Beyond Here, Lay Dragons (GCH52C) – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – January 17, 2013

A brave geocacher approaches the dragon
A brave geocacher approaches the dragon

Southshore Park, also known as Dragon Park, is a popular community park in The Woodlands, Texas. Fishing is one attraction. The park is also a great place for romantic picnics and for soaking in a beautiful sunset. For geocachers, it is popular for all those reasons and more. That’s because Southshore Park is home to Beyond Here, Lay Dragons (GCH52C), a difficulty 5, terrain 5 geocache whose size has not been revealed.

According to the cache page, “On old marine charts, they would record what they knew, and on the edges of the known world, they would write ‘beyond here, lay dragons.'” In this case, just beyond Southshore Park is a lake with a famous dragon sculpture.

And what a dragon sculpture it is. While the geocache’s size has not been identified, the sculpture is sure to be noticed, even from a distance. It is normal to see birds on the head of the dragon or kayaks floating alongside the long, green creature. The dragon is so popular that a three-day long Dragon Boat Challenge is held each year at the park. One of the events includes a “best dragon-like” boat competition.

... and off they go!
… and off they go!

To log a smiley, geocachers have to paddle their way to the dragon and follow the directions outlined on the geocache page. Over 125 geocachers have done exactly that. They also awarded this geocache 41 Favorite Points since it was hidden in October of 2003.

A group of geocachers who logged this find wrote, “LOVE THIS CACHE! It was just fun all around for us! We purchased an inflatable boat and borrowed some paddles instead of renting a kayak on the lake… We took 2 trips to the dragon: sureman & mr turdhustler were trip 1, and myself & mrs turdhustler were trip 2.

Sometimes it's just best to swim to the treasure
Sometimes, it’s just best to swim to the treasure

We grabbed the dragon by the tail, stared him in the face and battled him in an effort to get this cache!  We did not want to leave defeated! We felt like we were in the stone-age! We made a special tool from various items we had in our vehicle.  As my caching group knows, I am a picture freak, so this one was worthy of lots of pictures. Sureman (my dad) and me completed our first 5/5 cache! Turdhustlers completed another 5/5 cache to add to their list! Thank you for the milestone! What a fun cache for a Texas summer day!!!”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.

The big, green sea creature
The big, green sea creature