Count Floyd's Haunted Cache

01/01/2010 By Kabutroid
Ahh.... now THAT'S a way to start off a new year. Having a 4km snowshoeing trek with a geocache in the middle BigSmile . Despite the fact that the forecast was for somewhere around -30 out today, I still wanted to go geocaching. At the bare minimum, to grab one of the 'harder to get' days for OBG Bingo, which I'm sure I'll have completed somewhere in the next 15 years ToungeOut . But primarily, to start the year with two of my favourite hobbies, as a pseudo-resolution to do them more often. Geocaching, and snowshoeing.

So starting out from my apartment up on Morrow street to the North (right close to Fermor), I headed over to the Seine river and clamped on my snowshoes. Having walked on the river a week or so ago, I wasn't particularly concerned with the ice thickness. And the fact that I crossed several homemade ice-rinks on the river along the way further cemented this.

Although strangely enough, right at the bend by... Berrydale Avenue, if I'm not mistaken... there was an unfrozen section of running water right around one of the corners. Albeit this spot was maybe a foot or so wide and a few feet long, it was still a tad unsettling. Doing a 'stab test' with a large branch every now and then after that however solved any anxiety.

That aside however, I started out at Morrow, and basically walked along the path of the Seine river the entire way. I took a few shortcuts here and there to cut off some of the meanders of the river. I think I trudged over a section of the Niakwa Country Club to slice off a few hundred meters (although took the long way on the way back), and a bit of one other random turn. After the long, relaxing walk however, I glanced at my GPS periodically and noticed that I was less than 100 meters from the cache. Off the river and into the bushes I go! Thankfully, most of the branches and trees were spaced apart enough that it wasn't too much of a hassle to get into there with snowshoes on. Once I reached approximately ground zero, I found... nothing. Well... I found some yellowed paper that was wedged between two branches, but after investigating, it was not for the record, a very unusual cache container ToungeOut . Rechecking the GPS quickly informed me that it had not yet 'settled down' so to speak, and now figured me about 10 meters away. Quickly correcting this, it took me only a minute to find the cache container BigSmile . I was a bit worried about this one as well, since I had remembered the cache page indicating it as specifically NOT winter-friendly. I figured that the snow was probably still soft and powdery enough that I might stand a chance though. Provided I could narrow down the location.

So yes... starting the year with a DNF is probably bad luck in some form or another, so I was thankfully able to avoid that Smile . Poking around the cache contents, I scooped up a TB before it was unavailable for the winter, and dropped in a chainmail ball. Replacing the cache as found, I began to slowly work my way out of the trees and back to the river (nearly tripping and falling at one point, when some branch got caught in one of the holes towards the back of my snowshoe Frown ). Unfortunately, having left my hiking stick somewhere in the bushes, I had to find another one. When I couldn't find anything immediately nearby, I ended up using a relatively thick bulrush for a bit, just to at least have something hiking-stick-like in my hand. When that broke (as it was obviously going to), I just said 'screw it' and went without ToungeOut .

But thanks for giving me a cache within snowshoeing distance from home to go after on the first day of the year BigSmile .

Took: Ashtons Anchor travelbug
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball