Top Ten Number 3 The Legend of Zelda

        This cache rates in the extreme category, and as far as extreme caching goes, this one is my favorite.  This is a very well done, thought out geocache in the tunnels under Columbia, SC. The Legend of Zelda is a 4.5/4.5 cache with 18 found it logs and 13 favorite points.  This cache is number 3 on my list of Top Ten Favorites, you can read about the rest Numbers 5-10 of Top 10 and Number 4.  This cache was our 700th find, and one of my wife's favorites as well.  I invited another caching buddy along for this adventure, because I knew this would be a tough one and we would need some additional help.

        I would like to apologize for the quality of my pictures, we were using my camera that I had ruined in a weekend long canoe trip to find some caches, but that's another story.  We met at the recommended parking coordinates.  We were prepared.  Headlamps, flashlights, knee pads, and of course our GPS'rs.  We discovered our first entry point, and right at the start, my wife slipped on some rocks, and I thought we were done for the day, but she was determined, wiped herself off, regained her composure, and off we went.  Once we got to the end of the first section we decided we could find a better route to the main entrance, as the water was pretty deep here, and we weren't ready to get that wet yet.

         We managed to find another entry point, by following a really rough dirt path through some woods.  What a discovery we found,  a abandoned, albeit temporarily, homeless camp!  Luckily for us, no one was home, and down the small embankment we went.  At least we did not have to come back the way we came, we hoped anyways.

          Once inside, it was fairly warm, and the water level was ankle deep.  There are several stages to determine the coordinates underneath the city, all of which were pretty challenging.  We had thought we found all the stages, but found out we missed one, and had to go back, we had to go back twice! It was a difficult puzzle for us, after a couple of hours putting the clues together, we finally resorted to a PAF (phone a friend) the friend for us, is actually the cache owner, it took two phone calls, and we finally had the coordinates, thanks to his much needed hints.

          This is a must-do geocache in downtown Columbia.  Just come prepared to get your feet wet, bring a headlamp and a backup, some drinking water, and a snack.  I would not recommend doing this cache alone, and absolutely DO NOT go if it's raining, or if there is a good chance of rain.  You will be underground for about 2 hours.  Just remember, you are finding this cache at your own risk, the cache owner nor groundspeak is liable for your actions.  A big thanks to scgeoninja for such a fun cache,  it has inspired me to create one like it someday.  Thanks for reading my page, my next entry I will be back home and no longer in Afghanistan!

Presenting Number 4 of My Top 10 Geocaches

            It's been awhile since I have posted about anything.  It's hard to find the time to sit down and put much thought into writing anything while over here in Afghanistan.   So far to date, I have found four geocaches in Afghanistan and attended one event.  Not very good numbers for a five month time period, but I can't do much about that.
         
           My next four caches were hard to choose from, there are several that could have made this list. Like this one: Hazel Creek Virtual Cache.   I've decided I would create one post about my fourth favorite geocache.  If you haven't read about my other top favorites click here.

          Mt. Leconte is a virtual cache near the summit of the mountain that it's named after.  It was created May 1st, 2002. It has 249 found it logs, and 53 favorite points, including one from me.  Mt. Leconte stands at 6,593 feet and is the third tallest mountain in the Smoky Mountains National Park, but from its base to the summit Mount Leconte is one of the highest peaks in the entire Appalachian Mountains rising to 5301 feet.  The mountain also hosts the highest inn on the east coast, which is also only accessible by hiking the trails to the summit.  If you want to get a room here, you will probably need to reserve a year in advance.  You can find more information about the lodge here.

                                                                    

           On March 10th, 2012, a buddy came along with me on the journey to bag this virtual along with two others along this trail.  We started off at 8am, surprisingly beating a lot of the crowds.  It was still pretty cold this time of year, but not as cold as we were expecting and immediately had to shed some layers.  Our first goal was the Alum Cave Bluff, also a virtual cache.  This place was a treat.  It took a couple hours just to get here as the trail is pretty strenuous as the sign above states.  We stayed here for a bit enjoying the sights.  I spotted two bald eagles flying above, but couldn't get my camera out fast enough to capture them.  That was a first for me, spotting bald eagles in the wild.  It was pretty awesome.

