100 Geocachers

Well done to patdhill as by my reckoning on the 15th September 2012 you became the 100th geocacher to visit one of the WSI series caches!

I'm afraid there is no prize for this but it does go to show how popular the series has been during its 16 months of existence.

One or two of the cahes are suffering the work of the elements and will need attention soon but don't give up visiting them as they are all still there.

... and in third place is...

mallykay became the 'third' successful completers of the WSI series today and it sounds like they had a good time...

"Found Curves, John Greenwood & Park Rash -  all co-ords spot on and caches in good condition. Another super day out & thankfully the snow flurries came to nothing!"

"Day 3 and we parked at Halton Gill, we are really enjoying basing our days out around this smashing series. We walked on the Yockenthwaite path to Horse Head Moor, along the ridge and returned via Cosh. New territory for us and our favourite day so far."

"What a thoroughly enjoyable series this has been, thank you so much and we look forward to receiving our copy of the book."

Thank you both for taking part and congratulations once again!

Unsteady Trickle

Well, spring is making an appearance (in the South and Midlands at least!) and hopefully this will encourage a few more geocachers out to Upper Wharfedale to enjoy the delights the area has to offer.

Over the winter there has been a small trickle of geocachers visiting the WSI caches (mainly the ones down in the dale). I hope that the increasing daylight and temperatures will see footfall increase.

To date 62 individual cachers have visited at least one of the series with around 250 visits to series caches in total. I'm pleased that so many people are enjoying the series and hope that the visits continue. Do continue to send in any photos that you have taken during your rounds.

The Way Down

The Way Down - this lovely photograph was taken today by Biggles46 after their successful completion of the WSI series.

'Storm Clouds Above' at WSI06

Thanks to Biggles46 for this lovely photo of an impending storm up near WSI06. Good luck with finding the 'prize' cache Biggles46.

'Team Three Dogs'

Well done Team Three Dogs for their successful completion of the WSI series.

The team included: EmeraldEvans, Peter&Di, Yorkshiretaff, X-Will, Aldocandy, BradfordGull and Two Tykes along with canine companions Dylis, Fudge and Archie. Well done to you all!

Thank you also for the kind words about the series - could it become a classic? As Two Tykes said in his log: 'arguably my best geocaching experience to date'.

You'd better get out there and see for yourselves...

Team Photo

Here are 'Team Two Dogs' atop Firth Fell during their recent grapple with the WSI geocache series.

Visitor Numbers

There is still steady interest being shown in the WSI geoartcaches. 17 geocachers have visited one or more of the caches but we want more. Maybe the summer holidays will encourage people out... and a bit of summer weather.

Thanks to all those that have visited so far but don't forget to claim your artist's book (in sections or complete). Details of how to do this (it's simple) are under the main Where Spheres Intersect entry on www.geocaching.com

Go on, head to the beautiful Dales and bag a few caches while you are there.

Winner!!!

Well the WSI series has been live for just under a fortnight and we have the first completer of the series. Well done gilfam for all your hard work and I hope you had some fun, enjoyment and nice weather doing the series. Don't forget to claim your 'prize' - details on the main series entry page.

So far there have been over 30 visits to the series caches with 10 geocachers joining in the fun. Now that the weather has taken a turn for the better (hopefully) why don't you get out there amongst it all! If you head to Buckden on the 18th June take time out from your geocaching to have some fun at the Village Gala.

They're live...

The Where Spheres Intersect series went live last Saturday and several caches have already been found.

Follow this link to the main series entry to start your search.

Thanks to DalesmanX for all his help getting the caches listed.

Going Live Soon...

The caches have all been listed and will go live from about 4pm tomorrow the 28th May.

Keep an eye on the Upper Wharfedale area on geocaching.com to start your search.

Good luck!

Nearly There

With a few days to go before the official launch I will be tying up a few loose ends with a trip to Upper Wharfedale tomorrow and Thursday.

The caches are all sorted out and made quite an impression all stacked up.

