29 March 2019 Killdeer

It's spring, and the killdeer are back at the Ohio office.

28 March 2019 Seeds Part 2

Six weeks have passed since the basil and oregano were seeded in my office. The oregano did not work out as planned, but I now have a solid start with the basil.

24 March 2019 Opening Day

Ice cream... not baseball.

Dairy Supreme in Edinboro was opening.  It wasn't perfect ice cream weather, but the faithful were still there.  Since I had just returned from North Carolina on Friday, we spent the weekend in Ohio.  Ice cream was a road trip with the dogs.  It was wonderful.  I had made it to another spring!

One the return home, we stopped at State Road covered bridge in Ashtabula County.  We walked the bridge, found a geaocache there, and visited with a couple of guys who had driven all the way from Virginia to fish for steelhead on Conneaut Creek.  It's been a long time since I fished, but Conneaut Creek and Grand River were two of my favorite places to fish.  We chatted for a bit before moving on to leave them to their adventures.

Red tail hunting along the Conneaut.

23 March 2019 Lake Milton

It was another day for me in another state.  We grabbed the dogs for a visit to Lake Milton and Berlin Reservoir.  Our first stop at Lake Milton was a pleasant loop trail.

Lizzie never misses an opportunity to get her toes wet.

We had fun before moving on to Berlin.

21 March 2019 Return to Shot Tower Park

I first visited this park in October 2007.  I thought it was time for a return.

I found the cache and a few spring beauty blossoms before moving on.

My next stop was New River State Park.  The park land is small, but it is the base for a long rail trail running alongside the scenic New River.  The park office is a preserved freight depot.  It and a well preserved caboose are pieces of the railroad past.

A pair of mallards quietly swimming near one of the caches.

There's a well preserved old iron furnace on the grounds.

A pretty amazing way to spend the day...

I think these are old chicken coops.

20 March 2019 Kannapolis

Some nights on the road I really don't feel like hiking but want to return to my hotel room even less.  A multitude of caches around the local UNC campus gave me a chance to have some easy walking and not spend the evening in my room.

It's funny.  When I started traveling for business many, many years ago, I could easily head to my room at 7 or earlier.  Now I seem to be perpetually restless.  Maybe it is the realization that the days are getting fewer.

18 March 2019 Headin' South

Today was a travel day for a trip to North Carolina.  I had work to cover from home before leaving so my drive ended late.  I stopped on the way for a cache at the Windy Run Schoolhouse.  The school is closed, but someone is making an effort to maintain this bit of small town history.  Schools like this are a part of the past, but they were a staple of community life for residents in remote places.

Maybe some of those parts of the old life weren't so attractive.  😉

I also made time for a visit to the Hawks Nest Memorial and Cemetery.  As a safety professional, the lessons learned from Hawks Nest tragedy are still important today.

Over 700 people died from the effects of silicosis while working on a tunnel project on the Gauley River.  The remains of a number of them appear to have at last found a lasting home.

17 March 2019 St. Pats in the ANF

We awoke to corn snow at the house.

The corn snow did not deter us from heading to the ANF for caching.  The warm weather had melted much of the snow by the time we found a nice multi.  I managed to get my feet wet on a stream crossing.  Ali's a little smarter than that and crossed dry.

We eventually returned to the stream upstream where we hunted for another cache.

Water and rocks usually mean a fun time on the trail.

It was time to head home as I was headed to North Carolina in the morning.

16 March 2019 Where Did the Eagles Go?

We made a return visit to Geneva Swamp with high hopes for eagle sighting.  The ice of our last visit was snow open water.  This would be an amazing place to kayak and look for birds.

Our expectations were not realized as we arrived at the viewing area and saw no eagles.  We spotted a few mergansers surrounded by geese, but that was the birding highlight of the visit.

We spent the rest of our visit exploring trails and finding the last unfound caches.

13 March 2019 Sunny Lake Hawks

I had spring fever and enough daylight for a short walk at Sunny Lake after leaving the office.  I was hoping to spot a couple birds.  My first sightings were red-winged blackbirds.  Then I spotted two red-tailed hawks in the trees along the edge of the field.

10 March 2019 Footsteps

Our house still had snow on the ground which gave me an opportunity to scout around for paw prints from visitors.

No bear prints. ;)

Our stream was thawed and flowing.  It's always a pleasing site for me.

We wanted to walk on the way back to Ohio so we stopped at an SGL in Crawford County.  There was even less snow here than at home.  I was hoping we would spot the first skunk cabbage of the real spring.  Ali spotted one in a small wet area.

Our final treat of the day was spotting the first hepatica leaves of the year.

9 March 2019 Geneva Swamp

This was our first visit to Geneva Swamp.  We weren't certain of what we would find, but we were hoping for some good birding.  As always, there were caches to find, but the real focus was on birds we might see.

The marsh was still mostly frozen with only small patches of open water.

When we reached the water's edge, we started to see the eagles.  We counted at least five eagles including an immature one in flight.

Immature eagle over the marsh

Ali also spotted a sandhill crane in the distance.  It was a wonderful first visit.