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Having many remote caches, is something of a double edged sword when it comes to maintenance.  Generally, caches that only get visited 10 to 20 times a year seldom go missing and provided that cachers are careful when logging them, they should require little maintenance.  A maintenance visit once every 2 years should suffice unless there are reported problems.  Having just adopted several caches from ELDitton I knew I ought to start checking on them, and today was that day.

Because much of my walk would be in the Okehampton range I had to pick a day when there was no firing and at this time of the year that means a Monday, whatever the weather!  Fortunately today was forecast as misty but dry with temperatures close to freezing most of the day.  To access this part of the moor it is best to park at Fernworthy, but not in the car park but at the very end of the road.  A good forest track then takes you right into the moor near Teignhead Farm.  As I overlooked the moor visibility wasn’t great, but it was very atmospheric – just how I love Dartmoor to be!  The first thing you come to is a fantastic clapper bridge, in my opinion one of the best on Dartmoor, but it only gets one thousandth of the visitors of Postbridge.

Following the Teign upstream I soon came to the first adopted cache, Blacksmith’s Shop. I haven’t found this for several years and needed the very explicit spoiler photo.  The cache container was a mess and full of damp rubbish.  The log inside its film box was dry, but totally full, so I replaced the whole cache with a new clip lock box. The Blacksmith’s Shop is recorded as a Blowing Mill and has a fine example of a Tinner’s Mould Stone, see photo.

I followed the Teign upstream a little further and then headed cross-country for my cache Fernworthy Forest View – not that there would be any view today.  I came across this spot a couple of years ago but only had a micro with me, so placed that.  Of course I couldn’t find the micro, but on checking some earlier logs saw that it had been moved, not far, but far enough.  I placed the micro in another small clip lock box and hid it under a stone.  Next stop was the adopted cache at Quintin’s Man, but everything was good there. Since I have lived on Dartmoor I have visited the heads of many of the great rivers, and I had three lined up for today.  The first was Teign Head which was a real disappointment given the great river it becomes.  Maybe we need some more rain!

Next, I needed to pick up the East Dart as I have two caches here, one of which hasn’t been found since October 2013.  This cache was placed in June 2011 and I have only visited it once since.  I couldn’t immediately spot it, so resorted to the usual “now where would I hide it”. Obviously I had a slight advantage here and the cache was soon found, once again in excellent condition.  I have now added a spoiler photo!  I actually had more difficulty in finding my next cache, but eventually did so and once again all was in order. If Teign Head was a disappointment East Dart Head was just the opposite and the finest river head I have seen on Dartmoor.  Although almost no water present, it was clear where the river had cut huge winding channels through the peat, some of which had then collapsed.  Above that was a dainty little stream – the East Dart as you have never seen it!

Being so close to the Cranmere pool Letterbox it is impossible not to visit once again, my second visit in a few weeks!  I didn’t need to check on my adopted cache here as I had done so on my last visit.  This time I couldn’t resist signing the logbook once again and even managed a selfie with me sitting on the letterbox 

 

 

The area between East Dart Head and Taw Head is of course, a watershed, but not a sharp ridge but a very flat and boggy area.  Fortunately I had chosen my trusted Muck Boots for today’s trek, a decision I was thankful for many times over.  Taw Head was my third new head of the day and although again with little water it does have a nice winding valley which would probably look good with a good flow of water.

I next headed up to check on my caches at Hangingstone Hill and Whitehorse Hill. Neither were a problem to find and both were in excellent condition.  The Whitehorse Hill cist is a bronze age burial site and well worth the visit, although I was disappointed to see that the cairn behind it has totally disappeared.  I then had to check on my adopted cache at the south end of the peat pass as I knew from the logs that this had problems.  Once again a damaged outer container but this time an inner micro with a sodden logbook.  So, another new cache was required here.  By this time I was a little behind schedule and headed for the most direct route back to Fernworthy.  This was a mistake as I followed the Manga Brook for its whole length resulting in a continous paddle for nearly a kilometre! Next time I will keep to my normal route of Manga Hill.  By the time I got back to the forest it was almost dark, but I didn’t need my torch.  In all my total route was just on 11 miles, almost none of it on paths, except that through Fernworthy.  However a great day and much useful maintenance completed and caches checked.

