Caching Partners

Day 314: After helping me by transporting a couch, a dresser and five wooden chairs from my fishing buddy's daughter's home to mine, my caching partner Dan and I took off for the woods, GPS receivers in hand. After a delightful foray into the subalpine reaches for a hide which had only one prior finder in two years, we descended to the hidden waterfall I visited just a few weeks ago. I felt Dan needed to experience some of the frustration I felt as I poked and probed until I finally located a small tube with a paper log sheet inside, waiting for my signature. Not wishing to be unduly cruel, I gave him a little information to tighten his seach: "You're within ten feet of the cache. It's not at ground level and it's below head-height," and then stepped back to watch him repeatedly put his hand in the hole where the prize lay hidden without discovering it. "You were warm a minute ago. Now you're cold. Nope, getting colder." Again, his hand went in the hole. Finally, I began to wonder if I had misremembered. While he was searching elsewhere, I put my hand inside and poked around in the dirt and mud. Yep, it was there. I gave him a little more encouragement and at last, his fingers felt the smooth sides of the container in the goo. Luckily, the waterfall was nearby for a quick rinse.

After making this find, we went on to Packwood where a purportedly simple cache eluded us. With two pairs of eyes searching, a 1.5 star micro failed to come to light in 20 minutes of intense survey over seemingly bare ground. Win some, lose some...and in caching, sometimes the most difficult hides fall more easily than those rated at "beginner" level. Three for me today, and eight or nine for Dan, who was covering new ground.