The National Trails Day Cache, by Kcepenn was our choice for our 106th cache. We left the house early hopping to find the cache and be home before the foot ball games began. We loaded up the van and headed down route 6 thinking we could park at the North Country Trail pull off on route 6. When we arrived at the parking area the GPS indicated that the cache was 3 tenths of a mile away. I looked at the map on the GPS and realized that we could get much closer to the cache via the car if we headed up route 6 and turned off on Wetmore road. When Geo Cacheing with the Fam I like to get as close to the cache as possible. Especially on these cold snowy mornings. I suggested that we drive on. Niki pulled back out on to route 6. We found Wetmore road and were able to park within 800 feet of the cache. Funny thing is later on in the day I read the cache description and it suggested that we could park off Wetmore road. I am glad to know my Geo Sense was working.
Eight hundred feet away from the cache, no problem... We headed to the North Country Trail head marker which was down the road. KC ran free. I walked with Takoda, Niki walked with Novalee. Just past the trail marker we saw snow covered stairs, and a well defined path. I confidently started down the stairs and stepped into snow up to my waist. Takoda came along for the ride, as I tried stablelizing him. He smiled wildly happy to be surrounded by snow. I was wondering where those steps were. Niki pointed down and said I see something under the snow and she and Novalee came down and they walked past me. I investigated the artifact under the snow Niki pointed out and realized it was a metal colvert. We were all now standing in a ditch... Oi! We were not where we needed to be. Takoda charged ahead along the ditch. Niki and Novalee followed him. I started looking for a way to get out of this deep ditch. I knew eventually we would come to a steep grade and we would all be in a bit of falling danger. I found a spot where we could all get out of the ditch. I called the Fam to me, and helped them all up the steep bankened one by one.
Once out of the ditch we spotted blue trail markers and were more then glad to follow them for a bit. The trail switch backed back and fourth making the steady down hill the journey easy going. Eventually we found our selves 80 feet away from the cache. It was time to leave the trail and bush whack. The snow was not to deep under the cover of the trees, however even a little snow cover can bog down the little ones. So the going was slow. I did not mind though because the forest was fresh, snow fresh! Every think looked so new, and nice.
The GPS coordinates were dead on. We found the cache quickly. Um.. Niki found it quickly :) It took a little bit of work freeing the cache box from the ice. Once free the kids eagerly searched through the cache box. I signed the log book. I really love these trail caches. Niki marked the cache as found in the GPS, and we headed back to the van.
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