Part 2 of the Lizard Toads adventures in Operation Desert Command.
We need to attack from another angle….Sue said we have not failed, we are just scouting out possible ways of getting to the right place! We called around once we got back to Moab and found a place to rent a couple of ATVs….our costs continue to mount, but there’s no turning back now! Around 3:30 we head back out to that Blue Hills road for the umpteenth time. We drove to the spot where we had come up out of 10 mile wash yesterday and unloaded the ATVs off the trailer. The professor and the Desert Rat donned their helmets, loaded up the metal detector and headed down across the slickrock to the bottom of the wash and then down the wash bottom to meet up with the Green River and find that next cannister. Meantime, Lynn, Sue and Georgia hung out up on top waiting patiently for return of the adventurers. Luckily for the guys there have been enough ATVs come down the wash recently to keep the trail somewhat passable through the thick tamarisk trees. There were a few fallen trees and rockslides that added excitement to the trip. The Desert Rat rearranged the front end of his ATV with an unplanned meeting with a rock wall and the Professor came to a wet spot in the trail that he thought he could speed through to come out on the other side but the wet spot soon became thick mud and he was stuck fast before he realized that he had indeed reached the Green River. We had all given the Desert Rat a hard time because he showed up today wearing a brand new pair of shoes. The ole Desert Rat waited a few minutes to see if the Professor could get himself unstuck and then he just shook his head and plunged into the mud with those new shoes. With the ATVs out of the mud, they walked over to the cache site and spent a fruitless hour searching for the buried cannister. It would be dark soon so they had to cut their search short. How they hated to leave to go back without the information needed to continue with the contest. Meanwhile Lynn, Sue and Georgia were getting rather concerned, we had moved the Xterra higher up the slick rock trail before it got too dark to see the trail. How in the world would they find their way up again in the dark? Around 10:30 pm we were very relieved to hear the sounds of the ATV’s approaching.
On the way back the Professor started getting a bad feeling about his calculations……why had he been figuring this cache using 40 miles. Thinking back to the tags involved he should have been using 1610 – 1560 which is 50. This is unbelievable! It was because of all the pre-figuring and trying to guess the location along the line and then making a quick mental calculation without double checking it. Man, how do I go about telling the rest of the team that we have spent 2 days on a wild goose chase? Oh well….shit happens, now for the ten mile ATV ride up a twisting winding wash with tree branches whipping us in the face and roller coaster bumps in pitch darkness. At least we could find the trail in the sandy wash bottom with the small headlights. Driving up out of the wash bottom across the slick rock was another story altogether. Don called the crew at the top of the cliff on the radio to turn on their headlights but it was still a very difficult maze to solve to find the way up the slickrock without getting trapped by all the sheer dropoffs. In the darkness it was not possible to see the expressions on everybody’s faces when the Professor made his announcement that we had been searching in a spot 10 miles short of the real destination. We should have at least had a small cache ready that we could have placed down there. That would have been a 5/5 cache for sure! By 12:15, we have returned to Moab. This has been a most interesting mis-adventure.
July 11th – Quote for today: There are many ways to do things wrong, BUT only one way to do things right.
Since it was quite late when we arrive back at our rooms in Moab, we slept in a bit the next morning this was Sunday. It’s funny that the correct location was back on the other side of the Green River where we had driven the previous morning and where we couldn’t find a way down the cliff. Except this time it was 10 miles further North so this made for a little less driving. Most of the drive was on a very well maintained dirt road. The last 5 miles was off the main road and had several places where the wind had piled dunes across the road. We carefully crossed these dunes until we came to within 0.15 miles of the target area. We decided not to cross a large dune at this point and to just walk over to the area.
The Cach-U-Nuts had one metal detector and Potter and Suzer had another one. We found a set of jumper cables and a fork near the cache site and nothing else. We didn’t know if the buried bottle would be right at the coordinates or just nearby so we spread out and spent over an hour in the blazing 106º heat looking for any sign of previous digging. A little wind blowing here would easily erase any evidence of previous digging or any footprints. With the heat and the lateness of the day we decided to head out for Burgers and Beers at Ray’s in Green River and then call it a weekend and head home to Salt Lake – we need more money. Don said he had to get home to get his Social Security check. Bob Rich must have showed up a few days later and seeing all the footprints he must have assumed that we had found this container……WRONG!
