CHALLENGING GEOCACHE--

We wrapped up a day of geocaching in Marion recently with this final effort where Mark Meinzer is pondering his return crossing of a crevasse in an old stone quarry.  When we reached this point on our way to the cache, my enthusiasm stalled--completely.

In spite of many years as a pilot, my advancing age has left me with a strong wariness of heights--in this case about 50 to 75 feet of vertical drop in this big crack and along both sides of this narrow rocky elevation between two bodies of water.  The second large lake is on the immediate left in the photo.

While I loitered on the foreground side of this narrow promontory Mark hopped across and continued another 100 yards or so along the bushy trail behind him in an unsuccessful search for an elusive cache container hidden somewhere on the rocky point.

My hesitation cost us a second pair of eyes in the search and, consequently, a failure to find it.

I felt bad.  But, a geriatric instinct for self-preservation overwhelmed the potential for a relatively minor reward for me.

Click here and take a peek at the Geocaching.com web page we use for information on launching a search for such a cache.  Read the cacher's comments on his hide then scroll down to find comments of cachers, successful and otherwise.

As you can see, this delightful hobby is not always a gentle walk in the park.