Standhill Woods

Hoping for a break in the lousy weather we met up with Patrick and Donna on Saturday afternoon (26/02/2011) just North of Barnsley for a series called Standhill Woods. This is another series on reclaimed mining land that runs alongside a river and some mature woodland.

It had rained on and off all week so we knew the going would be tough but we really needed to get out and as this was only a small series then it would be just the ticket to start again.

We parked as suggested on the outskirts of Mapplewell (which I'd never heard of, sorry) and set off down the road before turning into a field. The first cache was almost immediately upon us but we had to hang around trying to look innocent whilst a loitering metal-detectorist was hanging around looking guilty. He probably had the exact same thought process but in reverse. Once clear Hannah quickly found the cache, we signed it and moved on.

This is when we hit the first problem.

Patrick, Hannah and I were all using our own GPS devices. My GPS had the 'pocket query' (a file containing all the cache information) loaded onto it that I had created on Friday afternoon. Patrick had created his on the Thursday but he, unlike me, also includes disabled caches. Hannah had created hers that same Saturday morning and merged it into her existing file of 'local to home' caches.

It turns out that the second cache had been disabled a couple of weeks before and then replaced and reactivated in a slightly different location only the day before. So in a comedy of errors set of combinations and complications this meant that:

• Patrick had the disabled cache on his GPS, but at the old coordinates.
• I didn't have the disabled cache at all.
• Hannah had, it turns out, the cache on her original 'local to home' file and the GPS was using that, rather than the new download, and as this was 3 weeks old it wasn't disabled but was still at the old coordinates.

Three variations, all wrong.

Fortunately three of us have iPhones and Donna was soon out with hers (while we were head scratching) reading what was going on and providing us all with up-to-date coordinates.

Patrick then found the cache and we crossed the bridge, over the swirling and swollen river, to walk half a mile along the bank towards cache number three.

Second problem. (I bet you can see it coming can't you?)

At 100 feet from the cache we realised it was the other side of the uncrossable river. By now it was raining quite hard and I could feel the kids hearts sink and to be honest I felt for them - there's nothing worse than being dragged out to do something than then finding out it was pointless and you have to go back and do it again.

I think the adult's spirits were high, certainly mine were, so it was no problem to walk back and pick up the correct path on the other side of the river.

Number three was found by Donna near an impromptu pond and we then slipped and slid our way towards number four. Another simple find for Patrick and then we walked up the river, err, path (as Patrick stated quite accurately in his log) towards number five.

Problem number three was a copy of problem two and again Donna dug up the new coordinates for a cache I didn't even know existed. After that it was a quick find and then onto the last of the main series.

Walking in intermittant rain we soon arrived and got hold of the last coordinate for the bonus cache which was conveniently, as is really to be expected, back towards the starting point in this nice circular walk.

Problem number four.

We got to where we believed number seven to be and saw either a small pond, or a huge puddle depending on whether you like a half full or half empty glass. It was about 30 feet long but as it was mentioned in a previous log we thought we were in the right area. What did put us off though was all the nearby trees, at the other side of the path, were also all underwater. We read the hint, double-checked Patrick's writing (of the feeder clues) and the coordinates we'd each entered onto our GPS devices. We were sure we were in the right area but couldn't fathom why the only likely place for the cache, given the hint, was a foot underwater.

I prodded the area for a while with my walking pole and then went off to circle the zone. Hannah started to feel around in the water whilst I had walked through it to the other side to see if there were any likely spots behind. There wasn't and it was awkward, and previously occupied by kids dens I think, so looked unlikely.

I went back and took over from Hannah standing in the water and feeling around under this specific tree. Luckily I found it. The stone protecting it had come off as it had floated upwards (the cache, not the stone!) but luckily it had got stuck fast as it rose into the bent over tree. Some leverage in the icy water and I pulled it out and found it completely dry inside. Thankfully the seal had held together.

It's hard to see from this angle that it was deeper on the other side.

We signed the log, Patrick took a travel bug, and we then had a discussion on what to do with the cache. I wanted to replace it where found but went with the majority decision to relocate it and post new coordinates and a picture on our logs. This way subsequent users can still find it and of course the cache owner can relocate it when the waters recede.

What a day but I have to say that despite me having used the word 'problem' for each of our issues during this walk, it was a really nice walk. Yes we were wet and exceptionally muddy, yes we'd made a couple of mistakes and had a technological breakdown but we had finally got some fresh air and we'd had quite a good adventure too. It was also great to get out with Patrick and Donna again after what seems like weeks.