A unique event is taking place this year in the form of a nationwide Easter Egg Hunt, making use of the untapped method of ‘geocaching’. If you’re not familiar with geocaching, in its simplest form it’s a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices such as your mobile phone. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the treasure hidden at that location. In this instance the lucky hunters will be rewarded with a very special treasure in the form of a Free Easter Egg from Thorntons.

There are currently 50+ free Easter Eggs hidden across the United Kingdom, all of which were placed by the geocaching community themselves so expect them to be well hidden, they come in the form of fake rocks, pine cones and little easter egg chicks so you’ll need to keep your wits about you.

I was fortunate enough to be chosen to place one of these caches, so naturally I placed it in my favourite location – the wonderful Dartmoor National Park.  If you are able to come and find my cache you will need to walk about 1km from the car park and these are the views you should be fortunate enough to experience.

On Monday 16^th March the coordinates will be released on an interactive map which can be found at: http://blog.thorntons.co.uk/harry-hopalots-easter/Easter-Egg-Hunt

Hopefully all our regular cachers will appreciate that this Easter Egg Hunt is a family event – so please do set off accompanied by a child 

Last month I wrote my first Dartmoor Blog – my trip to the Cranmere Pool Letterbox. Yesterday I visited the other famous letterbox at Duck’s Pool, but that wasn’t the main reason for my trek into Dartmoor’s South Moor. As many of you will know, I’ve set myself the task of placing a major series of caches on Dartmoor and it was time I got on with it. But for me, caching is so much more than finding and placing caches.  Dartmoor is such a wonderful location and I am happy to use caching to try to attract more visitors to enjoy what I am privileged to wake up to, every single day.

For any Dartmoor trek, the first problem is what to wear.  The forecast for Devon was 9C, but I knew better than that.  On the moor it is always 2 or 3 degrees colder (altitude alone) and given a wind chill factor of 5 or 6 degrees, the reality would be about zero!  So I chose full thermals and did not regret it.  Paramo waterproof trousers and two layers of Paramo tops was everything else I needed, plus my trusted Muck Boots (neoprene wellies), gloves, hat and scarf.  So many query why I wear Muck Boots instead of normal boots, but after well over 100mm of rain in the last week, I knew how wet the moor would be, and I can easily walk 10 miles in them.

My route was to go via Fox Tor and the best parking is by the Devonport Leat just up from Whiteworks.  The leat was flowing fast and clear after all the rain, but it is so interesting to note the features built into it.  A narrow bridge to allow the rabbits to cross (Dartmoor was famous for its warrening) and a sheep leap to allow the sheep to cross!  This route to Fox Tor avoids the Fox Tor Mire – also known as the Great Grimpen Mire in The Hounds of the Baskervilles.  One reason to go via Fox Tor was to check on the Fox Tor hybrid.  A cache for which I was FTF in 2011 but has had a checkered history since.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find it, so it may have vanished once again!  Another reason to visit Fox Tor was another photo opportunity with Toby’s Tor Hopper.  I acquired this TB about a year ago and it’s aim is to be photographed on top of every Dartmoor Tor.  So far I have taken him to about 50 tors, with a photo on top of each!

I had with me about 9 new caches.  I didn’t intend to place them all but I had to carry a variety of sizes as I didn’t know where each could be placed.  Most think that placing caches on Dartmoor is easy – it is not.  In reality there are few hides.  You have to avoid the dry stone walls, the hut circles and all the other protected monuments.  Much of Dartmoor is just grass, with no decent hides, and most of the tors already have caches on them.  I wanted to take a 5 litre cache and had to take a bigger rucksack to get it in.  However, I couldn’t find a suitable hide around Fox Tor, but did manage to conceal a 2 litre box.  I did eventually manage to hide the 5 litre cache, and it needs a very big hide, but I’m not telling you where.

