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.
The cache hiding place from Google Street View
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.
ds8300 in front of the wooden monument with cache in hand
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!
A complete D/T matrix 🙂
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.
Typical stats from Project-gc web site.
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.
