks to the strong winds!

The weather was really picking up by the time I got to this cache. The wind was pushing me around and I was glad to be able to shelter behind the rocks at GZ. Cache was spotted easy and I added my mark. I’m impressed that this container survives the winter so well!

TFTC

TFTC. Starting the Alpine Crossing, but via a route less traveled, and over 5 days. With Tony Toad.

Found with mrs mochila. Tftc

Dropped in to check on this cache, and very pleased to see its in perfect condition after nearly nine years. Keep up the good work cachers.

Wonderful place for a cache
Thanks for placing it here

On a mission Lugging my 30 kg plus pack across the Alps from Falls Creek to Mt Hotham, Mt Feathertop via The Razorback and down to Harrietville I stopped to grab a few caches as I went.

My young charges were all keen to get to Diamantina Hut to set up camp, so marched on. I opted to drop pack and amble up the Machinery Spur Track for a look from Mt Loch.

Despite sore feet, I was not disappointed. There were patches of snow on the eastern slopes from late falls a fortnight ago and the rocky outcrops were amazing. Finding the cache became only a small part of this visit. The views in every direction were brilliant on this hot, clear day. Well worth the effort.

Thanks for this placement Malikaal.

Found at 12.15pm. With storm clouds gathering and the wind building I enjoyed the fantastic panorama this cache offers. I had to be quick in finding the cache as another couple arrived at the summit just after me. I ate my lunch in the lee of the summit cairn. Cache in good condition. Thanks for bringing me back up here. TNLN K&M

Great walk out. Fantastic weather and sensational view's thanks for the cache.

Yesterday was a big day, so I wanted something mild for today.

Mt. Loch was the target.

I wandered in along the track and was observing everything around me. It always amazes me that in an alpine region you are surrounded with rugged peaks, large drop offs and generally steep country, however, there are plenty of plains and flat grassy sections within it.

The day was starting to cloud over and everywhere I looked there were ski lifts, snow blowers and resort buildings in the distance. I have to admit I was kind of freaked out as there was all this infrastructure but no people around them. It was almost like it was abandoned. Freaky stuff.

It's all that cache, 'bout that cache.....

I stood on top of Mt. Loch and watched the world around fall away. An incredible place. I soon found the cache, signed the log and headed off.

A much easier hike, than my Mt Bogong expedition the day before, but almost equally rewarding views! Had to wait for a few muggles to clear out, but after they did I had the place all to myself to make the find. TFTC

And so onwards and upwards and round and upwards some more. The views were to die for and by the time we got to this one, we were quite sure a few years had departed from our life expectancy. It was nice to sit for a while...and sign the log book at 3.09pm. Left: charms and metal soldier. Stayed long enough to have an afternoon snack and a few swigs of water to soothe the dry throat, before making our way back to the car park and the welcome sight of our geoCruiser to carry us back to our accomodation. We are pretty chuffed to have completed four caches above 1800m today. We will be back to attempt the other two along this track, and hope to bring some friends to share the pleasure and the pain! #5111 TFTC malikaal, the climb, both up and down, the wonderful vistas seen and the chance to prove we ARE capable of hiking 7kms at least.

thanks Dusty02 for bringing me back here. an excellent day out in the bush!
TFTC TNLN thanks malikaal for bringing me back here

Wildflowers galore, what a magic spot.

Just a wander up high today - splendid time of year with wildflowers galore and Alpine Celery in flower. Cache a wee bit damp after a long winter under snow but log itself dry enough. Giving it some sunshine. TFTC

Found at the beginning of an epic 4 day Easter hike, circuit, via Mt. Loch, Derricks, Dibbin and Young's Huts, Mt. Jim, Tawonga Huts, former Mt. Niggerheads, both Fainters, Tawonga Huts, Westons Hut, Red Robin Mine and back past Mt. Loch.

Did we tell you it was an epic hike with 5 of some of Victoria's Highest peaks climbed and 16 awesome caches found?
After failing to find Cool Runnings (thats another story) we were eager to get 360 degrees on Mt. Loch.
We stashed our loaded overweight packs below, near the AAWT and high tailed it the 900 meters to the peak...we were so keen that we forgot the GPSr below attached to my pack. Having reached the peak we thought what the hell, it couldn't be that hard could it?

