29 September 2017 LBJ Grasslands

With my meeting over, I took an early ride to the airport and rented a car. Ali was flying in so we could spend a few days relaxing on the trails in north Texas and southern Oklahoma. Driving in Dallas is an event I would be happy to never experience again, but we were soon on our way north. The weather was grey and threatening all day, but we still had enough dry time to enjoy a walk in this beautiful area. Despite being here late in the season, the area still put on a great show of wildflowers. It was a great place to try out my new camera. :)

False purple thistle was common here and new to us.

Phoebes were common in the open grassland areas.

There are a lot of cows grazing here. We tried to stay clear of them, but they appear to be very comfortable around humans.

We saw multiple examples of these flower clusters. They bloomed in a strange rectangular pattern.

The old watering trough ahead hadn't been used in a long time. We passed it on our way to a multi which hadn't been found in over nine months.

This deep wash was a great illustration of the power of heavy rains in the grasslands.

We had found the multi and were moving on when we spotted an orchid on the trail! This is our first orchid find in Texas. The state boasts over fifty varieties of orchids so we still have a few to find if we are lucky and able to return again.

As we left this area, a look back said our luck with the weather would soon run out. We still hoped to find the second oldest cache in Texas so it was time to move on.

26 September 2017 Queen and Barron

I was in Dallas for a meeting being held at the Embassy Suites. I was in the hotel for a day before realizing the swans were actually living.

Queen and Barron were a big hit with many of my colleagues.

23 September 2017 Dead Camera

My trusty Nikon gave up on me. :( We visited so many states for so many great adventures, but it finally died. The weekend and coming days ahead meant I would be working with the iPhone. Hopefully soon a very early birthday present would arrive. :)

We made a return visit to Forest County to hunt caches along a gamelands trail.

Since it was small game season, we were all dressed in safety orange, including Lizzie. She started off the day with an early rest while we signed a log.

Great roots

The poor tussock moth caterpillar has become the victim of bad social media press. Ill informed postings have named this a poisonous creature. Yes, it causes a rash when touched or picked up or licked as one person has reportedly done. Somehow they pose no risk when just enjoyed for their beauty.

22 September 2017 Working from Home

One of the rare treats for me in working from home in Pennsylvania. It means I have a chance to enjoy a lunchtime walk at our property or a chance to visit some of the nearby lands for a lunchtime adventure. Today, I took a walk in the nearby state forest.

One trail crossing has been a little convoluted since a flood heavily damaged the bridge and trail a number of years ago, but without the dogs, I decided to make the crossing over to the higher lightly used trail. The early fall stream was meek today.

This green caterpillar was hanging out by the deck when I returned for my afternoon's work.

21 September 2017 Zoar

Zoar has become a quiet refuge for me. I don't have the opportunity to visit here often, but the quiet trails are always here. It was an impressive fall afternoon on the trail. The fall colors were still heading to their peak, but they were perfect for me.

In a rare moment of common sense, I decided I was too tired to head down this "trail" to hunt a cache near the water. I'll think about this one on my next visit.

20 September 2017 Dann Road Park

I stopped after work for a cache at Dann Road Park. The killdeer had taken over the ball field near the woods where the cache was hidden.

I didn't find the cache, but I did spot a baseball slowly returning back to nature. We've found a lot of stray baseballs while geocaching. The numbers don't compare to the ubiquitous golf balls which seem to appear near so many caches, but they are still quite common. I usually throw the ones with some life near the field for a future visitor, but this one had seen its last ball game.

There was no cache find, but the sunset at the park more than made up for that.

19 September 2017 Traveling to the Falls

I was headed to the Niagara Falls area for business. I wanted to stop a couple times to enjoy a great fall day. My first stop was at Headwaters Conservation Park east of Erie. This location has been on my to do list for a while so it was nice to be able to make a stop in the late afternoon. The wildflowers were a little past prime, but the trails were peaceful.

I accidentally found my first Quest here while looking for a geocache. The ammo can holding the quest was about 80 feet from the coordinates of the geocache and hanging from a tree by a chain. It was hard to miss. It was also amusing to see the names of cachers who had signed the log book. The nearby cache was actually on the other side of the stream and not easy to reach.

The Quest included laminated photos from a 1915 flood of Millcreek. The images were a great piece of local history. I enjoyed the "find".

I enjoyed the Quest find and the nearby cache hide despite four unplanned stream crossings. With those behind me, I was back on the trail and enjoying the sites. I wasn't aware enough to grab a shot of an unexpected great blue along the stream shore, but found a few stands of remaining new england asters near the water (they don't move ;)).

I went deeper in the woods and eventually found the cache I was seeking which is a 2003 multi. The old cache hadn't been found since spring and was sitting wide open six feet from any possible hiding area, but all was well with the container. The walk back to the cache included a couple more stream crossings.

There was a time when I could see Lake Erie sunsets all the time and had a seemingly infinite number of them left. I traveled back and forth to the Falls for years. Now those trips are infrequent and the number of sunsets left are dwindling. I stopped for one more at Gratiot Park in Dunkirk. There were clouds in the way, but standing at water's edge as the day faded away was still awesome.

I've also made frequent stops at the Thruway rest area over the years. This evening was another late stop on my way east. I was surprised to see there was a 2004 geocache in the eastbound parking area which I hadn't found. I was even more surprised to see my Subaru was within a few feet of it when I parked. I found the cache and made that all too familiar walk across the deserted pedestrian overpass before completing the last piece of the day's drive.