Another weekend with time for caching, and as I only had two caches left to do in a five mile radius from my home I decided the first thing to do would be clear them off
6th August 2010 – AC/DC GC1G834 – cache #662
Before I went out I had to do a little research into this cache, the co-ordinates are found by finding 6 numbers in an AC/DC song. Now I know several AC/DC songs and the first one that comes to mind is “Whole Lotta Rosie”, which duly has 6 numbers in it, the vital statistics of Rosie 42-39-56, trouble is I had tried those co-ordinates before and ended up in the middle of a field… no cache there.
So I investigated further and found a six digit phone number in another AC/DC song and this led me straight to the cache, (which I had walked past no more than 6 feet away when going to the other co-ordinates)
6th August 2010 – Be Brisk, Oh Would You? GC11T00 – cache #663
The last cache in the five mile radius was a bit of a difficult one to find. The thing is you had to go to a tree plantation, and use the information on the information board to get one set of co-ordinates, then from the map on the board find a specific feature which then led you to a micro cache with the other set of co-ordinates in… trouble is the notice board had gone missing !
I walked around the plantation hoping to find the feature for the other set of co-ordinates… but I didn’t find that either… so I had no co-ordinates… but I had an internet phone so I could look up on the website and make a guess as to what would have been written on the board and this got me the west co-ordinates, which were conveniently along the fence at the edge of the plantation, so I just followed the fence until I found something that matched the hint, then trampled down the vegetation until I found the cache !
Five miles cleared ! for now at least, cos I am sure more caches will be placed in there in the coming weeks !
A quick check on the website showed there were only 35 caches to go to clear to 6 miles out… that’s the next target
7th August 2010 – Ethan`s hunt (small) GC27BQC – cache #664
Next day was dull wet and cold, so I went to Horsforth to do a bit of caching in the evening (to clear some 6 mile caches), this was the first cache I found in a set of 3, a small tablet bottle hidden in the roots of a tree covered by a stone.
7th August 2010 – Ethan`s hunt (medium) GC27BQJ – cache #665
Second of the set was this one, a small box , hidden in the roots of a tree, covered by a rock.
7th August 2010 – Ethan`s hunt (large) GC27BQW – cache #666
The last of this little set was a larger container, but again hidden in the roots of a tree, covered by a rock !
After this I went to do the first caches of a set called the Clayton Quandary, in Clayton Woods to the East of the town, and I didn’t find GC1HE3K Marker Stone, I found the right sort of tree at the right co-ordinates, and even a stone in the roots of the tree, but it wasn’t covering a cache. Then I walked over to where GC1HE3F Micro Mischief should have been, and again I found the spot that matched the hint, but no cache.
7th August 2010 – RAH2 GC28J00 – cache #667
It was getting a little gloomy so I decided that I would have a little walk around Horsforth town to get the answers to the Rhyme Around Horsforth treasure hunt cache, which takes you to various points in the town to find numbers to substitute for co-ordinates, on the way round are 4 stand alone caches, This was the first of these I came to – because I was starting in the wrong place !
This wasn’t too easy to find, it is a magnetic nano hidden under some roadside railings so I had to do a bit of feeling about under the railings until I found it.
7th August 2010 – RAH1 GC28HZ7 – cache #668
This cache is another of the standalone caches on the walk round Horsforth, easy to find, hidden behind a fence post. By now it was totally dark so I decided to give up and come back the next day to finish off
8th August 2010 – Taylors Pugslys never been here cash GC2BR65 – cache #669
The next morning I was looking at the Geocaching.com website and realised that someone had stuck another cache right in the middle of Ilkley moor… I have already cleared about 50 caches from the moor, and now here was another one stuck in the middle. So I went out and found it (fortunately it is about 10 yards from the end of the road, so you can drive right up to it almost… not a difficult one to find !
8th August 2010 – The Knobbly Tree GC1MERC – cache #670
In the afternoon it was back to Horsforth. Around the station the roads are restricted to residents parking except for Sundays, so when I drove to the end of a cul-de-sac and parked my car outside someones house I did get some looks through windows as to what I was doing there, but I was doing nothing wrong and set off over the stile at the end of the road and across the fields.
The cache is called knobbly tree, there wasn’t much doubt which tree it referred to, and from half a field away I could see a hollow in the tree with a largish stone shoved in it… guess where the cache was ?
After this I failed to find GC28J33 RAH3, the hint said under a rock under the railings, well I tried every stone under the railings for 25 yards… no cache
8th August 2010 – RAH4 GC28J3E – cache #671
This was easy to find being magnetic keysafe under some railings on top of a wall, so was actually virtually at eye level.
8th August 2010 – Rhyme around Horsforth GC26CY8 – cache #672
By now I had most of the clues for the Rhyme Around Horsforth cache co-ordinates, and the ones I didn’t have weren’t important – it’s only the last 3 digits of each set that really matter – so I plotted them on memorymap and then wandered over to the park to find the cache. On a sunny Sunday the park was busy, a band playing in the bandstand and so on, but no ice cream man unfortunately !
The cache wasn’t in a pleasant place, there is shrubbery covering the fences of the houses bordering the park and the cache is in these bushes – You can’t be seen from the park, but you can be seen from the upper windows of the houses.
8th August 2010 – Traffic and Travel GC1G9EF – cache #673
After clearing the caches in the town I went back to Clayton Woods to try and find the Clayton Quandary caches at the southern end of the woods. This first one is a puzzle cache which I solved the puzzle easily enough for, but then when I got to the place the area was totally overgrown and I am afraid I trampled down the nettles and brambles and other weeds quite badly looking for it. I was about to give up when I realised what the hint was on about, the hint said “Tube blockage near Twin Oaks station”. Well I found two oak trees close together and it was around these I was looking with no success, then as I got back on the main path I saw the outline of a broken concrete pipe across the path… all clicked into place, so I followed the line of this pipe until I found an open end with a brick shoved in it, and pulling this out revealed the cache.
8th August 2010 – Boundary Wall GC1HE3D – cache #674
This was a cache hidden in the roots of a tree, covered by a rock, though not well covered as I could see it from several yards away
8th August 2010 – Locomotion Way GC1HE34 – cache #675
Another easy puzzle cache, leading to another cache hidden in the roots of a tree covered by a rock
8th August 2010 – The Crossfield Cache GC1WC4E – cache #676
This final cache of the day gave me just a twinge of apprehension. A brick wall made with a cavity down the middle and a missing brick leaving a darm hole… you know where the cache is but you can’t see it, nor can you see anything else that might be in the hole… I’d have felt a lot more comfortable wearing gloves !
