A Few Weeks Back

We had a lovely day out with my son and his family at a beach where we have not been for many years. On the way home, we stopped to find a new cache hidden at the Rideau Ferry Yacht Club.

To Perth and Back

A friend wanted my hubby to check out a truck for him in the Perth area, so it was suggested that I map out a route and we make an afternoon of it. I never have to be asked twice!
The first stop of the day was at a business establishment that has given permission for the cache to be hidden there. Good thinking since there is more than one kind of treasure to be found at this location, if you happen to venture inside the store. (GC1V41B)

We traveled up Hwy 7, towards Ottawa a wee bit, then off onto a side road. The cache was placed for the McDonald and Caswell families, who founded farms in that area in the early 1800’s. It’s an interesting place for a cache, and I’m glad we took the time to go in that direction. (GC267EX).

Then we backtracked through Perth along Hwy 7 and went off to Glen Tay. I’m declaring this my favorite cache of the day, (GC154A1) as there are lots of interesting sights along this road, and in this tiny village. If my own village gets too much more citified, I might happily move there.

We continued along this road, to the Rideau Ferry Road. We kept our eyes pealed for Rock Island Road, and then went down that. I was glad I had a map to help me find my way to the cache. It was so nice to be coaxed down this back road to find this interesting roundabout. (GCY405) Mind you, I’m all for climbing rocks and checking the GPS later.

Kemptville

We had a nice visit at Tim Hortons, with a lady from Kemptville one day, and she mentioned how she knew others, besides us, who went geocaching. She thought it sounded like fun, and thought she wouldn't mind trying it sometime. A week or so later, I discovered a new cache very near her home.

It was the first time I'd ever walked along the Kemptville Creek, and as always, I was thankful to whoever decided to coax us down this pathway. One end of the path comes out very near this lady's home, so next time we get a chance, we may just knock on the door, and take her for a little walk, just so she can see how it's done. Maybe after that, she'll be interested in joining in on the fun herself. It's a great excuse for a little exercise and fresh air.

Napanee

Before heading home from Kingston Kicks, we took a little diversion up to Napanee. The first stop would have a spectacular view as sunset, but it was definitely the wrong time of day for me to try getting a picture from that point.

Two of the caches were at graveyards. At the first one (GC15CY7) it was a matter of not being able to see the forest for the trees. When you have a preconceived notion of where to look, you often don’t see what staring you right in the face.

At the other graveyard (GC15CT1) contains a crypt with grapevines and raspberry canes, but that looks okay. There was one other grave that was totally uncared for, in the midst of all those that must have been under perpetual care. It stood out as it was totally overgrown with vines and other wild vegetation.

There are lots of nice trees, but no "pictures" at the Fairgrounds (GCJNBB). On the other hand, there is a really nice picnic spot near a smaller park where we found a working interactive sundial (GC15CQR). The cache was a micro though, so, while normally you just get to sign the log, I actually found some interesting beads in there.

The best cache of the day was along the Napanee River. (GC165J4) First you had to find how to get to the park, and then you had to follow a trail to the cache. This was much more the kind of geocaching I like to do. The hint told us to look out for bugs, and that was an excellent warning as they were definitely hungry in there.

Wolfe Island

We attended our favourite Martial Arts weekend, Kingston Kicks, recently and managed to get in some geocaching in the process.

First, before even checking into the Ambassador Hotel, in Kingston ON, we took the ferry over to Wolfe Island. It was a nice day, and we were not sure we would get another chance. We had never been over there before, but you can see many of the wind turbines from the mainland.

I often hear how noisy they are, but it there was only a slight breeze and though they were all rotating gently, we didn’t hear a thing. There are a lot of them though, in every direction you look.

There are probably about 40 caches on the island, but mostly we went after the non micro ones. We covered most of the island in the 3 hours we were there. It’s not really all that large.

The first one we found had a surprise waiting for us. I’d rather not tell you what that was, but it certainly made me think we were in for a fun day. There was also a travel bug in that cache, so I took that and have since placed it closer to home.

