You want to go on a night time geocaching adventure so you look on the geocaching website and find a cache named Pet Cemetery.
The cache page tells you that this cache is not for the young or weak at heart.
And you read this -
"Back ‘round 1922 there was this mean old lady livin out in the woods who owned the biggest Doberman Pincer you’ve ever seen. Standing on his hind legs that dog was taller than a 6 foot man. 200 pounds of pure muscle, name of Demon, and as mean as that old woman.
Well, one evenin 2 escaped convicts from over in Chipley burst through the old lady’s door. One of them waved a big ole Bowie knife and yelled for the old woman to give him all of her money.
See, they didn’t know nothing bout that old woman or they’d have never busted in that door.
Both the old woman and Demon stood up and she snarled “My Demon will take care of you.”
Let me tell you their laughin stopped right quick when Demon sprang from the floor and in one jump grabbed the biggest man’s throat and ripped it from his neck.
The second ole boy bolted out the door and Demon was on him before he got to the porch steps.
Dead in an instant he was.
You know word spreads right quick round these parts and after that night no one ever bothered the old woman again.
Couple a years later Demon was bit right in the middle of his chest by an 8 foot rattlesnake that was layin in the garden. Whatn’t nothing could be done.
It took 5 days for that dog to die.
The old lady chanted spells and made a deal with the Devil to save her Demon.
He died on the fifth night, one of them dark, dark nights when you can’t see your hand in front of ya.
The old lady buried him in a hidden spot down in that old pet cemetery.
And I’m here to tell ya, the Devil took her deal. She’d sit at Demon’s grave on moonless nights, summoning his spirit.
And Demon would appear…
My granddaddy told me this story. I know it’s true."
So off you go to find Demon's grave and the cache hidden there.
The website gives you the coordinates for the starting point and you find yourself way out in Point Washington State Forest, in front of a pet cemetery in the woods.
These two appear to be fresh graves.
The directions tell you to now follow reflectors on the trees to find the cache so off you go, slowly making your way through the dark woods from one tree to another.
You get past the first two trees and then realize you have to go in there.
You wander through the woods for a while, listening to the sounds the woods make at night and wondering if this was really a good idea.
After almost 10 minutes of making your way from tree to tree you round a bend, cross an old firebreak road
and come to a huge palmetto bush.
There is another reflector on the tree behind the bush but there is dead wood, palmetto branches and all sorts of nature's debris on the ground so you are forced to take a narrow path around the palmetto towards the tree.
Once you're behind the palmetto and kind of trapped on the only clear path, you scan your flashlight around, looking for the next reflector.
And you see it.
Demon's grave.
With candles and bones - actual dog bones - spread out across the top of the grave.
While you're staring at that you glance to the left and see this.
Lovely.
And then your husband, who always proclaims himself fearless, tells you to go up and get the cache...
Once you reset the cache there is a well marked trail leading straight back to the truck, which is much closer than you realize.
If you're scared of snakes you'll keep your light pointed at the ground and you'll see lots of these.
Yuk. Yuk. Yuk.
A fun cache to find but it's definitely time to go home now!
