24 May 2013 37 Degrees

When a holiday weekend arrives, it has to be enjoyed no matter what the weather deals, but 37 degrees in Memorial Day weekend is a little tough to smile through. Add a bit of cold rain and a strong wind, and you have a rough day for caching. We had set aside this day to hunt some of the Legacy of Conservation series. Time was running short to complete the trail so we could not afford to be picky. Despite the rain and the cold, it was a fun, memorable day.

After a few warm-up finds, our first Legacy of Conservation stop was Kinzua Bridge State Park. The weather hit its low point here as we stopped at the old bridge site before heading to the cache. I remember the bridge standing so I am always sad when I visit here to see the wreck of this beautiful structure. Our journey to the cache was made much rougher when we missed the trail. Thankfully we were able to avert disaster when Eva decided to head to a porcupine along the trail. Ali saw where she was headed and I pulled her back just before the worst could happen.

Happy Geo-Babies

On the way to one of the Legacy caches, someone was fishing very near at this stream. He had moved on by the time our journey brought us back enabling us a chance to find the nearby cache.

This was an interesting find on our journey.

Clintonia and painted trilliums awaited us on our journey to umbrella rock

Gwen took a brief nap in a long day while we were visiting Umbrella Rock.

23 May 2013 Boston Forest

I was on my way from Sanborn to the PA home. I had part of an afternoon to cache before heading to Allegany State Park to meet Ali and the dogs for some hiking. It has been a while since my last visit to Boston Forest. Boston Forest is an undeveloped Erie County park with some nice trails almost no visitors. Today my only companion was a salamander I found on the trail. Since it had been so long since my last visit, there were not also unfound caches. I found a number of caches before the rain closed in and finished the afternoon's caching. With the rain we passed on a visit to ASP.

22 May 2013 Cambria Nature Trail

I was tired after a day at the office and not in the mood for caching, but I wanted to go for a walk. I had been to the Cambria Nature Trail for the puzzle cache hidden there and missed some of the information. This evening, the park was all I did. I had a tour around the trails and took my time gathering the information. This time I didn't miss the coordinates for the cache. The container was in an interesting spot where I was surrounded by song birds. No photos, but it was great.

21 May 2013 On the Way to the Falls

I have never seen a Canadian service marker on a grave in the US before this. Mr. Doyle served his country in World War I.

Despite caching often, I rarely see active birds nests. Today I quietly walked away from two hides near active nests.

I finally stopped and visited the Waymark for this statue of President Lincoln in Westfield, New York. In 1860, 12-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield sent the future president a letter suggesting he grow a beard to help him win the upcoming election. The beard has become a part of the man's story. In 1861, President Lincoln's train made a stop in Westfield where the president personally met with the young lady.

The cottonwoods were leaving dropped material all along the bike trail in Chautauqua. It made for one hairy-looking toad.

Despite the overcast evening, it was still possible to catch a glimpse of the Canadian shore from the overlook. I enjoy a walk in the trails and a fun multi despite a light rain fall.

My last stop of the evening was along a nice inlet to Lake Erie. The weather was clearing with the sun making an appearance in time for sunset.

20 May 2013 Hiding Golden Bisquits Ohio

Gwen and Eva are our caching companions and more. Since we travel back and forth between two states, they are with us most of the time. They have also been a part of our most memorable geocaching adventures. Rather than creating a dog account as a number of cachers have, we decided in the early days to make them a travel bug so we could track the places they visited with us. Since Becky was still alive and cached with us in the early days, the Three-Headed Geodog seemed an appropriate name for the team. Eva and Gwen have been a pair for a number of years now, but the name worked for us.

In keeping with the custom of providing a golden ammo can for a cacher reaching 1,000 finds we wanted to do something to mark the Geodogs 1,000 finds. Rather than place a golden ammo can, I wanted to play on a favorite record album of my youth. Golden Bisquits was the greatest hits album of Three Dog Night. It seemed like a fitting name for the cache. I was able to find gold duct tape and cut dog biscuit shapes from the gold tape to decorate the camo container.

We chose a place in South Chagrin where there is very little traffic and we had previously had a fun adventure with Gwen and Eva. Years ago Cleveland Metroparks placed a cache along a trail above the Chagrin River. At the time we had no idea the metroparks even owned the trail. This evening we returned for another fun walk and to place this cache.

After locating the cache we dropped back down to the Chagrin River and took a brief walk along the trail for another visit to see the wonderful wild hyacynths which carpet this area.

19 May 2013 Hiking Tanbark

Every year we try to hike the western section of the Tanbark Trail starting at Route 62 to look for painted trilliums. This year we had put the dogs in camp for a weekend so our walk was just the two of us. Last year, Gwen had a partial ACL tear on this trail so I was glad she could sit this one out. The painted trilliums were present in large numbers as were a variety of other spring wildflowers. We had a great time on the walk and enjoyed seeing a stream with more flow this year thanks to a wet spring.

18 May 2013 ASP Geobash

I'm not a fan of most Mega Events. To me, they are so large that you usually miss seeing many friends who are attending the same event. They also tend to be at venues which don't really interest me. ASP Geobash is the exception. It's the perfect Mega event. The main part of the event covers about three hours of people hanging around a tent and a few buildings, followed by a group picture, and a chance to eat if you wish. If you can't spot friends here and make a few new ones, you're not trying.

After the social part comes the real treat. A state park packed with caches everywhere. There's easy ones. There's high terrain ones. There's lots of ammo cans with the whole day to just enjoy an amazing place. It's impossible to not meet a new cacher or two on the trail. With my work I don't get many days to just let loose and hit the trail caching. I try to set this day apart so we can have a great day outdoors.

I was really happy this year to see that sponsorship banners gone. Garmin's tagging along to get their image on an event page was cheap and showed how far they have fallen. In general, show me the corporate sponsor that actually does something physical to make an event a reality, and I will hold their banner during a picture. ASP Geobash is a no frills event. The event photo deserves to be taken without cheap corporate splashes.

We met new cachers on the way up to this cache. They had gotten part way to the top and given up the hunt. It was a long, long walk up, but we enjoyed the smiley. It was strange today. We had multiple cachers ask us if we were up to doing high terrain caches. It seemed a bit ironic since we have more high terrain finds than most cachers.

We met a caching group from Ontario here on our way to a cache.

Streamside near dusk

This cache was a perfect way to end the day. We stopped for this hide at the edge of the reservoir just as light dropped away. A few quiet boats made there way past us as the day ended.

17 May 2013 On Our Way to ASP Geobash

Old cemeteries have a different character than newer ones. The hand worked markers of the past have been replaced by flat stones designed for a tractor to pass over during moving or machine-carved upright stones with images of someone's favorite old muscle car. Often in these old cemeteries, there are old plants left by loved ones in memory of someone they've lost. These lilacs must have been someone's favorites.

14 May 2013 Wild Hyacynths in South Chagrin

We were here mostly for the wild hyacynths, but were happy for a chance to see all the wonderful spring wildflowers in the park. It was a good year for hyacynths. I was happy we were able to spend a quiet evening together.

13 May 2013 Sunnybrook

12 May 2013 Caching Big Creek

Ali solved a puzzle for a cache hidden in Big Creek si we spent the afternoon walking the trails at the park. We were a little puzzled by where the soultion took us since it was much farther from the trail than Geauga Parks has traditionally permitted. We don't like to stray off trail in a park unless we know it is permitted and a possible hde location. Finally, we just left the trail and hunted for the cache. Eva eventually stood on downed tree which was the cache location.