Sunday, August 2, 2009

A Short Visit to the Stony Swamp

We had to make a run into Ottawa to get a replacement computer for my oldest son. The Trailing Edge is not far from the Stony Swamp Conservation Area, so I looked up some caches to hit while in the area.

The first cache was easy enough to find. I figured that if you went down a dead end street, there might be an entrance to the trail system, and I was right. The cache was hidden in a camouflaged thermos bottle, which is a perfect way to keep the contents safe and dry. I’ve got one here that doesn’t tend to keep things hot or cold, so now I know what to use it for in the future.

I found a travel bug in that cache, but when I went to log it, I found that it’s basically been lost since at least April. Nobody logged that they left it there, or where they found it before putting it there. I took it home with me, logged it properly and will drop it someplace else next time I’m out. I see someone is watching this one, so that may be the owner, trying to determine where it wandered off to. I’m sure he’ll be pleased to see it back in play.


The second cache we went to was on another part of the same trail, but we had more difficulty finding the way in. After circling around the neighbourhood for a while, we finally found the way in. I liked this part of the trail as the Precambrian rock had come to the surface and was actually the trail bed we walked on. I was upset with myself for having actually forgotten to bring the camera along on this expedition. There wasn’t much to see on either of these trails, really, but I would have taken a photo of the trail across the rock itself.

I had several other cache sites planed for the day, but my body is in fatigue mode again, so I thought it best to stop for the day, before I trip over my own feet and do myself some injury. It wouldn’t be the first time.

These are nice trails, and I had only scoped out a few of them in a very small area of the Stony Swamp. We will be back....likely numerous times over the coming years.