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| Erica - Cold even before we start! |
The one named "To Boldly Go...." sounded interesting to say the least, and it has something like 58 favorite points. Here is what part of the description says:
NOTE: The cache is NEAR, but not AT the posted coordinates. The coordinates above are to the crevice opening in the rock wall you will need to enter to find the cache. The actual cache is physically within 20 feet of the posted coordinates. After that, it's up to you to find it! Thus, the 5-star difficulty. We're not kidding about the terrain either! The cache can be accessed from the top, but you will have an easier, safer search if you enter the crevice from the bottom.
You can see the rest of the cache info here.
Prior to heading out I had activated a travel bug, a small refrigerator magnet shaped like an armidillo! We took it with us and headed to the park. And I figured we better take water, Kind granola / energy bars and a flashlight. Erica of course had no idea we were going adventuring and didn't bring good shoes nor socks and only relatively short/thin pants. Leta let her use her good Brooks shoes and Nike socks!
We arrived at the park and it was still cold, windy and sprinkling a bit. So much so, I was a bit concerned about us getting wet and getting hypothermia. But we grabbed a trail map and headed out. We decided to not go up and over Enchanted Rock but rather stay down on the "Loop Trail" where we were more sheltered from the wind. As we headed out we saw several kinds of wild flowers, including the beloved Bluebonnets, and blooming cactus.
It wasn't too long for us to hike about half of the 1.63 km the gps/phone/compass said the cache was located from the parking lot, but we had reached a dilemma, should we continue to hike the trail which curved off in the wrong direction or bushwack in the direction the compass pointed. We decided to bushwack, and unfortunately the bushes wacked us back! Both Erica and I are still plucking cacti needles from our legs and feet!
We were able to get within about 100 meters of the cache but faced a large "wall" of rocks, so we decided we had to go around to the other side, and we walked along some steep wet granite....sorta had a "Darwin Award Moment" bouncing around in my head, as we both slipped a couple times, and all I could think of was "What could possibly go wrong....." Luckily we both made around to the other side and approached the GZ (ground zero? Geocache Zone?) and looked for a way to get back into the crevasse. We found an opening big enough to fit through and squeezed in, after getting the flashlight out.
We searched around and Erica finally asked "does it look like a tool box" as she had no idea what an ammo box was. (Yes, you now know I am not a Texas dad and I have fail in this aspect of my parental duties!). We got the lid off the ammo can, traded out Travel Bugs and signed the log in crayon as the pen wouldn't work.
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| "Beam me up Scotty" or Erica heading towards the light... after finding the geocache entitled "To Boldly Go...." |
We took several pictures but lighting was a challenge and as we were coming out the view was spectacular! We then decided to head back, but of course we couldn't just go back the way we came, so we tried to 'dead recon" back, which turned out not to be too accurate of a way to navigate, as Erica had us on the wrong "mountain" and I was off about 90 degrees (which is 90 degrees better than I usually am!) in which direction we were heading. Erica kept encouraging me, by saying things like "if we can find A trail, we PROBABLY won't die", or "Don't worry Leta will soon panic and send the rangers after us".
We soon DID find a trail and even recognized where we were. We saw a woodpecker and about 5 deer on the way back to the car.
Oh yeah, as for Leta, waiting for us back at the car...she had not panicked, but rather had made a nest out of blankets in the car. She was snug as a bug and was sound asleep when we returned. I'm glad we didn't worry her!
It was an awesome geocaching adventure!
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