Trekking my way to a Sauna!

January 9, 2012

WOW! What a fun cache (or at least I made it fun).So I must have just been lucky, because I picked a day after lots of rain the night before and the ground was wet and muddy. The weather was cooperating as the rain had subsided but the temperature was pretty chilly. The cache was not too far from the road and parking lots, and off a trail, so I thought it might be easy enough to get!So I ventured to park, stashed the car and headed down the trail avoiding the mud when possible, and when slipping and stepping in some -- conjured up mini images in my head of falling and getting muddy or slipping into the creek and having to quickly get back to my car before getting to cold.After making it to GZ, I looked over the bluff and thought there must be an easier way down, so I sneaked a peak at the clue and confirmed that I must try to find another way. So I ventured over to a area that I could reach the creek and ponder for a moment -- creek is shallow - is it cold -- could I reach the cache from the water side? I went down and felt the water - not freezing and not steam water from a sauna - so I sat down, stashed my wallet, phone and keys - just in case. Took my socks and shoes off and pulled my pant legs up.. stepped in the water and walked through the creek over to where my phone said GZ was. I looked up -- where is the cache? I could not see it from where I was standing. I climbed up on the rocks just above the creek - and realized just how cold my feet where - they had gone numb because the creek bed rocks where not hurting my feet and the tactile feeling I was hoping for so I could get steady footing was not present. However, when turned around I saw the one and only spot the cache could be and decided that I was not going to reach it from this vantage point and headed back to my socks and shoes.

With shoes on, I venture back to where I was looking down and found many branches that I could rely on to hold me up as I ventured down what looked like a area I could easily fall and get my "butt dirty". But I made it down to the hidey spot and found the cache. Remembering what I read from the cache description, I felt around thinking maybe this was some natural heated rock area? Everything was cold to the touch - so I grabbed the cache and opened it -- OOOOOHHHH!!! HA HA HA!! I get it -- a Sauna! SPOILER: The cache was created to look like a Sauna (diorama), with wood walls, little figurine people sitting on a bench, with a heated rock pile, a bucket with a scoop in it. Very well done!I wish I could have climbed into that Sauna -- as my toes could definitely use a warm up, but I do not think I was going to get much relief, as the Sauna was cold that day -- started at 60 degrees when I opened it, and quick dropped about 4-6 degrees when I was closing it up. Clambered up to my bag, grabbed my phone, climbed back down to the cache and snapped some pix, traded some travel bugs and closed up the cache and restored its camouflage. I managed to get minimally dirty and kept my derriere dry and clean. Loved the cache! Great work, lots of fun and adventure!