A very busy, very rainy, caching day.

I'm finally back in the swing of things.  Since my return to caching a little more than a week ago I've managed to pick up 15 more caches, bringing my total up to 194.  Getting close to 200 is getting me more focused than ever on picking some more up on my lunch breaks this week, so hopefully I'll have a "reached a milestone!" post pretty soon.

Saturday was my best caching day in months (actually my second best caching day ever) with 10 finds.  The weather pretty much sucked, with non-stop heavy drizzle and temperatures in the mid 40s °F, though that didn't deter me from spending about 4 hours out picking up hides.  Caching in the rain does have the advantage of keeping most non-cachers indoors, so stealth is much less of an issue.

Jack had a date today (Seriously.  He's 7 years old and has had a steady girlfriend for years) so while Emily and Jack were out with his girlfriend and her mother, I took the opportunity to get out and cache.  A few new local ones had popped up during my hiatus, so I spent about an hour picking up my first three from this area. I also managed to get a previous DNF that I struggled with way back in September.

Once those were in the bag I headed up closer to work in order to find Ben's Mark. I had actually tried to pick this up some months back, but it's in a parking lot at a train station and during the work week it's pretty much impossible to park here.  As I don't get a lot of time to cache on lunch break, I didn't want to park and walk, so I just left it alone.

One of the reasons that I wanted this hide was because it's located right next to a benchmark, of which I had officially already found three.  With an open parking lot today I was able to get benchmark number four as well as cache number 5.

The cache is located within a few feet of the benchmark, so it's a two for one deal of sorts.

I picked up one more right after this one, and then spent about 15 minutes in the rain trying (and failing) to find Play Ball #2.  I'll have to come back here with Jack someday soon, as he has a different point of view than I do (literally - he's pretty short) and there is a nice playground within 15 feet of GZ, so he'll be more than willing to help out.

The Garmin showed a few hides pretty close by, so I decided to check out the ones at the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.  I had seen a series of caches named CHT on the Geocaching site before, but did not actually know there was a trail back here.  I followed directions to CHT #2 which was located at a nice park with a parking area and walked the 200 feet or so to the trail itself.

On the trail, looking toward the parking lot.

The trail is paved, and basically goes in a line that stretches for about 2.5 miles.  This park was about a third of the way from one end of the trail, and while I really would have liked to explore the entire length, the weather really was a deterrent.  I did spend about an hour exploring, picking up four caches in total.  I was carrying my full caching kit with me today, so I had the presence of mind to take a few pictures:

Looking down the trail a bit.  Apparently I was listing to port when I took this.

Lots of interesting rock formations.  Jack would like this.

I had to resist a wicked urge to investigate the rock a bit further.  I wanted to be a geologist when I was kid, and when I come back here on a dryer day I'll probably poke around a bit, just for fun.

Welcome to the trail!  I had already been on it for about 1/4 mile by now, so the welcome was a bit late in coming.

A little bit of info.  It was also a drier underneath the overhang, so between the reading material and the respite from the rain it was a win-win.

Apparently there are events that happen here pretty frequently during the warmer months.

One of the reasons I really want to come back - history!

I've seen Laurel Hill Cemetery while driving, and this is its sister cemetery across the river - the West Laurel Hill Cemetery.  There are some caches right inside the entrance, but I didn't look for them as I was getting soaked.

I'm not sure if those are bike racks or sculptures.  Neat, regardless.

The trail parallels a creek.

I'm not showing some pretty interesting sights, mainly because caches were hidden there and I'm sticking to the no spoilers thing.  The picture below was taken from within a few feet of a cache, though it's obviously not in sight anywhere.

The water was moving pretty quickly.

The caches I found on the trail were all micro sized - mostly film canisters and bison tubes.  Effort had been put into hiding them, so they were all near a sight or feature that was pretty interesting.  I've never done a power trail or anything, and from what I've read they seem to favor quantity over quality.  I have to say that all of these were pretty decent hides, and I'm looking forward to coming back and picking up the rest. I'll do it when the weather is better and I can take more pictures, and will eventually post a location review.

I was totally soaked by this point, so I decided to head back home.  There were two things of note on the drive back:

1. I passed the Llanerch Diner, which was featured in the movie Silver Linings Playbook.  The only reason I mention this is because that movie was the inspiration for my third hide - Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial.  They filmed locally for several weeks and my wife spent the whole time stalking Bradley Cooper.

Taken with my "phone", obviously.

2. My dippy little car hit 100,000 miles.  Kinda weird to think that I could have circled the Earth four times over instead of just commuting back and forth to work.

That's really it.  Looking ahead I have a pretty busy work week scheduled, but I'm hoping to get out and pick up enough to get me to 200.  No guarantees, of course, but I'm really looking forward to the milestone.