So the next weekend (July 16th) rolls around and we think about taking a break. But not knowing how far along Bob Rich has gotten bothers our minds to the point that we just can’t stay away. We decided that the only sensible way to find this cannister in the sand dunes is to camp out at the spot so we can do our searching in the evening and early in the morning before the heat of the day. We recruited another cacher on to our team who likes to camp out but who prefers to remain nameless. It is alway a great relief to have more than one vehicle out here especially if there is a chance of getting stuck in these sand dunes. Due to severe traffic congestion upon leaving the Salt Lake valley it was getting dark by the time we arrived back at the search location. We managed to get over that last large sand dune and were able to camp on a hard packed area in the middle of the dunes. During the past week we had learned a lot about our White’s Spectrum XLT metal detector and we had fine tuned the setting so it would pick right up on a variety of steel bars. We had also borrowed a metal detector from our brother in law and also borrowed one from a metal detector dealer back in Salt Lake. In between rain sprinkles we spent a little bit of time that first night using a coleman lantern and flashlights but didn’t find anything. Early next morning we stuck a pole in the ground at the spot we had figured and we ran string out to the west and east for 100 feet in each direction so we could do a thorough grid search. The professor started out to the west on the south side of the string and combed the sand heading east. The others were out doing random searches and were going to follow the professor after he did his sweep. The professor then moved to the north side of the string and ran a pattern heading back west. Back at the center pole he swept over the shovels and got a loud beep just to make sure the detector was working. He told the others not to get excited because he was just testing. Then about 10 feet west of the pole he got another good solid beep. He had a thin probing rod that he gently poked into the sand and he could tell that he had hit something. He pulled out the probe and there was a small pill bottle on the end of his probe. He had poked clean through the lid and out through the bottom. You can imagine the elation we felt when we realized that this road block had finally been crossed and we can now continue with our quest. The professor calculated the location of the next objective while the others made a nice breakfast and broke camp. A little duct tape fixed up the pill bottle and we buried it back where it belonged. Man, we really put a lot of effort into finding this one! Thanks for the mints Team!
July 17th – The next one turned out to be near a rock formation know as Park Avenue inside Arches National Park. Luckily the cacher we brought down with us is a senior citizen so we were able to get in the park at no cost using their park pass. The topo map showed this one as being up on top of one of these sky scrapers so the question is “How do we get up there?”
We parked at the Park Avenue trailhead and hiked along the normal trail. We passed a side wash that was heading up to the point we needed. We were following some footprints and we couldn’t help but wonder if these belonged to Bob Rich or perhaps to “The Team”. It was getting to the point that when we’d see a guy walking alone we would check to see if he had a GPS in his hand, and then comment…..that might be Bob Rich! The wash turned out to be a box canyon with sheer walls of sandstone at the end and only needed to go another 900 feet. The professor scrambled up a rock face but couldn’t see a way to continue past that. Well nothing to do now but go back to the car and try to figure something else out. The heat is getting unbearable again and there is NO shade anywhere! The professor wanted to try an idea so he went ahead while the toads stayed back taking pictures of all the interesting rock formations.
He got back to the car and then walked along the main highway and found a wash on the opposite side of the rock wall that might be passable. He found a crack in the sheer rock wall that had enough rock debris in it that it created a natural “Stairway to Heaven.” The professor said he felt like a lizard as he scrambled his way up to the top of the skyscraper. He found the pill bottle under a large rock but it wouldn’t come out. Finally with a lot of tugging and twisting it came out. The bottle had actually been glued down to the rock. The note mentioned that it had been glued to prevent it from blowing away in the wind. The professor now realized that he had left his camera down in his truck which had been left outside the park. A call on the radio to the Toads and it was decided that they would hike over to the bottom of the crack and the professor would bring the bottle and note down to meet them so we could get a picture of the note. We climbed up the rocks to meet the professor, the three of us sat on that rock ledge for a good 20 minutes just soaking up the beautiful picture in front of us, what an awesome day! Then back up the crack he went to replace the bottle and to block it in good with stones to protect it from the wind now that it was no longer glued down to the rock. This was one of the easiest objectives yet. More rock scrambling yes but no long jeep rides or a huge hike involved. Now we are after a “special” tag down along the Kane Creek by the Hole ‘n’ the Rock.
