Geocache found Friday, 07 August 2009 … HIKING THE HARWOOD
The three of us (barbieq6, rainbowtree, Dragonsiht) recovered from our misadventure of June 10th, and armed with information from two kind emails, we set out again to find this cache. It’s a good thing my two shelties stayed at home for our second journey to find this elusive cache. The trail was well-marked, and we faithfully followed it to Stage One. Piece of cake! Of course it was muddy in spots, but that was expected due to the amount of rain.
Then we set off for the final stage, again! All was well until the GPS was going up and up and up. So, we backtracked until we were only .25 from the cache. There is extensive logging occurring in the area, which made bushwacking very difficult. We did, however, find the cache. Yeah! Had my letterbox stamp (PLANT A TREE) with me, but there was no stamp pad or stamp in the cache. A pen was also missing to sign the log book, so we left our pen. Then each of us left something, but only two of us took something.
Bushwacked to the trail with those nice white blazes. Then our trail, as opposed to bushwacking, misadventure began. Next time a cacher offers to go with me after a misadventure (barbieq6 had another description), plan to accept the offer. We followed those white blazes, which led over a mud-pit (logging road) deep and wide. Found branches and precariously crossed the mud chasm. On the other side were several white blazes together, so we took the trail leading back to the cachemobile. NOT! We ended up back at the field. Now, why did the blazes lead us away the first time and to the field this time, a question we sure were asking ourselves. So, backtracked, negotiated the mud pit again, and finally made it back to the car.
We began around 11:00 and returned around 3:00. How in the world others were able to say easy hike had the two adults wondering all during this hike. Of course, barbieq’s 11-year old grandson from Colorado loved this hike. He had mud up to his ankles, found a stick pointed at one end for a sword, lagged a little behind to pretend he was in a jungle, encountered exotic creatures (baby toads the size of your fingernail), etc. He is a new cacher and this will be one adventure I am sure will be retold again. Thank you for the cache and the memories.