16 September 2023 Visiting Parker Dam With Friends

It was time for our annual visit to Parker Dam to meet with friends from Geocaching. The ammo can toss was very competitive this year. After our visit we spent time enjoying the park and fall nature sights.

The small pond near the pavillion is a great spot to see a cedar waxwing.

The great blue heron was a bit of a surprise.

The true surprise was this yellowlegs.

Butterflies and bees were visiting the park's goldenrod.

Late summer web building

A surprise osprey sighting

20 May 2023 Visiting Allegany State Park

We were at Allegany State Park for a large annual geocaching event. It was a very rainy day so we limited our trail time.  Eventually the day brightened.  We celebrated with a visit to Science Lake.  A pair of mergansers were at the water's edge as we passed through.

The woods trail behind science lake also has a number of clintonia.  This year the timing was right for them to be in bloom.

17 September 2022 Day with Friends at Parker Dam State Park

We have been setting aside a Saturday to visit with friends at Parker Dam for a number of years.  We are all joined together with a love of geocaching and a love of the outdoors.  Today the weather was our friend.  The event organizer started off the ammo can toss event.

Ali and I take a break from the event each year to look for wildflowers and birds.  There were no herons today as we took a peaceful walk.

Asters were looking good.

Bees work no matter what.  They always appear to be tireless.

After we left the park we made our way to a wetlands area to look for a geocache.

I wasn't surprised to see a rattlesnake.  I was surprised to see one this big!  Thankfully, it was calm while I was taking images.

Juvenile cedar waxwings were in numbers.

The younger turkeys passing through were a bit of a surprise.

These gatherings are always too short.  It also seems every year another one or two of us is gone.

18 September 2021 Visiting Parker Dam

We were happy to make a visit to Parker Dam to visit with friends we have made through Geocaching.  It was a wonderful fall day and a perfect time to visit.  We both participated in the ammo can toss.  Neither of us won, but I believe Ali's toss went farther.

We had an interesting treat as the host Redbat brought an assortment of the e-bikes to the event.  They were available for rides.  We both enjoyed our first attempt with an e-bike and continue to talk about them.

After the event we walked a familiar trail to look for late season wildflowers.

After leaving Parker Dam we moved around to visit another area of the park and complete a historical Adventure Lab visiting old structures and places.

The original park headquarters and communal dining hall.  It was a different time.

The communal showers

After we left the park, we stopped by a wetlands area for another find.  We spotted blue vervain and were treated to a sighting of a kestrel.

16 June 2021 Geocaching Events in a Pandemic

 Ali was out of town so I decided to visit a geocaching event at a nearby park.  It was outdoors so relatively safe.  It was a strange event with about a half dozen attendees sharing four picnic tables and chatting.  It was a mild summer evening with a large kids play area on the other side of the picnic tables.  The play area was empty for the evening.  Pandemic life is depressing.

14 September 2019 Parker Dam and Friends

There's an annual geocaching event hosted at Parker Dam State Park by a fellow geocacher, park naturalist, and friend.  It's often attended by numerous friends we see only two or three times a year.  It's a real throwback to early geocaching events that it's in the park and has almost no focus on caching.  Luck was with us thie year as we were able to stop and say hi.

One of the easiest ways to trap me was to hang a sign saying free paddleboat rides on a boat trap.  Fate was not with me today as these inviting nautical, pleasure rides were unavailable and the boathouse was closed.

The host geocaches under the name Redbat.  He's a great human who cares about people and the planet.  If you are a geocacher visiting this and have ever had the joy of seeing the remote places of the Legacy of Conservation trails, this is the man to thank for your memories.

Redbat was also the first event host of which I am aware who held a contest for the weighted ammo can toss.  He has the perfect launching pad (above the beach) and the perfect landing pad (below the beach).

Redbat showing us how its done before the competition starts.

There's form, kinda.

There's Action, including a pregnant cacher pitching an ammo can that weighs about the weight of a newborn.

Fortunately there were no unexpected births as a result of the ammo can toss.  Actually the mom-to-be followed up with a race around the lake as part of a scavenger game.

Ali participated and showed good form and a nice place in the game.

As for me, well....  I came in dead last. 😞  I'm game.  Everyone has a bad day.  I think I missed the sign of what very bad things would happen just two weeks later.

After some more visiting with friends, we made our way to a park trail with sights and a cache.

We left the park and made our way to Panther Rocks in Moshannon State Forest.  Panther Rocks is a smaller rock formation, with super structures.  It made for a fun visit on a quiet day.

Our last stop was a return visit to the old coke ovens near Hollywood.  We've been here multiple times but enjoy our return visits.  The number of intact honeycombs is decreasing, but we spotted a group still intact.

10 February 2018 We're Not in Florida Anymore

One quick way to remember winter is to attend an outdoor geocaching event. The Warren County eagle event has been an annual event for a number of years. With the day's high of 35 and low of 12, it was a cold day to gather with friends and look for eagles.

Most of us huddled in the bird blind while a few brave cachers stepped out to take a look for for eagles. Two eagles joined the festivities although one just seemed to stay perched in a distant tree.

I kind of like looking for them without wearing a jacket in Estero. ;)