GC4FN7T
A long drive from Exeter this morning to basically grab this one that has been haunting my 5/5 map for a while. Arrived at GZ just as the sun was coming up, and spent a bit of time checking I had the correct tree. Not only had the fallen limbs all been cleared away and some of the lower limbs removed/tidied up so that it did not look exactly like the gallery images, but the hint suggested considerable height and, call me an old tree-hugger, but this one just didn't have the height I was expecting.
More on that later.
Anyway, having decided this was definitely the one, I slung a line up high with my patented two-weight throwline strategy for isolating a limb, and quickly climbed as high as was sensible - figuring it would likely be easier to spot from above. "Sensible" on this occasion, meaning 2.5" diameter limbs.
Not to be though. I was all over the place, clawing my way up all of the likely limbs from my high pivot, until eventually I gave up and sent a message to CO. It was dawn, so I wasn't realistically expecting a prompt response, if any, but the inevitable happened that as soon as I'd sent the message I found the cache... up higher. Much higher. A-ha! Today I learned that "high" has two distinct meanings - a) far above the ground, and b) at the very fingertippy far-reaches of the slenderest, weakest, and most terrifying of limbs! And while I undid it with one hand, I needed to prop myself against some ridiculously flimsy bits of tree to enable a bimanual replacement...
Nuts.
As well as being a nice climb, this find was memorable for the lesser spotted woodpecker drilling on one of the floodlights next door. Great! (And stupid)...
CO, incidentally very kindly phoned and texted shortly afterwards, though by that time I was in Gosport hunting another 5/5.
Thanks for a great cache. Deserves the rating in my opinion. Wouldn't fancy it with leaves on.
A long drive from Exeter this morning to basically grab this one that has been haunting my 5/5 map for a while. Arrived at GZ just as the sun was coming up, and spent a bit of time checking I had the correct tree. Not only had the fallen limbs all been cleared away and some of the lower limbs removed/tidied up so that it did not look exactly like the gallery images, but the hint suggested considerable height and, call me an old tree-hugger, but this one just didn't have the height I was expecting.
More on that later.
Anyway, having decided this was definitely the one, I slung a line up high with my patented two-weight throwline strategy for isolating a limb, and quickly climbed as high as was sensible - figuring it would likely be easier to spot from above. "Sensible" on this occasion, meaning 2.5" diameter limbs.
Not to be though. I was all over the place, clawing my way up all of the likely limbs from my high pivot, until eventually I gave up and sent a message to CO. It was dawn, so I wasn't realistically expecting a prompt response, if any, but the inevitable happened that as soon as I'd sent the message I found the cache... up higher. Much higher. A-ha! Today I learned that "high" has two distinct meanings - a) far above the ground, and b) at the very fingertippy far-reaches of the slenderest, weakest, and most terrifying of limbs! And while I undid it with one hand, I needed to prop myself against some ridiculously flimsy bits of tree to enable a bimanual replacement...
Nuts.
As well as being a nice climb, this find was memorable for the lesser spotted woodpecker drilling on one of the floodlights next door. Great! (And stupid)...
CO, incidentally very kindly phoned and texted shortly afterwards, though by that time I was in Gosport hunting another 5/5.
Thanks for a great cache. Deserves the rating in my opinion. Wouldn't fancy it with leaves on.