We had enough afternoon left to stop in at Denny’s…..why we kept choosing Denny’s I’ll never figure out! As we ate lunch, we double checked our calculations for the next adventure! It still showed along Kane Creek about 4 miles west of the Hole ‘n’ the Rock. So we gassed and iced up and drove south out of Moab. Turned onto the Kane Creek road and worked our way down some very rugged spots. Some afternoon rain clouds were gathering so we hurried and found a great place to camp. After a few round of Hearts, it seemed that the rain clouds were passing us by and we decided we might try to get this one this evening rather that tomorrow morning. We didn’t know how far we would be able to drive as the guide books show that there are some real bad spots between us and the destination and we didn’t want to be hiking again in the heat of the day. We all three crowded into the Tacoma and headed down the road. There sure are a lot of stream crossings and sometimes we ended up driving right down the stream. After descending a few bad spots we came to the show stopper. There is no way we would get back up this next spot without 6 more inches of clearance and without those lockers front and rear. OK, time to park. Distance to destination is about 2.5 miles. Time is 7:30. If we walk at 2.5 miles per hour we should be there at 8:30 and we should be able to get back to the truck at 9:30 when the last of the light is fading away. Let’s go for it. Now for the reality. With all the ups and downs and twists and turns it was about 9:30 and getting dark when we arrived a the cache site. We’re looking for a “special” yellow tag, glued to a tree! We crossed the stream and climbed up the hill on the other side and checked every tree in sight. Our gps’s were pointing another 60 feet up the hill were there were no trees so the professor scrambled up and couldn’t come up with anything. This reminded us of our experience up Pritchet Canyon where the coordinates were given in the NAD27 map datum instead of the WGS84. For some reason the backlight on the Professor’s gps has quit working so he borrowed a gps from one of the toads and set it to the NAD27 map datum and entered the coordinates. This location is about 700 feet further along the road. After a very tricky descend down the hill and across the creek in the darkness using our small flashlights, we continued on down the road to a nice tall tree. As we walked to the back side of the tree and shined our light up the trunk we were rewarded with the sight of a nice yellow tag with the number 1700 on it. “Now wait a doggone minute here”, we were thinking. Aren’t we supposed to subtract 1700 from the number on the tag? That means that the number of miles mentioned in that last note is the number of miles we need to go to the next destination. We didn’t even need to get this tag. And then what about it being a “special” tag. What is so special about the number 1700? Must be special to The Team, cause it sure isn’t special to us right now!! Now for the long hike back to the truck in the pitch darkness. By now the professors head lamp was getting quite dim. No extra triple A batteries for that but we have plenty of extra double A batteries for the small flashlights. We had noticed a small ATV trail on the opposite side of the canyon when we were walking in so we decided to save some time and effort by staying on that lower trail instead of climbing way up on the side of the hill on the main road. There were several places where that trail crossed the stream and we could not find where it continued. Somewhere along the way the Cach-U-Nuts realized that it was past midnight so that made it July 18th which is their 17th anniverary. Maybe that tag 1700 is special after all! After what seemed to be an eternity of hiking and stumbling around in the dark we made it back to the faithful Tacoma which had been waiting faithfully for us.
Driving back up to our camp spot we got to one of the bad spots in the road that we just couldn’t quite get up. The toads got out and piled rocks up against the tall step but the wheel kept spinning them out. Finally on the umpteenth try, the Professor cut the wheels sharply to the right and somehow the wheels found something to grip and the truck made it up to the top. Lockers or some kind of posi-traction would sure be nice in situations like this! After getting back to camp at around 2:00 am we decide we needed to sleep in instead of rushing off for another early morning adventure. Looks like the next destination is back down at the bottom of Spring Canyon along the Bow Knot Bend in the Green River and we have had more than enough adventure for one weekend so we headed for home.
