Christmas Cache Collier County, Florida, United States
By lorriebird on 25-Dec-00. Waypoint GCFA

Enjoyed the hike. Nice day too.

Road trip with my muggle
Great hike out to the cache
Saw one gator
Exchanged bugs


Find number 26692
Thanks lorriebird for maintaining the cache
SL thanks for the hide

Out on a county caching run with iowaPete.
Trying to do a Florida county coverall.
This was on our route.
Quick find after the hike.
Great that this one is still going.
Thanks for the cache.
Another favorite.
Grabbed two TBs.

It's **DAY SIX** of chasing caches around The Sunshine State with Blacktop guy. We had one big target in mind for today - a webcam cache a little south of here. Otherwise, we were up for chasing just about anything that fell into our driving path.

I never thought we'd get here in time today, but we managed to arrive with plenty of time to make the hike. Stopped in at the ranger station first to register and pay our $5 tribute. Then, back to the parking lot for the hike. There were two other vehicles there when we arrived. Ran into one of the muggles while we hiked in, but didn't see the other. Must've been farther along the loop.

The hike in on the main trail was quite nice. There was breeze enough to keep the bugs at bay. The ground was firm and dry. The hike went quickly. We grabbed the other traditional along the way and stopped to photo a gator that BTG spotted in a wet area near one of the alligator warning signs. Looped around and found the geotrail to lead us to the cache. Ahhhh, the sweet success of finding another of the oldest active caches anywhere! It's in terrific condition. Dropped a travel bug into the cache along with an iowaPete signature golf tee and a chance cube. Snapped a selfie, signed the log and reset as before.

Instant Favorite point! Thanks for an enjoyable hike in a beautiful place!

iowaPete

We did it!!! Nice walk. Dropped tb. Left tee and die. Fave

Day trippen to Naples to find the oldest cache in Florida. When I am in the area of old caches I try to make a point of the oldest. Thanks for keeping it alive.

If anyone is planing to do this and Would be up for partnering up let me know.

Hubbie and I are spending a few days in Florida. We are from Seward, Nebraska. Grabbing a few of the oldest caches. We didn't see any alligators, panthers, bears, turtles. Enjoyed the walk! Thanks for keeping this one going. A favorite from us!

Drove down here from Atlanta to find this cache and to celebrate the ending in 2020! Thank you for maintaining this cache and for that you get a new year’s Heart!

Holiday greetings. On this last day of 2020, I give thanks that I can be out caching in this glorious weather. Also sad that we missed the 20th birthday party by just five days. We were with you in Christmas spirit.

Rule follower that I am, we checked in with the park ranger prior to hiking in. Wish we had looked for the cut through a little harder but result was the same. I’ve been traveling with a Christmas Tree Bug and this was the perfect place to drop him. Bye, little tree!

This is my 1640th find. Thank you for playing and maintaining this special cache!

Our first one! Yay!

Well we made all the way from nw Iowa to get this cache on very warm day thankyou for placing this cache we dropped off a travel bug we had with us

Wanted to get the oldest Fla cache. Success! Long hike but worth it. Looked at the stuff but didn't trade. Not the furthest from home but close!

Traveling in the area on an RV road trip from Wisconsin. We are trailering a Jeep Wrangler the whole way. This was my main target for the area as I am trying to complete the double jasmer challenge, and find all active year 2000s in the US eventually. Always nice to have a good long hike and big ammo can. I was not patient enough and went off the trail way too soon, DONT MAKE THIS MISTAKE FUTURE FINDERS. This was probably due to racing the closing time of the park. It was nice to see the sun set through the trees towards the end of the hike. It was too bad that I got into the area too late for the event and 20th birthday. Thanks to all 3 COs for placing and maintaining this one, keep her going forever. TFTC

Happy Birthday, Christmas Cache! Decided to visit to celebrate this milestone birthday with a small group from the earlier event. Much to my surprise, the trail was 99% dry. It was a bit squishy the last bit off trail, but nothing drastic. Nice brisk Christmassy feeling day for a hike! —. The Wench

aaarrrRRRR !!
Be un joyous turn o' de hourglass fer sher me mateys. De 20th year celebration fer dis oldest placed treasure be worthy o' celebration.
Ol' en new mateys, we all be havin' un good gracious time. Cake be healthy fer de belly en the hike to de Christmas treasure be fer de soul.
Only be seein' 2 snakes, but dat be alright fer sher. YO HO, YO HO
Be thankin' ye, Lorriebird fer dis 20th year celebration o' de Christmas Cache fer sher.
Great gracious en joyous to all......en Merry Christmas.
YO HO, YO HO

Christmas Cache is 20 years old today. We held an event cache earlier today. Seven of us from the event drove over for the hike. Perfect weather. About 60 degrees and sunny. Dry trails all the way. Saw two small black snakes sunning along the trail. Thanks to Doctor voiceover, FL Pirate, The wench, Ikolor, and tumbleweed42 for accompanying me. Thanks to lorriebird for scheduling the event cache. Earns a fav.

