[Az-Geocaching] Sunday Geocaching

[Trisha Radley]

Wow, Scott, thanks for the geo-story....I enjoy "caching vicariously" and
hearing of other's triumphs and travails. (sp?) You really had quite a day!
peace,
~~trisha

----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Nicol" <arizcowboy@hotmail.com>
To: <az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com>
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 10:13 AM
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Sunday Geocaching


>
>
> What a day it was! I awoke at 4:00am for business (balloon flight). My
crew
> cheif (and geocaching teammate), Brent, met me at my place at 5am and we
> headed out the door for a wonderful morning flight over the Gold Canyon
> area. We launched from our usual launch site out near El Camino Viejo
Rd/Hwy
> 60. As I was setting up the equiptment and was flipping my GPS on, I
noticed
> the new Rennessiance Cache was only 527 feet away! Oh well. Cant go for it
> now. Even thought it was only 500 feet away! We took off (kinda hoping I
> could find a wind to take me to the cache site!) and headed away from the
> cache. Oh well. Get it another day!
>
> Arrived home from the flight and got everything unloaded and we headed out
> the door caching at around 11:30am. We were planning on heading up to get
> the long standing 'not found' cache Verde Hot Springs Cache. This is
really
> a day trip that we were going to do in a half day! We left at 11:30am and
> arrived at the turnoff from Hwy. 87 at around 1:30pm or so. The road in
was
> awsome with some really spectacular scenery. The road follows the edge of
a
> canyon wall and drops very steeply into the canyon. Then, at the bottom
near
> Fossil Creek, it climbs once again and over another ridge before decending
> into the Verde River valley. We parked near the campground and made the
one
> mile hike to the cache site. We got as close as about 100 feet before
> finding the Verde River seperating us and the cache! Well, the cache
> description states that you can cross where the river narrows and it is
only
> knee deep. Well, we walked up and down the river a bit and couldnt find
> anywhere that looked any better. Did see a crossing with alot of rock and
> probably not more than getting wet knee deep, however, it was very swift
> flowing water. I stepped into it and could feel the current! So, we walked
> up river a bit and found a calmer area of water that wasnt too bad. It
> required crossing twice, as there was an island in the middle. No problem.
> The first crossing there was alot of small rocks, and didnt barely get
knee
> deep. The second crossing... Well, fairly swift flowing water and soaked
> from our hips down! That is freakin' cold water too!!!!!!!! But, we were
> determined to get to that cache come 'hell or HIGH WATER!! :)
>
> Once soaked and on the other side... we made the very short trek to the
> cache site. It is no fun hiking in soaking wet Wrangler jeans and
sneakers!
> Fortunately, it was warm enough out that it wasnt too bad. However, the
> cache side of the river was all shadows now and it felt a bit cool out! It
> was around 2:30pm or later upon arrival at the cache location. We quickly
> found the '0' spot and made our search. Nothing. Not a whole lot of places
> to look. A couple really obvious spots. But, still no cache. One place
that
> was really obvious was right near the trail, but, I suspect it may be
gone.
> Also, right where the GPS '0'ed out, there was a rock slide. I also
suspect
> the cache may be under all that rock! After searching well within a 100'
> radius of the 0 spot, still no dice. We even searched below and slightly
> above the ridge area we were on. Nothing. After nearly 2 hours of
searching,
> we finally decided to take a stab at the rock slide and removed a good bit
> of rocks and still couldnt get to the bottom of it to see if a cache
> container was in there. The description doesnt even tell what kind of a
> cache container we were looking for. So, really didnt have a clue. Just
> searched.
>
> After well over 2 hours, we called it quites. It was now nearly 5:00pm and
> we needed to be getting back as it would be getting dark soon. We made the
> short hike to the Hot Springs to check them out. Interesting. Lots of
> hippies and well... other people there. Kinda cool though. There are a
> couple of caves with springs in them. Neat little piece of AZ history.
Didnt
> look like a place this redneck should be hanging around.. unless, we were
to
> join them! Nope. This was a long ways to come without a find. So, we were
> gonna try to find another cache before heading home! This was a long day
and
> a long ways to come to not make a find. We also had to make a 2 mile hike
> and cross hip deep in the cold Verde River, only to not make a find. Oh
> well. All was not lost. This was our first time in this very secluded and
> hidden spot of Arizona. An area we were very glad to have visited. Very
> scenic. Absolutely beautiful.
>
> There is a new cache about 2 miles on the other side of the river, but,
our
