Edmond's Locks

I’m almost ashamed to say that it took us three tries to find the cache at Edmond’s Locks. But hey, we weren’t very experienced at the time, and I’m still not sure the co-ordinates were correct. You have to give us something for perseverance though. We just kept going back until we found it. Okay, so I’ll admit that the owner took pity on me and actually e-mailed me with a clue.

One of the reasons we kept going back though, was because it’s a lovely spot. Before our days with a GPS we just drove right on by and never really got to know these places that are so close to home. Now we see them in ways we never would have, even if we had stopped by from time to time. Geocaching causes you to look in every nook and cranny.

On our first trip there, we actually looked on the wrong side of the canal. And in both directions along the canal. It was a really good exercise in learning to read the GPS. We realized our mistake eventually, when we figured out the waypoints were leading us into the water. We had to leave for the day, but had already decided to come back.

When we did, we thought it would be an easy find. There is a long stretch of grass, and just a few trees, so how hard could it be, to find a spot with exact coordinates, when you have a gadget that points the way?

Well, let’s just say that the coordinates are generally just accurate within a certain percentage and the area to be searched is usually several yards square. Maybe even more than "several"........ And you really don’t know what level to look at. Geocaches can be hidden in trees, or under rocks on the ground, or cleverly disguised by some natural feature or some ingenious trick by the person who put it there. We’ve seen all of these now, to the point that sometimes I just sit and look and think, "Where’s a good spot to hide something?" Anyway, on our second trip to Edmonds Locks, we came away with less confidence than we had built up when we had previously searched and found many other caches all in one day.

I did log the fact that I hadn’t found it yet, online, and that’s when the cache owner decided to be helpful. The clue got us looking on the right level at least, and that helped narrow things down a bit. The cache was eventually found on September 1, 2007. It was in a rather logical place, and I don’t think we looked there on our previous visit. I do think the waypoints were off a bit, or maybe the big tree at the end of the point just messed with the satellite signal and made it difficult to pin down. Then again, perhaps we were moving too fast, and not giving the signal time to catch up with us. Experience has taught us that sometimes it pays to sit and wait for that to happen.

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