Happy 20th Birthday, Christmas Cache! How fun this special celebration event turned out to be! Not knowing how the attendance would be on Christmas Day, I am ever so grateful for the wonderful cachers who took time out of their Christmas Day to share in the 20th Birthday celebration for the Christmas Cache! Some very long drives and then bearing the coldest (for southwest Florida anyway!) weather of the year for our little birthday party. We were careful with our masks and our social distancing, and made one exception while we all held our respective breath to take just one non-mask photo, hah! A special thank you to MinotRanger (yes, from THAT Minot!) for supplying a beautiful birthday cake, thank you! Then a group of seven cachers hiked to the Christmas Cache on its very special birthday, regardless that a few had already hiked it before. One cool note, I also noticed that MinotRanger placed the 500th (!) favorite point on the Christmas Cache today, congratulations! Thank you all, and Merry Birthday!

I got up before dawn to make the 3 hour drive down for the nearby 20th anniversary celebration of Christmas Cache and after a lovely event a group of us hit the trail to find the cache of honor. So glad that some veteran finders were with us to guide us the easy way to the cache. Trail was dry the whole way and only a bit muddy for the last couple hundred yards. No gators seen today - it was too cold for them, I think. Once we got to the point where we had to leave the trail, the ground to the GZ was dry. A little GeoTrail led us right to the cache. So glad to finally get a smiley here! Not only does it fill in one of my few remaining Jasmer grid spaces, we also found it on its 20th anniversary. A huge thank you to Lorriebird for keeping this one alive for so long. Favorite point awarded. TFTC!

A round trip hike of 2.5 miles, mostly dry to the last 50 yards, made easier by the friendly ensemble out for the special event and the cool weather and absence of biting critters large and small. TFTC SL

Out with the gang, celebrating this cache's 20th birthday! Happy Birthday Christmas Cache!
Dropped off a trackable and enjoyed the hike!

One day before the cache turns twenty. Checked in at the Ranger station with Denise, then backtracked to the trailhead. Unlike many of the logs I've read here, my hike was relatively uneventful. Couple of birds. A gator quite a ways a way almost hidden by the reeds. No bears. No panthers. Just me and the woods.

Found out from Denise that the environmental detour is because of an eagle nest nearby. She says it's usually visited every other year.

The detour was a little muddy, but not bad at all. Same with the last eastbound stretch towards GZ. The rest of the hike was totally dry.

Left a couple of things. One intentional, one not.

This one sets a new oldest cache for me, beating out [this one](https://coord.info/GC10A) in Delaware by just five days.

Thanks to all who have kept this cache in fine fettle for twenty years.

And lastly, Happy Holidays, and all the best in 2021.

I plan to hike this one after the event! Can’t wait!

Good Morning Christmas Cache watchers! The Christmas Cache will celebrate a 20th Birthday on December 25, 2020! For those of you in town, we will be having a local event GC93PAQ to celebrate. There are usually a few people who wish to hike this cache on Christmas Day, so if you are in town and would like to attend the event, there will be an opportunity to team up and hike together. The event can be found here:

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC93PAQ_happy-20th-birthday-christmas-cache

Merry Christmas ?? to me!!!

I FINALLY was able to to get this elusive cache that I needed for my Jasmer grid.

I initially wanted to get this in January of 18 when I was down from Iowa, but I was staying 3.5 hours away and didn't really want to drive that far when I knew I would be back in October of 2018 in Orlando celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary.

Welllllll, everything was fine and dandy then Hurricane Michael said "not so fast". I called to check on the trails and they said they were closed as the water was knee deep. Well knee deep on most people is waist deep on me and I wasn't about to take those chances. So instead of getting this cache I did the "clothing optional" cache instead. Seems like a fair trade, a highly sought after Jasmer cache for a cache I get to take a pic buck naked with my wang out lol.

Fast forward to 2020. Ahh yes, 2020, the year of the covid pandemic. Not only that, but where I am located in Iowa, we had a derecho on top of it that destroyed just about everything and anything in it's path in August.

Wasn't sure if I would be driving my mom down this year, but in the end she decided that life was too short and she was going back down to FL and needed me to drive her....yes!!

I was NOT missing the opportunity to grab this cache again!!
I got up at 6:00am and headed out as this was a 3.5 hour drive 1 way to grab this guy.

I rolled into the check in station and got the required permit for the day and off I went. I got turned around on where to park, but quickly got that figured out.

Hopped on the bike trail and off I went. Perfect temp and no bugs either!! Spotted one lazy alligator is all on the adventure which is fine by me lol.

I made the rookie mistake and didn't take the bike trail around like I should have and saved myself a lot of hassle and travelers.

