Cache Found: Traveler's Rest
Travel Bug Picked Up: Fruitty Tutti
Friday, 5 September 2003 - 5:15 PM MDT (-0600)

This was the second time I found this cache, but I forgot to log online last time, and since that time it has been moved to this new location. I think I must have been a tad crazy to go even though it was late in the afternoon, since it was still rather hot outside. It isn't a long walk from the parking lot at all, but nevertheless, by the time the GPS I was using was pointing perpendicular to the paved trail, telling me I was only 30-40 feet away, I was hot and sweaty.

I wasn't using my own GPS for this find. Earlier this week , I called my friend, AlAndaluz, and asked if I could borrowed his GPS (his is the same model as mine, but in better shape—he must treat it better than I treat mine). I needed a GPS to take with me when my brother, Percible, and I drove over to the offices of a local southwestern Utah newspaper, The Spectrum. There we talked about Geocaching to a reporter, Lisa Grady, then went with her and photographer Nick Adams up on the St. George Red Hill to show them how it works, and show them a Geocache.

You'll have to get a copy of the Fri. 5 Sept. 2003 issue of The Spectrum for the article they did. I was hoping they'd have it online at their web site, but unfortunately I didn't see it there. The reporter talked to us (Astounding and Percible), the Veltkamp Brats, and a few others. The picture on the first page of the article is one Nick Adams took of my brother, Percible, up on the red rocks of the Red Hill.

How did I get so sidetracked from logging the cache find? That explains why I had AlAndaluz's GPS with me when I came to the spot, left the trail, and instantly found the cache tucked under a rock or two at the base of a much larger sandstone rock face. Good hiding spot, by the way, easy to access, but out of sight of casual trail walkers, cyclers, runners, etc.

When I opened the plastic cache container, I went immediately for the log book, hoping that it was still the old one I'd logged my previous find it. I wanted to look up the date and time of my prior find so I could log it online. I guess this cache is just too popular! The log book was quite new (only a few months old), and already occupied by a goodly number of entries. I enjoyed reading through them casually as I sat by the edge of the trail in some shade.

As I was writing my own log entry, a man and a boy walked past. We exchanged friendly hellos, and I went back to writing. The next thing I know, the two of them had stopped, turned around and were approaching me. It turns out they were fellow cache hunters, Ranger Dale and his son, on their way to the Relax on the Virgin cache just down the trail and across the river. I cut short my usually lengthy log and let them log this cache again (they too had found it at the old site before it moved).

While Ranger Dale wrote in the notebook, I rummaged through the cache contents, and discovered a travel bug, Fruitty Tutti, which I promptly took possession of, leaving a rubber-band ball in exchange. I'll drop the bug off at another nearby cache in a few days.

It was a blast meeting another geocacher while out caching. This is only the second time I've ever run across another cacher while out caching myself. After Ranger Dale finished his notebook log entry, I repackaged the cache and returned it to it's home, waving goodbye as the two of them proceeded down the trail to their next cache find. I briefly considered finding that cache too, since it was so close, and since Ranger Dale was so kind as to give me the coordinates, but I had a friend waiting for me back at the grassy park by the parking lot.

I see that Ranger Dale has beat me to logging this cache find today, as well as logging their find of the Relax on the Virgin cache. He's apparently not only an excellent cache hunter, but efficient at logging them. Congratulations, Ranger Dale and company, for being the very first cache finders of Relax on the Virgin (at least the first to log your find online)!

The trail back to the parking lot makes a long slow bend around a hill. Some other cache finders mentioned in the notebook that they'd bushwhacked directly over the hill to the cache rather than following the paved trail around the curve. If you're looking for this cache, I recommend that you stay on the trail until you're VERY close to the cache. That way you'll avoid traveling over private property. The cache is NOT on private property. If you go through a gate, you may be on private property.

In a few minutes, I was around the bend, across the bridge over the Santa Clara River, and back at the grassy park where my friend was still patiently waiting.

Thanks Attila and Cachin' Passion, for an enjoyable find, a double find in fact. I enjoyed the last time I found this cache, as the sun went down, at the old site, as much as I enjoyed finding it again today.

-Astounding
St. George, Utah