STF in 2008. We decided to make a side trip to Nevada after attending the GeoWoodstock 6 event yesterday. It looks like we brought the Oregon weather with us, as we've had rain and sun down in the valley.Of course, at 7200' above sea level, that rain turns into SNOW! We were determined to find this cache the Dude/Sweet way (increasing the cache D/T level by at least ½-star each). We were in tennis shoes and shorts, but did bring light coats with us.
With snow on the ground, and not stopping to find a trail, we just followed the "GoTo" cache route from the I-80 Summit cache, picking our way amongst the rocks, snow melting streams and snow fields. Dude picked up a fallen log and added it in the middle of two other logs, in order to fjord one snow-melt stream; and helped Sweet across the stream feeding the lake.
As we neared the cache location, the snow started falling harder. Dude yelled out, “Only 140 more feet to the cache!” Just then, the batteries died. Being a former Boy Scout, of course Dude was prepared and swapped batteries for some new one’s in the driving snow storm. Dude/Sweet waited for the GPSr to acquire the satellites. What else could go wrong? Finally with enough satellites acquired, we could hike onward to the cache.
Dude approached the cache from one side and Sweet from the other. Sweet managed to find the cache first, safe, secure, and dry. As we huddled beneath a tree, Dude signed the log sheet and tried to protect it from getting wet from the snowstorm. As Dude replaced the cache, he stared out into the near white-out conditions, and then to Sweet, wet, cold, and shivering and remarked, “Good thing we have a GPSr to find our way out. You know, this is near to where the Donner Party was. I’d hate to have to eat you to survive!” A calm sense of “tranquility” befell them both.
Just then, Dude thought, hey my cell phone! Hey great! It works. He called his good friend Pablo Mac back in Lebanon, OR…voice mail! Dude said to Sweet, “Nice, I guess Pablo won’t be saving us today. We’ll have to hike out.” From the cache’s vantage point, we were able to pick an “easier” way down. We used our GPSr back-track feature, as well as our footprints in the snow to make it back to our Geo-mobile. As stated in earlier logs, there is no Geocoin in the cache. We managed to CITO out some trash on the way down.
This cache, and the I-80 Summit will be added to our list of most favorite and memorable!
TNLNSL,
Dude/Sweet
