The Old Stump

I took a day off from work to get out and enjoy the warm spring weather. The day is Thursday, April 19th 2007. Today is also the day of the monthly Northeast Ohio Geocachers cache and coffee night at Cyber Pete’s in Bedford Ohio. My goal today is to find my 800th cache before going to the coffee night. While I was out enjoying the warm weather today with O-Dis (My GPS Receiver) we came upon a cache named “The Old Stump” that has been hidden by fellow Geocacher snppla. The cache site is located 41 degrees 20.690 minutes North by 081 degrees 27.520 minutes West. As we approached the cache site O-Dis kept leading me toward the broken tree in the distance. The closer we got to the tree the taller the stump became, and we soon realized that the tree broke and fell at a point about 20 feet up from the ground. We looked in all the obvious areas but could not find the elusive geocache container. We were looking for a small Tupperware food storage container that measured about five inches square and about three inches deep. After about 20 minutes with out much success I walked back about twenty feet to get a fresh look at the stump and tree. As I stood there in the woods looking at the tree scratching my head I noticed the corner of something clear and also green. Could it be? Well, we walked back toward the tree and it disappeared from sight. Odd, geocache containers normally don’t move on their own. I backed up and the object reappeared near the break in the tree. This could only mean one thing. I would have to walk up the broken section of the tree toward the area where the tree was still attached to the stump. Well, times wasting, so I walk to the end of the tree that is on the ground. As I walked up the tree and near the break I noticed a three foot gap that would need to be crossed to reach the elusive prize. I carefully stepped across the gap and looked down. Yep, there it is. The prize was at the top of the stump. Once I had the cache in hand I signed the log and left one of my signature Geo-Sarge Wooden Nickels. After I placed the cache back in it’s hiding spot I sat down to think about my adventure. As I was enjoying the warm weather and the feeling of success I looked around enjoying the great view from my perch. It was about this time that I looked down. Holy &$*%@!! What the heck was I thinking? It didn’t look this far up from down there? I must be nuts! What looked like 20 feet from down there, looks like100 feet from up here! No problem, I’ll just stand up and walk down the way I came. Somehow that always sounds easier than it ends up being. Once I had my feet back on the ground I realized that this tree was a very special tree. This tree held my 800th find. What a great old tree!

Finding Number 500

Today is January 14th 2007. Today I reached a caching milestone. While out caching I realized that I was about to find the 500th cache. Finding 500 caches means I am half way to the major milestone of finding 1,000 caches. I could not have asked for a nicer cache to come in at this milestone. The cache is named Gorgeous Gorge and was placed by the Bedford Historical Society. The cache site is located at 41 degrees 23.050 minutes North by 081 degrees 31.914 minutes West. The area is rich in history and is a beautiful area to spend time outside enjoying an area that can make you feel as though you have stepped back into time. As I listened to the sound of the water rushing over the falls in the gorge I started to think of times past. The sound of the falls made me forget that it was the year 2007. As I listened to the river I began to dream. As I dreamed, I began to travel back in time to when the area was wild and untamed. As I stood near the falls, I dreamed of times long ago. Times when the wilderness stretched so far that the moon would pass thru the night sky more times than you could count. As I dreamed, my head was pounding with the deafening roar of the river; the heavy spray of water from the river soaked thru my clothing, down to my very soul; and the cold… the bone chilling cold that would not go away. As I continued dreaming, I saw times that had past. I saw people and events form a time long, long ago that I did not recognize. As I watched the events play out in my mind, I became more and more confused. How could these things be happening? I asked my self, “Where was I?” “Where had I gone?” As I tried to make sense of all that was happening to me I started to hear a voice. A voice of someone in the distance calling out to me. As I dreamed; I struggled, trying to find the source of the voice. As I strained to hear, and see, I slowly realized that the voice was coming from the river. How could this be? As I strained harder, looking at the base of the falls trying to find the voice. A ghostly image appeared at the bottom of the falls, and was calling out to me. I could not believe what I was seeing; neither man nor beast could survive in that violent area at the base of the falls. The ghostly image seemed to be giving a warning, “careful small and insignificant human, careful; or I will take you from this place. I will take you from this world and you will never return.” As I struggled to wake from the dream like trance, I realized that I had ventured to close to the falls. I look down and became dizzy, stumbling back away from the falls. Later, I tried to make sense of what had happened to me. Could it be that the river has a spirit as the Native Americans believe it does? Is it possible that the spirit of this river saved me with it’s warning? I know what I believe, but you will have to decide for yourself.