Minesing Swamp Caches - Two FTFs
On Sunday, Jennifer and I scored two (count 'em 2) "FIRST TO FIND" geocaches, our first FTF geocaches in almost 6 months!
These two caches were published for over two weeks before Jennifer and I came along and made the finds. That's because they're not the easiest caches to get to. To do it, we canoed down the Nottawasa River from Highway 90 to Edenvale, a trip of over 20km. Along the way, we found four caches, including the two FTFs.
Three of the caches were part of the Minesing series placed by the Mighty Canadian Juicepig . To find the final cache, we had to find the other two first. The first one -- GCW0H0 Minesing 1 - Flora -- had been found by one other cacher, who paddled back up the river to the starting point after after finding it and GCVXHY Ghosttown McKinnon. The ghost town cache -- part of the COG series -- had also been found by two other cachers who managed to walk in to it.
It had been over 13 years since we canoed down this route. Several years ago, we restarted our yearly spring journey through the Minesing Swamp, but using kayaks and coming in through the Willow Creek route (which is about the same length). This cache series, plus the ghost town cache, gave us a great reason to come this way again.
It wasn't all a picnic, either! Besides travelling the distance, there were a few mosquito battles to be won. All three of the Minesing series caches had some serious bug action happening. Then there were the stinging nettles to contend with. And for the final, we made the mistake of portaging on the wrong side of the river to get around a log jam. It turned out to be a double jam, and by the time we got around it, we had arrived at the final cache, but on the wrong side of the river.
I figured the best option was to dock in the jam, and walk across it. This turned out to be rather tricky. One huge log that looked to big to be unstable turned out to be perfectly balanced on a pivot point. Yikes! Coming back was even harder, but I made it without incident. (Meanwhile, Jennifer relaxed in the canoe cooling off with her feet in the water.)
