Old Coach Trail #13 - 100 Day Challenge Geostreak Ulster, Ireland
By
sgtzara on 07-Sep-13. Waypoint GC4MTGF
Cache Details
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By visiting the external cache listing you are leaving the Geocaching Australia website.
Geocaching Australia is not affiliated with the original listing site for this cache.
Please click here to view the caches listing.
If you wish to log this cache, you will need to log it on the external site.
This will require a separate user account on that site. (More Details)
Logs
Today was Loop-5 & Loop-6 DT hunting day with a range of targets in the collective cross-hairs of myself and GoldCircle.
Third cab off the rank was this 100-day streak challenge... a challenge that I have had in my sights for over 18 months - from when I first finished my 122-day streak back in May 2014. That daily streak was hard going indeed... especially when I was traveling for work. But it was a real sense of achievement when I *at last* cracked the Big 100
As for the Hide itself, we had brought climbing gear and a telescopic ladder with us... GoldCircle made the ascent to retrieve the box, we signed it at ground level, and then I repeated the process to replace it.
TFTC
Third cab off the rank was this 100-day streak challenge... a challenge that I have had in my sights for over 18 months - from when I first finished my 122-day streak back in May 2014. That daily streak was hard going indeed... especially when I was traveling for work. But it was a real sense of achievement when I *at last* cracked the Big 100
As for the Hide itself, we had brought climbing gear and a telescopic ladder with us... GoldCircle made the ascent to retrieve the box, we signed it at ground level, and then I repeated the process to replace it.
TFTC
Cache No.2060 Found @ 12:21:00 PM
I spent the morning with Doug.G on Wednesday assaulting a bunch of trees in search of an FTF on a new 5/5 in Dublin; in the aftermath, we conspired to take another trip up to Ulster to pick off several caches that we both needed for one reason or another - a number of high complexity challenges, some '?s' with high D or T ratings and even one that dated back to 2002! And with day-passes sorted out with our significant others, we disappeared in to the grey rainy Dublin morning, safe in the knowledge that blistering sunshine would await us two hours north.
Or something like that.
To be fair we, we managed to dodge the worst of it, finding the rain mostly already lying on the ground, so this meant wellies were used rather than hiking boots in many places - and when mucking about in trees this didn't help much.
Track Day Toys 5/5 Challenge was first up; it was easily found in a nice hiding place. Since I posted my qualifying list with 28 x D5s in June I have managed to up that number to 42 - which is now too big to screenshot...
We then popped up the road to the Six Icon Challenge - 4 Days cache - which I failed to find on my last trip despite a thorough search... but today not only was it easily spotted (no leaves on the tree in January) it was also easily retrieved in a matter of seconds - and with the help of just the first rung on our extendible ladder!
We then made our way to the Old Coach Trail #13; being the proud possessor of a 366 day consecutive streak, I was contact by the CO when he first published this cache and it had been on my radar ever since. I passed by in the summer - and had no hope of retrieving it then as we were ill-equipped. Today, it was a much more straightforward matter with a ladder and my first grab came up trumps.
We then moved on to the Puzzle/Unknown Setters Mini Alphabet Challenge - a cache that evaded me in the summer. Probably because it was wet and I had no rope to secure myself (I don't have a death wish) - and there's an outside possibility I am also a wuss. After I scouted the area and designed a solid technical approach (aka - 'nah, you do this one...' ) Doug.G went up... and after some meditation he levitated to the correct spot and grabbed the cache.
Next up was the mother lode. Why it was only a T4.5, rather than 5.5 is beyond me... I'm naturally talking about the Challenge Variety Pack... wow that was some ascent...
After the first two 'natural hollows' came up empty, what we didn't say about the CO. [:(!] If anyone is looking at fulfilling this challenge, I suggest you look at the tree first. It is in that fork.
Yeah THAT fork.
Up there. 'nuff said. Epic assault - fully 45 mins with harnesses, two sets of ropes - and a ladder to boot. Awesome stuff!
With the heavy work done we headed back to the car which was conveniently parked 6m from The Project.
We then headed to Crawfordsburn - Doug.G fancied a look at seaview - an awesome 2002 cache that is clearly very well maintained. Alas, the only view was of mist...
On the way back we also logged The Archway - which had more magnets than CERN.
As the light was fading, and the weather closing in, it was time to head. We stopped briefly at Minnowburn Bridge, but here was severe flooding and fast water, so we gave up and kept heading for home. Next stop was the Travelling cacher 3-in-3 Challenge - it has been over two years since I posted my qualification, but only managed to get here today.
The last stop was the Super Chef Challenge - an unnerving drive in the pitch dark! I only spotted this challenge during the summer and it was fun going through all my finds looking for tasty morsels - so again, the qualifying list was posted on 17 June '15.
Today a very productive and very satisfying day. A big thanks to Doug.G for the company and derring-doo and to sgtzara for this cache!
TFTC
I spent the morning with Doug.G on Wednesday assaulting a bunch of trees in search of an FTF on a new 5/5 in Dublin; in the aftermath, we conspired to take another trip up to Ulster to pick off several caches that we both needed for one reason or another - a number of high complexity challenges, some '?s' with high D or T ratings and even one that dated back to 2002! And with day-passes sorted out with our significant others, we disappeared in to the grey rainy Dublin morning, safe in the knowledge that blistering sunshine would await us two hours north.
Or something like that.
To be fair we, we managed to dodge the worst of it, finding the rain mostly already lying on the ground, so this meant wellies were used rather than hiking boots in many places - and when mucking about in trees this didn't help much.
