Good morning everyone. This week I want to talk about the animals we may encounter while we are in search of that plastic container in the woods. In an urban setting, you might not come across a variety of animals that you would if you leave the concrete jungle for the vast expanse of the rural areas. I've come across my fair share of deer, all of which I'll discuss in future blogs. I've also had run ins or meetings with goats, cows and horses. For this blog, I'm going to focus on a day trip I took to North Dakota. I had eluded to this particular story to Jangie while discussing blogging. Here's the story in full.
This would be my second trip across the border. Weeks earlier, I crossed over for my first caching trip. At that time, I was assured by a local cacher that most of the border guards know about geocaching and telling them my purpose for crossing was to go geocaching wouldn't be an issue. So far, it hasn't. It's Labour Day long weekend. Sunday, September 6, 2015 to be exact. With nothing better to do, and it's not my weekend to have my boys, I got the bright idea of zipping over the border to do more geocaching. The plan was to go along Highway 5 in North Dakota, grabbing whatever caches I could find, stopping in all the small towns along the way.
One of the places I stopped in was the city of Langdon. Being that this was a Sunday, everything it seemed was closed. I parked and walked over to GZ. It was a very eerie feeling. I accidently scuffed the bottom of my shoe on the street as I crossed and it echoed off the buildings. Only thing missing was the creaking sign in the wind and a storm door slamming shut. It honestly felt like the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. I was able to locate that cache and carried on down the road.
Prior to arriving in Langdon, I did a couple of cemetery caches. I like doing cemetery caches. I take a moment and check out some of the headstones. There are headstones dating back to the late 1800's or early 1900's. These could be the people who originally settled the land as pioneers. There's also the long time married couples who now lay side by side in eternal peace. There are so many of these cemeteries that pop up as you travel the lesser roads.
I arrived at one of these cemeteries on highway #5. The cache is titled " Cemet-Eeries #4" GC2FZYJ. It's located on the South East corner of the cross roads. I parked, got out, checked my GPS and surveyed the area. I enter from the North West corner of the cemetery and my GPS is pointing to the South East. I see a small clump of trees in the far corner and conclude that the cache must be over there. I quickly made my way over and started my search at the back (East) side of the trees. I can see through the trees and large white container on the ground. Wow. It's big enough to hold trackables and I left mine back in the car. We geocachers have a nasty habit of taking the direct route to ground zero, no matter how difficult it is, only to find an easier, round about way, after we get to ground zero. Not this time. I wasn't about to get all scratched up making my way through the tree branches. There must be an easier way. As I continued to circle, I have a better view of the container. There's no lid?? And there's something white and fuzzy sticking out of the container. To make things even more confusing, I can see something that's dark coloured with some stripes. WTH???!!?? I continue to circle and finally find a clear path to GZ and the container. What I was seeing the whole time wasn't the geocache. Someone had left this container with a blanket and I'm guessing, the now deceased family cat. As for the geocache itself, well that was hanging on a branch maybe three feet from the dead cat. All I could think of was Stephen King's 'Pet Cemetery'. Last thing I wanted was for this dead cat to raise it's head and hiss at me. If that had happened, I would have been back in Canada in a heartbeat. I would have come back eventually to get my car. I just want to sign the log sheet and get out of there. Guess what I forgot?? Yup. I forgot my pen in the car. Back to the car to sign the log sheet and back to ground zero, reluctantly. Again, I'm thinking, please don't raise your head and hiss at me. I hung the cache back where I found it and booked it out of there.
I did mention this in my log. The C.O. contacted me, apologizing for what I had encountered, and mentioned that there isn't anyone living within two miles of the cemetery. He had no idea who or how this cat in the container got there. I took it as another geocaching adventure.
I carried on my way, eventually making it to Minot, before heading back home. I did encounter a couple of other animals of a different kind, but that's for another day. There are more animal stories to share and I look forward to more friendly encounters. I still find cemetery caches to be fascinating as I look around. That's it for this week. AS my oldest boy, Duesenberg 2002 would say, peace out. Enjoy and remember, geocaching is suppose to be fun. :)
One of the trackables I was carrying at the time, at the cemetery with the dead cat.
Another cemetery cache, just down the road from the dead cat cache.
This was a neat cache. It didn't take long to find it either.
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