We had made the run to Monkey Mountain in the late spring, picked up two of the four caches that were located out there, and said that we would someday return and pick up the other two. So, when we needed something to do as an outdoor activity, Monkey Mountain was at the top of our list of places to go geocaching. So, with members and adults from the Crew, and two tag alongs ... we were on our way.
We are starting to learn that there is no such thing as an easy trek at Monkey Mountain. Looking at the Satellite views of the area and looking at the fact that both of these caches appeared to be pretty much out in the open, it gave every impression of being a nice casual stroll. Guess again.
The initial 850 feet took us up 125 feet in elevation, and the trail was basically a water run off that people started using as a trail to get to the top. From there it was a casual trek downhill through open fields where the grass was maybe four to six inches at best. We stopped and played around on the hay bales before making the journey to the northeast corner of the park. What we found was that last .4 miles of the trek to the Cache was going to be bushwhacking through the trees ... again. The clearing under the power lines that looked to offer a nice casual walk to the cache turned out to be 1,380 feet of thorn bushes, hidden creeks, and who knows what. So off in the trees we went, and we ended up dropping some of the adults as the terrain simply got to be too rough for them.
Naughty Monkeys (GCBF8E) was the furthest Geocache from our starting point. When we found the location, what we found was a disappointment. The cache was as I had predicted, it had been put up a tree. Unfortunately, the tree had fallen over, and the cache had been exposed to running water on the ground, flooding the inside of the Ammo Can, and getting to the log, which was too saturated for us to sign. I need to remember to carry spare paper with me from now on so I can replace logs, or leave logs.
East Monkey (GCH4W0): So, after trekking back out of the woods and catching up with the other adults. After noting that we were starting to run out of daylight, I sent the Crew on ahead after the final cache. According to all information, it was located on the edge of a clearing, straight up the hill from where we exited the woods. No dangerous terrain, so no problems sending the crew off on their own after this one and the adults catching up. By the time we reached the meeting point, the Crew had found the cache and were waiting for us, this cache being in good shape and able to be signed.
So, the Return to Monkey Mountain was a success. We picked up the last two Geocaches we needed to log. I went ahead and logged Naughty Monkeys even though we couldn't sign the log, and notified the owner that the cache needs maintenance. Thank you to the person(s) that placed the Caches in this location, we had a great time bushwhacking our way through this endeavor.