On my last trip in this area I found a very unusual item.  A huge rain gauge!  We have one in our front garden which gets emptied and the contents recorded every day.  I have no idea how often this one gets emptied but it has to be huge to take all the water.  Last time when I first found it, it was too heavy to lift, but it has since been emptied and is now half full.  I guess that they just bring some scales and weigh it, otherwise they would need an enormous measure.

Not only was I out to place caches, but to find a couple as well.  These were originally puzzle caches which I had solved, but for which the final coordinates have now been published.  One of these is on Naker’s Hill which is a huge expanse of nothing but grass.  It is totally featureless and very difficult to walk in a straight line, as there is nothing to set your course for.  As I was walking across here it occurred to me that there probably wasn’t another human being within 2 miles of me! What a scary thought, and very few places in England where that could be true.  This is truly a wilderness!

Another task was to check on my  Place a Remote Dartmoor Cache Challenge cache.  The idea of this challenge cache was to encourage others to place remote caches on Dartmoor. However, the silly Groundspeak rules don’t allow you to set a challenge of placing caches, so there had to be another criteria to allow you to find them.  How stupid.  This cache is over 4km from the nearest road and was in good condition.

My return trip took me back to another of my caches, that at Duck’s Pool.  This was the second of the famous letterboxes to be placed on Dartmoor after Cranmere Pool. It was first placed in 1938 as a memorial to the famous Dartmoor author, William Crossing, who died in 1928.  Not so well known as Cranmere Pool, but a great spot to aim for nonetheless.  All the guidebooks tell you that there is no pool at Duck’s Pool, but that is rubbish.  There has always been a pool here on my visits and yesterday there was a pair of Mallards on it – so ducks’ pool indeed!

Duck’s Pool is still nearly 3 miles from my starting point but you can walk in almost a straight line to Nunn’s Cross Farm, where you can pick up the Devonport Leat to return to the parking spot.  In all I walked just over 9 miles, but it took me over 7 hours to do it, achieving an average speed of just 1.25 mph.  The reason it took so long was that I placed a number of caches.  As mentioned earlier, the main difficulty is finding a suitable hide.  And I am not looking to hide micros.  I normally aim to use a minimum size of 450ml but for this series I am hoping to use boxes up to 900ml, 2l and 5l and managed to place all of those sizes yesterday.  Coordinates are taken with 2 GPSrs, one a single reading, the other averaged over a minute. I then walk away a couple of hundred metres and return to repeat.  Once at home I manually average the 4 readings to get the coordinates that will be published.

So a very successful and enjoyable day, and this time I am pleased to say, that unlike my trip to Cranmere Pool, all objectives were achieved.

I was very keen to get out and do a major Dartmoor walk and Friday looked the best day of the weekend, even though there was going to be a huge windchill factor and NW winds gusting up to 40mph!

I choose Cranmere Pool for three reasons, first there were 7 caches to be found on the way there and back, second I wanted to place a couple of caches in my new Dartmoor Challenge series and third there was a 2014 Dartmoor geocoin to be retrieved from the cache.  The planned route was just over 8 miles, mostly on easy Army roads so should be no problem.

I parked above Okement Farm which is as far as you can get.  I’ve no idea why the COs for the caches chose a parking spot down near the camp, but it will add nearly another 2 miles to your route.  As I was going south, the cold icy wind was almost behind me and going was easy down the Army road.  There was a little snow lying around, but nothing really to cause a problem.  The first two road caches were found and I diverted off for the OP17 cache before returning to the road.

This was where my problems started.  When you climb up to Okement Hill you are at 564m.  That is higher than all of the surrounding tors, except Yes Tor and High Willhays and you are only about 50m below them.  As I climbed above the 500m contour the Army road was covered in snow and ice and the snow was thicker on the ground everywhere.  The East Okement Head cache was in an area covered by snow and I was lucky to spot it.

It was then up past OP15 and the Q Datum cache which I had already found. Stupidly I was strutting down the Army road and completely missed the turning to Ockerton Court so that meant a cross country trudge to get back to the track.  Once at Ockerton Court the track ends and being a huge plateau from there to Cranmere Pool, it is one kilometre full of Dartmoor bogs!