On arrival there was a large family taking what felt like 50 differently posed photos, so we quietly mosied around until they finally left and we could search in earnest. We did manage to bring along some written notes with the hint, "`Hidden above the ground between 2 largish rocks and then covered with numerous smaller rocks". How hard could that be?
After several good likely spots did not reward us with the goods, valuable time was ticking over and frustration was setting in. Suddenly we thought of the iphone. Surely all that infrastructure above Mt. Hotham could transmit the information we required. Once fired up, the description said "20m 300 degrees NNW from the cairn". How hard could that be?
Both our compasses were where the GPSr was, inside our packs! Well looking at the sun and making a good estimate just after noon, the cache was quickly in hand.
The container was slightly damp inside despite being tightly closed, but the log was good to read and sign. We replaced it as found.

We made the search much harder and longer than it should have be. WE had to kept reminding ourselves that it's about the journey, which made us feel better.

From our 2 previous visits we knew that the views were splendid.
Thanks for the opportunity to experience the views again and TFTC
.

Found on a day walk from Hotham - great spot and the weather was perfect, albeit with a bit of autumn chill in the air! Geo-kids were more interested in playing in the snowdrifts that finding the hidden treasure, so I made the trip on my own. TFTC

Found it! The annual Walkabouter's 'camp' in the High Country was at Dinner Plain this year. I found this cache with Muggles Janette and John while the others waited at the track junction to the summit. Found and replaced the cache before the next group of hikers arrived. After a few photos we, rejoined the group and set off to Derricks Hut. The cache is in great condition. TFTC SL

I spent the long weekend in Bright with my family, and a few of us decided to do a hike along Hotham.

Mount Loch was decided as a nice little hike with rewarding views, so we set off at about 8am.

Pretty chilly on arrival with a touch of snow up here - soon however sun was out full blaze.

Made our way to the cairn and I retrieved the cache. Absolute gem of a spot.

Great to have another of Team Oakys - 'Must do caches' off the list.

Absolutely loved it. Thanks for placing it and can't wait to come back and tackle Feathertop!

Nice walk up on a cool autumn day. Lovely views.

Windy windy windy

Windy windy windy

Found it on an overnight walk to Dibbin Hut with the family. Great walk to a beautiful location, surprised there are not more finds. The cache is in very good shape. TNLN, SL. TFTC.

20 years since the 4 blokes walked the Alpine Track. Installed a forged art work on the trig!

Great day for being at the top of mt Loch. Tftc

Actually found on a bushwalk through this area on the 11th of Feb 2015. I recently went through the area again, and thought I did find it. I just found out that I did find on my map software (GPS Download from that one) anyway this is a great place.

I forgot to carry the 'machine' so didn't have the pleasure of writing in the log. I lost a very expensive pair of spectacles leaving the peak. great shelter out of the wind for morning tea. off to Derricks next.
TFTC and enticing me to visit Mt Loch.

Day 1 of 3 day Mt Hotham to Omeo hwy AAWT
The rest of the crew went on to Derricks hut while I dashed to the summit. TNLNSL TFTC

This entry was edited by jonnosan on Tuesday, 30 December 2014 at 20:10:47 UTC.

Found @10:52 #3937
This cache was the must do one for today before starting the drive back to Melbourne after attending yesterday's event. Amazing 360 views on this clear blue sky morning. A little wind but nothing too strong. The cache was quickly found after taking a short break. Today the GPSr had me at 1879m, the highest cache so far found in Victoria, awesome another cache found for the Victorian 1700m challenge.
TFTC malikaal

Different styles.
Bananas take the Snow road from Mt Hotham
Philipp and Day take the low road.
But there is just a small patch of snow remaining of top of the hill, that does look suspicious. It was snow alright but very selective global warming had only bothered the surrounding landscape.
But there is evidence of recent fingerprints. Smells a little like bananas also.
Thanks malikaal

[green] Schnee auf'm Gipfel [/green]

Yes. There was a tiny piece of snow left on the summit when Day and I arrived. I really don't wonder how it got there but both Rohan and Day tried to convince me that there is snow and they got boots so they did find this cache in snow-boots. Oh well unfortunately the Beekeeper's Challenge askes for snow-shoes. Isn't that disappointing?

