8/22/2008

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Another day out caching! Managed to get out of the house by 8:30 a.m. I had one scary moment. I got lost! my GPSr died while I was out in a local park, on the edge of town. It was so dumb of me now to check the power level before I left the house. I had left the trail, in search of a cache in a wide-swath of blackberry vines, poison oak, and rocks, so I wasn't paying attention to the directions I was walking. I ended up going in big circles and then realized how screwed I was!

A few years ago, there was this story in our local paper about this woman who'd gotten "lost" in a local green belt park, right on the edge of town! She ended up getting stuck in brambles and hovered down for 2 nights, hiding from animals she heard in the dark! She was dehydrated and disoriented when she was found a few days later. I kept thinking, "WHAT A DORK! Who gets lost in a city park?" Well, now I know. ANYONE gets lost in a city park! Here's a photo of my legs, as I drove myself through a mile of blackberries:
It only got worse! Here's the view of the area I had to hike through, which was about 2 feet deep with thorns and poison oak!

After awhile, I used my cell phone to call my husband, asking him if he'd drive out this way and honk his horn from the roadway off in the distance, so I could at least get closer to the parking spot I'd left my car at. Har-dee-har-har. Finally made it out and headed over to Carnivorous Hippy's house, where we planned the rest of the day's caching!

We did "Blame Game," a cache not too far from my home. It involved scrambling down a sand bank to the Willamette River's Edge and swim-wading across the water to a large dead tree submerged in the water! We did it! It was awesome! Ended up each going home afterwards to change into dry clothes in order to prepare for the next phase of the day.

This phase involved LADDERS! I left my Accord at home, opting to use the Town and Country minivan instead, so I could fit 2 ladders inside. Off we went! We hit "Welcome to Adair," which required climbing 25 feet up into a pine tree to retrieve the cache. I am afraid of heights, so CH ended up making the snag! Then, we hit "Tree Time Shenanigans," which required another change in altitude...but only about 10 feet up. I was able to get this one. Woo-hoo!

From there, we hit a bunch more caches out in the North Albany area and called it a day around 3:10, as I had to be at an appointment. It was great fun and great weather! A nice, cool 72 degrees!

3 comments:

Vita said...

How is stomping through poison oak and blackberries fun? I understand how getting lost could be fun, especially with a hero husband at your beck and call, so you don't actually have to spend nights as a TV news item. That's adventure. But FPA is not fun.

BoggyWoggy said...

You know, I don't think it was fun. As a matter of fact, that photo was taken near the middle of the blackberries...
The fun was being out on a cool morning, hiking in a beautiful forest that I didn't even know was there!

Anonymous said...

I know legs like that all too well as that's what mine look like following the past three days (I'll eventually be posting this story, too!) and man do they sting! Good story though. I need to find some caches like that!