7 September 2021 Irvine Flats

We were returning to Ohio, but set aside time to make our favorite walk along the old rail trail at Irvine Flats. It seems the snapping turtles have displaced all the soft-shelled turtles in the ponds.

The ponds are often summer homes for a great blue herons and little green herons. The great blues have moved to a less accessible wet area to the north, but we did spot a little green near the far shore.

The trail used to be filled with great blue lobelia and other wildflowers. The Forest Service started out sourcing the mowing of the walking trail. Now it is a hunt to find the few remaing flowers.

We stopped for a few items at a local store on the way home.  There was lilely a local car show and this great looking '57 Chevy was stopped for an errand on the way home.  There are more images here.

4 September 2020 Starting the Holiday Weekend

 I was in New York for a rare for 2020 business trip.  The day ended late so I drove to Pennsylvania for the evening.  Normally, we would be at the Geauga County Fair, but COVID ended those plans.  I made a late morning solo trip to walk along the trail at Irvine Flats.  The wildflowers on the trail are greatly diminished since the National Forest Service now sends an early trail cutter in to support late fall hunting.  The early cuts have greatly diminished the flowers and re-seeding.  Despite the government's mismanagement some turtlehead and great blue lobelia continue to survive.  A number of other species are now gone.

I have no idea of what drove this butterfly to continue flying with so much wing damage.

They were all in.

That's my spirit turtle.  I have always preferred quiet to the crowd.

This was a first for me.  I started by thinking these two snapping turtles were doing some sort of mating ritual.  It soon became clear this was a very powerful territorial battle.

A few minutes later the victor swam away.

Leopard Frog

30 June 2017 Checking Our Cache

We needed to check one of our Pennsylvania caches today so we decided to take a couple walks near the cache. We started with a walk along the Allegheny River in the National Forest on the old Newbold Estate. We enjoyed a few early summer wildflowers, but saw no ducks on the Allegheny.

Indian Pipes

We spotted creeping bellflower not far from where the old estate was built.

The spotted wintergreen was not quite yet in bloom.

The old estate holds the remnants of old trout ponds. Over our years of visiting, they have continued to fill in, but they are havens for herons, turtles, and a few ducks. The dogs make capturing any of these in images a feat of luck.

Over the past couple years, the National Forest Service has been working to reduce invasive species and replant the old bean field. Our geocache is in the area along the Brokenstraw. There were still construction vehicles present for this visit.

The parking lot is a nice addition rather than the roadside pull-off. The field seems to just be coming into bloom, but the area seems to have been replanted with prairie wildflowers.

There were still a few berries available for eating pleasure.

Hopefully when we return with the replacement cache, there area will be filled with wildflowers.

4 September 2010 Rainy Day


We were hoping for better weather on the holiday weekend, but day two wasn't a big improvement. We were able to stop at a farm stand outside Union City and get our last glads of the season. We've been stopping at this small roadside stand to buy flowers each summer for about a decade.



We had loaded the gps' hoping to get a break from the rain and stop for a walk and a cache or two on the way. The rain came and went, but mostly came.



We were able to head out in the late afternoon to do some much needed cache maintenance. We are getting ready for caches that will be active during GeoWoodstock next July. We retired a few, placed some new ones, and finally gave a lot of thought to where we would move AGT-Warren-Irvine at Night.



I had no idea the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was located in a parking lot behind the Warren K-Mart. :-0

17 April 2010 Walking Irvine Flats

7 September 2009 Last Summer Walk Along Irvine Flats

9 August 2009 Hiding New Caches in Irvine Flats

5 October 2008 Hiding caches in Warren










The dogs and I got out for a misty, morning walk on the property. The trees were fogged in making for an eerie little walk. We also found a really large spider web. For once, I saw it before walking into it.

Once the fog burned off, it was a bright, blue day. It was a perfect day for taking out the old caches and placing the new caches. It was also a perfect day for stopping at a little bench along the trail. We spent time along an old rail grade both in the State Game Lands and along the Tidioute bike path. A loop of the day took us to a nice section of the ANF along Grunderville Road and a return to a favorite place, Irvine Flats. The dusk sky at Irvine Flats looked great with just a sliver of moon peeking above the mountains. We took a cache out of Irvine Flats and replaced it with a Christmas ornament cache.

The ornaments have a story behind them. We were at Wild Wind, a local craft festival. Ali spotted this nice geocaching, wooden plaque. It seemed odd, but the place was from Elk County and geocaching has a lot of visibility there. I noticed these nice, simple wood ornaments. Ali and I discussed these would make great cache swag. I selected about two dozen and handed them to the a person in the booth. She gave me a bit of an odd expression so I told her that we play this game and were planning to give them to visitors. She asked what game and I said geocaching. Her eyes lit up and she said, "I am a geocacher." It turned out that the two people manning the booth for the Craft Fair were members of the caching family Original Griswolds. We had a fun visit met two nice caching people. Meet the Griswolds was born.