                                
                         Arch Rock                                                                           Alum Cave Bluff
          
               The weather couldn't have been better for a hike in the Smoky Mountains, it was a little on the cold side the higher you got, but it felt good, perfect in my opinion for such a climb.  And a climb it was, my buddy and I kept getting passed by other groups, alot of groups.  We were slow, it showed just how out of shape we were!  The trail in areas was very rocky, which made it pretty treacherous in some places with the ice that was still on the trail.  The metal cables sure did come in handy, there was a couple of places you did not want to slip, as it was a long way down, but we kept going up, and up, and up.  We thought we would never make it.

                                                                        

                                                          

            At one point, I didn't think we could continue, I knew we weren't far from finishing, my GPS said we were over 5000 feet.  My hip-flexer started bothering me and we had to stop and take a break.  Luckily I brought along some Advil.  So we stopped along the trail and had a snack and let the Advil kick in.  While we were sitting there a couple in their sixties passes us.  I looked over at my buddy and gave him "Are you serious?" look, and off we went.  Now no offense, but we weren't having someone twice our age beat us to the top.  Did they beat us? Yes, they did.  However, it just reconfirmed that we need to work out some more.

                                                                      

                                                                 

                                                                

                 We finally make it to our destination, man is it awesome at the summit.  The lodge was closed, it wasn't opening for another week.  Workers were present getting it ready.  It really is a great place up there, very primitive as far as lodges go, but as far as shelters go for hikers who wants to make this a weekend trip, its five star!  The views were amazing, no haze or fog.  A beautiful day to be at the top.  We sat in some rocking chairs at one of the cabins and ate lunch. On the menu, was two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, some beef jerky, some apple sauce, and a cliff bar.  I'm glad I brought the jacket as we were resting and cooling down, it started getting cold.
                So now that we were re-energized it was off to find the final virtual on this hike.  I didn't think I could walk another .2 miles for another virtual.  I had to push myself, I wasn't coming up here and NOT get it.  Luckily the trail was flat and not as icy to the last virtual cache, and was able to find the answer quickly, and off to the summit we went.  It wasn't part of getting any of the caches, but you don't spend all day climbing a mountain and not summit it.  The views at the top were awesome, you could see for miles.  I'm really glad I went on this hike and that my buddy came along with me.  It took us alittle over six hours to reach the top, with everyone passing us, we surely didn't set any records, and in comparison it only took us two hours to get back to the vehicle.  All in all it was a great day.  Keep following my blog so you can read about my top three.  I just hope I don't take as long to write about them.

                                                                        

TheLoneGrangers Top Ten Geocaches numbers 5-10

        Everyone has favorites whether you have found 100 geocaches or 10,000.  I bet most of you could pick out your 10 favorite caches.  I share the TheLoneGrangers name with my better half, Beth...and although we have found almost 1400 caches to date, this list reflects my top ten favorites, although I'm sure it will change in the future as we continue to find amazing geocaches and locations.  From climbing desert mountains, to parking lot caches, to finding geocaches on the beaches of the Outer Banks, NC, I've come to realize, most of my favorites are traditional caches.  I've already shared one of my favorite geocaches with you The Narrows, but where is it on my top ten list?  It's time to find out.

         We need to start somewhere, so we will start at the bottom of the list with number 10.  Dawn of Aviation is a virtual cache located at the Wright Brothers National Memorial Park, on the Outer Banks. It was placed in December 2002 and has 145 favorites.  Naturally being in the Air Force as an aircraft maintainer this was a special place for me.  Orville and Wilbur changed the world forever.  We discovered this place on our second trip to OBX, and had a great time!

