Frodo's Quest
played
We met up with Team Dromomania at the RLS parking area at 8:00am and started up towards the Mines of Moria. TD had already found this stage, but came along with Psychofish and I to get a bit of pleasure watching PF and I search for this elusive piece of the puzzle. To his dismay, we were able to find this secret message rather quickly. He didn't even have time to get in one good snicker! We climbed out of the cave after snapping a few photos of this ultra cool spot and proceeded to do the math for the second stage. We mashed in the new coordinates, PF quickly grabbed a nearby cache and we were on our way to stage two.
TD took the lead as we turned off the main trail since he had been to this area before and he assured us he would be able to get us there without too much bushwhacking. It didn't take too long before his memory loss problem reared it's ugly head as he lost the trail after only a couple of hundred yards. We searched around for a while trying to find "The Trail" and decided to go back to the main trail cause he must have missed the proper turn off. Soooo, we bushwhacked back to the main trail and continued on it for a bit until we decided we had gone too far and we returned to a spot that looked like we would have a pretty clear trail. And the trail was clear for about a quarter of a mile and then we came to a spot where there was nothing but a sea of manzanita and scrub oak and sticker bushes between us and our goal. TD and PF got on some rock outcroppings and searched the terrain for an easy way through but there just was none to be had. TD (feeling a bit bad for getting us in this spot) took point on a monumental bushwhack adventure. We must have pushed thru at least a tenth of a mile of brush which was at times, way above our heads. Once through the brush we found the going a bit easier. We scrambled up some pretty steep rock outcroppings and finally got to stage two. We wandered around for a while waiting for the Wherigo cartridge to give up some more information but after 30 minutes of that with no results, we decided to give the owner a call. We explained the situation and he gave us the information we needed to continue. We plugged in the new coordinates and off we go to the final.
We got to GZ and searched around for a while but this area didn't fit the Trailpuppy MO at all. So, once again, we had to resort to a lifeline call. Trailpuppy confirmed that we were in the wrong spot and tried to give us some references to go on to get us to the correct area. We were stuck and staring defeat straight in the eyeball. Just then I remembered something that I had saved on my Colorado that just might give us a hint and sure enough we had one last chance, albeit slim.
The saved info took us to a spot that started looking like what TP had explained but there were only a few spots to hide anything and all of them were a bit "dicey" to get to. No sooner than I had taken off my backpack, TD was climbing up a really precarious rock area. And he said he was afraid of heights! He took it very slow and carefully and was checking all the crevices and was coming up with nothing. He was just about to climb back down when he climbed to a slightly higher (and much more dangerous) perch and spied something a bit different and, lo and behold, HE GOT IT !!!!! Psychofish climbed up there to give him some swag, he signed us all in, and both of them got down safely.
We all shared congratulations on a total team effort and started the long trek back to the trailhead. With all the obstacles we faced on this journey I am amazed that we came away victorious at all! Team Dromomania finally did find the trail on the way out and the hike back was filled with stories of our adventure and how sore we were going to be.
Thanks to Psychofish and Team Dromomania for the great company and hooray for the shared FTF, and thanks to Trailpuppy for ANOTHER epic caching adventure!
Oh Yea, I dropped a cool coin in there too!