Piratemania 2009

Well this was my first geocaching event and what a cracker. The weather was hit and miss on the Thursday and Friday but for the main event on the Saturday it was sun sun sun. For the Saturday they had been two new cache series set. One with eight caches and around 3 miles walk and the other with 18 caches and a 8 mile walk. There was also some earth cache to take on.

I arrived on the Thursday afternoon and after throwing up the tent and unloading the car it was a the time to get it off the camping field and to the car park. This was not as straight forward as it should of been as due to heavy rain in the days before the track up the small hill and off the field was a mud bath. It was a matter of going for it and keeping the power on. As i hit the top of the hill the car just swung round and lined itself up with the track and off I went and stuck it in the main car park. Time for a brew and a wonder round to see who else had arrived.

Not much later the crowd started to turn up with the first being Betty Boo and Gruffty. Then it was the entrance of Nandad who slid there jag gracefully down the field. The corner of the field later that night with the arrival of Geotrotter and Carlos and the Birdie Crew and there Mansion. The rest of the night was spent chatting and having a few drinks.

On the Friday some people headed off caching but I decided to stay on site for the morning. I was able to nip across the road to grab In a Tiss, which was a nice ammo box just of The Tissington Trail. In the afternoon in between thunder storms I headed out on the bike for a 16 mile ride along the Tissington Trail. The evening was spent again chatting and drinking while taking in the great view of the night sky's.

Saturday was the main event day and it started off with a bacon roll and a cup of tea. It was then onto the marquee to submit the order for the mass Chinese takeaway order before 10am when the new cache listings would be given out. Due to technology problems with the garmin Colorado and Oregon it was a number crunching exercise to get the coordinates into the devices but that didn't take to long thanks to the touch screen. I set off on the series close to camp with Richardson6 and Muttoneer and after a nice 3 mile walk we had picked up 8 caches and the clues to the first part of the final cache. It was then a short stop to grab some more drinks and then into the car for a short drive down to mill dale for the second series. Here it was just Muttoneer and myself. We decided to work our way around it in reverse which worked out better as we kept meeting other cachers who were telling us of the difficulty along the path between caches 1 and 4 which were to be our last caches. After a nice walk we decided to miss out the last few caches a stay on the path on the other side of the river from the caches and head back to the car and camp ready for the arrival of the Chinese pirates and food.

Saturday evening was spent sampling more apple juice and watching the games being played by the children to win doubloons for there team. In the end the blue team won which was the team I was on. Sunday morning came the the drink was still flowing but in the end all the pirates headed off to bed. What a great weekend.

Heading off to Piratemania 09

Well the car is packed and all I have to do is sling the bike on the back and then its off to Piratemania 09. A weekend of camping and geocaching in Derbyshire. Full report on my return.

1000th Cache

As 12 months of caching approached in December 08 I was hoping to make it to 200 caches. I then started to get out more and with new rosters at work I was able to hit that target and more and i've just carried on going. After logging on to the Northwest Cachers forum I started to head to the events and getting out to new parts of the world with other cachers.

So on the 1st July I had arranged to go to Tatton Park to attempt The Tatton Incident Whereigo with The Syllogiser. We arranged to meet in Knutsford and drop one of the cars of somewhere in town and then head to the park. Having found the spot in the car park to start the adventure it was off on the trail. Don's PDA would not see his bluetooth GPS receiver when running the whereigo player and my Oregon kept switching off on the way around. The good thing about this whereigo is that you can get the multi cache of the same name before finding the final cache of the whereigo. The sun was shining and the midges and flies were out in force as we made our way around. On arriving at the final stage of the multi the cache was laying on open ground with the hint around it. After signing the log book and grabbing a coin from the cache we returned it to the hide and tried to cover it up better than when we found it. This was cache 999. It was then onto the final of the whereigo which was just a short distance away. On the was there I was confronted with a shallow ditch, not a problem unless you are in shorts like me due to the ditch being full of nettles. I had to take the longer route round but The Syllogiser just went straight through the middle of the lot. While Don search one location I looked in another and sure enough there was the cache. With the code word inputted into the whereigo cartridge and the completion screen shown I was now at 1000 caches. Time to head to the pub to celebrate.

Tegs Nose Caches.

