Mystery of Fontana: Part 2

It is exceedingly difficult to say something about Part 2 of Mystery of Fontana cache hunt without spoiling some aspects of the cache. I tried to be vague in my previous post and will try again here, but be cautioned, if you intend on tackling this cache it is best experienced without any spoilers. A big part of the fun of a cache like this one is not knowing what lies ahead, and discovering it as you go ahead. That said, I cannot help but post something about finishing this wonderful cache.

Pokerluck deserves a lion's share of the credit for organizing the final hunt. I was all set to try to do it on foot, which would have been a long trek. There is an easier way though, and David took it upon himself to make all the arrangements to finish the cache in style. Once he had made the plans it occurred to me that I could take my whole family with us. There wouldn't be an arduous journey, but rather a pleasant cruise to the remaining stages. I was thinking that my wide and the kids wouldn't be that interested, but they were so we made last minute plans to do an overnight camping weekend up by Fontana lake so we would be there bright and early to hunt the cache on Sunday.

We camped at the Cable Cove campground which turned out to be a great campground. The sites were nicely spaced out, but there were also hardly any other campers there. They may have been scared off by the cooler weather. Instead of being hot swimming weather like our last few trips up to Fontana, a cold front moved in and the temps dropped to the 60s-70s during the day and into the 40s at night. Quite cool, but just about right for our camping gear (sleeping bags). We didn't arrive in the campground until late afternoon, but it was plenty of time to set up and relax for a while. Levin and I took a nature walk to find a nearby geocache and catch some salamanders, we had an excellent dinner of grilled chicken kebabs, and finished the evening with s'mores.

The next morning we got up bright and early to get ready for our adventure. Luckily, we only had to drive 10 minutes down the road to where we were to meet the other cachers.

Breakfast of marshmallows and hot cocoa

If you've ready this far, then you are probably going to keep reading. But here is where the spoilers start. You've been warned.

We met Pokerluck at the Fontana Marina where he had reserved us a pontoon boat. A couple other TVG cachers also met us there, Geologynut, SgtLee and SaltyPirate. Having a group made the boat rental more affordable. We cast off slightly after 8:15 and were headed to our first destination. The morning was cool and mist was vaping off the lake as we sped off. The light was superb, and since we were all bundled up against the cold and wind, it was a pleasant journey.

We only had a short walk to get to the clue for Stage 5, but it was a muddy and steep walk. Luckily, I found a faint trail that made the going much easier, but I didn't find it until half the members of our group got very muddy. We found the clue quickly (it is pretty obvious) and spent a little while poking around before heading back to the boat. Getting to the final involves computing coordinates based on info from this stage and after we did so, we saw that getting to the final by boat would be the easiest way. I had initially thought that we would be able to do this last stage after returning the boat, thus keeping our boat rental expenses to a minimum, but doing so would have been pretty hard, and was definitely much harder than many in our group wanted to tackle. So we motored off for the easy, if not pricey, way to the final.

The location for the final was actually in a place that I had guessed we might have to visit, although I thought we were going to ahve to visit it earlier as part of a different stage. It is a great spot, but we made a mistake of landing the boat in the wrong spot which made our hike to the cache kind of extreme. In fact, it was so extreme that only 3 members of our group tackled it, while the rest retreated to the boat in order to move it to a better spot. I found the cache buried under quite a bit of leaf litter, maybe 6" deep. But otherwise it is in pristine shape.

Not long after the boat showed up with the rest of our crew and we were able to get the cache down to the boat so that everyone could check it out. It contained to conclusion to the Gavin McGinney saga, as well as a number of lonely trackables which we rescued.

Success at last! Every aspect of this cache was well done, from the locations for each stage, to the physical and mental challenge, to the involved story line. It really was a grand adventure and definitely worth a couple trips to complete.

As a little bonus we decided to check out the Hazel Creek Virtual as well. It wasn't too far out of our way and hardly anyone in the group had found it before. Aside from being a neat historic site, we also spotted fresh bear tracks including some baby bear prints. Always cool. But by the time we had finished exploring Hazel Creek, the kids were getting cranky since we hadn't packed lunches. We beat feet back to the marina, said our farewells to our fellow cachers and went back to our campsite for a little PM relaxation. All in all, a great weekend out.