I was saying in my last Geocaching post that I hadn’t been out doing much caching lately, and then the very next afternoon I found myself with free time and the desire to go and find the cache that I had got the answers to the puzzle to last weekend… That cache was on the route of a walk with 7 other caches on it, and then there were two or three to pass on the way there and two or three to pass on the way back too, in the end I went and found 19 caches during my four and a half hour trip
1st August 2010 – Queen Alice GC170P0 – cache # 643
A few weeks ago I went looking for this cache and failed to find it, and then sent an email to the owner who went and looked and found it had been moved… he then resited it.
Looking at what he had put in his log I realised I had not actually been looking in the right place ! (I was looking in the trees at one side of a fence, a nice grassy field side, the cache was hidden in a tree on the other side of the fence, a nasty overgrown bramble and nettle area)
Fortunately the new cache site was at the bottom of the fence itself and although it was a mesh fence the mesh was large enough to allow me to get my hand and the cache through from the field side so I could avoid the nastiness !
1st August 2010 – Ashes 2009 – Cardiff GC1XXV6 – cache # 644
I don’t think many people use the footpath that this cache is hidden on, the path was covered in waist high grass with many large thistles for added excitement.
The cache itself, hidden behind a gatepost, was a bit damp inside, but the log was double bagged inside the container and perfectly dry.
1st August 2010 – Ashes 2009 – Lords GC1XXVW – cache # 645
A nice easy drive by hidden behind a gate post
1st August 2010 – Curse of the FTF Wharfedale #5 GC22AYR – cache # 646
A short walk down by the river brought me to a spot that used to be a popular picnic spot for people coming out of Leeds on a weekend, sand imported from Bridlington and 4-500 people crammed onto it – just like Blackpool Beach !
The cache hidden in the hedge well away from the water.
1st August 2010 – Wharf View GCJCRF – cache # 647
Not much view of the wharf from the cache site… more a view of a barn side !
The cache hidden in the bottom of a prickly Hawthorn tree
1st August 2010 – Sicklinghall Walk #1 GC29MOR – cache # 648
Five caches down before I got to the Sicklinghall Walk which was actually the purpose of my trip out. It’s a 3.5 mile walk according to the description – I didn’t think it was that far which shows that either the description is wrong or I have got used to walking that sort of distance and it doesn’t seem a long way to me anymore !
This first cache, a 35mm film cannister, hidden in the roots of a tree, covered by a rock
1st August 2010 – Sicklinghall Walk #2 GC29MOT – cache # 649
The second cache on the walk was a bit bigger, and hidden in a fence/hedge
1st August 2010 – Sicklinghall Walk #3 GC29MOV – cache # 650
I’m walking along and my GPS says I am 30 feet from the cache so I look a bit forward and there’s a corner of a fence with a large prickly hawthorn bush growing in it… obvious where the cache was… I had to literally crawl under the lowest branches to get to the cache – which at least wasn’t a film cannister.
1st August 2010 – Curse of the FTF Wharfedale #13 -Unlucky for some GC2651J – cache # 651
This was the cache that had brought me to these parts in the first place. I found it quite easily although it was in a wood, as I looked in likely places and saw a suspicious pile of stones. I am not sure whether my GPS was wildly inaccurate, or the co-ords were wrong or I had worked out the wrong answer as my GPS said the cache was over 50ft away from the co-ords I had worked out
1st August 2010 – Sicklinghall Walk #4 GC29MOW – cache # 652
Back to 35mm film cannisters, hidden this time in the reversal of the normal method, not at the base of a tree covered by a rock, but this time at the base of a wall covered by a stick
1st August 2010 – Sicklinghall Walk #5 GC29MOX – cache # 653
The previous log for this cache said something along the lines that it helped that the person they were with was a giant when retrieving this cache. There was only one place that you would need to be tall to get the cache, a tall wooden gate post which had rotted away at the top, and in the hollow created, hidden by a stone was the 35mm film cannister cache.
1st August 2010 – BSS8 GC1VK3V – cache # 654
A little detour of a hundred yards off the route brings you to this cache hidden in a hollow behind a hawthorn tree (more prickles) reasonably easy to find but you are going by feel, not sight.
1st August 2010 – Sicklinghall Walk #6 GC29MOY – cache # 655
A sneaky cache really, the path runs along a prickly hawthorn hedge and when you get close the GPS direction points into the hedge… fortunately I saw that the path went through to the other side of the hedge further along, so I realised that you needed to go round to the other side rather thanget involved with the prickly hawthorn.
1st August 2010 – Sicklinghall Walk the Bonus GC29MOZ – cache # 656
I had forgotten to write down the number from the second cache, so I wasn’t too sure what the north coordinate was for this cache, fortunately when I plotted what I did have on memorymap it was on the path back to the car which went due north, so it was a case of starting where the missing digit would be 0 and looking then where the digit would be 1 and looking and so on until I found it… was pretty obvious when I got to the right number
1st August 2010 – BSS6 GC1VK3Q – cache # 657
A straightforward cache hidden behind a fence post at the bottom of a hedge (more prickles)
1st August 2010 – Wharfe Bank GC20GRT – cache # 658
According to the description this cache was hidden up inside a hollow part of a tree, I got to the spot and there were a few smallish trees with nice smooth bark and no sign of hollows and an old and gnarled ivy covered and prickly hawthorn tree… I had a poke around the hawthorn tree and it poked back and I was on the point of giving up cos I couldn’t see anywhere for a cache to be hidden when a chap came past, so I used the making a phone call ruse and wandered a few feet away pretending to talk… and saw a gap at the base of one of the other trees with a cache poking out of it
1st August 2010 – Kim’s Cache GC1WD86 – cache # 659
I thought this cache was in a quite weird place. Up until the 1960’s there used to be a railway running through Wetherby in a quite deep rock walled cutting. The railway bed is now a cycle path, but because it is such a deep cutting there has been no building on it and it is now totally enclosed over the top by the branches of tall trees making the path a pretty dark place to be… it’s not the place where you’d want to be after dark if you were of a nervouse disposition !
The cache itself is pretty easy to find even thought GPS reception isn’t great, the hint tells you a landmark to look out for and the cache hide is obvious because the stone covering it is in a place where a stone shouldn’t be.
1st August 2010 – A58 – The Red Bus Lay-by GC24E7Q – cache # 660
This cache is fastened to a tree root on the banking at the side of a layby, so it’s a case of getting to where the GPS says you are about there and then follow the cachers path down the banking and through the nettles to the cache
1st August 2010 – Rabbit’s warren GC1MXWK – cache # 661
This one took a bit of time finding, because about 4ft off the ground in a hawthorn bush is an odd place to find an ammo box ! – but had yet more prickles
