What's a Lakeview Worth III??? Night Vision.....

WARNING, SPOILERS INCLUDED!!


I've been caching since October of 2007.  Very early on, Pooh, Blaze and I came across a cache that looked extremely interesting.  It had been awarded the coveted Recommended Cache Award. It was a night cache and  it had at least 4 stages and the second one had a black light in it that you need to read the clues at the subsequent stages!  We went to check it out in January or February of 2008.  We searched all over the place for the first stage and come up empty!  We went back several times of the years to try and find that first stage.  We tried in the light of day, the dark of night, winter in the snow, summer with tick and fall with leaves everywhere.   I've been following the cache page all this time and a couple of weeks before the annual Camp Sacy Christmas party, a group found the cache!  We had to try again. Blaze tells the story in her log on the cache page. 




Blaze's log account: 

Wow, where do I even start with this one? No story will ever do this cache adventure any justice. Maybe about 3 years ago, back when Keebs, Pooh, and I started caching, we set out from camp one weekend to hunt down this cache. It hadn't been found in a while, plus we were still relatively new, so we weren't completely shocked that we didn't find it. Some time later, we attempted this cache a second time. Feeling more prepared for the challenge, we were beyond a little annoyed when we once again came up empty handed. Was stage 1 missing or were we just blind and stupid? I think about a year passed and we tried again...I've lost track. Needless to say, we never succeeded. And then it was December 17, 2011...

We were at camp for the holiday party when Keebs, Bear, Pooh, and I decided we needed to sneak out for a cache. Now that there were 4 of us with thousands of finds under our belts, we were determined to find this cache! Well, things looked a little different now. The sign (which we had previously scoured every inch of)is gone and the coords were putting us in an area different from our past visits. Were we looking in the wrong place years ago? Had stage 1 been moved? We can so do this! We searched, and searched, and searched. We found a promising looking acorn, but after pounding it to death with a stick (it's the Girl Scout way) and grinding it to bits with a screwdriver (yes, we cache with a screwdriver), we determined said acorn could not have been stage 1. Tired, cranky, cold (yep, it snowed slightly), and frustrated, I don't think any of us wanted to give up, but we didn't know where else to look. "Maybe if we just walk the trail, we'll see reflectors or something." Pooh had already started walking down the trail in search of the lake, so we followed, sans cache.

Yep, we were just going to the lake, but our flashlights were all over the woods in case, perhaps, we should happen to stumble upon something relating to this cache. "Hey guys, check here. There could be something here." Something caught my eye, and upon investigation we determined that, though we could not find stage one, had no clue what the coords were to stage two, we somehow managed to stumble upon (yes, somewhere in the woods) stage three of this cache. "Oh no, we need a blacklight!" Pooh actually had one on her keychain, but it was back at camp. We tried all sorts of tricks with our flashlights, but nope, nothing worked. Keebs tried to see if there was a blacklight app (no, there is not, by the way) and even tried casting different shades of light onto the coords, but nothing worked. We needed an entirely different wavelength of light. Somewhere (SOMEWHERE!) in the woods around us was that blacklight that we needed, but it's the woods and who knows where it could possible be.

So we went and found a nearby cache so we could at least log some find for the evening.

On the way back, Bear came up with a theory. 


If...then...so all we need to do is search the woods and maybe we'll find stage 2. Yeah, fat chance. We missed stage 1, accidentally found stage 3, and we actually thought we could come up with a plan to find stage 2?! Yep, we're Girl Scouts and that's how we roll. Well, we split up (in a buddy system, of course!). Two people searched this way, two people searched that way. Folks, we're looking for a needle in a haystack here. After a short while of searching, Keebler announced, "OH...MY...GOSH!" Can you believe it? We actually found stage 2!

We grabbed the light, bolted off to stage 3, finally were able to see the coords, then headed off to find the final. Could we have done it anymore backwards? We first found stage 3, hunted for stage 2, then got the final. And we still don't know where stage 1 is!!! The whole thing was completely wild! Who actually does that?! lol! It was awesome. I felt so accomplished at the end. It was a teamwork adventure and an absolute blast. TFTC, and thanks to my caching buddies for their determination! :)




Back to me.....

We also need the black light to sign the log.  The pen in the cache can only be seen with a black light.  When you look at the log book, you can't see anything on it, it appears empty.  When you put the black light up to it, it all becomes visible. You can see our log at the bottom.  12/17  Sacy's Holiday Party.

I still can't believe that we found Stage 2!

WE FOUND A CACHE WITH NO COORDS, IN THE WOODS, IN THE DARK WITH A RANGE OF ABOUT .15 MILES! 

I am also so fortune to have friends who are as obsessed and determined as I am!  We may all be crazy but at least we're crazy together!  

This is definitely one of the most memorable geocaches that I've had the pleasure of searching for.