Into The Basin

This weekend I spent some time in the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve. There are a few old virtuals and an earthcache in the Preserve, only one of which I had previously claimed. Well, I thought, it was high time I did something about it. So I took a hike. As I walked its trails, I enjoyed the air and was thankful for the trails. The Preserve doesn’t allow wandering around off-trail, which is fine with me because I’m not a lover of running around in the wilderness.

There’s a scenic overlook that looks out at some of the wealthier homes in town and, farther on, the city itself. In another part of the Preserve there’s a waterfall that, unfortunately isn’t flowing right now. Austin often has to deal with drought conditions so the waterfall hasn’t flowed for quite a while (outside of the occasional storm, that is). And while I was walking about, I found a good place for a hide. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the appropriate container in my bag (well, I had an appropriate container, but when one end shines like bright copper, it’s harder to hide it in a forest not used to such things). Oh, well, I claimed a virtual, filling in one of my Jasmer holes, and decided I’d come back another time, I guess…

“One of these days” was a lot sooner than I thought. The next day, my daughters wanted to “do something” so I decided it was as good a time as any to go back. I grabbed an appropriate container and we set out for the Preserve. And when we arrived, we went for a walk.

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We crossed bridges and climbed stones. They scampered around, calling themselves mountain goats. We found my new cache location and hid it, giving them both chances to fish it out of its hidey hole. We kept going to the bottom of the trail and then headed back up. I claimed the earthcache and figured out the other virtual I hadn’t claimed. We made our way out as one of them blew out a shoe and soon enough that the desire for dinner hadn’t yet set in.

So there’s a new cache in Austin. Submitted around 2AM, published around 530AM, found around 830AM. And we did that…