I won’t lie — I like first to finds with geocaching. I usually won’t go running out the door for them as it’s not easy for me to do with my work schedule and other things. But if I get a chance at FTF, I like to grab them.
I went with Brent on Wednesday to grab a few. These ones have been sitting out there since early May. The best about these? Off-roadin’ adventures!
A series of caches popped up in early May where you either had to do some serious hiking or take a 4X4. Brent has one and we tackled it today, scoring four FTFs in the process.
And though this wasn’t a mud-bogging adventure like I had thought, it was interesting.
The first we came to could have been done with my Jetta. Paved road to it and no problems. The second one we skipped (we’d be back) as the road split and we opted to go for the next set first. From the cache descriptions, we knew eventually we’d have to forge a stream, but weren’t sure where.
Soon, we came upon it.
See, the road heads into private property. Mind you, this is state land. What happens is the state has a right-of-way through to the other side. Problem is, the bridge is private.
So, to get to the other side you have to cross the stream.
It wasn’t too bad. Brent scraped a little as he didn’t see one rock coming up (we missed it on the way back) and we were soon finding out why this was an off-road adventure.
Bumpy, rocky, muddy and almost washed out at spots, this was one crazy road.
The second one had us stop close to a group of rock formations. Soon, we had FTF number two. And off we went. At this point, we once again had to decide where to go — left or right. We opted to chase down the one on the right. It’s called end of the line — makes sense, being we came to a spot where the road is blocked with a gate, a big stop sign and there’s no where else to go. We found that cache and signed another blank log book.
Oh, by the way — it rained all day today, too. So we were dodging the drops to find these, but it made the ride more interesting. And as bumpy as these roads were, I felt like I was in a popcorn machine!
So you all know, too, these roads are mainly used for snowmobiles. And it’s warm out — no snow!
Anyway…
So off we were to get the fourth one. This one is the original and has been out for more than a year, so no first to find on this one. BUT, I was on a mission with this cache as I wanted to rescue a travel bug I saw on a TB Rescue site. It took a bit to find the cache, but once we did we saw the TB was indeed there, so I rescued it. I will soon set it on its way again. We signed in and started to head back.
We got back to the final spot and it looked like we could get to the cache quicker by walking across a creek. The water was a bit too high, so we headed up the final road and got near the spot. Unfortunately, a micro in the woods. Log was wet, but we could sign for the FTF.
I didn’t take as many photos as I had wanted to, but the few I took can be seen at this flickr set.
In the end, we found 10 caches today, with four being FTFs. Not a bad day.
I also got one final cache after dinner, so I’m now at 1,944 finds. I’m going to have to push a little to make sure I get to where I need to for my upcoming trip to Ireland so I can get No. 2,000 over there, but it’s doable and I plan on getting there.
Quite the day though. An enjoyable one!
More later!
