By ccodez
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12/12/2022

Powertrail: 130 km, 277 caches, 11 o'clock - horydoly.cz - Outdoor Generation

...no, I'm kidding! All I can think about are the cookies I'm unwrapping.

I get up early at 4:45 and am full of anticipation. Yesterday I watched Harry Potter until late at night, so I didn't get much sleep. In half an hour I will have breakfast, prepare the most necessary things and get on my bike. Still in the dark, I reach Strašnická and take the subway to Masaryk station.

CityElefant drives so quietly that I almost fall asleep in it. I manage to overcome the urge to sleep, so I change trains in Lysá nad Labem, and a cyclist with me. I wonder how anyone can ride a bike at 7:30 in the morning. I am performing at the final in Milovice. It's seven o'clock and it's already light. I don't even turn on my blinker and pedal on asphalt that looks like there were never panels. Still, it rattles like a D1. I'm finally turning onto a better road. I ignore the sign "Entry permitted for transport staff and buses only."

On the right side I pass the hangars that I saw yesterday on the TV news. They say they will tear them down. After a kilometer, I arrive at an intersection where there is a construction cell with a guard watching the screens. It's clear that I can't drive by unnoticed. I stop at the booth and ask if I can at least ride my bike. "It's passable, but there are sometimes policemen standing at the end. Even on a bike, you're a participant in traffic, so they can give you a fine," says the guy from the booth. Thank you for the information and I will risk the passage. The road is lined on both sides by the ruins of the former military village of Boží Dar. I finally get to a nice road, no cops anywhere.

My first stop is in the village of Vanovice. It's just after seven o'clock and I'm hunting the first cache of the day. I find the movie box stuck with Velcro on the tree. Although I have over three and a half thousand finds, I have not seen this method of attachment before. Masking with brown duct tape probably works because the cache has never been lost since 2010. But I'm here for something other than collecting the usual caches.

Power trail begins

I ride the last five kilometers and go for it. The Power trail is a series of 274 caches that are located along the road. All boxes have the form of a PET fabric, which is a fifteen-centimeter plastic tube that is used to make plastic bottles. As the owners of the caches themselves say: "It's a series of caches about nothing, in insignificant places, the truth is the landscape we like."

Next report: Powertrail Vlečka na Orlík

At the first cache, I meet a middle-aged man, a car is parked nearby. We sign the logbook together and we both continue on. After a few caches, which we always meet at, we agree that we will only build on each other and he will write both of them. The car is as fast as the bike at this point. The man scolds: "I always tell my wife to stop and she stops twenty meters away." After twenty caches, he states that my pace is too fast for him. From now on, we each sign in alone and I overtake their car on my bike. I check the time at the thirtieth box. It's 8:20 a.m. and thus I managed the first nine caches in one hour.

"So I should have all the caches by 5:30," I think. During the early morning, I meet several more cars with geocachers who pass me. Some even take the boxes and move them one more. The recording takes place with them while driving in the car, so their journey is much faster.

The original plan was that I would take a break after every fifty caches. I'm doing well, and that's why I stop at box number 100. I take an apple and a biscuit at box number 100, where there's a nice place. The break is for a quarter of an hour, after which I set off again. I plan a longer rest and lunch at the 200.

The Králové Hradec Kraj is known for broken roads

I cross into the Králové Hradec Kraj and it is immediately visible in the quality of the road. Holes appeared in the asphalt. Other caches are in groups, and since there are more villages, there are even two-kilometer sections without a cache. But in defense of this region, I have to say that the main road, which I drove a few kilometers on, has a nice new one.

At the one hundred and sixtieth box, I find that I am half an hour slower than I expected. I blame it on the very large gaps between the caches. The Central Bohemian Region and the beautiful road welcome me again. At the same time, the distances are getting shorter, so I'm racing for time. At number 180, I finally take off my cap and jacket. It's 1:43 p.m. and the sun is starting to get really hot. I'm hungry as hell, so I eat at least one disco cookie for a boost. Box number 200 is not in a nice place. The road and surrounding plowed fields do not offer a place for a pleasant meal. That's why I decide to stop after ten caches or at a nearby forest.

I pass through the village, where I take out one cache near the elderly villagers. They say to each other that it should be done like this on a bike and not in a car. It is said that several of them have already passed by today. They also offer beer, which I gratefully decline. My legs wouldn't listen to me at all. Box 210 is right at the edge of the forest. There is a nice view and a patch of grass. An ideal place to relax. I'll get bread from mom and Disko. I lie down for about fifteen minutes, enjoying the landscape and munching on food. It is a wonderful place here. I would definitely stay here. But I am driven by time and the thought that it will be cold after sunset. If my legs got a lot of rest, I probably wouldn't move them anymore.

The next forty caches form a loop. So at the 254th hideout I'm standing at the same intersection I was at an hour and a half ago. Only ten to go. Shit, I miscalculated, twenty! I climb another five to the finish line and meet a car with people I saw at the start. They probably didn't take all the caches, because they certainly didn't overtake me. After that, it only goes down a slight hill and on a flat surface.

Powertrail: 130 km, 277 caches, 11 a.m. - Horydoly.cz - Outdoor Generation

Finally number 274. Final. This time it's a bigger box where I exchange CWG. It's 5:25 p.m., in an hour and a half I have a train from Kopidlno, ten kilometers away. It's the last connection, I can't miss it. The sun is already setting. I put on my jacket, turn on my flasher and start down the hill. It's a great fast ride. I'm satisfied, I did it. I'm in the town in about half an hour, so I'll take one more local cache and then I'll go into the warm waiting room. I ring the bell, buy a ticket at the lovely station and a coffee from the machine.

INFO: JTJPT