20080920 multi Schmugglerpfade

Same forest as the first batch but on the west side. We enjoyed that one, plenty of parking, nice walk in the forest, at WP3 we probably took the wrong turn as we walked behind some houses and ended up in a fancy neighboorhood, continuing the wrong way following a marked trail. Took some time, sweat, offtrailing and hopping a barbedwire fence to get back on track to WP4. Then we continued to WP5 but by now Sloeberke, my wife, was getting very tired and didnt want to do any more off trail, so we followed the path which took us further from the WP5... not a bad thing because we were getting closer to 2 traditionals I sorta planned on trying :-) , so after a big detour we found these 2 trads (one more Westwall bunker) and picked up the Schmugglerpfad again.


Bunker 161 must have been one big bunker during its glory days. I was on top of it but couldnt see it,totally envaded by plants. Nearly fell into a large, uncovered hole which looked like a doorway. Would have loved to slide in and explore the bunker as the cache page contains the layout. But the problem would have been getting back out as it was very steap, narrow and slippery.
On the other side of the road were some concrete cubes which looked like airholes or drainage of some kind. If that is part of the bunker, it must have been a big bunker.

By now Edith was very tired and wanted to return home, so I dissgarded the second traditional (Just Married II) in the area and focussed on wrapping up the multi so we headed for the final. As we walk I noticed we were only 200meters from that second trad. Edith told me to go find it while she rested on a bench. What a woman hey :-) But I had to be back in 30minutes, so I picked up the pace some.
Came to GZ and started looking for this micro. Again poor signal so checked out the hint ... OH NO! NOT AGAIN
hint : at the foot of a tree...
This is a blooming forest! LOTS OF TREES ! The clock was ticking, checked out all the trees near GZ, then spotted a flat stone near the base of a tree so had a feel around the roots, nothing, then spotted another, smaller stone lodged in a small hole in the same tree... GOTCHA. Quickly logged, snapped some pictures and marched back to Edith.

Easy to spot where she was sitting as Whisky was barking like a dog posessed.
And so we headed down the trail back to the car and as Edith continued to the car but first went to log Schmugglerpfad. Last one of the day, a total of 7caches, that's the most caches we have ever done in one day.

Totalled 10.5km walk on this multi +2 trads. The trads do make rather a big detour but its a great walk in the forest! Well worth it.
We walked nearly 16km in the forest today and visited locations we would never have been to if it werent for geocaching! I love this game !

Thats it for me now, I'm knackered, time for bed.

	9/20/2008	Guinness70 placed RaceCoin - Geo.Error Tracking DeerAuf den Spuren des Westwalls (18) - Grenzbunker TK	Germany	[visit log]
	9/20/2008	Guinness70 found Schmugglerpfade (Multi-cache)	Nordrhein-Westfalen	[visit log]
	9/20/2008	Guinness70 found Just married II (Traditional Cache)	Germany	[visit log]
	9/20/2008	Guinness70 found 10. Westwall Bunkercache "Bunker 161" (Traditional Cache)	Nordrhein-Westfalen	[visit log]

first batch of 5 : Westwall SW of Aachen

The first batch started good, its in a forest, so cant be bad :-) (see list below). The first one is at the bottom and so up.
Love these bunker themed caches. Sadly these ones here are mostly ruines of caches, sometimes nothing more then a pile of concrete rubble.
All finds were quick and obvious.

The Christmas cache was a LARGE container, the first one we find. Great walk thru the forest to a beautyfull area with the sun piercing thru and a clearing along side the hill. Beautyfull. My wife was cross with me for not telling her more about this cache, the idea of the cache is to gift wrap a goodie to put in the cache, I forgot about this and she would have wrapped a gift. She loved the idea! Bad points for me.

The DNF. We got to Ground Zero allright but with the high trees the signal was poor and sadly the hint was no good to us : needle in a haystack kinda cache.
But again the brilliant scenery disolved most of the frustration.
Just noticed this one has a spoiler. Didnt see that during prepping. DOH. Would surely have helped.

This batch of 5 gave us a 5.5km forest walk with plenty to see. First time we get to see and walk thru a vehicle obstruction line from WW2. The picture is from that border near Aachen. (more info)

Then we head back to the car for a bite and refreshments and afterwards set off to do the planned multi Schmugglerpfade on the other side of the forest.

