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Island In A River

Tidalflame
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Tidalflame

+Tidalflame

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I'm thinking of placing a cache on an island in a river. When the water is low, you can walk across the riverbed to the island, BUT it's only low enough for about 2 weeks a year and I'm not sure whether or not it happens every year. I imagine one could reach the cache with a boat during the rest of the year, but it'd be tricky and potentially dangerous. What do you think? Interesting cache, or potential hazard?

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LaPaglia

+LaPaglia

Posted
Posted
I'm thinking of placing a cache on an island in a river. When the water is low, you can walk across the riverbed to the island, BUT it's only low enough for about 2 weeks a year and I'm not sure whether or not it happens every year. I imagine one could reach the cache with a boat during the rest of the year, but it'd be tricky and potentially dangerous. What do you think? Interesting cache, or potential hazard?

There are many Hydro-caches. Some take boats Some require swimming. Explain the needs in the cache description and you are fine. if it normally requires a boat then its a 5.

 

Go for it. as long as caches are allowed in the area it sounds like fun. if you have any questions ask your reviewer.

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PDOP's

+PDOP's

Posted
Posted

There's a few around. As long as the difficulty rating is accurate and it's explained in the narrative on the cache page it should be fine.

 

I did one south of you in Campbell River on a very hot summer day. Both I and my dog enjoyed the dip in the river ;)

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Miragee

+Miragee

Posted
Posted (edited)
Okay what type of danger are we talking about , rapids , falls or something else ? Next what would make this so interesting ?

 

A cache on an island sounds interesting enough to me. ;)

 

 

Edit to add appropriate quote . . .

Edited by idiosyncratic
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Difficult Run

Difficult Run

Posted
Posted

Sounds like a fun idea. Some things to consider:

 

1) A disclaimer on the risk involved by reaching the island.

2) Making sure the cache is anchored in some form or fashion, i.e. you don't want a flood to carry the cache downstream.

 

I'm sure there are other things I haven't thought of.... ;)

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fauxSteve

+fauxSteve

Posted
Posted

2) Making sure the cache is anchored in some form or fashion, i.e. you don't want a flood to carry the cache downstream.

I say go for it! It won't get many visitors, but those who go for it will probably write wonderful stories about their journey. The only boat-only cache I found seems to have been swallowed up by rising waters soon after I visited it, and most caches I've seen next to the water have experienced some flooding. Keep that in mind if you walk out when the water is low enough it will rise as well, so anchoring it to a tree like Difficult Run said would not be such a bad idea. Also, this sounds like a prime candidate for an ammo can. Since moving caches are no longer permitted, anything lighter would be a problem ;).

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Jeeping Family

+Jeeping Family

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Posted

We just took the kids and nephew over to the 2 caches at the lake. It was real fun to find the one on the island. Now if the anchor would have held to the one under the water we would have gotten 2 smiley's each.

 

Oh, and I have been waiting for a few months to go and chase these 2 caches.

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Tidalflame

+Tidalflame

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The type of danger I'm talking about is the inherent danger with rivers. There are no falls or rapids or anything, but if you fall in the river while trying to secure the boat or something and you don't have a life jacket on, there's a good chance you'll drown as it's a fast-moving, wide river. The other problem with the island is that I'm not sure it'd be possible to secure a boat to it. It's got banked sides in most places and I can't really think of anything that the boat could be tied to.

 

With that said, any new insight? Or does it still sound like a good idea?

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tabulator32

+tabulator32

Posted
Posted (edited)

I would include a little detail in the description and be very adamant about it not being for small kids and if kids do come along they need to be accompanied by adults and they must be wearing life jackets. Enough verbiage along these lines to let people think "Hey! This isn't the average stroll through the park cache.

 

As long as you make it readily apparent that people will not just be wading in ankle-deep water, it should be fun. Make sure it has a fair rating for terrain and difficulty.

 

I would also be concerned about the cache floating away. You'd have to make sure it is well anchored.

 

Edit: I know what I was going to ask...

 

Is the "island" something on which a child or adult would be able to stand in case they fell out of the boat? If so, is it like this year round?

 

Make it "boat-mandatory". A boat would have to be among the "required tools" to reach this cache. I wouldn't have said that earlier but your comments about the banked walls would make me require a boat to reach it. Just MY two cents worth.

 

;)

Edited by tabulator32
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Team GPSaxophone

+Team GPSaxophone

Posted
Posted
The type of danger I'm talking about is the inherent danger with rivers. There are no falls or rapids or anything, but if you fall in the river while trying to secure the boat or something and you don't have a life jacket on, there's a good chance you'll drown as it's a fast-moving, wide river. The other problem with the island is that I'm not sure it'd be possible to secure a boat to it. It's got banked sides in most places and I can't really think of anything that the boat could be tied to.

 

With that said, any new insight? Or does it still sound like a good idea?

Some caches require mountain climbing equipment. Some require SCUBA gear. Some even require supplemental oxygen (especially if a flatlander visits Colorado ;))

 

Rate it appropriately, and if you want, put something in the description about why it's rated the way it is. Not all caches need to have that information spelled out, especially if it's part of the challenge. Put in whatever information you think is important or necessary for cache seekers.

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Tidalflame

+Tidalflame

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Posted (edited)
Is the "island" something on which a child or adult would be able to stand in case they fell out of the boat?  If so, is it like this year round?

 

Make it "boat-mandatory".  A boat would have to be among the "required tools" to reach this cache.  I wouldn't have said that earlier but your comments about the banked walls would make me require a boat to reach it.  Just MY two cents worth.

 

You'd definitely need a boat to reach it, except during the 2 weeks or so in the fall when the water goes down so you can walk across the riverbed. I'm not sure whether or not you'd be able to get onto the island if you fell out of the boat. It'd depend on where and how, really. As I said, the sides are fairly steep. I guess my best bet would be to have a close look at the island both during high water and when it can be walked to.

 

I don't want to avoid a good challenge just because some people might not be able to handle it, but on the other hand, I REALLY don't want to make people take pointless risks. Really, it's a matter of whether or not it's possible to get a boat to the island, get out of the boat onto the island (depending on the water level, the boat may actually be several feet below the flat part of the island, and the sides are quite steep), and whether or not it's possible to anchor the boat once on the island.

Edited by Tidalflame
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tabulator32

+tabulator32

Posted
Posted
I don't want to avoid a good challenge just because some people might not be able to handle it, but on the other hand, I REALLY don't want to make people take pointless risks.

None of us are as familiar with the particular terrain as you at this point. I guess I should say...if you are sincerely concerned for the safety of your fellow geocachers and don't feel this would be a good idea to post as a cache, perhaps you should just trust your instinct and consider a different place.

 

If you list all the potential hazzards, a good description of the area, and as much safety-related information as you deem pertinent, it might be a really cool cache.

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Rupert2

Rupert2

Posted
Posted

I have done one like that before:

 

Scare Island

 

It was a fantastic cache and took a couple of visits to get the timing correct in order to walk on the island. The problem is that when the first minor flood hits, the cache is the first thing to wash away. Make sure you either find very high ground or secure the container.

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Tidalflame

+Tidalflame

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I don't think flooding will be a problem - I've never seen the water rise above the top of the island, but I can hide it in a tree anyway.

 

Thanks for the help everyone. I think this topic has pretty much run its course for now so I'll lock it to save a bit of Groundspeak's bandwidth ;)

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