The first stage was a quick but interesting hike. We made it back to our transport just in time before the rain really started coming down. After working on the answers for a while, we decided to take shelter in a nearby village. There was no room in the local pub, so we settled for some benches in the town square. MotorBug endangered the mission by informing strangers of our quest, but the stranger did not appear to be a spy of Sauron. After picking up another nearby cache, we had coordinates to hit the marshes.
Stage two was near our home, so we helped direct the group to the cache. We had an easy but long hike to the cache and took the loop back. The stench of Orcs was in the air we saw evidence of their slaughters on the trail. Heading back SilverDollar obsessively worked on the challenge presented to us and by the end, she had solved it. mmp provided some of the other answers and we had the final coordinates. We headed home quickly to pick up a map, clothing and first aid for our fellow cachers. When we reunited with the group, a few of our travelers were fatigued and vowed to continue the quest another day. We bade them a good journey started the long trek to the hills.
The travel to the third stage was frought with peril including mmp's near collision of his mighty mustang with another steel horse. The winding trail finally brought us to meet up with the continuing members of the fellowship. The hike to the cache was easy, but we feared the trip back. We only realized too late that it would be advantagous to park our horses at both entry points. The young Nate found the cache quickly while MotorBug fought through the thicket. We took many memories from this cache and left a lot of calories and sweat, but nothing else.
We appreciated the companionship of the fellowship, especially on the puzzles where our meager knowledge of the subject was of little help.
Thank you mbrill for the classic cache. It was definitely both more mentally and physically challenging than the first one. We look forward to the final installment and maybe even the prequel!
Posted by jeff at December 7, 2003 02:30 PM