Headed over to Macclesfield on the 30th June and a short walk around Tegs Nose Country Park. The first cache is right next to the car park, this is GC1T7RW-Park Up. I looked on the wrong side at GZ at first but once around the other side the hint became clear the the cache was found. On returning to the car after doing the other caches in the area there was a family who had set up a picnic right at GZ. It was then on to GC1T7T4-Macc View. This was a gentle walk uphill along a path running along side the road before heading off into the country. At GZ there is a great view of Macclesfield and I could see as far as Manchester with The Lovell Telescope in all its glory. The cache wasn't were I expected to find it from the hint but was soon found after a quick search.

After Macc View it was onto GC1T7T8-Cattle Grazing. Not to sure where I went wrong on this one but I ended up on the lower path so had to double back along another path before making my way uphill to the cache site. The cache gets its name from the fact that you need to cross a field that has cows grazing in it. Lucky for me they were spending the day on the other side of the field but I still kept one eye on them and the other on the low parts of the fence just in case. the caches was a quick find. There should off been a geocoin in it but it seems that someone had taken the coin but left the keyring with the mission on it in the cache and have not yet logged it. With the log signed and the cache back in its hide it was onwards to the next cache. GC53EC-'Nosing' About, was the next cache to be found. Not a sole around apart from a group of abseiler's on the other side of some trees making the most of the weather and the old quarry. The cache was a quick find thanks to the hint.This means that there was one cache int he area left and that was GC1T7TB-Reservoir View. On arriving at GZ the cache was found nice and easy due to it being on plain view. I took a seat on the nearby bench for a quiet moment but was then joined by a group of school children who were on a field trip to the area. After signing the log I explained to one of the teachers what I was doing so that I could replace the cache without one of the kids picking it up after I had gone.

The picture in above is of a crane that was used in the quarry.

Completing the LEGEND Series.

After finding Lowe Hill on the Warpers Trail all that was left to do was to complete the Turton Section between Turton Towers and Tookholes. I had arranged to do this with The Syllogiser before going to The Midsummer Nights Event. We arranged to meets at Dimple Lane where we would leave one car and then take the other over to Turton Tower and walk back over the moor to Dimple. We then collected the car from Turton Tower and returned to Dimple Lane and left it one there again and took the other to Crockfield Road Car Park to then walk the rest of The Turton Section back to Dimple Lane.

So the following caches were done in stage one:

WWWTS - Cheetham Woods

Dead Slabby

WWWTS - Warped

WWWTS - Trig

Cheetham Close (Now Archived)

Lizardman's Curry Cache

Turton and Entwistle View

WWWTS - Turton Crossroads

WWWTS - Wanna Be Cairn

WWWTS - Snake Nest

The decision to complete this section from this side was so that the walk to the summit was done on the easier side as if you make your way up from Snake Nest then it's a lot steeper. There were a number of Army Cadet groups making there way up the hill and The Syllogiser was having a natter with there CO's as I made my way along the trail and he was catching up while I was signing the logs of the caches. The only cache that Don needed to find on this section was The curry cache. All the cache were an easy find in a round about way expect for the Snakes Nest which could have been a long search or even a DNF if it hadn't been for Don giving me a huge hint.

After repositioning the cars it was now for the second stage of this section. The caches on this were:

WWWTS - Old Mans Hill

WWWTS - Catherine's Edge

WWWTS - Mounds For Hounds

WWWTS - Another Babbling Brook

Dragon Quest 6 (DNFed)

WWWTS - Stake Moss

WWWTS - Inch Profile Wave from PVC

WWWTS - Don't Tell The Council

WWWTS - TURTON SECTION

Dragon Quest 5

WWWTS - Charters Moss

WWWTS - Tress House

WWWTS - Dimple

This section was a more pleasant walk with the most of it being flat with only small uphill sections. Just as I was replacing Mound for Hounds 3 people approached. They included Ian4724 and Caching Quick. They told us that they couldn't find Dragon Quest 6 and also Don't tell the council. I wasn't to bothered about DQ6 but if I couldn't find Don't tell the council then it would mean that I was one short of completing the whole series and would have to return. On arriving at DTTC the hint was read and it took some time to figure out what it was all about but once you do the cache is a quick find. The Syllogiser found the cache and tried to hide on the other side of the wall to sign the log and was hoping to put the cache back before I saw him with it but that plan didn't work. So after a good days caching and the with DImple in my hand it was the end of the LEGEND series for me.

Some figures from Geocaching By LEGEND website

Caches found on the series - 155

Caching trips to complete the series - 7

Number of days elapsed from start to finish - 117

Which gives me an average of 1.3 caches a day.

