Coming soon...

With the rapidly approaching onset of Fall, I'm officially through my summer break, and the good news is that I did quite a bit of caching recently and have a lot more to write about!

Recent caching adventures include:

• A successful Geocaching event with the local Cub Scout troop.  This event was neat on several levels, but from the perspective of this blog I think the most interesting part will be how I made GPX files with my practice caches, and copies of the handouts that I made.
• My first Earth Cache, found on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
• Cache finds in Maryland and Virginia, bringing me up to 5 states.
• Several frustrating near-FTFs, and Jack's first actual FTF.

And more!

Step one will be for me to copy all of the pictures I took off of my camera, so once that's done I'll start posting again.  It's good to be back!

A year , and a summer break.

It's an exciting time!  We have already passed the one year anniversary of the Travel Bug that Started it All (pretentious capitalization intended) and rapidly approach the one year anniversary of my first "official" caching day in two weeks.  While I have taken a good amount of time off (hence the dearth of posts) I would like to give a shout out to some things this past year that have made this hobby so much fun:

• Geocaching.com - without this site, none of the rest of this would be possible.
• My Garmin eTrex 20 - while I did use Google maps for a while, this really sold me on caching.
• The geocaching subreddit - loads of ideas and conversations to keep me going, even when I can't get out and cache myself.
• My friends and family members who've put up with my obsession - you know who you are.
• All cachers everywhere!  As much as item #1, without such an active community, this hobby wouldn't exist.

Now that that's out of way, here's my standard "I've been too busy - catching up now!" post:

• Health is 100% back to normal, so that's a plus.
• We just had Jack's 8th birthday party, so I sank a month into making Minecraft props instead of going outside to cache.
   
  

  

  They look deceptively simple, but the creeper alone (green guy) took something like 8 hours to put together.

• It has technically been an "IT Emergency" at work since the first week of June, and since I'm the entire IT department it has really put a dent in my lunchtime caching runs.

I did manage to snag an FTF a few weeks back - King's Family Tree is located relatively close to work, and I needed to take a break after a few weeks of non-stop computer crisis issues.  I've also managed to go caching both alone and with Jack and Emily twice now over the holiday weekend, so things are looking up.

The other news is that I am going to be doing a short Geocaching event for my son's cub scout troop sometime in the coming weeks.  I'm setting up demo caches in Smedley Park; real containers, really hidden, but not posted on the website or anything.  I'm just creating GPX files and making handouts, to give the kids an idea about what caching is all about.  I'm going to be breaking quite a few rules, such as distance (I'm hiding 2-3 per spot, and the total distance for about 6 spots [12-18 hides] is probably 750 feet), and I may or may not have log sheets and trinkets in them... though I'm leaning toward doing something to make it a little more engaging for the kids.

I'll post details and pics when I do it, so if anyone else is into this kind of thing it can be used as a model for your event.

That's it for now.  As I start getting back into caching, I'll start making more posts. 

Later on!

Quick update.

Quick updates on the two missing caches:

1. The Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial cache has been moved to a new location.  The new spot can't handle a cache container of the same size as the last one, but I should be able to put something in place eventually.  For now, it's a boring old bison tube.
   
2. The new Video Game History #1 - Breakout cache is not done yet.  I bought my supplies last week but have been spending my time working on Jack's birthday party props (Minecraft!) instead of building the cache... or caching, come to think of it.

Since I'm going to be all spoilery and put instructions together for the Breakout cache container anyway, I may as well reveal that it was / is a street hockey ball.  The game Breakout dealt with a ball hitting a brick wall - my cache consisted of a ball hidden in an old ruined wall in the park across the street.

The nifty think about this container is that it's large enough to hold small trinkets, waterproof, and able to be camouflaged, so it's not just an orange hockey ball.  When done, the container ends up being waterproof (well.. I wouldn't make in an underwater cache, but it can be dunked underwater for a while with no ill effects) and hides well, so I'm kinda excited to write up instructions.  Well, maybe not excited. Mildly enthusiastic?  You get the idea.

Not one, but two caches missing...

I previously mentioned that my Breakout cache had gone missing, and confirmed over the weekend that my Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial cache has gone missing as well.

