Master Index    Nearest Caches Caution Flying Hammers by WeightMan (1.5/1.5) N47° 33.732  W122° 22.536 (WGS84) UTM  10T   E 546970  N 5267831 Use waypoint: GCJT8T Size: Regular    Hidden on 6/25/2004 In Washington, United States (This cache may contain travel bugs) "Noordwijk, Netherlands" Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug (ref = TB1BK98) Lynxsys's First ever Geocoin (ref = TB1XC42) MAC OS Bug (ref = TB26YHZ) Oddball's Sister (ref = TB23JNP) troublejv's Gecko Geocoin (ref = TB20CZ4) TR's When Pigs Fly (ref = TB222AT) Difficulty:     Terrain:

How far can you throw a ball that weighs 16 pounds? How about if it is attached to a three foot wire with a handle on it? Oh yes, you have to stay inside a five foot diameter circle when you do it. That is the hammer throw. Some of the best local throwers will throw that ball and chain 150-200 feet. They do by spinning around inside the cirle. One foot acts as the pivot and the other comes down once every turn to provide balance. The best throwers will spin four times before releasing the hammer to land inside the allowable sector. For international competition that sector is less than 40 degrees.

Use caution if people are throwing the hammer while you visit the cache. Heed the sign. This can be dangerous. Be careful out there.

If people are throwing the hammer, you might want to sit down and watch. If you do, make use of the seating provided. It is in a safe location. Do not get close to the cage. If the hammer slips it can hit the netting with enough force to move the netting several feet toward you.

Some of the people you see out here might surprise you. The oldest thrower is 92. The younger throwers could easily be in high school. Washington has some of the leading high school age hammer throwers in the country. One just earned himself a scholarship to California (Berkeley) through his expoits with the hammer and the discus.

The head groundskeeper for the stadium is aware of the cache. If he is out working in the area don't worry about him finding out about the cache. He is helping me take care of it. He has my phone number and will call if there is a problem with the box. While I have told some of the throwers about the cache, I cannot guarantee that they all know about it.

Note added 7/18/04: In response to the question by Wienerdog, the hammer is called that because they used to be hammers. In fact in Scotland they still throw a wooden handled hammer in the highland games. Over time the implement evolved to the ball with the wire.

Note added 5/16/06 There will be construction in the stadium starting around June 5. The area that includes the cache and the hammer cage will not be within the construction area and so it should remain available for the construction period. Construction should be done by the end of August.

Note added 12/14/07 The construction is long over, but there will be some next summer. I have added two additional waypoints. If the gate to the hammer area is locked, then use the waypoints in order to find two gates that will get you into the right area. Seattle Parks has added some new gates that lock, but this route is still open. If there is some kind of activity going on in the stadium, this route may not be available.

Additional Waypoints (2)

Additional Hints (There are no hints for this cache)

9/9/2008 by NBJPoppa
JoergWasuW let me know the other day that lytha was back in town for a couple of days, so we arranged to meet this afternoon. I had some Geocoins I was going to give to JoergWasuW andl ytha, and they had a couple of Geocoins to pass to me.

We met near here at about 4:45 PM, and lytha passed me these Geocoins...

1. TB1HY2Y - GeoBigDogs Hogwild World Famous Travelling Geocoin
2. TB2DWMR - Moonwalker


In exchange I passed lytha this Travel Bug...

1. TB26YHZ - MAC OS Bug

... these Geocoins...

1. TB1XC42 - Lynxsys's First ever Geocoin
2. TB20CZ4 - troublejv's Gecko Geocoin
3. TB222AT - TR's When Pigs Fly
4. TB23JNP - Oddball's Sister

... and this Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug...

1. TB1BK98 - "Noordwijk, Netherlands" Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug

... as well as a couple of unactivated Geocoins.

None of these Trackables remain in the cache.

Nice to see you again!

