Flughem

After a cold start to the month Friday (May 5th) was really warm, with temperatures well over 20 C. It’s not usual for May and the following days have given us snow, freezing nights and cold days. Anyway, as I had looked at the caches at Flughem and worked out the coordinates for ground zero where needed I decided that this would be a great way of spending the afternoon. It was all decided on the spur of the moment so I hadn’t noted much about the area. Forest. That’s roughly what I thought and didn’t expect it to be much different to the rest of the forest in the area. I know that there has been mining activity in the triangle between Hofors, Torsåker and Storvik and many years ago I had read a little about the geology of the area and have visited a few places to see old ruins.

So off I set with GPS, spare batteries, pen and paper, letterbox stamp and pad, plus my old iPhone 4S with the geocaching® app. No water, no coffee and sandwiches, no sunglasses. No mosquito repellant, as it was far too early in the year to need it. I was going to be in the car most of the way and the final few hundred meters were bound to be on easily tramped forest paths!

My first stop wasn’t planned but I saw the multicache icon for Välten vid Lapphagsgruvan and decided to stop and see if I could find the cache. The calculation of the coords for GZ was simple and there were clearly remains of an old mine to explore.

The cache at Lapphagsgruva.

My GPS thought I should examine a wall but luckily the hint was very clear! I dropped off a TB that I had picked up the previous weekend and continued on to Epicentrum which was quickly retrieved.

Between the main road RV68 and Flughem was a mini power trail consisting of ten PET preforms. Nothing special but it’s nice to add numbers to my finds list. The first of the Flughem caches was a simple mystery, but a well composed and interesting one. I really had a laugh when I found the cache. So appropriate. I won’t post a photo here as it will spoil the fun for future visitors. I parked my car at the suggested spot and made my way to the letterbox hybrid at Flughems Kalle. Again this was a well thought out cache and a great container. I never understand why visitors to letterbox hybrids are too lazy to bring a stamp with them. It’s a small investment and makes the logbook much more interesting to look at than just a nick or in best case just the cache’s own stamp.

A well filled cache at Flughems Kalle.

It was now that the real geocaching fun started. In the early days of geoaching regular size containers were placed somewhere out in the forest usually under a rock and you were expected to bush bash to get to them. Sometimes there was a path leading close by. Usually, the path was found once you had reached the cache through bush bashing. I now felt some nostalgia.

The starting point for Vitheten i det lilla korset was quickly located. Behind the cache were the remains of old mining activity. After the reading the cache page and activating a vast array of detecting devices, well my smrtphone and GPS I continued along teh path wondering what would happen. Pip! Data started flowing from out of nowhere and I suddenly knew that I had a few hundred meters walk to the cache.

The white cross at the start of Vitheten i det lilla korset

That’s where the fun started. I didn’t have a paper map with me and the maps on my smartphone and GPS don’t show paths in the forest, so I kept on walking but after a while realised I was heading south and the cache was to the west. I found a track and started following it. Suddenly there was no track just a steep slope strewn with mossy boulders and a fence at the top. I realised I was on the south side of the limestone quarry. I continued on wondering where on earth the cache was going to be. A sweaty twenty minutes later I arrived at GZ. What a view. It was 24 C and a perfect place for a cup of coffee and a sandwich – if I had thought to bring something with me. This shouldn’t be hard I thought, there aren’t too many hiding places. After 20 minutes of futile searching I decided to “phone a friend”. I started with the CO only to find that the number I called had been transferred to someone else. He doesn’t work here any longer. I called Ironhawk67, X_1, Gustafs Lisa, Olleoljud and noone answered. It was then I considered giving up but I made another circuit around GZ. Nothing but mounting frustration. An idea popped into my head. Geocaching app message to the CO. Another circuit, this take anticlockwise around GZ. Yeah! There it was, hiding away under a stone overhang in a bed of moss and heather. Thirty seven minutes of my life had gone into finding the cache. Yes!

The logbook for Vitheten i det lilla korset

Well, as I was here and sweaty but pleased to have finally found the cache I set off up another hill towards Mot Körbergsklack #09 where there was a great view over the surroundings.

The wind shelter at the top of Körbergsklack.

Of course after I found the cache I also found some well defind paths, which made it a lot easier for me to find the next few caches before getting back to the car 47 minutes later (according to my GPS tracklog). Amongst the caches I found were the earthcache Klapperstensfältet vid Körberget, a very old and wizened spruce, that according to the photo in the cache description was quite impressive a century ago Krypgranen vid körbergets fot and a multicache at the limestone quarry Kalkbrottet.

A rather wizened creeping spruce.

I didn’t try to get too close to the edge of the quarry as it seemed to be a long drop down to the water. It was far easier getting back to the car from where I was. I just followed a clearly marked trail and once back in the car, the AC was immediately turned on so I could cool down. I enjoy warm days but this one came as a surprise and I don’t think my body was ready for it. The tracklog and elevation plot from Google Earth show in principle where I stopped on my wander through the forest. The limestone quarry can’t be seen but it’s in the centre of the “circle” that my route took.

Google Earth elevation and speed plot

A walk around Flughem starting at my car to the right and climbing to the highest point at the top left.

Half day in Hofors

As I am now in Turkey I will add the photos when I get home.

Halfway through Friday a mail turned up in my mailbox. Geocaching in Hofors on Sunday? As I had nothing else planned, of course the answer was yes. So at the leisurely hour of 10 am Slas, Madchicken67 and Ironhawk67 congregated at the car park outside Slas apartment then drove over to Hofors for a half day of caching.

Although Hofors is less than half an hours drive from work there are very few caches there that I have found. Actually when I come to think about it, when I last visited Hofors I had found all the caches that were there at the time and even placed one of my own. Massey Arch Hammer which means we are talking about 2009!

The day started off with a quick find at Kornskruven then a pleasant series of caches around Hammardammen and a well crafted final mystery cache that gave the series a favourite point from me. Even though the weather has been pretty warm for a couple of weeks there was still plenty of ice on the lake, not that I would have dared go out on it. It would also have been interesting to find out more about what looked like a hydroelectric power station on the canal but it seemed to be in private ownership judging by the big “Stopp” private signs.

Lunch was eaten at the local pizzeria just across the road from Lucas Electric. I had solved the mystery ages ago but there was some dispute amongst us as to whether the solution gave a “green tick” in the geochecker or not. I can’t remember but all I know is that my GPS homed in on to the cache whilst the others were inspecting a building twenty meters or so away. 😉

A cache that was in an interesting spot was Lillgösken. Here we found a series of small canals and waterways from the lake Lillgösken out towards the mines and other ironmaking ruins downstream of the lake.

The disappointment of the day was not being able to find Nyängs anrikningsverk. This is a place that could benefit from more study.

As this was only a short day out Slas and I gave up after Kraftverksdammen leaving
MC72 and IH67 to continue finding caches in the Torsåker area.