Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Ghost Beach by Nieuport17 (1/3.5) (Unavailable) N50° 31.834  W96° 37.295 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 668562  N 5600326 Use waypoint: GC149VN Size: Regular    Hidden on 7/7/2007 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:               PLEASE NOTE!! -- November 2010 -- There was a WICKED storm a few days ago (October 27-28th) which caused amazing errosion & damage to the Grand Beach region--- the Ghost Beach cache may be gone!! -- please do not plan to find this cache untill I have had a chance to see if it is still there!! --- I will update & cancel this notice when I have inspected the area (and possibly re-plant a new cache---- Please mark these coordinates down and input them into your GPS: N 50 Deg 32.493 min W 096 Deg 37.668 min These are for the parking area; you may have a real hard time finding where to start your search without these coord's. This is a fairly long walk, about 1 mile, over sand, loose gravel and rocks. The walk might feel like two miles by the time you get there. It might not be good for toddlers but my 9 & 12 year olds made the trip with no problem. Bring refreshments & snacks, take a break and it is enjoyable!! There is a First-to-Find Certificate, toys for the kids, and some pirate-type coins (Bermuda, Cayman Island, etc with ship emblems, pirate profile, etc). These coins were left by the last pirates who visited Ghost Beach. Please re-hide the cache with the same care that was used when placing it. Make sure that it is well hidden and secured. Do you dare to walk Ghost Beach?...Make sure you're back by dark. Some have seen two ghostly children that leave no footprints or sometimes there are strange lights... This area is probably one of the best kept secrets in the Grand Beach area; a 1 mile long spit with a swimable beach to the west and 20 yards to the east, a marshy wet land.

Additional Hints (There are no hints for this cache)

7/10/2010 by Kabuthunk
Well, I don’t know about ghosts, but there was definitely SOMETHING that startled the hell out of me out there. And as well, for being a best kept secret, it evidently wasn’t a secret to everyone (more on that later) . Parking as well wasn’t an issue much for me, since I had parked at the beach for the day (lot 5, right at the end no less), and planned to hoof it to the cache. I was taking a bit of a risk on this as well… the weather forecast had predicted thundershowers all day. Well… yesterday’s prediction was for cloudy with no rain, and the day before they predicted rain again, so we just crossed our fingers and went to the beach anyway. Turned out to be a good idea… not only did it NOT rain (aside from a few drops of drizzle on the drive in), but we even got some sun while out there! Thankfully, the weather cooperated with me for the hike.

I had actually planned for this entire hike to be solely for the purposes of getting this cache, but as it turned out there appeared to be several other nearby caches the way that I had never found (the first of which I had to abandon before searching for it due to bystander activity), so that was an added bonus. I had actually in fact planned on going after THIS cache first and snagging the others on the way back to make sure my primary objective was complete… but given my path had me walking immediately beside the first two above, I at least found one of them on the way. BUT… on with this cache.

As I said, having parked in lot 5 of the West side of Grand Beach, I had a fair distance to walk for this one. I headed along the stretch of beach, and slowly worked my way through town. Although my wife opted to stay on the beach, I at least had a little bit of company with me (see first attached pic) . I don’t know what it is, but even as a kid dragonflies have always amazed me. They look awesome, they eat mosquitoes, and when you’re in an area with lots of them they seem so… tame somehow. I’m absolutely certain I could have pet this one if I hadn’t been taking the time instead to snap a picture . But once my flying friend took off, I continued my trek. I headed up through town to as far West as I could go, and then headed down the road that followed the shoreline. I looked around here and there to see if there was a possibility of walking along the shore for this stretch instead of the road, but it didn’t look feasible. Oh well… there’d be plenty of shore later.

Once I got to the peninsula (or spit, as the cache description indicates… but I couldn’t think of the term at the time, so I kept referring to it as a peninsula to my wife… and so to keep with my mindset, I’ll continue with that term from here on out), I discovered that apparently several people had parked right at the entrance. I think if I come back though (very likely, it was an awesome peninsula I’d like to relax moreso on some day), I’ll follow the parking in the description to be safe (unless said description parking IS that spot, then it’s all fine and good). However, with nobody in sight, I set out on my hike. It felt good to get off the paved road and onto something a bit more natural. Thanks to the numerous rounded rocks on the shore, it didn’t sap my energy nearly as much as walking down the fine sand of Grand Beach itself. Having never been here, I had no idea what to expect though, but crossed my fingers that I’d be able to follow the shore the entire way.