The physical caches don't contain a lot but there is a lot of research behind their placement and in the artist's book that goes with the project.

The artists books won't be ready straight away so any very eager and/or successful geocachers will have to wait a little while to receive their 'prizes'. The reason for this is that I hope to use some of the experiences of the geocachers visiting my series to add another thread of content to the artist's books. As geocachers uncover the WSI series one of the few things I ask in return is to report their experiences in words and images. These experiences will start to appear here as soon as the successful start to report them.

Backing up the caches themselves and the artsist books will be a commentary about each site which I will add to this blog on a separate page. I will announce when these are added. In the meantime keep an eye on geocaching.com and the geoartcache site for the launch of the project this coming Saturday.

Project Development II

Wow! Nearly a month since my last post. With all the holidays around Easter time has flown by but my locations for caches have mostly been passed. Now it is on to the detailing of the caches and the admin involved with getting them live on geocaching.com in time for the project launch on the 28th May.

I've still got to buy the containers for the caches and add their contents before I visit Upper Wharfedale at the end of the month to hide them. Lakeland looks like a good bet with their lockable food storage containers.

Now I know the locations of the caches I can get on with designing and producing the artist's book 'prizes' for successful discovery of the series. The edition for the artist's book will be relatively modest at about 50 to 75 as a survey of the National Park geocache series in Upper Wharfedale shows a maximum visitor number of 43 to a single cache in any one year.

The geocache that I hid at the Parkinson Building in Leeds seems to have disappeared into a void and needs replacing. Hopefully it will be back in the next few days.

Survey Trip - Reflections

Back in the studio now and looking back at last week's trip to Upper Wharfedale. Well it was successful in the number of geocaches found and most were of the 'waterproof' lunchbox type and a similar size to the containers proposed for GeoArtCache. Identifying locations for my caches was another matter.

I was surprised by how difficult it was to find suitable locations and this is made more difficult by the fact that I'm trying to let my research dictate the location rather than the other way about. I think though that I will have to be a little more creative with the locating and combine some of my facts and themes into less caches.

The caches have to be hidden thoughtfully and must not damage any structures or involve burying the boxes. There are a lot of stone walls around Buckden and they are tempting sites for caches but they are off limits - the farmers have a difficult enough time keeping these structures in good order without geocachers pulling them apart looking for a Tupperware box.

Staying on the subject of walls, it always amazes me the lengths landowners went to to identify the limits of their domains across rough ground. Massive walls were built or heavy-posted wire fences strung across some of our most inaccessible landscapes - the walls on Birk's Fell ridge for instance. I tried to imagine the army of workers that must have been employed to build and maintain them. Massive feats but dwarfed by the larger scale of the fells and skies.


These land divisions would have been laid down in the nineteenth century I assume but how much of what we see there today is original? Stone is being replaced by the more flexible medium of wire and wood post but there is still much to maintain and I imagine that if you have a wall in fairly good repair you don't want to spend money on new fences if you can get away with occasional rebuilding of gaps. On Birk's Fell there were certainly marks indicating that stretches of fallen wall may be rebuilt soon. A quick look around the Internet will show that there are plenty of people interested in the craft of walling (e.g. the Yorkshire Drystone Walling Guild offers courses and advice). They are also convenient features on which to explore the secret world of lichens and mosses so treat them with respect. To find out more the National Park also has a detailed introductory page.

Back to the geocaching. I did find enough sites to consider but I will now have to get these organised and find out if there are any landownership issues before I can fully commit to them. The locations will help to inform the artwork for the 'prizes' but I will make a start on developing this. So, lots to do but still seven weeks left before the official launch of GeoArtCache. Must get on...

Survey Trip Stats.

Getting to know my GPS I found the trip computer facility which I feel lends a suitably cold, technological foil to the physical walking experience:

Day One
Overall distance: 12.3 miles
Moving time: 3h 28m
Moving average: 3.5mph
Stopped time: 1h 3m
Overall average: 2.7mph
Total ascent: 1588m
3 geocaches found

Day Two
Overall distance: 16.9 miles
Moving time: 4h 41m
Moving average: 3.6mph
Stopped time: 1h 37m
Overall average: 2.7mph
Total ascent: 1168m
6 geocaches found

If there was a calorie counter on there too I'm sure I would be about evens after all the cake, ale and casserole consumed!

