Gee Scott, All you needed to do was pay my $40/hr fee for tutoring and I'd have gotten you right to that cache using the math method. :o) Jerry-Offtrail On Mon, 22 Apr 2002 09:33:29 -0700 "Scott Nicol" writes: > > We had another fun time geocaching this past weekend! > > This was my first full weekend without any business at all in a long > time. > (Not good really, but, has been a great quarter so I deserve some > time off! > ;) > > We departed the headquarters and offices of Team Ropingthewind at > about > 6:00am on Saturday morning and headed out for a full weekend of > cachin' and > campin'. > > We have camped on the Mogollon Rim many times before. But, usually > in a > motorhome. So, since we no longer have the motorhome.. tenting it > would be > the only way to go! We were hoping to find a spot right on the edge > of the > rim with a great unobstructed view of the region below. So, with > this in > mind... our goal was to get all the caches that we havent yet been > able to > get to along Hwy. 87 and toward Payson. Spend the night on the rim > and got > the 3 caches up in that area and then drop down into Pine and > Stawberry and > get those. > > We left here near sunrise and headed off for the Math Cache. I spent > nearly > a week trying to figure out the answer to the math problem so we > could save > time and go straight to the final cache location. Even after a > couple emails > to my 'math tutor', I never did figure it out! I guess I should have > paid > more attention in school! :/ Anyways, we did this one the > multi-cache way. > Found the first part quickly and easily and headed off for #2 to > find the > final piece of the coords for the cache. Found a number.. but, wasnt > feeling > conviced that was it. But, after figuring out where those > coordinates would > be... the clues and previous logs 'kinda' convinced us we were in > the right > spot. It would be about a 3 mile round trip hike. So, sure wanted to > feel > confident we were right. We went for it anyways and found it! > > Now, off to Trail's End Cache. This was a fun one! I really liked > the 4x4 > trail going back to this cache site. There was a couple of forks in > the > road, but, the GPS pretty much steered us to the right one each time > and had > no problem staying on the correct route. It was rather slow going, > but, very > managable for my full size 1974 GMC longbed pickup truck. There were > some > really tight turns to negotiate. But, got thru them with very minor > AZ > pinstriping. No problem getting to the end of the road and the start > of the > hike. Found it! I really liked the views had at the cache site. Very > cool. > Nice cache. Now the fun part! As we were headed out my truck hit a > good bump > and it stalled. So, I figured I would just let it roll to a stop and > then > re-start it. We had already past the really tight turn area and the > rest was > fairly wide and just basically a wash. We were still nearly 3/4 of > the way > in. I just let the truck roll and it just kept rolling! It is a > slight but > steady downhill all the way back to just before the Hwy. So, I just > rolled > the truck all the way back to the Hwy! :) No power steering though > with the > truck turned off! It was fun. Very quite. No roar of the 455 Olds > engine > under the hood! Silent! Very cool. Was able to keep the momentum > going in > the soft spots and the turns. It was kinda fun! > > Off to the Snow on the Highway Cache. We had tried for this one a > few months > back in the dark of night and came out with a no find. This time in > the > daylight.. we found it quickly and with no problems. As we were > leaving the > cache site, another gent was walking down from the overpass. We > didnt think > much of it and made our way back to the truck. We had parked with > just a few > hundred feet of the cache site. Once back at the truck, the man > walked back > into the trees near the cache. Hhhmm. We though, he could be a > cacher. Then > again, maybe he isnt and he saw us at the cache. So, we watched a > moment. > After a couple of minutes watching and preparing the GPS for the > next cache > up the road, we finally headed out. It turns out it was Dan of Team > LazyK! > Sorry Dan! We would really have liked to have met you. We have met > alot of > teams along the trails and would have liked to have met ya'. But, we > didnt > want to hike back over two barbed wire fences to get back to the > cache site. > Also, didnt want to possibly scare you into backing off from the > cache when > you saw us coming your way. So, we left. Also, wanted to get moving > as there > were more caches to be had! > > Next in line was the West Fork Sycamore Cache. Fun drive in on the > rough but > totally passable road. Parked within about 300' of the cache. Dang, > that was > a very sticky situation! Found it and moved on. > > Libby's 188 Rest Area cache was next on the list and found that one > quickly > as well. Turns out Dan/LazyK was here just about 40 minutes before > us! :) > Team Tres Hombres, Team CHUMP and another team were here too that > day! That > is one busy rest area! The Boys Scouts group that the previous logs > talked > about were gone and we moved in and out with no problems. My > teammate Brent > kept a watchful eye out as I signed the log. > > We then went to the cache near Gisela, AZ, Swimming Hole Adventure > Cache. > This was a cool cache. We had hiked the north end of this wilderness > area, > but, never the south end. So, a new spot visited for us. Had to park > nearly > a mile away and hike down to the cache site. It is so cool to see > flowing > water creeks and rivers in the AZ desert! The swimming hole looked > inviting.. but, I would imagine it is still a bit cold. Several > young folks > were swimming there and they looked cold! That is deep water too! > Some cute > women there too! :) :) :) The cache was well away from the activity > and the > people, so was able to find it and take our time logging in. > > That was about it for the day as we wanted to get up to the rim > early and > set up camp and watch the sunset from the rim. Stopped in Payson for > a late > lunch/dinner and picked some stuff up at Wal-Mart and made our way > up to the > rim. We went for The Meadows Cache while on the way in toward our > camping > spot. This sucked. We spent well over an hour searching and posted a > no find > on this one. The entire area has been bulldozed. There is a massive > logging > operation going on in the area and several large areas of trees are > knocked > down. Including right where my GPS put us at the 0 