Perception

When I woke up on Tuesday morning I noticed that there was a new cache (Perception - GC11C8K hidden by SouthernGirl) that was only a few miles from the house and in area where one of my caches is hidden. The cache listing recommended doing this cache by kayak or boat. Since I don't own either one I decided to be true to my caching name and do it on foot even though I knew the terrain would be tough. When I parked the car at the end of the dam I noticed that my GPS showed that the cache was only 4/10 of a mile away. I thought to myslef "This won't be that bad". I took off down the side of the dam and across the field to the bottom of the hill. Standing at the bottom I realized just how much of a climb this was going to be. So I took off up the hill zigzagging in between the pines and popcorn trees that are scattered across the lower portion of the hillside. About half way up I really began to feel the burn in my legs and was really sucking wind. I stopped to rest for a few minutes and noticed that the cache was only .25 miles away now. About fifteen minutes later I finally made it to the top of the hill after stopping several more times to suck up some oxygen and let the burn in my legs subside. By this time the GPS showed .18 miles from the cache but I had to figure out how to get down below the bluff line that I was now on top of. I followed it around to the left where I stopped several times to take some pictures of the lake and the creek flowing into it. I got one good picture looking up the creek with a popcorn tree in the foreground. I only wish the lighting had been better to get a better shot of this view. I finally made my way around toward the end of the bluff and found a way to slide my way down from small tree to small tree in order to get to the bottom. Why is it that those pesky little trees called "Devil's Walking Stick" that have the thorns growing all up and down their trunks only grow on steep hillsides when you need something to grab onto? After sliding my way down the hillside I stopped to take some photos looking downstream. Again, the lighting didn't help much today as the sky was heavily overcast. I noticed that I was only 450 feet from the cache and headed that way. After walking about 50 feet I came upon a mini forest of Mayapple plants and spent some time crawling around on my stomach getting the ants eye view of these interesting little plants. Most were only 4 to 6 inches tall. I love these little plants because later in the spring they will have a beautiful cream colored blossom with a yellow center that pops out below the umbrella of leaves at the top of the plant. Later around the first of May; hence the name of the plant, a small greenish colored fruit appears. I once read somewhere that the Cherokee Indians used the root of this plant to make a tea to treat constipation. I'll take their word for it. I got so interested in these little plants that I had almost forgotten why I was in the area in the first place. So I headed on to the cache. When I got to where my GPS was leading me there were about a million places to hide a cache. I finally found it after searching for about thirty minutes and I even used the hint. After signing the log and replacing the cache I decided to explore upstream. From that point the creek got smaller and noisier as the water ran over the rocks as the creek began to climb higher. I followed it for about 200 yards taking pictures along the way before I noticed that the bluff had broken down and became just a steep hillside again. I decided I would just go straight up and over the hill to get back to the car instead of going back the way I had come. This time the climb was even tougher than the first time but I need the exercise. Once I reached the top, it was all downhill back to the car. So, a cache that was only 4/10 of a mile from the car, ended up taking 2 1/2 hours round trip. I do recommend that if you attempt this one on foot that you take plenty of water and some energy bars. You will need them. This is the kind of cache that I love to find. Hard to get to and in a beautiful place that I did not know existed. I definitely recommend this cache to anyone even if you do wimp out and use a boat.