Once again Adriaan beat us to the unlove days but that doesn't make this cache any less interesting. I really enjoyed the hike.

Thanks and cheers
Philipp

[url=http://fb.com/groups/geocachingmelbourne][navy]Geocaching Melbourne[/navy][/url]
[url=https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10205629284470418.1073741876.1202959017&type=1&l=2b60e020c9]Pictures of the weekend[/url]

Approaching this one from the carpark we enjoyed a great little walk. A little bit of elevation, but nothing too strenuous, Rohan took the direct approach up and up whilst Philipp and I enjoyed a leisurely, longer but far less exhaustive walk up to the summit. Photos taken, cache found and a nice little bit of snow lying around. Thanks malikaal, another 1800m+ cache for me! I think that is number 11 for me, plus one that I own myself.

Date: 21 November 2014
Time: 16:46
Find #4234
793 Days of unlove, this cache is now loved again.

I had been looking forward to the Hotham Gamble Event weekend for some time, so had done quite a bit of planning the caches I wanted to find while here. My main focus was to qualify for The Victorian 1700m+ ASL Challenge, but make sure I had at least ten above 1800m, the way the challenge was originally intended .

After loading up my overnight pack, the car was parked at the Mount Loch car park and off I went. This was another cache that had not been found for some time, so it was up to me to make it loved again. It took me some time to locate this one, but found it in the end. Stunning view from GZ

A favourite point for the High Country location.

Swapped a pathtag for a caribena
Thanks to malikaal for placing this cache.

Went off piste as I noticed the summit had largely thawed out. Lugging the downhill skis was a bore and I was dripping with sweat by the time I made it to the top. However the cache was easily found and the ski back was gentle fun. Today is very clear and the views are extensive. Thanks for the cache, a favourite.

I have previously skied out here on XC skis but today we were downhilling with friends and realised how close we were when we were at the top of The Orchard lift. So we took off the skis and went for a walk. Drjim7 soon found the cache and boy was he happy. Then we skied back to the lift and after this my legs were screaming the whole ski home.

Wow! What a view! Had a sunny day with geo-twin and found it no worries. TFTC

Found on a walk out from Hotham on the way back from the Oz Mega. Beautiful weather today,but still some remnants of snow from the falls on Monday. Great views from the top. TFTC

I've been up here countless times as a muggle skier, but now that I'm geo-alert, it's a special trip. A beautiful autumn day with a brisk breeze at the cairn, as you'd expect. I came here while doing the Huts Walk circuit, which I'd recommend. TNLN, thanks for the cache. By its position, gains a fave for sure.

Short detour on my way to Dibbins Hut in hope of something of a view. Had been raining all morning and just stopped with a little clearing up every now and then. Quick find.
Ended up clearing all the way while walking down to the hut and the sun was even getting out really good!

Found this one on a great sunny sunday on a fantastic walk up on Mt Hotham.
This was a really nice walk, the wind was cold,but that didnt stop the walk to the top of Mt Loch.
Many thanks to malikaal for the neat cache.

Top of the world!

AWG bushwalk 123 brought us back to the high country and to Mt Loch in particular this time. Had great weather - and hence magnificent views - for the walk and also took in Derrick Hut while we were up here. Cache was found easily and log signed at 2:15pm by several cachers in our group.
Left a geocoin to take in the views
Took a pathtag
thanks malikaal

Found this one at 14:15 with the rest of the AWG gang while on our monthly bushwalk. Surprisingly, the O3 was being a little naughty and wouldn't hone in on the find at first but it finally settled down and we were all soon signing the log.

What an absolutely magnificent spot with sensational views in all directions. A pretty aptly titled cache I reckon and it gets a fave point from me .

TNLNSL, although a couple of our geocoins had a visit to mark the occasion. Thanks for adding that little extra incentive to come here malikaal .

