I knew it was coming and was starting to wonder what I was going to do to celebrate the milestone. Perhaps I could submit an event I thought. A hiking event to some cache out in the wilderness for all to enjoy. One that I could get all my friends together and do so I picked out the spot and created the cache page to be submitted and was all ready to go. Well most of the responders said they couldn’t make it or that they didn’t like the hike idea or the pay parking in the park. Basically it was looking like a no go on the event. So now what?
Well the perfect opportunity arose as a good friend of mine was going on a hike to celebrate his 900th cache and wanted to know who would like to join him. This particular hike had been on my mind for quite some time as it was a long and challenging one which had a geocoin of mine stuck up there placed by another good couple of friends of mine who were taunting me to go retrieve it. The only problem is that I’m new to the longer hikes and do not like going at them alone. So when Paul mentioned he was going for it I said hey mind if I come along and make it my 1000th cache. He graciously agreed and we set the plans into motion. Another buddy saw our plans on twitter and said he could come and make it his 800th cached as well. How about that three milestones on one hike 800, 900, and 1000.
I was so excited I was going to rescue my geocoin and I get to try out my new hydration backpack I just got. So we all met up at Paul’s for 9am well a little past 9am but close enough. We got to the trail around 10am and off we went. As for the challenging trail that was an understatement. This sucker went straight up and basically never stopped. I was totally exhausted by the time I reached the cache having made at least 2 dozen badly needed rest stops along the way. The rest of the better shaped group comprising of Geo_canuck77, Teddy2kk, Grafinator, and Hellraisers were kind in waiting for the old husky guy trying to recapture his youth. We got to the cache and they let me find it then we took our pictures and I dunked my head in the creek nearby to celebrate and cool my over heated body down.
We decided to go back to a lookout area a little ways back down the trail for a bite to eat then made our way back down. I thought down was going to be easy well it wasn’t I started to get rubber legs about half way down and ran out of water as well. Mental note the 2l water bag needs to become a 3l one before my next hike. One good point was that the saying "The trip back always seems shorter"held true cause we were back down the trail faster than I thought we would be. All said and done we were about 4hrs there and back I believe. I felt exhausted yet like a million bucks at the same time. I am really starting to enjoy this style of geocaching and look forward to my next hike and milestone.
