29 October Forest, Venango, and Going Home













It was time to return to Ohio after over two weeks on the road. We made a drive south to Forest County on the chance that the AGT coins may have arrived. No luck. What else was there to do but cache? We visited a nice park in Tionesta, stopped at a farm, and finished off with a visit to the really cool Pithole Historical site.

I always like visiting Pithole and viewing the land that held the first oil boom. Today's visit (and geocache) took us to a view of Pithole Creek. We had never been here before. On the way in we saw wood ducks take flight, a heron lift off, and a really outstanding beaver dam. While we were here we realized this place is actually a heron rookery with at least four visible nests in the trees. On our way out we got to visit with our friends Tprints and MommyTP. It was fun to relax and visit for a bit.

The llama photos are for Jill. When she comes to visit, we'll make certain this farm is on the way. :-)

28 September 2007 Venango









I was tired from traveling so I was taking Monday off. With a little extra time to spend in PA, we had a nice quiet day and found a few Venango caches. Mill Creek Falls is an amazing walk. It was three miles of pleasure. We finished up a short day with a visit to a cache at nearby Kahle Lake.

27 October 2007 Home at Last








After two weeks on the road, no one could hide their excitement at seeing me. :-0

We did a little cache maintenance and spent a quiet day.

26 October 2007 Coming Home... West Virgina and Pennsylvania








I got to spend some time off-highway on the way home. I was about halfway through West Virgina when the skies cleared and the day turned spectacular. I also found a couple quality caches in Greene County Pennsylvania. They were our first in that county and a pleasant way to end a long week. We grabbed two new states, North and South Carolina, and added a new Pennsylvania County. I also managed to find a few new waymarks to post. ;-)

25 October 2007 Driving Home... North Carolina

24 October 2007 Charleston










Calling this a wet trip would be true understatement. It was either raining or grey for all but a tiny bit of the week. We had a break on Wednesday so I decided to try finding a few South Carolina geocaches. A couple of nice Sissy-n-CR in a local park saved the day. I had just finished with signing the log and returning a multi to its hiding spot when the skies broke loose. I hung out under a tree and was only completely soaked when the rain decreased enough to make a run for it. In between the downpours, I hunted a nice virtual in a Charleston cemetery and finally gave up near the waterfront. We were all meeting for dinner and I did not want to look any more bedraggled.

The statues are from the park where I found the two caches. That is a real turtle at the base of the statue. The other shots are from the waterfront.

21 October 2007 Dunns Eddy






I needed to drive south toward Charleston, South Carolina so our walking on this perfect day was limited to a trip around the property with the dogs. The woods were perfect.

20 October 2007 AGT Caching in Forest... and Clarion










We headed off for a day of caching with Ali's mom. While we were heading to a cache on ANF lands, I found a moth I had never seen before. From the picture, it seems to be a leopard moth caterpillar. We had just found our third AGT cache in Forest County are were walking back to the Subie when I spotted a familiar geomobile in the parking lot. Our friends Grandpa and Grandma were in from Maryland and were out caching for the day with Pirate&Crafty. We visited in the parking lot. I walked back to the cache location so I could visit with Grandpa. After that we decided to spend the rest of the day caching together. We had a great ice cream stop in Hickory, a pleasant visit to Tionesta, and went together to find our first cache in Clarion County. At the Clarion County cache Crafty spotted a four-leaf clover.

We ended a wonderful day with a stop at a nearby restaurant for dinner.

19 October 2007 Warren









Ali's mom came for the weekend so we could celebrate Ali's birthday. It rained part of the day and I had work to prepare for the following week so we just grabbed a few caches. The AGT at Hatch Run was nice. It included a small hill with a good rise. We also stopped at Betts Park to find a cache (and play on the playground stuff). Ali's looking smug since she just decided to jump off the teeter-tooter. We finished off with a stop at Rouse to drop off a new log for one of our caches.

18 October 2007 Caching Alone









I was headed back to PA for the weekend. For the past year and a half, I would have been chasing caches with Gryff. Since she has a new job, I hunt alone on these trips. It will be at least five months before my friend is once again available caching. This park in Erie County on Rice Road is really pleasant. Gryff would enjoy it.

I finished the evening finding a cache at a small lake east of Jamestown.

14 October 2007 Apple Butter Festival and East Branch










We hadn't been to the Apple Butter Festival in Burton's Century Village in years. The last visit we had was with my parents. Since we were in town for the weekend and the weather was great, I suggested we make a stop and spend the afternoon. There was a big kite flying demonstration on the hill looking east from Century Village. We walked the grounds, ate some food, and bought a few things. More importantly, we had fun.

After the Festival, we headed over to Headwaters Park to find the Geauga Park District's newest cache. We met some cachers at the final and had a great walk. We finished up by a return trip along the Buckeye Trail and near the water of East Branch or Crystal Lake. There aren't many boaters at East Branch anymore. Years ago this was quite a fishing hot spot. It was the place for the maiden voyage of Gangbusters. The year I bought her, my brother, brother-in-law, and I were too excited to wait for good weather so we went fishing on East Branch the first week of March. We froze. I think we caught one or two bass by the northern end. Geauga Park manages the land and reservoir now and frowns on things like people using the lake.