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Up until a year ago, the most walking I would do is when I was at the grocery store. Geocaching has helped me change all that and I now have something that motivates me to push myself into doing things that I never would have dreamed of.
The family and I were about the head out on our annual camping trip and chance had it I was on the run-up to my 400th cache. Since there were several geocaches hidden in the area we would be camping, I researched the caches for several days and I found the one that I wanted to do for number 400.
The cache name is “Devil’s Den” and it has a 3.5/4.5 rating on Geocaching.com. This cache is hidden in the beautiful Pawtuckaway State Park, New Hampshire.
As usual, I ended up turning a 4.5 terrain cache into about a 15 terrain. :-P I always seem to find a way to make these hard caches a lot harder than I need to and this one wasn’t any different. I have never cached in this part of Pawtuckaway before, so I came out to cache the day before to “scope” out the area and determine my game plan for the day.
Before heading out I made sure to read over previous logs, so I knew that this one would take a while. I wasn’t sure how long it would take, so I made sure to get out there soon enough to ensure that I would be able to finish before the daylight left. My son and his friend decided to come with me today. Both of them are (were) muggles and I was happy that they decided to go. They had said they wanted an adventure and when I told them about this one they were excited to try it out.
I wanted to make this one my 400th, so we had to stop on the way to the trailhead to grab a couple of caches, bringing me up to 400. Luck was on our side and we found the others quickly, so off we went to the trailhead that I had decided to start at.
We started heading in toward the cache and it appeared to me that the trail was veering away from GZ, so I made the decision to take the direct path to the cache. We were walking through a fairly open area and for a while were following a hiking trail (or maybe an animal trail – I was hoping it was a caching trail, but I think that I was hoping for a lot) J
The walk was pretty flat with only a minimal of an incline for at least a 10th of a mile. This made me excited because I felt this meant that I was heading up the correct side of the mountain. It wasn’t long before the incline was directly in front of us and I thought, “OK, here we go” I have never done as much vertical climbing as I had to here! Wow!
Before geocaching, I really have never been much of an outdoors type, but I have learned that there are a lot of things that I can do that I would not have attempted in my muggle days. The climb wore me out. Of coarse, my son and his buddy had no problem jogging up the mountain, but I was huffing and puffing and taking a break several times along the way.
Finally reaching a rock formation, I was thrilled…this had to mean that I was on the last leg of the journey. The incline increased, my motivation decreased, but I pressed on. Ducking under fallen trees and over boulders I pressed on. About a half hour into the climb I paused and looked up…there were the boys, sitting about 30 feet above me on a boulder, laughing at me struggling up the hill.
I pressed on and found a way to hop from rock to rock to get to the spot where they had been sitting…it was here that I decided to stop and take a break for a while. The boys went out exploring while I caught my breath. I stood up and started heading toward GZ – we were only 560 feet away (not counting the elevation change), but we were in a “flat” area so I knew that it was easy going from here.
30 feet into the hike on this flatter area and BAM – we were on the edge of a cliff with a drop that there was no way I could navigate…it was then that I realized that I was on the other side of the mountain…grrr. To top that off, there was no way to get where I needed to go except down the way I came and then hooking around. Working hard not to roll down the hill, I amused the boys again by sliding down on my butt most of the way, but I made it down – made it around, and then arrived about 90 feet from the cache.
I thought that finding the trailhead would be the hardest part, but it was here that I realized that finding the right spot to enter the den would be the hardest. I was stuck between boulders and a super brambly area, looking high and higher for a way in. The boys climbed more rocks and searched a few spots before one of them hollered down “I think I found it”.
I was happy to hear that, but also had a sense of dread, for I knew that I had more climbing ahead of me. Battered and bruised, scraped and bleeding, I pressed on. My son helped me find the correct way up the hill and I huffed and puffed my way up. I took me a good 15 minutes to get there (took them about 3), but I made it. Once there, I realized that this was it (and there was a much easier trek to get there than from where we just came).
My son asked if I was going in – Of course I was – cant come this far and not check it out. I got into the den okay – had doubts about making it out, but I walked to the den – found the cache, and then paused to appreciate the den…Super cool!!! This was the physically hardest cache I have ever done, but oh so rewarding – I am happy that I chose it to be 400!!
~~Until next time, happy trails and happy caching!