Cache Me If You Can II: Results & Wrap-Up

Cache Me If You Can II: Kanawauke Circle has come and gone and it was one for the record books. It's taken a long time to process all the stats because of the complexity of the trip--There were three separate ingress groups for the overnight and two additional cache-only participants. These 12 Harrimaniacs were arrange nearly randomly into four teams, resulting in eight different mileage totals for this event. Besides this, one team did not have the capability to generate a GPS-created log of their route and I had to reconstruct the mileage from the caches they visited, MapSource, and a narrative account of the route. All of this combined for the most complex mileage set of any trip to date.

The trip began with Lori and I waiting in the Kanawauke Picnic area. Soon we were joined by the rookie and soon-to-be captain Mike, followed by Jackson, Josh, and Leah. Rob and Yelena were missing despite having texted that they were in the park. After waiting for 45 minutes without cell phone service and no sign of Rob's car, I decided to take Jackson and drive to the standard Bald Rocks parking area on Rt. 106. My prediction was that Rob missed information that we were parking at Kanawauke and went up Rt. 106, parking, and seeing no one headed on to the shelter on his own. His empty car on Rt. 106 seemed to confirm my prediction.

Upon our return, we got the group in motion and started our inbound hike via Rt. 106, the roads through old camp Quid Nunc, and the Dunning trail. Near the intersection with R-D we decided to get our revenge on Rob and Yelena for botching the plan and going on ahead while we waited in the parking lot. It was decided that we'd use Mike, whom Rob had never met, as a double-agent posing as a solo-camper. We all laid down with our stuff on R-D north of the shelter while Mike made contact. Rob and Yelena followed him back in our direction, even bathing us in their headlamps, but they didn't make the connection. Mike came over to tell us Rob was waiting for others in his party and that they were looking for somewhere to set up camp. When they disappeared over the hill we moved our position to the downside of the steep hill northwest of the shelter.

With the rest of the group waiting for a moment of opportunity, Jackson and I headed south and east through the grove of conifers, then around and finally over the knoll in front of the shelter. Along the way we came very close to Rob and Yelena as they roamed around looking for somewhere to set up shop and waited for the yet-to-have-arrived Harrimaniacs. Jackson and I decided there was a good chance they knew we were present and that something was up, so we decided it would be an accomplishment simply to get into the shelter behind their backs. We could see two people in the shelter, so we split up and worked our way in their direction separately. I arrived behind the shelter first and decided to scare Rob and Yelena inside with the help of a knife I had with me.

Suddenly I saw light coming over the hill--Jay and Paul were arriving and would blow my cover in just a few seconds. Just as I was about to make my move, Jackson came casually walking over just feet away without seeing me and began to speak with the people in the shelter who were NOT Rob and Yelena. Rather, the couple in the shelter were older and had two dogs. Talk about close calls. The lights on the hill were not just Jay and Paul, but also Rob and Yelena. After 45 minutes of stalking on an empty stomach I decided to return to our waiting party call an end to the chase.

We set up our camp in the same location as the 5th Anniversary Overnight and cooked our dinner. We hadn't left the parking lot until about 7:15PM and it was now well after 9PM. Most of us got to bed soon after. In the morning we got up and departed by 8:15AM. We arrived in the parking lot around 9:00AM, just before Neal and Getti. For the next hour and a half we waited for a final participant to arrive, but he simply could not get to us despite passing three times on the Thruway and being given all manner of directions. He finally gave up and we called game on.

Paul, Jay, and Josh formed Team Last Place, Lori and Getti were Cache & Burn, Leah, Jackson, and myself became the Bushwhack Buccabneers--complete with pirate flag and hat, and Mike, Rob, Yelena, and Neal donned the moniker Black-Eyed Pea. We had 4 hours and 15 minutes until the revised finish time of 3:30PM.

The events of the day vary for each team. My team headed to Silvermine and completed a loop passing the Lewis Gravestone (where we crossed paths with Black-Eyed Pea), Lewis Mine, Cave Shelter, Stockbridge, Hippo Rock and returning down Menomine. We grabbed 4 caches in about an hour as we jogged many of the flat sections. Next was another cache off of the Silvermine parking lot, then another at the LP trailhead on Rt. 6. From here we were a little stumped as to what we should do-- We already found more caches than we won with at CMIYCI and in half the time. We decided to take a risk and head to Island Pond. The cluster of three caches there would be an easy drive-up if the gate on Arden Valley Road was open. After 20 minutes of driving we found the gate closed. We decided to cut our loses by snagging a cache south of Elf Pen. Here we passed Cache & Burn returning from this and another cache just 0.2 miles away.

While we found our target cache, we blundered here in that we didn't know the other cache was nearby and left without getting it. Our last segment involved parking on Rt. 106 at White Bar, hiking over a big hill to a cache called Jack Straw, and then bushwhacking back to Rt. 106 for a chance at another cache off of the road in a river valley. This would be our last cache as the hill hiking took longer than expected and my team was hurting from previous injuries and the wear and tear of the day. This last cache proved to be a stumper and it took more than 20 minutes before Jackson finally made the find. With only 20 minutes left, we debated heading to one last roadside cache, but decided to play it safe and made the 5-minute drive back to the finish line.

In the end our 9 finds and 0 DNFs would come in an agonizing second place to Black-Eyed Pea with 10 finds and 1 DNF. My team performed very well-- We covered the most mileage of any team (~6mi) and I extended my CMIYC DNF-less streak as captain by nine. It was bittersweet to do so well yet come in second place, but that's what competition is about.

Besides the congratulations due to team Black-Eyed Pea, their captain Mike, and Neal (the only person on two winning CMIYC teams), we had many Harrimaniacs earn the Treasure Hunter, Leah earn the Nomad for sleeping out, and Paul earn the Cartographer for successful nighttime navigation to Bald Rocks. Jackson, Paul, and Jay all moved up a rank. Mike and Yelena completed their first of hopefully many trips. All in all a great time had by all.

CMIYC3 will take place spring/summer of 2011.