Love lock bridges and gates aren’t all that uncommon. You’ll find them in Belgium, France, Germany, Argentina, Finland, Canada, Italy… it seems the practice of choosing a lock to symbolize a special relationship, then fastening that lock to a public structure has really caught on. It’s made its way to South Korea, too.

At the N Seoul Tower on Namsan Mountain in central Seoul, a less traditional type of love-locking is happening. Seven “trees” at the base of the tower are being festooned with thousands of colorful locks.

One of them is not like the others. The relationship it represents is that between cache owner and cache finder.

Fair warning: this cache is not a quickie. Unless you’re very lucky or have insider information, it’s going to take some time to figure out which of these locks contains the cache. Needle-in-a-haystack caches aren’t for everyone, but if you enjoy that sort of challenge this cache should be on your bucket list.

Words with the Cache Owner

Geocaching HQ: What inspired to you to hide a sneaky lock cache in this spot?

bluesky61: Six years ago I attended “10 Years! Event” for my first event geocache. I remember that there was a disabled cache in the nearby area. I thought that there should be placed a very nice geocache, because the N tower is one of the most renowned landmark in the city of Seoul. Later I found the disabled cache had gone. I wanted to make a very pleasant-to-find geocache and gave it a thought over and over. And finally, I was able to make this love lock cache. It was very good to hide among the great many locks and the lock trees.

Geocaching HQ: What advice do you have for people looking for this cache?

bluesky61: There are so many love locks, and also so many muggles around. However, you don’t need to fear. Nobody would think you are a geocacher looking for a cache. They would think you like one of them examining various kinds of different love locks and the names on them. Just blend in with them. Yes, that will do!

Geocaching HQ: Is there anything you’d like to share with the geocaching community in general?

bluesky61: I think geocaching is a game of consideration of others. All the activities including placing a good cache, exchanging trade items, finding and replacing the caches are based on the thoughts how we can please our visitors to find the cache and have them enjoy the processes to a find. I think that’s why geocaching [is] growing and attracts muggles to become philosophers.

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“Ponale Canyon Adventure” seems a pretty nondescript name for a 9-point multi-cache that could easily be the plot of a post-apocalyptic video game or movie.

The route takes intrepid geocachers along the Ponale River, which plunges into a canyon so lush and green that photos taken there look they’ve been layered with some sort of over-saturated Instagram filter.

Cache Owner deline says, “Ponale Canyon Adventure is like a guided tour through the valley with some challenges along the way that everyone should be able to master and still invoke that I did it! feeling in the end.”

Well, not everyone can master the challenges. The cache has plenty of DNFs. But, the 178 people who have found it so far definitely did their geocaching happy dances at the end.

Climbing gear and a secure knowledge of rappelling are required tools, which is why this cache is a T5. Several of the waypoints are literally hidden inside waterfalls, so the CO’s suggest bringing a towel and bathing clothes, though apparently, “it’s really wild down there, no muggles will see you searching, hence the tendency to nudeness.”

To each their own.

As if the route through the Italian jungle weren’t magical enough already, it also skirts the site of an old, abandoned waterworks plant that appears to have been re-purposed by the jungle as a fairytale castle.

The most challenging part of the cache isn’t what you’d expect. The CO says, “The hardest part seems to be finding the final box, despite our attempts to provide foolproof hints and some photos in the logs that are pretty revealing. Maybe it’s because they’re too exhausted after the trip or they’re afraid to stick their arms in every hole as far as it goes, but that’s what it takes!”

You know you’re a geocacher if:

1. You rappell down the side of a waterfall looking for a box
2. You strip down to your underwear and swim across a pool to look for a box
3. You stick your hands into dark, mossy holes because you’re looking for a box
4. You read this article and immediately put this cache on your bucket list

For more photos of Ponale Canyon, visit the geocache’s gallery.

 

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Can you imagine sitting stock-still in one place on a pile of jagged rocks for five minutes?

 

That’s exactly what GCA8, “Wah Wah Stash” has been doing for nearly 16 years.

