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Hardcore caching


PhotoMHS

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Wow what a crazy time we had finding this one. It all started when we followed the light rail tracks becuase we thought that was the way to go. Well we found out we were wrong when we ended up with a 50 foot river in our path when we were 300 feet from the cache. Lucky us. SO what did we do we decided that we should make a raft and float across the river (pictures to come). Our raft was pitiful. We took three huge logs and tried tying them together with vines. DIdn't work out so hot. So we went to plan B. We walked out to an island in the middle of teh river becuase out to there wasn't so deep but when we reached the island we realized the rest of the way was 4 feet deep. We thought and thought about what to do to make it to the other side of the river. So I came up with the bright idea to swim the rest of the way but I didn't want to get my clothes wet so I decided to go buck naked. Now you have to remember that it is November 25th and the temperature outside was a mere 50 which means the water had to have been 35 degrees or so. It was cold to say the least. So I put all the stuff I needed in a bag and put them and my shoes over my head and started swimming accross. When i was almost there I slipped on a rock and my shoes dunked under. I made it thoguh and nothing else got wet. I dried myself with a shirt so I didn't get hypothermia which wasn't too far off and redressed myself. I put back on my wet shoes and nearly froze my feet off. I found the cache after about 5 minutes looking and made my way back to meet my friends, who wouldn't go across the river at the lightrail bridge. We got back in the car and made our way home. I needed a shower and a place to clean up all the cuts on my feet and legs from the rocks in the river. Took : baseball, Left: frog bookmark.

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This was an awesome one for us becuase we went as the crow flys right up th egorge. We turned the terrain into a 5 somehow. We were climbing up 90 degree inglines on the rock wall without any ropes. WE COULD HAVE DIED but oh well. We found the cache with ease after that. Left some stuff and took some stuff. Went back to the car after this one becuase we were tired after our 250 foot accent.

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And people thought I was nuts for jumping in and crossing a river up to my mid thighs with my jeans and tennies on. the worst part was, I wasn't supposed to cross the river, the woods were me giving me a false reading. DOH! But, I'm a puppy compared to harcore freezing water skinny dipping.

 

LIVE FOR TODAY!

 

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quote:
Originally posted by BassoonPilot:

Personally, I don't think "hardcore" caching and "ridiculously foolish actions by geocachers" are one-and-the-same.

 

Please be careful, so that we don't discover your name on the 2003 Darwin Awards list.


I agree. When I think of hardcore caching, I think of JamieZ's PaterQuest, of Clayjar's hydocache expeditions, of mountain peak caches, of Artful Dodger's scuba cache, of the cache in Alaska thats like 30 miles from anything, BruceS the ATM, the cache in Brazil you need to repel to, stuff like that. Hardcore cachers come prepared to do hardcore caches. Safely. Hardcore cachers don't want to end up injured or dead, because then they can't cache! What I read above are just stories of recklessness and stupidity that could land geocaching in the news when the cacher lands in a hospital or morgue.

 

Tae-Kwon-Leap is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.

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I agree as far as safety is concerned, but I do have to tell you about Paybacks are a Rock cache. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=8218

Apollo always had very interesting geocaches. And this one was no different. I had to many of his before so I decided to go on a recon trip with binoculars for a walk on the levee. Since the map showed it being in the river and on or near the bridge I wanted to be prepared when I went for the final assault. Upon arriving at the bridge I spotted George of the Georockers searching in the river with an inflatable raft. I did some looking with the binos and spotted some suspiciuos holes in the bridge above the waterline. I called out to George and he broke off the searcin the water to come over and talk. I told him my that I thought that I spotted something in one of the piers halfway across the river (about 100 feet away). He agreed and tried to get it but the water level was down and could not quite reach where I was talking about. In the mean time Apollo showed up on the other side of the river to watch the fun. I decided to come back later with my aluminum boat to see if I could reach it. Got it stuck in the sand bar a couple of times and got close to reaching the pidgeon hole but just couldn't quite reach where I thought it was. Hhhmmm now what do I do? I talked to a friend (SnowRider) and he suggested a ladder. You should have seen the looks on peoples faces when we showed up at the dock with an aluminum boat with a 10 foot extension ladder in it. icon_smile.gificon_eek.gificon_rolleyes.gif

We used the ladder on the river bed to reach where I thought it was and YAHOO! we found it. The kicker is to log it as a find we had to contact Apollo with what the note inside said.

