My new geocaching objective is to hunt for caches that have gone the longest without being found. This one, at least for the local area, holds the record--the last find being logged almost a year ago on Halloween, the first night it was available.
I planned for several days to hit it, emailing the owner and posting a note to the page to establish if the cache might still be there. I didn't hear from the Bugman (yet) but Bitbrain and Gibbenator both emailed me with suggestions.
This night, with my friend Re'nee and her dog Boo Boo, we headed out to the cache, fully prepared with three flashlights, a headlamp, my GPS, the cache page, a camera, and four C-cell batteries. Bitbrain met us out there at about 10:00pm.
Re'nee and I found the first few markers easily. We followed the trail for about 100 yards and then we got stuck. No more markers to see. We walked around in ever-increasing circles shining our lights in all directions. After about 10 minutes, I asked Bitbrain if we were on the right track.
He hadn't found the cache since last year, but he said that the markers should be here--they were simply gone.
The area has undergone some heavy cutting recently. Many, many big trees have been cut down. We walked over and through the mess to catch the trail on the other side.
Bitbrain surveyed the area and determined that the markers have most likely been destroyed. In fact, I found a reflective tack in the dirt between two bulldozer tracks. Bitbrain said that the cache, at least the first leg, could not possibly still be here. He offered that the other legs might still exist, but without the first part we had no way to find them.
This is when things got a little weird. We heard something out in the woods. I'd made it quite public that I'd be out here tonight, so I wondered if someone was waiting to sneak up on us. Boo Boo ran around nervously.
We all stood quietly and looked around. Finally Bitbrain broke the silence and said he saw something. I shined my light, but now it was gone. We heard more rustling.
Surrounded by fallen timber, Bitbrain climbed up on a log to get a better look, I took a few steps toward the sound, my light straining through the brush.
Suddenly, a pair of eyes appeared. Someone or something was following us. The eyes quickly darted away. The cache was no longer a concern. Re'nee put Boo Boo back on her leash. I watched the woods looking for whatever it was out here with us.
Again, I saw eyes, and this time they looked like they were moving toward us. I ripped out my camera and fired off a few pictures, hoping to catch whoever, or whatever it was. Then we quickly moved back toward our cars--except we kept getting turned around. Everything looked the same, and our GPSs were pointing in all directions. We didn't know which way to go, and every now and then we heard "it" coming toward us and could see its eyes.
Something was really weird out here tonight.
I don't know if this cache can be resurrected. The owner will have to come check to see what remains of the original legs. I'd like to someday come back and finish this one. It's nice to have a clever, interesting cache, rather than a brainless micro stashed wherever it'll fit.
Does anyone need any C-cell batteries?
Jamie