Survey Trip - Day 2

The weather forecast the night before had promised a nice day (albeit still with a strong wind) today so it was disappointing to watch the grey clouds whizzing past while I ate breakfast. I didn’t hurry to get away and by the time I had my boots on and was ready to head out of the door the sun was out and everything looked much more appealing!


I had a loop up Langstrothdale and back along Birks Fell ridge planned but first I climbed up past Buckden Rake and over to Cray to discover further geocaches and survey potential sites. The wind pushed me quickly away from Buckden through the wood bare of leaves but with primroses flowering.

After signing the logbook at the Buckden Rake geocache I continued along the Rake. A curlew called its digital notes and was flung about by the wind. I dropped down to the stepping-stones and crossed round to the back of the White Lion before winding down through to Stubbing Bridge via the Packhorse Way geocache.

This is a pleasant little valley and the signs of spring and the bright sunshine really added to atmosphere. Amazing to think that there could have been a railway just across the other side of the Gill.


A short road walk brought me to Hubberholme. I wanted to have a look around the church here but unfortunately it was locked again. Several people have now told me the lock is on a timer but what time it is set too is anybody’s guess – somebody suggested it was once a week on a Sunday! The churchyard was familiar with names from my research in the archives and online – Beresfords, Tennants and Fosters lie in this quiet spot.

At Hubberholme I joined the Dales Way for a pleasant few miles up Langstrothdale. The cache here was quickly found as I walked alongside the river through fields of sheep and young lambs. Everything seemed very green. A clump of toothwort was obvious amongst the green.


At Yockenthwaite I broke away from the Dales Way for a look at Raisgill Flush for potential cache locations, a lovely view of the farm and its buildings and for a ‘coffee’ break.

The sky was looking a little more ominous as I continued up the Dale past a well-preserved limekiln, a stone circle and Yockenthwaite Cave. Each wall to cross had a similar but different solution to keeping it open to walkers but secure for stock – steps, little gates, stiles, etc. At Deepdale the path crosses to the south bank of the river before continuing up past Cowside to Beckermonds.

Here I turned away from the more frequently trodden Way to ascend towards the ridge. A group of walkers coming down warned of wet going on the top. Feeling tired today I stopped often to admire the view behind me and to pick out the ribbon of tarmac over Fleet Moss.

There was a track of sorts to follow but it was very wet in places. It always amazes me how wet the side of a hill can be! As I neared the ridge the wind started to battle with me and I was pleased to reach the wall on top and sit down for some lunch in its ‘shelter’. The walls here are built to allow a certain amount of wind through otherwise they would be thrown over. This means that they aren’t the best of shelter for weary walkers and you can end up with a cold back!

There was a softly defined path to follow along the ridge and the wall gave me enough shelter to make the going comfortable. The ominous clouds seen from the valley had given way to a more general blanket of wind-smoothed altostratus and lenticulars with a hint of clearer skies in the distance.

More looking for potential cache sites before taking in the cache near the summit of Horse Head Pass. The sulphurous yellow of the squat sedge flowers stood out against the other grasses. By the time I was cresting Sugar Loaf there was lots of blue sky above. Dropping down slightly much detouring was needed to bypass a large area of eroded peat bog before the bend round towards High Combe Stoop, its tarn and associated cache.


The views from the ridge were good. A distant haze didn’t matter much although the wind still wasn’t conducive to hanging around. Waves rippled across the tarns and curlew and grouse took flight. At Firth Fell a cache just beyond the trig point signalled the end of the ridge walking for today.

Walking back down the path I dropped into the shelter of the hills and the sun soon became very warm on my neck. Buckden, and the promise of afternoon tea, was obvious ahead of me. Before this there was another potential cache site to explore. This was a beautiful downhill stretch and the spring weather of today contrasted sharply with the end of yesterday’s walk.