spot. But, I > knew it > wasnt there anyways as the pictures indicate it is near the rocks. > There is > a little rocky outcropping several hundred feet long to the east of > there. > We searched from one end of it to the other very well and couldnt > find it. A > lot of trees have been bulldozed over just above here and several > were > fallen over the rocks area. We found the rock in question.. no > doubt. We > basically decided to just comb the rock outcropping from one side to > the > other. We even moved away several small trees to get under them to > see if it > was under the fallen trees. We moved every tree and still came up > with > nothing. I think a worker may have found it. The bulldozer hasnt > done any > tearing up of the rocks. Just above it. So, unless it is covered up > with > trees (and I think we moved them all.. literally!), a worker may > have > stumbled upon it. That or we missed it. Dont see how though. We > found the > rocks in the picture and we looked every possible place a cache > container > would go and found several suspect, but, no cache. No find. > > Off to our camp site. We camped out right along the rim and had an > unobstructed view from the SE to the SW including the lights of > Payson. Very > cool! We camped 2.72 miles from the Rim RR Depot cache. We planned > to hit > that one in the morning. A very cold and windy night with a temp in > the tent > of 26 degrees! No problem. I was nice and warm in my sleeping bag > and > blanket! > > Sunday morning and I was sitting in my tent watching the sunrise > over the > Mogollon Rim. Beautiful! We sat there and relaxed a bit and started > off for > another full day of caching at around 8:00am or so. We parked at the > > trailhead above the cache site and just to the west of it. Climbed > down the > very steep rim and made it to the cache site. Utilizing both the old > and new > coordinates, we searched for well over 30 minutes before Brent > finally found > it. We were the first there since it was last found in Nov 2001. Was > a > little worried about it's existance. It is still there! I didnt find > it at > either of the coordinates. But, probably 30 feet or more from both > of them. > Probably just the GPS signal. We signed the log and moved off. We > went to > the bottom of that canyon and hiked up the tunnel trail to check out > the RR > tunnel. Very cool! Would like to learn some more about the history > behind > that. We climbed back up to the Rim Rd above the tunnel. What a > climb! This > was a well earned cache, I tell ya'! Alot of steep climbing. But, > did so in > a timely manner and we were off for Pine, AZ. > > We hit up the Midnight Gossip Gang cache along Hwy 87 headed back > toward > Pine. Parked within 300' of it and found that one quickly. > > Down in Pine. The Narrows Cache was first. Another great little > secret AZ > treasure. Had to search a few minute before my teammate Brent made > th > discovery. Another find! Looks like we were on the trail of the Tres > Hombres > and Team CHUMP all weekend long at several caches we hit. Looks like > they > may have stayed below the rim though. Not sure. Bummer we didnt meet > up > somewhere along the way. Maybe another time! > > The pine Trailhead cache was a fun one. Another very nice hike. > About 3 > miles or so round trip. By this time, my teammate was really feeling > it and > this was a much slower hike in. He finally had to rest and I went on > to make > the find. Found it quickly and logged in. Now, around 4pm or so, we > headed > back to Payson for a quick fuel up (us not the truck!) and headed > back > toward Mesa. > > The Durango Watering Hole cache was still to be had though! :) We > had > thought about that one on the way up and decided we would go it on > the way > home as we wanted to get up on the rim before dark. Brent was not > wanting to > make another long hike this weekend. We had already hiked many long > miles on > this weekend and the thought of another 5 or more miles was not good > for > him! So, we decided that I would go this one alone and Brent decided > to > sleep in the truck and rest while I headed up the trail. This was a > pretty > easy hike all in all. Mostly flat. There were some really nice views > along > the way. Almost felt like I was in another state while hiking back > thru the > trees along the creeks. Another hidden AZ treasure and a spot I had > never > been before. Made the 2.5 to 3 mile hike in to the cache around 40 > minutes > or so. Spend probably 20 minutes searching before finally finding > the > container. The coords are off a bit without a doubt. I agree with > Team Sand > Dollar, it is more like 30 feet off the trail, not 75 feet as the > cache > description suggests. As I was searching, I went back down to the > trail to > re-group and make another hike up the hill. At this time, an older > gentleman > was hiking back down the trail. We talked a couple of minutes and I > told him > all about geocaching. He is interested and thinks it sounds cool. he > had > just hiked the one trail in (trail # to remain nameless here!) all > the way > up to FR 201 on top of the divide and back down this trail. He had > left at > 10:30am this morning. What a hike! Anyways, he wished me good luck > on the > find and he went on his way. I went back up the hill this time and > found it > quickly! I had walked by it at least 2 or 3 times already! Logged in > and > headed out. The sun was down behind the western mountains by now and > a > shadow was on the trail and canyon. I went into a 'trail running' > pace on > occasion and made good time going out. I met up again with the other > hiker > about not quite 1/2 way out and we enjoyed conversation the rest of > the way. > Glad to have met him. A nice gentleman. He was able to keep up with > me too! > ;) We parted ways at the trailhead and me and Brent headed for home. > The sun > had pretty much set and it was now 6:40pm. I made the hike in and > out in > about 1 hour and 25 minutes. Nice hike. What's another 5 miles of > hiking > after all the hiking we did this weekend! ;) > > This morning I feel great! A bit sore.. but, feeling great and ready > to go > for some more caches! :) > > Scott > Team Ropingthewind > > > > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at > http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. > > _______________________________________________ > Az-Geocaching mailing list > listserv@azgeocaching.com > http://listserv.azgeocaching.com/mailman/listinfo/az-geocaching > > Arizona's Geocaching Resource > http://www.azgeocaching.com >