July 21, 2004 Sue and LynnHere we were – back in Moab again. It is 7:45 a.m. 80 degrees, and it has been trying very hard to rain. All we could see were a few drops on the windshield. By 9:00 A.M., it was 90 degrees. I can’t believe that we were being sent back to that damned Spring Canyon. For some reason the road doesn’t seem to me to be quite as scarey as it was the first time. This time, when we got to the bottom, we had to go in the opposite direction, but we still had to battle those damn tamarisk trees like before! It didn’t do the paint job on the Xterra any good, but Don said he would buff out the scratches for us. Lynn said, “Yeah, right” He didn’t think they would buff out-they are way too deep! What Lynn and I had was a hot, steep climb. We had a nice view of the Green River and some boaters. We found the canister by matter of luck. We were to locate a pink tag glued to a rock as a reference point. The cannister would be buried in the sand near this rock! It was buried deeply in the sand, and was standing upright, so the metal detector would barely beep when you’d pass over it, then we’d try another sweep of the same area, the beep would disappear……this got to be very frustrating, so finally I decided to dig anyway. By 11:30, it is 100 degrees but we’ve got the note!<br />Same day…..different adventure……we just keep going and going……
By three o’clock, it was 105 degrees and we have called the professor to get our new destination coordinates. We’re headed out to find number fifteen. All these roads are beginning to look the same to me! We finally made a turn on what was a very poor excuse for a road. It was very slow going! Late afternoon, we got stuck in a large four foot drift of sand, which was covering the road. We had passed some campers nine miles back, and we were out of cell phone range. Due to Lynn’s 4-wheeling skills, we were barely able to get out, but not before tearing off one of the mud flaps, bending the trailer hitch, and pulling out part of the bumper. This was scarey! At this point, after Lynn calmed down, we decided it would be a dandy idea to hike in, after all the GPS showed the location was 1.69 miles away as the crow flies. We all know about that pesky crow! We must be crazy! We finally reached the location-another high cliff overlooking the Green River, it was beautiful! There was another 1,000 foot drop-off – straight down! This place is called “The Very End.” Oh if only that were true!! Lynn spotted a bald eagle soaring overhead. The Team’s clue said to look for a “t” scratched on a rock. We searched and searched, but could not find a stinking rock with a “t” I decided to just try to find the cannister. That didn’t work either! We can’t believe we will have to come back – it would be dark soon and we still had the hike back to the car…..it was horrible – and to make matters even worse we ran out of water. We made it back to the car by 8:00 P.M.. It was 99º. We finaly make it back to the motel…..we’ll sleep in and wait for the other team members to arrive in the morning then head back out to conqure this bad boy!
July 22, 2004 Lynn, Sue, Georgia, Don & a toad……
By noon, two more toads and a lizard have arrived. We’re heading out to #15 again, determined to conqure and find that stinkin “t”. When we reached the location, we parked a short distance from the location. Man was it ever hot, how many times will we do these searches in the middle of the day? We spread out and start the search, it’s got to be here somewhere! What does the note say again? We find several marks that could possibly pass for a cross or a “t” but no cannister! We decide to take a break, the wind is really starting to blow and sand was blowing everywhere. We head over to the truck to make some lunch….the wind is really getting strong, we can barely get our sandwiches made. We head for cover on the east side of a huge rock formation and plant ourselves under a ledge as far out of the wind as we can get. We hunker down there for awhile, the bread on our sandwiches are now toasted after being sand-blasted…..but the beer sure hits the spot! We’re surrounded by scary lookin spider webs…..thank goodness I don’t see any spiders!! Soon the wind dies down, we give ourselves a bit of an attitude adjustment and head back to assault every rock on that ledge! Don’s the first one back and within 5 minutes he’s holding something up…..OMG, he’s found the cannister! Yahoo! I swear I must have searched that area at least 5 times……just didn’t pick up the right rock! Then someone asked, so where’s the stinkin “t”? we all look carefully, and yes we did find a rather faint “t” scratched into the rock. Hey Xtreme Team, you call that whimpy scratch a “t”, you guys are EVIL!! Boy were we ever glad to put this one in the books!
