Heaven's Above

Heaven’s Above
         

Rotted vegetation, old deadfalls, voracious insects and a disgruntled pregnant woman hampered every step through the tangled forest of Alberta’s Cold Lake Provincial Park. We had travelled over three thousand kilometers to visit our son and his wife, and were camped at the Park. It was May and there were ice cubes in the lake and a snap to the air; too cold to sit lakeside. Instead, we had dragged them off on a geo-caching adventure.

A successful day in the offing, by noon six caches had already fallen to Team Bush 4 1/2. (The half was in honour of said impending grand-child whom I was determined to introduce to treasure hunting as early as possible. In utero worked for me.)

Our seventh cache, ‘Heaven’s Above’, was proving more difficult. According to our GPS receivers, in the capable hands of the Johns, Senior and Junior (aka JT and Boomer) we were smack dab on top of the hidey-hole. With an accuracy range of nine feet we had overturned every limb and scrounged in every hole in a fruitless search.

“Alright, I’ll decipher the clue.” I dug out my cheat sheet and pencil as my partners waged war on the mosquitoes.

“Praise the Lord, it says.”

“Good God, what kind of clue is that?” Mistress V demanded. We watched in shock as our drama queen threw her arms in the air, tilted her head back and bellowed “Praise the Lord! Now, where is it?” She stopped short, craned her head around and continued to peer upwards. “Well, lookee there,” she continued. “A piece of PVC tube hanging in the tree. My find!”