Meat Cove – Cape St. Lawrence – Lowland Cove loop trail

more extreme caching near Meat Cove, Cape Breton

(hike fotos on flickr)

Lighthouse ruins at Cape St. Lawrence

The Meat Cove – Cape St. Lawrence – Lowland Cove loop is a great beginner hike with lots of rugged coastal scenery. It would be an ideal spot, for example, to take a scout troop.

The three hour hike demands some planning and careful packing but the terrain is not overly challenging and the trails are easy to follow.

Youre mostly walking on woods roads and four wheeler trails – and anywhere the motorized mules can go, a hiker can go easily and without worry of losing the path.

The loop makes a fun day-hike or a super overnighter with lots of beach and woods to explore.

There were in fact people camped at Cape St. Lawrence when I did the hike in early July 2009. I wish I had thought of it. In retrospect it seems silly that I paid to sleep on the ground in Meat Cove.

My alarm clock going off in Meat Cove (set for 5.17 am)

Not that I regret it. The Meat Cove campground is in a great location – literally at the end of the road – with a fantastic view over the water to St. Paul’s Island and of Nova Scotia’s most northern headlands.

This tiny community (notice I didnt say village – i think that would be saying too much) is a perfect base for exploring the hills and coast around the northwestern tip of Cape Breton Island. There are lots of other hikes out of Meat Cove besides the Cape St. Lawrence – Lowland Cove loop: there’s Meat Cove Mountain, the Little Grassy trail, a trail to a former zinc mine and of course, the beach below Meat Cove itself – with a waterfall tumbling over a cliff and directly into the ocean.

The campground’s Chowder House restaurant is a tasty place to fuel up and, as it turns out, meet German tourists. The Chowder House doesnt offer breakfast but the local community centre does and you can get on the Internet there.

You pay for both showers and for firewood at the campground. If tenting (20$) is too rough for you, there are also some simple cabins here for 60$ a night. Next time I may just plan to arrive in Meat Cove with enough time to hike to Cape St. Lawrence, park my car at the campground (for a “small fee”) and stay overnight out on the coast.

In 2009 my alarm clock was a stunning sunrise from my bivysack at 5.17 am. After a quick cold breakfast I started walking at 6. The trail is uphill to start but the worst is at the very beginning and the rest of the trip is mostly slow and easy down to the coast.

Lighthouse ruins at Cape St. Lawrence with the Cape Breton Highlands behind

There’s a geocache (GCXAN8) hidden at Cape St. Lawrence and I used those coordinates to guide me to the coast. The cache description also includes these tips:

Head up the trail starting at N47 01.527 W060 33.680 and just follow it until you come to the second trail on the right (marked by flagging tape and two yellow signs). Follow that trail through the woods (saw a moose here) and down the steep Bear Hill. After the hike down the hill, continue along the trail to the cache. You will see the ruins of some old lighthouses in the cache area, and you can see St. Paul Island way in the distance on clear days. Good luck!

After an hour’s easy hiking I was on the coast and looking for the geocache. I didnt see any moose. My log is below (FTFY means first to find this year):

FTFTY
7 am

after watching a glorious red sunrise from my bivy at the meat cove campground i got up at 6:00 and started walking. beautiful out on the coast – there was a camp of sleeping muggles there – i made friendswith the dog. he wanted to come to the next cache i think – but i sent him home.
warm windy sunny bugless beautiful day
quick easy find

T4TC
“D

Seaside sculptures

I could easily have spent more time here just soaking up the early morning sun, poking round the lighthouse ruins and drinking in the sea breeze, but i was curious as hell to explore further down the coast.

Close to 2k south was another cache in a spot known as The Fox Den (GCXANA).

Fox Den
FTFTY
7:45 AM

what a great hike. i love hiking the shore. love it. climbing rocks, checking the coves to see what driftwood or garbage or buoys they have collected, watching the birds and the whales – and the scenery out here – sunny windy bugless perfect summer day on the coast quick find – thanks so much for bringing me

ill be back
“D

Fishing near Lowland cove

Another two or three k south down the coast, all in all a full hour from Cape St. Lawrence just going easy and taking my time, I came to Lowland Cove.

Rannie Gillis, a Cape Breton historian who writes motorcycle travelogues for the Cape Breton Post, wrote in a column on Sept. 20 2010 about his motorized trip to Lowland Cove that the place never had any permanent residents.

