(Editor’s note: If the warning that appears at the top of the cache page does not intimidate you, read this entertaining, first hand account of an experienced cacher who successfully located and logged this geocache.)

The cache is called TMA-1, which is short for Tycho Magnetic Anomaly-1 (a google search will show how this relates to the cache site). I had first heard of this cache when someone mentioned it in ClayJar's geocaching chat and thought to myself "Who would be insane enough to go for that one?" About a week later, I had the answer to that question.

It was another late night session in chat and all the west coast regulars were in attendance. LilDevil had casually mentioned that he was at 999 finds and wanted to do a memorable cache as his 1000th find. He had seen the pictures of TMA-1 on the cache page and it certainly fit the bill as a memorable cache. I joked that it sounded like a lot of fun.

Actually, it looked really scary to me. And really wet. The latest pictures of the cache site showed TMA-1 to be surrounded by water.

Well, the next thing you know Joani and I were invited along to participate. I wasn't sure if I wanted to climb that thing, but I Thought it would be great fun to watch LilDevil reach his milestone.

We had one problem; we had already agreed to go caching with Woof!. Luckily, Woof! was in chat also, so I tried to see if we could still attempt the one cache near her that she wanted to do and still meet up with LilDevil at TMA-1.

That didn't seem to be a workable plan so I did the next best thing; I Invited Woof! along. She seemed pretty excited about the prospect of attempting TMA-1. She had already done some climbing. I was still under the impression that the two of them were crazy, but now there were two people for me to watch which sounded like even more fun.

After much discussion of timing and meeting places, we agreed to meet up at my house. Sunday morning, promptly at 11:00am, Kablooey arrives. (I know, I hadn't mentioned Kablooey in the above planning.) Well, I think I kind of got carried away in my excitement and invited the whole chat room to join us on our journey. This is kind of funny, since it wasn't really my place to be inviting people on what was really LilDevil's adventure. But hey, I'm a "the more, the merrier" kind of guy.

At this point, I was wondering who else might show up. As expected, LilDevil arrived, followed shortly by Woof!.

Since nobody else showed up, we decided to all cram in to LilDevil's big truck. Random gear, towels, and changes of clothes were stuffed here and there leaving just enough room for everyone. The towels and change of clothes were thought to be necessary because it looked like we would have to wade out to TMA-1.

I brought a change of clothes and a towel, so I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that I might actually attempt this. Either that or I was just trying to make the others think that I was going to. They will never know.

We were running a bit late and LilDevil called Touchstone, the insane individual who actually hid the TMA-1, to let him know our ETA. The drive down was relatively uneventful. Every now and then someone would point out the window and proclaim "There's a cache right over there." LilDevil was focused on his goal and didn't even seem tempted to stop for a quickie. Soon, we pulled up right behind Touchstone, right on time.

Well, okay, we were late but very close to the new time we had told him so all was well. I was a bit antsy because we were only about 0.2 miles from a cache that I had previously DNF'd and I thought hey, with this many people we should be able to find it. My idea was quickly voted down and we headed over to the "trailhead".

The "trailhead" in question was in fact a big truck stop. We dodged some workers painting arrows on the street and made our way to the back of the truck stop and parked. The truck stop was empty save the workers and everyone piled out of the truck and started collecting gear.

We were just about ready to leave when a security guard pulled up and stated we were on private property. Touchstone tried to convince the guard that we were harmless folk who just wanted to go for a quick stroll on the levee. The guard wasn't having any of that (he was probably put off by LilDevil's ponytail).

There was a meeting of minds and a new trailhead was chosen which involved a much greater walk out to the cache site. Gear was tossed back into the truck and we piled back in and followed Touchstone to the new trailhead.

We pulled into a dirt lot, which had a "Do Not Enter" sign. But oddly, the sign was facing the wrong way (meaning, I guess, that once you parked there, you couldn't leave). The gear was retrieved once again and soon we were off, past barking dogs, and up onto the levee.

It was an amazingly warm, sunny day for early March and the stroll out to the cache was long but pleasant. The nearby rolling hills are a beautiful green this time of year and made for a nice backdrop as we continued to hike towards the cache.

Upon arriving at the cache site, I peered down at TMA-1 in all its glory. The water had receded and had left a nice muddy bog for us to navigate.

I stood on the edge of the levee next to Joani as the rest of the team made their way down the steep rocky bank. I was thinking that I was just going to stand there and watch from above when Joani asked me why I was still up on the levee.

I told her that I didn't think I wanted to climb up to the cache and was considering just watching.

She just said, "Oh, go on down there." I could tell she wanted to add "You big chicken.”

Hmmph! I didn't see her going down there! I did eventually decide to go down and offer support for the team. The team was busy looking for the first stage of this multi, which has some required tools and equipment in it. They weren't having much luck.

Woof! got nailed by some stinging nettles shortly after I had just pointed them out. Not her fault really, because the steep, rocky bank was hard to navigate. With the help of Touchstone, we eventually located stage one. The previous finders of stage one had covered it with two layers of rocks (the meanies). When I re-hid it, I left it nicely hidden, but slightly visible from the right angle.

