Danoshimano and Kritter Have Awesome Cache Trip!
Geocachers Danoshimano (aka Dad) and Kritter (aka Kristin) had an amazing geocaching trip on Wednesday 12 October, 2005! After packing the gear and lunch early in the morning, they headed 96 km west via Stayner to Flesherton and beyond to Markdale. The first target was just west of Markdale, where they went to complete the Where's In a Name? cache. This was a 'cooperative' virtual cache that moves around the world. The opportunity to complete this cache came after being contacted by V-I-cacher in British Columbia. From there, it was on to the beautiful Beaver River Valley area.
Heading back toward Markdale, a quick stop and find was made at Roadside Series - Flesherton. The next two targets were a couple of "Bent & Twisted's" Waterfall Tour caches: Hogg's Falls, and Eugenia Falls. Both were very different kinds of waterfalls, and both were very beautiful.
From there the journey proceeded north up the eastern side of the Beaver River Valley. A stop at the Blue Eyes cache -- placed by an Alliston High School club -- made for an interesting trip on a small section of the Bruce Trail. This cache took a bit of searching, but eventually the find was made.
After a quick lunch break, it was on to the main event: A trip to the top of Old Baldy for some cache hunting and spectacular views of the valley. First up was Thanksgiving With Old Baldy. Luckily, the trail head was almost at the top. From there, it was just under a one kilometre hike to the cache site. The trail quickly found its way to the cliff edge, where it offered up view after view. The cache was hidden in a shallow crevasse area, and took a bit of searching.
After hiking back to the vehicle, the next trail head was just up the road. The Ken Young Side Trail Cache offered another beautiful hike along a Bruce Trail side trail. This time, the trail stayed back in the woods and Kritter made the find high on a forest hill.
On the way to this cache there was another cache. A cache we did not plan to try because the warning on it scared the Kritter. But the trail went right by it. The GPSr indicated the hide was only 24 m to the west. A quick estimate put the cliff face at 20 m in the same direction. Upon closer inspection, The Gap was discovered.
This was a cache that got the adrenaline flowing. To get to the cache, seekers had to jump across a gap to a free-standing part of the limestone cliff face. It is not the size of the jump -- in fact most people could easily make it -- it is the configuration of the jump. The far side is a sort of point of rock, with a significant drop on either side. Kritter stayed back, while Danoshimano made the leap where he quickly moved forward and hugged the trees for security. Making his way around the front of the rock, the cache was an easy find, which at this point was a good thing. The jump back was a little less scary, and find number eight was recorded.
From there it was back south through Eugenia, a quick jog back over the Flesherton, then south-east for 17km on Highway 10 to Dundalk. Here, the ninth and final find of the trip was another Roadside Series cache, this time a micro that Kritter quickly found hidden in a tree.
From Dundalk, County Road 9 provided a beautiful return trip via Dunedin and Creemore. Once the road reached Maple Valley, it wound its way through hills and streams with beautiful fall colours all the way.
At the end of the day Danoshimano and Kritter logged a total of nine cache finds, by the far the most caches found by the Clements Family Geocaching Team in a single day.
