Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Santa's Purse 2nd Edition by polarbeardiggers adopted by Cache and Cary (1.5/2.5) (Archived) N50° 01.141  W96° 55.163 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 649047  N 5542819 Use waypoint: GCQFDZ Size: Regular    Hidden on 9/7/2005 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                             code red-code red, santa's purse is missing again,it has a first finders prize of a fully stocked cache un-named,with certificate blank to place where ever,as well as a regular cache to log in with a first to find certificate, and a few trading items. " hello, polarbeardiggers here ?" " Ho Ho Ho, how are my two bestest bears doing ?",said santa "hi santa, we are doing great, how are you doing big guy ?" "well not good, those blasted elves were at it again,my man purse is gone. and this time,mrs claus saw them playing sneaky sneaky." " Oh no santa !,let me guess lumpy right ?".said pbd. " yes !, but he had help, a gimpy ewok as well, but santa got high tech, this year i placed a lo-jack device in my purse,but i can't get it, there is no snow where they hid it." said santa. " don't worry santa, our caching buddies will help,they were good last year right?". said pbd. " yes !, i have noticed how good they were, just a few bad candy canes, taking tb's, but you bears were really good, i have heard about your spring contest, so i will donate a few more gifts for you." exclaimed santa. " thanks santa !, that would be great,and i will put out the code red for your man purse,um , any clues santa?" asked pbd. " just the picture of where it sits, got it from one of those geocaching tracking satelites, thanks polarbeardiggers,we will be watching closely!"answered santa.

Additional Hints Hints

6/14/2009 by Kabuthunk
After having posted the tale of this cache find onto the Online Geocacher website, I decided to edit my 'found' log and add a 'note' log since it stretches more than 7000 characters, in order to tell the entire story on the cache page. So yeah... I had to cut out a LOT the first time around. Thus... the entire cache story:

This cache. Ooooohh, this cache. You put up a fight, I'll give you that. Oh MAN, but you put up a fight. Not on purpose mind you, but due to my sheer stupidity, and the eventual requirement that I had to finish what I had begun.

I had just finished finding the nearby "Happy Birthday", and found that my next goal was sitting to the Northeast about 500 meters. Not bad, not bad, I thought. I should be able to snag this one and then head back to the car. The sun was slowly starting to set, and I had planned to hit several more caches on the way home to ensure my one-day record. Climbing onto the bike yet again, I headed down the awesomely fun biking path that twisted and turned through the wilderness of the park. But what's this... the path keeps on veering me further and further West... even Southwest at times! On the rare few times it curves Northwards, my excitement that I'm finally going the right way is quickly cut short when the path once again curves back West again. Several minutes later, I was dismayed to find that this path in question had added several hundred meters to the distance required, and I was now 700 meters from the coordinates instead of 500ish.

Deciding that this path would have a decent chance of just looping back eventually to the start point to the South, and with no guarantee that it would eventually hook North to the cache, I decided to go off-road a bit and cross a wide, rocky opening through the trees. Taking my bike off-trail, I followed an animal-path for a short distance. I quickly thanked my decision, as I soon ended up easily making it to another path. Following it back East this time, it was slowly meandering me back towards the geocache at last. But what's this... it's pretty much dead-straight, and never curving to the North that I need!

Another 5 minutes later, I decided another detour was required, and headed down yet another animal trail. Once again, my gamble paid off, and the path led me back to yet another trail. This time, the trail was leading me about 250 meters Southeast of the geocache. Hey, at least I had managed to hack off a good half-kilometer with my past few detours. However, seeing no change in the trail's direction, I decided that since two detours had worked wonderfully, let's give it another whirl.

Bad idea.

