You Stink!

This is the log I submitted for the YOU STINK! cache, which I found 12 July 2003 @ 10:58 AM.

This one has sat on my Watch List for over a year. I have come up this way on several occasions, but I never seem to go for this one. Today was to be the day. I cannot realistically relate to you my experience today. Understand that for each word you read here, there was a fly killed. Yes, for each word.

Cattus Island Park is not what I expected. It was far more beautiful than the area I had envisioned for a cache named You Stink!. (Running count on the number of flies killed thus far . . .98 ).

I got out of the car to check things out. I was immediately covered with flies. It’s going to be one of those days, I thought. I loaded up the Deet, but knew the flies would be killer. Little did I know.

I went in and saw a blue heron and an Eastern goldfinch as soon as I hit the trail. It wasn’t long before I turned onto the path for stage one. I did a mini Maggy loop and began approaching the cache from the far side when I heard something. I stopped and tried to be motionless. No dice. I was spotted. The guy I saw sure looked like a cacher and I couldn’t figure out who else would be here otherwise. He said he was swatting flies. I knew that feeling. He left and I looped around to a different approach. I found the pole and “scaled” it. I spotted what were to be the coordinates. I got down low. And then lower. (# of flies killed=272). I made out the first four digits of the north coordinate and the first three of the west. I thought I knew the fourth one, but it seemed like it could be one of three different numbers. I tried my damndest to read these. I took photographs to e-mail you, Tom. I was convinced this log would be Archive This Cache log, but read on . . .

I headed out to find the Cattus Island cache. After I found that, I put together a couple things I remembered reading about this cache. I thought those conditions were met out this way so I followed that trail, both ways, through the reeds. I ended up on a beach one way. Swat swat swat. I ended up somewhere else swatting flies in the other direction. I kept telling myself it was silly to push on with all these bugs. You don’t have any coordinates, fool!

# of flies killed so far=433

It was back I went . . . dejected. I decided it was still early enough that I could go to another area and get some caches for the day. Back by the blue heron . . . back to the information center. There I got a drink, some maps, and looked at the exhibit. The map! My goodness, I do not know my colors. Hmmm . . . the trail I needed was not the one I was on. Hmmmm . . .

Out I went. I said hello to the blue heron again. I made my way to the area where I should have found the colored trail I was looking for. I didn’t see it. I kept on a different color trail. Lo and behold, swat swat swat, I saw two trees with the color I wanted. Swat swat swat. It was even worse than the constant swatting I had been doing. Then it was back to the other color trail. What the heck happened to my color? I began looping back and decided to call it a day . . . again. This was ridiculous . . . I had no coordinates.

# of flies killed so far=635

It was really bad. I inhaled two flies that I was spitting out. I picked up the pace. Then I began running. Then I noticed something from the hint. Heck, I had that decrypted early for this one. I bolted the way the hint told me to. All of a sudden, I was crossing things. Straight ahead was a likely place. This was going to work out after all!

I got to the place and began searching. I got cut up some doing so. Around and around I went. After a while, again I was ready to pack it in. Why am I wasting my caching time way out here? I have no coordinates! So, it was back across . . .

Then I noticed another place like the first place, but only smaller. If I had been on the wrong color trail when I exited to the “path” to the new area, then maybe that other place is the one. With a leap, I landed, fell forward, banged my knee, and got wet. :( But it was more leaping and jumping. I was real happy I had my sneakers on for this cache. My boots would not be dried for tomorrow’s adventures.

I got to that other area and looked around. Nothing there either. I was frustrated. I knew I had done right to come this way. But wait! There was another place a little further away.

# of flies killed so far=878

Off I went for more leaping. I got to that area and noticed that I had a waypoint on my screen. Way back at stage one I had begun inputting the numbers I couldn’t read. When I began walking away from the area, I zeroed out the numbers I didn’t know. I walked toward that waypoint. $%&* there it was! Unbelievable!

Picture a child on Christmas morning. She just opened her “big” present. It is exactly what she wanted. She jumps up and down clapping her hands hollering all the while. If someone had witnessed my joy of finding this cache, it would have been that scene.

I logged my find, took my pictures, and headed back. The spill I took that got me drenched, the going the wrong way on the wrong trail (I never really did find the trail I was supposed to take to this cache), and the thousandth fly I killed of the day all seemed less bothersome.

Success lifts the spirit.

TNLN

Thanks for the outing. This tested me,

Bob.

Swat swat swat Total # of flies killed=1061

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