Monday, May 20th, 2013
12:38 pm - Harford County, CFF Walk, Manasquan, Puzzle Cache Hacks
Saturday was a rainy day. I had already planned on heading to Maryland so I didn't change my plans but decided to do some of the easier geocaches and anything I left out on previous trips in the vicinity of Havre de Grace, Churchville, Bel Air, and Fountain Green. I'll save the bike trail geocaches near White Marsh for another time. There was still plenty to do. There were some puzzles that I solved since my last visit, so I went and found the final cache containers for those. I also hiked the trail behind Harford Community College despite the rain. This being a campus trail, there were some prank signs along the way. I also revisited the Bel Air neighborhood where someone called the police the last time and interrupted my search. Apparently, they had problems and/or were nervous about strangers. (Even the police officer thought that was ridiculous but I decided to skip the area that day.) This time, nothing happened and I was able to finish the "Crazy Bone" series. The "Atari 2600 Tribute" series that I did on Saturday is noteworthy. Each cache is a repurposed Atari cartridge.
Sunday was another rainy day. I headed out early in the morning for the Hi-4 mascot gig at CFF Great Strides in Point Pleasant Beach. I actually wasn't sure we were going to do this because the crowd was rather small due to the rain. However, Damian K and Rapid T Rabbit arrived a bit later and we went ahead with the gig. The husky fursuit got wet and a bit muddy around the legs but most of it is machine-washable so that's not a problem. We had a bit of fun, did the gig until around 1pm, and split up. For the rest of the afternoon, I found some simple geocaches around Manasquan, West Belmar, and Neptune. At times, it was raining too hard to carry electronics around outside so I used aerial photos and some good guesswork to find those caches. On the way home, I noticed that it wasn't raining in the Bordentown area so I stopped there for a while to pick up a few more geocaches and kill time before dinner.
( Field Puzzle HacksCollapse )
( The caches...Collapse )
Saturday was a rainy day. I had already planned on heading to Maryland so I didn't change my plans but decided to do some of the easier geocaches and anything I left out on previous trips in the vicinity of Havre de Grace, Churchville, Bel Air, and Fountain Green. I'll save the bike trail geocaches near White Marsh for another time. There was still plenty to do. There were some puzzles that I solved since my last visit, so I went and found the final cache containers for those. I also hiked the trail behind Harford Community College despite the rain. This being a campus trail, there were some prank signs along the way. I also revisited the Bel Air neighborhood where someone called the police the last time and interrupted my search. Apparently, they had problems and/or were nervous about strangers. (Even the police officer thought that was ridiculous but I decided to skip the area that day.) This time, nothing happened and I was able to finish the "Crazy Bone" series. The "Atari 2600 Tribute" series that I did on Saturday is noteworthy. Each cache is a repurposed Atari cartridge.
Sunday was another rainy day. I headed out early in the morning for the Hi-4 mascot gig at CFF Great Strides in Point Pleasant Beach. I actually wasn't sure we were going to do this because the crowd was rather small due to the rain. However, Damian K and Rapid T Rabbit arrived a bit later and we went ahead with the gig. The husky fursuit got wet and a bit muddy around the legs but most of it is machine-washable so that's not a problem. We had a bit of fun, did the gig until around 1pm, and split up. For the rest of the afternoon, I found some simple geocaches around Manasquan, West Belmar, and Neptune. At times, it was raining too hard to carry electronics around outside so I used aerial photos and some good guesswork to find those caches. On the way home, I noticed that it wasn't raining in the Bordentown area so I stopped there for a while to pick up a few more geocaches and kill time before dinner.
( Field Puzzle HacksCollapse )
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, May 13th, 2013
5:07 pm - Two Approaches to Reading
Over the weekend, I did more geocaching to the south of Reading, approaching from the southeast (via Morgantown) on Saturday and from the southwest (via Adamstown) on Sunday. Saturday was a rainy day, so I thought it was appropriate to start the day by finding "I Love a Rainy Night". (day, night... close enough!) There were some quick geocaches on the approach from Morgantown to Wyomissing that I could do in the rain but I still had to stop for some time in the late afternoon anyway because of lightning.