There is however a plaque in the cove dedicated to the memory of John W. Fraser who lived alone out there for 12 years. There was also perhaps a lightkeeper at Cape St. Lawrence. And a quick search of the internet revealed a genealogical site listing several more frasers born there.

There is no doubt however that the area (like Pollets Cove) has been used as a summer pasture for horses and cattle since the 1850s. When I arrived that morning there were three horses grazing there.

just a few of the wild strawberries i gathered in lowland cove

There is a fast clear stream and well-established campsite in Lowland Cove with a breathtaking view of the great headlands to the south. I had the good fortune to watch a fisherman hauling lobster traps south of the cove in the shadow of those high hills.

Best of all though were the wild strawberries carpetting the ground here. i feasted and feasted on the tasty little devils.

i had a bit of trouble and a bit of luck with the third cache of the hike. (The word SPRUCE is in all caps in the log below because the clue for the cache was “in a pine bush”. But there was no pine for miles round this spot. It’s a pet peeve of mine that people are always misnaming trees in the geocaching clues. rather than help, it often confuses those of us who know the difference. the misnomer however wasnt my problem on this trip. DNF means did not find)

Lowland Cove (GCXANC)

Grazing near Lowland Cove

two quick finds and then…

the GPS led me to small SPRUCE bush – scratchy – but i looked quickly – nothing – scratched myself some more – still nothing – across the stream? up the slope? along the stream? checked a bit of the stream for an ammo can (what do i know?)
gorged myself on strawberries -handfulls of them – so yummy
looked again – practically stood inside SPRUCE bush.
arrggh
went for a picnic out by the coast, looking down at the waterfalllooking again – everywhere – ok, i give up. so much for my DNFless streak…
wanted to go for a peek round the next point. had to cross stream practically at waterfalls edge – whats that? a big white tub? could it be?

The Lowland Cove cache, rescued and contents spread out to dry

yes, wedged in the rocks at the bottom of the stream was the cache. everything in it a soaking mess. turns out sportsman was right to worry about the spring flood…

i put the mess in the BUSH – right in the scrathiest bit of her – but i think pushkin youll have to plan a trip out here soon and fix’er up and maybe choose a safer spot before next spring.
so glad i found her – and such a fluke

it took me another to get back to meat cove where i had a big breakfast at the community centre – beans and fishcakes and coffee coffee coffee – and apple pie to wash it all down.

i also filled my waterbottles at the community centre and headed up the trail to look for the last cache (at that time) in Meat Cove:  Meat Cove Mountain (GC148CH).

Looking down from Meat Cove Mountain

the trail starts just around the corner from the community centre, although as i remember it from a year ago, the trail head wasnt especially well-marked. once on the trail, you just keep heading up. a tough climb considering id already been hiking all morning but no more than an hour i think – at any rate the view was worth it – in one direction you can look back a long deep valley into the highlands and in the other you are peering right down on meat cove – all 12 buildings or so – oh and out over the ocean of course.

i didnt stay up top too long as the souetes, strong southeast winds, were roaring across the hill tops at 90kmh or more – this cache took a while but then that was it – the last (at that time) of the meat cove caches, and the last of the most northerly cape breton geocaches.

(There is an entry on clubtread.com describing the meat cove trails in specific detail. I cannot vouch for these details but offer the link for the curious. The road to Meat Cove washed out in a couple spots after Hurricane Igor struck and at the time of writing, normal access to the community has still not been restored.)

i had found 22 of the caches north of cape breton highlands national park – there were 11 left – but this story is a bit long already – ill add the rest of the caches and miscellaneous hikes in my next post.

Wilderness and waterfalls

extreme geocaching in remote northern Cape Breton

Puskin's Pilgrimage - hidden waterfalls in the wilds of Cape Breton

Summer 2009 I was leading bus tours around the Maritimes. The trip ended with a two day spin round Cape Breton – driving by those hills and valleys week after week, peering out the window at the woods and rivers, i had decided i was coming back when i had time, and i was going to hike the hell out of the place.

July 5th I had a week off and headed for Cape Breton. I spent a day in Canso at the Stan Rogers Folk Music Festival, I spent two days in Pollets Cove and Pleasant Bay. After some great geocaching up there, I decided maybe I could find all the caches north of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

im talking about geocaching – using a GPS to find hidden logbooks – geocachers like me have hidden over 700,000 containers and log books around the world. check out www.geocaching.com for more info.

Smileys represent the caches I have found. Green boxes are the ones I missed. Today there are more green boxes up there. The T-ratings (T5, T4 etc) indicate how rough the terrain is on a scale from 1 (flat and paved) to 5 (steep and wild). Click for a closer look.

my goal on this trip was to sign all the logbooks on the northern tip of the western half of cape breton island. (see map).

