23 September 2013 Caching Quebec

Neither of us had visited Quebec since we started geocaching. This trip offered a long drive to Canada, but was the best chance we could see in the near future. We left New Hampshire and made our way through Vermont. We stopped for a few Vermont finds on the way including one a relocated covered bridge in Groveton. The cache was at one end of the bridge, but I was drawn to the other end of the covered bridge and a really well kept Alco 0-4-0 steam switcher. The switcher was last used by the now closed Groveton Paper Company.

We also tacked on a rare first to find with a traditional cache near the border which had been unfound in over a week. The cache was at April's Maple and had us stumped for a bit since the posted coordinates were in the parking lot. We looked for a bit then saw the husband half of the farm business He stopped to talk with us and was soon joined by his wife. Neither remembered the exact location of the cache, but were certain it was closer to the road. Armed with that bit of knowledge, Ali soon had a nice hide in hand. We marked better coordinates before heading into the business and everything maple. We talked for a bit and found some great maple products before making our way to the border.

Unlike our entry and return from Ontario last year, no one at either crossing seemed even slightly aware of geocaching. Our first stop was a small rural cemetery with a nicely camouflaged containter at the gate to the cemetery. Ali had solved a few puzzles and we soon found ourselves at a roadside cache across from a number of moogles. We enjoyed the rural scenery before marking our way to Baldwin Mills.

After a stop at the local store for some snacks and a drink, we made our way to Harold Baldwin Park. Besides nice woods for hiking the park had a climb through a rock trail to a very nice overlook. We spotted our first benchmark in Quebec (as if the blue triangle weren't a big signal) but were unable to come up with the cache at this nice rock formation.

We made a second park visit at the grounds of a fish hatchery. The trail ran along the stream including a very old log dam. Neither of us had seen a dam constructed like this It had been breeched some time ago, but the remaining construction was interesting.

We both liked the fishing rod and reel arches at the door of the hatchery.

It was a long drive for a short visit, but we enjoyed a very rural slice of Quebec and two super walks in the park,