Say good bye to the
flatlands....
I headed WEST today in search of Lake Diversion thinking
that maybe a second installment of my Reservoir caches may be in
order. I pick up a few of the area caches while on the
way. Great fun on a beautiful day. I was on CacheMoto 1
which is always fun.
So I finally make my way to
what appears to be the entrance of the reservoir. I notice a
small sign on the way noting I was on "Diversion Toll Road".
Toll??? Why toll public land? Sure nuff... I come up to
a house of some kind with a sign demanding $5.00 for daily entrance
to the Lake. While I believe tolling entrance to public land
is just honary, it does keep out the riff-raff. But making my
fellow geocachers pay five bucks to find a cache is just
wrong. So I make tracks outa there. Off to plan B.
Oooops.... I don't have a plan B. Welp, I guess I will just
point this bike down the next dirt road I see. So I did.
POSTED... POSTED...
POSTED... every where I go... posted... I see some cool
terrain off in the distance and think finally I have found my mark
only to find a posted sign for some bird hunting club.
Dern... Nothing to do but press on. So there I am
tooling along and playing with my motorbike when I see some cool
land off to my right. What is that?? Wow... this is a
crazy place!!! I notice the "road" is named and gives 911
addresses so I pull in. My area caching friends don't think
too much of my definition of "roads" and I don't believe this will
be changing any minds. However, it is passable by car.
Just a little uneven we shall say. But this one has a
name!!!! And is on a map! It has to be considered a
road. Right?
What a cool area. I feel fortunate to have
happened upon this place. Attached are pics of the terrain
and "roads". Keep in mind that after a big rain the place
could get slick the the steep parts of the road are reinforced with
rail road rock. I found a fallen telephone pole back there
complete with the ceramic insulators that were once used to stretch
our power lines from here to there. I coerced one of the
forgotten insulators off the rotten old pole and included it next
to the cache container as a FTF prize. I know people collect
these things and I thought it would make a nice trophy for the
geocaching book shelf. And after you visit and log this cache
you will feel as though you had your adventure for the day.
Keep an eye on the kids. The terrain is very
uneven and steep in places. There are rocks kids would love
to climb on to so -- keep 'em close. I guess I should note
that there is about a 4' creek bed that is dry but could contain
water if a big rain swept through.
Parking:
If you want to pull off of the "road" there is a nice little
spot to park a few yards from the cache and above one of downhill
sections of the road. You can hike in from there if you
wish. Or you can hike in from the main road and not risk
travel down the little "road". :) You will see what I
mean when you look at the maps.
The Cache
Container is a Pelican 1150 case with camo paint packed
full of goodies. The original contents include:
HHH Tire Tube – For all the geocaching Hotter N Hell Hundred
riders we have come visit us in the Falls, Dolphin Keychain, NCP-2
battery terminal protectors, Tony Chachere’s Season packet, Bottle
Opener/Ink Pen on a lanyard, 2 AA Batteries, Sunscreen Packet, 2
Micro Towels – add a drop of water and they grow, Cool!, Hot Hands
packet – for the remaining winter, Bike Tire changing tool, 2 blank
DVDr’s in slim cases, 1 Anesthetic Band Aid – for the injured,
Micro Carbineer, Hotter N Hell Hundred Lapel pin – 2007, FTF Prize:
Ceramic Electric pole insulator from the cache location - or -
Electronic Travel Trivia. Note: I recently saw a
"Locke 85" insulator on sale on ebay for $125. This one is
very similar in shape and size but the number is ......... on
second thought, you might just have to go check it out for
yourself. :) However, to me, the cool thing is it
came from this cache location and is a piece of TX
history.
Travel
Bugs: Bugs, Jeepin’ For Freedom
Below is a look where the cache
might be. Yep, that is my bike way down there. A little
escape from our flat lands.
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Click for larger
pic. |
Nice piece of history in
excellent condition. FTF
Prize. |
So - about the name
- Feeling happy with my new cache stash and pretty
excited about finding this place, I rode up and out of the what I
now like to call "Archer County Canyon". I soon realized that
I had no idea which way to go to best get home. I had ridden
up and down so many dirt roads and turning left and right and
turning around, that I really did not know the best route
out. Not to panic, I have backtrack logging on now and my
DeLorme pn-20 is outfitted with maps... I was trying to decide what
to do when I looked over my left shoulder at the setting
soon. "West, that is." So, I just made a right heading East
with the sun on my back. East to the Falls. It was then I
remembered Long Way Round with Ewen McGregor and
Charlie Boorman. An epic journey taking them around the world
- London to New York on enduro motorcycles. The recurring
theme was - "We just headed East".
Happy caching!!!
Congrats to Kronk for
FTF!