Witton Weavers Way - Beamers Trail

Yesterday was the first attempt at the new Legend Series of Letterbox Hybrid Caches. Mongoose39Uk aka Tony had posted on the NW Caching forum on Monday night to see if anyone was up for a walk on the Beamers Trail. This takes you to the very north of the series, apart from a small number of caches on the Houghton Section. Meeting at 9:30 at Witton Country Park we headed in an anti-clockwise direction. Passing some ground workers that were constructing a new play area and carving animals into old trees it was uphill out of the park and into the country side. Going of the logs we were following Grandad John and 1Gromit along the trail until we got to Riverside Ruins and the log had not been signed by them. It turns out that they had gone off to grab some of the Houghton Section Caches and we passed them coming back to get this one meaning that they were now following us. The walk was 8.8 miles long and took 3 hours moving and 2.5 hours stopped, most of this talking. Now the big question is have i got the Legend bug, just spent the last half hour looking at the next stage but have decided to stay local has its work tonight.

500 finds

Yesterday I was handed two TB's from the NorthWest Caching TB race and as I was approaching 500 finds I decided to combine the two for a reason to visit the Lake District. My last visit to the lakes was in July last year for a trip to Wastwater for a dive.

Yesterday while visiting Home After Dark, Emma (Scorpion Queen) handed me hers and Pop Up Pirates Racer TB's. I had done some caching that day and got to 499 so looked at where the two hadn't been and Waiting for the ferry was the one to visit. Leaving a dull Manchester behind the drive upto the cache was straight forward, approaching the Lake from the South on the A590 avoiding the main tourist route in. After driving along side the lake for some distance I pulled over to get the GPSr out of the back of the car and check where I was heading for, 2.3 mile still to go. After about 5 mins the signs for the ferry appeared and I pulled into the car park just up the road and found a parking space among all the boats that were being stored there.

It was a short walk from the car to GZ, just as I got to the little peninsula that is home to the cache the ferry was mooring up at the jetty but luckily it had a quick turn round and was on its way within five minutes. I sat on the bench near by while I signed the log and got the TB's I was dropping out of my pocket. As well as the two racer Bugs I dropped two other TB's I had. 

It was then back to the car for the short drive to Bowness and a Carvery Lunch at the Lakeview pub and then onto Ambleside for treat myself to some new boots.

500 finds on the Horizon

Was able to grab a couple of caches today including a Lizard power. This takes me to 492 finds so only 8 more and 500 is done. This isn't bad as back at the beginning of October 08 I had 140 finds and set myself a target of 200 before December 18th which would have been 12 months of caching for me. Well, I got set to make this target and then Grandad John had the Middlewood Way Circular Published and this helped me to smash the target and I have just kept going. I found 74 caches in October, 92 in November, 45 in December and 82 last Month. Following new shifts at work i plan to get out a lot more this year and you never know, maybe 1000 before the end of 09.

Back to UK Diving

 

Today was the first time for a dive in the UK for four months. Work, Illness and other commitments have kept me out of the water. It was off to Stoney Cove Inland Dive Site for a dive or two. Setting of at 6:45am, picking my buddy Mark up on the way and then heading down the M6/A50/M1 and M69 at a steady pace. Arrived at the dive site for around 10:15am. It was just a matter of getting dressed for the occasion as the dive kit was put together the night before and slung in the car. 

Twin set on the back and stage (7lt ali) ready it was down to the bus stop entry point for the the jump in. Hood, Mask and fins on all that was left before the big splash was the gloves. Stage cylinder left on the floor and in I went. Cold is not the word to describe it. The water temperature was 4ºc. I had to swim back to the bus stop to collect my stage. This is because its easier to put on once I'm in the water. Once Mark had got in and we had taken a rest it was time to commence the dive. With a quick OK and Down signal we dropped to the first depth of 6 meters and then down the slope to 20 meters before finding the road and heading into the gloom of the pit and 35 meters. Reaching the bottom at around 12 minutes it was time to make  the return trip. Passing the bottom of the quarry road we came upon the deep hydro box. After a bit of a quick ascent and back down it was up the road passing the tower and BOP. At 13 meters it was time to switch to the stage cylinder that had 68% O2 in it. By this time the hands were numb with the cold and 5 meters was reached for the 3 minute safety stop before getting out and defrosting. 

