The Cherubs Smile on #4000

The sun was shining this morning--sort of. There were clouds in the sky--some looking mighty dark, but the weather person says it is going to be warmer today. After yesterday, we didn’t figure a few clouds would deter us from our appointed destination.

We (Linda, Larry, Cynthia, & Mike) started the day at a new cache that bugged us all day yesterday. We wanted to go for it but we weren’t sure how far we would have to go and we were a little nervous about the rain/hail/snow. Today was the day.

The name of the cache is “Follow the Leader” and that is exactly what we did. I would love to describe our adventure, but that would definitely give it away. We had several stages to find and each was unique. The final stage was almost anti climatic. Now we had to get back to our jeeps. Mike led the way and we could see the vehicles in the distance. I’m not sure it was the easiest way, but it certainly was the most direct!

We spent a good part of the rest of the day picking up caches along I-80 and around Pyramid Lake. We ended up climbing a few “rock piles”. A couple were mounds of Tufa and that can be a little hard on the hands. “Tufa is a rough, thick, rock-like calcium carbonate deposit that forms by precipitation from bodies of water with a high dissolved calcium content”. It was formed many many years ago when a good part of Nevada was covered with water. Good thing we had our gloves with us.

Our final destination was in the Incandescent Rocks area. We only needed one more cache to get to 4000 and we wanted in to be the Incandescent Rocks Cherub Cache. On our way to the cache,we spotted several antelope scurrying off in the distance. We never did catch up to them to get a decent picture. We did, however go up and down through some gullies, over some rocks and ended up at the base of some red rocks with lots of caves. The cache was in one of those caves guarded by two cherubs. Mike and Cynthia assured us the cherubs would be easy to spot.

We had been hearing about these Cherubs for sometime. Cynthia & Mike “won” the Cherubs in a white elephant drawing at a GBES event. They had to figure out something to do with them and they decided to make them part of a geocache. They put them in a cave in the Incandescent Rocks Canyons. It was our job to find them and retrieve the cache they were protecting!

After walking up the hill, we arrived at the perfect spot to view the cherubs. I bravely, or foolishly, climbed up to retrieve the cache--an ammo can tucked way into the cave behind the cherubs. And, in case the pictures are deceiving, you should know that you could not reach the cache from the ground! One of us had to climb to the cave and I willingly jumped at the opportunity. There were no clear cut foot holds, so trust me, it wasn’t as easy as it looks. Good thing there wasn’t anything else in that cave as I blindly stuck my head in without checking first! I handed the cache container down to Larry, he signed the log and we both smiled for the camera. #4000!!

Now, the hard part: I had to get back down! Larry and Mike were guiding my feet to just the correct spot to establish a precarious foot hold. Boy, what a feeling. I had to have blind faith that neither one of them wanted to get rid of me! It was an awesome cache in an awesome place and I had an awesome experience retrieving it!!!

It was late by the time we got back to Cynthia & Mike’s house. We celebrated the event with an order of chicken wings from Wing Stop (we all like the lemon pepper the best) and a glass or two of wine. Then we had the celebratory dish of ice cream. A good way to end a another great day.