I'm lucky to live in an area that has a wide range of cache-types. My favorites tend to be the long rugged hike type. Practically right around the corner from me is The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park and it's loaded with these kind of caches. When a couple of new ones popped up in an area of the forest I wasn't too familiar with, I was anxious to get out there. Having been in that general area before I knew this was going to be quite an effort getting to these caches so I called my geo-pal Evil Cow Pie told her of the 'good' news - I wanted those new caches!

ECP started her caching stint as an urban finder but as we spent more time caching together I slowly converted her to more of a hiking finder. She can always be counted on to pick up a challenge with me and I've certainly dragged her through more than her share. We had tried for this cache (GC1ZP7P - Nisene Hideout) earlier hoping for the FTF but against the advice of the CO we went at it straight on (read - straight up) and were turned back by the terrain and ultimately the light. I should have seen this as a harbinger of things to come...

On the day of the big push I tried to rise early so as not to let the lack of light be our excuse. But as these things sometimes go by the time we got our gear together, stopped to buy food for the trail, etc. our start was only moderately early. As I was loading up my pack I threw in a magnetic compass almost as an after thought. Bikes loaded, we headed out and parked at the park parking lot closest to our destination. This gave us about a 6 mile ride in, uphill. The toughest section called The Incline is so steep we had to push our bikes (it's ride-able for real mountain bikers - so I'm told - but not for me). "Conquering" that section we peddled the rest of the way to Whites Lagoon where we had to ditch our bikes because they are not permitted on the trail from that point on. I spied a good spot to hide the bikes and locked them to a nearby tree. Stowing helmets and other accoutrements of cyclery, I pulled out my GPS and turned it on. Being half distracted by talk of the upcoming hike I took the coordinates of where our bikes were and off we went.

It is beautiful in that section of the forest. Big redwoods and hardly any underbrush. It was a nice day and we were feeling great. The first cache we searched for was The Nisene Tree Climb (GC1ZP8F). I dutifully followed The Machine's suggestions but saw nothing that looked like the tree we were searching. We expanded the search quite a bit but still nada. Mind you, this should have been a pretty easy tree to spot. The coords were bouncing like mad so I encouraged ECP to plop the coords into her GPSr and see what she got. About that time my GPSr came to it's senses and both of devices indicated that the cache was .18 miles away. Hmmm. Off we went and sure enough we now found the tree with no problems. I shimmied up the tree, grabbed the cache and signed the log. Time to head for the other cache.

Now is the time I should have been questioning what had been wrong with my GPS device. But the time we spent looking in the wrong place had cost us precious daylight and I was anxious to keep moving. There was a trail from this point on so the going was relatively easy. We got to GZ and quickly made the find. A big yummy ammo can in a very cool spot. We took a quick break, snacked and headed back. I knew we were cutting it close time-wise but I also knew if we made it to the bikes before dusk, the fire road back to parking would be a piece of cake. We had been hiking/biking for about 6 hours at this point so the climb back up to The Nisene Climbing Tree cache was a challenge but being on the trail, all we had to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Back at the Climbing Tree the trail vanished and we were on our own, bush-whacking from this point. No problem though because all we had to do was follow the arrow on the GPSr, right? We headed off and after a while I started having a feeling that we were not going in the right direction. We took several different readings but The Machine kept telling me to continue on. Shortly we started descending a hillside steeper than I remembered. Also the underbrush got very heavy. OK, now I need to stop and figure this out. We are losing light and elevation fast. I had two choices; Go the direction I thought we should go or trust my GPSr. I made what I thought was the right decision and trusted the technology. When we arrived at the bike coordinates nothing looked familiar and within about 5 minutes the forest went black - literally. We searched through our packs and found that we had exactly one penlight between us, the kind that uses one AA battery. Thoroughly lost at this point the thought ran through my mind that we might be spending the night out here. Not good.

ECP was rightly concerned but I assured her that everything was OK and we'd figure it out. We rested a few minutes and consumed our last Gu packet and drank our last water. Feeling more refreshed I was able to think a little better. I had the map and the GPS but how to locate where we were on the map? I remembered a trick I had seen another cacher use in the deep woods. On the edges of the map there were printed latitude and longitude markings. Whew! I took a GPS reading and was able to locate ourselves in the park. I also now knew which direction to go to get us back to the nearest trail. But how to mark and maintain that heading in pitch black, off trail with only a tiny pen light? Aha, the magnetic compass! With the compass I was able to orient the map and plot the direction we needed to hike. I took notice of where the moon was in relationship to our intended path of travel and asked ECP to note it. I used the penlight to navigate the bushwhacking while she kept us on course. We eventually made the trail, found our bikes and headed back. It felt great to be heading back downhill on the fire road but we still only had the one light between us so it was a little dicey to say the least. In the end it seems I had turned on my GPSr and marked the bikes' coordinates without letting it warm up or thoroughly find itself in the heavy redwood forest. A mistake I won't make again soon, I assure you. I'm also never without a good flashlight (or two) and that lifesaving magnetic compass.

The ranger was waiting at our car as we were way past the dusk designation for leaving the park. We were scratched and bloody and had to sign a waiver absolving the park of responsibility for our wounds. And since we waived off his suggestion that he should call for an ambulance, he took photos of us as documentation. He must have thought we were loons but at least he had a good story to tell. We laughed all the way back home adding our experience to another great adventure that geocaching had bestowed upon us.

By DarkZen

Steven Stone (DarkZen)

Originally from Texas, I now call Northern California home. I'm a graphic artist and residential designer specializing in kitchen and bath design.

Comments(2):

1. Great story!

   When I read a story like this one, I realize how lucky I am that my wife is not able to make such a trek into the woods. Great adventure to read about but not one I wish to experience. Thank goodness for the ignore list. Keep the stories coming.

   Friday, December 03, 2010 Marvin

2. oh yes

   I went exploring in FNM right after the earthquake of 1989. The epicenter was determined to have come from that area. we got thoroughly lost, had no food, no compass and it got to be dark and foggy. a scary experience. finally saw a small sign. lucky to hav gotten out of there! geogirl29

   Friday, March 25, 2011 jamie