18,000 Finds at The Ghost Orchid

For our first 17 caches at 1,000 find milestones we were in Pennsylvania with the dogs hunting a terrain 3 or higher cache.  We've always planned to make those milestones with the dogs as they are a big part of our outdoor lives.  We were in great shape to continue that tradition for 18,000 until I got deathly sick on vacation in October.  October became one of our lightest months ever for geocaching.  It also meant we were going to find a milestone in Florida without the dogs.  Choosing a cache wasn't a question.  We both knew it would be The Ghost Orchid in Fakahatchee Swamp.  It is now a thirteen year old cache.  It has been found 113 times in thirteen years.  Most of the visits have been group outings with prior visitors acting as tour guides.

Fakahatchee is an amazing place.  Our first visit was in 2017.  We found a few caches, but the wildlife viewing was the hook that captured us.

Old tramways from citrus days serve as trails.

Sometimes

Some citrus trees still hang on and bear fruit.

2017 had us hooked.  We returned to Fakahatchee in 2018.  Our first venture was to find Share the Music Cache.  It was also our first experience at getting wet in the swamp.

Despite some blood and spotting a cottonmouth on the way out we were hooked.  We came back the next day to tackle The Ghost Orchid.  We were cocky.  We can do this.

It was wet from the moment we left the tramway and knee-deep and raining.  We looked a long time without finding stage one.  The birds were laughing at us.

The vultures were waiting.

We retreated back to the tramway and set our sites for 2019.  This was supposed to be the easy stage.

We were ready in 2019.  We had a dry bag and a dry box.  We planned more.  We headed into the swamp and found a warm up cache at an old camp on the way to the parking area.

Even the really large gator with really sharp teeth could deter us.

Moving was tough and wet, but we spotted stage one!

Ali spotted this turtle.  It's odd to think we will most likely be the only people this turtle ever sees.

Fakahatchee was peaceful and awesome.

We spent over four hours in the swamp on this journey and did not reach the final.  The area closes at sunset.  Even if staying after dark were possible, I have no desire to meet a panther after dark.  We left with one dead gps as a sacrifice to Fakahatchee.  We would be waiting another year.

We were back for another visit in February. We were already aware of the growing risk of COVID-19.  Fakahatchee seemed like a good place to be on our own.  With a few birds.

There's no real getting used to being in the swamp.  Once you step off a tramway, you are there in the water.

Once you are in, you pretty much stay in.  If the water is below your knees, it is low.  The image below is easy walking with a long stretch of open low water, and few downed tree parts to crawl over.  The worst risk is finding tree trunks and limbs to trip over.

Cypress Knees

The deep portions of the water came up to my chin.  Ali had picked a shallower path in the crossing, but the water was still quite deep.  It was enough to feel the bouyancy of the water and a little float while crossing.

We fared better on our journey than this alligator did.  It was near the final, but wasn't the skull by the cache.

Spoiler Alert. 😉

Ali with Find #18,000!

It's not a journey for everyone.  It was a wonderful adventure for us.  We spent over four hours on this last journey to the final.  We spent almost ten hours making the journey together.  We could have joined the tour to the cache, but were happy to work through the stages as a team.  It was a special milestone.  I hope we are able to revisit Fakahatchee Swamp for other adventures as we look for more of the hides in this amazing place.

Well Hidden Bison

I have no idea how Ali was able to spot this super hide in the woods.

This super hide had been seventeen months since its previous find.  A few freshly dropped leaves would make this nearly impossible to find.

Project GC Lonely Cache Script

Lonely cache challenges have not been a part of geocaching since the Challenge Guidelines were reworked.  There are a host of problems related to the concept of lonely caches as a challenge including encouraging throw-down hides, multiple finders in one day, on-line found logs by cachers who didn't find the cache...

Despite the restrictions for using this as a concept for a challenge, Project-GC now has a lonely cache checker for caches found one year or longer since the prior find.  Hunting lonely caches is one of the side games we play within Geocaching so we are happy to now have a tool to see how many lonely caches we have found.  

The script output...

The script says 76 since it hasn't updated for our visit to the Ghost Orchid multi in Fakahatchee Swamp.  It also shows no lonely cache finds before 2011 which makes me wonder if it is accurate since we started caching in 2004 when there were fewer cachers.

It's still fun to see the stats.  I'm not surprised we have a lonely cache find in Mexico, but I forgot the two in Canada.  The stats were fun.  With lonely finds in ten states I'm inspired to hunt for lonely caches in more states.

Our two longest lonely caches came from an afternoon visit to the LBJ Grasslands in Texas.

Our Mexico lonely cache was part of a mountain climb.

The oldest on this list came from a visit to beautiful Fillmore Glen in New York.

Our most recent lonely cache find a few days ago...

I think there is a flaw in the checker's ability to find older caches, but it is a lot of fun to look back.

I Miss Lonely Cache Challenges

We really enjoy finding caches which have been sitting unfound for six months or more. In the current urban micro and power trail game geocaching has become, caches in the woods can sit for months without finders. Lonely cache challenges encouraging cachers to leave the norm and find lightly found caches are one of the challenge cache types that died when the new, stringent challenge rules were released.

Tupperware lonely for 23 months in southwest Ohio.

So head off into the woods; walk a trail; and let one of these lonely caches know it is still valued. You never know what other experiences you might find while you are there.

Two Years Lonely!

SGL #208: Cache at Night! was published in September 2012. It was found thirteen times up to August 23rd of 2013. Then it went cold. Today we hiked Darling Run and Turkey Path in Pine Creek Gorge. We were hoping for a few cache finds after leaving the gorge so we headed for nearby State Game Lands #208. We found our first cache after a quick trail walk. We made the wrong approach to the second cache and saved it for later. Next came the lonely night cache.

We couldn't spot the first tack at the start but working off the cache page information we walked off 200 feet increments hoping to spot a fire tack. We soon located one. It was the reddish brown type with very little reflection.

We walked for a long distance (well past the actual hide) and missed seeing anymore of the elusive tacks. I walked back to the waypoint for the first tack and switched flashlights. The first tack was a little brighter. I started walking and suddenly there they were. We soon walked the distance to the endpoint and began working through the directions and markings to find the final. It was many minutes later when Ali said she had found it. Success! Happiness! Celebration! This lonely cache was found. We signed the log, added an unactivated Volunteer tag for the next finder and were ready to head back to Wellsboro and dinner.

Two years is much too long for an ammo can cache to be alone and unfound in the woods.

The image doesn't do justice to the red glow at sunset ending the day. This nice hide will get a favorite from us when we log it.