Finally got to GZ and spotted my precious! Finally, after all these years I finally got this cache in the books!!

Another rookie mistake on my part is not taking the trail back the same way I came from and instead kept on the more primitive part of the bike trail. It still wasn't horrible and made it back to my car in one piece without a bear, alligator, or panther attack lol.

Giving this epic cache a well deserved favorite point!!

We finally made it out this way to grab this one. We've tried several other times but mother nature didn't want to cooperate with us. A decent hike out here with minimal animal encounters.

Thanks for the fun and adventure while out caching today with Quack.
We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.

Sure wish I had read Floridafinder2's log before taking off to make the find on this one. My muggle brother and I obtained the required permit from the ranger station. The ranger told us that there was some standing water on the trail and that the "upper" trail was overgrown. After finding the trailhead, we made our way to the cache using the intended route. Took us a little bit to find the container, but in short order I had my name on the log. Heading back, we decided to continue along the "overgrown" trail because it didn't seem to be that bad. Boy that sure changed in a hurry. In a reverse of Floridafinder2's experience, we soon hit the standing water, but figured we had gone too far to turn back. It was an absolutely miserable hike the half mile or so back to the main trail. Shoes were covered with mud and shirts covered in stickers (thankfully not the real sharp sandspur kind). Met some cyclists coming down the trail who mentioned they saw a bear, but we were not as fortunate as we made our way back to the car. After some cleaning up and changing of shoes, we went for a well-deserved lunch.

Could have made it easier on ourselves, but what kind of hunt to a historic cache would it be without a story to tell? SL, TFTC and of course a favorite point.

Finally! I have been caching since 2013 and the first six years I lived under 2 hours from this cache but never made the trek to get the oldest in Florida. Fast forward to today and I’m back in town for Thanksgiving and had my boys who were willing to go for a hike. Hopped in the rental car and made the two hour drive here. We were wearing our sneakers and went to the ranger station and they said that the trail was muddy... how bad could it be? So we started the hike and after a short bit a couple of other people came down the trail and said it was full of water...they were not cachers but not going to get muddy. We made it to where the road detour is located and it was really very muddy. I was determined to get the find but my kids were not going in with me so they turned around and headed back to the car. I made it back to the dry road and when I looked at the trail view on the geocaching road it seemed like I needed to take the trail so I returned and began the hike. This was my biggest mistake. The trail was full of water and mud almost the entire way to the cache. I got a ton of the little stickers on my clothes and shoes were wet and muddy. The trail was also hard to follow which seemed odd for the amount of times it is found. I finally made it to the cache which was in great shape! I took some pictures and then thought about how to return? I saw that if I just went a little ways past the cache I would hit the road and could take that back. Wow, this way would have been soooo much better to hike in. I spent the entire way back to the car pulling the little stickers off my clothes. I did have to take the detour for the short section of the road that is closed on way back, but if future cachers come in with a better plan than me that will be the only area they have to worry about mud. So I began the trip back for Thanksgiving dinner and my lip started to swell up and I think I might have had a bug bite by taking the wrong way in...but by dinner it was back to normal. Any way, I found the cache finally! Thanks to Lorriebird and the other COs for keeping this around for so long! Gets a favorite point from me.

Saw two bears on the walk to the cache, one got nearly 15 feet from us, I recommend coming during the day time!

Here from KY. Finding Florida’s oldest geocache was a main goal for this trip. After checking at the ranger station, I started out on a hike which wasn’t too bad except for the last 500 feet or so where I had to slosh through to get to the cache. Other than some birds, I didn’t see any other wildlife, but I was glad that a sign warned me not to swim with the alligators. This was the last states’ oldest Geocache that I needed on the East Coast. Thanks for maintaining this one!

Found with kb3ppr while visiting our daughter here. Tftc what a hike.

What a great day for a hike. Stopped at ranger station to pick up the pass along with a little chat with the ranger. She was very helpful and off we went. Trail wasn't bad got a little mucky in one area but over all it was good. Didn't see any alligators what a bummer.

This was much harder than expected. We stopped at the ranger station and got our pass. The ranger we got unfortunately was not as helpful as others have stated. The hike along the bike trail was good but man it turned rough fast. The farther we went the taller the grass and weeds got. I tried not to think about snakes in the grass but it was hard since we saw a long black snake shortly after getting on the trail. As the grass got longer, the ground got wetter. We did not experience problems with bugs, thank goodness. The last 200 feet was treacherous. Wet, horrible vines, tree limbs on the ground and stickers everywhere. When I say everywhere, well, just check out my photo. After finding the fantastic cache in great new condition, it was hard to find our way back to the original path out. Thank you for maintaining this wonderful old cache.

