Mount Mou and the WWII Dauntless SBD-3 plane crash Traditional Geocache
Mount Mou and the WWII Dauntless SBD-3 plane crash
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A difficult hike to a piece of local history
une randonnée difficile à un morceau de l'histoire locale
High near the summit of Mount Mou lie the remains of a U.S. dive bomber that crashed on December 5, 1942 during a training mission. A total of 5936 of these planes were built and most of them were deployed to the South Pacific, where they were extremely effective in the war effort against Japan. Nearly 70 years since the crash, a few parts of the plane still remain. We placed a geocache here to guide an extra visitor or two to the location. But don't delay, a friend of ours - who has visited several times over the past 15 years - tells us that "bounty hunters" are removing bits and pieces of the plane every year.
Make no mistake: the hike to get here is difficult. As a middle aged man who hikes regularly, I would rate it as Very Difficult (my teenage daughter, and co-lister of the geocache, found it only Difficult). Thus, we next provide sufficient information to help you decide if you want to attempt this cache.
1. Here is a track log of the hike - the parking spot is at the one mile point on the track.
2. Round trip, the hike is 8 km and involves over 1000m of vertical gain. And the height gain is nonstop right from the beginning. You will hike about 3.5 hours to get to the plane and about 3 hours to get back.
3. The terrain changes from dry forest to slippery red dirt to knee high brush to wet rain forest and then something else. You will experience every biome that exists in New Caledonia. There is a good chance of an injury - I twisted both ankles on slippery roots and wet red dirt; everyone had a bloody gash from interaction with rocks and brush.
4. Take as much water as you can possibly carry. Two liters per person would be good, three would be better. Freeze at least one of the liters before you leave. There is no water on the hike - no streams, no lakes, nada.
5. Do not go alone. Tell someone that you are going and tell them when you should be back.
6. There is no cell phone coverage for much of the hike.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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