 

Dartmoor bogs can normally easily be avoided provided you watch your feet all the time.  However, when the ground is covered in snow to about 6 inches, you cannot see them.  The secret is to walk only on grass which sticks above the snow and avoid all areas of melted snow, as they are surely bogs.  It was a very long, slow and laborious trudge of that kilometre and the sky in all directions was black!  A sensible person would have turned back at Ockerton Court, but I rarely give up on a mission.

Eventually the Cranmere Pool Letterbox appeared in sight and what a relief that was!  Of course at this point it started snowing and sleeting and I sheltered under the peat near the cache to have some hot coffee and lunch.  I looked for the cache but couldn’t find it until I remebered that I had the spoiler with me.  Unfortunately the geocoin was not in the cache!

My gloves were soaking wet and my fingers were frozen. Fortunately I had brought spare gloves but decided that I would never be able to place any caches because of the snow.  I had intended to move further on to place the caches, but I quickly made the decision to return immediately.  Even had I placed the caches, my fingers were too cold to write out what was needed and to check the coordinates.  So, I had actually failed on 2 of the 3 reasons for the trip.

I decided that as I hadn’t fallen into any bogs on the way here, all I had to do was follow my footsteps to get back.  Easier said than done and I constantly wandered off and had to use the GPSr to get back on the previous track.  On the way back it was a mixture of sleet & snow and patches of sunshine, but the wind was now firmly in my face.  A short rest at OP15 and then I continued around the Army road to pick up the remaining caches.

All went well until the very last cache when I realised I had to cross a small stream twice.  Normally this would have presented few problems but with the melting snow the stream was a raging torrent and the banks slippery.  Not something to be jumped!  I found a good crossing place about 50m upstream from the cache and returned to the same place having found the cache.

Now it was just a short walk back to the car and I was very relieved to get there.  Although only a walk of 8.5 miles, it had taken 5 and a half hours and was probably one of the most challenging walks I have done on Dartmoor.  Or maybe I’m just getting old!

 

www.dartmoorgeocaching.co.uk proudly announces its 2015 Dartmoor geocoin.

This is another high quality geocoin produced by Landsharkz and trackable at geocaching.com. The coin depicts a winter scene at the enigmatic Beardown Man with Devil’s Tor behind.

The coin has exactly the same dimensions and weight as last year’s measuring  38mm by 3.5mm and weighing 30gm.  This year it is made in antique silver colour with a 3D effect on the front and raised and recessed metal on the back.  The total mint run was 250 and there will not be any additional runs.  We hope to be able to sell between 150 and 200 and keep the rest for gifts, FTF and raffle prizes, etc.

The price will be the same as last year costing £15 including p&p to the UK, or 2 coins for £28.  Again, the same as for last year, if a second coin is purchased to be entered into the 2015 Dartmoor Geocoin Race, it will be available at a reduction of £4, so a total of £24, including p&p.

If you wish to reserve one of these geocoins please reply to this post below.  You will need to be registered with the web site to reply, and if you have not previously posted on the web site there will be a short delay until your reply is authorised.

As promised we have organised an extra activity to coincide with our 2015 New Year Cream Tea Event which is being held on 1st January, 2015 at The East Dart Hotel, Postbridge.

At 8am on 1st January 10 new caches will be published on Dartmoor.  These consist of two caches in each of 5 areas.  Of the 10 caches, 8 are simple offset caches and the other 2 very simple puzzle caches.  Each of the 10 caches will contain bonus information for the bonus cache which has already been published.

