The Story – The Part You Don’t Care About

The day started with plans of finding “I’ll Return – I Promise” (GCJHCQ), a cache located on west ridge of Mount Baldy.  I planned on placing my own cache further up the trail, near the summit.  Sounds simple enough, right?

Well, [the former] Mrs. DanOCan bailed out of the hike on me before we reached that cache.  I left her with a FRS radio and started up.  I found that cache as planned and then continued on for the summit.  Well, I only made it about 50m further when I reached a point where I couldn’t continue.  In order to go further towards the peak I’d have to drop a meter or two down onto a narrow ledge and then scramble up some rocks on the other side.  Let me tell you, that ledge was NARROW and the drops on either side of it were HIGH.  The wind was so strong I was having a hard time standing upright where I was!

I had two choices:  Risk my life and carry on or turn back.  I figured if I carried on I would either fall trying to climb down onto the ledge or get stuck and need to be rescued in order to get back.  Neither choice appealed to me so I exercised the better part of valour and turned around.  This left me disappointed.

On the trip down, [the former] Mrs. DanOCan slipped and twisted her knee.  At the spot where she fell I said “That’s it, I am placing this cache here!”

I wandered off the trail and dropped my backpack.  I wandered a little further and hid this cache to mark our little hiking adventure. 

On the way down I realized that my FRS radio had fallen off of the strap where it was attached to my pack.  I was too far along to go back so that also left me disappointed.

The Cache – The Part You Care About

To reach the cache you will need to hike approximately 1km from the nearest parking.  Over the course of that 1km you will gain approximately 311m of elevation meaning this is not a cache for the faint of heart.

The cache is a former mayonnaise jar wrapped in camo tape.  It is hidden about 20m from the main pathway leading up the west ridge of Mount Baldy.

There are two prizes available for finders of this cache:

1)      Congratulations to BVPete for earning the 2007 Calgary Area Cacher geocoin as the First to Find.

2)      I will have $10 in Tim Horton’s gift certificates for anyone who happens to find my FRS radio!

(The radio is likely in some juniper about 10-15m north of the cache location.)