And a Micro in a Pine Tree

05/05/2011 By Kabutroid
Few days late in logging this, sorry. Tis been quite the hectic month, thus making my last cache find before this just over a month ago Disapprove . However, today I set out to rectify this situation.

On another note, this would be the first cache in years... quite possibly the only one since I got a GPS... for me to find WITHOUT my GPS (thus my 12th ever GPSless) BigSmile . It started out with me at my in-laws' place for Easter, and I was looking around at what caches were near their place out of blind curiosity. We came across this cache, and with the abundance of religious people in said family, I was able to quickly solve the puzzle without using the internet, but with their help. I didn't have my GPS with me that day, but I jotted the numbers down, and also plopped them into Google Maps to see the satellite view.

Looking at the satellite view, I realized that it was somewhat close, but didn't have time to find it that day. I tossed the post-it note with the solved coordinates in my pocket and continued on.

Cut to about two weeks later, and I'm wanting to go for a bike ride. I planned to tackle this cache, but despite my attempting to keep it safe, I couldn't find the post-it note (I imagine it met its end during my last clothes-washing). I figured I wouldn't worry about it for now, and re-solve it on my palm-pilot with cachemate. Alas, I turned it on, but the battery was stone dead Frown . Not wanting to take the time to find this cache on my main computer again, I figured I'd just wing it from looking at google maps a few weeks ago.

20 minutes later, I was approximately where I remembered the map pointing me. I recalled it being on this side of the manmade lake, pointing to the 'furthest out of two green lumps which I assumed to be trees'. However, there was a minor problem of there being 4 trees in the immediate vicinity.

And dogs. Holy hell, the dogs on the other side of the fence are physically incapable of shutting up. Seriously, it's for reasons like this that legally nobody with a noisy dog that's obviously never been taught to shut the hell up should live right beside a public park.

Ignoring them as best I could, the park was surprisingly quiet so I went about my hunting. I started with the first ‘green clump’ that seemed to fit my memory of the map best, but circled around and found nothing. This may have been due to me being unnerved by the unceasing, incessant barking of the two dogs (honestly, I hope they’ve gotten multiple complaints, and if I had lived in the area I certainly would have added to it). Finding nothing there, I decided to systematically search anything fitting the map pointer nearby, broken up by waiting for pedestrians to go by while I relaxed by my bike, looking like I’m just taking a break from the ride. After pissing off the dogs for about 20 minutes, I eventually stumbled upon the cache BigSmile ! Turns it it was in the first tree I checked, but didn't find at the time and thus went to the others ToungeOut . Moments later, the logbook was signed and a micromail ball was in the cache container. Replacing everything back how I found it, I for a moment contemplated making the container a bit more natural looking with some camo tape, but decided against it as it’s not my cache, and I never mess with anything unless it’s to fix something physically broken.

The cache find under my belt, I hopped back onto my bike to continue my journey to the next cache, also in this park. Gotta say though, I was really, really proud of myself for being able to find this guy without a GPS BigSmile .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry, micromail ball, and a pair of dogs barking unceasingly at me.