Inside of stage one were the tools we needed at stage two and the instructions on where and how to use them. What Touchstone didn't tell us is that he brought his own and we didn't even need to find stage one (meanie). :)

With stage one in hand we made our way to the final stage of TMA-1. There was a muddy bog between the cache site and us, but I didn't even put on my river sandals. I never went any deeper than the laces on my Gor-Tex hiking boots. I did forget to roll up the cuffs of my pants so they got kind of muddy. Eventually all in attendance made it to the cache site except Joani, who observed us from the bank of the levee.

Since Touchstone had already attached the loops, the next task was to get a rope over the top. This is no easy task. Just ask biggeeks, who tried to get a rope over the top for over an hour earlier the same day.

Too bad they didn't hang around. LilDevil made easy work of it. He successfully managed the rope over on his second attempt.

His first attempt was another story. After the weight ricocheted off the wall, it arched back towards us heading right for Woof!'s head. She sidestepped in the slippery mud and then lost sight of the weight in the sun and just had to hope she moved far enough. The weight slammed into the mud precisely in the spot that Woof! had occupied just moments before.

Once the thin leader rope was over, we tied it to the climbing rope and pulled it back over the top of TMA-1. Touchstone was the knot master and attached the climbing rope to the loops. Once we had the rope pulled all the way over, Touchstone made the initial ascent.

He checked the logbook while he was up there. The first page was still blank. Yes! Then he attached a strap and a carabiner to one of the big bolts on top of TMA-1 for the belay rope. He rappelled down, only to realize that he had left one of the Jumar ascenders on top of TMA-1.

There was a moment of confusion and discussion on what to do about it. Two ascenders are much easier than one, but it's do-able with one ascender and a prusik loop. I think Touchstone purposely left the Jumar up there so it would be that much more challenging for LilDevil. (I'm kidding. I'm kidding!) It did, however, make it more work for him.

The Jumar ascenders are very sweet and all you really need to do is slide them up with a bit of slack. The prusik loop is another story. You have to get ALL the weight off the loop before the knot will loosen and be able to slide up.

LilDevil was up to the challenge, and after getting all hooked up and attached to the belay rope, he started his ascent. It was slow going and it wasn't until he had gone more than halfway that he got the hang of it. (Hang of it, hehe. Get it? Never mind, you had to be there.)

Because he was using only one ascender, he ended up doing too much work with his hands and was rewarded with some healthy blisters. He did make it to the top and he was nice enough to throw both Jumars down.

Woof! was next and waved off the knot master and tied her own knot on the belay rope. Girl, you are brave. You realize that the knot you just tied is going to be holding 100% of your weight when you come back down?

To his credit, Touchstone checked Woof!'s knot and gave it a thumbs up. Woof! put LilDevil to shame by making it up to the top in 5 minutes! Okay, she did have two ascenders but still, it was quite embarrassing, I'm sure. ;)

She signed the log in the #2 spot, and then Touchstone belayed her on down and it was Kablooey's turn. He has a healthy fear of heights so this was quite a big deal. Heck, it's a big deal for someone without a fear of heights.

I think he initially thought he would just try it to see how far he could go up, not thinking of making it to the top. Before you know it, he's a third of the way up and starting to get his rhythm. He made pretty good time and soon was at the top. He signed the logbook with a shaky pen but didn't dare climb up top and stand. He was belayed back down.

I still hadn't decided if I was going to attempt this but Joani yelled encouragement from the levee bank and the others thought I would regret it if I didn't try. I think the fact that I had been giving everyone advice as they were struggling during their own ascent, they wanted to see if I could put my advice to practical use.

Before I knew it, I had the climbing harness on, was clipped in, and somehow fit my fat hands into Woof!'s climbing gloves. I was ready to go.

At first I struggled a bit to figure out which stirrup to use. My first attempts felt very uncoordinated. Touchstone and Woof! had used both feet in stirrups but Kablooey only used one and that's what I decided would work best for me as well.

Once I got my left foot into the correct stirrup, I started up. I immediately fell into a rhythm and pushed myself hard (possibly because I didn't want to get beat by a girl, but I'm not admitting to that). Three minutes later, I was at the top signing the logbook. Okay, my hand was shaking and I was breathing hard but God it felt good.

After I signed the log I climbed up top and pranced around a bit, posing for a few pictures with LilDevil who had stayed up top the whole time.

I think I outweighed touchstone by a few pounds, but he was able to belay me back down with not few problems. Back on solid mud, I was smiling until my cheeks started to cramp up.

LilDevil was first up and last to come back down because the last person had to remove the belay strap and toss the equipment down first, before rappelling down. I don't think I could have done that without hurting myself but he made it look easy.

We gathered our belongings in short order and made our way through the bog and back up the levee. I made a stop at stage one to replace the required equipment and was soon up at the top of the levee with Joani.

The walk back was kind of like the end of a western movie with the heroes riding off into the sunset. Well, except we had muddy boots instead of horses. Everyone was still hyped from the adventure and a bit chatty. Good times.

At the cars we took a few more pictures and said our goodbyes to Touchstone, without whose help we most certainly would have just ended up muddy. He drove off and we headed into Salinas for some food, and of course a handful of caches.

The drive back home was pretty quiet as our accomplishment settled in. Plus we were dead tired.

Thanks to LilDevil for inviting me and then not getting mad when I opened the invitation to all my buddies. Mucho thanks to Touchstone for being the enabler of our adventure. It is something we will never forget.

--Marky