Sunday's weather was a lot better. I started at the Pennsylvania Turnpike / 222 interchange in Denver and went northeast from there, meandering through the countryside of Adamstown, Reinholds, Montello, and Spring. With lots of farms and rolling hills, this area looks similar to Lancaster, except with the curious absence of Amish buggies. "Just a GRM!" was the most challenging cache of the day. It looked like an exercise on the part of the cache owner in how much a part of the guard rail one can make a cache appear to be. I found it only because I happened to touch it and noticed a very slight difference.
( The caches...Collapse )
Over the weekend, I did more geocaching to the south of Reading, approaching from the southeast (via Morgantown) on Saturday and from the southwest (via Adamstown) on Sunday. Saturday was a rainy day, so I thought it was appropriate to start the day by finding "I Love a Rainy Night". (day, night... close enough!) There were some quick geocaches on the approach from Morgantown to Wyomissing that I could do in the rain but I still had to stop for some time in the late afternoon anyway because of lightning.
Sunday's weather was a lot better. I started at the Pennsylvania Turnpike / 222 interchange in Denver and went northeast from there, meandering through the countryside of Adamstown, Reinholds, Montello, and Spring. With lots of farms and rolling hills, this area looks similar to Lancaster, except with the curious absence of Amish buggies. "Just a GRM!" was the most challenging cache of the day. It looked like an exercise on the part of the cache owner in how much a part of the guard rail one can make a cache appear to be. I found it only because I happened to touch it and noticed a very slight difference.
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, May 6th, 2013
2:51 pm - WWFM X, Birdsboro
On Saturday, I went to the "WWFM X: May the Fourth in Warminster, PA" geocaching event. It's part of the Worldwide Flash Mob, 536 events in 38 countries occurring at the same time. (1pm here and at different hours in other time zones) I wish the events weren't synchronized so I could attend multiple events within my travel area, but that's the way it was. At the scheduled time, we gathered at Warminster Community Park. Since it was Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you :) ), we had a light saber battle. After that, we split up but Gumshoe89, Pitch Black, and I formed a small group to head over to Southampton to hike in Playwicki Park and hit the collection of geocaches there. Gumshoe89 and I continued on to Playwicki Farm. It was good to do those geocaches in a group.
On Sunday, I went to Birdsboro to continue where I stopped last time in the Pottstown expansion. Since there were so many geocaches around Kulpsville, Birdsboro, Exeter, and Robeson, I didn't actually get to the Schuylkill River Trail until late afternoon but still managed to squeeze in a 4-mile walk. The most difficult geocache of the day was "29 Steps Cache". No hints and bad GPS reception but I pieced together as much information as I could from the logs and found it after some determined searching. The most interesting landmark of the day was the large rooster near "Can't Snuff The Rooster".
Sunday's trip didn't end in the evening though. After dinner, my route home took me south through Morgantown so I stopped in that town for "Cache some ZZZZzzzzzs in Morgantown". That geocache previously required a ladder. I figured I'd take a stab at it since I had some equipment with me. Fortunately, someone had moved it lower so it was easier than before. While in Morgantown, I checked the geocaching map and noticed that there was a night cache just a few miles away. "Pigs Fly at Night #1" is on a special trail laid out with reflectors and meant to be found at night. It was already very late by then but I figured since I was in the area, why not? So I took a half-mile hike in the dark and found the cache at the stroke of midnight. I think some of the reflectors were missing but it was not a problem because with a bright flashlight, I could see several reflectors ahead.
