Some Caches Just Need A Little More

Some caches just need a little more gear than others. Some take a LOT more. The one we hit last night – No More Cows (GC12W6H) – is one of those that took a little bit extra of the right type of hardware. The task I'd assigned my myself was to capture as much of the action as I could in a few good photos (warning: the link contains spoilers) so I brought the D300, 17-55mm, and the small Gitzo tripod. Fortunately others in the group had already planned and brought the appropriate hardware to tackle this one. In this case we needed a ladder tall enough to reach the cache placed on a telephone pole (though pole climbing gear would have worked too) and the straps to secure it to the pole. Each member of the party who was interested had a turn at the climb, and I took mine with the camera. Its not often that you have the chance to see what Geocachers look like from the point of view of the Geocache container and I'm not sure I'd really want to...except for ones like this. I've been in similar situations before, they've rarely bothered me or caused problems (aside from when hauling up and down the larger video cameras and housing as I did with the steam locomotive). This time was much the same on the way up as I enjoyed the climb but watched my footing more than usual. Taking the photo was a little more work than I'd expected (I forgot to shift modes before climbing and was shooting left handed as the right arm was wrapped around the pole). Most surprising though was the complication that the large lens hood (for the 17-55mm) made on the descent. It seemed to hit each step all the way down. The photos don't really do the cache justice, this was a cool cache and a fun Geocaching outing. We're looking forward to the next one, though I don't expect it to be like this – rarely are two of these the same.