A lot of the caches were in or near trees, living or dead, but there was also one hidden inside another container that would definitely freeze to the ground and not be accessible in the winter time. It was easy enough to find, but even so, I’ve never seen anyone else hide a cache quite like that before.

There really isn’t much on the island to see, other than the wind turbines, but my favorite cache of the day was down along the lake shore. There was some amazing scenery there, but the sun was facing the wrong way at that point, so my best pictures were facing the opposite way. Too bad. Maybe I can get back there earlier in the day next time. And I do think there will be a next time.

Mountain Township Loop

What a wonderful weekend to go exploring.

I decided, that since we went looking for friends along the way last time, that we could do the same thing this time. There is this very interesting lady I know, who is into martial arts, belly dancing, archery, medieval reenactments and leather work, and who knows what else. She also raises chickens, I noticed, while looking at some pictures on Facebook recently. I plotted a loop around the area in which she lives and thought perhaps we could track her down while we were in the area.

Our first stop of the day was at the old Van Camp cemetery. GC21KYT Now, this is in Mountain Township which is really quite flat so it can’t have been named after a geographical feature. Apparently it was named for the Right Reverend Jacob Mountain (1750 -1825), the first Protestant Bishop of Quebec. The cache was cleverly placed, but not hard to find, and we were quickly on our way.

This is when we made a little side trip and had a short visit with the lady mentioned above. An archer practice was about to begin, but we were welcomed and introduced to some of the chickens. I’d say she’s not in it for the eggs or meat since the chickens all have names and are a wild assortment of breeds. It’s more like she collects them. And she certainly loves them.

We made our way from there to another cemetery, also in Mountain Township, but this one at Mulloy Road. GC21KYW This cemetery, unlike the previous one, is still in use.

From there we went to Inkerman, home of the famous Inkerman Rockets hockey team. GC21PAC This cache was a micro. I prefer the ones with treasures, though there hadn’t been much in the ones we had found so far this day anyway. This one, being in a film canister, took a little longer for us to find, but the coordinates were right on, so it was a good test of the accuracy for my GPS.

Then we moved on to Baldwin’s Bridge. GC1D5B0 First we had to locate the plaque commemorating the building of the bridge. Then we had to decipher what the instructions wanted us to do next in order to find a tag on which we would find the next set of coordinates. After we found that we had to go find where those coordinates took us. I don’t remember what was in that cache either, but the real treasure was finding some of the most amazing fungus I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if the person who set up this cache put it there on purpose for people to see these works of art, or if it was just great luck, but this, for us, was the highlight of the day.

After that, we were back at another nearby cemetery. GC21PA8 The stones had obviously been moved to this location as they stood side by side in curve. One of the grave markers was very unusual, and amazing to look at. From a distance it looked like an old tree. But when you got closer you found that it was, in fact, carved stone, with lots of interesting embellishments. The more you looked at it, the more you saw. I would guess that it was created for someone who was very close to nature in life.

We then drove the short distance into village of South Mountain. Someone had given lessons on geocaching last year, and had placed a few caches of different varieties in order to teach people how to go about finding them. I guess we should have attended the class as there was one we couldn’t figure out. More than likely I’m misinterpreting something, or made a mathematical error while working out the puzzle. At any rate, I’ll have more time to ponder this now that I’m back home, and perhaps we’ll pick that one up next time we head in that direction. There are certainly enough other caches in that area to keep us busy some other day.

But we were successful at locating two others placed for this practice session. One was another micro, and the other was the only time we were taken into the woods all day. I must say, I’m just as glad as there were plenty of mosquitoes in there. There was also some sort of animal den in the ground near the cache. Not something terribly small either.

It was a great afternoon, if not as adventurous as some.

