Caches No’s 3938 to 3956 – The Alverthorpe Amble

To further our organisation for the 2018 Mega we had a Committee meeting on a Sunday morning back at the Toby Carvery where we held the initial interest meeting. As some people were having to travel a reasonable distance we decided to have a caching trip round a newish local series afterwards, and to give ourselves a time limit on the committee meeting we let it be known on Facebook that we were going to be starting this series at 12:00 so there were plenty of other cachers coming along with us.

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #1 GC68EEW – cache #3938
A whole gaggle of us leaving the Toby Carvery and heading for this series meant one thing… nowhere to park !
So I parked a couple of streets away and by the time I got back to Green Lane the others had set off… they’d not got far as they couldn’t find this cache.
As soon as I caught up with them Steve Walford found it

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #2 GC68TWX – cache #3939
We stood on top of the bridge while those in Wellies paddled in the stream

alverthorpe2

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #3 GC68TXC – cache #3940
As usual Mel had raced away in front of the group to get to the cache… and got her feet wet as the ditch at the side of the field was more a stream

alverthorpe3

After this we didn’t find GC68TXJ Alverthorpe Amble #4 or GC68TY3 Alverthorpe Amble #5, for #4 only those with wellies could look for, it I was standing on the other bank of the stream throwing snowballs at those paddling in the water and for the #5 there was an obvious place for it to be, but no cache.
It later seems that one of the party did a ‘phone a friend’ to confirm the location and then went back to the correct spot and found the cache buried under debris on the floor, the rest of the party had moved on by this point so were presented with a dilemma… do they claim a find as they were part of a ‘group’ where one found it, or do they leave it as a DNF as they had given up on it and didn’t see that it had been found – I didn’t see the cache, so a DNF for me.

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #6 GC68TYF – cache #3941
Found with the others on a roadside signpost… well Nottins ‘the drive-by king’ had found it before so put his hand straight on it instantly

alvethorpe6

17th January 2016 – Lofthouse pit disaster memorial # 1. GC1W9GY – cache #3942
Quick diversion from the route and an easy find in the winter… perhaps more difficult in the summer when the vegetation has grown

lofthousepit

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #7 GC68TYV – cache #3943
Although the others had found the cache while we were catching up (from visiting the Lofthouse memorial cache) we pulled the cache out ourselves to confirm our find

alverthorpe7

After this I didn’t find GC68TZ6 Alverthorpe Amble #8 I missed this one while trying to catch up to the group… and although the “group” found it I didn’t see it, so I’m not claiming it as a find

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #9 GC68TZT – cache #3944
A bit snowy so a bit slippery climbing the banking, but easy enough to find once up there

alverthorpe9

17th January 2016 – FF7# Wooden Heart GC36HKP – cache #3945
Another short diversion, and a quick and easily found cache

ff7

17th January 2016 – Men of the 3rd GC GC5091G – cache #3946
The fools rushed in where us angels feared to tread… well, the fools were wearing wellies and we angels were wearing hiking boots so we let them paddle and just offered helpful comments from the bank

menof3rd

17th January 2016 – FF6# Don’t fence me in GC36HKD – cache #3947
When caching with a big group there’s always some who rush to the front to get the cache first… as this one took longer to find (even for the people who had found it before) it gave me the chance to go through into the neighbouring field and grab the cache… the only one of the 20 or so caches on the day I got my hands on first. I put it back in line with the hint (and where previous finders had located it) rather than where we found it

ff6

17th January 2016 – FF5# Deadwood Stage GC36HK7 – cache #3948
It was about here that the group started to split up as those who had done the FF series before strode straight past while those who were still to find it found, signed and replaced the cache

ff5

17th January 2016 – FF4# Which way you goin’ Billy? GC36HJX – cache #3949
Dug1234 and I got further behind the group here – in fact we never caught up with them again !
Still we found the cache… and knowing that the rest would have found and signed it we just photographed it and moved on

ff4

17th January 2016 – FF3# Another brick in the wall GC36HJK – cache #3950
Dug1234 and I had got separated from the rest of the group (they walked faster up the hill than we did !)
So we just saw Kevin of the Eaves clan walking back onto the path and hurrying off to catch up with the others… We went off the path to find the cache ourselves.

ff3

After this we didn’t find GC68V05 Alverthorpe Amble #10 we were well behind the rest of the group here, we had a quick look around where their snowy footprints stopped, but we didn’t spot the cache and were still hoping to catch the others up so didn’t look long

17th January 2016 – Finks in Flushdyke GC4ZP7Q – cache #3951
An easy roadside cache

finksflush

After this we didn’t find GC68V0G Alverthorpe Amble #11 – We had a search round here we couldn’t spot the cache… we were attracting looks from the window of the golf club (well the bloke opened up the window and shouted “are you lost ?” to us, so we smiled politely and followed the path over the golf course

17th January 2016 – Low Laithes Top GC2MK36 – cache #3952
There probably was an easier way to get to the cache than we did, going up one side of the hill then back down the other… maybe if we had just gone along the bottom first we would have got there quicker, but Dug1234 and I got there in the end

lowlaithestop

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #12 GC68V0V – cache #3953
This was rather lower down than I expected it to be – so much metal to fasten a magnetic cache on so why hide it at ground level ?

alverthorpe12

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #13 GC68V1F – cache #3954
The logs from the main group said easy found cache but they could make nothing of the hint… we could make nothing from the hint either… but we also found the cache readily enough

alverthorpe13

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #14 GC68V1T – cache #3955
We walked right past this one, then when I checked the GPS and it said 95 feet and going up we retraced our steps and found the cache

alverthorpe14

17th January 2016 – Alverthorpe Amble #15 GC68V27 – cache #3956
Last find of the day, We were taking the high ground to keep out of the worst of the mud, but had to venture down the slope to get this last cache.
This was a good series – even with the mud and snow it was a good walk round to get fresh air into the lungs and stretch the legs.

alverthorpe15

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *