2 January 2015 Portage Lakes State Park

Bright, somewhat warm January days don't happen that often in Northeast Ohio. We decided to spend this one on the trails at Portage Lakes State Park. The weather and the park were more exciting today than the geocaches. Most of today's mix of caches were in places that weren't memorable. The dogs had fun and we had fun so the day was a success.

Phineas table dances while we do unplanned maintenance on a cache missing a container.

Lizzie waits patiently for us to finish signing the log.

Portage Lakes State Park has one of the nicer dog parks. It is huge with wide open spaces to run and is the only dog park I've seen where dogs have a dock they can use to jump in the lake (or their human owners can use to bring their dogs to the dog park by boat). We found the cache nearby, but passed on the dog park. Phineas is a beagle and can't be trusted to stay in the less than maximum security fences at this park while there was no way I was going to expose Lizzie to any males in the park.

Dusk at Portage Lakes

1 January 2015 Sippo Lake

We wanted somewhere to enjoy an wonderfully mild New Years Day. We also needed a place to keep Lizzie close at leash so we didn't become grandparents. Sippo Lake in Stark County is a pleasant park with a number of long trails. It was a perfect place to spend the first finding a few caches and starting the new year off with some exercise.

31 December 2014 Unexpected New Years Eve

We had other plans for New Years Eve with no expectations of sitting in the waiting area at an emergency pet hospital. Lizzie came to us unspayed and had previously given birth to puppies. She had been in season in October so our expectation was she would be spayed in early January. The night before and the morning gave us pause as she appeared to be heading into season again or was seriously ill with pyometra. A call to our vet and a description of what was happening was enough to cause concern and a referral to an emergency clinic where it would be possible for emergency surgery if needed and care over the holiday. A few hours and many dollars later at the emergency center, the vet confirmed that she was in short season. It put a long delay on spaying, but at least she was healthy.

Happy Easter

Phineas looks like he's thinking I know where your socks are.

29 December 2014 Sunset from the Pymatuning Causeway

28 December 2014 Go Climb a Rock

There's a cache on top the rock on the left in the image below. We've tried this before. We decided to not climb it the first time. At least three visits were cut short with ATV traffic near the rock or campers. Today there was no one here to stop us (from hurting ourselves).

It really is a big rock.

We made it!

We didn't find the cache. :( It's time to play around with the camera.

We'll be back! Hopefully, the area will be quiet so we can climb and search without giving away the hide. The other rocks in the area are fun to explore too.

27 December 2014 Back in Pennsylvania

With the weather staying unseasonably warm and some time off for the holidays, it was time for Lizzie to make her first trip to Pennsylvania. Since she will be a geocaching dog, it seemed appropriate for her first visit to include a stop at State Game Lands 109 (and there were newer caches there we hadn't found).

25 December 2014 Swine Creek

Phineas' Christmas toy seemed appropriate for a cute, friendly beagle who can be a brat.

There's rarely much sun on Christmas Today was no exception as we walked the woods for multi. Much of the color and light was the glow from the mostly sugar maple leaves along the trail of this sugar bush.

Lizzie and Phineas enjoyed a holiday on the trail.

Phineas with a happy, holiday tail wag.

Once you leave the woods at this park the nearby quiet farms of the Amish rule the landscape.

24 December 2014 Christmas Eve in Quail Hollow

We usually go to the Cleveland Zoo to relax and walk around on Christmas Eve. Last year, I was too sick to function. This year, we decided to pass by the zoo and spend time with our new dog Lizzie and Phineas. We normally avoid Quail Hollow State Park to avoid the massive poison ivy collection at the park. This year there was a series of caches spread throughout the park and with the leaves gone spotting poison ivy is much easier. We had a great time, but ran out of daylight on our quest for the entire series. The freakishly warm weather made for a super day on the trail.

This cemetery is now surrounded by the state park. I'm surprised no one has ever used information from the markers for a puzzle cache outside the cemetery.

Lizzie is not afraid of boardwalks :) and seems to be really interested in the containers and the gps.

There were very confused skunk cabbage plants out of dormancy along the wetter areas of the trails.

22 December 2014 Holiday Gift

I recently re-hired a former employee. She worked for me years ago and left to raise her young children. I called her recently as I had a position that was perfect for her and knew the kids were growing and prospering in school. While I was traveling last week, she was in town and used my office. I returned to find much of my office items wrapped in paper with a wonderful holiday note. Her wrapping made me smile. Her note made me laugh. It was a perfect Christmas present.

