Water Of Leith Series

[+allieballie]

When I grow up I'd like to ... have an attempt at doing the Water of Leith series in a single day!

I've sat back and watched this series grow and grow and the idea came into my head that it would be so good to spend a day cycling along and trying to bag them all! This is now my current ambition!

 

So I need some answers:

 

Firstly - How many more caches are due to be set? Or was there no plan to set a limit? If there is a limit - when will it be completed?

 

Secondly - Are there any places nearby either end of the series that hire bikes (might be easier than transporting ones from further afield plus this might be useful for any holidaying visitors to know).

 

Finally - Are there any plans to produce a rough/simple route map or similar? I'm thinking along the lines of something that tells you what order you come to them in, and the fact that perhaps there will be times when you may be unsure which side of the water you should be on. Realise that this is probably an odd question - where would you post such a map anyway? And isn't working out a route by yourself part of geocaching? As well as finding yourself on the wrong side of the water? Scrub this last question if it's stupid then.

 

But answers to the first two would be appreciated!

 

I don't know how many miles the series covers, so maybe I'm being unrealistic in even thinking about attempting this, but then again maybe it is perfectly achievable and others might want to try it too! Can you imagine - what a great way to spend a day!

[+roolku]

Maybe I should let Haggis Hunter answer this as it was his idea but since I have been involved a little I thought I'll give it a go.

 

When I grow up I'd like to ... have an attempt at doing the Water of Leith series in a single day!

 

I can only support this idea. That is what it was created for.

 

Firstly - How many more caches are due to be set? Or was there no plan to set a limit? If there is a limit - when will it be completed?

 

The original plan was 22. At the moment there are 17 and looking at the distribution I expect about 3 more to come. Team Bostik said it would help out with one or two caches, but they are currently on holiday until 15/8. And Firth of Forth & I are currently working on another one. With Ben Nevis coming up I would expect 2 more weeks until it is complete. (correct me HH if I am wrong).

 

Secondly - Are there any places nearby either end of the series that hire bikes (might be easier than transporting ones from further afield plus this might be useful for any holidaying visitors to know).

 

I think a bike will come in very handy. Good suggestion with the hire shop. We will look into it.

 

Finally - Are there any plans to produce a rough/simple route map or similar? I'm thinking along the lines of something that tells you what order you come to them in.

 

I tried to plot the caches on a map, but it will either be very big or not contain much detail. The order from the south to the north is the order in which they are listed in the first cache of the series (a click on the logo will get you there).

 

I don't know how many miles the series covers, so maybe I'm being unrealistic in even thinking about attempting this, but then again maybe it is perfectly achievable and others might want to try it too! Can you imagine - what a great way to spend a day!

 

Having been up and down the Walkway many times recently setting and finding caches, I think it is feasible (maybe even on foot). I would estimate the overall distance along the water at 20km (but this is excluding the running around for the multies). Most caches are relatively easy to find although one was a DNF for me the first time I tried.

 

I hope you will enjoy it. Good luck.

 

Roolku

 

P.S. For those of you who don't know what we are talking about, here is the link to the first cache in the series.

Edited August 10, 2004 by roolku

[+Haggis Hunter]

Currently some of your questions can be found on this cache.

 

There may be 2 more placed but when these are we are not sure, you wouldn't be wasting your time attempting it whenever you wanted to.

The main idea was for people who haven't done it to attempt it in one day, by bike you definately will.

 

You can hire a bike for the day from here but this will mean starting from the Leith end, which is going up river meaning it will be uphill all the way, and you will have to backtrack slightly for the Multi's. At least it's downhill all the way back at the end of the day .

 

Roolku has put a map together here although I wouldn't say you needed a map, just get to the above cache, and make sure you always follow the Water of Leith signs and you will be on the correct side. (Last comment subject to edit as I still have to get out and find 2 of them.)

 

As for the order they are in the above link to the cache will answer that question.

 

Now spending it as a day out, I think would be great, going straight through our capital city and still feel as though you are in the country side, is the whole reason I wanted to put it together.

 

Time for the thankyou's -

 

Thanks to everyone that already had a cache on the Water of Leith, and for allowing our link to go onto your cache pages.

Especially thanks go to Roolku and Firth of Forth, without them I still would be at the beginning of the idea and not at the end, thanks guys you have probably worked harder than myself getting this together.

[+Haggis Hunter]

I knew either Roolku or Firth of Forth would be answering this at the same time I was

[+Firth of Forth]

Allieballie,

 

I think what you could do is get bikes from somewhere, borrow a bike rack for the back of your car that I have, cycle down the WoL caching, and then get me to take you back to your car at Balerno. I am assuming that you would only have two bikes and that the wee man would be on a child seat. I have two roof rails on my car at the moment to put the bikes on.

 

Will discuss it further with you at work!

[+Firth of Forth]

There is a small book that looks useful, details are here:

Guide to the Water of Leith Walkway

 

I think it's available from the WoL Visitors centre, and there is also a map here:

WoL map

[+Team Ullium]

This roof rack of your's FoF...would it be up to taking my 850cc Supercharged Triple cylinder 12 valve Overhead Cam .... Zimmer ???

