Another night adventure

Originally posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008

Every time I go on an adventure, I tell myself to blog it if it was interesting, fun or unusual. And then I forget. Yesterday was one of those adventure days. I spent the day in the Rancocas area caching. Nice and peaceful day out by myself. Exploring little known places and just generally having a ball. I remembered that I was supposed to meet some newbie cachers in Bass River to introduce myself and welcome them to our addiction. Maybe accompany them on some night caches in the area. I called my buddy Mel and she agreed to meet. We met at the office and started immediately talking about this new extra challenging cache that popped up in Atco. A couple of people had already done it, but in their logs they sounded like they had so much fun, we just had to attempt it. So we met the new cachers, talked for a little bit and then made our excuses and high tailed it to Atco. Arrived there at 9pm. It was dark but there was a full moon to guide us. Got out of the jeep and put on our waders. We had heard that the last cachers to do this cache had their car broken into, so I decided to give them a call to see where they parked. Same place we were, oh great. Deserted power line road, no one around and the noise of the raceway in the distance. Oh and frogs! Did I tell you about the frogs? They made this god-awful screaming noise. Creepy. Anyway, we can't drive any further because of the water and logs in the road, so we lock up the Jeep and head out.
OK the water is deep but not over the waders. This isn't so bad. Mel says something like, "This is more like a river, the water is running really fast" and that was it. Down she goes. The ground gave out from beneath her and she went in up to her waist. I grab her and literally pull her out. She is soaked. Then we look and realize that we are in a friggin' river. Did I say it was dark?
There are some logs on the other side from where we tried to cross, so we decide to climb over and around them. Going over, I was originally in the lead when Mel made the suggestion that because she was already wet, she might as well take the lead. No arguments from me. We made sure our phones and GPSrs were safe and secure and on we went. As we were picking our way across the logs, Mel made the comment of how the whole thing reminded her of a beaver lodge. "Nah," I said. "Too many fallen trees or logs, they look like they were cut down." We are climbing these logs, sometimes perched precariously on one while trying to find not-too-deep footing to move forward. Mel gets on one log and slip! down she goes again. Another short rescue operation and we are on our way again. It took us about a half an hour to pick our way through this short crossing. Then we get back on dry land and trek our way to Ground Zero. Found the first stage in the dark after minimal searching. It was a good hide, but after all we went through we were so determined and eager we made it a fairly easy find. Walked the 250 feet to the final stage and found the cache super quick. Opened it up and dumped it out. It was packed with a lot of neat stuff. The CO must have put a lot of time and effort into this cache. Made some trades and wrote a super long adventure tale in the log.
Crap! Now we have to go back. Walked back to the river crossing and saw the front of the jeep and said, "Well, Mel, at least there is the car." To which she promptly replied, "I moved the car remember?" Uh-oh. Whoever was in the car, turned their headlights on and off and then turned flashlights on us. We shouted "hi", with me grabbing my cell and flipping it open. We were safe on the side of the river we were on, because it would take them too long to cross. They started talking about the beaver they saw, jumping in and out of the river and Mel freezes. I can't get her to move. She is absolutely petrified of beavers, and snakes, and geese, and ducks, and spiders and EVERYTHING! I am so busy trying to get her to move so we don't have to continue standing inthe water, I don't see the two on shore step into their headlights. It is GALAP! The husband and wife team who already completed this adventure. Very cool! They shined their lights on the water and, after I got Mel moving, we found an easier way back to shore without climbing over theb beaver dam we went across on the first time. Yes, it WAS a beaver dam!
Just as we are two feet from the shore, Mel screams. "Snake!!!" She freezes again and Mrs. GALAP runs to the car. I look down and it was a long black snake sitting on the edge of the puddle. Mr. GALAP and I approach it to get a better look, Mrs. GALAP is huddled in the car and Mel is frozen to her spot. I skirt around her, check out the snake until it leave and we are out of the water, another days adventure over.