Date	Cache Finds
Feb 24, 2009	24
Mar 4, 2009	35
Mar 20, 2009	39
Apr 10, 2009	22
May 18, 2009	22
Jun 19, 2009	1
Jun 21, 2009	23

A Middsummers Night Cache.

The 20th June was the date for A Midsummers Night Cache (GC1R3XV).

I arranged to meet Don aka The Syllogiser before the event and do the Turton Section of the Legend Series. These were the last handful of cache I need to complete the how series. See next Blog. After that it was on to Tookholes for a pub meal before heading up the hill to Jubilee Tower for Sunset.

On getting to The Royal in Tookshole we found The Linedancers propping the bar up with Natty1 so we joined them for the meals. So with a meal inside us and a pint or two the time had come to head to the car park and get ready for the walk. People started to arrive and just before the off we gathered in the car park for a team photo taken by Irene of The Linedancers. Then following a roll call by our event organiser Foinavon it was off to the tower we heaeded. The Geogeriatrics had headed up early for a head start and had only just arrived as the first load of us arrived. Also already at the top was Phil of PhilPamAndRob who had been out one one of the trails before making his way to the tower. I headed up to the top of the tower to get some photo of the group arriving but was having trouble keeping the camera still on full zoom while trying to get my breath back. Once everyone had arrived there was time for another group photo before heading back down the hill and back to the pub. The sunset was not what we wanted has there was a lot of cloud coverage. While on the way down I was able to look for Round the ruins No'6 Owd Aggie's (GCW76X). On find the cache the log had already been signed as a group entry otherwise the log book would off been full and it would of taken sometime for everyone to line up and sign it in turn. This was another great event and an opportunity to meet so many cachers.

Completing the Warper Trail

On the 19th June I headed back to the Entwistle area to try and complete the Warpers Trail for the Legend Series with the one cache on it that I had to find. Parking at Entwistle Train Station I headed up the road towards the top end of the Reservior with the dog in tow. On the way around I was able to stop and get E-Glade (GC1C6KM). I was unable to look for this cache last time I was in the area as two farmers were carrying out some work right next to GZ. This was a quick find and with the log book signed it was back onto the main task and Lowe Hill (GC1M5M9). After my DNF here last time I put it onto my watch list and after a number of finds on it I sent a message to one of the cachers who had found it and was sent a reply saying that the cache was around 20 meters from GZ. I did read the early logs on the cache and it does seem that at first it was right on the nose for the numbers but had somehow been moved for what ever reason. I started my search at around the 20 meter mark but came up empty handed. I continued to look for around 15 minutes and was just about to give up when I decided to have one last bash it it and on approaching the search area I spotted the cache hiding behind a stone. It was more like 20 feet from the original GZ so I took some numbers and added them to my log. That was the Warpers Trail completed now and I was a step closer to completing the whole series. I headed down the hill from here to visit Gruffty's Fairy Battery Earth Cache (GC1TKH0). You find yourself down by the clough looking across at Fairy Battery with great views. There was a group of climbers making the most on the dry weather. With a photo taken of my GPSr at the site and the answers for the cache it was time to head of. While in the area I decided to grab some of the Toby Treasure Trail caches. My last cache in the area that day Jess and Melly's Birthday Cache (GC14NVK). This was a nice colourfully ammobox hidden just of the path that follows the reservoir around.

Apart from getting the last cache on the Warpers Trail one of the highlights of the day was the sighting of a Roe Dear in the wood above the reservoir. What a sight.

Ghost Train at Slate Mountain

I know its been some time since my last blog, its been finding a spare moment to get around to updating it. Anyway I have got there now. Back in June I spent the weekend In Llanberis and one of the cache that was on my hit list was Ghost Train at Slate Mountain. (GC12RFV)

I first attempted this cache on the 1st June 2008 and after a hard slog up the old rail incline was only left with a Did Not Find. I put it on my watch list and planned to do it the next time I was in the area. So the time had come to have another bash at this cache but there was no way I was going up that incline again and decided to walk up the hill using the stepped path to the side of the hill that starts just outside the country park. This was alot easier going. On arriving at GZ my GPSr was taking me up and down the side of the old winding house for the incline and it was my muggle friend Roy that spotted the spoiler. After a quick search the cache was in hand and with a lot of joy knowing that this time the hill was conquered with a result. Knowing my luck someone will put

a cache out there further up the hill. After taking time to take some picture of the stunning views and have a look around Anglesey Barricks and the main reason of getting my breath back it was time to make the journey down to the bottom. This was to be via the rail incline the the challenge here is to stay on your feet on the way down.