Saturday, September 01, 2007
Blacklock Mystery Solved
OK, it’s not so much a mystery as it is a troublesome cache. I’m referring to Blacklock Boy Scouts cache which was placed in 2004 by a cacher who has never logged a single cache find and hasn’t been active since placing this one. It’s essentially been abandoned but a few folks have found it. Well, many have only found the first stage anyway.
Now for the troublesome part - the second and final stage was only found by a handful of people. The last time anyone had found it (prior to today, that is) was two years ago! The problem seems to be in the coords for the final stage as written on the log sheet of the first stage micro. Someone appears to have written new coords - two times, in fact! Several DNF logs describe either not attempting the hunt at all or simply no luck finding after a great deal of searching. Good caching friends, Duck-n-Deedy, went out there recently and attempted this one while placing a new one and doing cache maintenance. They rewrote the second set of coords on a nice dry piece of paper for future cachers then proceeded with hunting the cache. They weren’t successful on this day as was the case with the next several would-be finders.
I decided to see if I could help put an end to this trouble once-and-for-all. I was either going to find the little bugger or spend enough time looking to justify logging a “Should Be Archived”. Armed with all previous logs, poking stick and lunch I headed out the Blacklock Point Trail. The trail, by the way, is being maintained rather well. So I find the first stage micro easy enough (I had found this part in 2005 as well). The original log was quite wet as many previous finders had indicated so I took it with me intending to set it out in the sun when I stopped for lunch. Indeed, I discovered three different sets of coords for the final stage including the piece of paper left by Duck-n-Deedy. Using the last coords I headed down into that “canyon” - turned out to be a rather interesting meadow-like area in a low area along the cliff edge. The coords zeroed out at the outer edge of a sprawling mass of wind-blown spruce limbs. I could see where others had poked and prodded their way into this prickly thicket. Reading the log of a cacher named Short’n'Stout about how he feared having to dive deep into that thicket but found it at the edge helped quite a bit. I just started parting the branch masses and poking my face down inside for a “look-see” in addition to poking with my hiking staff. After about 30 minutes I hit the right spot! The container was an ammo can and a bit rusty but all the contents were dry and in good condition.
It felt good to resolve this one! Even though the cache is still “abandoned” by it’s owner I think it will survive quite awhile longer. Now on to find Duck-n-Deedy’s new cache nearby! Ah! Success there too! A Good Day!