Everything billanddeanna said and more! Traveling with my sister down to key west and in prep for finding the most interesting caches along the way, we noticed the oldest cache in Florida was along the way. We read the logs and it didn’t sound too brutal except for the last 500’. I am adding that last part WAS brutal. There is NO trail once you leave the Marco road trail. It’s an intense bush whack. The tall grass was taller than me in places, thick rope vines grabbed my waist and my legs and neck and even my hiking stick and wouldn’t let go. Every step was carefully made because we couldn’t see the ground for all the growth. Tree stumps and killer vines did their best to wipe us out! I’m glad we marked a waypoint when we started the off “trail” part as we would not have gotten out alive! There is no trail once you get off Marco road. You have to circle so much to get around large palm fronds and trees and the other obstacles that you lose your sense of direction. I was glad we made the find and SL. Cache is in great condition. The Marco road trail is excellent with many flowers blooming. As directed by the signs, we avoided any bears, alligators or panthers but we did see bear scat and one snake. What a trip! And yes, hours later as we log this, I’m glad we did it.

This was the most beautiful trail. Palm trees, little critters, and hundreds of dragonflies. I enjoyed this one a lot! Worth the hike down the trail that never ends! Thanks for this amazing adventure! No gators! Booo!! Kinda wanted to see big Bubba!! Only bad part, wearing sandals the little ants are relentless!

Hopped on a plane from Jersey today with this guy as the primary target. Got an incredible wealth of information from the ranger station; that was awesome. Headed down the trail sprayed from head to toe, and thankfully, did not see the hoards of mosquitoes I expected. Instead, there were about 16 billion dragonflies; a welcome sight. The last tenth of a mile was a bit underwater, but we were prepared for that. The relentless heat, however, did takes its toll. We signed in on the new log and grabbed the tbs to move along. Another great oldie; glad to have it. Thanks for keeping this one going!

I have hiked this loop so many times, but I never tire of this beautiful place!

Today was my annual maintenance run on all the caches in Collier Seminole State Park, and actually my number one target was the Christmas Cache. First of all, I couldn't understand how in the world the nearly new ammo can could have been flooded! Then when I saw the condition of the can, I understood. Someone some time back clearly left the can open, and then just threw the log into the can without putting it back into the double ziplocks (which were still there). The can also had been partially filled with garbage, and most all the swag was gone. The rope securing it up above the ground was missing entirely. There were no TB's in it either. My apologies to the recent hikers who found the container in this condition. I just shook my head when I saw it.

But now the better news! My brother Birdman1 and B777Batman hiked along with me to check out the cache and the trail conditions. We took the entire loop just to check it out. The north side of the loop is WET WET WET! Right now you will be wading the entire length as soon as you take the cut to the right for the bike trail. The trail has not been mowed for quite some time and along with the water are grasses and weeds thick on the trail and between knee and shoulder height all the way to the park property line. It really was not a very pleasant walk. On the way back we took the trail along the fence and hiked back via the old Marco Highway tram road, which was completely dry the entire way. So if you want to avoid wading, take the south end of the trail all the way until it circles back north at the far end, then double back the same way you came for the way out.

The ammo can has been replaced again with a brand new one and it has been filled with cool stuff mostly of the Christmas variety of course! New log, new everything. It has also been secured to a small tree and is wedged up off the ground a few inches.

Happy Christmas Caching and enjoy this gorgeous park!

This one just about killed me.

Heading back to Miami for an early morning flight the next day....I thought I'd give this one a shot. Talked to a ranger and he told me a way that I could go to probably avoid the water. He was right!

I thought I'd wear pants and a hoodie as protection from the killer insects. That actually worked! I got not a single bite! But.....I was way too bundled up for the heat and humidity and I think I got heat stroke! I was actually hallucinating....and felt like I was close to passing out. My two bottles of water we gone too. A tough experience.....and one I won't soon forget.

I did find the cache though....and didn't get eaten by a bear or gator or snake. So all in all I consider it a success.

Tftc

It was a good time finding this cache. Upon arrival to the parking area, it was raining decently. Got everything ready in the rain and by the time I was finished the rain had stopped. Then the sun came out. For a good 20 minutes onward, the sun was shining bright and humidity was at its peak. Would have been an exhausting hike if conditions continued this way, but thankfully they didn't. Storm clouds rolled in, effectively shielding the sun and providing the entertaining sound of thunder with some sights of lightning. It also brought occasional winds with it. The closer the cache got, the more thunder was heard. Then, the "bike trail" appeared. Got another lucky break here, as there was no water to be forded. Just thin damp mud. The very last path to the cache was even clearer than the "bike trail". Came upon GZ & was greeted by the water filled can. Either previous cachers had not dumped the water out, or there is a bad seal. Dumped out the water so if there is standing water on the next visits it's a bad seal. The journey back was anticlimactic. The thunder faded away, the sun peaked out, but there seemed to be more bugs than before. Eventually the sound of 41 could be heard and it was just a matter of time before the geomobile came into view.