If the short GC code of the cache doesn’t give it away, its title will give some clue as to how old it is. A Tupperware or ammo can hidden in the woods in the year 2000 would have been called a “stash” rather than a “geocache”. The latter term eventually won out, which is why most of us say I’m going geocaching rather than I’m going stash-hunting nowadays.

Wah Wah stash was hidden high in the Wah Wah Mountain range in southwest Utah on November 4, 2000. This puts it in the top 100 oldest active geocaches in the world. It’s elevation is listed at approximately 7,500 feet (2,286 m). While most cars are able to navigate the road up to the cache, the hike up is a worthwhile experience.

Although the container is an unremarkable ammo can, Wah Wah Stash is a valuable example of a cache that’s worth a visit not simply because of it’s age—though many geocachers use it to fill in the November 2000 square in their Jasmer grids—but because of the spectacular beauty, geological and human history of the surrounding area. On the way to the cache you’ll see old mine shafts (watch your step), and even log cabins and other structures dating back over 100 years, still standing.

 

 

According to the cache page, “The rock history dates back as far as Jurassic and is the only known ancient rock left in the Great Basin. Very large trees and huge tree trunks not normally found in Utah are everywhere.”

This cache is good for:

• Hikers, wildlife lover, cactus enthusiasts
• Historical structure junkies
• Rare-cache hunters
• Jasmer-challenge competitors
• Geocachers who’re looking for a beautiful, secluded location to propose to their partners
• Rattlesnakes

 

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Not many Cache Owners can say they made their cache using a printer. Of those, even fewer can say they built the printer themselves. Geocacher Lisje2000 did both.

3-D printing was solidified as a hobby for Lisje2000 when they built their own 3-D printer in March 2014. You heard right—they built their own 3-D printer.

Much of the geocache itself is made of wood, but many of the parts were printed. A number of the objects found inside the cache were also 3-D printed.

Making the cache using the 3-D printer wasn’t an easy job. The CO’s estimate it took at least 132 hours to print all the parts that are currently in the cache…not to mention all the failed attempts at making other parts. The roof of the birdhouse alone took at least 40 hours.

Inside the cache are various 3-D printed artifacts, some of which one might conceivably find in a regular living room: lamps, bookshelves with busts, even a tiny laptop.

Opening the cache requires some clever thinking and attention to detail, hence the Difficulty rating—but be careful! Some of the pieces are delicate, and nothing should be forced in order to retrieve the logbook.

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It was almost 11 years ago, but geocacher and HQ employee Prying Pandora remembers the moment well.

Prying Pandora was with CENT5, also visiting Alaska on a geocaching trip, and NorthWes, a local Alaskan and geocacher who was their tour guide for the day. As they drove along the dramatically scenic Seward Highway in a rented minivan, they took in the never-ending range of snowcapped peaks, and fjords filling with and spilling out water.

Suddenly there came a cry from the back of the car.

“BORE TIDE!!!”

It was NorthWes, who had caught sight of the phenomenon that his EarthCache, GCN6YV, describes. The van immediately stopped, everybody piled out (some more or less confused as to what was happening) and NorthWes explained what they were seeing.

Later, in her log, Prying Pandora wrote, “What a totally cool thing to witness, and unbelievable luck to have caught it!”

You see, this EarthCache is all about a bore, but it’s not boring.

Turnagain Arm is a waterway off the Cook Inlet in the Gulf of Alaska. The Arm’s unique combination of topography and tidal activity results in the geological feature that’s at the heart of this EarthCache: the tidal bore.

Before you say, “No, you’re a tidal bore!” let’s talk about what ‘tidal bore’ means. Basically, it’s a wave—a very, very special wave. It’s the individual large wave caused by a sudden influx of water rushing into a narrow, shallow inlet that’s still draining water from the previous tide. The rush of water coming into the inlet runs right into the draining water going out in the opposite direction, and boom!

Well…slosh.

Making it to the right spot in time to catch that wave’s journey through Turnagain Arm (and take a photo of it) is the task prescribed in this Geocache of the Week.

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