#2539 Well after a huge day yesterday we decided to do a back to back effort of another caching day whilst this gorgeous autumn weather continues. We have a list a hikes to do and we thought that this was suitable for The GeoPrincess to accompany us today. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk to GZ and spent quite a bit of time up the top taking photos before The GeoPrincess was dispatched to make the find. She did well and located GZ but needed some assistance to reveal the cache. Our thanks to malikaal for bringing us to a fantastic part of the world. Cheers

found towards the end of my walk circuit,dibbins,cobungra,machinery and back up to red robin and mt loch. have just walked thru an hour of rain,still, looked like the high plains and feathertop copped it worse. easy find once on the mtn. my co ords were spot on , so it was either we both have garmins or it was the rainy/overcast weather. a gr8 cache , thankyou.

Another week spent skiing at Mt Hotham, another note on this cache. Still no find.

You have no idea how frustrated I am!!! Having spent a few days skiing at The Orchard, I decided that I would finally pack the GPSr and come to find this cache. However, the winds were up and the lifts out here went on Wind Hold for two days Feeling a little silly for not trying to find it earlier, I felt even more stupid when the lifts came off Wind Hold and were closed due to patchy coverage!

I had spent three days skiing so close to the cache and did not bother to find it... IDIOT!

Oh well, this one will just have to remain on the list for next year's trip to Hotham!

We were on a trip down to visit Red Robin Mine and Blairs Hut, so made our excuses and left the group on the way home to try to grab this cache. Even though it's only early April, it started to snow pretty heavily so we made a made dash up the hill, found the cache and retreated back to the car as quickly as we could. I'm sure the views are spectacular when it's not snowing and foggy!

Great views but a little bit windy. We were just completely alone up there.
TFTC
suchislife.net

Found while on a Recon trip to Falls Creek and Hotham with work colleagues. The recon trip was to check out the area before we took up 127 Year 9 students in April. Lots of water and tracks look great. Made a quick side trip to Mt. Loch. The views here are as the name suggests, 360 degree views of the magnificant Victorian Alps. The view is just breath taking. TNLN. TFTC.

Happy new year! Quickly found but bearing didn't make sense. Found by our 7 year old. Her first find.

Found this one during a lunch break on a weekend bushwalk with the Benalla Bushwalking Club. TNLNS. TFTC.

Awesome views from this cache! Snow shoed out to here and then down to Dibbins hut for the night, where I type this log. TFTC

great xski up from hotham with mighty peanut great cache thanks

With FNSM on a cross country adventure... glorious day, good company, and a beer waiting at home... perfecy

I had grand plans of coming out here on our week long visit to Mt Hotham for skiing. However the lift that would bring me closest to GZ was not operating, and I did not have cross country skis, nor snow shoes, with me.

Alas, it will always be there for our trip back here next year!

On the way out the Machinery Spur to visit the Red Robin Mine, why not grab the latest Hi Cache in Vic. Beautiful clear skies and a pleasent 5 degrees. Utopia. Signed log and continued the journey. TFTC

Find # 199 @ 11.45 am
Found while placing my own cache along the AAWT on a lovely Easter weekend walk
Felt a bit like I was going on a pilgrimage as there was a lot of day walkers heading for the summit; had to time my find just right log signing was a bit rushed as another large group headed for summit. Great spot for a cache in a fantastic part of Victoria, would have loved to have stayed longer but I had away to go [xx(]
Thanks for the caching view and of course the cache malikaal


[This entry was edited by Oakydog on Tuesday, April 06, 2010 at 5:30:25 AM.]

Found at 0915. FTF! Today was the first day of 4 weeks holidays, and with the day shaping up to be a good one, I decided to venture out to the Mt Hotham region to pick up a few caches I have been meaning to get to for a while. Heading to Dinner Plain, I stopped by this one as it wasn't too far off the main road, and after 20 mins or so, I arrived at GZ to be met with perfect views of the area, and a cairn that was bigger than expected. With good coords, the cache was quickly found, and I sat and enjoyed the view of the Razorback and Feathertop while I signed the log. Have never walked this track before so it's nice to say I've at least stepped on it.

Lovely location for a cache.

Thanks malikaal.

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