Bridge, No Bridge

When Bridge, No Bridge by JamieZ was published it soon began to become the rite of passage for geocachers in West Tennessee. I placed it on my watchlist and wondered if I would get the opportunity to place my name on that log. –boatman- and myself conferred about the cache for many weeks. Towards the end of December of 2005, the planning intensified. –boatman- and Big Ron cached the area of the first stage and investigated the final. Previous logs and pictures were studied and come up with a plan. All we needed was a date. My friend from Ashland City, TN (brickbat66) was in town for Christmas Break and wanted to go caching. –boatman- supplied me with a date and I called brickbat66 and told him of the Memphis cache and informed him it is a 5-star terrain cache and with his ankle problem he may want to study the cache page. Brickbat66 called back and said he would go along for the ride. Final plans were made to met at –boatman-‘s house in the early morning hours of December 29, 2005. I took a annual day from work to go after this cache and began the day at 6 AM when I picked up brickbat66 at his parent’s home. We drove on to –boatman-‘s house and awaited Big Ron and Bartster to arrive. Supplies were gathered that did include a strong rope. I told –boatman- that Tuck Sackett used a rope to secure the ladder. A rope was added to the –boatman- cache mobile that did include a 32-foot ladder on the top of the Ford Explorer. Bartster met up with us at –boatman-‘s house and drove his own SUV a 4X4, which would be of use later. We gathered the last supplies and pilled into the Explorer. Made our way to I-40 and turned up the speed. The ladder was secure; Big Ron commented that we looked like a truck with horns!

Arrived near the first stage, brickbat66 and I found the cache at Crump Park and headed to the pedestrian walkway of the bridge. Gibbenator had joined us at this time. The walkway was narrow and vehicle traffic was next to us. This added adventure to the experience and especially nervous look of brickbat66. Several minutes later, we found the first stage; we made it much harder than what it was. Came off bridge and got back into the vehicles. –boatman- was concerned about the traffic in downtown Memphis. During the earlier recon mission, he ran into construction area. Gibbenator, being from the Memphis area, said for us to follow him, which we did. Arrived near the final stage. Gibbenator in a sports car opted to park and got into Bartster’s truck. Drove on to the final stage and –boatman-‘s Explorer became stuck. Thankfully, we had a rope and used Bartster’s truck to pull –boatman-‘s Explorer out of the mud. Finally, we made it to the final stage.

Unloaded the ladder and set it into place. Bartster was first up the ladder and used the rope to secure the ladder. He opened and signed the cache. Next was myself (Titansfan). I made the 30+ foot climb and was very happy the rope was there. Found the cache, signed my name and took #22 of the West Tennessee Five-Star Terrain Club. Others followed suite. –boatman- made it up the ladder and then cried how he would get down. We assured him that he will accomplish the mission and he did. Brickbat66 made it up the ladder and this time the heights were no issue to him as was the bridge before. I was concerned about his injured ankle. But he made it as did Big Ron and Gibbenator. We also found a cache near the final stage.
We secure the equipment back onto the trucks and headed back out. We took a different way out and didn’t have the problems of getting stuck, but the terrain was challenging. Afterwards, we grouped up and found a few more caches and headed home.

Caches found were:
Crumps Cache
Bridge, No Bridge
Find Me if you Can!
West TN Mega Multi-Firestone
Daffy’s Cache
Highway to Mill