MSWeber and country1919 started this blog to share stories, reviews, current events, technology, and helfulp hints about how to understand or enjoy this great adventure called Geocaching.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Boys Night Out
Sometimes it really pays to go outside of your comfort zone. While on a recent trip to Oklahoma to visit Country1919 and family we went on an amazing expedition. After some clever deciphering from Country1919, we had the starting coordinates for a night cache. So when we loaded up the truck to head out on one of our caching days, we also included head-lamps, flashlights, and bug spray. We cached while waiting for the sun to go down and arrived at the puzzle solution coordinates just as the last rays of light disappeared across the lake. We calibrated our GPSr compasses and we left the parking area (and remembered to mark a waypoint) and startled some deer making their way through the open space. As the deer snorted at us and departed, we hoped that we were what scared them off! Our heads hung down as we focused the beams of light on our next steps. We occasionally stopped to get our bearings and to swat at a few mosquitoes that had made it passed the chemical barrier. After a 10 minute hike into the woods we arrived where our positioning devices displayed 0 feet to destination. It was very quiet out there except for the two of us stepping on twigs and branches but soon we found the first stage of the trek. It was marked by a reflective tag about 6 feet up on a tree. We walked past it not really knowing what to look for next. Country1919 discovered the second set of reflectors about 200 feet from the first and he noted that the two tags at this stage were positioned one on top of the other one. The meaning of this arrangement didn't dawn on us until we found stage three which were two tags side by side. Another 15 minutes of stumbling in the dark and we had followed various combinations of tags to a set that were only about a foot off of the ground. As M looked for other stages, Country1919 was convinced that this was the X that marked the treasure. Sure enough, under a couple of unusually placed rocks was a plastic container filled with all kinds of Geek Goodies. A quick inventory of the treasure revealed a chess strategy manual, a chess board, a walkie-talkie, batteries and more! M tried to transmit on the radio to see if the cache owner was listening nearby, but the batteries were still in their package and not in the device. We signed the log and "reflected" on the amazing journey that a fellow cacher had led us on by proxy. We pulled up the waypoint to where we had parked and we hike out of the woods in single file. Aside from a few bug bites we both agreed that this was one of funnest caching experiences that we have participated in. We did take away a couple lessons learned: 1. Long, focused, light throwing beams are more useful than the wide, short distance flashlights. 2. You can never have too much bug spray on. If you want to experience a well thought out puzzle/night cache then visit Knight Moves GC2MRT5. It is a 4 Difficult/3 Terrain Puzzle cache southeast of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
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