Pedlar WMA Cache

Not content to find Down the Cheat the other day, I got the boys outfitted with knapsacks, walkie-talkies and GPSr's of their own. I spent time showing them how to start their GPSr, load waypoints from the pocket queries, load up with supplies (water, juice, granola bars, batteries, first aid kit etc.), and headed off to Pedlar WMA.

I'd heard some time ago that it was an interesting area though I may have waited too long to do any 4-Wheeling as the trails I found were all gated. Nonetheless we were out to geocache so it mattered not.

First was this cache. We parked at the last parking spot before the shooting range and bushwhacked our way up the hill. Tom had his first experience with stinging nettles and Ted got his shins torn up with briars. So we reached the cache in somewhat less than perfect spirits. I found the cache but let the boys find it themselves with their GPSrs and hunting skills. They did fine.

The cache was hard to open, but we got it. 

I left the Red Jeep Travel Bug, and took nothing. Logged through my own travel bugs.

Ted took the Red Jeep Travel Bug and left nothing, signed the log.

 

Tom left the purple and silver car, took the John Deere cuffs, signed the log.

We followed an old road back down to the WMA road (probably would have been better to go in this way too...  After that we loaded up and drove out to Mason Lake.  The kids sat on the dock and played in the water for a while, we had some drinks and snacks, then set our GPSr's for the next cache...

Pedlar's Glory Cache

After finding the Pedlar WMA cache we decided to come over here and try Pedlar's Glory cache. We first tried to get access from Pedlar Run Road. I noted a unpaved road that is shown on topo maps and it looked promising.

When we reached the side of the road where the trail was on the map we found a field with a house, and after walking to the edge of the wood, a grown in trail with lots of briars. No doubt we could follow the trail but the briars made it seem unlikely that this was the intended route in. The kids were happy to bag this approach and we went back to the Jeep and went around to the other side of the ridge to see if the other end of the road (shown in the map) might be more well traveled.

We found the other side was much better, and indeed the presence of parking, the walking paths, lake and so on pretty much confirmed that the "short" way on the other side was most likely a red herring.

I drove the Jeep up the trail a short distance to the cable blocking the road and we parked off the trail right there. We put on packs, brought a total of a gallon of water between the three of us and started our hike.

It was a beautiful day, so once we completed the climb to the top, we really enjoyed the walk. Along the way we found first ruins of pumping rigs and then to our surprise in the distance we heard the distinct sound of a running pump. Sure enough we came around the bend and there was a running pump rig.

Movies

We stopped for a minute speculating about the operation and the other rigs scattered about the hill.  Then we finished the climb up the trail to the top and the cache.

We each took our turn finding it, and then the boys sorted through the contents while I signed the log.

I took and left nothing and signed the log.

Ted left the Red Jeep Travel Bug and took the travel kit, signed the log.

Tom left the John Deere cuffs and took the tape measure and the Red Jeep Travel Bug, signed the log.

The walk back was easy since it was all downhill.  We skipped the short bushwhack we had taken on the way up.  On the way down we passed some nice views.

I found a turkey feather and Ted decided to customize his GPSr...

One final view near the bottom of the trail.

It was a beautiful day.  We visited the Pedlar WMA, something I have been wanting to do for a couple years, and we snagged more cache finds!