A Gathering of Soles — Geocache of the Week

Traditional
GC5A4AA
by Shootingstar & Wolf
Difficulty:
2
Terrain:
1.5
Location:
New York
N 43° 21.916′ W 078° 20.942′

Are you in good caching spirits? We hear there’s a ‘Gathering of Soles’ for those looking for a smiley in Western New York. This cache is laced with trickery and no easy feet to solve. Hundreds of shoes have been thrown into these four trees since the 80’s, which means there are a lot of misleading hiding spots. No need to stick your tongue out in frustration though, most geocachers meet their sole-mate and walk away with a new hop in their step.

There is only one good, geocache, and many evil, red-herrings.” – Sockrates

A 45 minute drive from Niagara Falls in NY exists a roadside attraction that’s toe-tally unique. It all began when Diane Bane threw nine pairs of her shoes into the trees in 1986. Rumor spread that if you tie your shoes together, threw them into the tree, and they landed on a branch your wish would come true. People followed suit and hundreds of shoes and many years later, in 2014 a geocache was tied into the tradition.

A modest Difficulty and Terrain rating means you can eliminate at least one thing, you don’t have to climb to the top of the tree to find the cache. But with many shoes in arms reach it is still a tough cache to boot. The logs tell stories of epic redemption, avenging DNF’s, sorting through many shoes old and new, and little history from local cachers. 

One log that stood out to us was coincidentally by the username AdequateFootwear:

“This one, as the other cache said, was much more extensive and had a lot more to search through. (But somehow it took a lot less time.) In any case, since I was nearing 1000 caches, I decided to make this into my 1000th cache—it was a perfect fit for my caching name of AdequateFootwear! The cache actually happened to be in the very first one I looked at, but I didn’t find it there at first and it took a little time to get back to it. I very much enjoyed the cache and the area. TFTC!”

Don’t shoe wish your next smiley was a Geocache of the Week? Check out this List of all the Geocache of the Weeks and plan your next outing!

If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, fill out this form.


Andrew the Manager of Community Engagement at Geocaching HQ. He is typically laughing at his own jokes, getting into mischief with Signal, or looking for the next adventure.