This was our big day around Rochester to find caches in the center section of the Great Lakes Seaway Geotrail. Since this is a long drive from home for us and the geocoins for the trail can only be picked up by visiting the local center, we started off thinking we might be done with the coin requirement and back at the redemption center by the time it closed at 2. We got an early (for us) start, but soon realized the 2p.m. finish wasn't going to happen. We also planned to finish soon enough to be able to spend the evening in my favorite work stop, Lockport (which didn't happen).
Geotrails are a strange mix of pleasure and frustration for me. We started the day at what seemed to be a wonderful park filled with caches about ten minutes from our hotel. This should have been a great mix of trails and caches, except if you wanted the coin you couldn't visit much of the park. So the compromise is to find the geotrail cache and one or two other caches and race off to the next geotrail cache. It's fun and you get to see pieces of the area, but it's like believing you have read a great book because you read the review. I have to work, so spending days in an area isn't an option. In the end, I let Ali be the trail guide and let her pick stuff for us to see. I often whine about the places we miss, but I understand she's picking a great compromise of unique places to visit with what time we have available.
Our second stop after leaving the park was supposed to be at a quarry except the park hadn't opened yet. We passed time by stopping at a local historic village area where we found an old virtual cache. After that we stopped by a farm market which sold bakery and had the breakfast we passed by earlier. The little farm market was a super place to stop. It was nice to push aside caching for a few minutes to just relax at an outside bench and enjoy the day. Surprisingly, I left my camera in the geomobile and never grabbed an image.
The quarry was fun. Old quarries which have been turned into parks are usually fun places to cache. The terrain can be more challenging than the local area and the wildlife sightings are often good.
After the quarry, we traveled mostly along the lake. The weather was perfect for a late summer ride and caching along Lake Ontario. There were plenty of ducks and frogs to be seen on the journey. We stopped for a visit at the lighthouse at Sodus. It's not the most scenic lighthouse, but it is at a pleasant location. It's one of twenty along the great lakes in New York.
Our big stop for the day was at Chimney Bluffs State Park. Ali planned for us to spend a long time at this park. She planned well. This was the fourth super New York State Park on our trip. The bluff formations were amazing. We had a great time and grabbed some old caches. We also had a lot of fun with frogs along the trails and the lower levels. As we walked the mowed paths for a few finds, there were dozens of frogs out in the grass. Every couple of steps one would jump from the mowed area to the tall growth.
Our day ended late, and we still hadn't finished the ten. We grabbed a room in the Rochester area and planned our continued adventures for tomorrow...
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