Swinging the bike down an animal trail going gently down a slope into the forest, the forest quickly closed up on me, making it walking-room only with the bike. Soon after that, the "trail" (if it could even be called that any more) closed up even more, making it "walking with the bike hoisted onto my shoulder" room only. And what's this? Oh, great... it's closing up even more! By this point, I was about 75 meters from the coordinates, and over 100 from the path I came off of. At this point in my mind... I had committed myself to this trail, and was past the point of no-return. I had a GPS... I knew which direction to go... let's just bite my lip and give 'er.

By the way... I was wearing shorts and was biking bareback. And had sandals on. Just for the record.

At this point, I had given up all concern for my leg's well-being. Not caring in the slightest how badly they were gouged, scratched, or otherwise bleeding, I just plowed through the very dense bushes, praying to find a trail.

--- Continued ---

6/14/2009 by Kabuthunk
In the end, I did... but I paid dearly for it. I've taken a pic, but I hesitate to post it due to the "I'm sure people don't want to look at my mangled legs" aspect of it . I couldn't have counted the number of scratches over my legs, feet, and stomach if I had tried. The vast number of mosquitoes didn't help either, but I'm fairly certain I DID lead them up to my by way of the trail of blood on the tips of every branch between that 'bike on shoulder' point and the actual, correct trail.

At least the bike was still in good shape. It may have picked up a scratch or two on the way when the branches decided to get tangled amongst the spokes or chains, but it made it through the ordeal in a lot better condition than me. But then again, I had it held fully over my head for a few specifically dense bushy areas.

However... after breaking through the dense bush, I found myself at a trail... and then the cache. AT LAST! Terrain of 1.5? Oh, I cranked that fella up to a 4, minimum . Unfortunately, my supply of regular-size chainmail balls was depleted for the day, so for my 13th find (lucky number 13, all right), and for a new single-day record... it got a micromail ball. And a logbook signing of course.

But the fun can't end there, now can it? After I had broken through the bushes to the correct path, my legs were understandably tired and in pain, but my right leg in particular was feeling more hurt than the other. I'm thinking my constant motion while hefting the bike over my shoulder had kept me going, but after my stop to sign the geocache and look through its contents, my right knee... simply decided that it had had enough. About 20 meters away from the cache with the sun starting to set, my right leg outright refused to support my weight. I tried walking while supporting myself with the bike beside me, but that only got me a bit down the trail before the agony started getting too great.

Quite worried now, I was a bit scared I'd have to call for help, or even crash in the car if I was unable to drive it home, assuming I got to the car! I noticed that my leg hurt most when it was fully extended however. Deciding to test a theory, I hopped onto the bike and slowly worked my way forward. Using my left leg as my main force, I let the right leg just follow along without using the muscle at all. It worked! Not only was this significantly faster than walking, but since I adjusted my seat to have my leg extend as little as possible, it hurt a lot less too! I believe it had an added benifit as well of getting some motion into the knee to keep it from seizing up. It must have worked one way or the other, because by the time I got to the car (a good half-hour later... MAN that trail just kept on going!), I was able to walk with barely a limp any more. I must have just pulled a muscle somewhat, and not actually torn any ligaments or anything worse. Well, except of course for the multitude of scratches and gouges across my legs... which continued to haunt me in the hot shower after I got home. Oh, the legs were not pleased with that, I can tell you that much.

In the end I was indeed able to snag another two caches on the way home after this one, making for a new one-day total of 15 caches (the logging of which probably took just about as long as finding them, since my online logs often need to be cut down to fit the 4000 character limit on geocaching's website... although this story was long enough that I decided to split it into a note and the find log itself, it being over 7500 characters long). I was pleased at my success, and brought home a story that will stay with me forever. And one thing's for certain... I think I'll be cutting off future cachings to a limit of two detours.

But thanks for the interesting, albeit a tad painful adventure! To say the least, it'll make for an interesting tale, if my legs don't already tell enough to those I show them to .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and micromail ball

Hints (Back)
Ammo box on Blue Stem Trail but is reachable from closer Cedar Bog Trail entrance - if you can find the hidden path between the two.