Geocaching - 8/17/10

This trip was semi-successful to say the least.  It was our first time going to Mount Charleston to hike and look for caches, so we were all very excited.  The hike itself didn’t let us down one bit, it was the fact I had to log my first ever DNF, but to make matters worse, I had to log two DNF’s!  I’ll get to them later, but first I’ll begin with the hike itself.  We pulled up to Fletcher Canyon trail, and stepped out of the car to feel the dramatic change in weather.  For once it was actually “cool” outside compared to the constant 110 degree weather of Vegas.  We began the trail surrounded by pine trees and oak trees, which was all new scenery for us compared to the desert.  With the smell of the fresh air in our nostrils, we began the trek to hopefully find 5 caches. 

Getting ready for the hike

The first cache was found within approximately 45 minutes, but not without any difficulties.  This was my first time using my GPSr in a setting that had many tall trees so I wasn’t expecting such an issue.  After a short but useless hike through some thick trees, branches, and rocks, we finally found the first cache.  If I would have known, we could have stayed on the trail and simply walked right to the cache, but if it was that easy, it wouldn’t have been as much fun.
 

Found my first cache at Mount Charleston

The second cache on our trip of hopefully five was an important one to say the least.  The cache was a bit off the trail, but on our way to it, I spotted our first wildlife and snake for Mount Charleston!  There is a pipe that is extremely rusty and use to run from the top of the mountain to the bottom, and I’m guessing its use was for water transportation.  These days it is broken up and rusted out, which makes a perfect place for a good 3 foot long snake!  Before I could grab it or take a good photo of it, he squirmed his way back into the pipe.  If I or my parents hadn’t noticed him, we would have walked right on top of him, which would have been a bad situation to say the least.  After the snake incident, we found the cache merely 10 feet away from his spot, so I quickly signed the log, not wanting to meet any of his snake friends!

Found this big tree along the hike

What was supposed to be the third cache in the line of five was quite some trouble.  We arrived directly on the coordinates and began searching.  The cache name had “log” in it, so we searched the nearest log.  After about 15 minutes of searching one log that seemed to be perfect, we searched the area.  My Mom and Dad needed a break, so they set up “camp” which was a blanket on the ground giving me more time to look.  Once 45 minutes passed and still no cache, I was getting impatient and really wanted the cache.  Pine needles covered the ground so I figured it might have been buried by Mother Nature, so using a stick I brushed away hundreds upon hundreds of needles hoping to see some tupper-ware looking back at me beneath the mount of needles.  

 














           With no log signed, we continued on to the fourth cache, and planned on looking again on the way out with a new perspective of the land and a fresh start.  We headed up the trail and walked for a good hour until the scenery began to change.  With help from a family taking a break near a small running stream, we were guided towards the canyon, still not knowing what to expect.  After some climbs over small hills, we were met with enormous walls of rock and were astounded.  We had never seen anything like that and couldn’t wait to get inside it.  Within minutes we were surrounded by 30-40 foot walls of rock.  Luckily for us, there was no rain that day because this would not have been a good place to get trapped in with running rain.  The climb through the canyon was treacherous, due to the rocks being very slippery from the constant pressure of water running over them in the winter and spring.  After some amazing views and pictures of being inside the canyon, we made it to where the waterfall would be if there was snow melting.
  

Canyon walls were very high

It was very cool being inside of it, but the GPSr lost service extremely quickly.  This left us in quite a pickle, I remembered from the one cache’s page, it being behind a log.  Sure enough, my Dad points out to a log, and told me to check in it, and so I did.  Reached my hand in behind some oddly placed rocks, and there it was, cache number 3!  We had to quickly sign the log and place it back because a family full of young kids who were not Geocachers was on our tails.  Not thinking they could climb up the steep ledge to get where we were, we continued on into the canyon to where it ended.  Knowing from memory, there was another cache in this vicinity based on coordinates, I began scrounging around.  I saved the clues onto my phone, and the clue stated you would need to find a way to climb up the canyon wall, and so I did.  Not knowing I climbed into the completely wrong area. 

After looking for what seemed like hours in this small ravine barely big enough for my body, covered in dirt and dust I finally called it quits once I turned on a small light, and saw mounds of bat guano, also known simply as poop.  The sight of all those droppings turned me off on the cache and I jumped down as quickly as possible.  Once a bit of climbing and sliding down a ledge, I was back on the ground with my parents where we regrouped and were met with the family of small children.  We still don’t know how they got up there, but we politely said hi and carried on our way out of the canyon.  Leaving the falls area, we found a “waterslide” that was made probably by the pressure of the water, so I attempted to “slide” down it when it was dry, which didn’t work out.  Either way we left the canyon disappointed yet again, hoping to go back to the spot of the other hidden cache and locate it to make up for the last cache. 



After some back-tracking, we made it to the original spot of the cache which was supposed to be some “log.”  Again, my parents relaxed as I frantically hunted for the cache.  Hikers were constantly walking by us, but since we were somewhat quiet and out of sight, they never even knew we were there.  I dug up many, many logs, piles of needles, rocks, etc.  Luck was not on my side that day, I had to give up and log two DNF’s.

Besides the two caches that slipped by, the hike was great and we found a snake and 3 making the grand total 29!  Hopefully in the near future we can get back to this trail, because I have some payback to give for those 2 caches that I missed! 

If you would like to check out some of the other videos from this adventure in Mount Charleston that didn’t make the blog, you can click on the tab ‘My Videos’ in the sidebar or this link http://www.youtube.com/user/hesslv.