2015 Six Tors Challenge Update
As promised these are the tors that need to be visited:
Huccaby Tor – 0.8 miles (easiest terrain)
Hockney Tor – 0.9 miles
Birch Tor – 1.3 miles
Welstor Rock – 1.4 miles (fairly easy terrain)
Sharpitor/Leather Tor – 1.4 miles (but fairly flat as you don’t need to climb either tor)
Bonus cache – 1.9 miles
All distances round trips from and back to recommended parking.
So a total of less than 8 miles with many hints and spoilers

7 of the new caches will be published on geocaching.com, the other 3 will be published on opencaching.org.uk.  The bonus cache has already been published and can be found here:

2015 Six Tors Challenge – Bonus

The bonus cache can be found at:
N 50° 3(C-H).(F-G)(A-I)(B+J) W 003° 5(A+D).(C-G)(I+J)(E-D)

There will be a FTF prize in the bonus cache of our new 2015 Dartmoor Geocoin.

Yes, this IS a race!  The race will finish at 5pm and all participants must return to The East Dart Hotel by this time.  If nobody has found all 11 caches then the prize will be awarded to the cacher with the most number of points:

• 2 points will be awarded for each of the 10 feeder caches
• 5 points will be awarded for the bonus cache
• Total of 25 points, but the winner must have at least 12 points.

The 5 different areas will be announced on New Year’s Eve so that you can plan your route for New Year’s Day.

There is not a long list of rules, but please use ONLY ONE CAR for each team and do not swap bonus numbers with other teams.

So, how many are up for our Six Tors Challenge?  Please reply to this post to let us know if you will be taking part or to ask any questions.

There is, of course, no charge to take part in this activity, but we would hope that participants would consider a small donation to the Devon Air Ambulance Trust when they have finished.

Please note that you can participate in this activity without attending our New Year Cream Tea event and can attend the event without participating in this activity.

The first geocoins were activated and placed on August 20th – so we have now reached Day 14.  In total there are 20 geocoins in the race and all have now been activated, but 4 have still to be placed!

A very exciting day yesterday when early on BigCandLittleC’s coin suddenly arrived in Terror on the Ridge of Death! – a terrain 4.5 cache on Snowdon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, that excitement was surpassed when later in the day Tobytwirl’s coin arrived totally unexpectedly in Egypt!  Sue had gambled by placing her coin in the TB Hotel by Exeter Airport and it certainly paid off.  2,554 miles were added to get to Egypt and the coin now resides in a cache in Sharm el-Sheikh.   

So, a very promising start I think, there has been much interest in where the TB’s are going and hopefully that interest will continue.  For me I have been very pleased with several comments re the quality of the coins and have also been surprised that some have said they’ve never seen a geocoin before!

I will continue to keep the table with positions up to date, see the menu at the top of the page, and will report again when the next interesting events occur.  Many thanks for your interest.

 

Welcome to the first Dartmoor Geocoin Race 

I’ve read so many negative thoughts regarding trackables, that I thought I would organise a geocoin race, which should enable a few more geocoins to be released, hopefully will give us all a bit of competitive fun and maybe give us all a more positive view on trackables.

It’s very easy to take part.  You will need to release one of the limited edition 2014 Dartmoor Geocoins.  Normally these sell at £12 plus £3 p&p, but for this race they will cost only £10 including p&p.  If you want one to keep and one to race it will cost £22 including p&p for 2 coins.

There is really only one rule – the geocoin MUST be released and placed in a cache for others to find.

The geocoin will remain your property and you can set whatever goals you would like on the geocoin page.  I would ask you NOT to remove the geocoins name but to add to it, e.g. it comes named as Dartmoor National Park 2014 Geocoin, so you could add Sue’s ….. to the front of it.  That way everybody can still search for it and I can produce some race details.

The race will run until 31st December 2014 and there will be 2 winners.  The coin that has travelled furthest and the coin that has been PLACED in the greatest number of caches.  Visited will not count, and neither will discovered.  The whole idea is to let these coins move from cache to cache, and not be held.  You can add instructions to the coin’s page or attach them to the coin to let everybody know that it is in a race.  The prize for these 2 winners will be a 2015 Dartmoor geocoin – yet to be designed.

If any coin goes missing before 31st December 2014 I will replace it free of charge up to a maximum of 5 coins in total.  But this will NOT apply until the coin has been moved on at least once.  This should encourage you to think carefully about where you start it off – e.g. not in a cache & dash, but in a more remote location away from a road.

