The date was May of 2007.....
Before I start with the story, let us introduce you to the people who were involved in finding this cache!
Of course theres James and Kevin
Jay Carrick (Kevin's Brother)
Before we (James and Kevin) go somewhere, the first thing on our to do list is to check and see if there are any geocaches in the area! This time we were heading out to do some volunteer work for Boyscouts at a scout reservation (Camp Horshoe) located right outside of Rising Sun, Maryland. Basically the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Jay and Carrick who were also in our boyscout troop joined along in coming to volunteer weekend at the camp. Well we all arrived that Friday night, too dark to do any adventuring, but we were sure some would follow in the next two days. Coincidentally the next day was completely dedicated to working on the fire pit area to prepare it for the ceremony. This of course was incredibly boring.....all this mowing and cutting grass....picking weeds. This was one of our Bad ass moments, we just got up and left. Grabbed the GPS, plugged into the coordinates and the GPS told us we were about 2 miles away from the cache.
Most people would have given up on the thought of walking a round trip of 4 miles. But we had
no intentions of giving up on such a thing as distance. At first the GPS was pointing up the main
road of the scout camp, so we followed the road for a while..than all of a sudden the arrow started
pointing STRAIGHT into the woods. This still didn't stop us, just took a sharp left and entered the abyss.
We were all walking around in the forest for a while, just putting all our faith into the little GPS device just hoping it would take us to the cache because we had absolutely no idea where we were heading. At one point we actually cross a stream and noticed a stone sitting right in the middle of the bank. We walked up to this stone brick looking thing wondering what it was. After a close look we noticed on one side there was a "P" and the other was a "M". After this analysis we soon realized that this was one of the Mason Dixon Line markers!!! For those who don't know what the Mason Dixon line is...its part of Maryland's border that goes all the way along PA's Southern edge to Delaware's western side. These markers line it showing where the border is.
We were unsure if the marker we found has actually been discovered by anyone else besides us. This discovery started the adrenaline flow, thinking about how cool our adventure had already turned out. After about another 25 minutes of walking the GPS told us we were around a mile away from the cache! but there was one problem....the tree line immediately ended and in front of us was farmland...tons and tons of corn. Unsure of what to do, we all started discussing options such as just turning around, or even possibly pushing through the fields in a stealthy action. Well we came to the conclusion that we should just run through all the farmland laid out before us. Throwing the stealthy part out the window. Kevin still remembers James counting down to the sprint.....3.....2.....1....GO!!!! Immediately we all dropped are heads and started pumping our arms as we first ran through fields of soybeans that only covered to about the top of our ankles. Finally we reached the corn, which was well above our heads. Through the corn stalks we could hear each other scream in pain as the husks scratched at our legs and thighs. A couple minutes later we all busted through the other side of the field, onlooking our next obstacle.....a fence.
This certain fence didn't look ominous at all....just a metal fence held together with some wooden beams. Harmless right? Thats what Kevin thought. "Go up and touch it real quick to see if its electric." Said James. So Kevin went up to touch the fence real quick. And when we say real quick, we mean going up and tapping it as fast as you can because of course Kevin had no idea what to expect!!! And after his touch, he felt nothing. So he just grabbed the fence to pull it aside...and BAM! He couldn't feel his arm. A huge shockwave ran up his arm. He jumped back in shock and pain. "Crap its electric" Kevin exclaimed. So Kevin, Jay, and Carrick all climbed up the wooden part and safely got to the other side without being shocked. James on the other hand being the brave one decided he would show off by attempting to leap through the metal webbing of the fence. He took some big steps back...turned...and the three safe ones could see the flames in James' eyes as he took a couple strides into a sprint...and he was airborne. he made it through the fence fine until his legs dragged along the metal sending a shock through him. He rolled around on the ground grabbing his crotch. Kevin, Jay, and Carrick just stood around laughing. Finally we helped up James and continued on our way.
Next up......The Octoraro. The river which runs right through camp. We just happened to be about 2 miles away from camp at this point. The GPS said we were so close!! just on the other side of the river. But the river at this point was huge! bigger than it was back at camp. We were just too close at this point to give up. The only option we had was to take off our shoes, and hold them above our heads...our shorts were doomed anyways. The river cross soaked all of us...now we were drenched! But alas we found the geocache! it was hiding right on the other side where we crossed in a web of tree roots. It was a little disappointing since this cache was just a normal cache with nothing too spectacular in it. But it was the first time we had taken Jay geocaching, so he got a hell of a first trip out of us! Ahhhh well i wish this was the end of my story...but its not. Before we had left camp I had forgotten to write down the coordinates of camp....so we had no idea where we were in the woods at this point. And since we left camp we took way too many turns to even remember how to get back. Only one thing to do, march forward, we were bound to hit road at some point! James as the leader, led us through huge patches of green brier. Which shown in the photo above...their not too fun to walk through! After a couple of miles trudging through a mile of this plant, we finally broke out of the forest and onto Red Pump road! We knew where we were now! so we just waltzed the last couple miles back into camp! all torn up and bleeding....What an adventure.....
More stories to come! stay posted
I am one of the members of The Vern Show. My name as seen in the title is
To me I don't see myself as being 'Normal'. The exact time I broke away from normality still eludes me, but if I had to guess I would say my senior year of High School. I had the option of either running at Outdoor track states or going to prom like everyone else in my grade.