On July 9th, I finished the caches on the west side of the peninsula and started across to the eastern side. some of these are pretty remote and hard to reach. There’s one of them, Im the only person who has found it so far.

here are the logs with fotos added:

(GC1HNJC) Be there or be square

7 AM

spent a lot of time looking under every maple. i even did check this tree late in the search-but blindly.

slept on in it. back first thing this morning and found it pretty quick. that’s all the cachesnorth of the park on this side of the island cleaned up.
now for the other side…
T4TC
“D

Early Morning at Beuchlan Ban Falls in Cape Breton National Park

T4TC means thanks for the cache.

(GC1QTDT) It’s Your Fault! Cape Breton Highlands Ntl. Park

7:30 AM – stopped on way from cleaning up all the caches north of the park on the west side, heading over to clean’em up north of the park on the east side.

answers sent.
photo coming.

thanks for the lesson ( i actually stop here almost once a week when im working – im a tour bus director – they always like this one )

Stopped at BEUCHLAN BAN FALLS in the park and then looked for the cache below in vain. DNF means did not find.

(GCNTE9) Sunrise Valley View

DNF

found the green string too.
no cache

this little darling is the only thing between me and a DNF free sweep of northern Cabot Trail caches… very close to having found them all north of the park (7 more to find tomorrow and this one)

but i guess this will be a good reason to come back again (that and the years park pass i bought)

(FYI: Pushkin is the game name of the person who hid the next couple caches. He is reknowned in Nova Scotia caching circles for his remote, hard to find, waterfall caches…)

Gray's Hollow Falls - in the wilds of Cape Breton

(GC148DV) Gray’s Hollow Falls

9 AM
two quick finds, a waterfall visit, one DNF and then the real fun starts…

i approached the falls by asking the woman at the white house on the corner, 2nd from the end of northside road, if i could cross her land… she said i could use the “road” and since i have the only 4wheel drive civic ever made i jumped at the chance (thats a joke but i like to pretend she has four wheel drive… only ever got stuck once but that is another story)

had a lovely walk up the brook – i love walking brooks (flusslaeufer means riverwalker in german) – no bugs, still cool but sunny and then the wonderful falls.

pushkin i have to tell you i was the happiest man alive just to sit there and enjoy those falls…

a bit of scrambling around looking in all the wrong places. finally ignored the GPS and just asked where would pushkin hide it. that didnt help but then i thought where would i hide it.

wouldnt you know it? great minds think alike. haha
quick find for a pushkin…
you can probably guess where im headed next – on a pilgrimage for an FTF…
T4TC
“D

(FTF means first to find. naturally there is a bit of a race to see who will FTF a cache. The next cache hadnt been found before i went after it – but since i had been on the road for a week, i had no way of knowing if someone had grabbed it before me, til i opened the log book…  These two caches are very remote and the normal cacher does not go after such caches. Gray Falls for example was hidden in Sept. 2007 and now, three years later, it has only been found by 5 people. I was the fourth.)

(GC1H6AA) Pushkin’s Pilgrimage

WOOOhooo YEEEhaw yabba dabba doo

FTF

the story goes like this. every year we go to stanfest and last year some friends invited me to go to pollets afterwards. they wanted to make that a tradition too. well after 3 days of getting drenched at stanfest, they all ran for halifax. but in the meantime, i had promised to replace a cache in pollets cove for the owner who couldnt make it.

The lower half of Pushkin's Pilgrimage... now to find the cache...

so i went to pollets anyway. alone. and then just kept caching. some where along the line i decided to try for every cache north of the cape breton highlands national park. including these two great waterfalls.

and guess what i found them. i described the land crossing permission in gray hollow falls log. continuing up to this one was a no brainer. very exciting to follow pushkins footsteps up to this isolated backcountry spot. and climb around on slippery cliffs. and .. a quick easy find… lots of photos… a little breathing in and out and then off for more caches.

thanks pushkin. they truly are a beautiful falls and a wild wild spot fully deserving of a geocache.
THIS IS WHY I GEOCACHE: to see spots like this.
more please
“D

(This cache had been hidden six months before i found it on November 10th, 2008. Now, another year later, Im still one of only two people who have found it. Though six people have placed the listing on their “watch list.”

This was a big deal for me. I love Pushkin’s caches and I loved being the First to Find his Pilgrimage Cache – a waterfall hiking caching pilgrimage – that sound likes my kind of religion.)

