20 October 2013 Marietta to Wytheville

We've enjoyed fun days in Marietta. Today, our plan was to spend the day caching before heading to Wytheville. We should have made other plans. If you want to read about the failed Pioneer GeoTrail, the link will take you there. We were in town until we realized how bad the trail was. We saved the day with some fun caches in West Viginia.

The locals were laughing at our attempt to complete this geotrail today.

Almost Heaven, West Virginia.

19 October 2013 Heading South and Barkcamp State Park

Belmont was one of the shrinking lists of Ohio counties with zero finds. I needed to head south for a work meeting so we drove on Friday evening to spend the night in St. Clairsville. We had both wanted to visit Barkcamp State Park so this made a perfect trip for us. We started our morning searching for a few caches at memorial park in St. Clairsville.

We grabbed a few caches in town and managed to not find the three confirmed benchmarks within a tenth of a mile of the courthouse before making the short journey to Barkcamp. The only must visit on our list was a 2001 cache still active in the park. The park was a picture of serenity on a cool fall day. Our journey to that cache took us past a neighboring farm with some curious cows.

Sometimes a happy day of caching has nothing to do with the smiley.

We were near this quiet picnic area along the water when Ali spotted a couple of herons on the shoreline.

When we left Barkcamp, we made our way to Monroe County and added this previously unfound county to our list of Ohio counties with ten or more. We were able to revive a few lonely caches in a park along the way.

A lot...

Gave all...

... in the tiny Monroe County town of Beallsville.

The park with the historical marker and this ball diamond in the rolling landscape yielded a couple lonely caches.

Tarzan was lonely.

Jane was lonely too!

By the end of the afternoon, we were both cold and the weather was closing in. We were happy for a long day of caching as we made our way to Marietta. You never get to choose your weather so we were just happy to enjoy the day caching before the weather got worse.

17 October 2013 A Walk Before Camp

We were headed south for a few days so the dogs were headed to camp. They made a visit to the trails at Metzenbaum Park before heading to camp for a few days.

14 October 2013 Beartown Colors

I was meeting Ali and the dogs at Beartown Lakes to search for a multi cache. As I was driving, I realized the colors were at their peak locally. I kept hoping to reach Beartown before the sun started to dip. I was too late the higher arc of the sun lighting the trees, but we were able to enjoy a pleasant fall evening and a geocache.

13 October 2013 End of the Season

It was cold and raining, but we weren't the only people to show up for the last day of the season. Waiting for March...

12 October 2013 Caching Forest County

We headed south today to cache an old railroad grade. One the way we made a stop or two along the Allegheny River to hunt a couple caches and see if we could spot any migrating birds. We had no luck with the migrating birds. There wasn't much to see in fall colors either. This year more than most the colors appeared to be really varied in their intensity.

While on the trail, Ali spotted some tall american chestnut trees. Most showed signs of blight, but some appeared to be blight-free. These trees are usually gone before they reach 20-25 feet so this was a nice treat. It's fall and time for us and the dogs to be dressed in safety orange. This is an out-and-back trail. While near the turn-around point, two hunters arrived to start scouting for deer. They were hunting with bows and didn't look all that serious in their adventure, but safety is always best.

We were also able to fill-in another block for the fizzy challenge. We've not reached our last grid section to meet fizzy challenge requirements.

Ali and Gwen near a tall chestnut

Safety Gwen

Safety Phineas

11 October 2013 Treman State Park

This was my second visit to Treman State Park. I had stopped by in early spring to hunt the geocache in the park. At that time most of the trails in the park were closed to keep visitors away from potential injuries on ice. This afternoon some of the trails were open, and the park was doing a brisk business with weekend arrival for fall camping. My hunt for the geocache ended about 350 feet from ground zero with two barricades blocking the small walkway over the stream. I was really happy that my visit and walk let me stop and visit the super waterfall in the park. Hopefully, I can make a return trip when the trails are open to hunt for the cache and explore more trails.

350 feet and two barricades from the cache. :( There's always next spring.

We visited this wetlands area in western Cattaraugus County a number of years ago while completing one of the county's geotrails. There are new caches there, and it was a nice opportunity to walk and enjoy sunset before the last stretch of the trip home.

10 October 2013 Another Night in Cortland

I had time for one cache in a neighborhood park before dinner with friends. This was a good choice for a quiet walk along the pond

9 October 2013 Cortland

The days were shorter leaving minimum after-work caching time. For once I actually planed well with a solved sudoku puzzle a Cortland GeoTour near the nice stream below and a cache in the nearby state forest. It was a super evening to be out. For once I maximized the relaxation with a good plan.

State forest roads in New York are enough to raise the terrain rating of any caches located there. You need to have a careful touch and a little luck when driving on these roads.

It's partly to mostly cloudy over 300 days each year in nearby Syracuse, but Cortland can still show an amazing sunset. This evening the sun and the moon teamed for a show.

8 October 2013 Conawango to Cuba

The Conawango River is a beautiful river that runs from New York's southern tier into Warren County where it joins with the Allegheny River to continue south. To the north the river is a quiet place to paddle. This was near a cache by one of the entry points by the New York-Pennsylvania border.

I made a return visit to Seneca Oil Spring near Cuba, New York. This location was the first spot where petroleum was discovered in the US in 1827. Today there is a small fence around the spring which still seeps oil and bubbles methane gas.

The colors were intense today.