*Continued below*

7/10/2010 by Kabuthunk
Towards the start, I passed various old fire pits and unfortunately garbage left by others in the past (a broken lawn chair, a big pile of netting, broken bottles). I wish I could have been able to clean them up, but given my car was so ridiculously far away and I was on foot, I simply didn’t have the energy (or time as it were) to be able to haul all of that… somewhere. No clue where even. But once I had passed those, the beach seemed to acquire less and less evidence that people had previously gone there. Well, aside from the occasional path I had to follow to get from one side of the peninsula to the other when the beach ended on one side.

And speaking of beaches ending, this is where it got particularly freaky. I eventually ran into an area where the beach seemed to end on the West side, but was simply nonexistent on the East side. Nothing but trees from here on, it looked like. Thinking that I saw a trail going through the bushes, I followed it through swarms of mosquitoes, and even more fish flies. I was just glad that I had my GPS on me, since I was constantly having to turn here and there to try to re-find a path that continued towards the cache. But literally… at any point in time, I had about 20 fish flies that had landed on the front of my shirt, hair, arms, legs, and one even settled on my glasses for a while. I gave up swiping them away after the first few times proved useless.

And then I reached the swamp. Or bog. Whatever that soggy area in the middle of the foresty, bushy area is. At this point, the mosquitoes and flies had grown so thick in the air, that I adopted the method of “keep your mouth shut at all times, and breathe through your nose, exhaling strongly to blow away any pets from the nostrils”. Again, I just abandoned swatting or swiping away anything at this point, and just concentrated on moving forwards. I eventually reached what seemed like a small stream that crossed the peninsula. So I’m thinking “WTF… not only does this peninsula that seems like it’s maybe 50 meters wide have a swamp, but it has a friggin’ STREAM?!?” I was also boggled by the fact that people might actually make this trip enough for it to be known that there’s a beach at the end!

I found an area of the stream that was fairly narrow, and could see the bottom. Thankfully, it only got to my thighs, and I didn’t have to worry about my cellphone in my pocket getting wet. The second I stepped on the other side though… damn.

As I stepped out of the stream, I heard a lot of rustling in the bushes immediately ahead of me, and heard a… for lack of a better description, a grunting, snorting type of sound. Having grown up in the country (and spending many a summer at my Grandmas a few hours further North), I immediately associated this sound with a bear. I have no clue if it WAS a bear, but that’s certainly the first thing that came to mind.

Naturally, several rather loud, choice obscenities found their way through my vocal chords, and I instantly turned around and friggin’ JUMPED over the stream, not caring if I didn’t make it or got my cellphone/other stuff wet. Thankfully I made the jump and landed with a slight splash into the boggy other side. At the same time, I heard the other creature make more grunting/snorting sounds, lots more rustling, and then a splash into the water to the East. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was just as scared of me and hightailed it away from the peninsula.

*Continued below*

7/10/2010 by Kabuthunk
So with my adrenaline going nuts, I hoofed it back again, trying to find another way out of this place, not being entirely certain if said animal had friends with him or not. I found another place to cross the stream, which took me onto some higher ground. And sweet, merciful jesus, there was beach on the other side of this higher ground! I was dry, there weren’t any mosquitoes, and I could see any potential animals for a fair distance! With a triumphant ‘HALLELUJAH’ in my head, I walked down the beach further towards the cache. Looking back however, I saw much beach continuing, and was a bit annoyed that I likely didn’t have to traverse the swamp nearly as much as I did (a fact that I proved to myself later).

But, fate is a cruel mistress. In this last stretch of 300 someodd meters to the coordinates, as I turned around the last corner, I spotted not one, not two, but THREE boats all parked up on the beach, with various families around each of them (pfft, cheaters ). *sigh* So much for enjoying my victory in quiet solitude. This fact was punctuated by one of the families’ dogs spotting me heading towards ground zero, and making it his mission to run up and bark constantly at me. Even with the owner calling him back, he refused to move, and continued to park at me. I just stayed perfectly still, and waited for the situation to solve itself. Eventually the owner walked over and retrieved the dog, who then proceeded to ignore me for the most part.