Someone had emailed me about the condition of GZ at that cache, right in the middle of my pain / health issues, so I had never been able to check it out.  I had noticed that it hadn't been found since April, and there is another cache in the same park hidden in a similar way that has still been getting traffic, so I was beginning to fear for the worst.  Someone was kind enough to log a DNF saying that they found some possible parts of it, so I took a look over the weekend, and damn it, it's gone.

This is another opportunity for me to document this type of cache build... but wow, it took like 12 hours to make the first one, mainly due to all of the trial and error.  I found a new home for it and will start making plans to replace it soon, but this really sucks.  Oh well.

Short caching trip - McKaig Nature Education Center

My son and I had a short caching day several weeks ago, and while the bulk of my photos were taken at Skunk Hollow, we did manage to hit a few more spots on our day off.  One of the places we visited was the McKaig Nature Education Center in Upper Merion Township.

There are two caches in the park - Just Toying Around and McKaig's Scenic Simion.  I had originally visited this spot way back in February to pick both caches up, and what impressed me at the time was a largish hill that you climb up to reach GZ of McKaig's Scenic Simion.  Jack loves climbing stuff (generally furniture, but hills are good too) and I filed this location away for a future revisit.  As things worked out, we ended up having a reason to visit - Jack's Travel Bug Game was there, and we wanted to get it moving again.

I had placed Jack's Travel Bug Game in a cache near my work way back in February.  After a month and a half of waiting with bated breath, it was finally picked up and taken on a trip to Pittsburgh. It made several cache visits (and someone rolled a 6 and posted a haiku!) and then came back to the general area - specifically, back to the Scenic Simion cache.  Knowing that Jack and I had the whole day to visit caches we decided to stop by here, pick up the bug, and give it to my father in law in NJ, so he could get the game moving again.

The McKaig Nature Education Center was created in 1979 to preserve open land in Upper Merion.  It occupies 89 acres of land, and has several hiking trails and two creeks.

Jack, hiking up the hill.

There is a main entrance on the north side of the park, but both caches are located near the two southern entrances on Brower Road - Just Toying Around is a short walk from the Southwest entrance, and McKaig's Scenic Simion is a hike up a hill from the Southeast entrance.  Seeing as we had already braved a dog attack and vicious thorn wounds earlier in the day, I decided that we would only take the trip to get our travel bug, rather than get both caches.

While I'm only documenting our trip to McKaig's Scenic Simion, be assured that it's worth the trip over to Just Toying Around. It is one of the largest containers I have ever seen while caching, and it's on my short list of places that I can drop of large trackables.   The key difference between the hikes is that Scenic Simion is high up a hill, while Toying Around is in a relatively flat area.

You can see my car way down the hill.

The hill to the cache is pretty steep, but has a clearly marked trail that switches back and forth, so it's not that difficult of a climb.

Whoops - we ended up on the wrong side of this sign after going off trail for a bit.

Going off trail and straight up the hill isn't too hard, but we found out that we had wandered into a closed area after reaching the trail again.

The cache hints reference the waterbars, but coming from the main entrance.  Just follow your GPS and look around a bit.

There is a trail map available on the McKaig website.  The cache is located near where Laurel Trail and Fire Road intersect.  When I found it in February, it was lying exposed near a log that had rotted away some time in the past.  I re-hid it under some bark and debris to make it a little less obvious.  This time, it was even more exposed, so I'm kinda glad we grabbed the travel bug, as anyone wandering a little off trail could have spotted it easily.  I did hide it in some debris again, but since it's been 0 for 2 in the visits that I have made, I don't trust that it will stay hidden all that long.

This was taken right when the leaves were coming in.

The whole cache trip, from walking the hill up to getting back to the car, takes a little more than 15 minutes. Jack enjoyed this trip as well, though we did run into another dog walker, and after the Skunk Hollow Incident he was a little wary.  All in all, it's a decent park with two largish caches, so if you have 45 minutes to an hour to kill it's certainly worth stopping by and picking them both up.

Caches in this post:

• McKaig's Scenic Simion
• Just Toying Around

My Breakout cache has gone missing!

Just a quick update - about 10 days ago we had a cleanup day at the park across from where I live, and I took the time to check up on my two caches.  Frogger is fine, but Breakout is gone!  I found a little pile of trash near where it was hidden, soda bottles and the like, so I'm assuming that kids just up and took it or threw it somewhere.

Regardless, I'm going to redo it, and this time I will document the process for making the container.  Sure, it's kinda spoilerish, but since I've never seen a container like it, and since it's easy to make and is a decent size, I may as well show the process.

Until then, Breakout has been disabled. :(

Geocaching in Radnor Twp. - The Willows, Skunk Hollow, and Saw Mill Park - Part 2

I feel that I should explain something - part 1 of my little series on The Willows, Skunk Hollow, and Saw Mill Park didn't have much actual Geocaching in it, aside from the list of caches and a comment or two.  This is because I picked those caches up months ago.  The caching in these parks is very enjoyable, but since I found these well over 100 caches ago, I did not have any fresh stories to tell.

This is not the case with Part 2.  I have three caches to share, and all of them have a tale.

Picking up where we left off:

Entrance to Skunk Hollow from The Willows.

Skunk Hollow is a really neat area.  This is where Radnor Twp. takes all of their compostable material and dumps them into huge piles for composting.  This composting area takes up most of the center of the park, and there are trails, fields, and streams (Darby Creek, specifically) peppered throughout the area.

From the entrance at The Willows, you come in at a community garden area, with the huge compost mounds located behind that.
 

Nice little community garden area.  There are usually people gardening here when I visit.

If you immediately turn right once you enter this area, you'll find some beehives up ahead. This is one of the reasons I wanted to take Jack to this part of the park. He's really into insects and it was pretty neat to get up close and personal (relatively speaking) to some active hives.

They left us alone until I stood there for a while trying to get a video.  Even then, it was really just some harmless swooping and buzzing, but I took the cue and walked a little farther away.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but those mulch piles are immense.

That's the back fence for the community garden to the left, and the mulch piles in the distance.

Jack enjoyed this area, even though we didn't get too close to the piles.  I guess the proximity to all of the dirt was enough to keep him happy.

Walking a little farther up the hill, you come across the entrance to the trail.

The trail entrance.

The trail itself is pretty scenic.  It's a nice little trip through the woods, and it has enough scenery to keep things interesting, even with a 7 year old.

It's hard to keep him focused on looking where he's walking.

It's a tiny bit hilly, but nothing steep or dangerous.

Twin trees.

Within a few minutes walk of the trail entrance, you come across the first cache - The Willows Two-Step: Step 1.  I had been looking at this cache on the Geocaching site for a while, and since it had quite a few favorite points I was very interested in finding it.

The cache location is simply along the trail; no amazing sights or anything. However, the cache container is freaking sweet!  I would never have found this without checking the hint and reading through previous logs, and it was well worth checking out, especially if you are looking for ideas for a well-made hide of your own.

I had picked this cache up on my first trip here, so with Jack in tow on trip #2, I had him find this one more or less on his own, with only a little help from me.

Here's where things started getting fun.  Apparently, these trails are really popular with dog walkers.  Jack had the cache in hand and I was helping him sign the log when someone walked by with a dog in tow.  They gave us a little look, as it was obvious we were up to something, so I just said something about Geocaching to Jack right as they walked by.  I don't know that I got a knowing look in return, but at least they seemed to think that whatever we were doing was legit.

The two of us then proceeded down the path another 10 minutes or so to pick up the second cache in the series: The Willows Two-Step: Step 2.

He's really just looking for swear words.  This has been an issue with him since he learned how to read.

I'd love to know what kind of storm cracked this huge tree apart.  I wouldn't necessarily want to have been there when it happened, but maybe a weather report or something would be interesting.

Here's where it got fun.  Jack was off from school due to a teacher in-service day, so I took the day off of work.  I'm the entire IT department where I work, so even on my days off I expect the occasional call and I try to help as best I can.  Of course, being 1/2 mile down a trail in the woods doesn't mean I can do a whole heck of a lot, but I make the effort anyway.

Right before we found the second cache (which ended up being pretty standard but well hidden), I received a call from work.  While I was trying to diagnose the tech problem, Jack was poking around looking for the cache.  Out of nowhere, this huge, I mean one of the largest dogs I have ever seen, came bounding down the path right toward us.  I could hear someone shouting in the distance down the trail, but my attention was pretty evenly split between my tech call, Jack (who was scared half out of his wits), and this massive dog running full speed directly at us.