> vehicle probably wouldnt make it across the river.. didnt even try though
> and took the steep and rocky road back out to Hwy. 87 to Strawberry.
>
> We made it back out to the highway well after dark and proceeded to the
> first cache along the way. There are about 5 or 6 caches along Hwy. 87
form
> Pine south to around Rye or so. We checked them all out. Most were a few
> tenths of a mile or more off the road and didnt sound like anything we
could
> hike in the dark. It is pitch black dark in the pine forests at night!
There
> were a couple of Multi-caches as well and didnt even consider them.
>
> We first stopped at the Pioneer's Remembered Cache outside of Pine, AZ. We
> parked in a pull out along the highway about 295 feet from the cache. We
> made the very dark and very eerie trek down to the cache site. My teammate
> has a high powered flashlight that really aided in lighting the dark
forest
> up at night. I was just amazed at how many stars were in the sky. The
light
> pollution of PHX just doesnt allow for this kind of sky viewing. Very
cool.
> We quickly arrived at the cache location and made a quick scan with the
> bright flashlight and found the clue and thus the cache. We logged in at
> 7:42pm and made our trade and headed back to the truck. Fortunately, we
> marked the truck, as well as a spot half way, as a waypoint on our GPS
just
> in case! Of course, the highway was right there and didnt even need the
GPS
> to get back to the truck.
>
> Headed to Payson for dinner at Macey's Grill/Restraunt. This is a really
> nice little cowboy cafe on the south side of Payson (really cute waitress
> too!). We downed some mighty fine BBQ burgers (read: some durn good
> vittles!) and headed back toward PHX.
>
> We check out a few more caches along the way. Most seemed too far off the
> highway to attempt at night. Also, it was getting late and nearly 9:00pm.
> But, we pulled off the highway at the Trailhead for Deer Creek and decided
> to make a run at the Deer Creek cache. We have read many no find logs on
> this one and the thinking that this cache may be gone. However, as of
> late... there are several find logs, so, we felt confident we could get
this
> one in the dark of night. Parked at the trailhead and hiked the .5 miles
to
> the cache site via the trail. The high powered flashlight really lit up
the
> trail and we were able to make out the trail rather easily. However, the
> flashlight's batteries were fading quickly and no more fresh ones to put
in
> there! We posted the truck as a waypoint as well as the spot were we left
> the trail for the cache. We arrived at the cache location and found the
> cache very quickly after a quick scan with the flashlight (which was just
> about dead by now!). We found the cache and logged our visit and traded
out
> a soldering tool kit for a .. wouldnt ya' know it (!)... a FLASHLIGHT! It
> was a small flashlight and not very bright... but, it was a flashlight!
Just
> when we thought we were going to have to hike back in the dark. I cannot
> tell you how pitch black dark it was out there without a light. Seeing the
> trail would have been a chore in itself (probably not too bad on a moon
lit
> night, but, no moon tonight!). It was so quite and peaceful out there and
> only the occasional sound of a passing car on the hwy about a .25 mile
away
> or so.
>
> Found the trail back and made it back to the truck. Lots of cactus along
the
> route, but, no scratches! Came out unscathed. What an awsome caching
> experience. Certainly ups the degree of difficulty. I think we are hooked
on
> night wilderness caches!
>
> This was it for the night. We logged our visit at around 9:42pm or so and
> made it back to the truck around 10:00pm and was on the road for home.
>
> We made one more stop on the way home... the Snow on the Highway cache.
This
> was nearly impossible. We had only a cheap little flashlight that would
only
> lite the ground directly in front of you. But, gave it a shot anyways. We
> had to look for an ADOT marker to start our search, as per the cache
clues.
> We found it. However, walking a straight line on the heading indicated was
> impossible as it would take us thru trees and such. Also, we didnt have
much
> of any light. So, if we were off with our paces and heading.. we would not
> be able to scan far enough around to have a good look at the cache. We
> quickly said "forget this one" and headed for home. Try that one again
> someday. Got home around midnight. What a long day. A fun day though. A
> beautiful morning ballooning and then off to do some caching. Great views
of
> Arizona we had never seen before and.. what can I say.. nighttime caching
in
> the wilderness is an awsome experience. Could this be the future of
Extreme
> Geocaching!? :)
>
> Although we didnt come up with a find on the Verde Hot Springs Cache.. it
> was a day well spent and enjoyed. We cant wait to get up to the high
country
> and do some caching again sometime soon!
>
> Scott
> Team Ropingthewind
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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