Washed Away

[bugsmasher69]

At 9:15 pm sunday night the river broke the old record and was at 20.54 feet making this the highest recorded level.

[sandlanders]

Portage has unfortunately made the national news. 🙁

[RSplash40]

saw that, hope everyone got out.

[sandlanders]

@HeliDood wrote:

I’m curious how many geocaches have been affected by the raging waters of the Wisconsin River…

One of mine, for sure (or most likely) will need to be archived. GC279E7. Movin’ on Down cache, at the former site of the WR east-side swimming pool. Anyone familiar with that cache (or the park) saw the big painted wooden sign. I just drove by there today and was surprised to see the sign washed away in the river rapids.

“Dood! Where’s your cache?”

[frmr]

@sandlanders wrote:

@HeliDood wrote:

I’m curious how many geocaches have been affected by the raging waters of the Wisconsin River…

One of mine, for sure (or most likely) will need to be archived. GC279E7. Movin’ on Down cache, at the former site of the WR east-side swimming pool. Anyone familiar with that cache (or the park) saw the big painted wooden sign. I just drove by there today and was surprised to see the sign washed away in the river rapids.

“Dood! Where’s your cache?”

Most likely in the Gulf of Mexico by now.

[team kamper]

Most likely in the Gulf of Mexico by now.

Now that funny…I don’t care who you are

[2nd time around]

We have a friend that works for Castle Rock dams and he called me the other day to tell me they found a cache. Seems that when they were cleaning out the dams on Petenwell after the recent flooding they came accross a ammo can. He told me that when they opened it the contents were completely dry…. He does not know much about Geocaching so he could not tell who it belonged to but we are planning on taking a ride down to his house this weekend to retrieve it from him. When I find out who it belongs to I will get in touch with them. Being that the contents in the can were completly dry says alot for the durability of ammo cans as caches… 😀 The Wisconsin river was really flowing and we are sure that can got bounced around alot…..

[zuma]

@2nd time around wrote:

We have a friend that works for Castle Rock dams and he called me the other day to tell me they found a cache. Seems that when they were cleaning out the dams on Petenwell after the recent flooding they came accross a ammo can. He told me that when they opened it the contents were completely dry…. He does not know much about Geocaching so he could not tell who it belonged to but we are planning on taking a ride down to his house this weekend to retrieve it from him. When I find out who it belongs to I will get in touch with them. Being that the contents in the can were completly dry says alot for the durability of ammo cans as caches… 😀 The Wisconsin river was really flowing and we are sure that can got bounced around alot…..

It looks like one my caches may have met a similiar fate. Here is a snippet of an email that I got yesterday:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I was out canoeing Eau Claire River Wed., Oct. 5 after flood waters subsided. I spotted an item floating on top of the debris. I opened it up and knew right away that it was a geocache I am somewhat familiar with geocaching, so we looked up nearby locations (along with logbook names) and we think this might be yours.

It was found in the middle of the river between Hwy. G and Eau Claire County Park. Guessing it could have floated quite a ways down the river with the terrible flooding we just had. Generally I would never remove a cache, but knew that it didn’t start out in this location because of the flooding and how it was found.

It is an ammo box with notepad of a baby in a cow outfit (very cute by the way).

We think it is the “Peace of Mind” (GCVF8Q)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

When I get the ammo box back it will be interesting to learn for sure which cache it was, and how far it floated.

zuma

[sandlanders]

These stories are amazing! Can’t wait to see which cache that Petenwell one was!

[kc9gbo]

Count one of mine as a victim, seems my flood prevention device failed me due to the extreme force of the water and 3 feet of water probably didn’t help either. Bright side now is I have a kayak/canoe/boat cache that is also locationless. Hoping it turns up somewhere between Bangor and West Salem on the river but I don’t hold much hope.

[HeliDood]

@sandlanders wrote:

“Dood! Where’s your cache?”

I still can’t get over to the east side pool cache. They’ve got signs all over, “Park closed until further notice”. To look for a matchstick container isn’t worth getting a fine.
I’m not too optimistic about that one anyways. Waterproof matchstick containers float, and it was only hidden under some very small rocks. Chances are it is gone. But I still want to look so I know there isn’t a piece of “geotrash” sitting around.

Whats crazy, is I visited the cache the day before the water came over the wall. I checked the log, closed it back up and rehid it. No way did I expect the water to get as high as it did. Had I known, I would have taken it home with me.

I enabled “Down By The Riverside” yesterday. I was finally able to go check on it. I feared that one was washed away and floated away.
I was surprised to not only the container right where I left it, but also not a single drop of water inside despite being under several feet of water for a few days.

The ammo can has a thick coat of mud on it, which adds to the camouflage. A lot of the vegetation that was concealing the cache has been washed away. Its still very muddy down there.

[HeliDood]

@BigJim60 wrote:

How about Biron Pleasure Island and Island Micro? Is the island even above water?

The water level between Biron and Whiting never got very high. They wouldn’t let it. Had the water level above the Biron dam been a foot or two higher, I think there would have been a disaster.

I haven’t been to the island, but I’m confident those caches are OK.

[2nd time around]

Just to let everyone know… The cache that ended up in the Petenwell damm was cache #GC153RQ Tributary/ Off The Hook out of Stevens Point. It looks like this cache made it through multible damms and it is in very good condition…Amazing…. When our friend found it, it was bone dry on the inside and floating. We have contacted the owner and will be getting their cache back to them as soon as possible.

[sandlanders]

Wow! I’d say that was some journey. Thanks for the update, 2nd time around.

[seldom|seen]

@2nd time around wrote:

Just to let everyone know… The cache that ended up in the Petenwell damm was cache #GC153RQ Tributary/ Off The Hook out of Stevens Point. It looks like this cache made it through multible damms and it is in very good condition…Amazing…. When our friend found it, it was bone dry on the inside and floating. We have contacted the owner and will be getting their cache back to them as soon as possible.

I was just informed of this former cache of mine making the trip to the Petenwell. Amazing that some cans in the woods get wet because they are not closed properly (read “lid is not seated all the way”) and yet this cache can can make a floating journey of some 30 miles over a couple dams, intact dry and eager to move along to the next stop… Portage? That is off the hook!

[Author]

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