Some of you may already know me, and have heard some of my travel tales….but honestly there are always more. I say it all the time that geocaching with me can be an “I Love Lucy” experience, and even more so when I am caching alone. I laugh, I fall, I bleed, and OH YES I CUSS. But in the end, if I get that smiley it is all worth it.
One thing I am known for and get comments on all the time are my logs. I refuse to do a simple “TFTC!” I know how much work even the simplest LPC can be to get it all together for the find. I typically leave a nice log, maybe about my caching day, maybe if its a weekend trip and that first paragraph will be a bit generic about the entire trip, but I try to leave a tidbit of each experience on the log. So this is when people take notice. I just don’t describe it was cold and rainy….I will share the good, the bad and the ugly…which leads to some laughs, and a lot of conversations when I get to events from people who have seen the logs and CO’s. I was approached some time ago to write down a few of these to share on here, and unfortunately life gets in the way at times. So I decided that while time permits I will come on here, maybe drop a story or two, at least during these long months of little caching, and at least get some thrills and hopefully you will to. So without further ado…..
Cooper Cache-(Disclaimer: This cache is now archived so these are no longer spoilers!)
Cooper Cache was a local legend in the Fort Wayne area. As a new cacher, when you went to events you would hear cachers whispering about it. It was one of those pinnacle finds that people would ask “Have you found Cooper Cache.” So of course this got on my radar at a very young caching age. Cooper Cache was a Decon container. Simply stuck to a bridge with a magnet. The catch, it was one of those large grid iron train bridges that had been converted to pedestrian traffic. Once you set food inside that metal frame your GPS became useless and you basically had to try to plot a direction, pace it out, and hope you kept close to the heading. The other trick to this cache was getting around the muggles. It was hard to search when it is on a busy path in downtown!
Needless to say I had made a trip or two looking for this cache, but with nothing to show for it. I mean I was pretty sure it was the east side of the bridge, just north of the halfway point…but again, that was a guess hoping I could walk a straight line that far to GZ without help of my GPS. I was still very new to the game, so I didn’t have any geopals go use as a phone a friend or to get any hints for it either, and slowly I lost interest in this one and continued caching elsewhere. Then one day it happened. I remember who it was but don’t worry I won’t out you, you have no idea that you were the one that I overheard talking about it that gave me the clue I needed. But what I overheard was “I was laying in some awkward angles with that mirror, and even more so to actually grab that cache.”
At last a clue I could work with! I was thrilled! So there I was in late May, a nice warm morning, it was sunny, and I got there shortly after 8am to reduce my muggle encounters. I was primed with an adjustable telescoping mirror, my geobag of the few tools I had acquired by this point, and the drive to finish this one…my first 4.5D cache. I was laying down checking a few areas and after a couple of adjustments, and widening my search area a bit I finally caught glimpse of that green decon container with the bright green geocaching sticker in that little 2″ mirror. I had it! I finally had it!
I put on my gloves and adjusted the angel I was laying at, reached down deep…I mean I was almost shoulder deep in that bridge, and I felt the container! At last it was mine. What came next was something that you see in movies… It was the “OHHHH FUUUUUDGGGEEEE” moment. That sound will forever be in my mind. It was like some sick, twisted, Price Is Right version of Plinko. Just as the magnet pulled free from the metal of the bridge, my fingers slipped off of the lid. That was followed by the clang, clang, clang, as the container bounced from support to support, before the SPLASH of it falling into the river! Oh my God….I killed one of the most talked about caches of our region. I had to fix it! I ran to the rail and thankfully saw the cache lightly bobbing in the center of the river, moving slowly with the current. I went down the trail to the water’s edge and began to REALLY rethink my future in caching. I wasn’t dressed for swimming in the Fort Wayne river (I mean who carries a HAZMAT suit in their cache gear?), I was driving my nice car, so I couldn’t just hop in soaked and head home. As it slowly drifted I looked for long sticks hoping it would drift to the side where I could reach it, but no…it only stayed dead center in the river.
As I walked back to the car I saw my last hope. Conveniently there is a boat rental place next to the bridge, so I waited 45 minutes for it to open, and went in to get a Kayak. After explaining the long story about why I only needed a boat for 10 minutes while I retrieved an item I dropped in the river, hoping 45 minutes wasn’t long enough for it to travel downstream to the dam or over it, I got my life vest, and they helped me shove off. After a few nerve racking moments getting situated and moving, (did I mention this was my first time in a Kayak?), I made my way quickly downstream and saw exactly what I was hoping for. Only a couple hundred feet downstream was a bridge with a log jam, and stuck in the edge of it all, was the container! I skillfully pulled up, drifted sideways up to the jam, and retrieved the cache…careful to put it safely down on the floor where it couldn’t fall back in…AGAIN. I expertly paddled back upstream to the boat shop, beached the Kayak, and got out with only getting my shoes mildly damp! I’m one of those pack a swimsuit and crocs if you are kayaking, because you are getting in…all the way, type of people. So of course I am proud of how well I did, even if nobody saw it, or will ever believe me.
After checking the boat back in, and getting my deposit back, I cracked open the container to sign that beautiful log. I grabbed the trackable from the container (my first), so thankfully I did retrieve the cache or this could have been lost forever. I put it all back together, laid down, and put it back up under the deck of the bridge. Making VERY sure the magnet caught before I released the container. I had done it, I had finally found my first 4.5/1.5. I mean sure this trip took more than 3 hours, 45 min waiting on a business to open…and I used a Kayak on a 1.5 terrain….but I found it! Sadly enough I read posts later in the season to find out that the cache had been moved over 1 support beam by some idiot. (ummm probably the guy who dropped it in the river and took over an hour to get it back on the bridge…and walked up to the wrong beam unknowingly making it 30 feet off original GZ) So it later became tethered to the underside of the bride to keep it from falling, or moving again.
So there it is. My first of many caching adventures that still gets brought up at events on occasion. Sure it’s been 5 years now, but sometimes your caching trips leave a lasting impression on all! So thanks to anyone who braved my ramblings to make it this far in my post. Who knows what stories I may pull out in the future…but I promise I do have a few that are at least shorter reads than this one. May the mosquitos be few, and the ammo cans plenty!
