Hotspur.us

It was a beautiful Fall day. The sun was out, the wind was blowing whipping through the trees and Deckers Creek was running way too high for anyone to even think about completing A True W.V.  Geocacher #2. Which meant yours truly was in charge of a back up plan.

Since I had failed to tackle Cannon Hill back in the Spring (it wasn’t my fault, Aquacache had pretty much tried to die before we made much headway) I figured this would be as good an opportunity as any to head back.  And so wvhunter, wvcoalcat, Gentleman-Carpenter, loyal sidekick Little Wooden Boy and I headed to the fine village of Rowlesburg for a nice little hike.

It turned out to be a nice little stroll to the top if you actually follow the (gated) road and don’t try to cheater it by foolishly following an ATV trail to nowhere.

The wind was pretty wicked, but we were not to be daunted. Also, we were working up a little bit of a sweat so a little bit of a breeze felt good – so long as we held on to our hats and kept all our stuff tethered.

We found the cache handily, took in the historic marker and then marched off the crest of the hill (and out of the incredible wind) to take in the view of Rowlesburg.  (For more info on the Battle for Cannon hill clickity HERE.)

From our hilltop perch Rowlesburg looked remarkably like model train town. All neatly ordered, with lawns trimmed and flags flying. It was pretty cool and a fine reward to our day’s labor.

Before heading back down we stopped for a quick group photo (before the wind tried to blow the tripod over) and then headed back down, down, down.

And now…on to the pumpkin pie blizzard.

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I’m putting this in writing for two reasons:

1. Without both textual and visual evidence I suspect many people would doubt this happened.

2. When things come back to bite me in the arse this coming Saturday, I can refer to this post and say, “I put more thought and preparation into this debacle than most things I undertake.”

So I love Halloween. Love it.  It’s spooky. It’s creepy. It’s a legitimate reason to dress up in outlandish costumes. And best of all, it does not involve me running all over trying to find the prefect present for what seems to be 300 people.  Usually we end up going to a Halloween party where one of us has to be the designated driver. So this year I thought…hey why don’t we do something different and terribly scary – NIGHT CACHE!

Actually let me clarify that - SIX night caches. In the woods.

In order to undertake The Magic of Mountwood (Nocturnal) #1 (GC2QNZJ) – #6 (yeah I have no idea what GC# the rest are and I’m too lazy to look them up.) I did some preliminary work – at least that’s what I like to call it. Mostly it was me grilling Allysmom24 and wvmikiepar about their trip to tackle the series. I elicited some very useful information.

1. Ignore the bizarre coords. All you need is the trailhead for cache #1.

2. The trail is not a loop.

3. You’ll want to park one car at the start and one at the end (they pointed out the end).

4. There’s a place called “Bailout” on the trail(s) that is mid-way. Just in case.

5. There are a lot of switchbacks that could be cut out, if you knew where the trail was.

Armed with this info, Chad and I headed out to Mountwood Park to walk MAP the trails, locate the six red beacons and see how long of a hike we were in for. Also, we were really hoping that knowing what the area looked like during daylight would come in handy later.

Two-and-a-half hours later we emerged from the trail pretty happy with ourselves.

Proof is in the pudding:

It’s Fall. And that means more than just pretty leaves and rain. Yep, it means that quite a few of the forest roads in the Mon National Forest that are typically gated most of the year are open. And since quite a few of us MAGPI have Jeeps…well you do the math.

After cramming (and boy do I mean cramming) Gentleman-Carpenter & Rock_Rat into the back seat of the Jeep (did I mention my hi-lift jack is still on the floor?) we set out to meet up with 3_Dogs and Russ of ruannwv in Parsons.

Our first target was Coalcat Knob (which sidekick and I had tackled, along with Aquacache, the old fashioned way – by hiking it.  We may or may not have been quite useless in helping determine the best way at one of the many trail splits. After all, if one is inclined to hike the cache, one comes in from a different approach.

The remaining bit of hike was pretty much uneventful. No critters, no scares, no scarring experience. And an intact (and clean) cache container awaited us – of  the ammo can variety.

Missing Part One accomplished we headed back to the Jeeps, crammed back into the Little Black Jeep (I mashed myself into the back this time) and headed off to rendezvous with CL Combat & Aquacache who were (somewhat) patiently waiting for us at Sheetz.

Thus assembled we headed out to Cheat View South.  (Getting a find on this cache would bring me to within TWO caches of completing all the wvcoalcat caches.  So I was seriously hoping that this cache was 1. Findable 2. had the paper log in it.

We didn’t quite get as close as we thought we would. Oh sure I love to hike, but come on,  I have a Jeep and today I was all about cheating the hike.  Someone in this group is  gonna have to learn how to pick a lock.

Shockingly this hike was also uneventful. I know, I know. Two ‘coalcat caches and nothing really in the way of serious bad decisions. What’s up with that?

And as the sun started to go down we headed back to the Jeeps.

Having successfully completed our targets, we headed back to Parsons for delicious dinner. After cramming ourselves with delicious dinner we then crammed ourselves back into the Jeep.

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Shows at 123 Pleasant Street do not start on time. Personal experience has proven this over and over again (with one tragic exception….oh Cracker how I cried).

And yes, despite my snarky reminders to that end, Chad insisted we head down to 123 just prior to 10 p.m. to make sure we didn’t miss The Felice Brothers (2 bands on the schedule, they were on last).

He figured that since the show was billed as starting at 8:30 p.m. we should arrive about the time The Felice Brothers were setting up.

We were early. Very, very early. As in the first band was just doing sound check early. 

Still, it was a good show and while I could have snuck a nap in had we left the house later, I think I held up pretty well. I hit a wall at the 1 a.m. mark. That wall may or may not have been real and not metaphorical.

And for a brief moment, in the hazy, smokey fold of the former Nyabinghi Dance Hall, surrounded by flannel and chuck taylors while perched on a shelf I could have sworn it was 1993.