All Gone Key In

This was my last cache of the day with my friends, and boy, it was a challenging one!

We hiked in via GPS direct (bushwhacking) to the cache area, where we were met with a steep snow covered slope. The view was spectacular - it's unfortunate that I was too focused on the cache to take a picture of the Potomac River and a sprawling mansion on the opposite shore.

The mixture of wet leaves and melting snow was a real worry - I was very concerned for the entire party as we slipped all over the place. We were on site for about 30 minutes, covering a very broad area along a 100' vertical slope. My own GPSr was wandering a bit, but kept bringing me back to a certain spot- which is usually an indication that the cache is nearby.

Even though I had seen others search a root ball earlier, I decided to scope it out again since we were running out of ideas. At first I didn't see anything, but a few seconds of poking and prodding produced the hollow metallic thunk of an ammo can - WOOHOO!

CCCA was at the bottom of the cliff (probably contemplating a DNF, since we were all thinking the same thing) when I hooted, and she scrambled straight up where we opened the cache and signed the log. This was my ONLY 'FTF' today, and man did it feel good!

Time spent with good friends always goes by too quickly, and as we hiked out I snapped the pics below. I can't wait to go cachin' with my friends again - thank you so much for sharing the day with me here in Virginia!