By four o’clock, we were headed back to Moab. It was 98 degrees and extremely windy! Don called over on the radio that there were a couple of caches on our way back to the highway. Poor Don, he’s had a rough time not being able to stop at all the caches along the way….Georgia keeps telling him “there’s no time for regular caching….Bob Rich might be getting ahead of us”. We all decide since he found #15 it’s only fair that we should bag a few! The first one was Secret Spire. Lynn and Sue had found this cache in April, while on the Jeep Safari. As we were getting very close to the cache, Don noticed we had a flat tire. So here we are caching and changing a flat tire all at the same time! Are we having fun yet……you betcha! It practically took an engineer to figure out how to lower the spare tire from under the Xterra. The lug nuts were over-tightened to the max. It was a good thing that Don could jump up and down on the wrench without breaking it off. Damn, this is fun! We were going to do one more cache (by Tombstone Rock), but there was a large group of scouts camping nearby the cache so we decided we’d better not try and get that one…….little did we know that we would pass this way again! Time to head back to Moab, call the professor and figure out where we’ll be heading in the morning! We keep thinking The Team will send us up on “Poison Spider Mesa” maybe tomorrow will be the day!
#16 July 23, 2004 Lynn, Sue, Georgia, Don & a toad……and our adventure continues!
9:30 A.M. it is a cool 80 degrees and we’re headed out of Moab. Today, we are headed off in a different direction for a change-going east along the Colorado River, up past the Dewey Bridge to “Top of the World”. We’ve wondered when The Team would send us in this direction! We had a couple of mishaps along the way – a potato chip bag exploded, chips flying everywhere and Don’s bladder leaked all of its water……his camel’s bladder that is! Man is this road rough, Us “girls” jiggled all the way….this would have been the day for the sports bra! Elbows were flying, our heads were smacking into the windows, the toad in the middle was getting smashed from both sides! We must have been having a good time though, cause I remember thinking…..I’m gonna pee my pants if I don’t quit laughing so hard! There were several places where we all bailed out to try and give Lynn directions up the more difficult spots, but he’d usually decide to go ahead and do his own thing which we were all generally amused by. As we got to the top, we could see large spots of oil on the so-called road sure glad there not from us, this would be one hell of a place to put a hole in the oil pan! By noon, we had reached the top. There are no words to describe the views that surround you here…..everywhere you look it was totally awesome, the most spectacular views we’ve seen so far! It’s a shame that Craig had to miss out on this location! It really did make you feel on “Top of the World” and it was much cooler up there. We think “The Team” is being nice today! Ha! Ha!
In order to reach the area where the cache was located, we had to walk-leap over a large three foot crack in the rock. Someone said they thought the crack was at least 100 feet deep! Pretty scary stuff…..some day that ledge will give way…..hopefully not today. Georgia, Don and the other toad (she prefers to remain nameless) were the first on location and within minutes had found the cannister. Now this is the way to start the day’s adventure! We read the clue…..hummm, this doesn’t sound good! It states that we will be cursing the team on #17. Well, we have news for “The Team”…….we curse you several times a day on a regular basis! :o) We took the picture of the note, copied the information and then Georgia sat down and called the professor so he could begin working the calculations for #17, there up on “Top of the World” we had perfect cell coverage. Since it was so nice and cool up here we thought that this would be a great place for lunch. Just before sitting down to eat our lunch we saw a very ominous looking brown spider, it was huge. None of us knew what kind it was, it left us as quickly as it came! Don knew of a cache called appropriately, Top of the World so after we ate Don walked over and retrieved the cache. The container was in sad shape, so Georgia replaced it with a tuperware container she had the grapes in. Don cut the caching logo from the top of the old container, and placed it in the new one. Someone else had an ‘Office Max’ bag so we put the cache in the bag and re hid it. The first thing we find ourselves doing whenever we find a cache around here is to first check the log book to see if Bob Rich has been here! And usually he’s already signed the log book, but he’s usually signed it back in March or April, looks like he’s getting a double look at a lot of these locations!
