Trip Reports

[+TheLoneGrangers]

I really enjoy reading peoples trip reports (or the great logs of those epic caches) I thought it would be a good idea for people to share thier really good log entries of geocaches they had to hike to or backpack to get. It doesn't even have to be geocache specific, I'm sure many of you have great stories to share of your adventures. I will share mine, out of 400 finds, "Turtle Head Peak" Cache was my first real adventurous cache its located in Red Rock Canyon Nevada near Las Vegas...here is my log entry:

 

"Out of 400+ Geocaches grabbing a smiley for this one, has to be my first real challenging adventure.

 

I had orginally had leave planned for March, but work issues came up and I had to reschedule leave starting on Memorial Day weekend. Luckily for me it was duty related and the air lines reimbursied our tickets. Also very lucky it was well below normal temperatures, in the 80's and windy.

 

For me this 5 mile hike with 2300ft elevation gain, was going to be epic and challenging. Not because I am old or out of shape (I'm 35 and 215) it's because I've never hiked in the desert before, I've never climbed up a mountain before, and I have never gone hiking solo before. I've hiked alot of places in South Carolina in the forests and parks, and nothing has compared to this.

 

I was well prepared, and took all necessary precautions, I packed the "10 essentials" (minus shelter lol) in my camel pak. My wife knew which trail head I was starting at and each geocache I was going for, and a estimated time to the car. (cell phone does work in places on this trail) Well I thought I was well prepared, my 2 liters of water in the camel pak, ran out half way back down...it's really dry out here lol.

 

The first 1.5 miles is realtively flat and in a riverbed except for the detours to grab the other caches on the trail.(they all are must do's IMO) The scenery and views are just amazing. Once you get to the cache "Turtle Stop" is when the elevation starts to pick up and there really isn't a primary trail at this point, Alot of people have blazed thier own way up. There was some minor bouldering involved and some minor scrambling in places. (My bouldering was on the way back down, I picked the wrong way, and didn't want to go around.) So its not necessary. I climbed down with 3 Navy guys that beat me to the top by 10 feet...not cool.

 

Very Steep after you get to the saddle, I had to rest every 100 ft or so just to catch my breath! (give me a break I live at 250ft elevation) I went straight for the summit, at this point it was more of a reward then the cache. Amazing 360 degree views. Spent about 45 minutes at the top, rested, signed the summit registery, ate some cliff bars and jerky...and told the leader of the 3 Navy guys, that I came up here because of geocaching (had to explain it to him briefly) and he went with me to find it. (I offered them a ride to thier car as they were parked on the other side of the park) I told him I wasn't coming up here and NOT get it, so they could wait for me here, wait for me at the bottom or come find it with me. The guy that went with me didn't seem very interested in it, even though he found it before I could! lol I offered to him to sign the log and he declined.

 

I was stationed at Nellis from 96-99 so before geocaching, but I had only came up to Red Rock one time, and I drove around the loop and that was it. The Navy guy said at the top "Most people just drive around the road and take pictures, we are at the top" that sums up my experiance...I used to just drive around and take pictures.

 

I started off about 1030 got to the top around 4, got back to the car a little after 5...got 9 caches in total...didnt find "Turtle Stop", I didn't go for "Avengers Realm Cache #7" (I felt it was too risky alone), and discovered that a new cache "The Burning Bush" was placed the day before my hike, and my files were from the day before that. To think I could of had a FTF!

 

Thank you for placing a cache up here, this was a very rewarding hike and I am very proud of accomplishing it. Next year I would like to get to the top of Le Madre, but I don't want to do that one solo. I will add some photos later when I get home from work"

[+Criminal]

Hike TRs.

[+TheLoneGrangers]

Dang that link is blocked here at work, looks cool from the name though.

[+GrnXnham]

That's a nice TR site you have there, Criminal.

 

I enjoyed reading a few of the TR's.

[+TheLoneGrangers]

great blog criminal!!! I really enjoyed reading some of them, specially liked the mt. zion one, and the one where you attempted to recover the owners pack. Very cool of you, is it possible for you to link the cache that was up there, i would like to read it.