Mt. Fuji, outside of Toyko Japan, reaches 3,776 m (12,388 ft.) into the sky, but is still not immune from the trash found at lower elevations. Geocacher atstgm helped organize an ascent of Mt. Fuji to complete a grueling Cache In Trash Out (CITO) tour.
Mt. Fuji CITO
Armed with garbage bags more than a dozen geocachers started hiking up the tallest mountain in Japan at 11:00am on September 3rd.
They stayed over night at a staging area, then began hiking again in the predawn darkness at 1:30am on the 4th.
Mt. Fuji CITO Logbook
The group reached the summit of Mt. Fuji around 5am and began the CITO event by picking up bags full of trash. They also searched for the five geocaches along the route and at the summit. Watch this raw video of the ambition climb.
Believe me, I’m not trying to talk you out of attempting a five terrain, five difficulty geocache. I’m just trying to keep you from acquiring any scars or a metal plate in your neck. Geocaches are ranked from one to five based on difficulty and terrain. Five is the most imposing. Let’s be clear — preparation is key. You should known the geocache rating before attempting the cache. The ratings exist for your safety. But, say you’re part of the “Lost & Found” documentary video crew? And it’s your job to produce a video on completing a 5/5?
This is one (tall/uncoordinated) Lost & Found video producer’s perspective on one particular 5/5 named “* river and lakes” (GC6982). Completing this 5/5 only really requires three attributes. They are endurance, balance and agility.
Lost & Found videographer Reid
I sorely lacked two out of the three. I’m a teetering 6’4” with the balancing skills of an unmanned bicycle. My default while falling is to land on my forehead. It’s a precarious landscape for anyone who’s crowning athletic achievement sits atop his refrigerator even now. (It’s a bowling trophy from when I was 11.)
The cache owner and three geocachers were all bush-whacking to the cache ahead of us. Lost & Found videographer Reid was capturing the zigzagging footfalls of the geocachers. The terrain we faced for “* rivers and lakes” is a Paul Bunyan-scale crisscross carpet of fallen trees, inches thick ecosystems of green wiggling moss and glossy boulders with the traction of ice.
The cache sits inside a U-shaped canyon at the base of a waterfall. It’s a near vertical descent through thorns and an inviting thorn-ridden shrub aptly called “Devil’s Club.” After a half hour, I’ve already realized waterproof boots are waterproof… unless your foot slips three feet into a stream and then the boots become sloshing bags of water.
A banana slug named, "Signal"
It’s about this time that I think a thorn catches my ear. Suddenly my ear is wet and it’s cold. I think I’m simply in a wonderful form of shock and that I’m bleeding. I reach back to feel the blood. I think, “This can’t be worse.” It is worse.
My fingers curl around “something” attached to my ear. I pulled it forward and stared eye-to-antenna with a giant banana slug.
I named the slug “Signal.”
This Signal was placed gently back into his or her habitat. It’s a relationship I won’t forget though.
The geocachers and Reid reached the cache moments later (relatively) unscathed. Then we had to hike back out, the same way. Signal didn’t make a repeat performance. I was left with just a few scratches and memories of a wet and cold kiss from a banana slug.
Most geocachers have similar stories. And like the Lost & found documentary crew, they’ll do it again. Why? You tell me. What keeps geocachers going back to the trail?
Soon, you can watch the adventures of the hardy geocachers who attempted this 5/5. The Lost & Found video is scheduled to post on Tuesday, September 14th.
FBZ A.P.E. 51; Stone of the Lost ValleyNear a FBZ cache
The geocaching spectrum runs from the ease of drive-up light pole caches all the way into the dark world of mind-bending themed Multi-Caches. The geocaches like the “Forbidden Zone Geocaches” (FBZ) around San Diego, California push geocachers to their mental and physical extremes.
It took two years for Jim Epler (SGTF) to create the complex and conspiracy-laden series of seven geocaches.
Seven caches are hidden in and around San Diego. The story line for the FBZ geocaches has players assume the role of an agent investigating a link between extraterrestrials and primates, and possibly uncovering plans for an alien invasion.
FBZ Clue/Prop (No animals were harmed in the making of this cache)
Clues and passwords at each cache advance players through the game. The players must register through the Forbidden Zone Geocache website. The registration is only to keep score. All the geocaches are available through Geocaching.com. The first six geocaches do not have to be found in any particular order to uncover coordinates for the final cache.
