Fear Factor Forty

This cache has been on my radar for several years, but we never quite had a reason to make the commitment. Well my 40th birthday was coming up and I couldn’t decide what to do. A couple weeks ago this cache popped into my head and I thought That’s it! We gotta do this! I mentioned it to my dad and my brother said “Sounds miserable, I’m in!”

So my parents and brother drove 3 hours to come do this cache and celebrate my birthday together. HillbillyFireman06 had a shift the night before, so he couldn’t leave town till 5:45 AM. They drove straight over and got here around 9:30 AM. After organizing our stuff and driving from my house to the parking area, we got there around 10:15 AM.

A few days prior we asked Postpile for some pointers and were given some very detailed and helpful responses. So even though it is definitely not the dry season, we thought we were well prepared to tackle this challenging cache. We checked the water levels and decided to bring a small kayak, thinking we could just pull it behind us since the water would probably be higher than normal. That was a bad decision.

We also brought a reel from my brother’s gator hunting adventures so it was plenty strong enough to pull us across the river. But by the time we got it all set up to use, and tossed it across back to the waiting person, and pulled each person across, it was just easier to swim. We were already soaked anyway. The water was so bad everywhere we spent probably 90% of the day in ankle deep water or worse.

10:30 AM – Hitting the trail

We set off from the parking area, excited to find Stage 1. A park ranger stopped us, seeing the kayak and reminded us that the gators are in mating season so we should be extra careful. Gulp. And wouldn’t you know it – 15 minutes later we saw a gator in the river. Double gulp. Thankfully we were still sticking to the trail and didn’t need to venture towards the water just yet. The mosquitos were terrible right away, so we sprayed bug spray all around to stave them off. We tried to stay on the trail as long as we could, thinking stage 1 must be close to the trail, but we were very wrong. It didn’t take long at all before we were in water and there was no turning back.

My brother had bought a new pair of shoes for this trip, but then decided he didn’t want to get them ruined, so he took off his socks and shoes at the first sign of water and DID THE ENTIRE THING BAREFOOT!

10:53 AM – The first crossing

The water was so high that we had several ‘crossings’ that were probably not normal river crossings. But there were definitely no ways around where we needed to go, so we trudged along with excitement. The kayak was very hard to use because it was so small, but we kept thinking about that gator and made it work even though it took a long time. We sent the craft across four times, for the three of us plus our bags, pulling it with the reel and tossing the reel back to the next person each time.

11:41 AM – Found stage 1

Eventually we got to the posted coordinates, but with all the water and cypress roots sticking out everywhere, it took over an hour.

And then it got worse. From stage 1 to stage 2 it was absolutely horrible. The ground was so wet and soft that every step sucked our legs in beyond ankle deep in the mud. I lost a ton of energy trying to get un-stuck from the muck. I was seriously doubting my ability to do the whole thing, but at this point we were already committed so we fought onward.

12:33 PM – Another crossing

It felt like an eternity at this point. All of us were very aware of what time it was, and that we had only found one location. We were pretty quiet, stopping regularly for breaks because the ground was relentless. I think I had drank 4 bottles of water at this point, my heart was pounding out of my chest and I was getting very worried that not only would we have to bail on the remaining 7 stages, but that I might not be able to walk out of there. It was a very frightening thought.

1:00 PM – The third crossing

At this point we had spent so much time crossing with the kayak, I just decided to jump right in and get it over with. We were pretty sure the next stage was right beyond the water, so Chief Great Feather stayed back with the boat and HillbillyFireman06 and I crossed over to find stage 2.

1:26 PM – Found Stage 2

The water was so deep even after crossing, we couldn’t walk around very easily. It took another 20 minutes to find our way through the chest deep water, figure out where the next stage was and get the next set of coords.

This portion of the trip was half mucky ground sucking our feet down, and half clear river water with plants all around. I looked down once and saw a foot long fish right next to my leg! We crossed another time and as we were negotiating the kayak, a man in his own larger kayak paddled right past us and I wished he had an extra spot for me. We kept heading towards the next stage, trying to get ourselves unstuck from the ground, or finding the right spot to cross more deep water. Another two people passed us in a canoe as we tried to find the best spot for yet another crossing. It was very difficult to go in the direction the GPS was pointing us, when we were worried that we’d cross the river and then have to cross it immediately again. That’s how much water was out there.

3:15 PM – Found Stage 3

After another hour and forty minutes we found the tree for Stage 3. It took so much time just to decide where the best place was to cross the water. I don’t even know how many times we swam across short distances but we couldn’t touch the bottom of the water.

I tried to get this one, but I fell off and HillbillyFireman06 had to climb up and take care of it for us. The location of this one was truly amazing, I won’t spoil it here but this one was my favorite hide of the day.

At this point we were still very concerned about not being able to finish all stages. Being very aware of the time, we decided to find Stage 4, call it a day, and come back the next day and finish out the second half.

4:20 PM – Found Dry Ground and Stage 4!

Around an hour after Stage 3, the ground became dry and we were able to walk on dirt for the first time in five hours. I climbed up and got the coords for Stage 5. Our spirits were renewed by the dry ground, and reaching the halfway mark. As we approached stage 4, we saw on the satellite view that we weren’t far from Flatwoods Park Trail, and we seriously considered walking out of everything from there, since the ground was dry. But we didn’t want to be on the other side of where we had parked, and have to find our way back across everything. The distance to the next stage wasn’t too bad, so we kept on going to see if we could do it. But it pointed us right back where we had come from, and before long we were headed right back into the water.

