It started as a simple quest to place a large container and do it within a nice section of trail that was a 5 minute walk or more. It became an epic journey.
My first spot was researched and done. I was impressed with it. Cool spot, cool story. Alas I was told I needed a permit and the people STILL haven't responded to me to acquire one so I decided to head a little closer to home and try again. This time with my son on our old stomping grounds, The Ontario Pathways. It was a fun walk and my boy and I found a great spot. He even impressed me by litterally chipping away at a block of wood for over and hour with needle nose pliers just so our container would fit well. It was a prime locale though and just with what he was doing I was convinced that this cache was rightfully due the title of "Chip off the old block." We were pleased as pie and thought the cat was in the bag until I got home and found that, despite our best measuring, the cache fell in the dreaded red circle of another and I would need to try again...
3rd times a charm right? So they say. After DNFing a cache I still feel like an idiot for not finding, somehow I thought luck was on my side and I went down here to rehide again and maybe kill another hour. I walked, and walked, and walked some more but I just couldn't find a spot that yelled, "CACHE HERE!!" After way too long wandering woods I finally did. I was overjoyed and set about happily singing to myself as I prepared the site. Container placed, coordinates taken, bakpack refilled and slung over my shoulder. I was all ready to head back down the long trail and right back to the car to post my new cache! 40 steps into it I realized I was missing my walking stick... Uh oh. Even though I knew the general location of where I had lost it, I wandered around for no less than another hour looking for that blasted thing. I refused to give up. The humor that I had just mananged to send myself on another cache hunt of my own was not lost to me but frustration and tiredness were starting to set in after already having worked all night. As I made one last rotation before giving up I saw it. Behold! My walking stick!! Which had succeeded in slding down a hill, over an embankment, and was now resting firmly on the ice on the shoreline. Great. Now I'm in T4 or 5 territory and all by myself.
Somehow I made it down. Some how the ice held. I was amazed and felt pretty lucky that I didn't end up wet or injured after this adventure. 3 hours later I emerged from the woods truly exhausted in every sense of the term but still, somehow strangely satisfied. Who else but a cacher goes through all this trouble? Here's hoping you don't have as much signing the log as I did placing it. Either way it was another day caching, heck in total it was 3 days invested. It was great exercise, time with nature and a story to tell, and that made it all worthwhile. Happy caching folks!