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Monday, April 22, 2013

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!