West Fork River Geo-Kayak cachepedition

With completion of the Well Rounded Cacher getting close and my urge to get the kayak out, bitbrain and myself discussed and set up a cachepedition of the West Fork River, that contained the two remaining category grid requirements. Once, Peace and Tranquility I and the West Fork Waterfalls. I invited every cacher that was on my Facebook friends list and others were invited by those I invited. The will attend and may attend numbers changed through the weeks and in the final days, some dropped out due to various reasons. I became quite concerned when bitbrain dropped out since he had a device to do the West Fork Waterfalls, a cache that is a whereigo.

I drove up on Good Friday and knocked out Peace and Tranquility I and did a recon of where to put in the boats. A later blog post will reflect my not so peaceful experience.

Morning of the 23rd arrived and I drove to the park and awaited the cachers who would join me. While waiting I knocked out a Boy Scout cache that is required for the Middle Tennessee Boy Scout challenge and went for a stroll to get Billy's Backside. Soon after returning to the truck, cachers began to arrive with canoes or kayaks on top of their vehicles. Kodiak62 arrives with a trailer in two. He explains to the group he found a put in place on the south and west side of Tiny Town Bridge. With his long trailer, we dismount the boats and reload onto the trailer. The group that left the park and went onto the river were: Kodiak62, MVP Doodle, scoutpaddle, Bubba95, shan7on, lizzie60 and adventuretrekker.

We found 7 of 8 on the river. Most were at or near the river bank. Some we had to get out of the boats to retrieve. The cache West Fork Waterfalls was very high on list, since finding it would complete the goal for the Well Rounded Cacher. We all pulled up the boats at the waterfall and got out to look around for the cache. With the opportunity to grab the last grid for the WRC, I jumped out still wearing my life vest and backpack. I paid close attention to Bubba95, who's iPhone was the only whereigo device that was functioning correctly. I could see how challenging any whereigo could be. After some searching, shan7on laid eyes on the cache and a sigh of relieve could be heard throughout the group. Even if this cache could be retrieved from overland, it would be an easy 4.5 star terrain.

This adventure was my fourth geo-kayak trip, my second trip that was a small river. Some observations, unlike lakes, I didn't have to paddle as much, I used the current to propel me. Wind was not a factor. However, with the swifter current, it made finding caches very difficult. I found that when the boats converged near the posted coordinates, we ran into each other. Lesson learned, when about 200 feet away, slow the boat down and begin scanning where the cache could be located. I consider myself inexperienced with a kayak and paid attention to adventuretrekker who is a veteran with the kayak with 3 times as many 5-star terrain caches as I. Other observations, scuba diving boots are not a great substitute for hiking boots, but did make do. They were better than those with sandals who were exposed to poison ivy.

I am thankful for all those who participated in the cachepedition and those who didn't attend but could advise through Facebook and phone calls. This was an awesome trip and encourage others to make the trip.