( The caches...Collapse )
On Saturday, I went to the "WWFM X: May the Fourth in Warminster, PA" geocaching event. It's part of the Worldwide Flash Mob, 536 events in 38 countries occurring at the same time. (1pm here and at different hours in other time zones) I wish the events weren't synchronized so I could attend multiple events within my travel area, but that's the way it was. At the scheduled time, we gathered at Warminster Community Park. Since it was Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you :) ), we had a light saber battle. After that, we split up but Gumshoe89, Pitch Black, and I formed a small group to head over to Southampton to hike in Playwicki Park and hit the collection of geocaches there. Gumshoe89 and I continued on to Playwicki Farm. It was good to do those geocaches in a group.
On Sunday, I went to Birdsboro to continue where I stopped last time in the Pottstown expansion. Since there were so many geocaches around Kulpsville, Birdsboro, Exeter, and Robeson, I didn't actually get to the Schuylkill River Trail until late afternoon but still managed to squeeze in a 4-mile walk. The most difficult geocache of the day was "29 Steps Cache". No hints and bad GPS reception but I pieced together as much information as I could from the logs and found it after some determined searching. The most interesting landmark of the day was the large rooster near "Can't Snuff The Rooster".
Sunday's trip didn't end in the evening though. After dinner, my route home took me south through Morgantown so I stopped in that town for "Cache some ZZZZzzzzzs in Morgantown". That geocache previously required a ladder. I figured I'd take a stab at it since I had some equipment with me. Fortunately, someone had moved it lower so it was easier than before. While in Morgantown, I checked the geocaching map and noticed that there was a night cache just a few miles away. "Pigs Fly at Night #1" is on a special trail laid out with reflectors and meant to be found at night. It was already very late by then but I figured since I was in the area, why not? So I took a half-mile hike in the dark and found the cache at the stroke of midnight. I think some of the reflectors were missing but it was not a problem because with a bright flashlight, I could see several reflectors ahead.
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, April 29th, 2013
12:33 pm - Pottstown-Reading, Peaslee-Tuckahoe
Did another Pottstown geocaching trip on Saturday. I didn't hit the Schuylkill River Trail this time but I had many geocaches to do along and near Route 422, from Pottstown thru Douglassville and Birdsboro to Exeter. Plus, I had to return to a few areas to find the physical caches for puzzles I solved since my last trip. So that made for a rather full day. I found geocache #21000 near the end of the day. It was "Bear Hut" next to the Breakfast Hut diner in Exeter. I thought it was going to be another typical park & grab micro but it's actually rather creative. The hardest cache of the day was "Premium Water" at Philadelphia Premium Outlets in Pottstown. I attempted that late at night after dinner, when I knew the parking lot would be empty. I turned over so many rocks and I thought I wasn't going to find it when I finally got the correct rock!
On Sunday, I went to Peaslee WMA to do a few series of challenging geocaches that were published since my last visit. First, I did the "Will The Real Evil Pat Please Stand Up Event" series of geocaches. Those were quite challenging. #5 was the most difficult. I went to that spot 3 times and only succeeded the third time after getting an idea from one of the other caches. Then I attempted the GeoCamp series but by then, I was tired of searching for nearly-impossible caches so I cherry-picked the easy ones and then went off to do other geocaches along Route 49 towards Tuckahoe / Corbin City. The best cache of the day was the Jeep geocache at "Will The Real Evil Pat Please Stand Up Event # 2". It actually took me a minute to figure out that I had to pop the hood to get the log sheet because I thought it was under one of the seats at first.
( The caches...Collapse )
Did another Pottstown geocaching trip on Saturday. I didn't hit the Schuylkill River Trail this time but I had many geocaches to do along and near Route 422, from Pottstown thru Douglassville and Birdsboro to Exeter. Plus, I had to return to a few areas to find the physical caches for puzzles I solved since my last trip. So that made for a rather full day. I found geocache #21000 near the end of the day. It was "Bear Hut" next to the Breakfast Hut diner in Exeter. I thought it was going to be another typical park & grab micro but it's actually rather creative. The hardest cache of the day was "Premium Water" at Philadelphia Premium Outlets in Pottstown. I attempted that late at night after dinner, when I knew the parking lot would be empty. I turned over so many rocks and I thought I wasn't going to find it when I finally got the correct rock!
