Grabbing a water Geocache
Feb. 10th, 2013 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurchWe drove out to Camano Island today for a big Geocaching event: Great Balls of Fire. It's an annual thing, although this is the first year we've been able to go (and was, in fact, the first time we'd ever been out to Camano Island in all the years we've lived in the area... definitely going to be heading out there again!). Next week is the Great Northwest Glass Quest, where people will be scouring the island looking for "clueballs" hidden at a variety of local businesses and community sites. If you find a Clueball, you're supposed to then take it to the location listed inside it to get an authentic limited edition Glass Treasure. This was sort of the kick-off event for it... to bring people out to the island and make them aware of the upcoming event (since it really is right up our alley as Geocachers).
We took the opportunity to hit a number of caches while we were there (since it really was a wide open field for us). At one point, we were standing around chatting with folks at the event, when a friend asked if we'd gotten the nearby 5/5 yet (5/5 meaning it's a 5 out of 5 Difficulty and a 5 out of 5 Terrain (which generally requires special equipment). Apparently, the tide was quite low and it was possible at that point to wade out into the Sound and retrieve it. So we were off! Sure enough, there was the cache attached to a buoy, bobbing around in Puget Sound... with a rope attached to a pulley on shore.rackham pulled it in as close as it would come, then slipped off his shoes and socks, rolled his jeans up as high as they would go and waded on out. Brrrrrr!!!
He didn't want to risk losing the buoy (the big white thing he's grabbing in the photo) or accidentally dropping the cache, so he tossed the log out to me on shore. I signed it and then slipped off my shoes and socks and waded out to hand it back to him. I just didn't trust that I'd be able to lob it all the way back out to him and it also made me feel like I'd at least contributed and suffered a little bit for the cause, since poor Rackham had to stand out there and risk freezing his toes off.
Crossposted from my Livejournal.
We took the opportunity to hit a number of caches while we were there (since it really was a wide open field for us). At one point, we were standing around chatting with folks at the event, when a friend asked if we'd gotten the nearby 5/5 yet (5/5 meaning it's a 5 out of 5 Difficulty and a 5 out of 5 Terrain (which generally requires special equipment). Apparently, the tide was quite low and it was possible at that point to wade out into the Sound and retrieve it. So we were off! Sure enough, there was the cache attached to a buoy, bobbing around in Puget Sound... with a rope attached to a pulley on shore.
rackham pulled it in as close as it would come, then slipped off his shoes and socks, rolled his jeans up as high as they would go and waded on out. Brrrrrr!!!He didn't want to risk losing the buoy (the big white thing he's grabbing in the photo) or accidentally dropping the cache, so he tossed the log out to me on shore. I signed it and then slipped off my shoes and socks and waded out to hand it back to him. I just didn't trust that I'd be able to lob it all the way back out to him and it also made me feel like I'd at least contributed and suffered a little bit for the cause, since poor Rackham had to stand out there and risk freezing his toes off.
Crossposted from my Livejournal.
