GPS Mud Bug

No specific mission but please only move it to Premium caches! I have a feeling that this TB will be susceptible to being stolen/kept so please try to keep it safe!

To make a long story short....

CachNCarry lost his Magellan SporTrak during the Great Northern Tier Geocaching Tournament in 2007. He was trying to find #21 (unpublished) near the new riverside park in Orange. He was down by the side of the boat ramp next to the stone wall and he put his GPS on top of one of the large rocks. I'm not sure how it happened (exclusive information) but the large rock that was under CNC's GPS fell. And his GPS under it, down into the mud. A couple cachers tried to lift the rock but no luck.

So later that day he posted a note on the Tournament page telling his story including some pics. That's where the Buckskinns step in! I had done #21 earlier that day, but I didn't know a GPSr was stuck under there! (Or I wouldn't have stood on the rock....) So Bu88 and I headed out ASAP with a shovel, bricks and some boards.

We smuggled the equipment down without anyone seeing us or...er... maybe not? After scoping the situation and taking few tries to heave it, a 11 yo boy showed up, riding his bike's brakes down the boat ramp. After telling him what we were doing and what we were looking for, he stayed to help us.

After a few unsuccessful tries (CNC's weight estimate was about right...), we came up with an ingenious plan: We would dig on one side of the rock and then simple roll the rock over and we would grab the GPS. It was a good idea since it worked. Sitting there facedown was CNC's SporTrax. With a little hoot and hollering (maybe a little dancing, by Bu88) we washed of the GPS in the river. The boy who was helping us said "Hey, that's a cell-phone!". After explaining again and letting him take a look, he admitted it wasn't a cell-phone.

Whoops... In our hurry, to get out of the house, we forgot a digital camera. So we got a few pics with my mom's cell-phone but I can't get them online. When we got home we took a few pictures of the muddy GPS and Bu88's muddy team t-shirt.

After giving it a quick rinse and drying it off as well as possible, we tryed to turn it on. No luck. If you look closely you can see a small crack near the batt. compartment which most likely happened when the rock fell on it. But otherwise the GPS looks like it just came out of a sealed box. CNC takes good care of his GPSs. It couldn't get scratched up inside the case so there is not signs of it being broken. But when you put batteries in, that's were it shows. It won't even turn on. The batteries that were inside were all rusty and the breadboard is too.

After sending a few emails back and forth to CNC, we ultimately decided to make it a TB. Because of Bu88's procrastination, it was eventually me who ordered one. (So it's my TB!!)

So this one won't be the first GPS sent out into the wild, but it's one of the few. I think we'll hang onto this one for people to do discover then drop it into a cache. Watch the cachers come swarming like flys. :)

Okay this may not be short...but it's as short as short can be..