I guess a normal person might have called it a day, but I had some more caches to find. I drove down to the tiny fishing village of Bay St. Lawrence and had a $5 breakfast at the community centre. From there it was a 6k hike over the mountains to Money Point and more caches. (blog post about the hike and fotos from Money Point.)

The logs from the second part of the day:

At the end of a 6k hike through the hills, the Money Point Light finally comes into view.

(GCWXRX) Lighthouse Ruins

guess what history dude: it’s there.

actually an easy find
ONCE YOU GET THERE !!
a monster hike. monstrous. up up up down down down.
but then… geocachers paradise.
i hope to get back and maybe add some more caches.
windy sunny cool no bugs and no muggles at all.
just me and the ghosts. beautiful summer day on the coast.
thanks so much for bringing me over that crazy trail to this wild spot.

THIS IS WHY I GEOCACHE.
thanks

(This above cache was hidden in May 2006 and as of Sept. 2010, it has only been found by 6 people. I was the fifth. A kayaker found it a month after me. So far in 2010, no one has signd the log. FTFTY in the log below means first to find it this (now that) year. Two more people found it that year, for a total of ten. No one has signed its log in 2010 either.)

Looking back at Bay St. Lawrence on the way to Money Point, I decided this look-off deserved a cache (End of Up).

(GCQD5G) Hey Look……..An Island

FTFTY
(like being the first in any given year to visit a cache.)
what a place. cool eeerie freaky
this is one of the top 5 days of caching i have ever had.
sunny windy cool perfect no bugs no muggles
but lots of ghosts im sure

what a zonky place. planning figuring dreaming about coming back again… with friends…

T4TC
“D

After that i turned around and hiked the 6k back out, hid a cache on the way, ((GC1VXJ2) End of Up ), and drove over to Meat Cove. Just before the village, I pulled over to the side of the road for this next cache:

On the way to Meat Cove, I climbed up here for a cache and got my first view of Nova Scotia's northernmost community.

(GCG407) Northern Tip of Cape Breton

this was a fun cache towards end of day.

id already FTF’D a pushkin, was over to money point light for two caches there and … well… had a little energy left

great wild climbing spot. great view.

word to the wise: if youre tired of having your legs scratched to heck, go ahead one power pole past the pull off and start climbing the rocks there. if you do it right, youll never have to step in the tuckamore at all.

thanks heaps
“D

And finally, I got a camp site at the very end of the road in Meat Cove, had supper at the little take out there and it was getting on for 7 p.m. Id been going steady for 12 hours. I really should have settled down for a long summer’s nap. But nah… just one more:

Jumping Brook Falls on the beach near Meat Cove; as of Sept 2010, Im the only one who has ever found this cache.

(GC1VHBP) Jumping Brook Falls

FTF
a second pushkin FTF in one day??!!
surprised the heck out of me too

i was setting up camp at the meat cove campground when i noticed the falls but i didnt put two and two together.

then i thought why not one more cache before bed. thats when i realized i didnt have the coordinates.. – see i did my pocket queries quite a while ago (ive been on the road) but i was just checking my route and scribbling down notes on a map the night before i left… i wrote down the clues and the parking coordis and assumed the cache was in my pocket queries…
nope. somehow i also had the parking coordinates wrong?

but there arent that many houses along the road. found the trail… but without coordinates it dumped me in the middle of a bramble patch. fought my way to the beach. assuming the falls i had seen were the falls in question. lovely photos. climbed up the bank and took a look but nothing obvious. wondered if maybe the “falls” were farther up the brook. walked the whole thing. no falls. back to the bottom.

checked everywhere. even the cache location.

not sure how or why i finally spotted them. just an inkling of how cruel pushkin can be if the mood strikes.

hard work paid off in super luck today. then my pen broke. painted my signature in book. it might be a little messy.
nonetheless a great ending to a fantastic day hunting plastic.

T4TC
“D

Watching the sunrise over St. Paul's Island from my bivy in Meat Cove. The start of another caching day...

Slept soundly that night in my bivy sack under the stars. the next morning though i was awake before sunrise, which was exactlly 5.17 am. I know cause i took a bunch of fotos from my bed… and then i headed off to hike round Cape St. Lawrence… but thats another story…

Hiking to Money Point

Nova Scotia's northern lighthouse graveyard

Cape North Lighthouse at Money Point, Cape Breton - out back of nowhere

Money Point is not in the middle of nowhere – its at the far end of nowhere, beyond nowhere, on the edge of nothing.