"They taught us to fly"

Markers

My jeep...I mean monument

The rest of our weekend...

          Number 9 on the list, Not From I-40 And Not From The BRP.  What's not to like about this traditional cache?  Hidden in March of 2009 with only 2 favorite points near Ashville, NC?  Security cameras, razor wire fences, electric gates with finger print/key pad access.  Unmarked white sedans entering and exiting from a dirt road that goes under a railroad?  This cache was awesome!  Talk about a little creepy, I was expected to get surrounded by agents in suits and automatic rifles at any second.  Luckily this cache was in a good hiding spot as I wasn't detected.  Or was I?  Satellite images do not reveal a whole lot, so don't bother I already looked.  Sorry no pictures, I didn't want to get arrested and interrogated...

          Number 8 on my list, LPC? which is archived now, but was located on a abandoned shopping center building in Camden, SC.  It was placed in January 2011, it had 9 favorites.  We were not expecting to find such a clever container in this run down shopping center, and quite frankly it was a little spooky here.  Ground zero had us two feet away from this brick building, and the only thing near was a old beat up lamp attached to the building...it looked genuine, but I unscrewed the light bulb anyway, and there it was, a fake light bulb with the log in the center.  Very clever.  This is the only one like this we have found to date. Sorry no pictures for this one...
      
          From historic significance to government conspiracies to parking lot caches, number 7 on my list is none of the above.  Fission around the Bend is a very clever geocache.  On our way to find another one of my favorites, The Narrows we had to make a slight detour in Spartenburg, South Carolina to locate this very awesome cache.  Unfortunately, we were the last group to find this cache, someone has muggled this one, and we can only hope the owner can replace it.  This cache placed in March of 2009 has 99 favorites and is one of the top favorited geocaches in South Carolina.  I will not give away any details, you will have to make the trip for yourself to find it. No pictures to share here either...

           Number 6 on my list and near 7000ft, Dome Rock is the highest cache we have found together.  It is located in Sequoia National Forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.  Dome Rock was hidden in August of 2001 and with only 76 finds I am surprised it only has 4 favorite points.  There is nothing special about the container, your typical container, but this place is stunning.  At 400' high and 800' across, Dome Rock is a favorite for mountain climbers.  We were also lucky enough to nap a FTF on a cache that was placed 8 months prior to us finding it! I'm guessing the winter had something to do with that!  The road is suggested for high clearance vehicles only, but we got our rental car to the parking location, we only scrapped the bottom a couple times!  Oh and please DO NOT throw anything over the side!

View near cache site

Me and My Mom near GZ

The better half of TheLoneGrangers

Not my photo but had to share

           Half way there! And number 5 on my list gets two spots! So technically you could call this my top 11 list, but considering these both required a canoe to retrieve they both share the number 5 spot.  What better weekend adventure you and your wife could have in the middle of a South Carolina August? Paddle a canoe on a three mile canoe trail through a wasp invested swamp, oh and with alligators too!  Lost In The Swamp III is just that, a three mile round trip paddle in Goodale State Park near Camden, SC.  If you want to come back drenched in sweat then this cache is for you! Or, just don't attempt in August, unless you want to punish yourself.  But really we had a blast, and a first time in a canoe for both of us!

Headed in...

Somewhere...Lost in the Swamp

Paddling in..

Near Ground Zero

        Number 5 part 2,  Island Break took a buddy and me on a 3 day, 54 mile trip down the Wateree River, we found 15 geocaches, 2 FTFs and placed 6 caches on this trip.  Why is this cache so memorable?  It was the first cache we found after tipping and almost sinking the canoe on the rapids just before this cache. Oh! You have to climb up a cliff wall and up a tree to get to this one!  Causalities on this trip: One wedding ring, a 400 dollar camera, and a muddy angry wife! A future blog post? Most Definitely.  Yeah...I destroyed my camera.