9/6/2008 by WP63
Great cache particularly today when the National Masters Weight Pentathalon Championship was occuring at the stadium.
Thanks for the find.

9/1/2008 by jamiekin
The in-laws are in town for a couple extra days due to Hurricane Gustav, so we decided to take them geocaching. We found this ammo can and they are no longer muggles. We left a caboose and took a camera.

8/13/2008 by Gnome007
Watch for sleeping muggles....left a rubber duckie, green alien, and super ball. Took the table cloth clips. Great fun!

8/12/2008 by The Elixer
Felt weird snooping around the bushes in a busy park but the throwing area was empty, I don't think anyone was the wiser. found public art travel bug, left kung fu toy. tfth

8/9/2008 by Sleepy_hollow
I dodged the flyinh hammers and found the cache - nice hide. I dropped a trackable and restashed the goods - TFTH.

7/27/2008 by havic427
Thanks for the hide took me only a sec to figure out (wilth out the gps) the hide spot lol but i am no expert.

7/20/2008 by lovebean
Stinging nettles got me. Found this one with a friend. No action on the field.

7/19/2008 by k_statealan
Nice quick find. Great sign. TFTC!

7/3/2008 by scooternerd
Found Blue Ice GC here, took it, left Babies, babies, babies TB. The guilt of being a baby snatcher was too much. Someone come and pick up these poor babies, now lost in the woods.

Great cache- lots of room.

6/23/2008 by MadCADcacher
Found this on my way home from work. Stickers OUCH

6/21/2008 by Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma
Quick easy find.
Not any muggles around (Saturday night).
Took Eastward Ho geocoin
Left Pirates of the Guardrail Caches geocoin.
Thank you,
Shaggy, Scooby and Velma

6/20/2008 by Wash
When will I learn. Follow the GPS to the closest point and THEN trek up into the nettles. Got a scratchy reminder of that lesson by going to the high ground too quickly and realizing it wasn't up there.

Great cache spot, no hammers today but I had to abort an attempt on this cache last week when I arrived and there was a huge viking-like guy throwing.

Took nothing, left Appalachian Trail GC. TFTH!

5/27/2008 by cyclegreen
#3867 Only a jogger on the track. SL. TFTF!

5/25/2008 by reverse
No flying hammers this morning. In fact, there weren't any muggles either (LOL). TFTH

5/9/2008 by SeaBob
I picked a good time today. There were no muggles in view when I found the cache. Thanks for the fun hide. SL, took Blue Jeep TB.

4/18/2008 by mgosho
I'm glad it was hailing and raining, so no one was throwing anything here, and it was a quick grab

4/11/2008 by NBJPoppa
I "had" to go down south of downtown Seattle this evening, so after performing that errand I drove over here to find the two Travel Bugs that were in listed as being here. The gate I normally use to get to this cache was locked, so I tried the other one. Hmmm. That's odd. This gate is locked, too! I started to walk around the place, but then realized I should drive, so I went back and found a new place to park. Then I walked some more. I found some potential access points, but I really didn't want to try those. After a while I found an open gate. The problem was that I couldn't get there from here. [:}]

Well, I finally managed to get to the cache at 9:20 PM, but the first Travel Bug I found looked awfully familiar. I was on the phone with another cacher at the time, and learned that I had, in fact, already had "Dan's CJ7 Jeep 4X4". In fact I left it over in Eastern Washington! Took the other Travel Bug.

Took TB1RFPH - Crazy Horse

Left nothing.

4/2/2008 by Princess Lisa
Gate to the area was open today, but no one was throwing hammers. Just a few people running on the track. I would have loved to see some hammer throwing! I bet it is impressive! Left two TBs that came with me from Pittsburgh, PA (we just moved out here). Hopefully someone can move them along soon. TFTC!

3/21/2008 by Blue Power Ranger
Came by but Ms. Trunchbull was throwing hammers. Decided to leave for an hour or so and try again. This time I had the place to myself and made the quick find. TFTH!