It is a lonely spot, at the northernmost tip of Nova Scotia. It is of course wildly gorgeous: steep 300m headands covered in spruce looming over a small grassy shore, rocks, waves and endless ocean.

It can be an eerie spot too – it’s a sort of lighthouse graveyard. Overgrown foundations, rusting machinery, crumbling walls and rotting modern structures litter a mile or so of the shore.

I hikded out there in the summer of 2009 following my nose and the coordinates of a couple geocaches.

I parked my car just up the Money Point Road, east of the harbour in Bay St. Lawrence (see map)(N47′00.777 W60′26.403).

But it is possible to drive much closer with four wheel drive vehicles (especially I believe using the access road to the south of the village leading to the communication tower.)

Trailhead just east of Bay St. Lawrence (click for better look)

The hike - easy to navigate, but tough to walk (click for closer look)

My hike was easy to navigate – I just followed the Money Point Road north east up into the hills, east across the top of the plateau to the other side, and then north straight down to the point.

There is one nice look off on the hike up, but generally the hike is a little sad – youre hiking on a gravel woods road lined with scrubby spruce and alders.

The trail down into (and, youd best not forget, “up out of”) Money Point is steep and mostly washed out. Youre either walking in deep gulleys carved by erosion or youre clambering on the scree piles of round gravel washed out of the trails.

A long green meadow littered with crumbling foundations, rusting machinery and surrounded by endless ocean

The destination however is another world altogether. I felt the whole time I was down there like an astronaut on a space walk, out at the end of his tether. Like I was exploring a world apart, like I was cut off entirely from the civilization just over the hill.

Certainly, If Id hurt myself down there, it might have been weeks before the next hiker or four wheelin picnickers came to the cove – there was no way to pick up cell service there under the cliffs at the northern edge of Nova Scotia. I was on my own. It was a strange feeling – and one that seemed to heighten my senses, made me hyper-vigilant about my surroundings, about how tired I was, about every step I took.

There is a strip of meadow out there 300m wide and about 1.5 km long. I didnt have time or the energy to explore much to the east of the access road, but I strolled down through the grass westwards.

Looking back east across the meadows from the lighthouse. 1.5k east at the far end of the meadows is the access road.

The meadow is full of the signs of old lighthouses – the first cache i found is hidden in an old rock foundation surrounding a pile of rusting metal. (N 47° 01.156 W 060° 23.274).

The cache had been there for three years at that point and I was only the fifth person to have signed the log – today, another year later and only one further person has visited the cache.

Of course many more people visit the point (kayakers, four wheelers and perhaps visitors in fishing boats) but on this particular day it was just me and the gulls and a steady cool wind (another reminder to keep my wits about me and to play safe.)

I walked west to the main lighthouse station – from afar it looked to be in perfect working condition but as i got closer i noticed the huge hole in the side of the building and the general run down state of the light. it was quite obviously not being maintained anymore.

Disappearing history at Nova Scotia's northern lighthouse graveyard.

the wooden helipad and the stairs leading from it looked in great shape but all around the site were the semi-demolished remains of outbuildings (?) and older lights (?) – the beach itself hid many chunks of rusty iron machinery

the “road” to the light is slowly eroding into the sea leaving a couple out-of-place aluminum guard rails stranded on the shore.

the end of the road is the lighthouse. beyond to the westward, on the other side of cliff-lined cove is Cape North – a high broad headland – the absolute most northern point of cape breton and believed by some to be the first bit of land that john cabot saw when he first explored this part of north america

up until i was standing there, i had thought i might actually get all the way out to nova scotia’s most northerly point – but not this day – i sat for a while and scouted

Looking over at Cape North - out of reach - for now

the mountains, day-dreaming of coming back for a few days with friends – camping at money point and then pushing on over the slopes and through the bush to Cape North – of course kayaking would be the easiest way over…

i do hope i get back some day, if only to spend a few more dream filled hours on that wild shore

more fotos from the hike to Money Point

Reflections on Blair River River (Pollets Solo 2009 Part IV) (fotos)

I love waking up in pollets cove - especially because the two times ive slept there, i havent been in a tent, but just a bivy sack ( a sort of waterproof sleeping bag )

when you got to sleep in pollets, there's no light pollution to ruin the view of the night sky - when you wake up there is nothing but woods sky and waves - nothing - boring on the one hand - peaceful and restful on the other

july 2009 i was alone and pretty tired - happy to rest and soak up the peace - happy just to lie there and watch the sky brighten - i climbed out of the sack long enough to start the fire again and then dozed til the sun came over the hills and started drying up the dew

when i finally got up and started thinking about hiking out, i noticed the blair river was flat as a mirror

i took some fotos

See the full gallery on posterous

Moose traffic jam on the skyline trail (fotos up close and personal)

Id heard there was a good chance of seeing moose on the skyline trail, but that wasnt why i was out here.

