Here's what happened -
I found the cache location on the Geo Caching website and was immediately interested because I had not searched for this one before, and it is located in one of my favorite areas of Spearfish Canyon ( I have many). It's a trail that is not well traveled and very soon after beginning your hike you are surrounded by dense vegetation and crooked oak trees in all manner of shapes and sizes.
I have good memories of a fun photo shoot there with a friend years ago, and go back often. It's always the same and yet different every time. And each time I wander a little further up the trail. This time I entered the coordinates for the cache in my portable GPS with the plan of going as far up the trail as required in order to complete the task. My GPS is very basic but has always been dependable. Today was different. It was leading me steadily to the prize, or so I thought, until I reached a point high above the canyon floor where the trail abruptly ended. I had obviously missed a turn somewhere. This didn't surprise me as I noticed the trail was becoming more overgrown and I could tell this section was rarely used. I left the trail to find a place to sit and rest, and try to determine just where I was exactly. A check of my GPS didn't help. One minute it was telling me the cache location was west of me, the next check it was pointing north. Strange. I wasn't lost, but I felt a little disoriented. I was close enough to the trail, such as it was, to not be worried about wandering off and being found days later..."tired and dehydrated, but in remarkably good spirits" as the news reporter would say. It felt a bit like an experience I had in the high desert near Sedona, Arizona a couple of years ago. A local mystic told me I had likely encountered a vortex. Could that be what I was experiencing here? I decided to try an experiment with a medallion I sometimes wear. I had heard about being able to use such an object as a dowsing rod to detect energy fields. Seemed a little too New Age for me, but it couldn't hurt. I took it off and held it very still near the ground. Immediately it began to move in a circular motion. Not back and forth or sideways. Circular. There was no wind to affect the movement. So now two strange things have happened. I moved 20 to 30 feet away and tried it again. This time - nothing. It remained still as could be. So I moved back to what I thought was the previous location. Nothing happened this time. But I couldn't remember the exact location. I could have been off by several feet, or a few inches, or in exactly the same place. I couldn't be sure. One thing was sure, though, the medallion remained still at the end of its string. I then decided to hang it on a broken tree branch to see what would happen if I completely removed the "human element." It started to sway slightly. Then stopped, and remained still.
Now I'm not sure what to think. Did I somehow cause the medallion to move the first time? It's highly unlikely since I held it exactly the same way each time. If I was causing it why didn't it do it every time?
By now it was getting late, and I was into the woods pretty deep, so I decided I had better start making my way back. There's not really a good or satisfying conclusion to this story. I just felt like it was worth telling. Another unusual but fun and interesting day in the Black Hills, as most of them are. I would still like to find that cache. And look into this vortex thing more carefully. If it actually is a thing. Most of the time I tend to be more of a believer rather than a skeptic. So, I'm going back. Might try some more experiments around that place at the end of the trail. Let's just say this story is "...To Be Continued..."
Roger O'Dea 6/5/2016
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