In Search of George Owen Cash

Couple of weeks ago, jackthebear posted on GOWT Facebook page he was interesting in hunting In Search of George Owen Cash and wanted to know if others were interesting in hunting the cache with him.  I expressed my interest and gave some dates I could be available.  A date was picked, the night before I loaded up my kayak onto my truck so I could leave Dresden before 5 am and head to Hernando, Mississippi.

I picked out a few caches to complete on the way since the meeting at the posted coordinates wasn't until 9 am.  I stopped at the I-40 Westbound Rest Stop and picked up I-40 WB Rest Area Walkin' and Stretchin' and TN I-40 WB 14 Caches in a Day Challenge.  The challenge cache interested me and had completed 14 caches in a day recently.  Was a bit challenging to me in that I don't rack up big numbers on a daily run.  After I got into Mississippi, I grabbed DeSoto Trail #6 Southhaven and May I see your License?.  The DeSoto trail cache was an easy ammo can find and when I drove up; I recalled that I had been to this cemetery once prior for a cache.  Was a little interesting at May I see you License, in that a Hernando Police Officer drove up when I was heading back to my truck.  He saw my GPS and knew what I was doing and asked if I had any problems finding the hidden box.  We chatted a little more about geocaching in Mississippi.

I was the first to arrive at the posted coordinates and immediately saw that using the entrance to the law enforcement would not be suitable for parking.  I parked at a nearby business and waited.  It wasn't heard to spot me when others drove up in that I had a kayak on top of my truck.  After everyone showed up, we (jackthebear, prontopup,  part of nelms3 and pcsenn) walked to the posted coordinates and obtained information for stage 2.  We all drove to stage 2 and more information was obtained.

After going to the incorrect point, we all finally arrived at Hernando Point and met with chimps8mybaby who had an extra kayak for nelms3.  Arriving at the point, I was horrified to see the wind kicking up and seeing some white caps.  We placed the kayaks into the water and off we went.  I went into the water first and attempted to stay around for others to get going.  But I found the best way to deal with the wind and waves to get moving.  I found myself doing a zig-zag motion in the water and not allow a wave to hit me broadside. I guess it work, when I arrived near the cache location I didn't have much water inside my kayak.  I did observe at least one cacher beach his craft to dump the water out.  With my zig-zag motion I saw it was best to keep clear of other cachers so we wouldn't ram each other.

About 1/2 way to the last stage, we found an area of water near a point that was calm were I rested and took some pictures.  After the resting, some of the cacher went straight for land and walked the rest of the way.  I was tempted but jackthebear and myself stayed on the water and beached about 400 feet from the cache.  We hiked the rest of the way and we arrived about 10 minutes before the overland party.  After signing the log, we rested and took pictures.  None of us were in any hurry to get back on the rough water.

The trip back was again against the wind, except for the last leg.  I found going with the waves and wind was more treacherous since my kayak wanted to go broadside in the trough of the waves.  I began to use braking motions to keep the bow straight at my destination and rode out the waves.  When I arrived, I then poured out a few gallons of water.

Overall, this was an experience and will probably be the last kayak cache run of this year.  It was good experience to hit the rough water and know what rough kayaking is like.  This was nelms3 first experience on a kayak and he seemed to be a trooper about the trip.  This not prontopup's first kayak trip but when he arrived at the landing, he was worn out and commented it was his last kayak cache run.

Giving back

Soldiers from my unit, the 1171st Transportation Company of the Tennessee Army National Guard have expressed interest in geocaching from time to time. While at weapons qualification in Tullahoma, I had an afternoon for caching and took along three soldiers. One, Bellesrecruit, was already a member of the website tagged along for about 2 and 1/2 miles of walking. We did mostly micros near the base. Bellesrecruit recorded her finds, but since not being a premium member was unable to log one of the finds. We did manage to add a puzzle cache (Waitin' on the Car) to her profile.

A few days later I found myself overnight in Smyrna and the new prospective cachers went for a nearly 6 mile walk on a greenway and netted about 1/2 dozen finds. The new cacher, Chicontater soon began to log his finds. We enjoyed our long walk and saw many wildlife.

This past weekend, I sold my old Garmin 60csx, since I know have a Garmin 62s, to chicontater and he and his family are off on their own caching.

When ever we deploy or go off on mission or training, I have a couple of soldier-cachers to count on to be partners.