I had hiked out to the very end of the narrow ridge overlooking the Cabot Trail and the Gulf of St. Lawrence because i was tired of pretending i knew the trail. Id been driving by all summer with bus loads of tourists, pointing out where i thought the trail was and describing what i assumed it was like out there.

Today I was going to find out. The first part of the trail is quite boring and disappointing. You walk along what is for all intents and purposes and wide flat gravel road lined with scrubby spruce. I did briefly see a moose on the way in but he was a bit mangy and thin and there are signs warning you about getting too close.

I kept going as I was anxious to get out on the ridge. The trail narrows and narrows and eventually becomes a boardwalk - a boardwalk you are not allowed to leave - if Parks Canada let people walk on the ridge, the exposed soil would be eroded away by the Souette's or southeast winds that whip across the table top mountains.

The old trail goes beyond the end of the boardwalk and it took all of my willpower to resist going just a little farther. There is a 350$ fine if you leave the boardwalk, so it really wasnt that hard to be sensible.

And the view at the end of the boardwalk is pretty darm imressive enough. The Gulf of St. Lawrence 300m below on one side and the Cabot Trail highway snaking up French Mountain on the other. If you go, I suggest taking extra clothes, a picnic, binoculars and leave yourself lots of time; for watching fishing boats, drifting clouds, diving gannets or even the traffic on the trail.

By traffic on the trail, I mean moose. It took me a full hour longer to leave the trail than it did to head in - as it was getting on towards evening, the moose were coming out of the woods and standing right on the path -at first it was exciting and interesting. but the moose were in no hurry to leave the trail - and even when they did they often stood just to the side of the trail - still not really safe to pass by

it wasnt til i had managed to scurry by a couple and then found myself trapped between two groups of the huge creatures that i remembered my good friend colin had told me a similar story - the longer you wait, the darker it gets, the more moose that come, the longer you have to wait...

The bright side is i had accomplished what i set out to do: i now had lots to tell my passengers the next time we swung up french mountain across from the skyline trail - i could quite honestly say, id spent a lot of time out there.

See the full gallery on posterous

 

 

Ok yeah it sorta does look like a .... (geocaching lessons from a greenhorn)

i got some serious schooling in geocacheing yesterday from michael...

honestly, on a good day here in germany i might pick up three or four - michael has just started cacheing and had a total of two finds before yesterday's run - but he managed to lay out a route so that he found 7 more caches - in an hour and a half - without a gps - thankfully he let me tag along and i picked up 5 new finds - without a gps - 5 finds is for me a real great day cacheing in germany

the success of this mission all came down to excellent planning - michael picked easy caches (with a difficulty rating of 1.5 or lower - although one cache with a terrain rating of three did sneak into his list) - he picked them out in his neighbourhood - so he knew the streets and the parks - and he noted down (most of) the important information:

if im writing out info for a run, i try to include as a minimum:

• cache size
• the terrain rating and the overall difficulty rating
• maybe a sketch of where the cache is in relation to nearby buildings or landmarks
• hints and clues from the cache description or gleaned from the logs of other searchers

also working in a pair or a larger group makes it easier to handle the muggle issue - i feel less conspicuous and less weird when im creeping about a park with someone else - but then i have to admit i felt a little uncomfortable when michael started groping this "rocket" so intimately...

 

See the full gallery on posterous

Found my 1200th hunk of plastic - wrecked my camera - cause i dont know when to quit

It's real easy to go too far with this geocahing foolishness

More than a little pleased with my 1200th geocache

Its real easy to go too far with this geocaching foolishness. I should know: i just found my 1200th hunk of plastic junk. And, hindsight being what it is, i can see that would have been a good place to stop. But no, i had to go and get all greedy.

No matter what anyone says, numbers are important to geocachers. And we generally like to celebrate milestones with special finds; we go out of our way, maye even wait a couple days so we can find a memorable cache, something interesting, challenging, out of the ordinary, something we wont forget.

