The event started, as you would expect an event in mid March at 10 AM in the Carolinas; it was cold with a brisk breeze blowing.

There was hot coffee and doughnuts for the 50 or so cachers that attended however, and we spent the first hour greeting old friends and meeting new ones, exchanging caching war stories.

Then the race was on. We divided into six teams consisting of about eight to ten cachers per team, each getting a set of coordinates to one of six mystery caches scattered about the town of Burlington NC.

My team consisted of huggy_d1 and his two young brothers, Yukon Hunter, Goldigger, and a marine named Devil Dog along with another young marine, and of course, the Princess of Darkness (my wife; she’s guilty by association).

Each team was given the coordinates to one of six caches. The goal was to find all six caches (in any order), and to get a digit to the final cache. Once you had all six digits the final cache would be yours.

The teams huddled together, entering into their GPS devices the coordinates to their respective caches....us old folks were slowing them down, so they took off on their own. After the coordinates were registered, it was a mad dash for the parking lot! This kind of resembled bumper cars, without anyone being hit. As everyone left the parking lot it looked like a NASCAR race with all the teams exiting simultaneously from pit row.

We located the park where our first cache was hidden without any problems. Our teammates, the Marines, had beat us to it and found the cache before we did. They apparently decided that us old folks were slowing them down, so they took off on their own. They would later learn that age and wisdom would beat youth and enthusiasm every time.

We found the final cache before they did, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

The first cache we found contained the coordinates to the other five caches that we would need to find. After logging the first one, we agreed to go for #3 next. The Princess and I found the park that contained #3 quickly, but our other team members were missing.

We sat in the truck and waited until we saw another team enter the park from the opposite direction. So we decided to start the hunt without the others. We found the cache before the other team and headed for #4. There was still no sign of our other teammates.

As we approached #4, we met another team that waved us down. It seems there was a problem with the coordinates; they led you to the middle of someone’s front yard, and it wasn’t in a good neighborhood.

We blew off #4 and headed for #5, still, with no sign of our lost teammates. We found #5 easy enough and were about to start for #6 when Huggy_d1 called.

The rest of the team had been running one cache behind us.He threw his metal detector in the back of his truck and left... We agreed to meet them at #6 after they logged #5. When we got to #6 there was a guy in the park with a metal detector who had no idea that a dozen or so cachers were about to descend on his little park.

He looked startled and confused by all the people that were converging on the park. Most were holding something in their hands and dashing from tree to tree. He threw his metal detector in the back of his truck and left like he had suddenly remembered there was something important he forgot to do at home. At least he’ll have something to talk about over dinner.

We logged #6 and headed off to #2. Now this one should have been simple. It was located on a wood footbridge in a small park. We spent twenty minutes looking for it without success.

Two other teams arrived, making total of 24 cachers scouring a twenty-foot bridge. We were getting some weird looks from passing motorists! We finally called the person who had designed the event and hid the cache, rldill.

After some detailed instructions, we found the cache. It seems that the team before us had decided to hedge their bets by pushing the cache so far into a hole that it was unreachable. By now we also had the corrected coordinates to #4, so off we went.

After finding #4 with two other teams, we had the coordinates to the final cache. While we were on our way to the final cache we got a call from rldill; there was a problem.

The first team to arrive got a shocking experience (literally). He had hidden the cache a couple of day’s prior thinking that it was on park property. It turns out that he had inadvertently placed the cache on private property, and a fence had been erected between the park and the cache.

The first team to arrive (the ones that had made #2 hard on the rest) got a shocking experience (literally). The fence that had been erected was electrified!

After all the teams had logged the final cache (it was moved to a less intense location), we all gathered for a cookout. Overall the event was a lot of fun. As with most events the best part is meeting and spending time with others that share the same passion for this sport/hobby/obsession that we call geocaching.