Now we’ve been to the end (#15-called “The Very End”)……and we’ve been to the top (#16-“Top Of The World”) – Now we’re being sent to the bottom (#17-“Mineral Bottoms”)……will this ever end? We seem to be going around in circles…..we’re sure The Team is very pleased with themselves!! :o) It was now 1:15 P.M. 89 degrees, and time to leave this absolutely beautiful location.
The quote for the day was: “We aren’t couch potatoes……We’re now-mashed potatoes”
#17 July 23, 2004 Same day….next location….Lynn, Sue, Georgia, Don & a toad….the adventure continues!
Georgia had invited some friends of hers to join in the hunt they had their own Jeep and were hoping to be there for our final find cheering us on! We stopped in Moab before heading out to #17 to see if they had arrived yet and we needed to gas up again! Tried Sharon’s cell phone but no answer. Georgia tried calling Craig to see if he had heard from them…he had and he gave them the coordinates of the first turn off to #17 we were to met them there, somewhere north of Moab. It’s nice knowing that there is usually someone that knows about where we are at all times!! After we met up with the Glanville’s we drove out to where we would make our desent into Mineral Bottoms Canyon. This road is looking pretty scary……lot’s of very steep switch backs! I decided to jump into the Glanville’s jeep so I could visit with them and bring them up to date on our adventure! Talking seemed to keep my mind off of the sheer drop off just outside my window! Every once in awhile, I’ll have to admit….I closed my eyes and prayed! Once down to the bottom we were able to drive pretty close. After a short hike we arrived at the location. Lynn was first on location and moved a rock out of the way, but neglected to look at what was behind the rock……he has a slipped disc, you know. The others arrived and the cannister was easily found! Hummm…..thinking back to the note, hadn’t it said “we would curse The Team, but like this one? All I can think of was it had to due with the scary road, cause this one was a piece of cake!! On the way up out of the canyon, we saw two more cars that had gone off of the cliff. It looked as though both had failed to negotiate a switchback-this road would be a nightmare in a rain storm. Going back up the switchbacks seemed less scary than the going down!! Sure glad we got out of there before dark.
Back on top heading back on the dirt road towards Moab, a little red Tacoma passes by…..Hey wait a minute, that’s Craig! He left Salt Lake after work and was now rejoining the team for hopefully our final weekend! Now there were eight of us. Should be easy; bet it won’t be. That Xtreme GPS Team has twisted minds! As we were driving back to the highway, we notice two horses standing in the middle of the road. We wondered if they were wild horses, we inched closer, and they just stood there looking very mean, Lynn wondered if horses ever charge. We honked, and we waited. We rolled down the window and Don yelled, and waited some more. These were some very stubborn horses, no way were they going to move. We ended up taking a slight detour to get around the horses, as did the two other vehicles in our party. One last look out over the valley and we were rewarded with a another very beautiful sunset…..life is good!
#18 July 24, 2004 Lizard Toads + Dean, Sharon & Andrew
>Happy 24th of July (for you Canadians, this is a HUGE holiday in Utah)! Finally the whole team was together, and three guests. It was 7:15, 69 degrees, and a beautiful morning. By 8:40, we were hiking in (at least two miles to avoid canyons and other obstacles), and Craig spotted the remnant of something. It was yellow plastic and had USA printed on it. Perhaps it was a weather balloon that crashed in the desert? Some of us arrived at the site and began searching. The view down into Mineral Canyon was awesome and it was fun to look down and see where we had gone yesterday to find that cannister. Last night as we were driving out of the canyon we got within less than half a mile of this cache but most of us suspected it was on top of the cliff and that turned out to be true. So close, but yet so far away. Craig turned on his metal detector and found this cache within minutes. We took some photos of the note and wrote down what it said and then re-buried it before most of the others arrived at the site. Craig then handed his metal detector to young Andrew to see if he could find the cannister. With a little prodding to keep him going in the right area he was able to find it also. By 10:25 we were back to the car.