 

Also, I have quite an assortment of muggle deterrents such as :-

 

1) a Harry Potter invisibity cloak (obtained on the NHS to allow me to mix with ordinary people without causing mayhem and panic!),

2)a full grown African Lion (which was palmed off on my wife and myself by the vet who assured us it was just a biggish ginger tom cat and would definitely not grow any bigger....her long nose should have warned us!),

3)a pristine white over coat with the message clearly printed on the back reading "On day release from Carstairs...approach at your own peril"

4)and last but not least ... a world war two air raid siren ... which when hooked up to a 12 volt battery is guaranteed to clear an area of at least half a mile.

 

All of which amounts to a fair weight and I thought it only fair to warn you as it could be a bit of a strain on your suspension!!

 

Ullium.

[+Haggis Hunter]

4)and last but not least ... a world war two air raid siren ... which when hooked up to a 12 volt battery is guaranteed to clear an area of at least half a mile.

 

Ullium.

There's a Locationless cache for that, get it logged before someone logs you the next time they see you

[+Firth of Forth]

Hey Ullium,

That zimmer of yours sounds fab. Perhaps you should patent it and start taking orders now!

 

If not on bikes, then the best way (other than cadging a lift off me!) is to get the bus. No 22 into town, then no 44 goes all the way out to Balerno.

[+Haggis Hunter]

When I get a bit more time I will put all of this information onto the first cache.

 

Thanks for bringing up the questions Allieballie

[+allieballie]

Thanks for answering all my questions! And I love the map by the way!

Now I can start planning how best to tackle this - hoping to give it a go early September.

 

Also hope that this has drawn a bit of attention to the series so that those cachers who live further away than me might decide that this is well worth a trip to Edinburgh to find all these caches!

 

Thanks to HH, FoF, Roolku and everyone involved in helping to create this. Can't wait to give it a go!

[+roolku]

I have updated the map to use the smaller but more visible icons and also added an arial view

 

Roolku

Edited August 11, 2004 by roolku

[+Firth of Forth]

The maps are brilliant - thanks!! I can see my house on the aerial one!

[+roolku]

If you like arial views, try here:

http://www.edinburghguide.com/travel/maps/index.htm (click airphoto).

 

You should be able to make out the logs under which the caches are hidden.

 

Roolku

[+Haggis Hunter]

I have added the above information to the cache page, hopefully this will now assist people on doing the trail. If anyone can think of anything ales that may help or has anyother questions please email me, or post it here.

[+The Forester]

If anyone can think of anything else that may help

For the very highest resolution online mapping of Scotland, not just Edinburgh, log on to The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) website at:

http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/

 

Click on CANMAP. You may have to register, just as with geocaching.com, but there's no bill to pay and no spam.

 

Keep on zooming in on your target. The blue dots are clickable log entries of ancient monuments or buildings or artifacts. Those blue dots often contain a huge amount of very interesting historical information. In the case of Embra, the map is covered with them!

 

Quite apart from the very high resolution of the 1:10,000 digitised map, there is a very nifty feature which shows you the OS grid co-ords of your cursor. That's very handy for looking closely at the stated co-ords of a cache you are planning to bag or for checking your own measured co-ords of a cache you are placing.

 

Of course using this system to examine the plotted features of a stated cache location presumes that the co-ords on the cachepage aren't a load of rowlocks. One cache beside the WoL was originally shown as being on the wrong side of the river and another further upstream was shown as being on the wrong side of the path. Nevertheless Canmap is a very useful tool and I commend it to the forum. At the very least it's great way to pre-recce the layout of the area that you will b searching in.

 

For our Southern brethren: sorry, this map only covers Scotland.

 

For England & Wales there's quite a good 1:1000 scale map which also has zoomable and pannabble mapping together with OS co-ords of the cursor at http://www.magic.gov.uk/website/magic/

 

Cheers, The Forester

[+Firth of Forth]

Allieballie,

 

Now you're dream is going to come true! And you can count yourself all grown up too! Hope you enjoy the day.

[+Naefearjustbeer]

I am not spotting the "canmap" to click on where about on the page is it.

[+Kitty Hawk]

For the more southern cachers, try Woodsmoke's series (about 11 caches I think) around Portsmouth and Southsea, perfect for cycling (level as well for those like me with only memories of being thin). For some amusement have a look at GCUK interactive map and really zoom in on them.

 

I notice there sems to be a good series of about 14 caches along the Kennet and Avon Canal Hungerford to Newbury area.

[+Alibags]

Yeah, for the ones along the Kennet and Avon check out

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...fb-c2a82eeb8b77

 

Which has a nice map on it

 

I have done some of them, but plan to pump up the tyres on my bike and follow the whole trail one of these days.

[+The Forester]

I am not spotting the "canmap" to click on where about on the page is it.

Whoops! Sorry 'bout the lengthy delay in replying. I've been somewhat distracted by non-geocaching mtters recently.

 

From the front page of the RCAAHMS website, select "Search Databases"; then "Canmore"; then "Canmap".

 

You'll have to register, but that is no more onerous than registering here at GC.com.

 

It's a wonderful resource and I heartily recommend it to all who would geocache in Scotland.

 

Cheers, The Forester