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Thread: The Ghost-Light of Old Fourche Log-Train -- Pt. III (End)

  1. #11
    astrodav Guest
    Update coming in a few minutes. Someone might have to call QC on the telephone to let him know the latest news about the cache, since he lives out there where Deliverance happened & has no internet like the rest of the modern world.

    I would call .... but since it's my cache, that might be a bit inappropriate & ungentleman-like of me.

  2. #12
    astrodav Guest
    I visited Mr. Asher late last night in his woods, to seek permission for doing a cache near his home. Unfortunately, I didn't see his light last night. It was a bit windy & in the last several years, he seems to prefer to show up on clear & calm nights.

    However, when I mentioned my intent, any hint of a breeze completely stopped & there was not even the slightest rustle of leaves to be heard. I took this as meaning that he was curious about my cache-idea & was interested in hearing me talk more about it.....so I did. Sitting on a stump out in the middle of a pine thicket, at 11:00 p.m., with not another human soul (living at least) anywhere around, I started talking out loud. I'm sure the deer & raccoons got a laugh out of that.

    But anyway, not a sound was heard for the 5 minutes or so that it took me to explain what I wanted to do. After that, when I was done, the wind picked back up & the normal forest-sounds started again. I feel confident, because of those happenings, that I received an "OK" to proceed.

    During this trip, I pretty much found the best route in to take, so as to stay as much on good dry land as possible, but also to pass over, beside, or along some of the locations in the story. I went back today & tweaked the route just a bit, but didn't have time to actually start making the cache. You'll cross over one of the better preserved pieces of the old tram. The BEST parts are on private land, but I wanted to stay on public Corp land. Since this is a pine plantation, it has been worked over by bulldozer years ago. But there's plenty left of the old tram to know it when you cross it.

    I also found several areas where the old foot-path weaved in & out of the cache-route, so you'll see that also. I pushed just a bit deeper into the plantation & found a curious little mound of dirt. I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling this might be the very location of the old shack, the remains of it having been bulldozed into this mound when the pines were planted. So this will most likely be the end of the cache-route, as it's probaly the best place to have a chance at seeing the light if it decides to show up the night you are there.

    I have a VA appt at Little Rock tomorrow. I always search for caches on the way back from these trips, so most likely will arrive home too late to do anything with this cache. As long as it doesn't rain, I'll start making the trail Wednesday. I'll probaly do it in the daytime, then go back at night to tweak the reflectors a bit. So, if everything goes well, it should be loaded up to the site late Wednesday or Thursday.

    You can just barely see that little mound I stumbled upon in the left-center of this picture. The little ridge in the fore-ground is, best that I could figure out, the last few yards of the old foot-path leading up to the old shack:





    Get your head-lamps, decent hi-top boots (for briars, not wading), & your courage gathered up. The cache is imminent. Probaly want to bring your camera, in case the light shows up. You'll be mad at yourself if you happen to see it & can't record proof of the sighting.

    And if you really want to have fun, do this by carbide-light. I'm sure 'ole Asher would get a chuckle out of that. I have a nice carbide spelunking light, & the carbide to go with it, if anyone ever wants to try it that way .... just ask.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Lower Arkansas
    Posts
    828
    With your expert story telling abilities Astrodav this would be most wonderful as an event. Maybe then some of those scaredy foxes would come out if there were big bad wolves protecting them

  4. #14
    astrodav Guest
    Oddly since you mentioned it, there is an ideal place for an event nearby .... Sunlight Bay. Camping, fishing, & all those neat things to have available, such as restrooms. There's no building however, but is a really nice & big pavilion.

    The surrounding 2-5 miles is loaded with history, such as a couple cemetary's, a couple old town-sites (nothing there anymore), an old iron bridge, stuff like that. Being mostly Corps land, it's ideal for caching. A million places to set temporarys & at least a dozen places which would make decent night caches.

    Only thing is, it would 100% have to be scheduled at "normal" pool level for Lake Nimrod, & preferably at least a week after any rain. This isn't usually very hard to do, since we almost always have a couple long periods of almost no rain, around the June - September time-frame.

    I could always build a couple of area-related stories to tell around the camp-fire, connecting them to some caches, as I've done here. Might be fun.

    We'll keep that in mind & approach the idea a little later in the year.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Russellville
    Posts
    896
    This sounds like an AWESOME cache, It has been a while since I seen a cache with this much effort (history, facts, and story telling) not to mention it being a night cache!

    You know since whoever searches for this cache will be out there at night, have you thought about putting an "additional story" in the actual cache container to add to the current effect of standing in the woods in the middle of the night just for the cache finders? With your writing skills, I'm sure you could scare the pants off of those who read the extended details.

    It may be a while before SG and I can do this cache, but we look forward to doing this cache.

  6. #16
    astrodav Guest
    I didn't actually think of the exact thing you are talking about, but sorta similar. The last section of the cache-page is designed to carry with you & expands on about 3-4 of the Waypoints marked with dual-reflecters.

    But your idea is interesting. Here's another idea, about the same:

    Each reflecter, or at least the major locations, will actually be located ON a small cache. Those caches will be at key locations in the trail & have a short expanded story inside of the events which happened there.

    Although I love writing, I love researching, & I love hiding caches .... I don't really want to do a great many like this one. The novelty might wear off. I like the "more story in the cache" idea & may start planning one of those, if I can locate another bit of history somewhere which I can build something around.

  7. #17
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Russellville
    Posts
    925
    Now it is starting to sound like a possible idea for a WhereIGO cache.

  8. #18
    astrodav Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by idratherbehiking
    Now it is starting to sound like a possible idea for a WhereIGO cache.
    Not from me.

    For one, I'm not set up for WIG's. I'm sure I could use my laptop in the truck & do them, but I personally think that's too much trouble for 1 whole cache in the state. (Last time I looked -- Burn's Park)

    To supplement my Triton & Nuvi when I'm hiding caches, I've been pricing an eTrex HC or HCX. The former are GREAT for finding, but not quite as good for hiding. I was initially considering 3 Garmin models ... the eTrex, the mid-level Dakota (30 I think), & a lower-level Oregon (400 I think). They will all do what I was wanting from the eTrex (averaging). But the Dakota has a slightly bigger diplay, which is touch-screen, & the Oregon is even bigger, and has WIG capability.

    But I played with a Dakota for a while & felt all the time like I was about to break it. It didn't have any rubberized covering anywhere on it, just smooth & slick plastic, and just felt REALLY cheap. And even with the slightly bigger display, it wasn't big enough for a touch-screen. So I dropped that one from my list rather quickly.

    Then I decided to go with the Oregon. But having only a single WIG cache in Arkansas, and reading all kinds of feedback about how sometimes the cartridges work right & sometimes they don't, I decided the extra $$$'s just wasn't worth it.

    So I won't be doing any WhereIGo'ing anytime soon. But if someone wants to borrow the ideas mentioned here & set one up somewhere .... won't hurt my feelings a bit. Contrary, I'd like to see it happen. If a half-dozen or more eventually pop up in the western half of the state, I'll most likely then find justification for buying something to find them with.

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