A Chance Encounter

[knowschad]

It rained earlier tonight. By the time I hit the levee bike trail along the Mississippi, the pavement was drying and the sun was breaking through the dark clouds, leaving the water a steely blue gray while the island with the moored barges were light by warm orange sunlight, causing the foliage to almost glow. It was a rare summer night, a cool breeze drifting across the water.

 

I was riding the bike past a dead cottonwood, bark long gone and the bleached trunk picking up the golden sunlight, between me and the river. I looked up and saw a Golden eagle sitting on one of its branches. He barely turned his head when he saw me, but it was clear that he was aware of my presence.

 

Downstream, I came across a fisherman on the bank of the levee. What surprised me was not that he was there, but that he was casting a flyrod, line sailing in a slow loop behind him, and then rolling forward on a smooth unfolding curve. I just watched him. Like the eagle, he barely turned his head when he saw me, but it was clear that he was aware of being watched.

 

He caught nothing as I watched him let his fly drift at the current's pace downstream, and after a couple of casts, I decided to speak to him.

 

"What do you catch in here?" I asked, loudly enough to be heard through the sound of the train that was rolling past the tracks that ran parallel to the levee behind us.

 

The fisherman turned his head in my general direction as he let another cast roll out, "Oh, buffalo head, crappies, maybe a carp every now and then. And there's always the hope of a smallmouth bass."

 

"What are you using?"

 

"A fly." It seemed obvious that he considered me a bicyclist and not an angler.

 

"A weighted nymph?", I countered.

 

"Do you know what a 'Girdle Bug' is?", he quizzed.

 

"Sure. A popular nymph from Montana made of black chenille and white rubber bands"

 

With that, the bond was made and the tone of the communication changed. We could talk fishing. I left to ride a bit, but spotted him again as he was leaving the river, at dusk. I got off my bike and we chatted a bit.

 

We talked first about the summer's extraordinary hex mayfly hatch, and how that signified the growing health of the river. We shared sightings of otters and muskrats and foxes along the riverbanks, of kayakers and canoeists plying the once polluted waters of the river these days.

 

The subject of geocaching came up, and he told me that he had helped to place the first geocaching in Minnesota. He proceeded to tell me about being one of a group of guys that hid the cache, "Alvin's Phone Line", a cache that I found this summer with a group of friends. I told him how that cache had become a pilgrimage, a rite of passage for Minnesota geocachers. He said that he was the one that wrote the story of the cache in the log book... that we all read and signed.

[+rosebud55112]

Cool. Love seeing the resurgence of eagles around here, and I hope to get up to Alvin's Phone Line someday. Can't claim to be a MN cacher without doing that.

[+hukilaulau]

I went to Duluth two summers ago for a conference. "Alvin's Phone Line" was on my wish list but in the end I spent my free day driving across MN to ND, the only US state I'd never been in. Beautiful country.

[+Sol seaker]

Wow. What a beautiful story, and so well told.

Thanks for sharing that great moment.

[+OZ2CPU]

if only more people realized they can find a friend in any one they see or meet, anywhere anytime !

the world would be a better place :-)

lucky you learned the trick a long time ago, and it makes you happy, hat off to you :-)

[+Snoogans]

I just about choked on my fiber one brownie when I read the title of this thread.

 

Thank goodness it had nothing to do with bad apples in Texas.

 

It's an inside joke that I will only talk about offline, (plausable deniability) but there are probably a few other Texas and possibly Tennessee cachers that will read this and get my meaning.

[4wheelin_fool]

Did he say why he didn't go caching anymore?

[knowschad]

Did he say why he didn't go caching anymore?

I suspect that their idea was simply to hide a cache. Since there were no others in Minnesota at the time, there weren't exactly a lot of other caches around to "go caching" for.

Edited August 9, 2012 by knowschad

[4wheelin_fool]

Did he say why he didn't go caching anymore?

I suspect that their idea was simply to hide a cache. Since there were no others in Minnesota at the time, there weren't exactly a lot of other caches around to "go caching" for.

 

Well that's a cool story. You never know who that "muggle" may be.

[knowschad]

Come to think of it, I guess I could provide a link to the cache: Alvin's Phone Line

[+wimseyguy]

Great story. Looks like a nice spot to pilgrimage to.

 

It's interesting that the CO is still keeping the page current even if they are not actively caching, or at least logging their activity online.

[knowschad]

Great story. Looks like a nice spot to pilgrimage to.

 

It's interesting that the CO is still keeping the page current even if they are not actively caching, or at least logging their activity online.

 

I think it is also interesting that the cache owner (Ken Walker) "owns" the archived cache with the waypoint of GCAA. I don't know the story behind that yet,

[+JJnTJ]

Man, I need to get up to Alvin's Phone Line this fall.

 

Before November.

[knowschad]

Man, I need to get up to Alvin's Phone Line this fall.

 

Before November.

 

November is fine. Just remember to wear your fur coat or a buckskin jacket. Its cold up there during deer season.

[+JBnW]

Man, I need to get up to Alvin's Phone Line this fall.

 

Before November.

 

November is fine. Just remember to wear your fur coat or a buckskin jacket. Its cold up there during deer season.

Don't forget the hat, its cold up there!

[AZcachemeister]

I haven't been to MN yet, but when I go...