51 new geocaches were released Saturday morning at 8:00. We arrived at 9:30, got the new caches loaded on the GPS, looked at the map, made a plan and headed out to collect some geocaches. We soon realized several other cachers were in the same area. That is not a bad thing, except the forest service roads are narrow. There is very little room to park and rarely room to turn a vehicle around and leave. But we did.
We checked the map, found another forest service road with a couple of new caches, and headed in another direction. We got to the mountain of a rock, found the container, and signed the log. WooHoo! our names were the first on the little white sheet of paper. WE were the FTFs! (First To Find) That is a BIG DEAL in the geocaching world.
The next hide was across the road up a steep hill. We forgot to bring our walking sticks along, so I did not even attempt climbing over the fallen trees, fallen dry, slippery, pine needles, and hidden tree stumps and rocks. Hubby did. Can you find him? He's wearing his florescent lime green shirt. He found the cache. It also had a blank log sheet. WOOHOO! 2nd FTF! Now we were pumped and wanted to continue the FTF streak.
While Hubby was at the top of the hill, another vehicle came along. A couple got out and headed to the mountain of a rock. Yep. Geocachers. They ignored me and I ignored them. They found the cache we had just signed. As Hubby was heading down the hill, they started up. Hubby shared some climbing the hill advice and we moved on.
Our next stop was also a FTF, but that was the last one. Three for the day was pretty good, since we weren't expecting any knowing there were at least 70 geocachers out looking for the same 51 caches. We went on to find some older hides and some new ones.
Hubby went in search of another cache involving a steep climb.
He found it!
Yes, it was on top of that boulder. It had a little creek flowing at its base. The climb's not as dangerous as it looks; there's a hill of dirt covering the back side, making the trek a safe one.
While he was searching I was taking photos of the wild flowers. The little meadow had an abundance of flowers. The bees were busy little creatures.
This was a very scenic area.
At another cache location I saw lots of yellow leafed plants. A sign of fall...
After finding 15 caches, it was time to head back to HorseThief Campground for the actual geobash event. The grill was fired-up and cooking burgers and hot dogs.
Everyone is listening to the instructions for the raffle prizes and door prizes.
Cachers of all ages were there.
Sherry & Jon from our winter community, their friend Peggy and Hubby.
I WON! This is the International Day of Geocaching geocoin, issued for August 16, 2014. I won a geocoin at last year's event, too.
With the geocoin came this fantastic flashlight donated by Scheels.
Yes, a $50.00 flashlight!
Then my ticket was drawn for one of the door prizes. This was the 'loot' in my ziploc bag: two tickets to a museum in Hill City, a stainless steel coffee mug, a girlie cap, a special geocaching pen, and a geo sticker. My lucky night!
About 90 people attended the evening event.
Lucky night until we got to the other end of Hill City where a doe was crossing the road between traffic. The vehicle in the north lane missed her. I did not. She appeared next to the driver's side of the van in an instant. I could not open the driver's side door so did not see the damage until the tow truck arrived and loaded it on the trailer.
We were not hurt. The airbag did not deploy. The tow truck driver gave us a ride back to Hart Ranch. He estimated $4000 in damage. Hopefully, we will hear from an adjustor on Monday. Until then, we are relying on Hubby's cousin, who is also staying at HR. They took us to town to get some groceries. When they leave on Tuesday, friends are arriving. We are taking this LUCK one day at a time...
Ah....so sorry for your car, so sorry for the deer. It must have been frightening for you and Curt. Great blog until then..... well, I mean great story until then.
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