On Sunday, I went to Peaslee WMA to do a few series of challenging geocaches that were published since my last visit. First, I did the "Will The Real Evil Pat Please Stand Up Event" series of geocaches. Those were quite challenging. #5 was the most difficult. I went to that spot 3 times and only succeeded the third time after getting an idea from one of the other caches. Then I attempted the GeoCamp series but by then, I was tired of searching for nearly-impossible caches so I cherry-picked the easy ones and then went off to do other geocaches along Route 49 towards Tuckahoe / Corbin City. The best cache of the day was the Jeep geocache at "Will The Real Evil Pat Please Stand Up Event # 2". It actually took me a minute to figure out that I had to pop the hood to get the log sheet because I thought it was under one of the seats at first.
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
12:43 pm - Pottstown Expansion
Saturday and Sunday were both days with great weather. I continued where I stopped last weekend and geocached to the west of Pottstown, in Stowe, Douglassville, and Birdsboro. I wasn't too fond of Pottstown itself but the areas to the west of it are rather nice. Of course, I may change my mind again when I get closer to Reading but that's for another weekend. A lot of the hiking I did was along the Schuylkill River Trail, which has scenic views, nice wildflowers, and a cat. On Saturday, I also hiked around Monocacy Hill Recreation Area, which has ruins and a mini waterfall.
The funniest geocache of the weekend was a polka-dot chicken. It's from "The Season's Upon Us", a puzzle cache that asks the question about why the chicken crossed the road.
( The caches...Collapse )
Saturday and Sunday were both days with great weather. I continued where I stopped last weekend and geocached to the west of Pottstown, in Stowe, Douglassville, and Birdsboro. I wasn't too fond of Pottstown itself but the areas to the west of it are rather nice. Of course, I may change my mind again when I get closer to Reading but that's for another weekend. A lot of the hiking I did was along the Schuylkill River Trail, which has scenic views, nice wildflowers, and a cat. On Saturday, I also hiked around Monocacy Hill Recreation Area, which has ruins and a mini waterfall.
The funniest geocache of the weekend was a polka-dot chicken. It's from "The Season's Upon Us", a puzzle cache that asks the question about why the chicken crossed the road.
( The caches...Collapse )
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
2:14 am - Tommy's 270th Birthday, Pottstown
On Saturday, I went to Hamilton Lanes in Hamilton, NJ, for the "Happy 270th Birthday Tommy!" geocaching event. It was a small gathering in the party/bar room of the bowling alley. We had a lovely Thomas Jefferson cake and the smiley showed up too. After that, I did a bunch of geocaches around Yardville before heading over to Howell for the Route 9 series of geocaches. Of course, I did a bunch more geocaches between the series geocaches and I also ventured off into Freehold, Georgia and Wyckoff Mills.
Since I went to Wegmans so many times during Fur 'the More, I decided to get a Wegmans breakfast this Sunday morning too. Only problem: Wegmans in Collegeville is about an hour from home! I had sushi and gyoza. I actually did ask them if they were going to open a store in Delaware. The answer was no but here's the ironic twist: one of their new stores will be in Montvale, NJ. Yes, my old place but I'm not moving back there! Oh, well. Can't have everything.
After breakfast, I went geocaching in Limerick and Pottstown (Also Pottsgrove, Gilbertsville, New Hanover, Boyertown, and Stowe.) just up US-422. It was a continuation of my last trip to Royersford, just expanding a bit westward. I'm actually not terribly fond of this area, although there were a few nice locations. The treat of the day was finding "ShinBang", a cache that is more than a decade old. I love finding an old cache sometimes. It's wonderful to see something last a long time and admirable that someone maintained it all those years. It's also in a very rocky wooded area so thankfully, I didn't bang my shins. :)
( The caches...Collapse )
On Saturday, I went to Hamilton Lanes in Hamilton, NJ, for the "Happy 270th Birthday Tommy!" geocaching event. It was a small gathering in the party/bar room of the bowling alley. We had a lovely Thomas Jefferson cake and the smiley showed up too. After that, I did a bunch of geocaches around Yardville before heading over to Howell for the Route 9 series of geocaches. Of course, I did a bunch more geocaches between the series geocaches and I also ventured off into Freehold, Georgia and Wyckoff Mills.
