Replicated from the GGA EZBoard:

tjbowers
Registered User
(8/19/01 11:35:09 am)
Iron Horse

Did anyone else have trouble finding the Iron Horse cache by Jim Pate? It was my first cache attempt and I was sorely beaten. We found the spot (confirmed by the photos on Jim's website) but never found the cache. I was convinced someone stole the cache untill a virtual log entry appeared a week after my failed attempt.

Jess
"It's got to be the going, not the getting there, that's good" --Harry Chapin


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erik88l r
Registered User
(8/21/01 7:37:47 am)
Re: Iron Horse

Something told me to go hike upstream - maybe it was the cache hider's web site. I really don't recall. Anyway, I clambered up the slippery rocks toward what would be a waterfall is more water were flowing. It took just a little bit of looking off to the right before I saw some rocks that were stacked in a somewhat unnatural way. Behind those rocks was the cache container with an item or two on top of it.
That was one of the more scenic cache hunts. The bamboo and the old railway tunnel were really special. The hike up and down while holding on to the rope handholds was neat too. Don't know if the rest of the family agreed on that last point but I enjoyed it!


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alacy
Unregistered User
(8/22/01 9:15:41 pm)
Iron Horse

We had no more trouble than most caches, and a lot less than "Below the Dam" cache (currently archived)


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beetle
Registered Geocacher
(2/11/02 1:47:58 pm)
Re: Iron Horse

Is this one you think we could do w/ a 2-yr old in a knapsack? It sounds beautiful and would like to try it.

- beetle


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AJLacy
Magnificent Poster
(2/11/02 2:23:55 pm)
Re: Iron Horse

Well there are two ways to the Iron Horse cache. We actually used both, came in the low path and went out the high path and walked the road back to the vehicle. The low way is actually an old railroad bed, it was nice and level, however during the summer when we went it had very tall grass and weeds, and was old enough that some times tree branches came across it to duck under. This was a pain. Then when you get to the mountain, you have to turn up the hill and there is a narrow path which will lead you to the area of the cache, which is around slippery water covered rocks. Then the high path is so steep and slick that someone placed a rope around trees about waist high that you have to use to climb in or out. I wouldn't want to do it with 2 year old on my back.
But close to Iron Horse is Rock Town. This is one of my favorite caches. You drive up to the top of a mountain, but the top is flat, you hike about one mile on an easy trail and then once you find the cache you can explore this neat place. This would be easy to do with a child on your back.


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tjbowers
a.k.a. Jess
(2/11/02 9:20:28 pm)
Re: Iron Horse

Iron Horse and Rock Town are close enough that you can do both in a day. If tree branches aren't a problem for you then Iron Horse should be ok if you enter and exit on the low route like AJLacy describes. The trail at Rock Town is mostly wide so branches shouldn't be a problem and the walk between the rocks should be neat for the kids. Be sure to read the log for Rock Town before going. Last I heard Mtn Man found a panther's den at one end of rocks.

tjb

"It's got to be the going, not the getting there, that's good"
--Harry Chapin


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AJLacy
Magnificent Poster
(2/11/02 9:53:44 pm)
Re: Iron Horse

It is just that I wouldn't want to carry a two year old on my back up that narrow trail from the railroad bed to the cache at Iron Horse. YMMV

But at Rock Town there would be no problem on the trail or at the cache.


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epop
Registered Geocacher
(2/12/02 7:36:15 am)
Re: Iron Horse

I would not have wanted to take my 2-year old down the way apolstle22 & I went. We went stright down the hill. not and easy climb down or up. But I think there is away to come from the bottom or maybe even the side. Ya might jsut have to kinda scope it out.

Epop[ ]
Clint Pope


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Gossamyrrh
Super Poster
(2/12/02 2:42:23 pm)
Re: Iron Horse

I always try to make a note of whether or not I feel a cache area is suitable for children, but it never occurred to me that i should consider the trip itself to the cache! I guess a 2-year-old can get really heavy after .25 miles uphill!

-Goss
(who has no kids of her own, just plays with everyone else's)


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beetle
Registered Geocacher
(2/16/02 8:24:04 pm)
Re: Iron Horse

Goss...

Is that an offer to babysit? j/k

Are you home during the day? Maybe we could do some kid-friendly caches while my dh (dear hubby) is at work?

Hmmm... am I sounding slightly addicted? friendly? I'm hoping both! lol (this is the wine talking but i'm still serious goss. and I won't run from you like they warned but I will carry some mace just in case they were right)

- beetle


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Gossamyrrh
Magnificent Poster
(2/17/02 12:15:19 pm)
Re: Iron Horse

dat's possible...I work mostly nights and weekends. Email me and we can iron out the wrinkles!