Wore steel toed tennis shoes, jeans, normal T-shirt, and a bug jacket (with hood). Wore steel toed boots during the "bike trail" and the walk back. Deet was not needed thanks to the bug jacket and jeans. The only exposed part, my hands, got bit maybe 8 times but if you're quick enough you can just swat them. Perhaps some gloves would be a good investment, as it's not worth oiling up your hands with deet then using electronics.

Made the hike in with my boots given the rain last night and this morning. About 500 ft away my GPS went bonkers but thankfully Tinkering Nut saw the log advising to follow the bike trail. That got us to about 80 to gz so Yay! Unfortunately it's no longer hanging and holds water but we brought a temporary bagged log that may stand a chance. Fingers crossed. Now to head back to Louisiana. Thanks for the exercise!

Can't believe we made the hike in to this one. Blow flies and humidity almost got us but we made it. At 500 until gz we took the advise and kept on the bike trail. Tip- bring boots the last 400 in is wet! We enjoyed listening to nature but never got to actually see what was making the noises. Thanks for placing.

WOW! That was an experience and a memory we’ll NEVER forget!

1st - arrived and got confused where the ranger station. Almost ready to turn around and give up not a place to just venture in hoping you’re right.

Messaged the previous finder. Amazingly they responded super quick (wasn’t expecting we’d get that lucky!!) With their info we got to the correct starting place. Super grateful for the help otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten this one done.

2nd - talked to the park ranger and got some tips about the area. She made sure we understood bug spray with DEET is very important! She said all natural stuff is not working for people.

3rd - the walk made us at times feel like we were in Jurassic Park movies lol it was very beautiful and it was a fairly clear trail to walk. That was the beginning but towards the end nope we lost that nice path.

4th - After being ate by bugs as in I felt like they ate us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! BUGS not nasty freak out the wife kind of bugs. We were apx 500ft left before getting to GZ. That’s when we started walking through ankle deep swamp water to get to the cache.

5th - Got to the cache, log is 100% soaked no signing is going to be done, and the container had 1/3 of water in it. We took lots of pictures along the path and at GZ as proof we were there since we couldn’t sign. By the time we got to the cache we did what we needed and zoomed our tails back out!

6th - The bugs were now eating us as their next day of meals! Aka bug spray with DEET I’m sure helped BUT there is no bug spray that would have saved us from this kind of bugs.

Summary -
Was it worth is? YES it was a memory we’ll have forever!

Was it one of our top favorites we’ve done? No but for sure in the top ones we’ll never forget!

Animals/wild life - We heard a TON of noises from the bushes lol aka we’re in Florida gotta expect that while walking through swap. We saw a couple alligators but from a distance. The ranger warned us they’ve had a lot of bear activity but we didn’t see any.

Thanks to everyone from the first to place and everyone that has helped to keep this active. It’s a memory we’ll never forget.

We traveled from SD on a road trip for a social distancing vacation in Naples. When we arrived to start this cache we officially had logged 2,723 miles so far on the trip.

Found today with my son. Bugs were brutal. We had 100% DEET on and they only laughed at it ????
However, we persevered and found it! Dropped a TB.
** Careful Fire ants had built a little home underneath the opening of the container **

I take unactivated pacman coin. I think I took wrong way at end but turned around and made the last bit of turn into woods to make find.

Danke für den Geocache. Skeet Skeet Skeet!

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Oooof, came during the buggy season. Our bug spray did nothing. Lol But we made the find after a few minutes of searching. A few too many minutes for our comfort. But we did it!! On our way out, we finally saw a gator in the water. Freaked Matt OUT. It was a good 20 feet away, but still made a nervous. Was able to get a photo of it though. All in all, another geocaching adventure in the books for Florida's oldest. TFTC!!

Ah. I got it. I hoped to get this a couple years ago but maintenance had the trail closed. Hiked this with MrsSquire and JesSquire. They saw a snake and we got a good view of two alligators. Both were longer than I am tall. The biggest was maybe 12'. They didn't change position or orientation when we returned from the cache.

Thanks your for the cache. I love these old ones. Most of these survive because they are out of the way, have a great view, and are memorable. I now have the Oldest Active caches in MI, NM, AZ, IL, LA, NC, SC, GA, KY, IN, AL, MS, WI, AR, OK, KS, NE, MO, WA, DE, MD, TX and FL.

My husband has wanted this one for awhile. Glad I was able to join him in this find. Good time of year to go as it wasn't too buggy. Glad the alligators stayed in the water. TFTC!

Four hour flight, three hour drive and one hour hike to get Florida’s oldest active geocache 19.5 years after it was placed. Thanks for maintaining it! A very warm day. Enjoyed seeing two alligators in a pond along the trail.

A great hike to this old cache. Enjoyed watching the alligators. TFTH

3.5 mile hike. Wouldn’t try it on a road bike. Probably ok on a mountain bike. Dropped off 2 TB.