Seeing as when I stopped I was immediately in front of the cache, I ducked down into the plants and proceeded to open it with what little privacy the foliage afforded me. A few quick seconds later, I had the cache open, and the contents in hand ! However, it appears that the outer bag was somewhat damp, so you may want to look into that. No clue HOW it got damp… it was closed pretty tight when I arrived. Unless it was trapped there from some previous find before that. In either case, the inner bag with the logbook was dry. I quickly signed the logbook, and placed a chainmail ball into the outer bag. I wish I could have stayed there longer to read all the cache logs, since most of them seemed to have written a fair amount. I also wish I had the time to write more in there, but again… privacy was a bit sketchy. Closing up the cache, I re-hid everything as found and headed back to the beach away from the various families. As if to punctuate the fact that I was leaving, the oh-so-helpful dog decided to bark at me a last few times, JUST to make sure that the owners knew that I had started moving again. Seriously, if I wasn’t already less than fond of dogs (quite thoroughly true to begin with), this sealed the deal. Or at the bare minimum, I’d never get a dog that barked at anything that moved.

But that aside, I made my way away from ground zero, and parked myself for a few minutes on the shore, a fair distance away from any of the families (although I would have LOVED to have gone to the very, very end of the peninsula and played in the water a bit… but I would have felt WAY too uncomfortable doing so). I stuck around for 5 to 10 minutes taking pictures of the shore and other islands, and kept checking back to see if anyone would investigate what I was doing in there. Thankfully, only that family with the dog had seemed to pay me any attention to begin with… and then only because of the dog… and seemed to have forgotten my existence after I left. After said few pictures (and one of the boats, see last picture), I began heading back. My wife had texted me saying that she was getting worried about me, and was wondering when I’d be back. Given I had been gone over an hour, and it’d be about another hour before I got back, I’m not surprised .

*Continued below*

7/10/2010 by Kabuthunk
THIS time however, I continued along the West beach, and found a path through the small section where the beach disappeared into trees and bush. No more swamp for me on the way back! At this point, I was able to follow the beach without further incident, and with a distinct lack of bears . Although I was rushing myself somewhat to get back to my wife who had been sitting on the beach for several hours wondering what was going on with me, I still took in the scenery and enjoyed the walk. I had even started to gather up a few clam shells that looked particularly shiny (oohhh… shiny things ), but given the incredibly vast number of them, I decided to abandon it for now. Not that have even the slightest clue what to do with the shells once I brought them home, anyway . I kept looking around to see if there was any other interesting flotsam or jetsam that piqued my interest on the way, but alas, the beach was clear. Which is a bit of a surprise, since I figured that a random stretch of land this far into the water would have a lot of various things washed up onto it. Apparently this is not the case.

Continuing my nice relaxing trek, I made my way back to the beginning of the peninsula. Surprisingly (or possibly unsurprisingly, I’m not sure which ), I passed a few other people walking down it as well, but in the opposite direction. All in all though, mission accomplished, and I think I’ll definitely want to visit the area again. After a long hike back to the beach (stopping for that one other geocache at the church), I eventually found my way back to my wife. I had decided to take a slightly different route back since I had already found the other caches (minus one, but I was saving that for my next trip to the beach) in Grand Marais. After getting the cache at the church, I headed down to the main highway that led up to the park entrance, and basically followed that back to the beach area. Less scenic than traveling through the city, but a faster route. Not to worry though, since the next time I visit the peninsula/spit, I’ll likely adventure around the town a little bit… but with a car perhaps .

And despite my legs absolutely KILLING me by the end (I ended up jogging a fair amount of the distance back… in sandals… to speed things up), I decided to ignore my legs crying for rest, and headed into the water to wash the sweat and mosquito/fish fly residue off of me. At this point, the cold water was a godsend . My legs ended up thanking me in the long run .

Thanks for the awesome adventure though! Ever since seeing the formation of this spit/peninsula on my GPS, I’ve wanted to hike down it… and even moreso once I learned that there was a geocache at the end! I’ll definitely be coming back here sometime, although the next time I’ll be spending a lot more time relaxing on the beach, and preferably with fewer bears . I’m thinking that a folding chair, a few drinks, and the sun shining down will work out reeeeally nice somewhere down this stretch of beach .

Took: Several pictures, and that dragonfly for a bit of a trip at the start
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball