5/5 Star CITO?

[+JunglePete]

We just completed a 5/5 Star CITO (GC1DT05) by airboat on a lake full of alligators. We picked up a dumpster full of trash so it was worth it but I'm wondering if there has ever been another 5/5 CITO or another CITO by airboat - is this the first?

[+Isonzo Karst]

I'd guess airboat might well be a first. Thanks for doing it.

 

I'd say your 5 difficulty rating is over-rated or mis-rated. Nothing 5 difficulty about CITO from a boat, even if it includes wading on the shore edges watching out for gators and moccasins. At least there are a huge number of caches in Florida and elsewhere along the Gulf that require that same wading, and most of them aren't rated above 3.

[+JunglePete]

 

I'd say your 5 difficulty rating is over-rated or mis-rated.

 

ha! I'm usually the one to say a cache rating is over rated but this lake has the highest concentration of alligators per acre in Florida. You can't go by boat. Only by airboat. You need special tongs to grab the garbage out of the water or much and it was 97 degrees. There are alligators and water moccasins in abundance.

 

If this caches is not a 5/5 I don't know what is.

[magellan315]

I think this meets enough criteria for at least a five for terrain. Speicalized equipment, dangerous animals, and in the summer Florida is 90 degrees and 90% humidity the entire summer 24/7, and throw in a swamp and you've got a five for terrain. As a former resident a CITO at this time of the year under those conditions is very difficult.

[+cache_in_hand]

That wouldn't be Lake Hancock just outside of Lakeland would it?

[+JunglePete]

Yeah - the heat was a bear, we had to prod a few alligators away and the mud is probably toxic. Maybe we needed hazmat suits!

 

The Lake was Lake Trafford in Immokalee in Collier County.

 

I've hiked 18 miles, biked 22 miles and climbed a 4000 foot mountain for a cache and this was the most exhausting. But good times and for the greater good of the community.

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

Technically, the Guidestar guidelines say that any cache requiring a boat or other special equipment (i.e. SCUBA gear) needs to be rated 5star for terrain. So techincally (and I emphasize technically) that would apply here.

[+Lag Pins]

The terrain portion was easily 5 star with it being out on the air boat to get to portions. With being there for the CITO and the difficulty of actually removing a lot of the items (old pots and pans being pulled out of the swamp water with tools by two people at one time, items near gator nests, getting people to brave doing these things near the gators), I would rate the difficulty as a 5 star. I believe that any cache that requires tools increases the difficulty. At an event like this, the trash is the cache, and it required tools to get to a lot of items that were submerged or in areas that should not be reached into due to the dangers in the area. With all of that being said, ratings will always be debated. It was a great event, on real short notice, that helped an area that really needed it. The stars really didn't matter, it was all about helping a beautiful lake get back to what it should look like..........that and holding baby gators.