Last weekend Slas and I took a trip out to Myggstenen where we were able to log a D4.5/T5 cache and have a little fun using our climbing gear. The result was that I was then one single cache away from filling the D/T matrix and that meant that I just had to scour the area for caches that were D4/T5, the combination that was missing in my hunt. A pocket query on geocaching.com revealed that there were ten suitable caches within 150km from home. The closest was Trädmonumentet in Säter, a mere 85km from home as the crow flies.
A quick mail to Slas, Madchicken72 and Ironhawh67 gave three negative answers, as they all had other commitments for the weekend. I had looked at the cache location in Street View mode and saw what was expected.
I judged that a climb of about six or seven meters was in order and that the cache was likely to be under the roof meaning that it could be a little tricky. During the week I had received a package from Germany with some more climbing gear that included a 60m rope and an ascender. That means that I don’t need to borrow Slas gear for climbing up. Not that I was going to need a sixty meter rope for this climb. I also made the judgement that I could do this alone although I prefer to have others with me when climbing – you never know.
Sunday was the day of choice but as I had to drop my partner off in town at noon it meant that I had about six hours of daylight to find the cache and that included a couple of hours for the drive over to Säter. In other words, not a big deal. The cacr was duly loaded with all the usual geogear plus extra gear to allow for the ascent up the wodden structure. By the time I left Gävle it was 13:15 so I only had just less than five hours of light left.
As I passed through Långshyttan I resisted the impulse to stop and look for Välkommen till Långshyttan. I have seen that the cache has many favourite points and when I searched for it on my last trip through my GPS was pointing me out into the forest which was devoid of caches. 😦 A light rain started and I could see myself hanging from a rope at a wooden structure by the main highway near Säter getting soaked.
When I got to Säter it was possible to drive right up to the cache site although the track for the last fifty meters was really narrow. While I was parked there a jogger, a biker and a walker came past but no-one indicated it was strange that I was parked there.
It didn’t take long before I was up under the roof but no luck at the first place. On the third attempt I found the cache – a black PET tube hidden among black wooden boards. Not easy to spot.
The hallelulja moment! The geocaching holy grail! Actually, the feeling of elation was also balanced with a feeling of relief. It’s taken me ten and a half years to find 81 different combinations of caches. But I made it!
I looked at my watch as I drove away and saw it was 15:30 so I still had a few hours of daylight left. I used them to find two caches out of the thousand or more in the area. They were Challenge #167 Fem cacheägares samtliga cacher and Challenge #144 – Alla Traditionals i en kommun. I had fulfilled the requirements earlier this year and just needed to physically sign the log.
By the time I was back in Långshyttan it was dark so I stopped at Välkommen till Långshyttan and with the aid of my torch it took only seconds to find what I was looking for. I won’t give the game away but it was a well crafted cache that is really to my liking. Well worth a favourite point.