After an hour and half of surface interval it was time to go again. The plan for this dive was to get in the water and follow the chain along the bottom of the quarry to the wreck. This was done to the letter but at arriving at the wreck it was a quick turn round and back due to the coldness. The pain in my fingers was getting unbearable and was not able to bend them. The dive was cut short and was only 19 minutes long.  Well I did it, back to the cold dark water that is the UK inland site also known as puddle diving. Will get some more in before the trip in May to Eyemouth.

Stoney Cove Dive Site

High Bullough Reservoir

 The last time I visited the place I left empty handed. So today (12th Febuary) I decided to head back there I wasn't leaving until I had completed the two caches that beat me last time. These being Jacob's Ladder by Pop Up Pirate and Jacob's Other Ladder by Foinavon. Here are the logs from the cache page.

Jacob's Ladder - GC13Z2B - This was a bit of Deja vou for me. I had been here to pass the time away before heading for Januarys NWCMM. While walking around the reservoir I got side tracked onto The Other Jacob's Ladder Cache but without success. I walked back along a path and down some steps to get back to the car. These steps were Jacob's Ladder.

I headed to the ladder after finding 123, how mays resers can you see? and tried counting the steps on the way up and managed to get to 60 something. This is the point were I went wrong, left and right, how do you get them mixed up. After about ten minutes of searching and changed my direction and found the step down that I was looking for, how did I miss it in the first place, I had walked past it the last time I was here. Having a look around a I spotted the likely hide and there it was. The cache was half full with water so after cleaning the marbles inside I emptied the water out. Tried signing the log but struggled even with a pencil. Thanks for the cache.

Jacob's Other Ladder - GC16D4X - Short Log - TFTC SL TNLN

Long Log - I know how much the cache owner loves those one line logs. I made my way to the cache along the upper path from PUP's Jacob's Ladder Cache and soon arrived above GZ. I had tried this before on a day when I must have left my brain at home. On that occasion I had scrambled up the hill from the lower path and by the time I got to the top I was too knackered to look for a cache. So called it and went back to the car.
I carried on along the path until I could see and easy way down and then back tracked to where my GPSr was taking me. I was going back a forth between two of the items in the hint. After about ten minutes of getting caught up in trees with my bag I had had enough. Dropped the bag on the floor, put the GPSr next to it and took a good look around with the hint in mind. Would you believe it, I was only stood right in front of the cache. It took me just one step up to reach it. Signed the log and then placed the cache back. Now for the trip down the hill to the lower path to continue around to Dotties Delight. Thankfully I had a trekking pole to keep me upright. Thanks for another exhilarating cache.

All I can say is that this area is full of great cache and I haven't even scratched the surface. Can't wait for the long days to come round when I will be able to get up here before the birds wake up.

Cache Placement

After some time of collecting and buying different types of containers for cache placement it was time to hide some. Up till this point I have only had 4 caches, 3 Traditional and 1 Multi. I have noticed a gap along the Rochdale Canal that would be a perfect spot for some so set off with a number of different caches in a plastic bag and no idea of where I was going to put them. After about 40 mins of walking along the canal the job was done and it was time to head home and write the cache pages up and submit them for publishing. 

I have just started to use html coding in my cache listings and this was where it went a bit wrong. I decided to write the main information on one page and then copy and paste it into the other but ended up with many line breaks in the text. This took some time for me to delete all the unwanted line breaks but I got there in the end. The caches were published about an hour after submitting them and then found twice in just over an hour of that.

They are :- Rochdale Canal,

M60 Tunnel

Boat and Horses

Chadderton B

No Fishing

Flying Road

Lock 64