I was down in the village in no time and rewarded myself with tea and cake (brack and honey today!) at West Winds before walking back towards the car park and the bus back to Skipton. I decided on one last detour (as I had a little time to spare) to look at a last possible site for a cache.

Survey Trip - Day 1

The weather had been improving on the train journey up from the West Midlands and by the time I reached Skipton there was even some sunshine. I got the bus up to Buckden via Grassington courtesy of the useful Pride of the Dales service.

The weather had evidently been bad for the last day or two as the River Wharfe had overflowed and there seemed to be water running off of every available hill. I dropped my bag off at my B&B and was heading out for an afternoon’s walk before 1:30 to check out some of my potential cache sites, think about some of the history I had uncovered and to find an existing cache or two.

New to walking in the Dales (and more used to hill walking on Scottish granite) I slithered up the slippery limestone climb above Eshber Wood. The day wasn’t cold but the sun had gone and I climbed towards cloud. I zigzagged up and cut across the head of Cam Gill - Cladonia were brilliant with their scarlet spore bodies and there was scurvygrass flowering on old mine waste. A small waterfall was being blown back uphill such was the strength of the wind.


On round Starbotton Out Moor to Cam Head and good views across Park Rash towards the lower slopes of Whernside - the top was lost to the cloud. I struggled to locate suitable sites for a cache round here and will have to look higher up. Rain was beginning to come in now although there were glimpses of brightness further afield. Unfortunately I was headed up towards the cloud.

A springy walk across Starbotton Peat Ground got me up onto the southern end of the ridge leading to Buckden Pike. The wind now was strong and quite damp making for quite a miserable trudge towards the Fox Memorial - a journey not improved by the atrocious conditions underfoot. Broad expanses had become quagmires due to the passage of many boots and the extreme weather.


At the memorial I quickly located the geocache and struggled to sign the book before quickly moving on following the fence along the ridgeline. Here the Park Authority had relocated the path to the west side of the fence to allow the other side to heal. With every leap over boggy patch the wind forced me almost into the wall and at the viewless summit of the Pike I forced my way into the wind to (successfully) find the geocache. Returning to the path the wind pushed me along across the slabs that had been laid here.

Not a day to hang about I was off again and keen to head back down to the Dale. Following the engineered path my map was torn from my hands to be saved by a wall. It wasn’t easy trying to re-fold the map in the strong gusting wind. Dropping out of the cloud at about 450m I was pleased to see some views again although the path turned me into the wind which made for hard-going.

I took in the geocache at Cow Close and then dropped down towards Cray to look out for potential cache sites before wearily and gratefully heading back to Buckden, my B&B, a bath and dry clothes. I would highly recommend my B&B – the West Winds in Buckden – if you plan to stay in the village. Tea and cake on arrival, chocolates and fresh fruit and flowers in the room and a lovely breakfast all at a very reasonable price. They’ll even do you a packed lunch for a small extra charge… with more cake in it. If you are not planning to stay I would still recommend you go to the tearoom to sample their range of homemade cakes (the liquorice one was unusual but nice).

The pub in Buckden is closed for the time being so I strolled up to The George at Hubberholme for dinner – a very filling affair accompanied by a nice drop of Askrigg Ale. The twenty-minute walk back to Buckden helped with digesting before bed!

Book Fair

The book fair was held in Leeds last Friday and Saturday. Plenty of people found the 'fake' geocache with the catalogue sales but nobody (successfully) discovered the microcache outside the building at the same time. Or at least they haven't admitted to it.

GPS Over-reliance

A news story I heard on Radio 4 this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12668230

Does this apply to geocaching?! What do geocachers use as a back-up - map, compass and a high degree of accuracy in triangulation?

Parkinson Building Cache Goes Live

The micro cache placed at the Parkinson Building went live on Saturday and already three people have found it. Well done iCARUSmith as FTF!

Link to the cache here