My lucky cats were spared. ;-)

21 December 2014 Lizzie's First Day

Meet Lizzie! She's the one above who is high-stepping with Ali. Lizzie was dressed up with tags with our cell numbers and her brand-new Log-my-dog tag so it was time to show her what we do and she will be doing for hopefully a long, happy journey. We had a few caches to seek in Hinkley Reservation with a promise of trails to hike so Lizzie's geocaching trails started here today.

Someone decorated a tree along the trail.

Lizzie seems excited by the find.

Lizzie seems to be a gentle soul. She seems to bonded with us quickly. She walked the trails, crossed a couple streams, stood patiently while we hunted caches. It was a great first day. She and Phineas seem to be getting along well too.

Ready, set...

Slurp!

20 December 2014 Pure Michigan

Phineas has been quiet since Gwen left us. Actually, the world has been a little quiet. Once you are used to the patter and play of two dogs, the silence of one, even a beagle, is deafening. Ali was not too happy, but probably not surprised, when she asked what I wanted for Christmas and I replied a dog. We've often rescued with Gwen being the only of our dogs coming from a breeder who was also a friend.

These days it seems as though local public shelters are overfilled with pit bulls and pit bull mixes. We aren't bringing a pit bull home. We tried to wade through the well-meaning, but generally misguided private rescue shelters. We walked this path before and were disappointed to unsuccessfully work with a "rescue" shelter. They seem to us to be more intent on holding rescued animals in long term prison while looking for their vision of a perfect home rather than seeking to find a place where the animal can be happy and loved. After a look at springer rescues, pointer rescues, and aussie rescues, I wanted to move on to someone with a dog and a genuine desire to find a home for it.

Ali's goal was not an easy one. We wanted a female since we expected blending in a new family member would be smoother if the new dog was the opposite sex. Ali wanted an older companion dog rather than a puppy. We both wanted an aussie 45 pounds or less. We had located one in Indiana, but being the holidays, it was adopted before we had time to travel to meet it. She located a few others, but getting replies from the breeder during the holiday season was harder than expected. Than Ali found Samilyn Aussies with not only one, but two potential companion females available for adoption. It was time for a holiday road trip to Ann Arbor!

Our ride was spiced up with the spotting of an old Fiat 125p on a car trailer. It was still running with a Polish license plate. A little internet research found the car is registered in the voivodeship of Podkarpackii in the southestern edge of Poland. Fiat 125p's were manufactured between 1967 and 1991. This appears to be from sometime during the last ten years of the production run. It passed us by very quickly, and this was Ali's first effort with images from an iPhone. I thought the image turned out well. I hoped we might see it again at a rest area, but the trailer was moving quickly. It was a fun distraction.

We brought Phineas along to evaluate his response to the new potential dogs. We were smart enough to stop at a local county park to enjoy a series of caches and give Phin a nice, long walk.

We made the trip hoping to see two female aussies, Blizzard and Puppet. We knew there was a real chance Blizzard had been adopted the day prior. A family was coming to see her and possibly adopt her. We were happily surprised to find both dogs were still there. They are both beautiful with Blizzard being a red merle and Puppet being a less common red tri. We knew in advance that Puppet was shy. She wanted nothing to do with me and Phineas. She warmed ever so slightly to Ali. If she were coming into a dogless family, I would have taken a chance since she seemed a gentle and quiet soul, but it is Phineas' home and he had to be okay with the decision.

Blizzard quickly became the belle of the ball. She and Phineas played enthusiastically and she was friendly with both of us. She made the decision for us. We stopped for one quick cache with her on the way home so she could have a geocache find in Michigan, but didn't want to push our luck since she wasn't used to leash walking and we were in an unknown area. You'll have to wait for another day for Lizzie's reveal. ;)

14 December 2014 The Park Not Yet Opened

A local caching couple approached Hudson Parks and obtained permission to hide a series of geocaches in undeveloped park land in the city. They placed a moon-based series of creative and fun themed caches spread out over the entire undeveloped park. The future park appears to be old farm land reforesting with a stretch of small woods near the edge. It was a great way to get some exercise on another short grey day.

Phineas is on the lookout for bunny caches.