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Saturday, June 13, 2009

25 June 2009 Caching in Western New York













There were two new caches placed at Jamestown Audubon Center & Sanctuary. We are usually here for a visit at least once a year so this seemed a great time to stop. There is usually a good assortment of waterfowl with turtles, frogs, and wildflowers thrown in. The trails offer a few miles of walking with a real bouncy boardwalk that is perfect for getting Ali's feet wet when I misbehave. We were surprised to see that the largest pond was nearly dry. Hmmm... what happened? Later on the trail, Ali found a plaque explaining that the lake was drained to control the carp population. Apparently there is a short window during the spring when the carp are spawning where draining the lake is effective. I guess now we know.

We also went east to Cattaraugus County to find some of the caches in the Enchanted Mountains Geotrail. It's a two-year challenge to find 32 caches, one each in the towns within the county. This makes five geocache challenges we have this year. I am a little concerned about so many. The cache quality with cache-specific challenges tends to be erratic as does the locations. We are now about half-way through this challenge. Today, there were a couple nice locations. On our first day out there was one nice location. I always expect that geotrails designed to bring tourists should have at least a few wow locations. So far, this one has had none. I haven't been swept away by the Ohio State Park ones either. In a place like Cattaragus, my mind keeps thinking, 'forget the challenge, go to Allegany State Park.' Hopefully, we will be blown away by at least a few of these caches.

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