           Now that you've seen my favorite geocaches 5-10, you will have to check back sometime in the near future when I write about my top 4 favorites, and they are good ones! If you've enjoyed my story don't forget to follow me or share this post with your geocaching friends. 'Til next time...

OBX

Thanks to Geocaching...

           Thanks to Geocaching...I have a lot more hobby's to go along with the main obsession!  Not only have I found a hobby the better half and I enjoy doing together,  I have done some drastic things since we started caching.  All of which, I could write up it's own story here.  Which I will in the future! We started caching in October of 2010, and I had to get a different geomobile, so in February I traded in one sweet ride, for another sweet ride:

 

I traded in this:

For this:

 



             I've found a cache that required the exploration of some storm drains,  I've found a bunch of geocaches that required a overnight kayaking trip.  I've climbed a couple mountains, for a geocache, and hiked 15 miles on a overnight backpacking trip in the Smoky Mountains... for a virtual! 

 

             What has geocaching done for you? Already the outdoor type? Or have you gone through drastic changes like I have?  Feel free to comment below and share my blog! Thank you.

The Narrows

           If someone asked me what my favorite geocache was, I would be hard pressed for an answer.  We have found so many amazing caches, either the container itself, or the location, or the challenge to reach the cache, or any combination of the three.  It is very hard to determine what my favorite geocache is.  The Narrows a traditional 4 difficulty 4.5 terrain cache in the mountains of North Carolina definitely makes my list of top five caches, perhaps even top three.  Out of 41 finds since it was hidden in February of 2007 it has 18 favorite points.  This geocache isn't for everyone as the return trip is very tough!

           On Sept 15th 2012, some of my geocaching friends IkeHurley13, SCGeoNinja, and Team Benak, wanted to take me on a epic geocache hunt before I left on my deployment, and they didn't disappoint.  We left around 6 am from Columbia, South Carolina to start our 90 minute or so drive.  We had some geocaches to find along the way as SCGeoNinja, wanted to make The Narrows his 4500th find.  We arrived to the trail head around 915am, and so it began.

The Start

Trail

More Trail

Creek Crossing

 

           The hike in is not terrible, its relatively flat, with a couple of climbs but nothing to serious.  There is even a creek crossing on the way in.  I was feeling it today, and was lagging behind the whole time.  Word of advice: do not stay up late at Buffalo Wild Wings the night before.  Needless to say I would pay for it today.   Once we arrived at the turn to head down, you can only catch a glimpse of what is in store for you.  You can hear the sound of the water crashing on the rocks below and you barely can see through the trees what you are about to witness.  There is a price however, it includes a 300-500 foot (purely a educated guess) rope/root assisted decent down the side of the mountain.

Going Down

and Down

Down was Easy

           Once we arrived at the bottom, we were awestruck.  It was simply amazing, and we haven't even seen nothing yet! We stopped and ate lunch, roughly 700 feet from ground zero.  We stayed here awhile taking in the raw beauty of this place, and the stunning power of nature.  Once we were refueled, it was time to get to the cache, it required some minor bouldering to get to the cache, although some of these pictures required some not-so-minor-but-not-to-difficult bouldering to get into position for some good shots.  It didn't take long to find the well hidden ammo can, and we quickly signed our names and dropped some trackables.

Time to Eat

Views Near Lunch

Views Near Lunch

Views Near Lunch

Headed Towards the Cache

Close Up

           The geocache was only icing on the cake for this adventure.  We encountered some extreme kayakers hitting The Gorilla as they call it, and even got to chat with them as they portaged around the logs and rocks.  It was hard to leave this place.  Probably because we knew we had to CLIMB out of here!  This is when it got hard!  Pictures do not give it justice.  But I made it back to the geovehicle around 2pm, the last cache of the day.  If it wasn't for this crazy hobby of ours I would have never seen this place.  A big thank you to my geofriends for taking me on this adventure.

The Gorilla

One Crazy Kayaker

Going Up!

 

 

 

More Going Up!

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