Drive Bye a Drive Bye
For those not aware what a drive bye geocache is, it's one where you can literaly put your arm out of the window to recover it, usualy they are no more than 50/100m away from the parking spot.
On Saturday afternoon we decided to go and do Wildtrekkers Snowdon View Micro series, which are all drive byes. When we set off it was lovely and sunny, but as usual Snowdonia was wet and misty when we arrived. I'd put in the co-ordinates for No 1 and 2, so followed the arrow to a car park to do Snowdon View Micro No 1. As it was chucking it down, Nette and Stephanie sent me to retrieve it. Ok I out I got taking Trixie with me to act as a decoy. Spotted the cache location straight away, but unfortunately there was a couple parked up facing me eating their ice creams (there's a ice cream van located at the car park), so back to the car to wait them out. Off they toddle so out of the car again, only this time Trixie refused to go, I couldn't blame her as it was still chucking it down. Only for someone else to park in the same spot looking in the same direction, another failed attempt. They moved of so I moved the car into the spot, and as it had stopped raining, Nette went and bought ice creams and I retrived the cache.
Mission completed and off down the road to Snowdon View Micro No 2. As we headed down the road the arrow pointed back the way we'd come and the distance went up. So after finding a safe place to turn around, back we went and ended up in the same car park! After doing some checking Stephanie found out that I'd put in the co-ordinates for No 2 twice. Whe had actualy driven past No 1. Back we tracked to No 1, where we had a quick find. time to head off to No 3 which meant driving past No 2 again!
As the Etrex takes a while to update the arrow, we ended up sailing past the rd that we needed to turn down for Snowdon View Micro No 3 so another turn around was needed. Once parked up a quick find was made, and a couple of cutings were collected for the garden. Time to head off to No 4.
We drove past Snowdon View Micro No 4 so that Nette could make a pit stop. We quickly returned, and as the car park was so busy we left Trixie in the car for this one. Nette found it after looking in the same spot twice. Now time to go for No 5.
The road that we needed to turn onto for Snowdon View Micro No 5 was blocked by a tarmac lorry (they were working on the road near the junction) we had to drive past go down the road and turn around and wait for the lorry to move. We soon found the right location, and Nette made a quick find, once again another turn around had us heading this time for No 6.
Snowdon View Micro No 6 is located off the beaten track, after looking at the map we had 2 choices. Return the way we'd come to pick up another A road and a short drive up a B road (which ment a long drive) or cut across country following the B road for it's lenth. In the end we chose the shorter option, and ended up on one of Wildtrekkers specialitys. A single track lane with no passing points and with a section that had a cattle grid at each end. Not one of Nettes favourite types of road to drive on! We soon located the cache location and Nette once again made a quick find, whilst I got a big piece of Slate for the Garden. Back to the car and further down the road we stopped to collect a barrow load of slate for the garden, this made the journey down the track worth it for Nette! On to the bonus cache.
Snowdon View Bonus Cache is only acheviable after you have obtained the info from all the micros in the series. As with others we had a slight problem finding the access point for this one. Once we got to the concrete barriers blocking the road it was a short walk, and a quick find. I even got another big piece of slate for the garden.
On a different issue. I've been slack over geocaching.org.uk due to being busy with several caches/events. And got a wake up call by Discussion on UK listing site. After organising Cachers and Flintshire CC Rangers CITO Event (and being possibly only one of 2 cachers in the UK with the CITO icon on their placed caches), I realised that CITO is copyright of Groundspeak (who own GC.COM)so we are going to need our own name for CITO Events. So I intend to organise another completion to find a name, this will keep the site in cachers minds until our Web master (WoodSmoke) returns from his holidays and finally gets the demo site out on display.
On Saturday afternoon we decided to go and do Wildtrekkers Snowdon View Micro series, which are all drive byes. When we set off it was lovely and sunny, but as usual Snowdonia was wet and misty when we arrived. I'd put in the co-ordinates for No 1 and 2, so followed the arrow to a car park to do Snowdon View Micro No 1. As it was chucking it down, Nette and Stephanie sent me to retrieve it. Ok I out I got taking Trixie with me to act as a decoy. Spotted the cache location straight away, but unfortunately there was a couple parked up facing me eating their ice creams (there's a ice cream van located at the car park), so back to the car to wait them out. Off they toddle so out of the car again, only this time Trixie refused to go, I couldn't blame her as it was still chucking it down. Only for someone else to park in the same spot looking in the same direction, another failed attempt. They moved of so I moved the car into the spot, and as it had stopped raining, Nette went and bought ice creams and I retrived the cache.
Mission completed and off down the road to Snowdon View Micro No 2. As we headed down the road the arrow pointed back the way we'd come and the distance went up. So after finding a safe place to turn around, back we went and ended up in the same car park! After doing some checking Stephanie found out that I'd put in the co-ordinates for No 2 twice. Whe had actualy driven past No 1. Back we tracked to No 1, where we had a quick find. time to head off to No 3 which meant driving past No 2 again!
As the Etrex takes a while to update the arrow, we ended up sailing past the rd that we needed to turn down for Snowdon View Micro No 3 so another turn around was needed. Once parked up a quick find was made, and a couple of cutings were collected for the garden. Time to head off to No 4.
We drove past Snowdon View Micro No 4 so that Nette could make a pit stop. We quickly returned, and as the car park was so busy we left Trixie in the car for this one. Nette found it after looking in the same spot twice. Now time to go for No 5.
The road that we needed to turn onto for Snowdon View Micro No 5 was blocked by a tarmac lorry (they were working on the road near the junction) we had to drive past go down the road and turn around and wait for the lorry to move. We soon found the right location, and Nette made a quick find, once again another turn around had us heading this time for No 6.
Snowdon View Micro No 6 is located off the beaten track, after looking at the map we had 2 choices. Return the way we'd come to pick up another A road and a short drive up a B road (which ment a long drive) or cut across country following the B road for it's lenth. In the end we chose the shorter option, and ended up on one of Wildtrekkers specialitys. A single track lane with no passing points and with a section that had a cattle grid at each end. Not one of Nettes favourite types of road to drive on! We soon located the cache location and Nette once again made a quick find, whilst I got a big piece of Slate for the Garden. Back to the car and further down the road we stopped to collect a barrow load of slate for the garden, this made the journey down the track worth it for Nette! On to the bonus cache.
Snowdon View Bonus Cache is only acheviable after you have obtained the info from all the micros in the series. As with others we had a slight problem finding the access point for this one. Once we got to the concrete barriers blocking the road it was a short walk, and a quick find. I even got another big piece of slate for the garden.
On a different issue. I've been slack over geocaching.org.uk due to being busy with several caches/events. And got a wake up call by Discussion on UK listing site. After organising Cachers and Flintshire CC Rangers CITO Event (and being possibly only one of 2 cachers in the UK with the CITO icon on their placed caches), I realised that CITO is copyright of Groundspeak (who own GC.COM)so we are going to need our own name for CITO Events. So I intend to organise another completion to find a name, this will keep the site in cachers minds until our Web master (WoodSmoke) returns from his holidays and finally gets the demo site out on display.
posted by Dave the Pyrocacher @ 11:33 am
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