	9/20/2008	Guinness70 found Auf den Spuren des Westwalls (20) - Gefechtsb. WB (Traditional Cache)	Germany	[visit log]
	9/20/2008	Guinness70 found A Christmas-Cache (Traditional Cache)	Germany	[visit log]
	9/20/2008	Guinness70 couldn't find Oecher Weihnachtsgeheimnis 22 - War is over (Traditional Cache)	Germany	[visit log]
	9/20/2008	Guinness70 found Auf den Spuren des Westwalls (19) - Bunkerruine WB (Traditional Cache)	Germany	[visit log]
	9/20/2008	Guinness70 found Auf den Spuren des Westwalls (18) - Grenzbunker TK (Traditional Cache)	Germany	[visit log]

Race coin points us to Aachen

Noticed a race coin ( RaceCoin - Geo.Error Tracking Deer) being dropped in Lift Off. The race envolves visiting as many countries from the European Union as possible before end of 2008. And Germany wasnt on its list yet!
This gave me the idea that we should move it to Germany, which is only 60km from our place.
During the week I planned the German cache connection and today we set off.

First thing on our to do list was drop this coin of in an appropriate cache : a large enough traditional, not far from the road, very short walk and easy to find.
And this cache was our first today : Auf den Spuren des Westwalls (18) - Grenzbunker TK . A Westwall bunker cache. We had done a couple during our Luxembourg caching trip, those were in better state then the ones we visited today. But we did walk amongst a vehicle obstruction line for the first time.

First batch of 5 caches went well giving us a 5.5km walk, 3 bunker caches and a Christmas cache, the first LARGE cache we find. And one DNF (poor signal, not very usefull hint).
This forest is magnificient! If you like walking in the woods and caching we highly recommend this area. Also good for the dogs as there arent that many people walking.

left home at 11h30, back home at 20h00 / drove 120km / walked +15km / found 7 / 1 DNF
and had a great time!

Found some good swag : mini tripods

Went to two of my favorite shops in the area a DIY shop and an army surplus, I like walking around checking for usefull gadgets that would make good swag and are cheap enough for swag so I can get lots of them.

Spotted these mini tripods at a bargain price and bought 15 of them, they'll make for excellent swag for those caches that give us that extra fun!

Got some more carabiners : large,green anodized ones. Also got some new caching gloves, less sweaty then the ones we use now. And a good camo, compression bag, like the one we encountered in Luxemburg and kept us searching for an hour.

Sint Hubertuscache : THE coolest container

This cache does not only present a great location and a lovely walk thru the forest with a very clear, babbling brook but this cache must have THE coolest container !
I was hitting myself in the head for forgetting the camera!
Private messaged the owner wondering if had a picture and some more info on this one. Fingers crossed.

Watch out for the rusty nails when retrieving this cache.
Bit hard to open, but if you jam it between the branches of a tree (bit further down the path) it will be easier to usncrew the lid.

GCPYYC Sint Hubertuscache

How far can you jump?

The description mentioned "adventure"... RED FLAG !!! MUST DO.
so off we went. No way of getting close by car.
First we were on the wrong side of the motorway, finally got till 800m off, so got out of the car and hoofed it.
Quite an adventure, over/under barbedwire, sometimes with some Volts on it.
Thru muddy (we wanted it to be mud ) patches, small, smelly brooks. Lots of fun! The dogs were really enjoying themselves... dirty buggers!

Walked up to the edge of a large pond/small lake... arrow pointing ... to the island, as in surrounded by water 50meters off the shore. LOL ...

So went all around checking for a wadeable spot, which we didnt find.
A short browse thru the previous logs which have several mentions of "wet" and "swimming" ... DOH
Not us, not today :)

To return to the car we took a different route, a new adventure. Good thing I still had the wading stick or I would have been upto my knees in black, goowy stuff !

Great, little adventure.
we left this DNF carrying the mark of an excellent cache : ear to ear silly grin.

GC16NXX How far can you jump?

Today's hunt 1 Find 2 DNFs

	9/14/2008	Guinness70 retrieved Travelduck (Travel Bug Dog Tag) from Sint Hubertuscache	Limburg	[visit log]
	9/14/2008	Guinness70 couldn't find Duurzame energie uit vervlogen tijden 1 (Traditional Cache)	Limburg	[visit log]
	9/14/2008	Guinness70 found Sint Hubertuscache (Traditional Cache)	Limburg	[visit log]
	9/14/2008	Guinness70 couldn't find How Far Can You Jump ? (Traditional Cache)	Limburg	[visit log]

So we went 70km north to seek the coin

long story short:
We wasted an hour not finding THE WRONG CACHE.
My fault for being at the wrong cache, we were at nr1 of a treesome while the coin was at nr3.
And even if we had been at the right cache, seems it was already retrieved yesterday but only logged today. BUGGER.