Treasured Friends and Other Trinkets

We have friends who are about to build a new house down some country road we have never been on, so we decided to go see if we could find them. As they are often on the property on weekends, clearing the land and preparing to build we would just keep our eyes open for their truck. It seemed like a good time to hunt down a few treasures, just in case we couldn’t find our friends....not that they aren’t treasures themselves, but we just were not sure we could find them.

Our first stop was at the site of the Crosby Flea Market. GC10BBD It’s too early in the year for it to be in operation, if it ever is, so we didn’t have to hide our searching from anyone.

Then we stopped by Portland and picked up a couple of caches there.

One was found between one of Portland’s old churches and a newer one. GC1NMXJ

The other was found near the shore of the Big Rideau Lake. GC1H1MP Both were very easy finds. There are lots of other caches hidden around the Portland area. We’ve picked up some in the past and we left others for some other day.

Out final cache of the day was in Smiths Falls, down a little trail behind some houses. GC26128 By now you should know I love to walk trails, but I really can’t recommend this one. For one thing, it’s only about a block long, and for another, it looks like most of the trees along there have recently been cut down, so that certainly spoils the charm.

And just so you know, we did find our friends. They were well down a side road in some really beautiful countryside. I do wish we had stopped for pictures, but I’m sure we’ll be back in that area again sometime over the summer.

Easter Hunt

While some of you think Easter is the time to hunt for eggs, we thought it was a great weekend to go looking for a different kind of treasure. The weather was perfect for a full day of geocaching, so I mapped out a loop that would take up most of the day.

Our first stop was in Franktown. GC1HA3T It’s too early for the blooms on Lilac Lane, but we’ve seen them before and this early in the season there are no people around to catch us snooping around. It was a quick, easy find, and a great way to start the year. There was another cache not far off, but there were other people there when we arrived. One of them even walked over to talk to us as we were wandering around. I just said I was out looking for pictures and she said it was a great day for it. We left that cache for some other time.

Our next stop was in Carleton Place, in a little park on Mill Street. GC1T81G There are some Hackabery trees there, and those are apparently quite rare in Canada and especially in this part of Ontario. It’s a nice park by the rushing Mississippi River.

From there we went to another part of town and wandered down a trail near a calmer part of the river. GC1MY8V We were glad to have found this cache at this time of year. It won’t be long before one would have to make some major blood offerings to the mosquito population that would surely be living here. Apparently my hubby used to park beside this trail to have his lunch, when he was working in Carleton Place, but he never walked the trail before now. Isn’t it amazing what a little treasure hunt will get you to do?

Then we made our way to Almonte. One cache couldn’t be found, but apparently we aren’t the only ones who couldn’t find it, so we didn’t feel too bad about that and carried on to look for another in the same area. GC16GCJ It was a lovely walk through the woods, and I worked off some of the lunch we had in Carleton Place. By this time we were getting quite hot, and even stopped to cool our feet off in a stream.

People seem to like to hide caches in cemeteries these days. The next one we went to was not in the cemetery, but near by. GC21KT0 We thought this was a strange place for a pump though, as we didn’t know dead people go thirsty.

I think my favorite cache of the day was down a skidoo trail along a township line. GCP1XQ We disturbed some frogs in the puddles along the way, and ran into a few thorn bushed trying to avoid the muck, but it was an easy walk along a pretty trail. I picked up two treasures at this one, leaving behind items of equal value.

We stopped at the Innisville Rest Stop, which is supposed to be a multi cache, but we were only given one set of coordinates, and no clues, or instructions to find others. There was nothing at the given coordinates, and certainly nowhere to have hidden anything, so I really suspect they just wanted you to park there and explore the nearby businesses. Actually, a lot of what the cache listing says is there is not there anymore (including the restrooms), so perhaps they just forgot to deactivate the cache listing.

We made our final stop of the day in Perth, at the Garden In The Round. GC1EDHM This garden was created for the blind, and in season, it has many very fragrant plants.
I think we were out for six and a half hours, including our stop for lunch. It was a wonderful way to start our geocaching season.