********************

For my 500th and 1000th finds, for example, I made sure my son was with me – for 500, we went to the Holy Grail of Canadian geocaching, GCBBA – the first cache above the 49th parallel hidden near Chester, NS.

For the 1000th we took a little 8k stroll along the beach – on a chilly drizzly blizzardy day – to the very end of Munroe’s Island in Pictou for GCRC8X. Jony insisted I “claim” the find and he took a foto which Ive been using as my buddy icon all over the internet ever since.

My son and I with GCBBA - the first cache in Canada and my 500th find

************************

I havent been finding so many caches since I came over to Germany.

Claiming 1000

In general, German caches require more work to find. For instance most people here hide multis – meaning there is more than one station involved – so you might have to find a dozen clues before you find the cache.

And people here really like puzzle caches, where you have to solve a riddle or riddles to find the cache. Germans seem to like this kind of thing – they often spend a whole afternoon to find one cache, while in Canada, I have found more than 70 in a day.

Canadians often just throw an ice cream bucket in the woods and call it a cache.

Finally though, ten months after coming to Germany, ten months after breaking 1000, I hit 1199 on Friday, August 20th. Then the thinking began: what do I want to do for 1200? It’s not a huge milestone so a part of me considered not worrying about it; just finding a boring old 35mm film container stuck to some guard rail or a church’s drain pipe – yawn.

Lasti 'saving' me as I swim across the Ruhr to GC11GKX

But there were several caches nearby worthy of a 1200th find.

Late last winter, as the ice everywheres was melting, I solved an extra tough riddle cache – it will be a story in itself some day, when I ever get to actually grabbing the damn thing – the riddle was hard enough, but the coordinates showed the cache is hidden on an island – the only way to get to the thing is by paddle boat or with the right temperatures in winter, you could walk across the ice.

Ive been waiting on that one. Also there was …anne Ruhr… a “canoe” cache less than 500m from our new flat but on the other side of the river. The land around the cache is fenced off by the water company. So the only approach is from the river – by water. A normal person would take a boat.

I dont have a boat, so a couple weeks ago I tried to swim over – well I did swim over despite our dog lasti trying everything he could to stop me – heike says the dog was trying to save me – i thought he might kill me quite honestly – i lost a croc in the battle and came away with some nice scars.

That day I didnt find the cache. But it would definitely make a great 1200th…

Zeche Charlotte - ruins of an abandoned mine near our house

There was also the cache on the site of the abandoned Charlotte Mine (GC27X9A) , not more than 200m from our house. This was a T5 multi – T5 is the highest terrain possible. It means you need special equipment, in this case, climbing gear.

Because it is so close, I had been down to the mine a few times, just to check it out, and see what might be necessary for gear.

I had managed to climb in the damp dark slimy mine opening without a rope and look for the clues. I hadnt found them yet, but then I hadnt given it my all. The second station required no climbing – just a willingness to squeeze through a narrow muddy opening, crawl over a mountain of tires and search for clues in the dark. Hadnt really even looked for them yet either.

But for the third station, I was going to need a rope – the clues were down about 20′ in a mining shaft – 20′ is not too far to jump down except I would be landing in water and so i couldnt tell what i would be landing on – and then 20′ is too much for me to jump straight up on the way out – I would need a rope.

Right after finding my 1199th, with all these thoughts in my head, I was shopping and saw a 20m rope for sale for 4€. Not exactly a climbing rope but it would do for this mission…And then that night, my neighbour hauled out a real climbing rope and said he’d come with me on Sunday. Right, for a special 1200th i could wait. Even though it was a weekend, my precious days off, usually my biggest caching days – I would wait.

Inside the mine opening of the Charlotte Mine - looking for clues

Sort of. I spent Friday night studying the cache description and the logs of those who had found it thus far. Their fotos gave me tons of information – i knew the property pretty well and though they had made some effort to not reveal where the cache was exactly, there were just enough clues in the fotos to help me narrow it down considerably. Still best to wait and go with a rope…

Sort of. Lasti and i took a stroll by the mine site in the morning, just to make sure everything was as it should be. Everything wasnt. The grounds were all dug up, big trenches, mountains of rubble here, piles of bricks there – and parked to one side, a line of excavators, bulldozers and trucks.

And then I saw someone rummaging around the mind opening; I couldnt tell if it was a worker or another cacher, so Lasti and I left the way we had come. When I got home, i went to the cache page and read the worst possible news.

