First Winter Caching

Monday, January 25, 2010

Today I finally got out to find my first two winter caches.  With it being warmer the last couple of days, I figured that most of the snow was melted.  It was also very comfortable outside for caching.  It is also supposed to get rather cold in the next few days, and those are the days I like to retreat to the ice shack, so I figured today was the day.  My plan was to knock out a cache that I would not be able to get to in the summer months...and the perfect candidate was "Wet Maze".  This cache has a stout reputation as being a winter only cache, and I quickly figured out why.  Lets just say that it really is wet, and it really is a maze.  I was super glad I had on my new waterproof boots, because the whole time I was walking through 3 inches of water on top of glare, super slippery ice.  I made the find and really enjoyed myself on a great day to be caching.

This was my first obstacle, this ice was covered by 3 inches of water and it was super slippery, and thin.  I waddled my way across it while it was cracking the whole way.  The cache was located on "the island" in the background.  If it was easy everyone would do it!

 

 This was the trail I followed the whole way..."the island" is in the background.

 

 This was the view from the cache looking back toward where the journey started.

I then stopped at another cache in the Eldorado Marsh called Slips Cache.  This one took me on a much easier hike though an open grassy field.  This cache had no attributes and the hint was "one odd rock", so I figured it would be in a rock pile and very much not winter friendly.  I was correct, it is definitely not winter friendly, but with the recent snow melt, I was able to see the container nice and easy with no snow cover. 

Although it was only two caches, it felt great to get out again.  Tomorrow I will most likely spend the day in the heated shack watching my tip-ups not go up.