Activities

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Mar 27/2010

Geocache Activity 622

FIND 565

IDENTIFICATION

GC1138

Charlie's Cache

N 49° 35.557 W 114° 23.128

Difficulty 2; Terrain 1.5; size regular Creator: Moun10Bike and Mrs. Moun10Bike Date First Hidden: 7/16/2001 Date Last Found: 3/21/2010
Crowsnest Pass

Description
A cache in memory of Charlie the Horse.

From a roadside sign: In the early morning of 29 April 1903, most of the almost 600 residents of of the coal mining town of Frank were asleep. At the coal mine, the night shift was down in the mine, and a few men were working on the surface in the mine buildings. At 4:10, a crashing, thunderous roar filled the dark, sleeping town and spilled out into the Crowsnest Pass. A wedge of limestone over one kilometre wide, 425 metres long and 150 metres deep, had broken from the crest of Turtle Mountain. It smashed apart as it slid downwards, breaking into boulders that rolled and bounced down the side of the mountain, and spread across the valley. In about 90 seconds, homes, buildings, and lives were destroyed. The rocks covered part of Frank, closed the entrance to the mine, and swept away the mine buildings and those working in them. The miners underground managed to tunnel their way to the surface. The slide had also buried a construction camp, livery stables, tents, a store, and some ranch buildings. Seventy people are known to have died. The sound of the slide had been heard kilometres away, and clouds of limestone dust hung over the Pass for quite a while. While daily life gradually returned to Frank, the slide remained an imposing presence. As one resident commented, "the slide is always with us."

One of the survivors of the slide was a horse working in the mines named Charlie. Charlie was discovered three days later, dehydrated and starving, and fed whiskey and oats. The rich foods proved to be too much for the horse's traumatized system, and killed him. This cache is hidden in his honor. The cache container was originally a Tupperware-style container with a blue lid, but was replaced on April 14, 2003 with a drab olive .30-caliber ammo can with "GEOCACHE" stenciled in yellow on multiple sides and an "Official Geocache" sticker affixed.

Hint Follow the grassy trail leading away from the roadside sign straight back until you come to its end. Look to your right when you reach the end -- you will see the view shown in the picture posted on this page entitled "Rocks." The cache was originally located under the large, fractured boulder seen in the center of that picture, but has migrated to the large upright boulder seen in the photo. It would be wise to check both locations.

Comments

PLANNING

I created a plan for searching for 7 geocaches in the Hillcrest/Bellevue area of the Crossnest Pass. Looking at the descriptions for these caches I sensed there would be both some hiking as well as some difficult searches as there were a number of micro-sized caches in the group. I figured 7 searches would take much of the day and I was not too confident of finding all of them. On the other hand this is a beautiful part of the province and I enjoy being among the mountains at any time. The weather forecast was for sunshine but with some wind.

I was taking my sling pack as well as my Panasonic DMC-ZS3 camera. I am still trying to develop, and stick to, a more rigorous routine of keeping track of the timing of each search plus taking more photos of the search.

OUTCOME

This was the 6th search in my plan to look for 7 geocaches. The path through the rubble made this an easy hike, and the hint helped make it an easy find. Otherwise I would still be there. This is one of the older caches that I have found (2001!)

Here is my posting to the geocaching.com website:

I was nervous about finding this one as I walked up the trail looking at all the rocks. But the description made it doable. Thank you! And thanks for the story about Charlie. TNLNSL. TFTC.

Here are a few photos:

view of Frank slide from grassy path

rocks along side of path

rocks underneath rocks

after moving a few small rocks

ammo box container

more rocks

geology: banded limestone

I am now 6/7 for today.

Link to 2010 Calendar

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GC1138	Charlie's Cache	N 49° 35.557 W 114° 23.128
	Difficulty 2; Terrain 1.5; size regular Creator: Moun10Bike and Mrs. Moun10Bike Date First Hidden: 7/16/2001 Date Last Found: 3/21/2010	Crowsnest Pass
Description	A cache in memory of Charlie the Horse. From a roadside sign: In the early morning of 29 April 1903, most of the almost 600 residents of of the coal mining town of Frank were asleep. At the coal mine, the night shift was down in the mine, and a few men were working on the surface in the mine buildings. At 4:10, a crashing, thunderous roar filled the dark, sleeping town and spilled out into the Crowsnest Pass. A wedge of limestone over one kilometre wide, 425 metres long and 150 metres deep, had broken from the crest of Turtle Mountain. It smashed apart as it slid downwards, breaking into boulders that rolled and bounced down the side of the mountain, and spread across the valley. In about 90 seconds, homes, buildings, and lives were destroyed. The rocks covered part of Frank, closed the entrance to the mine, and swept away the mine buildings and those working in them. The miners underground managed to tunnel their way to the surface. The slide had also buried a construction camp, livery stables, tents, a store, and some ranch buildings. Seventy people are known to have died. The sound of the slide had been heard kilometres away, and clouds of limestone dust hung over the Pass for quite a while. While daily life gradually returned to Frank, the slide remained an imposing presence. As one resident commented, "the slide is always with us." One of the survivors of the slide was a horse working in the mines named Charlie. Charlie was discovered three days later, dehydrated and starving, and fed whiskey and oats. The rich foods proved to be too much for the horse's traumatized system, and killed him. This cache is hidden in his honor. The cache container was originally a Tupperware-style container with a blue lid, but was replaced on April 14, 2003 with a drab olive .30-caliber ammo can with "GEOCACHE" stenciled in yellow on multiple sides and an "Official Geocache" sticker affixed.
Hint	Follow the grassy trail leading away from the roadside sign straight back until you come to its end. Look to your right when you reach the end -- you will see the view shown in the picture posted on this page entitled "Rocks." The cache was originally located under the large, fractured boulder seen in the center of that picture, but has migrated to the large upright boulder seen in the photo. It would be wise to check both locations.
Comments