[Total for the day was 2.9 miles and 7 caches.]

Blustery Castleton

On Saturday Patrick worked out a plan to do some caches at Castleton on the Sunday. I was busy so quickly created a Pocket Query (a list of caches that match your desired criteria in a certain area) which I downloaded on to my GPS without having the time to actually read about any of the caches.

We all (Me, Patrick, Hannah, Donna, Adam, Jade, Christianna, Bethany, Jordan and Dizzy the Dog) met up in the main Castleton car park at 12 noon and headed off to the chippy for a sandwich to set us up for the walk - we didn't eat too much as the hills would be hard work.

Patrick, Hannah and Bethany wandered off to find the nearby cache-under-a-bench, that I had already picked up last summer, whilst Donna and I ordered half a ton of chips for nine.

We set off up to the 'fallen road' (the abandoned A625) on Mam'Tor. A good brisk walk through bracing winds and we soon found a couple of caches, got confused about waypoint clues and also took a couple of required photos for two Earth caches (no physical cache but photo and answers to email to the cache owner).

Once walking I quickly got frustrated with my lack of preparation as one of the caches had 4 waypoints I didn't know anything about, and also Patrick was looking for 3 caches which had been disabled but he was sure were still fine as there were recent logs - presumably the cache owner hadn't removed the disabled flag after the caches had been maintained. Anyway, these caches also weren't in my GPS and because of this I felt I was being led blind, didn't know where I was going and consequently felt a little lost. (This does make me wonder if the kids might enjoy walks more if they had a GPS? Do they get bored because they've nothing to do?)

Walking along the broken road the wind got stronger and stronger and was now being accompanied by a light rain which was being driven into us. At one point, whilst I was at the back figuring out waypoints, I saw Jordan literally get thrown over by a gust of wind - fortunately he didn't land flat on his face and just managed to catch his footing.

We rounded the corner, after I think it's the Blue John Cavern car park and back onto the working road, and whilst walking directly into the wind we decided to call it a day. Had there just been the adults we would have carried on but it was getting too much for the kids. We backtracked down the road and hill, picking up a further clue we'd missed coming up the hill, and back into Castleton.

A frustrating and cold day but a great way to clear the cobwebs out of your head - one of those days where you get back home and feel like you've really done something.

Overall we walked 5.4 miles and somehow, thanks to Patrick, bagged 6 caches.

Not-So Wet Weekend

After picking up another couple of loose-ends on Tuesday we didn't have the time or the weather to get out again until Saturday. We met up again as Team PADS (minus Adam and Jade who were in London for the day) to complete the KB series near Doncaster which we'd started the weekend before and which Patrick had expanded a little with four more caches in a nice additional loop to the south.

After the torrential rain of Friday we were a little apprehensive, and packed accordingly, but the day turned out to be a total joy.

We arrived at 11am to find Patrick and Donna mopping up the remains of the third 'final' cache which had been Muggled and scattered around the parking area.

(This series has a final cache which you calculate the coordinates for on the route around. This final cache has coordinates inside for a bonus cache which itself has coordinates inside for an extra bonus - it was this one that had been damaged.)

We did almost 6 miles walking over three hours in lovely autumn sun and picked up 14 caches. The ground was extremely wet in places and involved some walking around or paddling but it was all good fun.

At one stage we passed (what I thought was) an amazing wooden bridge structure that appeared to be carrying a gas pipe across a ravine. We walked under it and I've never seen something so old-fashioned, large and bizarre. It was very Hollywood-esque if you imagine the old westerns or suspense movies where a steam train crosses a rickety bridge.






En-route we replaced one of the missing caches which had been alerted to us by the series owner. Patrick took the tub, pen and pad and we took some goodies to drop in it. We had a little fun watching the kids searching for it for 5 minutes before Patrick 'found' it in his rucksack. Needless to say the children didn't share our sense of humour.

On the way home we stopped off for a drive-by that Patrick had seen en-route. This was at a lifting bridge in Barnby Dun and was a magnetic nano attached to the fencing on the bridge. We had just arrived when three barges and boats queued up so we had the bonus of watching the bridge in action. (I doubt it's much of a bonus for the 100 cars that were sat waiting within 5 minutes!)


Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the bridge raised, or being passed under, as I was videoing it.

We'd all given up on this cache and were just turning around to leave when Hannah found it. She was very pleased with herself and for good reason, it had been a tricky one and rather than ending the day in frustration it turned out to be a good final find of the day.