Musings about Geocaching: A challenging climb in MTRP to get "Middle Earth"

A new cache popped up in the morning, so I called dillweed to see if she wanted to meet me there for the FTF. It was sort of on the way to MTRP where we were going to be hiking.

I got to the location first and looked for a while, but didn't see any sign of a cache . . . and even though the dog wasn't present, I didn't like the "Beware of Dog" signs on the fence, and the house window across the same fence . . .

When dillweed got there, we looked for the cache, trying to make sense of the hint. After 15 minutes, we gave up, but on our way back to the car, we saw rscaensd, who was headed towards the hiding spot. So, we turned around to join him. It didn't take very long before I found the little container. I don't know how I missed moving that bark and ground cover during my previous semi-destructive search . . . Only then did I see the Groundspeak 'G' carved into the base of the tree . . . Apparently, that is what bradybunchboys are doing now for their hints . . .

From there, we headed for the MTRP Visitor Center parking, stopping for one easy cache along the way that I saw on my GPSr map as we drove down Jackson Dr.

After parking the car, we walked down the road finding "FATTBOY'S FIRST" and then a few other caches including two in these great locations.

We looked at the caches on our GPSrs and saw several on the peak to the east of us, so we started up that steep trail that goes to rocks mountain climbers use for practice.

We didn't find one of the caches, but we left a "replacement" for future cachers until Chuy! can get up there to check on it.

Here is my log for the next cache after we made the dangerous ascent up the "Safest" route.

Wheeuuu! What a climb! After leaving Limbo Area, we scouted one route and then took the hard way to the "safest" route. Once on top, we found the cache easily, and others have apparently also been finding the cache easily. Muggles left "unapproved" items in the cache (cigarette, matches, pills) and apparently took the Jeep and the Geocoin. Neither were in the cache. I took some pictures of the muggle logs. Thanks for the great adventure and for all the exercise.

We wandered the criss-crossing trails up to the top of the peak, finding a few more caches, including one by Travelita that offered this view.

We were not aware of any other way to get back down the peak, so we very, very carefully made our way down the dangerous "Safest" route.

This is what our tracks and the hike profile looked like:

There was still a lot of daylight left when I got back to my car, and even though my legs were very tired, I decided to look for a few more caches since I was in a part of town I rarely get to. I set my GPSr to auto-route me to one of HaZzMaTt's caches. I arrived at what I thought was GZ and after reading the Past Logs to see that the cache was difficult to find, I set out on my own search of the thorny bushes.

I got poked by the nasty bushes as I searched, but kept wondering where the plant in the hint was. I finally did another Find/Geocache/Off Road on the GPSr, and it sent me 180 feet away where I found the cache easily without having to deal with any nasty, thorn-wielding bushes at all. That fact made me wonder a bit about a "Found It" log that mentions the thorns . . .

After finding one more bradybunchboys cache near Lake Murray, which also had a Groundspeak 'G' as a hint, I started the long drive home, turning on the radio and hearing the terrible news about a shooting at a University in Virginia, Virginia Tech.

Sad, very sad . . .