When asked why he created such an involved geocache, Jim jokingly says, “because I didn’t know any better!”
But he says creating the Multi-Cache was two years well spent: “For me, the fun was in the creative process, not necessarily the end result. I looked at it as an enjoyable hobby which comprises a number of things I like to do including web site development, photography and graphics design, research, prop building, science fiction, storytelling, urban exploration, and hiking.”
The caches were hidden in 2008. More than a dozen geocachers have attempted the series and many completed all seven caches.
FBZ Clue
Jim hopes that people finish the cache without absorbing too much of the conspiracy. He says, “I hope visitors are able to appreciate the ‘tongue and cheek’ humor which was my foundation for the entire project. I wrote the ‘top secret’ documents from the perspective of a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and all the stuff used to support this ridiculous storyline is just one long outrageous spoof.”
What do you think, would you ever attempt a themed Multi-Cache? Have you encountered other caches like this?
The adventure of geocaching goes four-wheeling. Geocachers with four-wheel drive vehicles seem resolved not to let little things like mountains and deserts and large expanses of razor-sharp shrubs deter them from finding caches.
Off-roading and geocaching
The roots of 4×4 geocaching run deep into the decade long history of geocaching. Thousands of geocaches with “off-road” attributes now span the globe from Albania to Zambia and almost everywhere in between.
Watch geocachers from Team Red Rubicon explore the wilds of Colorado, USA in search of geocaches.
Explore all the Lost & Found videos, including a geocache in space, here.
Geocachers Roy Joseph (Rojo464) and Paul Fox (Pauleefox) drove through the rugged desert of Eastern Utah searching for five geocaches on Tuesday the 17th of August. But they never made it past their second find. What they encountered instead led to grateful tears and news headlines.
Roy and Paul had finished finding their second geocache and were looping around for a third – called “Bugy Softwear” (GCGMJT). The area of the desert that they searched is referred to as the Dolores Triangle. It’s one of the most barren regions of the United States. The average temperature in August bakes the cracked ground at nearly 100 degrees F (38 C). Bumping along in Roy’s jeep the two men stopped. Just head of them, a mini-van sat wedged into the sandy soil.
Desert rescue
Paul says, “We saw the van in the gully from the road above it. Out here a vehicle in that position is either abandoned or there is somebody in need of help. Either way we needed to check it out.”
Roy adds, “When we first saw the car we could tell it was stuck. But it looked odd with the towels over the sun visors. We were concerned with who might be in the van. With it being in such a remote area we knew we had to make sure the occupants could get back to town.”
They drove the jeep next to the stranded vehicle. Two women looked out. Roy says, “When we stopped beside the van the daughter said ‘Thank God’ and then started crying.” A mother and daughter had been stranded in the van for two days.
Roy Jospesh (Rojo464) and his wife Linda
Roy says he’s prepared for geocaching in the desert and they were able to offer immediate help: “I have a backpack I carry with water, snacks, SWAG, a first aid kit, a short rope, and batteries. In the Jeep I carry tools, spare parts, a tow strap, a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, extra water and some blankets.”
This wasn’t his first encounter with someone needing help, but never before has the situation been this dire. “We have helped strangers get unstuck, hauled a bicyclist to the hospital, given water to hikers, but this was different – both these two women could have died.” After the rescue, the mother and daughter will be okay.
Paul says the situation is a first for him: “In my 64 years I don’t believe I have ever been in a position to rescue damsels in distress before.”
Paul Fox (Pauleefox)
Both Paul and Roy have been geocaching for at least three years. As the news broke, the reaction from the geocaching community flooded their email in-boxes. They say comments like Nancy Nagel’s post on the Geocaching.com Facebook page hit home. She said, “I always say that geocachers are the nicest, kindest people! I am so proud!”
Roy says, “We, too, have met some really nice people while geocaching but I am really surprised at the number of e-mails I have received from them.”
Paul explains geocachers this way: “The geocachers I know and have met are not the type of people that I would be afraid to meet in a dark alley. It is always good to have story to tell that puts geocaching in such a good light. Lots of people just don’t know what it is.”
Both say they’re ready for more geocaching. Roy says, “I like being in the great outdoors, the exercise and the places geocaching takes me.”
And no matter who or what they encounter, they’ll be prepared. Roy says he’s glad this unexpected encounter ended with hugs and heartfelt thanks: “We are just thankful that we were able to help the women before it became a more serious situation for them.”
