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Geocaching: Brambles and, oh joy, nettles.
They can say the Washington State Flower is the rhododendron, but as far as I'm concerned, it's the fricking blackberry. Got a little later start tonight than I would have liked and picked a gc with a difficulty of 1.5 and terrain of 2.5 (out of 5, with 5 being highest). It started off well enough and devolved into a steep climb up a slippery, silty hillside. (The combination of my bad knees plus vertigo made this scramble very unpleasant for me, but down proved to be even worse later...) We lost our signal and hadn't brought any of the hints/clues, so we picked our way along the trail through the stickerbushes and noted with dismay the nettles that were lining the trail in increasing profusion. S decided to just strike out and bushwhack, hoping to reacquire signal while flailing through the underbrush or miraculously stumble across the gc (perhaps lying in the middle of a clearing? who knows?). Long after I grew tired of waiting, he gave up and we admitted defeat.
The next gc was much easier to find, even though it was a microcache (not an ammo box--think of a tiny cylindrical pill capsule) and night was falling. It was located in a little pocket park that I had never known was there, despite living here all my life! I think we'll discover many more of these hitherto unknown gems.
Although it was now dark, we knew of a couple 1/1 microcaches down in Kent, and we were in and out in no time. We met one of Kent's Finest patrolling on his bicycle, and fortunately he was familiar with the hobby and was soon reassured that we weren't up to any shenanigans--our fannypack wasn't full of Semtex and our GPS wasn't a detonator. He told us about the not-too-bright cacher who planted a gc that looked just like a pipe bomb. Well, it takes all kinds, I guess.
I'm glad we had three successes in a row, because I was pretty discouraged by Poverty Bay. S says he may go do that one alone, now that he has the hints, and not force me to climb the hill again.
Still need: decent shoes, a walking stick, and bug repellent.
The next gc was much easier to find, even though it was a microcache (not an ammo box--think of a tiny cylindrical pill capsule) and night was falling. It was located in a little pocket park that I had never known was there, despite living here all my life! I think we'll discover many more of these hitherto unknown gems.
Although it was now dark, we knew of a couple 1/1 microcaches down in Kent, and we were in and out in no time. We met one of Kent's Finest patrolling on his bicycle, and fortunately he was familiar with the hobby and was soon reassured that we weren't up to any shenanigans--our fannypack wasn't full of Semtex and our GPS wasn't a detonator. He told us about the not-too-bright cacher who planted a gc that looked just like a pipe bomb. Well, it takes all kinds, I guess.
I'm glad we had three successes in a row, because I was pretty discouraged by Poverty Bay. S says he may go do that one alone, now that he has the hints, and not force me to climb the hill again.
Still need: decent shoes, a walking stick, and bug repellent.