Pond Monsters

08/18/2018 By Dud&Plato
Hey hey, it's international geocaching day! Figure that's a great reason to claim this one! Turns out, I got all the legwork done on this one about a month ago. It was a long night facing the Pond Monster, but I had the perfect TOTT for the job! A nice little vessel that allowed for this mission to present less work than I imagine others have put in reading over some of the logs.

I managed to do this one solo, and much faster than I expected, to be honest, considering some of the stories I had heard. But I didn't fear the monsters of the pond. Oh, no friends! On a warm night, me and a little red vessel managed to go after this mission. Starting a bit later than I had planned, I worried it was going to turn into a late night if any battles presented themselves.

There was one point of worry as I inputted a question wrong accidentally, and thought for a brief second I may have to start over. THAT would have been a challenge I wouldn't have completed in one evening. Lucky for me, intended or not, I was able to best the pond monster.... or so I thought.

Being overly out of it after getting this one done, I wrongly assumed the final was missing. After mentioning it at a local event, I got a big shove so decided to return today to see if the monster would give up the prize. Indeed it did! Awesome! A disgruntled beast the pond monster must be, but it wasn't until this time around I had my sound up and noticed the nice touch of the audio. Neat.

Super stoked to sign the log on this one, sure to knock out it's cousin The Mermaid Who Haunts the Lake here .... soonish? For now, it's a pleasure to sign this log! A really really fun one! TFTC!

08/07/2018 By msstrong
Well just took some effort, didn’t realize I was going to have to do what I had to do with the TOTT, took most of the day! Lots of fun and finally signed the log!!! I think this would be much quicker in the winter! LOL

02/17/2018 By CEGT
Stopped and verified the container was here and/or replaced it as needed.

Happy caching!

02/08/2018 By CEGT
This group devised this and all of the geocaches we produce to be an extreme example of what is possible in geocaching. In building these caches we knew from the beginning there would be very few that would attempt these adventures and far fewer that would actually accomplish signing the logs.

We are continually amazed at the resolve of some geocachers. Those like @Denali41 with the tenacity to stick with these caches at an ever increasing level of complexity will hopefully be an inspiration to others.

This group will continue to produce caches that very few will ever attempt. This is not done to show off. This is done to hopefully inspire other cachers to stretch their limits. We know that the numbers will be small however we will continue to push the limits and attempt to entice those teetering on the edge to venture a little further outside of their comfort zone.

We know that FTF is not an officially tracked statistic, however in this case @Denali41 should have the opportunity to claim FTF as he is the first one to complete the cartridge and sign the log outside of the promotional event.

Congratulations Denali, you pulled out quite a feat in making it to GZ for this cache. I'm not sure that we can come up with a challenge that is beyond the extreme cachers of Colorado here in Colorado.

02/07/2018 By Denali41
Well, this one has been an "adventure"! I went to the first coordinates long ago and got the needed info there. Because I was unable to line up a boat for the specified voyage and was afraid to take a long swim because of the possibility of encountering the Pond Monster, I waited until winter so I could try to reach a certain location on hard ice. The problem: this winter has been, again, unusually warm and ice set was delayed on all local lakes and reservoirs. Finally surfaces iced over, but areas of thin ice made an over-ice approach somewhat risky, at least on some water bodies. In fact, today there are some reservoirs that show some areas of open water--so unusual in this part of Colorado in early February!!

I've come by from time-to-time to check the ice condition. Yesterday afternoon several ice fishermen were out on the lake. I concluded from their activities that the ice depth was solid, so last night my puppy Orizaba and I ventured out to the zone where we obtained the information needed to advance us on the journey toward the wherigo final. We eventually reached the final and I signed the cache log that hadn't been signed by others for almost a year!

This was a fun wherigo, and I'm grateful to CEGT for its creation. In reviewing logs of all the previous finds, it appears that every past finder was able to use the special cartridge that was temporarily active for the midnight "Fears" event last February. That special wherigo cartridge, which allowed short-cutting of the various wherigo zones including the lake adventure, was inactivated just after the event. So I am the first finder of this wherigo who actually followed the steps in the cartridge. It was a neat experience, and I encourage others to pursue the cartridge zones. It of course earns a Favorite Point.

In accordance with the note on this cache page from CEGT, I am sharing the {FTF} on this great wherigo.