Roll With the Caches- July 15, 2006- Part 1

Another week, another set of caches. This week, Ash and I had a yard sale in the morning hours so, after a long morning of sitting outside in the heat begging people to give us pennies for our crap, we were already sweaty and ready to cache. Our usual crew met up with Fish in Estill Springs for some caching around Woods Reservoir. Today's a big day as Mad Mike became the second Zen Bassmaster to get a GPS unit and this will be her virgin run. We actually looked kind of funny walking around today as two GPS units and a PDA made us look like Away Teams from an episode of Star Trek. All we needed was someone with pointy ears and a guy with a red shirt who dies. The soundtrack for this week is Fleetwood Mac: Vintage Years Live.

We had planned to do our first cache in Estill Springs Park but there was some sort of event going on which included a $5 charge for parking. The presence of large numbers of muggles combined with our overall cheap-ness (remember, I'm the guy who won't pay for premium access) made us decide to give it a skip for the day.

Next up was a cache called Walk the Walk. Right off we encountered problems. Mike's GPS, which had been almost completely in sync with Tserof's on the drive up, suddenly decided that the cache was on the other side of the highway, about a quarter mile from where Tserof's was pointing. We quickly checked the coordinates to be sure that both had the same ones (and the right ones, crosschecked against the PDA) and they did. Tserof suggested a reboot, remembering that seemed to help his when it was doing similar things a few weeks back. Mike reboots and his GPS still insists the cache is on the other side of the highway. We consult the paperwork again and decide that we'll go with Tserof's GPS reading. We head down the trail to where Tserof's GPS led us and found the cache in pretty easy fashion.

Cache 2 was called Sun Drop. It was a park and grab right off a road near a convenience store. Ash found this one and, I have to say, it's one of the best camo jobs I've seen so far. I won't go into more details so as not to spoil anyone's find but suffice it to say it went well beyond the normal grey paint or duct tape approach. If you're in the area, go check it out. It's an easy grab, but the good hide made it a challenge. Nice for us large folk, especially those of us who have been outside yard sale-ing since 5 am.

Next up is The Dam Elk River Cache which, ironically, is right by a dam. Turning on to the road, we were faced with two signs. One said "No Through Traffic Permitted" and promised it was enforced by the Air Force (as this was around Arnold AFB). The second one said "Through Traffic Permitted." We pondered this for a moment and decided that we were willing to risk MPs in search of a cache. Onward we went. As soon as we got out of the car, we knew something was odd. "Who farted?", I asked, looking directly at Mad Mike. Mike, who is world reknowned for his impressively odorous flatulence, insisted it wasn't him. We both looked at Tserof. "Wasn't me!", he insists. Fish? Nope. Fish is pretty far ahead. We finally decide it's Ash, who I sleep next to nightly and can testify can fart with the best of us. Not her either. We walk on and notice the smell walks with us. Finally, Fish identifies it. "Sulpher", he tells us. Apparently, the entire area had farted. Not overpowering, but not pleasant either. We decide to quickly grab the cache and move on to less smelly areas.

The cache was in a pile of rocks. The clue was "near the dark rock." Problem is, there were LOTS of dark rocks. So we, in typical ZB fashion, decided the solution was to look under all of them. Sure enough, this worked (after about 10 minutes) and Tserof located the cache. Admittedly, the rock it was under was considerably darker than most of the ones around it, but still. It was kind of like finding a needle in a crack house. Lots of needles, but if you need a specific one, not so good. But we found it, and that's all that matters.

Next up is one called Water's Edge. Honestly, I can't remember much about this one. Ash and I have been sitting here talking about it for several minute but neither of us remembers much so nothing terribly funny must have happened. Also, it's premium only so I can't look at it to jog my memory (although Ash can and it didn't help). I'm getting too old for this. Maybe I should take a notebook to sketch down notes during the hunt. Anyway, we found it. The only thing I remember was that it had a set of suspenders in it which we almost took to give to a friend who has a persistent problem with showing far more of his butt than any of us wants to see (and he isn't even a plumber) but didn't because we didn't have anything to leave and I've already been lectured once this week about taking swag and not leaving items of "equal or greater value." More on that later. The only other thing of note that happened here was that Fish nearly backed over a sign which read something to the effect of "We have provided this nature area for your enjoyment. If you litter, we'll take the right away from you." That's not exactly right but it's close. We had fun with it because it was written in that no-nonsense military style that seemed to insist that you WILL have a good time and promising dire consequences if you don't. Mad Mike and I made numerous jokes about being sent to Guantanamo for frowning in the nature area.

Ok, it's almost 8 and Deadwood is about to come on so consider this part 1 of a two part episode while I go watch Deadwood. I'll post the second half of our adventure later tonight or tomorrow.

Until then, happy caching!