Moses Gate

Length	Estimated Duration	Difficulty
3	1.5	1
Max Elevation	Terrain Types	Smiley Rate (Caches/Distance)
150	Road / Good Paths	1.6

The start of the week saw The Captain putting the finishing touches to an article on blogging that he had been asked to write for the next edition of the UK Cache Mag (fingers crossed it makes the final cut!). The Good Wench has been painting outside whilst the sun has been out and we are thinking ahead to the weekend and where to go. We make many grand plans and devise routes on moorland and hills with plans to get plenty of caching done. What we hadn’t counted on of course was the weatherman spoiling our plans.

Behind Ewood Football Ground

Fit To Burst!

Friday saw the rains start and we knew by tea time that things were getting out of hand. Facebook was starting to get cluttered with photos and videos of the local Darwen and Blackburn area flooding. At one point the waters broke the banks of the river behind the football ground and threatened to flood local houses and shops.News, from other cachers local to us, drip fed in during the night about cars floating away and three foot deep waters in the roads.Ccan’t imagine how many caches will have been lost due to the torrential rains.One we know for sure that was lost only went live six days ago and we had a second to find on it – lucky we went for it when we did.

So our plans for the weekend changed somewhat and we decided to take the crewmates to see the Olympic torch as it makes its way through Blackburn.We arrived early and in no time the entourage arrived.We had accidently found ourselves at the spot where the handover would take place from one runner to the next and whilst waiting for her start Roise Hollis posed for a picture with the crew and they even held the torch! Think the occasion may have been lost on them though.With the hand over complete Rosie was on her way and the crowds dispersed.

That was our cue to go and collect the geohound and head over to Moses Gate Country Park. Given the weather we felt we should stay off the moorland today and chose this park as we knew it had excellent hard pack pathways and a children’s playground as well. It’s only a short circular and there aren’t many caches along the way but it is a little jewel on the outskirts of Bolton that we never knew existed.

We started out at GC2YVVV Swan Lake and the cache lives up to its name. Never seen as many swans, geese, ducks and other wildfowl all sharing the same pond / lake. The park is quite extensive with various trails but we followed the hard paved route in an attempt at staying clean and dry today. Even though this area didn’t get hit with the weather last night it still shows signs of heavy rains. Trees are down and the water in the river is very high and running fast. We let the crewmates play in the park for a while until The Captain spots a bridge over the river and the opportunity of a couple more caches. We head off and bag a couple more on the way back to the car. Just as we arrive at the car park the heavens open again and we dive in the car. Other folks aren’t so lucky and you can see people drenched, huddled under trees. Time for home. Fingers crossed the weather picks up and we can get out for some proper caching soon.