Happy walkers at Mt Coree trig – Neil, Roger, Jenni, Lisa, Ming, Brendan, Llewellyn
Saturday 15 July: Mt Coree – L/E. All on fire trails from Blundells Flat. Up Curries Rd, along Two Sticks Rd, past the Coree Camp Ground on Pabral Rd and up the Coree Summit Rd. Excellent views on a clear day. Return clockwise around Pabral Rd. 2 geocaches. Around 19km, 800m climb and 6 hours. Map: Cotter Dam. Leader: John Evans 0417 436 877 john@johnevans.id.au . Transport: ~$8 per person.
Further Information
I’m not a hard core geocacher. Thanks to Marmaduke Rothschild who had a couple more up his sleeve.
Summary
Distance: 19.7km | Climb: 980m | Time: 8.15am – 2.00pm (5hrs 45mins), including 30 mins of breaks | Grading: L/E; H(12)
Photographs
Photographs are available, where you can start a large sized slideshow.
Waypoint and Track Files
Download the .gpx file. (Right click, Save Link As…, Save – if you want to use it.)
To use in Google Earth, do File, Open… and select Gps or All files as the File Type.
Track Notes
Mt Coree had its head in the clouds as we drove out via the Cotter, Uriarra Road, Brindabella Road and right down Curries Road (just past the end of the bitumen), to park at the intersection of Curries Road and Pabral Road.
The three ladies showed us clean pairs of heels as we walked up Curries Road, 3.9km in 55mins, to the intersection with Two Sticks Road. A little chillier as we crested into the westerly breeze.
Flat walking along the west side of Mt Coree on Two Sticks Road, to the intersection with Coree Summit Road. 2.1km in 25mins.
The next leg was 2.9km in 50mins east along Coree Summit Road, with a quick break at the conveniences opposite the Coree camp ground. Further east we were passed by a 4X4 vehicle. Then, at the intersection with Pabral Road, the climb up through the switch-backs to the summit. The 4X4 beat us to the top.
Here we quickly found and logged GCHBP5 Lonely Cache. Its difficulty/terrain rating of 4.5/4.5 is a bit overcooked – I’d call in 2/3.
No view when we arrived, but in the 30mins we spent up there, wandering around, taking photos and shivering through morning tea, the cloud finally cleared for the great westerly view to Webbs Ridge.
The forecast snow above 1100m (Mt Coree 1421m) didn’t eventuate – all we got was chilly fingers.
We left at 10.50am and enjoyed our time in NSW, descending Coree Summit Road and turning right on Pabral Road. We looped around to just before the border where, with the actual location of the next geocache, again made a quick find and log of GC4XYWK Marking our territory 2. I have no idea why BorderTrekker’s coordinates are so far out on most of his caches.
Walking down Pabral Road, Marmaduke Rothschild informed me that he had another couple of nearby caches with him. Using the magic of high-end GPSrs, he ‘Shared Wirelessly’ them with me.
So down at the east-most corner of Pabral Road, we informed the rest of the party of our little detour. It was down, then steeply up a decommissioned, mogul-ed, very wet and clay-ey fire trail which descended to cross Coree Creek, then climbed to the boundary of Namadgi National Park. Down near the creek we eventually found the correct fence post sporting GC708YC Coree Creek and logged it. The party climbed a bit and, whilst 4 enjoyed an extended lunch, the 4 geocachers struggled up the slippery fire trail which by now had narrowed to a footpad. A quick find and log of GC6PJWH Blundell’s Border. We slid back down and had 10mins of lunch.
By the way, the route to these last caches is the bottom of the route which descends from Mt Blundell. You won’t find it on the Cotter Dam 1:25000 map, but I’ve recorded details in my Namadgi Footpads records.
We left lunch at 1.20pm and knocked off the 2.3km back to the cars in 35mins.
On the drive back, Roger was kind enough to help me log GC6J0XG Rockin’ it at Uriarra.
Some of the party hadn’t been to Mt Coree before, the 4 cachers were happy and everyone enjoyed the exercise. A good day.
Track Maps
Party
8 walkers – Roger E, Brendan K, Ming L, Lisa Q, Jenni S, Llewellyn S, Neil W, me.