This is intended as a bit of fun and hopefully everybody will take part in that spirit.  I’m sure that there are lots of ways to improve your chances, but please play fair as I don’t want any disputes or arguments.  Just go for it 

If you want to take part, please add a comment below OR post on the Devon Geocachers Facebook page.

 

After over 6 months of planning the 31 caches of the Skir Hill Trail have now been placed.  The 3 bonus caches have already been published and the remaining 28 caches will be published at 6am on Good Friday.

Planning started on the series way back in September and I had agreement with the reviewer on all the locations and only had to place the caches, but then Remote was published.  Not wishing to have two new major series published at the same time, I delayed the Skir Hill Trail.  Unfortunately, December, January and February were awful months, so it was not until March that I could look at it again.

Skir Hill Trail is a roughly circular route that can be completed either clockwise or anti-clockwise.  There is an outward bonus about halfway around, but the necessary information is available in both directions.  There is an inward bonus and a final bonus, so lots of information to be gathered as you go.  Each cache description states if there is bonus information available and for which bonus.

The trail terrain is more difficult than Dart’moor’s Double Dozen, there are less paths, more hills and more stream crossings.  As usual with remote caches, most of them are fairly simple under-rock hides, but there are a few more difficult ones, as you will discover and I have tried a couple of new cache types.

This is not intended as a simple 5 mile stroll with 30 easy caches – but you knew that anyway!  It’s a DD series, with no meaningful hints and no spoiler photos, so please allow all day if you wish to complete it.  If possible, please do make some notes as I read with interest every single log, so the copy and paste log is a bit boring when you get it 31 times!  This is the most complicated series I have put together, but hopefully it will all work.  If you have any problems please call me on 01822 880260 or 07973 159510, but I won’t be giving any hints or clues.

The Outward Bonus and the Final Bonus both contain unactivated 2014 Dartmoor Geocoins as FTF prizes.  Hopefully these will go to different geocachers.  The Inward Bonus has an activated 2014 Dartmoor Geocoin which is NOT a FTF prize but is to be moved on as a normal geocoin.  It is probably the only one of these coins to have been “released”.

A final mention must go to our reviewer Calluna Tib.  Thank you so much for your help in publishing this series and for meeting the rather tough deadline I asked for.  Many thanks indeed.

The winter’s weather has certainly caused a few problems with many of Dartmoor’s caches.  I’ve never seen so many “Needs Maintenance” and DNF logs, fortunately not many on my caches – so far!  The wet weather seems to have penetrated many caches and several seem to have been lost to floods or rivers and even small streams in spate.

I had received a couple of NM logs on my DDD series so decided yesterday to do a spot of maintenance.  For the most part I was amazed at how well the caches had survived relatively unscathed.  Good quality clip lock boxes (not the cheap ones with loose fitting lids) normally seem to work well, but I was amazed at how well my bison tubes with ritr logs had fared – the logs were in almost pristine condition, although full and needing replacement.  The main problem is going to be lost or perishing seals – can you buy replacements?  The caches faring worse are normally the 35mm film canisters and unless protected are often a problem.

Most well prepared caches can cope with the Dartmoor weather very well.  The problem is sometimes those finding them!  Several caches were not in the right place and some had been left in the open.  The Starch Factory was saturated and this could only have occurred because the clip lock box had not been shut at some time.  Several caches had lost their internal plastic bags and several pencils had disappeared.  The East Dart Waterfall cache had been nibbled by a mouse (or similar) and was full of holes!

Overall though, I was very pleased with the state of the caches, especially as most had been found about 100 times, and would like to thank everybody for looking after them so well. 

However, there are a few series scattered on the edges of Dartmoor which are in a bit of a mess.  Many caches are very damp or even saturated and many seem to have gone missing.  As I mentioned above, the caches that fare worse are definitely the 35mm film canisters which are often the cache and dashes.  We’ve now had about 10 days without any rain, so hopefully some of these series may be getting the tlc they so desperately need.