29 May 2017 Treemageddon

The day started very nicely. Phineas planned our geocaching day and seemed happy with the plan.

Or maybe he was still sleepy from the long hike the day before.

Our plan today was to make another visit to Brush Hollow and take a longer hike to find the remainder of the caches in the area while enjoying the perfect spring weather.

For a while, the day was just what we expected. The dogs made an early stream stop for some water.

We enjoyed the late spring wildflowers. We were happy to see indian cucumber root in bloom, our only clintonia blooms of the season, and blue-eyed grass.

The first few finds were pleasant with the Lizzie and Phineas enjoying an early break.

We enjoyed a salamander sighting.

Then, we reached what one cacher has coined treemageddon. One the second of May there had been at least four tornados in Pennsylvania including one in Elk County. The tree carnage certainly indicated something weather related had caused the damage. We hadn't noticed any damage at this level when we visited the area in April so the early may tornado seemed a plausible answer to what we found.

It is difficult to tell when it is easier to turn around and go back. There's always that hope and expectation that the next downed tree will be the last, and an open trail will wait.

It was physically exhausting for us. There was also the added stress of wondering how we were going to get our dogs to safety. They are fearless, but the endless progression of downed trees exhausted them. It became a goal to get them to safety.

Through it all we did continue to look for the caches. It may have been foolish, but each cache stop was an opportunity to rest and regroup for the next part of the journey. Amazingly, all the containers appeared to have been missed by the toppled trees.

Ali plays tornado twister to return a cache container.

Luckily, the tree hosting this cache hide was still standing.

We had plenty of water for the dogs on a normal journey, but ran out leaving the dogs looking for relief. Once we gave up on the trail ever opening, Ali guided us down from the ridge where we knew there was water for the dogs and a safer path back to the Geomobile.

By the time we were back, the dogs were exhausted and we were aching. The worst of the day was Ali's knee injury and the pain that was coming from that.