It looked like a gigantic German Shepard, and I have since Googled for what breed it may be, and the best I have come up with is... an oversized German Shepard.  Whatever it was, it was coming right for me.

Now, I'm 6'8" tall and about 300 pounds, so I wasn't too worried about myself, but Jack could have been swallowed whole by this thing, and while this was happening I was still trying to take this call from a VIP at work while trying not to mention that we're about to be killed by a dog... well, Jack at least.  He was already behind me holding on for dear life when this huge, aggressive dog ran right up to me, slammed the brakes on, took one sniff, and wandered off like we didn't even exist.

I totally lost my train of thought with the work call, but it was Ok because there wasn't anything more I could do over the phone anyway.  Right as I disconnected the dog's owner came sprinting up, very apologetic.  Apparently the big dog is very aggressive (but friendly) when it senses other dogs are around, and when it heard us it took off to investigate.  Since we weren't dogs, it lost interest.

All in all, it was no big deal, but Jack was totally shaken.  Considering that he could have ridden off into the sunset on this thing (...it was big enough that I may have been able to as well) I could totally understand.  Once the dog and its owner were out of earshot, he turned to me and said "That dog scared the crap out of me."  Usually he'd get in trouble for swearing, but considering the circumstances I thought it was appropriate and let it go.  And since he learned the word "crap" from his mother, it's really all her fault anyway. :)

We explored a little farther down the trail before heading back.

More scenery.

That little blob in the bottom left center of this image is Jack near a pretty big tree.

Winding path through a little hilly area.

This is about as artistic as I get.

Between the hike and the stale adrenaline from his near brush with death, Jack was burned out and ready to head home.  Right as we were getting ready to leave the Skunk Hollow area, I mentioned that there was another cache - Skunk Hollow - only about 100 feet away.  Since we were so close, he decided to give it a shot.  I had found this one on Trip #1 the week before, so it would be an easy grab... or so I thought.

You need to go off trail pretty close to this abandoned cart.

 This cache is a little of the trail, in a brush filled area between the trail and Darby Creek.

Off the trail, overlooking the creek.

Woodpeckers?  Termites?  I think woodpeckers.

The area is quite overgrown, and the first time I had looked for this cache a few months back I had come over from the wrong side of the creek.

The creek.

And more creek.

Jack and I were wearing shorts, but since the foliage back there was just starting to sprout, and since there weren't any obvious thorns, we went for it.  Of course, 30 seconds after making the find, Jack wandered off of the little clear path we took and walked right into the only thorn bush for 50 feet.  His first instinct is to panic, and sure enough, he got a little thorn puncture that started to bleed.  And then he totally freaked out.

I guess it was a lot to ask, considering our longish hike and recent dog attack, but I really thought he could handle this one.  Wow, was I wrong.  He screamed bloody murder - loud enough that the people gardening took notice - all while I was trying to get back to the car, which at this point was probably 1/4 mile away.

Our conversation went as follows:

Jack - "It's bleeding! It's bleeding!  I'm going to die!"
Me - "No you're not, it's Ok!  It's just a little scratch!"
Jack - "I'm dying!  Did you bring the first aid kit!  I need first aid!"
Me - "It's in my car."
Jack - (weeping) - "How could you do this to me!  I'm dying!  How far is the car?"
Me - "Err... maybe a 5 minute walk?"
Jack - "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

I tried to get him to walk it off, but he dragged his leg like he had been caught in a bear trap, weeping and yelling the whole way.  We got a lot of weird looks, but finally made it back to the car where I applied the absolute smallest band-aid that I have ever used to the "wound".  As soon as he was patched up it was like a switch flipped and he wanted to have a snack and play a little while longer, so I broke out a juice box and some pretzels and he was 100% totally normal again.

I've commented on caching with a kid before, and I guess this just goes with the territory.

Well, that's it for this part of the parks.  I'm going to head back to the other side of Skunk Hollow in the coming weeks, as well as pick up a multi that starts in Saw Mill Park.  Until then, if you're in the area, please come check this spot out yourself.   It's scenic, full of caches, and a lot of fun.

Caches in this post:

• The Willows Two-Step: Step 1
• The Willows Two-Step: Step 2
• Skunk Hollow