28th June 2010 – Wot? No Trains ? – Curse of the FTF Wharfedale #17 GC2ARK6 – Cache #615
Another of the ‘Curse’ caches, in a spot I have to pass on my way home from work – actually further along the same path on the old railway line that the 3rd and 4th caches I found were on. I found the spot easily enough, but first had to wait for a couple of lads to depart the scene and then as I was finishing signing the log I saw a man walking his dog coming towards me… of course I couldn’t get the clip lock closed in a hurry so I guess I looked pretty suspicious to him hanging around off the path furtling in the bushes wearing my work clothes… I gave him a good evening and comment about the weather as we passed and then I scarpered !
28th June 2010 – Ben’s Booty GC1GNJ2 – Cache #616
One final time up to Ilkley Moor… at least I hope it is the last time for a while at least. I had four caches left to do, one I had passed but not been able to retrieve due to people, one that had been disabled but was now re-activated, a new one placed last weekend and this one that I had just never got round to doing.
Park in Ilkley walk up the path to to the top of the hill look under a big rock for a cache and it’s done
28th June 2010 – Moor Rim Roama GC1JP9E – Cache #617
This cache had been moved due to having been disturbed a couple of times by kids. Easy enough to find… walk over the moor from the last cache and find a large rock at the co-ordinates and there’s a cache under it as usual. I was the first to find it at it’s new location, but can’t claim a FTF as it had just moved and wasn’t a new cache
28th June 2010 – Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It Again GC237E3 – Cache #618
Possibly the most ingenious cache idea I have come across so far.
I had been up past this cache four or five weeks ago on a sunny Sunday morning when there were too many people about to play, but this Monday evening when it was getting dark and gloomy there was no-one but me up on the moor that I could see.
The co-ordinates take you to a big rock and underneath is a cache box… but this cache box doesn’t contain the logbook, it contains the co-ordinates for another cache and tools for retrieving it.
The tools are a screwdriver, a length of string, a torch and a large metal hook.
The co-ordinates for the cache are a deep crack in the cliff face, 10-12 foot deep. With the torch you can see an object right down at the bottom of the crack, with the hook and string you can hook the object and pull it out of the crack.
The object is a cache box with a hook in it to pull it out with, and a screwed on lid so it doesn’t come open as it transits up and down the crack.
So unscrew the lid, sign the log, screw the lid back on, use the hook and string to deposit the cache back in the crack and then put all the tools back in the first box and replace it under it’s rock.
I think I was quite lucky that I managed to hook the cache on the first attempt, reading the logs some people have had problems getting the cache out.
All in all possibly the best cache I have done so far, and fires the imagination to come up with a similarly ingenious idea to hide a cache.
28th June 2010 – The Alphabet Caches – F for Funland GC2APC4 – Cache #619
It poured with rain as I walked down from the last cache so I was soaked from the rain falling on my body and the wet bracken rubbing against my legs. These alphabet caches are a bit like the ‘Curse’ series in that the FTF has to place the next one, the Alphabet idea is that the cache is filled with swaps beginning with the appropriate letter of the alphabet.
The cache was a new one so I didn’t know whether it had been found yet, I hoped so as I knew from reading the logbook on the previous cache that someone had been up here caching the previous day, however I was thinking of items beginning with G that I could put in the next cache (not hard I’d got Green things and Geocaching things to go at !)
Anyway, got down to the co-ordinates and found a bench up against a bank. I looked at either end to see if there was anything hidden there and then spotted a stone hidden by vegetation in the bank behind the bench… a stone that pulled out to reveal a hole with a cache in it.
29th June 2010 – If you go down to the woods today…GC10X24 – Cache #620
In an attempt to clear up the last few caches in the 5 mile radius from my house I took rather a detour on my way home, ignored other caches in the locality and just picked this one out to do. It’s a very dull cache, starts off alright, you walk through a snicket at the end of a housing estate street into some woods, and then over a footbridge over the railway line into some fields by a pond, but instead of going to the pond you go the other way across a field to what looks like an old drainage culvert in the corner and there under hawthorn bushes and in the nettles is the cache.
29th June 2010 – Timble Tramp GC1K2KH – Cache #621
Later that evening and a 3.5 mile walk is required to get two caches in the 5 mile zone with a further mile and a bit detour to get another cache in the same vicinity.
The walk takes you through land owned by the Water Board and managed by the Forestry Commission so it’s almost all Pine trees. But also all on either well used vehicle tracks or good paths.
This first cache is a bit of a struggle, mainly because the co-ordinates given would lead you about 20 feet off the main track, except there is a tall wire fence 6 feet off the path to stop you getting to the given spot. The cache isn’t where it’s supposed to be though it’s in the remains of a wall under a tree just track side of the fence.
29th June 2010 – Phoebe’s Spot GC1K2KP – Cache #622
Walking right through the woods you get to the moors, and a few hundred yards onto the moor you get to an area of large stones among the heather, and under one of these large stones is the cache. Fortunately this time the co-ordinates are spot on and I found the cache under the first boulder I looked at.
29th June 2010 – A wander through Back Allotment GC156Q3 – Cache #623
A detour of half a mile or so into the woods takes you to an area where they are clearing trees, there are some interesting vehicles parked around designed to rip trees out of the ground and carry them away… there are signs about sating do not enter the area unless given permission by the loggers, but at 9:15pm at night there’s no-one about and no work going on.
When you get to the co-ordinates there’s a couple of cut trees and the remains of a wall (I think it’s weird that there are these dry stone walls running through an area of forest, a throwback to when the area was farmland which probably wasn’t that many years ago – you do walk past the ruins of a farmhouse in the woods on the way to the cache)
Anyway, there are trees, there are stones there are logs and such lying about and as you are in a wood the GPS signal isn’t brilliant. So it’s a case of look around to see what doesn’t look quite right… In this case it’s a couple of 18″ cut logs, sat side by side in a hollow… no way they would have got into that position randomly and no reason for them to be where they are… unless they are hiding the cache.
30th June 2010 – A walk in the woods PT1 GC1JARA – Cache #624
Another day, another detour on the way home, this time to Ilkley to find a cache that eluded me earlier in the year when I looked for it. The reason it eluded me was that a) it’s in an area of lots of big trees so GPS accuracy is poor and b) the gorund was incredibly soft and boggy. So I left it for later in the year when hopefully it would be a bit solider underfoot.
However, although we’ve had the driest first 6 months of the year for 80 years the ground where the cache is is still soft and boggy, I guess there must be a spring or something that runs just under the surface and keeps the area wet and muddy. It took a while to search all the possible places for a cache, cos I was wearing my work clothes and shoes and didn’t want to sink into the mud !
Eventually though I did peer around the back of a tree and spot a black nylon bag… and inside the cache.
30th June 2010 – A walk in the woods PT2 GC1JARJ – Cache #625
The part 1 cache had the co-ordinates for the part 2 cache inside. Fortunately the second cache was not far away and reachable by a public footpath 20 yards away whch was dry and firm underfoot. GPS not good in the woods and the co-ordinates I got to be about 10 feet out, but that was only 3 trees away so not too hard to find the cache !
1st July 2010 – Denton View – GC1Q33G – Cache #626
Yet another day, yet another detour on the way home… back to Ilkley again. Parked only a few hundred yards from where I parked yesterday and then walked along a private road and down a couple of fields to get to this cache. The description says you get a nice view of Denton Hall… not quite sure what he means as you can’t see Denton Hall at all from the cache site !
The cache itself is hidden under some big rocks which were obviously moved here when the farmer put on the track that goes through the field.