At 11:15, it was 93 degrees and we were leaving to go on to #19 which is another cliff top cache further north across from the bow knot bend. The Team’s note said this next one is a cannister “hidden in a rock ledge” so we shouldn’t need the metal detector…..
#19 – July 24, 2004 The Lizard Toads & The Glanvilles
A little after noon, we were back on the road again, rough, as usual. By 1:00 P.M., it was 95, and we were parking. This time we were on top of the cliff overlooking the eastern loop of the Bow Knot Bend. Lynn and I had been down driving along the side of the river below just a couple of days ago looking for a buried cannister. Seems like ages ago! We ran out of passable road a quarter of a mile away from the search site so we walked in hoping for a quick find in a rock ledge. The heat was oppresive out here to say the least. Our gps’s led us right to a spot that looked like the perfect place to hide an object in a rock ledge. We were still hopeful for a quick find since there were eight sets of eyes looking. The anticipation was building as we were certain someone would yell out “I’ve got it!” at any moment. A half hour turned into an hour and still the cannister eludes us. What is going on? Did the professor figure the calculation wrong again? Some of us are getting very hungry and we are all wondering who is going to be the one to say it’s time to give up. Andrew had spotted a cave of sorts up above that seemed downright cool inside compared to the oven out here so some of us climbed up to cool off while others braved the walk back to the truck to bring some lunch. As we ate, the professor decided to go back to the truck a “third” time to “triple” check his calculations. When he came back he brought his metal detector with him and said “Well, for lack of a better idea I thought I would check to see if the team screwed up with their instructions and buried it instead of hiding it in a rock ledge”. Georgia said “Before you do that, why don’t you re-enter the coordinates in the NAD 27 map datum to see if they got that mixed up again.” So he did that and headed off to the opposite side of the rock hill from where we had been searching. He called on the radio and said, “I would need to walk another 400 feet off this cliff so unless it is actually down at the bottom of this next canyon, I don’t think this is the answer to our dilemma.” So he picks up the metal detector and walks over to ground zero and with in 10 seconds he is getting a good solid beep. Dean is laying right near there looking under a rock ledge and he sits up and digs his hands down into the sand. Nothing. The professor checks again and it looks like a couple of inches to the left. Dean scoops his hands in again and pulls out a little white pill bottle. Hallelujah!! There was much rejoicing in the land! Never have we been so happy to see a little white plastic bottle! We took photos and copied the note and then hiked back to the trucks. The professor quickly figured out that our next destination was to be the overlook for the confluence of the Green and Colorado. As we were driving away I noticed on the map that this location is called Dead Man’s Point. What an appropriate name!
The quote of the day:
Happiness is a four wheel drive and a full tank of gas!
Yes we will certainly need a good four wheel drive and that full tank of gas for our next destination. The professor missed out on that last trip down elephant hill so he was elated when the rest of the team wanted him to drive the rented Rubicon. We were hoping that since this was objective 20 that it would be the last one. We know we will experience sadness and empyness when this competition is finished but it will also be a relief to know that we don’t need to spend another weekend driving way down here. Our team is up and ready to drive out of Moab at 5:20 am. What a beautiful way to watch the sun come up as we head south down the highway and enter Canyonlands. We arrive early enough that there is no one at the park entrance so we head right on in. We wouldn’t have had to pay anyway because we have enough senior citizens with their passes to get in. We passed through the campgrounds to the turnoff to Elephant Hill. Wow! It gets ugly real quick on this road but the Rubicon was up to the challenge! Dean with his experience went first in his customized Jeep and guided the professor up the least rugged parts. Cudos to the park crews for filling in the worst of those spots with asphalt and concrete to keep it somewhat drivable. The Desert Rat sitting next to the professor was in charge of the front and rear lockers and also took care of shifting the automatic transmission down into low one when needed. We followed around the one way loop and arrived at the turnoff to the confluence overlook. Having been burned at the last objective we decided to carry the metal detector along the half mile hike even though the last note said this cannister is hidden in a rock ledge. Since we were inside a National Park we wrapped a blanket around the metal detector to keep it out of sight of the park rangers. At the overlook we followed the gps pointer to the next vantage point to the south and then the professor scrambled up to the top of the rock ledge and immediately announced on the radio that he had found it. Excellent, now what does the note say? Is this the last one? It is a bit of a let down when he says no, it gives us another direction and distance to another cannister. Back up north again. This game is getting to feel like a game of ping pong. The note also gives a direction to the destination after the next destination but not a mileage. It says we need to keep the direction because the next cannister gives a mileage but not a direction. We hiked back to the trucks and ate lunch while our trusty professor again figured out where our next destination is. Looks like it is back up near the Captain Kidd’s Tombstone cache. We completed the Elephant Hill loop and made the long drive back to Moab.