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erik88l r
Administrator
(2/22/02 8:26:58 am)
Re: Iron Horse

It's kinda gruesome, but read this thread:
Groundspeak Forums
It seems iron horse is only five miles from the Tri-State Crematory mess. Hope it's upstream. It's scary to think what can be going on down the street sometimes when we're happily geocaching. ~erik~


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fisherKings
Registered Geocacher
(2/22/02 9:50:33 pm)
near iron horse

I have been spending my work week up in Noble, Ga. (I'm a newsphotographer for local NBC in ATL).The police area is confined to a road off the main road that runs thru Noble. Only way you would know anything was going on would be to head down that road....or happen to run into all the satellite trucks and news crews.

I was at a press conference after Sen. Max Cleland had toured the site today and he said something along the lines of :

when I went to Vietnam...I thought I had seen everything...when I went to Bosnia I thought I had seen more...but this is the worst thing I have seen...this is a war zone in our own backyard.

Wanted to head away to the Iron Horse...but dang it..work got it the way....maybe next week...I know I'll be visiting Noble many times in the next few months.

Sushi of the fisherKings


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GeneGarris
Registered Geocacher
(2/28/02 2:41:29 pm)
Re: near iron horse aka Bodies Stacked like cordwood

I wonder how the bodies were discovered. From the aerial photographs of the place it looks secluded and because of its function I would think they had a gate.

Was it some tresspasser walking a dog? Did a neighbors puppy drag a human foot and leave it on thier steps?

I think for a long time that cremation will not be an option for North Georgians.

What were the cremation urns filled with?


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the mtn man
and puppymonster
(2/28/02 6:44:52 pm)
Re: near iron horse aka Bodies Stacked like cordwood

This is from an old AJC story:

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The officers were following up on an anonymous tip that went to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency office in Atlanta about noon Friday.

EPA investigators found a skull and alerted authorities.
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Pretty crazy story. Very sad.


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Brad Webb
gpsfun
(2/28/02 9:32:57 pm)
Re: near iron horse aka Bodies Stacked like cordwood

According to news reports, some of the families who received "ashes" found, after analysis, that they had received cement dust.


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AJLacy
Magnificent Poster
(2/28/02 10:08:59 pm)
Re: near iron horse aka Bodies Stacked like cordwood

What I read was that some got cement dust, some got dirt, and what is really weird is that at least one family whose relative was identified as one the found bodies got human ashes??? why would the operator give the wrong ashes???


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Brad Webb
gpsfun
(2/28/02 10:17:53 pm)
Re: near iron horse aka Bodies Stacked like cordwood

I have trouble coming up with any rationale for what appears to have been done. I would think that it would have been easier to just cremate the bodies as he was supposed to do, rather than to do what he allegedly did.

Of course, attempting to apply logic to this is inappropriate in the extreme.


Edited by: Brad Webb at: 2/28/02 10:19:47 pm


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lmoseley
BigDog
(3/1/02 12:46:17 am)
Re: near iron horse aka Bodies Stacked like cordwood

Neal Boortz gets regular tip-off calls from a couple of the workers up at the site. One told him that the crematory shed hadn't been used in so long that the brush and trees and vegatation that had grown up INSIDE the shed was so tall and so thick that the investigators had to use machetes to cut their way in!

The funeral homes that were the customers of this rip-off joint share the blame.

From what I have read, the so-called ethics of the so-called profession require that the f.h. employee who delivers the body to a crematory must stay on-site until the body is loaded into the oven and the fire comes on. Then they can leave, since it takes several hours to process a body.

Also, the ornamental urns are sold to the family by the funeral home, as an extra profit item. The creamatory delivers the ashes back to the f.h. in a plastic baggie inside a cardboard box, and the f.h. staff transfers the ashes to the urn. Even if John Public doesn't know the difference between cement dust and human ashes, the f.h. staff should have known.

Looks like there is a LOT of responsibility -- and liability -- to go around.

[This message was edited by mtn-man on November 03, 2002 at 11:08 PM.]

Well, after 3 years of beating me today I did it. After leaving what I felt to me a good job interview (please, please,please!) I decided to go the 5 miles to Iron Horse and have another go.
This was the first cache I ever tried and have returned once since with no luck. I tried it this morning sans GPS, I left it at the pool with the monk so it could average a while. While it did I just followed my instincts and went almost right to it. Only 8 or so feet from where I looked the first time. Maybe the monk blessed my GPS or something! Hope the job interview got the same blessing!!

Phew, when I saw the topic title the first thing I though was Iron Horse is gone. Glad to see that it is not gone and is still being found.

We found Iron Horse the same day as Rock Town. I liked both of them and would have been sadden if it had gone missing.

quote:

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Maybe the monk blessed my GPS or something! Hope the job interview got the same blessing!!

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Thank the Lord it must have!! Got the call today. I go back to work on Monday at the job I interviewed for that day!! Woo-hoo!!!

Congratulations, Sledge!