Since I went to Wegmans so many times during Fur 'the More, I decided to get a Wegmans breakfast this Sunday morning too. Only problem: Wegmans in Collegeville is about an hour from home! I had sushi and gyoza. I actually did ask them if they were going to open a store in Delaware. The answer was no but here's the ironic twist: one of their new stores will be in Montvale, NJ. Yes, my old place but I'm not moving back there! Oh, well. Can't have everything.
After breakfast, I went geocaching in Limerick and Pottstown (Also Pottsgrove, Gilbertsville, New Hanover, Boyertown, and Stowe.) just up US-422. It was a continuation of my last trip to Royersford, just expanding a bit westward. I'm actually not terribly fond of this area, although there were a few nice locations. The treat of the day was finding "ShinBang", a cache that is more than a decade old. I love finding an old cache sometimes. It's wonderful to see something last a long time and admirable that someone maintained it all those years. It's also in a very rocky wooded area so thankfully, I didn't bang my shins. :)
( The caches...Collapse )
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
11:12 pm - Fur 'the More 2013
I was at Fur 'the More in Hunt Valley, MD, this weekend. It's a first-year con so I'll hold the criticism, unless they really want to hear it. I do enjoy a small (473 attendees) con and it should not be in a hurry to grow. There were no lines at any time and none of the con events were filled to capacity. It's nice to still be able to find a seat even if one is a few minutes late to a panel or show. The fursuit parade (with only 94 suiters) was short and sweet. Even the Furlympics (fursuit games) benefitted from not having too large a crowd. With only around 20 participants, musical chairs and the limbo contest were pretty quick, and we soon got to the fun balloon-popping part of the games. As for the dances, I liked the Sock Hop on Saturday. This has been done at other cons before but it was really neat to have it at Frankie & Vinnie's, a 50s-style diner in the lower level of the hotel.
The hotel is in a rather good location because it's across the road from Hunt Valley Towne Center, a big strip mall with a variety of stores and restaurants. I had quite a number of meals from the Wegmans food court over there, although my roommate,
jbadger, and I did venture out once for crab cakes at a local fish fry store. Unfortunately, it may not be a safe area. There was an armed robbery at the Hunt Valley McDonald's during the con and a few con attendees witnessed that. Be careful!
I didn't do too many geocaches Thursday on the way there. My main goal that day was to do "Tiger Tracks", a webcam cache in the vicinity of the Towson University tiger sculpture. I enjoyed a walk on the North Central Rail trail afterwards. Monday, on the way out of Hunt Valley, I geocached in scenic Oregon Ridge Park and took another long hike by the Loch Raven Reservoir. I should've stopped there but I ventured too close to Baltimore afterwards and encountered much dog poop, junk on the streets, and dangerous open manholes. Good thing I didn't fall into one of those!
( The caches...Collapse )
I was at Fur 'the More in Hunt Valley, MD, this weekend. It's a first-year con so I'll hold the criticism, unless they really want to hear it. I do enjoy a small (473 attendees) con and it should not be in a hurry to grow. There were no lines at any time and none of the con events were filled to capacity. It's nice to still be able to find a seat even if one is a few minutes late to a panel or show. The fursuit parade (with only 94 suiters) was short and sweet. Even the Furlympics (fursuit games) benefitted from not having too large a crowd. With only around 20 participants, musical chairs and the limbo contest were pretty quick, and we soon got to the fun balloon-popping part of the games. As for the dances, I liked the Sock Hop on Saturday. This has been done at other cons before but it was really neat to have it at Frankie & Vinnie's, a 50s-style diner in the lower level of the hotel.