Along the way the decision was made that Lynn and Don would wash and return the Jeep while the Professor and Georgia headed out to the next destination to start searching for the next cannister. It was getting late in the day and Dean and Sharon had decided that they needed to head back to Salt Lake with Andrew so we said our goodbyes. Craig and Georgia hustled back north out of Moab and followed the dirt road towards the big Tombstone butte. They made a brief attempt to drive straight to the cache site but they had seen a road on the topo maps that went from the west side of the tombstone and followed along the north side of the butte so off they went. When they got within a quarter of a mile of the site the road turned away to the north so they parked and head out cross country. The gps was pointing straight at the butte and they got worried that maybe the cache would be up on top. But the team had said no climbing equipment was needed. Up the sandy debris slope they went right up next to the sheer cliff wall. Craig went up one side, Georgia the other. Georgia kept asking Craig if he saw any “fresh” footprints on his side…..none over here, guess Bob hasn’t made it this far…..yet anyway. There were some very definate footprints on Georgia’s side and as she followed them to the top she felt certain she was following in the footsteps of “The Team” as these footprints had to be several months old, and who else in their right mind would hike this steep slope?? The gps zeroed out on a narrow flat place between the sheer wall and the steep slope. Craig turned on the metal detector and swept the area and found nothing. Georgia said “Here, let me try that.” She swept the same area and as she went behind a large rock she got a good solid beep. Then she zeroed in on the signal and Craig dug down a couple of scoops and pulled out a white pill bottle. Georgia pulled out the note and was reading it as Craig skimmed ahead and saw that it said our next destination was to “find a sign”. Hey! Hey! Hey! That means that our mission has been accomplished! A short drive to take a picture of a sign and then we are done! Craig was taking pictures of Georgia holding the note and then he stops suddenly and says “How many miles did you say?”. She replied “663”. Is this sign up on Vancouver Island? Holy cow, we have a long drive ahead of us! They walked back to their truck and they arrived just as Don drives up with Lynn and Sue. Craig didn’t want to tell them what the note said and wanted to make them go back up and find the cannister for themselves but they wouldn’t have any of that. When we told them YES……this was the final note but……..the sign is 663 miles NORTH……well you can imagine what their reaction was…… Now we all just wanted to hightail it out of there and to meet up at Ray’s in Green River for burgers beer. Don had to swing back to Moab to get Lynn and Sue back to their Xterra while Craig and Georgia went on ahead to Green River. While we were waiting Craig used his gps to estimate the location of the sign and it turned out to be somewhere in Oregon rather than in Canada. He couldn’t pinpoint it exactly because he didn’t have detailed maps downloaded in the laptop for Oregon.
When the others arrived at Ray’s we told them the sign was in Oregon, couldn’t be sure exactly where though. We ordered our burgers and discussed what we needed to do. We figured once we got home and could download some detailed maps of the Oregon area we could make a decision on how to get to the sign. The drive home that night was exhausting, it was close to midnight when we pulled in…thank goodness we don’t have to drive back to Moab again! The next day we researched the situation and realized the sign was indeed 663 miles away at a place called Bull Prairie Lake. With our detective skills honed in after 6 weeks of doing this challenge we came up with a plan……and came up with the answer…..1962.
Quote for today:
Equipment Rentals….Jeeps, ATV’s, …..several $100
Hotels, Gas, Food….$(we don’t even want to think about it)
<strong>Completing Operation Desert Command……..Priceless!</strong>
Lynn, Sue, Craig, Georgia and Don