"You Really Need Help!"

icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

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I remember that particular cache got a lot of attention last year ... at the time, I found the commentary supplied by "JoAngel" rather annoying. Still do.

 

I admire your ingenuity in snagging the cache.

 

The most striking thing I noticed about that cache was that your find of it coincided with Apollo56's exit from geocaching. (The cache was placed on 10/1/01 and Apollo56 logged his last find on 10/6/01, the same day you and your partner logged the cache mentioned above. Weird.)

 

I wonder why Apollo gave up at the very Acme of his geocaching fame? (Must be the "Sandy Koufax" phenomenon.")

 

[This message was edited by BassoonPilot on November 28, 2002 at 04:54 AM.]

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Not to ruffle any feathers here but I enjoyed all of Apollo's caches. They usually made you think AND they definitely made you think out of the norm. From the feedback that I got from him and others is that he quit for several reasons. At the time Geocaching was growing rapidly in our area. Some of us were pushing the boundaries in ways that... shall we say were not conventional and some caches were not for everybody. You had to use common sense on what your limitations were and then decide if you wanted to continue or not. Apollo liked to use a boat for many caches and his were the first ones that I found in trees that you had to climb to get to. That is why I got used to doing a recon trip to check things out first.

I think what finally did it for him had something to do with running his business. Being self-employed I know how that can change your prioities really fast.

Personally I mis Apollo and his challenges.

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quote:
Originally posted by PhotoMHS:

I love when you end up on the wrong side of a highway and you run across to get to the cache. Then you have to run back across the highway to get back to your car.


 

PhotoMHS, we're taking up a collection to buy you a brown furcoat and furry hat with antlers to wear when you go caching in the woods. It's the least we can do. icon_wink.gif

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quote:
I agree. When I think of hardcore caching, I think of ...mountain peak caches....

 

Well, here's the hardest we've worked to bag a cache. Placed in May, found first by us in July, and hasn't been attempted since. Seems that not many are up to the idea of hiking 8.5 miles one way with over 4000 feet of elevation change for a cache, at least here in Vegas.

 

Shannon

 

VegasCacheHounds

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VegasCacheHounds - I climbed Mt. Charleston a few years ago (before caching) and it is a wonderful place to hike.

 

Although the thing I remember most is the drive out of the park. My buddy put the rental car in neutral and we coasted out...at times topping 80 MPH on Rt 157 without touching the gas!

 

homer.gif

"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand."

 

[This message was edited by Stunod on December 03, 2002 at 01:41 PM.]

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Originally posted by Stunod:

VegasCacheHounds - I climbed Mt. Charleston a few years ago (before caching) and it is a wonderful place to hike.

 

Although the thing I remember most is the drive out of the park. My buddy put the rental car in neutral and we coasted out...at times topping 80 MPH on Rt 157 without touching the gas!

QUOTE]

 

Back in high school me and a few friends took a trip up there to play in the snow. When we got ready to head back down I realized that we were sitting on empty, so to conserve gas we coasted down the mountain with the engine idling. We made it almost all the way to US-95 before having to put it in gear icon_smile.gif

I think the car was running on fumes when we reached the closest gas station in Vegas.

 

Shannon

 

VegasCacheHounds

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I was following this topic some days ago and the last days I found some logs, which are a good example for a real addicted cacher:

He did a 36hour/18caches-tour. He came all the way down from Brussels to Paris (which is 4-5h drive @ 90mph) at totally disgusting weather and cached all the caches of the Paris vicinity. It seems, he slept in his car.