Currently we (together with LüttDeern and Jonas04) spend our holidays here in Florida. We also use the time to search for a few caches.
This cache we could find together quickly.

Greetings from Hamburg / Germany

We are from Brunswick, Maryland spending a few days in south Florida. Mark went in alone hoping to see the alligator that everyone was talking about. Heard a splash but nothing to see. Thanks for maintaining this oldest Florida cache.

Bears and cats?

Merry Christmas to us. We are on a road trip through Florida and had to grab the oldest. My husband was kind enough to book Collier Campground. Thanks so much for keeping this one alive!

We drove down from Sarasota this morning (visiting from CT) for this golden oldie. We paid and signed in at the entrance and then drove back to the trailhead. Met the gator on the trail and waited him out for 10 minutes or so and then continued on our way. GPS started pointing in at about 500 feet but we continued on and followed the bike trail signs to get closer to GZ where we found the container easily. We continued the loop back to parking. Met a group of Roads Scholars on the way out. They were eager to see the alligator. Hope they did. Favorite!

No Panthers, no bears, no Gators. Just a small snake and a small turtle and a very old geocache. It was a lovely walk I liked the open prairie area the best. .. And the cache. Thanks. About 3.4 miles nice hike. Thanks Anne and Jim

TFTC!!! Caching with jo_botmn, and jjjgirl2007 March 1, 2020

Caching with Jo_botmn and hobbes3791 on a trip to the warmth from Minnesota. Another oldest cache! Interesting walk in that we had to wait for a LARGE gater to get off the trail before we could proceed. Finished the trip in 2 hours with 2 smilies, 3 gaters and numerous little heart attacks wondering what the noise was. Thanks for maintaining this cache. Traded TBs TFTC!

Tftc! Greetings from Minnesota! Found with jjjgirl2007 and hobbes3791 on a trip more deeply exploring Florida! 6 of 46.

I have wanted to find this cache since the last time we were in the area (2009). Honestly didn't think it would happen, but Jjjgirl2007 wants to finish the Jasmer Challenge, so away we go! Nice hike, not much water--only a little mud on the trail. Saw 3 alligators on the hike, 1 LARGE fellow on the trail. A little jumpy after getting the news that there was a gator on the trail...

The oldest cache if Florida...Check!

A high priority target for me and a cache plan that fell into place nicely, we found ourselves biking this at dusk. We made our way down the two track towards GZ and followed the geotrail to GZ. Making the find was a highlight of the weekend and knocking off Florida’s oldest a great memory for me.

Found it at our trip through Florida.
The next 2000 Cache??
Thanks for the Cache and greetings from Germany
Jubaka

In: TB Jubaka

I found this cache together with Jubaka on our trip through Florida.

Thanks for the cache and greetigs from Germany

Floeckchen

Beautiful park and walk on this warm day. TFTH

Finally got enough time and light to find this well hidden deep in the woods Florida’s oldest geocache. Couldn’t find the path in but found it on the was out. Was covered in sticker burrs even some in my hair.

Needed to drop a photo. Wish I could add more than one.

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My No. 4.900!!
Chrismas Cache for Chris, a long trip from Bavaria to this wilderness. We were a little bit angry of this trail, but we haven't contact with wild animals. A great loopwalk and
TFTC, best regards from Germany!
Vielen Dank für den Cache!
blue man58

Made it to the Christmas cache finally!!! Super easy and full of so much fun. This is a great little bike ride for beginner mountain bikers- a bit muddy in sections but fun!

Today we spent a sunny day in Florida. This was the number one find of today. We walked through the trail and one of us got more and more scared of the signs. First warnings for panthers, then for bears and finally alligators. We managed to find the cache and survived the hike Somebody left a pen on the ground at the cache, wonder if he managed to sign the log before the species took him

Yeah. With Pip

Ripton just HAD TO GET THIS ONE. I was pretty much along for the ride. Thanks for the history, but I left the snakes and spiders and gators to him to thrash out despite the well-established geo trail and Whacking Stick someone left behind.

Evanspack came into town this weekend for the FunBash Event and we decided to make a run south to get this cache. TFTC.

I was so happy and excited to get this old cache! Yay!! It was a very long HOT hike, but well worth it to get this oldie!! I am on a quest for the oldies, so this was a must do!!!! Woo and Hoo!! SL. TFTC! ]

Finding this old cache was one of the main goals of the trip to Florida this week. It took 70 minutes of walking for the round trip to make the find. Thank you for keeping this one going.

This was the goal of the day. Took the 4 hour drive to get another state's oldest. This would be our 10th state. Exchanged travel bugs. Very hot day but nice easy hike. Thanks

I was told by DFER this is the oldest Cache in Florida. Thought I would go for it late in the day as we leaving the are tomorrow. A little longer trek than I was thinking. 3 to 4 miles RT. Lucky I took my bike so it was not that bad for a quick find.

