Guardian of the Cache

We finally had a chance to go geocaching this past weekend. We took a long walk in the Mac Johnson Wildlife Area, near Brockville, known locally as the Black Pond. It wasn't that the cache was really all that far from the parking lot, but there are lots of trails and we kept picking the wrong one.

Once we did get to the right area, which was near an old farm house foundation, we found muggles lurking about. It was such a lovely day that there were lots of people on the trails. However, there was a lady and two boys hanging out in just the wrong spot for us to go snooping about. We explored the ruins, and sat on a nearby bench waiting for them to move off. But they didn't seem to be going anywhere and I thought that perhaps they were geocaching too, and that they were waiting for us to move on also. So we walked by them and I stopped to look at a couple of interesting things (where I figured the cache might be hidden). Sure enough, I spotted it, but couldn't call attention to that.

We wandered further along the trail and around another bend. We were waiting again. Just when I decided that we would just declare this a found cache, even if we didn't get to look inside or sign the log, the group finally wandered off.

When I went to move the bark and sticks hiding the jar, I saw something that I thought at first was one of the toys that should have been inside the jar. A little snake. Cute I thought, and in such an appropriate place. But oops, it wasn't a toy. Luckily I rather like snakes so that didn't bother me. I thought I'd better log this guardian of the cache though, just in case someone else needs to be warned.

I had to laugh

Knowing that we were invited to a Thanksgiving feast at Loon Lake, between Wesport and Kingston, I looked up a few geocaches before leaving. I couldn't believe what I saw on my screen. There, before me, was a map showing the exact location of where I was going. There was a geocache right there, and it apparently has been for an entire year! Well, we had a wonderful feed, and before we left we took ourselves down to the site for a quick find of the smallest cache we've found yet. This was just a waterproof match box, with no room for treasures. There was just a small log book rolled tightly inside, to sign and date as to when you found the cache. Still, it was a fun find, and we will now be watching for cars that stop there, and finally understand what they are doing there.

Wesport International???

While heading to a Thanksgiving gathering, we stopped by the Westport Airfield. There were some friendly people there, putting a plane in the hanger, who told us to take a look around, but not to wander onto the landing strip.....just in case someone decided to land at that time. We found the cache and then had a little snack on their picnic tables. While using the facilities, my hubby got a chuckle out of the sign posted above the toilet. I'd post a picture of that, but I think it would be too small to read, so I'll quote it here:

"NOTICE: Those pilots with shorter pitot tubes or reduced manifold pressure please taxi closer to the ramp. The next pilot may not have float equipment.

P.S. Please check that gear retracted and flaps up prior to departure."

Ingenious

Last weekend we hunted down a series of caches that were hidden by a man who doesn't just put something under a log or behind a rock. He creates clever hiding spots that look like they belong where he puts them. Sometimes this means screwing something to a building, or hinging the lid on something that wouldn't normally have a lid. These caches are sometimes right out in the open, and the trick is to get at them without drawing the attention of those going by. I think he must really scout out an area and then sit and make devious plans on how to place a cache so that you won't think to look there, or if you do, you have to come up with some sort of distraction so you can get at it. We found several, but there was one we didn't find. There was a gentleman sitting in the park watching us the whole time. He probably wondered what we were up to as we wandered back and forth and poked at things. Rest assured, we will go back and eventually find this one too.

And I've Lived Here, How Long?

Today we followed 3 trails in the area that we have never been on before. We've driven by a couple of them for over 30 years, and never even knew they were there! The other one is within walking distance, and while I suspected there was a trail there, I've never been on it before.

The first was the Merrickville Beach trail.....an old snowmobile trail, from the looks of it. I believe there are plans to join it with the trail behind the French School (St Marguerite Bourgois).

The second one was near the Riverside Park on County Rd 44, outside of Kemptville. Lovely trail. It actually leads down to the river before turning to follow it.

As we were just finding the trailhead, another group of people were leaving. Turns out it was the owner of the cache and his entire and extended family. Wow. I almost met a real pro at this. From his profile page, I found he has over 1200 finds already.

Then we carried on to find a causeway to a park on an island that we never knew was there. John C. Foster Park is 23 acres of parkland. We've only been driving by this for the past 33 years! We would have stayed to explore more of the trails but we heard gunshots, and remembered it was hunting season. Not the best time to be poking around in the woods and we had not thought of that until then. I guess we'll have to explore some urban areas for a while.

As if we needed to do more walking.....

We had just spent the entire day at the International Plowing Match on Sept. 19 (yesterday) but decided to stop and find a couple of easy caches on the way home. The first stop was at the Portland Boardwalk. We found another couple who had the same idea. This is the first time we have met up with other geocachers while on the prowl and I thought for a moment that we would maybe do this as a team. But the other couple had never been to this location before, and so we quickly pulled ahead of them so they could explore the site on their own. Though it was a multi waypoint cache, we were able to quickly find it, and get it back into it's hiding spot well before the other team got that far into their search.

We explored this particular site one early spring, a couple of years ago, on the way back from our annual pancake breakfast at Bud's Pancake house, which has unfortunately now ceased to exist. I took pictures of the area that time, so that's what I'm posting. I didn't take pictures this time as I wanted to stay far enough ahead of the other team, so as not to spoil their experience.