Take notice, that especially in France, Caches are very rare (only 160 in france at all)

Look for his logs of 2./3. November!

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest_cache.asp?ul=Kwentine

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Hello all you other die-hard cachers! I saw a cahce, when I lived in PA, that had a lot of "couldnt finds", and "came back the next day" logs. So, I planned it for the next day. Hear's how it went down:

 

I got to the park, map, gps, and all the other typical items in hand. They dont let you drive in anymore, so i pulled over, and got my bike out. theres a specially marked bike trail on the parks map, but i didnt know how rough and rocky, and how muddy it was. i ended up walking a good deal of it, and pushing my bike aside of me. well, a while later i got where i was going, but it was on the other side of the river! the topo maps i used said its on the side i was on, but it wasnt. i walked up and down for about 100 yards both ways, getting all scratched up. I even was planning a raft as i walked. i could not find any place suitable for wading thru. so, it was do or die...i went swimming. i couldnt come back the next day, and it was already 5 pm, and, well, just didnt want to go home withpout my 'prize'. the river is very wide in some places, but i found a place where its only about 25 feet across. i could sortof see the cache on the other side, so i set up the video camera to get my river crossing. i went to where i could get in, and by a unattached log (to keep the geocache stuff bag from getting wet, and sat down to take my boots and socke off. i looked around and hadent seen anyone out there the whole time, so thought it would be nice to have dry pants to put back on when i got back, so took my jeans off, and got in the (extreeeemely cold April time mtn water) water, pulled the log over to me (about 5 ft long, and 1.5 ft diameter) and put the geocache bag on it, grabbed the end of it, and fought the current and finally got across, albeit downstream a bit, safely. but the bag fell off the log, and my jeans got wet, as did the digital camera, cell phone, and everything else that was in the bag (the bandana i allways leave leave, my wallet, etc). well, i did the 'cache thing', and got back into the river, forgetting about the log this time (it had gone downstream earlier) and just swam back. my skin was very painfull, cramping, and red, but I GOT THE CACHE!!!!

i had cramps from the cold water in my legs, so couldnt ride the bike. my shirt was soaked, and just kept me cold, so took it off, and walked my bike for about a mile before i could pedel without getting more cramps. halfway down the trail (about 3.5 miles total) i walked about 75 feet thru the trees, and got on the old highway that ran thru the park, and was able to pedel the bike again. i only had one breakdown of the bike, which i was attempting to repair at the top of the hill, not wanting to stop at the bottom and break momentum, when i heard a few loud thumps in the treeline about 15 feet from me. it was a larger mammal, but i could not see it. it was close, and i was broke down with a bad chain and cramps in my legs coming back. i said "forget it!" i coasted down the hill, and walked it back up the other side, fixed it, and was back to the van in about 10 minutes. it was a rough outing, but i got my cache!

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This find was a lot of fun for us. There were 7 of us that went and we had quite an adventure to get to the cache. We did this at night. We parked on the wrong side of 490 and ended up having to run across it. A cop pulled over and asked us what we were doing running across the highway. We all thought that this was illegal and thought we wer ein trouble but all the cop said was to be careful. We had to climb a number of fences to get inside the actual trail where we were supposed to be. When we made it inside the trail it was about a 15 minute look to find it.

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quote:
Originally posted by PhotoMHS:

This find was a lot of fun for us. There were 7 of us that went and we had quite an adventure to get to the cache. We did this at night. We parked on the wrong side of 490 and ended up having to run across it. A cop pulled over and asked us what we were doing running across the highway. We all thought that this was illegal and thought we wer ein trouble but all the cop said was to be careful. We had to climb a number of fences to get inside the actual trail where we were supposed to be. When we made it inside the trail it was about a 15 minute look to find it.


 

I didn't realize "hardcore" and "stupid" were the same...

 

homer.gif

"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand."

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