01/10/11 (W.I.A.N). GC3079D

Today I did the What’s In A Name series with Mrs Maxtrev. This was meant to be circular walk of 6 miles but because it was all down to first to finds we decided to get number 17 first as this was located on a road so we would be able to tell if we had been beaten already. As we arrived at the general location  the car was “abandoned”. We walked a short distance up a small lane and as we arrived at GZ we got excited about such a different and well-constructed cache. Soon the log book was in hand and the tension builds as we try and open the waterproof bag (Note to self: less haste, more speed). As I open the front of the log book the few seconds of pure excitement gets too much but eventually we are being stared in the face by an empty page and smiles start to emerge as we flick through the log book just in case. After handing over to Mrs Maxtev to make our mark I set number 18 as go to. After realising it was further down the road we storm ahead. With about 60 meters to go Mrs Maxtrev thinks it will be a good idea to get the car so off she goes back the way we came, dodging falling acorns all the way. So off I go marching on ahead to number 18 and I see the obvious thing that fits the clue so after speeding up, the cache is soon in hand. What a great container, as I am signing the log I hear a car approaching so i try to look less suspicious (which probably does the complete opposite) but to my relief is was just Mrs Maxtrev. After returning the cache I jump back in the car and wizz off to number 16. After abandoning the car we head up the path towards GZ, GPS was all over the place due to tree cover. After about 10 minutes of searching we decide to head up the hill to number 15. As we are walking we decided to call Mr Maxtrev to look up the clue and try and make more of it. Thanks to Google we have a good idea what we are looking for. After a nice quick find on number 15 and some great camo ideas we head back down to number 16 again. Knowing more about the clue we soon find the cache. Walking back to the car we felt proud of our 4 FTFs and decided to drive around to the start and do the big loop from 1 to 14. After parking what seemed miles away from the 1^st cache we crack on soon arriving at GZ After having cache at hand and commenting and such a great cache we sign and replace and still no other cacher is in site as we move on to number 2. After realising we have got enough to counter balance the early wakeup call we start to relax and get to GZ. Again, a nice easy find thanks to the title and again having another FTF we commented on the construction of the cache. We now think lets go think full steam ahead and off we go to number 3. After getting out the shade we see a big climb ahead of us and exchanging looks of terror we start the accent. Half way up the hill we get to GZ and soon have the interesting cache in hand. This time, calling on Mrs Maxtrev to make our mark and off we set again. The steep hill starts to level out and we see our next destination covered in shade, we both let out a sigh of relief, it is getting really warm now, phew!. We start the search and it keeps going on, and keeps going and keeps going until about 20 minutes have past we are about to give up before BBQ Queen and Humphrey Hedgehog turn up. We stay a bit longer and finally BBQ Queen yells out she has got it. So all signed up and off we go again towards number 5. Arriving at GZ I immediately spot something out of the ordinary with my caching eye. What a brilliant cache, it’s in my personal Top 10. All signed up and ready to push on we come to the conclusion we are not kitted out for this walk in this weather with nothing but a GPS, Phone and Pen. We stop and think if we should turn back. After convincing Mrs Maxtrev to carry on we storm ahead and meet BBQ Queen and Humphrey Hedgehog once again and so find,sign and replace number 6 and keep on walking. We then arrive at number 7 and having a short search and fworking out  how to retrieve the cache we get the log book out again, we make our mark and replace. After a short walk  to number 8 we see 4 likely locations and we all picked a location. I get lucky and have the cache in hand and chuckle to myself. After exchanging a joke and doing our business we crack on to number 9. I spot a slight sign of a cachers trail which leads me to the cache, Again in my Top 10. So off we go again. This is where it gets interesting, after missing a obvious path and walking 100 meters past and getting to a right angle to the cache we get confused and me being me I run down a big hill fighting my way through stingers and brambles and whatever hurts I get to a stream that I leap over and soon meet a path and have cache number 10. In all my haste I forget about the others and shout up, there is no way Mrs Maxtrev would have done that so after no reply and siting on my own for 20 mins and thinking about setting up camp for the night they all appear around the corner. BBQ Queen and Humphrey Hedgehog decide to have lunch. I'm getting a bit drained now and having nothing but 3 things, a gps , a pen and a phone we walk on to try and finish it. As we are walking to number 11 we get a call from Mr Maxtrev has come straight from work and got number 14 in his hand. We crack on knowing we have a lift back to the car so we find number 11 and yet again having a cache to add to my Top 10 we start to number 12. Nice easy find for number 12. Trying to hurry to get a drink and some food we go about half a mile in the wrong direction and coming across a huge dead stag in the middle of the path. Mrs Maxtrev gets upset a little at this  and to top it all we realise we need to go another half mile back. So off we go back up the path, this time coming across two beautiful deer’s just before they get spooked and bolt off in to the wood. We get back to the top, after a lot of confusion we just aim for a road after hearing the news that Mr Maxtrev had got number 13 as well and got back to the car. Just by luck we get to the road just as Mr Maxtrev was driving by so we hop in, get a lift back to the car and split up for the journey home. When we got home we shared information and all wrote the logs. All in all a great experience. Highly recommended series. Thanks All-Weather-Cacher.

Junior Maxtrev