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.