The hotel is in a rather good location because it's across the road from Hunt Valley Towne Center, a big strip mall with a variety of stores and restaurants. I had quite a number of meals from the Wegmans food court over there, although my roommate,
jbadger, and I did venture out once for crab cakes at a local fish fry store. Unfortunately, it may not be a safe area. There was an armed robbery at the Hunt Valley McDonald's during the con and a few con attendees witnessed that. Be careful! I didn't do too many geocaches Thursday on the way there. My main goal that day was to do "Tiger Tracks", a webcam cache in the vicinity of the Towson University tiger sculpture. I enjoyed a walk on the North Central Rail trail afterwards. Monday, on the way out of Hunt Valley, I geocached in scenic Oregon Ridge Park and took another long hike by the Loch Raven Reservoir. I should've stopped there but I ventured too close to Baltimore afterwards and encountered much dog poop, junk on the streets, and dangerous open manholes. Good thing I didn't fall into one of those!
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, April 1st, 2013
3:27 pm - NE Philly, Royersford
March was a record-setting month for me with 489 geocache finds. My previous one-month record was December at only around 350 caches. It was due to the proliferation of powertrails in Southern Delaware and South Jersey. I'm not sure those circumstances can be repeated unless they archive and place all those caches again. I guess I'd now have to travel to another part of the country to get a higher one-month total!
On Saturday, I went to Northeast Philadelphia to do the upper end of the "Along the Pennypack" series of geocaches in the Pennypack Wildlife Refuge area. After that, I roamed around Fox Chase, Burholme, and Cheltenham for more geocaches. Among those were a bunch of geocaches that were placed for a Burholme Park event that I missed. Driving around NE Philly is a lot more trouble than it used to be. Even on weekends now, the volume of traffic overwhelms the grid of narrow streets and most neighborhoods have parked cars on both sides of the road. It didn't help that I saw some horrible accidents (overturned cars) both when entering and leaving that area.
Sunday began with a walk in Bringhurst Woods Park for "Near Shellpot Creek" before heading to Einstein Bros for breakfast. I didn't expect to be FTF on that cache but no one else dashed out early that morning for it. After breakfast, I wanted to do the SDOG (Seventeen Days of Green, a St. Patrick's Day series) geocaches but that somehow turned into a general caching spree around Phoenixville, Spring City, and Royersford. It was a lot of fun because of some creative geocaches, like this pink crocodile, but I didn't stay until dusk because of rain. So there are still some geocaches out that way for another trip.
( The caches...Collapse )
March was a record-setting month for me with 489 geocache finds. My previous one-month record was December at only around 350 caches. It was due to the proliferation of powertrails in Southern Delaware and South Jersey. I'm not sure those circumstances can be repeated unless they archive and place all those caches again. I guess I'd now have to travel to another part of the country to get a higher one-month total!
On Saturday, I went to Northeast Philadelphia to do the upper end of the "Along the Pennypack" series of geocaches in the Pennypack Wildlife Refuge area. After that, I roamed around Fox Chase, Burholme, and Cheltenham for more geocaches. Among those were a bunch of geocaches that were placed for a Burholme Park event that I missed. Driving around NE Philly is a lot more trouble than it used to be. Even on weekends now, the volume of traffic overwhelms the grid of narrow streets and most neighborhoods have parked cars on both sides of the road. It didn't help that I saw some horrible accidents (overturned cars) both when entering and leaving that area.
Sunday began with a walk in Bringhurst Woods Park for "Near Shellpot Creek" before heading to Einstein Bros for breakfast. I didn't expect to be FTF on that cache but no one else dashed out early that morning for it. After breakfast, I wanted to do the SDOG (Seventeen Days of Green, a St. Patrick's Day series) geocaches but that somehow turned into a general caching spree around Phoenixville, Spring City, and Royersford. It was a lot of fun because of some creative geocaches, like this pink crocodile, but I didn't stay until dusk because of rain. So there are still some geocaches out that way for another trip.