The water was at least calf deep the entire time, sometimes waist or chest deep, and we often had to try to figure out the best way to go to avoid deeper water. All the while trying our best to keep going in the right direction. At this point Chief Great Feather’s shoes were giving out and he lost the sole of one of them. Every now and then he would step on a cypress knee or stumble over a fallen tree that he couldn’t see under the water. This happened to me a few times too. Once I stumbled and fell down completely into the water. I started to feel really bad about how difficult things were. I apologized over and over again for coming up with this stupid idea.

But the guys reassured me that they knew what they had signed up for, and they were determined to keep going and conquer the challenge. Chief Great Feather and I had cramped up a couple times, so we kept eating trail mix and granola bars and drinking more water to stay fueled and hydrated. It was pretty slow going, but we made better time than the first part of the day, mostly because the ground stopped pulling our feet down.

5:16 PM – Found Stage 5

Chief Great Feather found this one for us, and I think after having some dry ground at Stage 4 and finding Stage 5 in only 45 minutes, we were excited to think that maybe, just maybe we could do the next 3 stages. This stage was also an easy grab, and the ground, while still covered in water, was about ankle deep and we started making better time.

5:39 PM – Found Stage 6 and more motivation!

This was our fastest time between caches of the day, at only about 20 minutes. The water was still calf and knee deep at times, but it started to rain and really cool off, and there was no more really deep water to deal with. I used my phone camera to take a picture of the location, so I wouldn’t have to stick my hand in there. Once we knew the cache was there, and that spiders were not, Chief Great Feather made the grab. We decided if the next cache location was in the same direction as the way out, we would keep going. But if the locations were a star pattern of back and forth across the muck, we would call it quits. Lucky for us, the coordinates for Stage 7 were in the same direction we were already going, so we pushed onward.

6:07 PM – Found Stage 7

HillbillyFireman06 crawled into this one to make the grab. He let out a shrill cry as he got close to the cache, and insisted on crawling back out to put his Go Pro on, so he could climb back in and record the experience for us. I’ll save the spoilers but it needs to be said that this one is really clever, and a little bit evil.

The water was still ankle deep from stage 7 to the final stage, and taking turns carrying the kayak between two of us was tedious, but fueled by adrenalin and the hope that we wouldn’t have to come back out the next day, we made great time to the final stage.

6:42 PM – Final Stage Found – Fear Factor Victory!!!

We ditched the kayak as we got within 200 feet of the final stage, just so we wouldn’t have to lug it around for a few minutes. As we approached where the GPS had us within 30 feet or so, I thought I recognized the tree, but I didn’t see the big opening, so I kept looking elsewhere. HillybillyFireman06 said “That’s just a gorgeous tree” and Chief Great Feather walked around to the other side and popped his head inside and said, “Ozzy, are you sure it’s not here?”. Of course he was right, we had found it! Now all we had to do was get inside!

I pulled my fat butt up, trying to get inside by myself, but eventually had to concede defeat and let HillbillyFireman06 and Chief Great Feather go up inside. HBF propped his knee up so CGF could stand on it and get inside. I got up that way too. Once we were inside, HBF climbed up and incredibly, all three of us fit inside. We spent about 10 minutes looking through the swappables, geocoins and travel bugs. We soaked in the moment of the great accomplishment, and being able to spend that much amazing time together as a dad with his two sons. The day was long and hard, and at times we seriously regretted what we were doing, but we did it. We persevered through the almost impossible conditions and we found Fear Factor!

But we also still had to get out of the swamp!

After a few photos and signing the log, we headed back towards where we had dropped off the kayak, and tried to find the best way to get out. My phone was totally dead at this point and not accepting any more charge (everything was wet), so we used the satellite map on HBF’s phone to stay next to the river. Postpile had told us not to cross the river after the final, but to cross the bridge. We weren’t sure where the bridge was, so we kept close to the river, but not too close so we wouldn’t waste time snaking around. The ground was muddy and cypress knees were still everywhere. And we still had that stupid kayak so we took turns carrying it for the .7 miles from the final stage to Morris Bridge Road. Eventually we started to hear traffic, and we saw the bridge and the guardrail for the road so we knew we had made our way out.

8:12 PM – Civilization!

As we walked across the bridge on the first flat surface in nearly ten hours, our hearts were filled with accomplishment and relief. We probably looked ridiculous carrying a kayak out of the woods and over that bridge. But as I looked down at the water and breathed a sigh of relief, I noticed the park ranger who was not too happy with us. Apparently the park had closed 12 minutes ago and all water craft were supposed to be off the water at 7:30. We apologized several times, said we were just geocaching and she still didn’t seem very happy. As we got all our gear back in the car and the kayak on top, I snapped a quick photo of Chief Great Feather and HillbillyFireman06 but didn’t dare ask her to take one of all of us. So we’ll just have to look at this photos and this log and rely on our memories of the great trip and time we had together.

Thank you to Postpile for hiding and maintaining such a great cache, and thanks to everyone who has discovered it through the years. Thanks most of all to my Dad, Chief Great Feather and my brother HillbillyFireman06 for driving a total of 6 hours, hiking for 7 miles and spending over nine hours with me in the swamp. This was a milestone #1000 cache find for CGF and a great way to celebrate my 40th birthday so I can’t thank them enough for making it such a great occasion.

This one definitely gets a favorite 😉