Heike and lasti searching the mine site before the clean up

yes that had been a cacher i had seen, and he said that the site of the final cache location was dug up and so he believed the cache was gone. it looked like id have to forget the mine cache for my 1200th.

sort of. when heike got home from work we decided to take another walk through the mine site for a closer look – this time there was no one around and we saw just how much had been dug up – the whole place – its seems they are going ahead with a planned renaturalisation of the property – its the perfect spot for a park as it abuts an abandoned railbed turned bike path – heres hoping it does become a park.

but there was little hope for the cache. the whole place had been dug up and graded, rocks and bricks sorted into piles, metals and other garbage in other piles – a baustelle – german meaning construction site and utter chaos. i had just about given up on finding the cache…

I looked over the old crumbling wall and there it was... my 1200th geocache

sort of. i had a rough idea where the cache was – and so we walked along the top of an old crumbling wall – i pointed out to heike a bollard i had seen in the fotos – and then i took a look over the side – !!

yes it was that easy – hanging on a chain in a little niche about 4 feet down the wall was a big green ammo can – i got heike to hold my feet and over i went – with the very tip of my fingers i hooked the chain and hauled it up – my 1200th find – a T5 – with no special equipment – except for heikes hands on my ankles – yeehaw

yes sir, sometimes the hard ones are easy, and sometimes, the easy ones turn out to be way too hard…

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yes sir, maybe if id just quit there. but no, i never seem to be satisfied – my ‘cacheing motto is “just one more” and so, that night i started thinking i might as well find the cache across the river

geocaching's dark ugly secret

and it looked like there was a puzzle cache near the river too (GC236CN) – thats the trouble with puzzle caches – you never know exactly where they are til you figure it out; so i set to figuring it out – it was a a picture of two flattened rubiks cubes – with numbers on them – “solve” the flattened cubes and the numbers are in the right order to make up the coordinates

i couldnt manage to solve the flattened cubes, so i built little models out of them from paper and then i was able to visualise the solutions. the coordinates were right on the path to the cache across the river – right behind the water treatment facility – oh yes

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sunday morning, before sunrise, i sipped coffee, laced up my sneakers and made quick notes about clues and streets -  then i set off jogging to the other side of the river and around behind the water treatment plant. 6k.

Cachers biathlon - solve and run, solve and run

i found the first station of the rubiks cube cache: a tupperware container holding two REAL but scrambled rubiks cubes – when you solved them, you got the coordinates to the final – a great idea – orginal and fun

it reminded me of a sort of cacher’s biathlon… run solve run solve run…

after finding that cache, it was a hop skip and a jump to woods which hid a hole in the fence around the water treatment plant property – id found that hole a few months ago while thinking about grabbing the river cache from land – i had been waiting for a bright night or early weekend morning…

the woods were easy to navigate but at the edge along the fields i found a wall of thick thorny brambles – it was a slow painful struggle to try and slip through their silently and without making a ruckus

i wasnt super worried about getting caught on an early sunday morning, but still i crouched and steathily slunk across the wide open fields to the trees along the river edge.

One last peaceful foto before i jumped in the Ruhr and killed my camera

there i had to fight my way through more brambles and six foot high stinging netttles to the tree where the cache was hidden – once there, this time, it was a quick and easy find (GC11GKX) – thorns and brambles the only problem – no man-shredding dogs

so to make the mission a little more interesting, i swam home – i thought it would be more fun and i thought id avoid going back over the property and risking getting caught – and besides it was shorter – a 2k jog instead of 6k

the swim was so easy and pleasant without the rescue dog gnawing on my arms and legs – as i neared the far shore i stood up and enjoyed for a second this unusual view of this otherwise fully familiar spot

worth a foto, i thought, drawing my waterproof Olympus 770 out of its ziplock baggy – id stuck it in there with my gps and house key “just to be sure” – then i heard a strange plop – my house key falling in the ruhr – and disappearing forever into the murky sediment that coats the bottom

The very last image from my Olympus 770 - Rage against the dieing of the light

while i looked for the key i stuffed the open ziplock bag back into my pocket – and that i think is how the camera got wrecked – that and shes been thru too much to be waterproof anymore – shes battered and smashed and the hatch is off the USB connection – all i know for sure is, the last foto ever taken with my good ol Olympus 770 was taken at 7:48 on August 22 – a dark murky fog

Tough cameras at their end know dark is right,
No memory card can hold it all,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

No cache is worth a 400$ camera, a sandal and a house key. but the way i see it. now that ive been through all that crap, my caching karma is probably all loaded up on the good side – i could probably find me a bunch of easy ones now…

just one more anyway…