GC1C1N4 Spring Fantasy
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Tromelin @ | Hide Date: 08/05/2008 | Status: Archived
Country: Canada | State: Manitoba
Coordinates: N49° 51.752 W97° 14.620 | Last updated: 10/06/2026 | Fav points: 0
             

28/07/2016 By Kabutroid
Oooohh, this cache. I kinda had a choice of which cache to go after today (well... obviously, but still), and I'm glad I went after this one .

To start with, I spent the afternoon foraging for berries with a friend, and apparently after that hike through a forest, I decided that I hadn't quite had enough forest for the day yet. BACK TO THE TREES!

So yeah, after seeing off my friend at the bus stop, I tried to decide how best to tackle this cache. It's kinda... smack in the middle of everything, isn't it? In either case, I decided I would see how close I could approach it from some direction, and then just bee-line it from there. The 'close point' I came up with was off the kinda paved path through the forest just South of the zoo. About midway up there (after munching on some chokecherries), I concluded that I had a trench of swampwater to cross. The decision to dive in took about as long as it took me to get off my bike and hoist it over my shoulder.

Up to my knees in muddy ditchwater later, I emerged on the other side, and trudged forwards. Once I got mostly out of sight of the trail, I locked my bike to a tree and set forth. Lumbering through the forest like a sasquatch, I tromped my way through the long grasses and over the deadfall, making for the coordinates in as straight a line as I could.

Which was surprisingly easy. Does the city have a pile of park people that drag deadfall and clean up the forest or something? For bushwhacking, there was actually very little bush to whack. More just trip a few times over fallen branches, and generally ignore the mosquitoes. Saw a deer or two in my travels too... apologized for startling them with my lumbering beast-mode like forest-crossing gait. Really... best way to do this is to take very solid, deliberate steps. Nowhere close to enough underbrush to warrant the slower 'delicately dance around the branches' method .

Eventually arriving at ground zero, I was a bit surprised to find that there wasn't an obvious path to reach the cache. That was a bit of a debate earlier... do I lock up my bike, forcing myself to return here after, or do I take it with me, and hope there's an easy path out. Glad I went with the first option . Though if approaching from the East, expect about 300 someodd meters of forest travel. No idea if it's longer or shorter from any other direction. One way or the other, a logbook entry, chainmail ball, and three TBs found their way into the cache shortly after I arrived .

Hoofing it said 300 someodd meters back from whence I came, I dragged my bike back across the swamp-trench, and then decided to find a place to set up a hammock and stop for dinner . This led shortly to finding a spot in the monkey-trails of Assiniboine Park to set up my hammock, ate some Pasta Roma dehydrated camping food (surprisingly awesome), and booked it home from there.

Also, I found an AMAZING beach on the way home! If you get the chance to find your way to N49 52.440 W97 13.590, you won't be disappointed. Y'know, provided you like rocks .

Thanks for the cache, this was an amazing one to go after. One of my favourites . I likes the swampy, difficult to access ones .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry, three TB's (one of them still listed in my brother's inventory, sorry. Next person please retrieve the Skeleton Key TB to here), and chainmail ball.