Gabalo's Trading Post

08/07/2012 By Kabutroid
Wow, I've really got to avoid putting off logging a cache for this long again. Didn't have the energy to log it the day of, and then whenever it popped back into memory, it was at a particularly inopportune time. But hey, better late than never. And I still remember it quite clearly, since it WAS very interesting, to say the least. Wish I had taken a picture of the area, but hindsight 50/50, etc.

In either case, my wife, friend, and I were all spending the day (ok, afternoon, since we all generally slept in and/or were lazy through the morning) at Grand Beach. We stayed for a little bit and had a good time as a whole, although the vast abundance of fish flies floating in the water was a bit of a turnoff (at least I still went in and swam. Pfft, cityfolk and their aversion to bugs everywhere. They wouldn't last a month in the country where I grew up ToungeOut ). But one way or another, after an afternoon of soaking up sun, digging in the sand, and in my case swimming we headed back towards the city. Given we were in a pseudo-rush to get there before it got too late, I saved any geocaching until we were on the way home.

And now thusly being on the way home, I cracked open the GPS and checked out what was ahead of me. Seeing this one sitting relatively close to the main road, I set my sights on it and headed over. It actually caused me a bit of confusion, since the GPS didn't indicate a side-road going towards the coordinates, so I ended up parking the car basically at that initial turnoff from the main highway. Only after I got out of the car did I notice that there was an unmapped road there. Didn't feel like moving the car, so I just hoofed it over. I soon realized what I was walking into, and was filled with wonder.

The real estate mentioned in the description was indeed present in all its mysterious glory. Although the abundance of spray paint got me a bit nervous, but given that could very well have easily been put here at any point over the past decade, I wasn't particularly worried. I soon found my way towards ground zero, and soon thereafter found the cache BigSmile . However, after signing it and tossing in a chainmail ball signature item (there wasn't any TB's to migrate onwards it seems, and I didn't have any with me to drop), my adventure wasn't over. I began a quick poking around here and there, seeing if I could spot any cool or interesting things kicking around.

Unfortunately however I was wearing shorts and sandals, so that kept me from leaving the paved area as I was worried I'd step on a nail or something if I left the easily visible ground. Had I been wearing my regular shoes that happen to be steel toed and steel soled, I'd have been all over the place there (although with my friend and wife still waiting for me, I wouldn't have been able to hunt around much regardless ToungeOut ). Nonetheless, I looked around at all of the random thingies and parts and miscellanea strewn about. Man oh man, I wish I had been able to find a way to see what was inside of those buildings. I safely assume they're probably empty, or close thereto, but that didn't stop my curiosity from poking me quite sharply.

So after mulling about for a little while, I slowly began to head back to the car. I'm sure the others waiting there were probably getting bored by this point anyway. I may however have to make another stop by here sometime in the future a bit better prepared for some good old fashioned urban exploring BigSmile . But today I at least got a geocache find out of the deal, and was quite mesmerized by the step back in time as it were. If you've ever played the game 'Fallout' (specifically Fallout 3), it definitely seems like something directly out of there.

And so, I thank you for the Fallout-esque scenery and geocache find. This was definitely one of the more memorable ones as of late BigSmile .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball