26 December 2013 Ashland County

We pass through Ashland County a number of times each year, but rarely stop to cache. There are a lot of roadside micros at retail stops along the four-lane near the exit. They aren't our typical caching fare so we usually move through. Over the last year, the county park system has issued a number of permits for geocaches. Since Ashland is close and I was still mending, a visit to the flat, easy trails of central Ohio seemed like a great way to spend a day together during the holidays.

This was a perfect day to lie to yourself about the weather. The day was sunny and bright with warm temperatures for Ohio in December. There was open water and where there wasn't the ice was cracking and getting ready to leave. If you closed closed your eyes, it was almost possible to believe that this would be a mild winter which would pass soon. It's good I don't predict weather for a living. ;-)

25 December 2013 Christmas Caching

Every dog loves Christmas toys.

Geocaching on Christmas is a tradition for us. Since I was somewhat mobile again, we decided to stretch our walk a little and take a journey at West Woods to hunt a series of caches there. We're not used to seeing others out caching on Christmas Day so we were surprised to see fresh tracks in the snow at the first hide location. We were even more surprised to see a local cacher returning from his holiday journey. He had missed one find so he joined us on the trail for a couple of Christmas caches. It was happy times to be able to sign a log again.

24 December 2013 Christmas Eve at Orchard Hills

I needed a day to recover from the Rogers Run walk, but a stop at Orchard Hills gave me a mile walk to double my first outing. For the first time in almost a month, I could also handle the dogs on a walk. The world was looking brighter (if just a little colder).

There was no fishing today from the decks.

22 December 2013 1/2 Mile Walk

It was a simple, half-mile walk along Rogers Run, but it was a walk! After almost a month of being incapable of doing anything physical, it was thrilling to take a short, wobbly walk in the park with Ali. My doctor had finally agreed with my early thoughts on why I was so ill and had prescribed a new med. It was slowly helping. There was enough progress to try this walk today. Hopefully better days are ahead.

20 December 2013 Bottles

It has been over a decade since I had to give this much effort to my health.

5 December 2013 Double Trouble State Park

I've been too sick to take pictures, walk outside, or geocache. The picture below is a panorama I stiched from Ali's images at a nice state park in New Jersey.

30 November 2013 11,000 Finds

A friend gave the bracelet above to Ali when we reached 2,000 finds. At the time it was a roman numeral for the 2 plus the k for 1,000. It made a return trip this week when we celebrated number 11,000.

I needed Friday to recover from Thursday's short outing. By Saturday morning I stil felt lousy, but was willing to hit the trail so we could find our milestone cache together with the dogs before Ali headed east on Sunday. It was not one of my smarter decisions. We found some nice caches and I made it through the day, but I spent a scary night a foot in front of our fireplace with a blanket pulled over me. By the next morning, I was dangerously dehydrated and had no idea how I was going to drive three hours to our home so I could be closer to serious medical help if my specialist was needed.

This quiet winter scene was at a small park along the Tionesta River where we stopped for a find before heading after the milestone.

We were returning to a favorite stretch of the North Country Trail to seek number 11,000. The find would actually be not far from our 1,000 milestone find so many years ago.

The snow was deep at the cache location.

Our 11,000 cache picture near the cache site included me looking near death.

We stopped at a cemetery for a cache in the woods with a nice view overlooking the woods to start our journey of the next 1,000 finds.

28 November 2013 Thanksgiving

We were supposed to find our 11,000th geocache today at a night cache in the woods behind Edinboro University. It didn't happen.

On Monday evening, I started taking antibiotics for a chest infection. I felt great Wednesday. By Thursday morning, I was seriously ill. I shouldn't have been on the road or geocaching, but we find milestones together in Pennsylvania with the dogs. Ali was heading home to visit family and to enjoy some time caching near home so we tried to reach 11,000.

The snow was really deep on the trail. I was chilled and had no energy or strength. The caches were in deep hiding. We needed a few finds for number 11,000. Somehow we found a multi near the image. After that, we missed a second find along a stream, and the adventure ended.

24 November 2013 Hiding Caches

The day never got very bright as we returned to North Chagrin to place hides we had located on Saturday. One day earlier a pond below the Buckeye Trail was host to a couple of interesting ducks. By our return this afternoon the open water on the shallow pond was completely iced over.

Ali on the Buckeye Trail.

The sun doesn't move far above the horizon in late November.

23 November 2013 Snow

17 November 2013 Lawn Bowling

Snoopy is a lawn bowler

It was the last day of lawn bowling which meant it was time to rake and gather leaves, put away the furniture, and visit with friends. We both were wondering about such a late date for closing everything down, but the weather defied the calendar and was mild. It was hard to resist the chance to roll the bowls once more before winter became serious.

The bowls are on the shelf waiting for spring.

16 November 2013 Forbes Farm and Brecksville

It was a Cleveland Metroparks day with a starting visit to Forbes Farm for a cache and a visit to Brecksville Reservation.

Our second stop was the Brecksville Reservation of the Metroparks. We had a series of caches unfound and enjoyed a longer walk with some climbing. The scenery is changing into black and white quickly.

It's the middle of November and there's still an ice cream stand open. This was a happy treat.