We set out on the trail looking for a place to hide our cache
for the Spooktacular Event, being careful
to stay more than 500 feet away from the other nearby caches. We
thought we had found
a pretty good spot in a hollow tree, but just as we were about to
reach into the hole, a bat flew out. It flew really close to my
head and I actually felt a little bit of wind from him. It was kind
of spooky to see a bat that close, especially during the day.
Once my nerves calmed down we walked a little bit further down
the trail where we spotted a nice downed log. Just as we were
trying to clear away some leaves, a big brown rat ran out - not ten
feet from where we were standing! At first I thought it was a
squirrel, but it wasn't. It was a big healthy rat and it ran right
down to the stream that runs alongside the trail. If we hadn't
promised to put out the cache we would have gone home right then
and there. But we had made a promise so we walked a little further
down the trail until we spied a big tree stump. It looked like the
perfect location for a cache.
This time we were extra careful, especially since I was pretty
jumpy after encountering both a bat and a rat in one day. I
approached the stump slowly checking for anything moving and
determined that everything was ok and gingerly reached down to
place the cache into the base of the stump. Just as I was about to
put the container down I saw a great big king snake lying in the
bottom of the hole. I just about jumped out of my shoes and the
cache went flying and landed at the posted coordinates, and that's
where we left it.
I hope that you are not afraid of bats or rats or
snakes, because there are some of them living very close to the
cache. Be really careful where you reach!
