Not Quite a Dozen

19 February, 2011

Finally!  A day warm enough with Woodhick803 over his cold.  A full day of geocaching!  Yay!

I dragged myself out of a nice, soft, warm, cuddly bed at the ungodly hour of 7am, showered, took care of the kitties, etc, and headed out into the cold (36 degrees) to meet Woodhick in Lewisburg, WV, an hour's drive.  We hit the trail running, or hiking I should say, on Jerry's Run Trail, just over the state line into Virginia, to find the Allegheny Trail cache, one that was sorely in need of some TLC.  Woodhick gave it first aid, replacing not only the contents of the cache but the container itself.  He's now a foster parent. 

Woodhick claimed a FTF at Welcome to VA on I-64.  It appeared that this cache was a former Letterbox cache (similar to geocaching, but a bit different, as I understand it) that has just been listed as a GC.  Congratulations, Woodhick!

Probably the nicest part of geocaching is that it gets you out to see places that either you didn't know existed or had always meant to see, but never took the time.  This is the Humpback Bridge, where we took a DNF (did not find), but it was nice to see such an unusual bridge.  While there we met a young college student who was writing a paper on the bridge and she gave us a rundown of the bridge's history.  Nice!





Another highlight of the day was the Falling Spring Falls earthcache.  There is no actual cache box to find at an earthcache; rather, there's some natural occurrence to see and then answer questions about.  Thomas Jefferson surveyed these falls in 1781.  To learn more about the falls, visit http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=fc86f8bc-1cff-4ed7-8bff-08046918afdb

I found this little plant growing in tiny little crevice in a rock at the Mouth of the Island cache near Covington, VA.  Guess we should all take a lesson from this little fellow.

And finally, here I am, taking the bull by the horns.  (Okay, I know it's a buffalo, but play along, would you?)  Curious Ride was a virtual cache, sort of like an earthcache, but not dealing with nature.  Virtual caches are no longer admitted under the geocaching rules and are now listed as waypoints.  This one is still listed as a geocache just because it was in place before the rules changed.  By the way, it helps to read the cache's description - Woodhick and I spent 10 minutes looking for a real cache before we noticed it was listed as a virtual.

Of course, we had some good food along the way.  Lunch was at Cucci's in Covington, VA, where we had some delicious meatball sandwiches.  Yum!  And the day warmed up into the 50s with a beautiful clear blue sky.

Until next time, get outside and play!

It Was a Guardrail Kind of Day

4 February, 2011

Winter finally took a break and Woodhick803 and I were able to get out and find a few caches.  After he caught a couple of local caches, we traveled north on Rt. 16 (aka Robert C. Byrd Drive) to such mini-opoli (the opposite of megalopoli?) as Pemberton, Sullivan, and Coal City to track down a series of what turned out to be, with one exception, all guardrail caches.  Apparently they were all placed by the same geocacher who took his nieces and nephews to place the caches and then named them after that relative.

Here's a picture of six caches.  Yes, I know that's only one photo, but remember I told you that, with one exception, they were all guardrail caches.  I don't want to sound bigoted, but those guardrails all look alike to me.

The lone exception to guardrails was a cache placed at Fitzpatrick Park.  I had never been out there and, even though it's just a few miles from town, it felt as if we were not only in the wilderness but had also traveled back in time a generation or two (or three or four). <cue music from "Deliverance">

"Patriot Boot Camp" found us celebrating my 100th find.  Woodhick803 presented me with a certificate and letter of introduction (appropriate for framing, of course) and I think he was humming Pomp and Circumstance during the presentation ceremonies.

It was fun to get out, see the sun, and breathe some fresh air.  I doubt that winter's over yet, but it's getting closer each day.

Get outside and play!