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We had no plans to go after this particular cache because the difficulty/terrain ratings were lower than many of the caches that jbgreer had been recently logging. Most of the caches we were doing on this day were puzzle caches. I had figured that I would be hunting this one alone at some point in the future. Because we were in the general area and had been hunting other caches nearby, I suggested that we at least scout out the area.
We had suspected given what we had read on the cache page that the location was a rundown motel that had been closed, but still easily accessible to the public. I had looked at the area using google maps, but had not looked at a satellite image of the area - so what we ended up seeing was truly a surprise. We decided that there might be something to this cache, so we began to look for a parking spot and a way into the area. We pulled off of Summer Avenue onto an easement for transmission towers and parked the truck. Looking across the easement we saw a small part of a building peeking through the relatively thick growth along the border of the easement. We decided that would be our entrance point.
Once through the fence, we could see more than one building and we zigzagged through the structures while following the arrow of the GPSr. We were luckier than the previous finders, I think, because I walked straight to where the cache container was stashed and we were quickly signing the log.
Once the initial joy of finding the cache was over, however, we began to look a little more closely at our surroundings. Having both seen "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" at the movies just the week before, it was appropriate that Indy's line "I have a bad feeling about this..." came to mind. We had stumbled upon a lost "city" and didn't want to trigger anything that might cause "creatures" or people to literally come out of the woodwork!
We both agreed that sticking around was a bad idea and quickly left, but I opted to take a few pictures on the way out. All of my pictures were exterior shots because I had no desire to get a look inside of any of these buildings.
After getting out of the woods and back to the truck, I figured that might be the end of the story; that this would simply be one of a number of cache finds for the day albeit it an interesting find.
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When I arrived at work on Monday I saw that the cache had been archived, possibly in response to a note by jbgreer on the cache page regarding the condition of the area. I posted my log and mentioned that I had taken pictures of the area. When the cache owner, cavecom, went by to take pictures of the area to possibly give to the police, he found that the site had literally been removed. The Lost Room was now truly lost.
---I received an e-mail from cavecom afterwards asking me to post the pictures that I had taken and to the cache page did so.
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Update: 1/17/2009
I was reading Memphis Magazine's "Ask Vance" blog and learned a little history about this location. Here is a link to that history.
2 comments:
I'll say here what I said to Cavecom after receiving a note about my comment: I didn't suggest that the cache be taken down, I merely wanted to make sure that people knew what to expect. Where to cache is an individual choice. Some cachers describe their caches in ways that let people know whether they fit their own personal caching idiom, and respect that. Had I actually read the cache page or paid attention to the cache description criteria, I would have been better informed as to what to expect. Having done several other enjoyable Cavecom caches, I had a certain expectation of 'The Lost Room', and it turned out to be a little different, though having seen the show that inspired this cache I did anticipate an abandoned motel.
I'm disappointed anytime anyone loses the result of hard work, and this cache is no exception.
Given that the site was literally removed, the police must have already had some complaints about activity in those woods.
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