Track Day Toys 5/5 Challenge was first up; it was easily found in a nice hiding place. Since I posted my qualifying list with 28 x D5s in June I have managed to up that number to 42 - which is now too big to screenshot...
We then popped up the road to the Six Icon Challenge - 4 Days cache - which I failed to find on my last trip despite a thorough search... but today not only was it easily spotted (no leaves on the tree in January) it was also easily retrieved in a matter of seconds - and with the help of just the first rung on our extendible ladder!
We then made our way to the Old Coach Trail #13; being the proud possessor of a 366 day consecutive streak, I was contact by the CO when he first published this cache and it had been on my radar ever since. I passed by in the summer - and had no hope of retrieving it then as we were ill-equipped. Today, it was a much more straightforward matter with a ladder and my first grab came up trumps.
We then moved on to the Puzzle/Unknown Setters Mini Alphabet Challenge - a cache that evaded me in the summer. Probably because it was wet and I had no rope to secure myself (I don't have a death wish) - and there's an outside possibility I am also a wuss. After I scouted the area and designed a solid technical approach (aka - 'nah, you do this one...' ) Doug.G went up... and after some meditation he levitated to the correct spot and grabbed the cache.
Next up was the mother lode. Why it was only a T4.5, rather than 5.5 is beyond me... I'm naturally talking about the Challenge Variety Pack... wow that was some ascent...
After the first two 'natural hollows' came up empty, what we didn't say about the CO. [:(!] If anyone is looking at fulfilling this challenge, I suggest you look at the tree first. It is in that fork. Yeah THAT fork.
Up there. 'nuff said. Epic assault - fully 45 mins with harnesses, two sets of ropes - and a ladder to boot. Awesome stuff!
With the heavy work done we headed back to the car which was conveniently parked 6m from The Project.
We then headed to Crawfordsburn - Doug.G fancied a look at seaview - an awesome 2002 cache that is clearly very well maintained. Alas, the only view was of mist...
On the way back we also logged The Archway - which had more magnets than CERN.As the light was fading, and the weather closing in, it was time to head. We stopped briefly at Minnowburn Bridge, but here was severe flooding and fast water, so we gave up and kept heading for home. Next stop was the Travelling cacher 3-in-3 Challenge - it has been over two years since I posted my qualification, but only managed to get here today.
The last stop was the Super Chef Challenge - an unnerving drive in the pitch dark! I only spotted this challenge during the summer and it was fun going through all my finds looking for tasty morsels - so again, the qualifying list was posted on 17 June '15.
Today a very productive and very satisfying day. A big thanks to Doug.G for the company and derring-doo and to sgtzara for this cache!
TFTC
We are well and truly addicted to caching and enjoy all aspects of it. We completed a streak of 200 days which was long enough for us.
Our profile is visible as proof.
It was dark when we arrived here and we had brought the etrier with us so this made getting up to the cache easy.
TFTC
Our profile is visible as proof.
It was dark when we arrived here and we had brought the etrier with us so this made getting up to the cache easy.
TFTC
Of course i forgot a piece of geocaching equipment that would have made this one easier. I was 20 miles from home before I remembered and decided to come and have a look anyway. After some studying and use of nearby objects I had the cache in hand, then I realised I didn't have a pen on me, luckily there was a pencil in the cache.
Thanks to all the cacher's for placing enough caches to complete my 100 days, looking forward to a cache free walk tomorrow just to break the cycle.
Thanks to all the cacher's for placing enough caches to complete my 100 days, looking forward to a cache free walk tomorrow just to break the cycle.
Ha ha! Mistakenly we had thought that there would be the big stone '100' symbol as shown in the cache description. That will be the first 
.
Then we drove along the A2 and the GPS said 'there' but we were quite clearly 'here'. Second.
Mrs GFT then wisely stayed in the car, whilst Senior and Junior GFT headed off down the trail. No problems there, and we got to GZ fairly quickly.
We then realised that not only had we endured the best part of 5 months last year (9th April 2014 to 14th September 2014) running up 159 consecutive days caching, but that we were now faced with the issue of retrieving the cache from up there!
It appeared that others may have recently tried with other 'implements' lying around at the base, which we thought might help us, but didn't. So then in something resembling a physical challenge from the Krypton Factor, Senior GFT managed to scramble/heave himself up to retrieve the cache.
That was promptly dropped to Junior GFT who did the admin and lobbed it back up to Senior to leave it nestling in its original position. And then .... Well not quite stuck as such, but how to return to ground level.
In the end, more of a case of grip on to the 'stump' , dangle, let go, and hope.
And if proof was needed ..... Ouch, ow and aargh.
.Then we drove along the A2 and the GPS said 'there' but we were quite clearly 'here'. Second
.Mrs GFT then wisely stayed in the car, whilst Senior and Junior GFT headed off down the trail. No problems there, and we got to GZ fairly quickly.
We then realised that not only had we endured the best part of 5 months last year (9th April 2014 to 14th September 2014) running up 159 consecutive days caching, but that we were now faced with the issue of retrieving the cache from up there!
It appeared that others may have recently tried with other 'implements' lying around at the base, which we thought might help us, but didn't. So then in something resembling a physical challenge from the Krypton Factor, Senior GFT managed to scramble/heave himself up to retrieve the cache.
That was promptly dropped to Junior GFT who did the admin and lobbed it back up to Senior to leave it nestling in its original position. And then .... Well not quite stuck as such, but how to return to ground level.
In the end, more of a case of grip on to the 'stump' , dangle, let go, and hope.
And if proof was needed ..... Ouch, ow and aargh.