We made one more quick stop on the way home, and that was at a roadside picnic area. A quick dash into the woods brought us directly to the cache. It's a good thing too, as I think I'd had enough walking for one day.

The Beginning

How did I get involved in all this, you might ask. Well, one day I read a story about geocaching, and went to the website http://www.geocaching.com/ to learn more. I discovered that you could put your postal code in and the site would show you a list of all the caches hidden nearby. I was so surprised to find some of them were actually within easy walking distance from my home!
I have a friend who had a GPS which she used when she was building some trails through the woods here, as a millennium project a few years back. I asked her to come for tea, and if she still had the GPS, if she would mind bringing it with her, and showing me what it does, and how it works. She not only did that, but she left it with me for a couple of weeks so I could see if I could figure it out for myself.
That night, I decided to go for a walk, with the GPS in hand, and try to find one of the local caches. The longitude and latitude given were supposed to be for a plaque on a building, where I would find a date. I was to use certain numbers in that date to calculate the next spot to head for.
Off I went, feeling confident I knew where this plaque was. But wait, according to the GPS, I was headed in the wrong direction. I turned and went the other way. So, then I got a new notion of where I might be heading......but I passed right by that place and was apparently still going in the right direction. I did find the plaque, and got the numbers for the calculations. But, by this time, I had decided this was too much fun not to share. I went back home and told my spouse that this amazing little gadget had just taken me for a walk, and I had no idea where I was going until I got there. I now had the co-ordinate to find the actual cache, but I wanted him to join me in the fun.
The following evening, I handed him the GPS and off we went. He found the same plaque, of course. But without any preconceived notions, he took a completely different route. Then we went looking for the treasure. There was a clue about a big tree, and as we neared the area there were very few big trees, so we figured this would be really too easy. But caches are not just left out in the open. They are generally hidden, under, inside of, or behind something, and quite often camouflaged too, it seems. It's not what you find in the cache that makes the whole experience worthwhile though. It's the hunt itself, and what you find along the way. In this case, we saw a couple of families of ducks while out walking.
We did find it eventually, and took a toy vehicle for our grandson and left something of equal value behind. I signed the log, and later logged the find online. Already I knew I was going to have to buy a GPS of our own. I was hooked!

The Flower

The flower I posted the picture of has now been identified. It's a closed Gentian. I've never seen one before, or even heard of it. Googling told me they are a cultivated flower, so to me, that means I'd usually find it in a garden, not out in the boonies like I did. It was off the beaten path, and if I had not been searching for a cache in the woods, I would never have spotted it. Actually there were a few of them there. Now I want one some for my garden.......

Poonamalie

On Sunday we went back to finish the Poonamalie Monster. That’s a multi-waypoint hunt, and lots of fun. We had started it one evening a couple of weeks ago, and ran out of time but it’s a wonderful site, worthy of a good explore, so we really wanted to go back and finish it. I found a wild flower there I’d never seen before, so I’ll post a picture of it, in hopes that someone may identify it for me, even though I think it was closed up for the night.
When we were finished there, we decided to go down the Poonamalie side road, on the other side of Smiths Falls and find another cache that was hidden there. That was a very unique hide, which we may never have found if it wasn’t for the hint provided on the geocaching website.

Where oh Where did my Pictures go?

I just tried to upload a couple of pictures to go with that last post, and they must have gone to cyberspace. I'll try again.......

The Lost Osgoode Trail

Yesterday, while coming home from Ottawa, we decided we would go looking for the geocache on the Lost Osgoode Trail. The instructions told us where to park, and then said to take either the left or right trail, which would supposedly take us to an adjoining trail where we could look for the cache.
There was a warning that said one way would likely be very wet while the other was dry. There was no indication as to which was which, but we went off to the left. We figured that one would be dry as there was a ditch running along side of it. We found a trail that cut off from it, and followed that but before long there were blackberry vines growing across the path. We decided perhaps this trail was not well traveled, and turned back.
Then we tried the trail leading to the right. Obviously this trail could have been very wet had there been any rain this year, but it was just fine for walking this year. We did miss the little trail leading off it, and ended up at a road, so we turned back and found the trail we figured we were supposed to follow. It did some twisting and turning and watching the GPS we still were not sure if we were on the right path. There were plenty of downed trees across the path, but it was still easily passable.
The thing was, it was getting close to sundown, and we didn't want to find ourselves in the woods in the dark, so we had to turn back. We have decided though, that it's a nice area for a walk and we will go back and find the cache at some later date.
As usual, I felt like I got my treasures as I found things to photograph along the way.

Before I begin....

I have become interested in geocaching and have decided it would be nice to be able to log my adventures. My husband and I are new at this, but we are having lots of fun exploring places we may have passed by before and not really known about. We are not always successful in finding the cache, but we always feel that the experience was the real prize anyway. I will use this space to create a journal for our geocaching. I will start with the most recent, and perhaps, as time permits, I'll fill you in on the ones we've already attempted or succeeded at.

Adventures of a Geocacher

I have recently taken up geocaching. It leads me to all kinds of intersting places and I want to be able to log them someplace, so that's the reason for this blog.