Went the hard way. Lol

This is our last day in Florida. Tomorrow we have to fly home to Europe.
We decided to look for this very old cache at this day. Best weather and we had no problems doing this. First to the entrance of the park to pay our obolus, then to the starting place. It was a wonderful hike through the jungle, we saw some gators. The box was an easy find, all ok.
Thanks for this veteran!

Greetings from Germany and
TFTC El_Mue

I wasn't quite expecting this hike. I thought a different road would get us closer to the cache. It it was marked no trespassing. Then we were tied up in a small town traffic jam with 2 officers untangling the mess. We then stopped at the appropriate trailhead and began our journey to the cache. Warning signs of alkegatirs, lots of cool sights along the way. I noticed a downed log directly south of the cache and thought aha! A shortcut. I should know by now that shortcut was a Latin word for an idiot's most difficult path. We wandered through sharp palms and tiny burrs that covered us from neck to toe. But we finally completed the .1 mile journey to the GZ where I discovered several TBs and grabbed one. We also found the appropriate path and returned with ease as the sun set to a beautiful day.
Today, our third day in Florida, we began in Fort Lauderdale, headed south and then west to grab the oldest cache in Florida, then arrived in Winter Haven before the end of the day. En route we passed along allegator alley and I saw my first gator. Lots of great bird watching, too. Great caching day!
Thanks for the cache!

Visited some trackables

This was #1 on our list of caches to do while on this SW and S Florida trip, and it did not disappoint ! We love doing early caches ! The staff at the ranger station are very aware of geocaching and very helpful. We walked along the Old Marco Island road and the Bike Trail, avoiding any 'shortcuts' and the walk was very easy and straightforward. Geotrail off the Bike Trail to the wonderful early ammo box was dry today. Saw several geckos and raptors and one snoozing small gator. No snakes or cats or mosquitos. Weather was perfect today; 72, sunny and a nice breeze. Delightful couple of hours enjoying this trail, the other ammo box cache on the way and the scenery. Signed log, swapped trackables. Thanks for keeping this important oldie alive !

With morning temps well below normal we decided we we attempt this oldie today before heading back to the far North. Checked in at the Ranger Station and made our way to the trailhead. Trail was in great shape around the entire loop, with only a few muddy spots. Not entirely disappointed that only wildlife we countered was a gator in a trail side pond. Took a few TBs, fav for the oldie.

While it’s cold and wet in Germany, I prefer to spend a few days in Florida.??

In addition to sightseeing, caching should of course not be neglected. ??

For this I have selected a few nice spots and of course also a few Caches. ??

There is (almost) everything there. At home I solved already a few mysterys and now comes the outdoorpart. ??

On my way to the Everglades I made a short hike in this area and visited this old one. ??
Great, that it's still alive!

Now a ?? decorates the map here. ????

Thanks to the owner for the care and maintenance of the cache.

TftC and best regards from Germany ??
Herby73

What a day!!!
Together with our dear friends from WFF, we embarked on this journey. The park staff was very helpful. Arrived at the trailhead @ 10am and took our time on our way to the oldest cache in the sunshine state. Weather couldn’t have been better. Cool temps and cloudy to start the hike. Bright and warmer on our way back. No need to use rain boots since the ground was dry.
First stop on the trail: “One of Florida’s Finest-CSSP”. Easy find. All is well with this cache.
On to the targeted “Christmas cache”:
Found the cache easily thanks to fellow geocachers like ‘SCRAPES’ that gave us excellent suggestions. No wildlife for us (that made the girls very happy) except the lone alligator Mr WFF spotted in one of the ponds on our way back. Mission accomplished!!! Great team work!!! Awesome time with friends!!!

Amazing cache! Amazing day! Amazing friends!
Had the time of a lifetime.
The weather and trail conditions were perfect and thanks to assistance received and the diligent preparation of our good friends dnb305, we knew exactly were to head in for the grab upon final decent. It saved us an unpleasant jungle hike, one that i would have ignorantly dove into and made everybody’s day miserable... thank you thank you thank you for that.
Took and left a TB.
Waived good bye to an alligator a snake and a turtle we encountered in the way out.
Fave point!
Thanks for keeping this one alive...

Vamtrix and I are in Florida this weekend for the Florida Suncoast Munzee events and knew we needed to come here since we are working on Triple Jasmer. After an easy drive from Tampa and a bit of confusion on the trail location, we were off to find it. Beautiful location with a lot of warning signs. We thought we may see some alligators but did not. All is well here, thanks for the oldie! ????

7852

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Got a bit paranoid with all the signs about panthers and bears and alligators and whatnot, but we got this oldie without too much trouble.

The ol green box was my goal.A 2.5 hour drive, a quick check in (ya gotta register to do the trail). The trifecta of Fla predators make this home. The walk was awesome, beautiful hammock. Some paw prints but no wild things. The hide is in great shape. Thanks for maintaining it. Thats important.

