2 October 2018 Quebec Run

We had finally reached one of the destinations for our fall visit.  We hadn't made a return visit to Quebec Run for a hike in many years.  We fixed that today.

Our stop at parking was a little weird as there were two non-plated vehicles in the parking lot with engines running and drivers.  They looked like some unmarked military vehicles waiting for the return of the occupants.  We found out later we weren't that far off.

While we were here there was an old 2005 cache which we hadn't found.  We made our way on the trail headed for that hide.

We reached the cache area early in our walk.  We spent some time looking, but were soon crossing the bridge over the stream and on our way.

We spotted a hickory tussock moth caterpillar along the way.  This species is one that will cause a painful rash if touched.  Luckily, we just look at what we find on our journeys.

We eventually found out the trucks were some kind of survival training mission being run in the forest lands by a government contractor.  At times during our hike, we would see a person cross the trail and quickly re-enter the woods.  Sometimes we could hear them moving along through the water.  We ran into a few of the leaders of the session in the woods.  One spent a fair amount of time talking with us and explaining the task.  Basically, it was a very long off-trail orienteering operation.  A few of the people we actually saw looked exhausted.

When we returned to the parking area the trucks still remained.  The recruits were apparently delivered to the site in the back of the trucks.  We later realized there were more of these trucks at various other parking spots in the forest.  We happened to be there as one recruit returned.  He made it to the jerry can and fell to his knees.

1 October 2018 Westmoreland and Fayette Counties

We are slowly working to find ten caches in each Pennsylvania County.  Today we were also moving toward our first big destination of Quebec Run.  We stopped to cache along the way and enjoy the sites.  Our first stop was at Westmoreland Conservancy's Potters Corners.  There were fun trails on either side of the road giving us a great warm-up to the day.

We moved on to a cache at an overlook by a few communication towers

Besides a great view, the area looked to be a location for holiday fireworks and the local drinking hangout.  This place could really use a CITO.

We spotted an early woolly bear while near the overlook.  With only a little over four bands black, the legend says the upcoming winter can be expected to be mild. ;)

When we returned to the parking, we were happy to see a few turkeys congregating at the side of the road and soon joined by more.  They quietly crossed the road, re-entered the woods and were gone.  Wild turkeys are usually very skittish around humans so this quiet group was a treat to watch.

Our next stop was Camp Jumonville starting with a walk through the woods of the grounds and a visit to the National Park Service's historic site of Jumonville Glen.  The grounds at Camp Jumonville were quiet and relaxing.

After a couple finds, we moved on to a visit at the Park Service Grounds and looped back to the Camp's trails.

We left the woods and crossed back to the main retreat side of the camp where we made our way up the hill to the huge cross and the geocache that awaited.  It is an imposing work.

Besides the cache down the hillside behind the cross, we also stopped to locate the benchmarks near the cross.  The concrete mounts in the grass near the cross made the benchmarks easy finds.

After leaving the camp, we moved on to our last stops at Dunbar Creek.  We shut down our first hunt at an old restaurant site.  The fast moving water was flowing on either side of the old restaurant.  Self-preservation kicked in.  It was a beautiful location for a hide.  Maybe we can return some other time...

We moved farther upstream to hunt another hide.  The water wasn't moving any slower, but the cache was away from the stream and a safer find.

30 September 2018 Traveling Through PA

It was a traveling day. We were on vacation and looking for new adventures, but also heading to our real adventure locations. It was a mix of adventures including a few benchmarks.

We explored a new section of the Allegheny River on the Armstrong Trail. We were hunting a few caches when we met up with another couple also out caching with the very cute dog. We walked and cached for a bit along this scenic section of the Allegheny.

It hasn't flown for a long time, but this old Air Force relic is still intimidating as you drive into the park.

This old Korean era fighter is still in great shape. These retired aircraft usually end up damaged by the park youth.

The jet and the stream were the highlights of this park. We spent way too long hunting an older cache that was probably missing.

We stopped at a Penn State branch campus to visit this virtual. Ali did her best Star Trek imitation for the photo visit.

We ended our day at Greensburg with a Turkish dinner at Anatolia Restaurant. It was a little strange as we were the only diners, but the owner was amazing. We were treated to amazing service and brought different sauces to try. It was a super evening.

29 September 2018 First Day of Vacation

The first day of vacation always offers some hope of relaxation and rejuvenation. Then comes the call from the office when the weekend is over and the rest is sleepless and insanely busy.

Westminster College was celebrating homecoming weekend. Graduating from a college with no football team left me with no understanding of a college homecoming. We were happy the game still appeared to be in progress so we were free to enjoy the college's outdoor education grounds and find the caches there.

Are you old enough to remember the ecology flag? If yes, you, like me, are old. The flag came into existence in 1970. At the time I had an old army shirt that I wore as a jacket. My dad never liked the army jacket thinking it was disrespectful. He really hated it when I added an ecology flag. The flag still flies high at the parking lot at Westminster College. It's a throwback to a time when I thought we could all make a difference.

We always enjoy spotting gentians in bloom.

This was a really peaceful labyrinth. We weren't the only visitors to walk it.

After leaving Westminster, we stopped at one of the two remaining covered bridges in Lawrence County. It is also a virtual cache.

Wolf Creek Natural Area was our next stop for a very relaxing stream-side walk.

Earth caches are my least favorite cache type, but I like visiting eskers. This one was huge and a great location for an esker earthcache. The light was just right for pre-sunset shooting while the dropping sun left a super sunset to watch.

28 September 2018 Ducks on the Pond

The duck navy was doing maneuvers on the office pond this afternoon.