Back into the LCP game

One of the tings that I was sad about when we moved from NM to TN was that we would no longer live in an area covered by the Lonely Cache Project (LCP). That site had been a strong motivating factor for my geocaching, getting me to visit very remote and lonely caches,a s well as encouraging me to spend hours trying to crack some of the harder puzzles. The leaderboards in particular were fun for me, especially the ones where I was somewhat competitive. One of my favorite was the NM Year's Top Back Country Cachers leaderboard. In 2013 I was in a tight race for the top spot, a race that ended up coming down to the last few weeks of the year. This year, I was at a disadvantage having only moved back to the state in July, but I was going to make an effort to place high. After a few very remote FTFs, I was able to get in the top 5.

To help propel me a bit higher I planned a tough winter hike up Caballo Peak. That cache, as well as some of the ones along the way would be worth quite a bit, as well as knock down the points of the current leader, wolf11469, who also happened to be the cacher I was competing against back in 2013. That was the plan anyways. The day we went turned out to be one of the coldest of the year, and there was fresh snow along the trail. Not that this would normally be a problem, but I made the mistake of bringing my dog and she ended up having some issues with the cold and ice that I did not anticipate. Balls of ice would form between her toe-pads making it hard for her to walk, and she would constantly stop to chew at these, eventually causing her feet to bleed. We made it as far as GC4BQE1 before I decided that we should turn around. Only half way to Caballo, and without having found either of the big high LCP caches. There was one puzzle cache that would have been a high LCP find that was at the trailhead, but we couldn't find it under all the snow and ice.

Despite not being able to go after those high LCP caches, I had a back-up plan, going after the FTF of a remote desert hike near Espanola, Window Rock. A hike that would be at lower elevation where we wouldn't have to worry about the snow and ice, and the dog could happily run along the arroyos and mesas chasing rabbits.

 I will be back to go after Caballo, but not in 2016. And despite not reaching my LCP goals for the day, I am happy to be back in the LCP region. No doubt there are some high LCP caches around ehre that I will be targeting over the next few years.