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Wednesday 14 October 2015

Wear the fox hat

Today, I went south, intending to do two of the three loops of this series. But traffic was terrible, and I didn't get to the start point until well after 11. I finished the first loop after 3pm, and after lunch I decided I didn't have enough time to do a seond loop.

One of the caches was a tree climb. I could see the cache - all I needed to do to get to it, was get up on a fork of the tree about four feet from the ground. But I couldn't get onto it, even using the length of rope I carry for just such a purpose.

So, regretfully, I turned away, got on the bike ... and then thought, maybe if I stand on the bike?

So I leaned the bike against the tree, made sure that it was fairly stable, then put one foot on the bike, and stood on that. But I still couldn't get the other foot on the tree fork. I could, however, get my knee on it. But a shin pressed against wood is very painful, so I got down again.

I took off my coat (it was pretty warm today), and used that as padding. I got back on the bike, put my knee on the fork, and got myself up! From there, I was able to stand up on the fork, and so I could reach the cache.

I opened it, and the inner container, very carefully - I didn't want to drop anything because if I did, I'd have to get down then climb up again. I signed the log, replaced the cache, and got down off the tree the same way I got up. Excellent!

42 caches done today, and one DNF.

2 comments:

  1. Hope people knew where you heading! Could have been a whole different story!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I was thinking that as I was halfway up and the bike shifted a bit. But life without risk is like bread without jam.

    ReplyDelete