GCX99D The Twelve Labors of Hercules: Labor Two (Traditional Cache) in New Mexico, United States created by weeds19

GCX99D ▼

A cache by weeds19 Message this owner

Hidden : 7/21/2006

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

This cache is a singular cache that can be done on its own or as part of a larger series of caches that make up "The Twelve Labors of Hercules". OF NOTE: The cache and the summit register are different!

Hercules is the Roman name for greatest hero in Greek mythology. Like most authentic heroes, Hercules had a god as one of his parents. Hercules was the son of the supreme deity Zeus and a mortal woman. As Hercules was growing up he was a victim of a number jealous attacks and antagonisms that eventually led him to kill his own children. To atone for his crime, he was sentenced to perform a series of tasks, or "Labors", for his cousin Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae.

Labor Two: The Hydra

Eurystheus was so afraid of his heroic cousin that when he saw him coming with the Nemean lion on his shoulder, he hid in a storage jar. From this shelter he issued the order for the next Labor. Heracles was to seek out and destroy the monstrous and many-headed Hydra. The mythmakers agree that the Hydra lived in the swamps of Lerna, but they seem to have had trouble counting its heads. Some said that the Hydra had eight or nine, while others claimed as many as ten thousand. All agreed, however, that as soon as one head was beaten down or chopped off, two more grew in its place.

To make matters worse, the Hydra's very breath was lethal. Even smelling its footprints was enough to kill an ordinary mortal. Fortunately, Heracles was no ordinary mortal. He sought out the monster in its lair and brought it out into the open with flaming arrows. But now the fight went in the Hydra's favor. It twined its many heads around the hero and tried to trip him up. It called on an ally, a huge crab that also lived in the swamp. The crab bit Heracles in the heel and further impeded his attack. Heracles was on the verge of failure when he remembered his nephew, Iolaus, the son of his twin brother Iphicles.

Iolaus, who had driven Heracles to Lerna in a chariot, looked on in anxiety as his uncle became entangled in the Hydra's snaky heads. Finally he could bear it no longer. In response to his uncle's shouts, he grabbed a burning torch and dashed into the fray. Now, as soon as Heracles cut off one of the Hydra's heads, Iolaus was there to sear the wounded neck with flame. This kept further heads from sprouting. Heracles cut off the heads one by one, with Iolaus cauterizing the wounds. Finally Heracles lopped off the one head that was supposedly immortal and buried it deep beneath a rock.

... and now onto the cache.

This cache is hidded east of Las Cruces, NM, near the summit of Baylor Peak. Residents of Southern New Mexico are most familiar with Baylor Canyon Trail and Baylor Canyon Road, but there is also a wonderful peak that shares the same name. It can be reached by hiking Baylor Canyon trail (Use one of the two Trailheads: One a couple miles south of US 70 on Baylor Canyon Road, and the other at Aguirre Springs Campground on the east side of the Organs) to the pass then heading north along the ridge until the highest point is reached (~0.70 miles, but there is no trail and the going is slow).

If you think the view from Baylor Pass is good, Just Wait!

Baylor Peak as seen from the East

The full moon of January rises over Baylor Peak
*** When you find the cache be sure to write down the three digit code inside the front cover of the log book. That code will be needed to find the final cache in the series. ***

Hercules text and drawings taken from: http://www.mythweb.com/hercules/index.html