Wherigo.com

 SHC played Frodo's Quest on 10/6/2009

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Today was a perfect day for a Hobbit's Quest. At times I was hot and others cold (must have put my sweater on and off 3 or 4 times), but comfortable most of the way.
My Quest began back at the Mines of Moria, having been here before and wanting to avoid any Orcs I stayed out of the mine. But I already had Gandalf's message. On to the Forest of Fangorn for a meeting with Treebeard. The trip was beautiful and being a hobbit you would think traveling through the woods would prove easy. However I spent a fair share of my day bushwacking through mazanita and other vegetation (wish I had long pants on). This is where the Quest ran into trouble. I followed the Wherigo cartridge (Version 2.1 according to my PDA) to get the needed info, however upon receiving the message I couldn't seem to locate Treebeard for my next info. Fortunately I was able to call the help of Smeagol (aka TD). With the supplied information I was able to spot the dreaded Eye of Sauron. I must approach the eye without it seeing me if I want this Quest to succeed. Scaling and hugging the rock formations I approached the Eye of Sauron and finished off the Quest. Having another set of coords from the Mines of Moria I traveled to them and was able to finally met Treebeard.

I traded a St.HelenaCachers pathtag for the Nemesis coin, which I will be moving to an appropriate cache for the coin.

This is another outstanding TP cache that I most definitely recommend. I'm not sure if the cartridge needs more work or if the next person to find the cache will have no trouble.

Thanks Bill; wish you were out there with me today.

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 Machuco played Frodo's Quest on 3/7/2009

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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!

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 psychofish played Frodo's Quest on 3/7/2009

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Wow! What an adventure! As always with a TP hide I had a great time. Ed (Team Dromomania), my brother Dadfish & I started out from Robert Louis Stevenson park at about 0800 & were at GZ for Frodo's Quest at about 0820.
We dropped into the mines of Morea for the first part of our quest. TD had found this part a bit ago but was stingy with any hints. But it seams we didn't need them anyway because dadfish had his hands on the clue within 2 minutes.

After fighting our way out of the mines we headed to the next stage, with a stopover at another section of the mines, a little lower on the mountain. Thanks TD.

After a couple of false tries we finally made the decision to go for a bit of a bushwhack to get to the second stage. This proved to be unnecessary as the way out was quite easy & uneventful. But we did find a balancing rock in the process .

Stage 2 was a bit of a trip. The cartridge wasn't working, so we made some calls, and with the page read to us by the owner, we figured the next step.

That took us to a decidedly Un-trailpuppy-esk area, searching for we knew not what.

Luckily, dadfish had an idea that he & TD went after, while I searched the area the coords were indicating. After finally giving up on that spot I headed towards the rest of my party, only to find TD in a very precarious position, that he was able to handle NP in short-order. As I was nearing what turned out to be GZ, I heard "Got it".

It was decided that some trades should be made on such a momentous cache, so I delivered the "goods" to the cacheholder & made the trade.

This was yet another great cache by trailpuppy, that I was able to experience.

Thanks to TP for the cache of course, & TD for the unerring direction , & daring, & df for the info we needed.

WooHoo!!!!! FTF!!!!!!!!!!

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