We have all done it, whether we admit it or not... We’re out caching some distance from home and we have a list of caches in the area. We do quite a few caches and think we are having a pretty good day. Overconfidence sets in and we start to get a little cocky. Being well aware of my limitations this never happens to me, but the wife seems to be inflicted with the disease.

We had just done “Dakota’s Cache” and saw that “The last Boy Scout” wasn’t that far away. The woods we were in had several paths going up and down large hills. It took a great deal of effort to get the wife up the hills to the top as she is hindered with a bad back and walks with a cane, but she is a trooper and we managed. As we followed the trail from “Dakota’s Cache” to “The last Boy Scout” I saw the needle on the GPS pointing ominously down into the valley. When we got to where the trail descended down to the river I knew we were in trouble. It was a good three hundred foot steep drop down the hill to the river bank below.

Me: “The GPS says its 500 feet down there..”

Wife: “Well we’re a long way from home and we are here so let’s go get it.”

Me: “You’ve got to be kidding? How do you think you can get down that narrow slick path? Not to mention getting back up.”

Wife: “I swear, sometimes I think I married the biggest sissy one could find. You don’t hear me complaining, do you? Stop worrying, we’ll manage just fine.”

On the way down we found the path not only narrow but it consisted of a clay that was like walking on oil. Luckily as we slid down the mountain I would bounce off of various trees which would slow our decent to a less life threatening pace. I must have looked like the metal ball in a pinball machine. What really helped was the wife shouting words of encouragement.

Wife: “Slow down. Can’t you be more careful? That last branch nearly took my hat off.”

How we managed to make it down without going head over heels was nothing short of a miracle. I would be psaltering with the truth if I were to say getting down to the cache was easy; but it was nothing compared to getting back out of that godforsaken valley. We found the cache then planned our strategy to get back up. There was no way we could go back up that slippery path so we had to make our own way. I started climbing the mountain at an angle and would switch back every twenty or thirty feet trying to lessen the incline. It was a long and arduous task. I could appreciate the efforts of those who had scaled Everest. After what seemed like days which was actually only hours the gods smiled at us and mercifully we crested the hill. Slowly we made our way back to the car.

Shortly after the paramedics arrived they were able to get my breathing back to normal and my heart rate to less dangerous levels. The one good thing that came out of doing this cache is that I was able to see how much the wife was concerned about me.

Me: “It was touching to see how worried you were about me.”

Wife: “Well, who else would be stupid enough to carry me up and down those kind of hills?”

Me: “Its just nice to know you care.”

Wife: “You’re welcome. Now wasn’t that fun?”

By nanncyan

The wife and I have been geocaching about three years now.  We enjoy the exercise and great scenery.  We are surprised by the parks that we never knew exsisted right in our own back yard.  We live in Comstock Park Michigan.  We are fortunate to have thousands of caches within a short drive.  We are recently retired and plan to cache around the country.  Who knows maybe we will be in Washington next July for GW VIII!  Our goal is to keep geocaching fun.  I hope our stories relate that to others.

Marvin Altena