Darkness Falls, Cache On

"Okay, we know it's up there. How the hell do we get it down?"

Back in February of this year, I spent several nights out on the Greensboro watershed trails restoring Darth Sketcher's ingenious but aging and decrepit night cache, "Darkness Falls" (GC14WGB; see "Restoring 'Darkness Falls'" and "Darkness Falls Restored"), and last night, a group of brave geocachers went out to see if they might conquer it. They invited me to accompany them — in case they became lost in hyperspace — and I gladly accepted, figuring I could throw a monkey wrench into all their best-laid plans. So, as the sun began to set, I met a passel of creeple people bearing the aliases Cantergirl, Jamestown Pastor Jay, Jesusfreaks33, Charlie Alpha Lima, Kenzielaken1102, and 3Newsomes, at the Bald Eagle trailhead at Lake Higgins and set out for the first target. There are five stages spread over five trails, extending all the way from northwest to northeast Greensboro, the first stage being relatively easy, the others varying in difficulty but all presenting unique challenges. I vowed to offer only moral support, no significant hints (unless the group started to head for the wrong trail, which looked to be in the offing until the old man did step forward to set them straight). I was quite curious to see how a group would fare on the stages, especially because this is the first bunch to hunt it since I completed the restoration work.

Happily, the team made it all the way to the final stage and conquered the last challenge: putting together the information gathered at each stage so they could access that all-important logbook. Although there was some fierce wildlife out there, such as radioactively mutated millipedes, giant frogs, and something that might have been a Sasquatch, everyone survived the venture, completing all five stages in just about three hours.

I will say, if I had not been there, they might have discovered Berwyn, and from there, no one ever returns.

Most interestingly, as we were making our final egress from the woods, at the Townsend Trail, we came upon a most curious arrangement of reflectors tacks, which spelled "CACHE ON" on a tree near the trail head. I'm told it's probably a remnant of an older night cache, no longer extant, set up by the Pirates of the Carolinas. I'd love to see them do another one, as I quite like the reflector artist's style.

These rather larger crawlies were all over the trail.

Jesusfreaks33, Kenzielaken1102, and Cantergirl sorting out the vital info from one of the stages

Cantergirl puts her signature on the logbook at the final stage

Victorious, they are. L to R: Jesusfreaks33, 3Newsomes, Kenzielaken1102, Charlie Alpha Lima,
Cantergirl, Jamestown Pastor Jay

Cache on.