TB in

TFTC. Very muddy for how dry it’s been. Good trail except for being wet. Great cache. Only saw 1 snake in route.

Today as the day to try to complete caching in all the counties in Florida. We knew it was going to be all day but we had it planned well and the weather was perfect. I’ll be heading north into the cold the end of next week and this was the only day that fit for all our schedules. The containers and logs were in good shape. This cache was one of the must get on this trip. Its a challenge to get the oldest in every state. We got to the park and registered about 9:30 . I think we made good time being our first cache and leaving from MacGill around six. Nice walk with a good wind to keep the temperature down. Only saw one snake (copperhead) and one alligator. Will maintained cache for being 20 years old. Hope it stays another 20. Thanks for a great caching adventure.

Nice hike

Nice hike. Saw a gator by the pond. Tftc!

Full disclosure...when I read the logs of previous finders I got very scared. I actually thought about pulling the plug on trying to get this cache as I am mortally afraid of snakes, alligators and frankly not too keen on meeting Pumas or Bears either. Also, there were various entries about muddy and wet.

I womaned up and decided I had to give it a go. I am only in Florida a few days and I need this one to get me within about 5 finds of completing my Jazmer. So me and hubby made the trek. Seeing the posted signs about Pumas, Bears and Alligators did not ease my anxiety. Every noise I heard, I was jumping and it was about 1.5 hour round trip. We did see an Alligator, but it was in the water and probably about 20 feet away. Also saw poop with berries in - which I think was from a bear that looked fresh. The trail itself was in good shape, only one portion that was muddy, we were fine with hiking boots.

We were happy to find the cache easily and get the hell out!!! Attached is a picture of us looking very nervous I took a traceable and left 1 + another traceable that does not seem to be activated!

Thanks for keeping this old one in the game.

Found it! I passed this one up during a trip in 2013 when I was short on time and have regretted it ever since. Until now that is! Now I have found something like 76 of 93 active Y2K caches, 154 of the 253 oldest active caches in the US and 44 of 50 oldest in state caches. And I can't wait to find a few more! We stopped at the Ranger station to sign-in and get some route info and set out. We took the road which was longer but much drier. Surprisingly, it was dry the whole way. Afterwards we stopped by and signed out of the Ranger station and hit the road to the next cache.


This was the 10th find of 12 today to make 7691 total geocache finds. Logs were signed as littleblkdog or LBD! Thanks to lorriebird for the cache!

Took the hike to claim this oldie. Thanks for keeping it alive.

Today was the day to get the oldest cache in FL! It had been on my list for some time now. From where we were visiting we had about a 4 hour trip south and west to get to it and we made some very cool finds on the way to it today. I knew this was going to be a major adventure if for the only reason the wife was already on high alert before arriving. We started down the trail went too far as I was trying to take the road and not the bike trail but you actually follow the trail and then it cuts off of what I will call the road. We were doing good just had to keep the wife calm and stay close enough to her. I beleve we came across the alligator sign first. She wanted to move past this area quickly I didn't disagree. So then the critter encounter happened. I was out in front by a good 10 feet of the wife which was a good thing. I heard the warning which we have heard more than once on other caching adventures back north. I backed up pretty quickly the wife went into panic mode. Which was where I thought she had already been at before this. Now what to do. I stepped toward where the noise had come from to see if I could spot it. It poked it's head out on the trail and the wife yelled for me to back up. I was a very safe distance still but she didn't think so. Now what to do. She was crying and extremely upset which in turn helped the snake to want to move on across the path. I watched it disappear but wasn't sure if it kept going or moved to higher ground? Now to convice the wife we could start foward on the trail agian. I wasn't sure myself but I wasn't going to tell her that. See truth be known snakes are my biggest fear in life since a young age I have feared them. Finally we got past that spot and she and I started to breath again. The rest of the way I looked even more but we spotted nothing and heard nothing. We were afraid the last part of the trail was gong to be under water but it was just very muddy. Made it and found it and then we returned back without any more spottings execpt for a human when we were just about back.

THANKS goes to lorriebird for placing this gr[8] cache! We appreciate all those who hide caches for without you there would be nothing to find. We are not gr8cachers we like finding GR8Caches! This was our 23396 find. Keep on caching!

Christmas Cache has a current streak of being found on Christmas Day for 5 years in a row. Will 2020 be year number 6?

Decided to take a trip to the sunny south with Arrowhawk and thehitman. We started in Western New York and made our way down to Florida picking up caches in every state along the way. Thanks to all Co's for putting caches out to find. We had a wonderful time and visited so many nice places! Our hike was a long one with a detour through lots of mud. Arrowhawk was disappointed we saw no signs of gators, panthers or snakes. I, on the otherhand, was very happy with that, especially the snakes!

Found this cache today while out caching with booboo_1 and thehitman. Thanks for the placement!