Tales of The Traveler (2) : At The Wishing Well Mystery Cache

The sun crested the hills surrounding my campsite, chasing the tendrils of the night back into their hiding places. I stretched inside my sleeping bag and allowed the night’s event to slowly recapture my mind.

Sitting up I grabbed the small piece of parchment and flipped it over. The previous night I had discovered on the back was written a set of coordinates and because of a past adventure I knew what I was looking at. Rummaging through my rucksack I found my sextant and notebook. I quickly flitted through the pages and began taking the necessary readings. Slowly I pinpointed my approximate location and then I looked at the coordinates on the piece of parchment.

Reaching into my bag I removed a small map of the immediate area that I had purchased at a nearby outdoor store. Along the border of the map was the approximate latitude and longitude. With careful precision I estimated my position and determined my destination and course of bearing.

I began to packing up my campsite immediately. As I reached for the glass bottle, the one I had rescued from the lake, I remembered that the smaller parchment piece had been wrapped in a larger piece of paper. I made a cursory check around my campsite and found it tucked under the edge of my sleeping bag. Retrieving it I saw upon it was the same spidery handwriting that wrote the coordinates on the parchment piece.

My eyes flashed across the small fragment and my mouth went dry. As fast as I possibly could I began packing the rest of my campsite, tossing water on the ashes and burying them, rolling up my sleeping bag and stuffing my tiny tuck bag inside of it. Finally I picked up my walking stick, hitched my rucksack onto my back and headed off.

My head was spinning. Normally I spent hours and weeks and months and often years researching each of my adventures. This was new to me. I had no clue where to look. I had no idea what I was searching for.

I finally made camp. It has been a long, hot and dusty trail. A lot of hitchhiking and walking managed to put me within about two hundred yards of the new set of coordinates. When I arrived I found myself in a small glade of short stubby shrubs that reached a height of no more than 8 feet at the most. There were several shrubs that were shorter and fatter and these had a long branch with tiny green leaves.

As I entered the small glade of trees I noticed that the ground appeared to be cracked and craggy. Almost as if the earth had been soaked with water and then dried rapidly.

Nearby once of the small shrubs was what looked to be the remnants of a well. Time had not been kind to the structure. Earth and rocks had long since collapsed the chute. In the fading light of day I examined the surrounding area for any sign of wildlife or inhabitants that may have wandered through the area. Near the edge of the well I spotted what appeared to the indentation of a men’s shoe print. I could tell by the increased depth in around the toe that the owner had leaned forward ever so slightly.

Standing in exactly the same spot I looked around the small ring of stones that surrounded the well. The disturbance of mud and dirt was clear to my eyes. I stretched every so slightly across the circle and pried up the rock that appeared to have been disturbed. There was nothing beneath it. Sighing I replaced the rock and returned to my small camp fire.

I pulled out the note and parchment and studied them for a long time. I had started a small cook fire not long ago. I held the note up to the fire light for just the briefest of seconds. Silhouetted by the fire I saw the corner of a small rose compass. It was the West/South directions. A small pen mark was barely visible next to South West. Reaching in my bag I pulled out my compass and righted my body so that I was in position with north.

An idea struck me. I wandered back over to the ring of stones and stopped. Estimating where the Southwest corner might be I began looking around and then I saw it. Buried beneath the mud was a small hole and in the small hole was a tiny container.

I retrieved the container and returned to my sleeping bag beside the fire. I popped open the top and discovered a small wooden coin inside of it. I had not seen one of these ever in my lifetime. I tilted it into the firelight to see if I could catch any insignias or dates when I noticed that on one side of the coin was the letter N and the other side was the letter W. I then also saw numbers surrounding the outer edge of the coin. I immediately jotted them down in my notebook and replaced the coin in the container.

Turning my attention to super I began to think about what I had discovered. Tomorrow is a new day and I am no nearer to discovering what I was looking for than I was last night.

I am The Traveler. This is My Tale.

BYOP and As always, please rehide the cache so that those who follow will have as much fun hunting as you did. Also. The FTF prize is at the end... in the final cache. And you believe me... its is true loot. However... you will have to make a choice and only take 1 item. There are many prizes in the final cache location. Select which one you want and leave the others for another hunter. I am not disclosing what I have left – and I even put some goodies for a few FTF kids should they venture out this way.

Thank you. Hope to see you out there someday!! & HAPPY HUNTING!!

~TMM007.

The Tales of The Traveler is a series. To complete this series (The Treasure of The Inferno) you need to start with TOT : The Message in A Bottle (GC1WAWA). Each cache will have a piece that will lead you to another cache and may or may not contain a clue for the ultimate cache. Please do not remove these clues from the cache sites. Each hint can be copied down or or you may want take a picture. Please feel free to email me at any time to get clarifcation. Thank you.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN THIS ADVENTURE YOU NEED TO PLAN AHEAD AND TAKE THE APPRORPIATE PRECAUTIONS. PROPER CLOTHING AND SHOES. PLENTY OF WATER AND SOME SNACKS. FIRST AID AND SNAKE BITE MEDS. WALKING STICK. CELL PHONE FOR EMERGENCY IF NEEDED. AND ABOVE ALL MAKE SURE THAT SOMEONE KNOWS YOU WHERE YOU WILL BE - APPROXIMATELY. ONCE YOU START THE PUZZLE CACHE IT IS A LOT OF WALKING THROUGH TOUGH TERRAIN. PLEASE BE SAFE! THANK YOU. ~TMM007