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, March 18th, 2013
4:54 pm - Pi Day Event, Byrne State Forest, Lehigh Valley
On Thursday evening, I went to Old Country Buffet in Deptford for the Celebrate PI Day! geocaching event. I didn't take the day off for that, so it was just an evening outing. As is usually the case when I'm at the Old Country, there was overeating, to be sure, but I got roped into judging the Pi Day pie contest, so I actually had to save some room for pie samples! It was a lot of fun. Tneigel, my co-judge, and I used multiple criteria to rank the pies and added up the points to determine the overall winner. (which was the raspberry pie) After that, I did a nearby geocache before going home.
Saturday was a case of changed plans. The weather didn't look too bad in the morning, so I headed out to Brendan T. Byrne State Forest to explore some dirt roads with new geocaches since my last visit years ago. Unfortunately, in the afternoon, it started raining ice pellets. I decided that it would be a good idea to leave the woods before the dirt roads got mucky. I didn't feel like hiking in the rain but there were a surprising number of parking lot and roadside geocaches around Marlton, Medford, Mt. Holly, and Willingboro. So that's what I did for the rest of the afternoon.
On Sunday, I went to Lehigh Valley with the intention of attending a geocaching event at Wegmans in Bethlehem. However, I started walking down the Plainfield Township Trail in Stockertown to do the Thanksgiving series of geocaches and had so much fun that I decided to skip the event and just do the series until the end. The last one, "Hunting Long Range Thanksgiving Specials 11-11", was the most physically challenging of all. It is a keyholder on the high ledge of a bridge over the trail. I brought my tools so I would not have to climb up to the ledge (very dangerous), but even then, I was having a hard time getting the geocache down because I couldn't see it when I was standing right under it. Luckily, a jogger stopped to help. With him as the spotter, I was finally able to sweep the cache down. I was amazed that a stranger would stop to help but I read the logs for that cache and it's not the first time one of the locals has offered assistance.
( The caches...Collapse )
On Thursday evening, I went to Old Country Buffet in Deptford for the Celebrate PI Day! geocaching event. I didn't take the day off for that, so it was just an evening outing. As is usually the case when I'm at the Old Country, there was overeating, to be sure, but I got roped into judging the Pi Day pie contest, so I actually had to save some room for pie samples! It was a lot of fun. Tneigel, my co-judge, and I used multiple criteria to rank the pies and added up the points to determine the overall winner. (which was the raspberry pie) After that, I did a nearby geocache before going home.
Saturday was a case of changed plans. The weather didn't look too bad in the morning, so I headed out to Brendan T. Byrne State Forest to explore some dirt roads with new geocaches since my last visit years ago. Unfortunately, in the afternoon, it started raining ice pellets. I decided that it would be a good idea to leave the woods before the dirt roads got mucky. I didn't feel like hiking in the rain but there were a surprising number of parking lot and roadside geocaches around Marlton, Medford, Mt. Holly, and Willingboro. So that's what I did for the rest of the afternoon.
On Sunday, I went to Lehigh Valley with the intention of attending a geocaching event at Wegmans in Bethlehem. However, I started walking down the Plainfield Township Trail in Stockertown to do the Thanksgiving series of geocaches and had so much fun that I decided to skip the event and just do the series until the end. The last one, "Hunting Long Range Thanksgiving Specials 11-11", was the most physically challenging of all. It is a keyholder on the high ledge of a bridge over the trail. I brought my tools so I would not have to climb up to the ledge (very dangerous), but even then, I was having a hard time getting the geocache down because I couldn't see it when I was standing right under it. Luckily, a jogger stopped to help. With him as the spotter, I was finally able to sweep the cache down. I was amazed that a stranger would stop to help but I read the logs for that cache and it's not the first time one of the locals has offered assistance.
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, March 11th, 2013
12:30 pm - Powertrail Weekend, Southern Delaware, Colliers Mills
Since the weather was good and there was a proliferation of powertrails within two hours from home, I decided to see if I could do big cache runs both days of the weekend. I didn't think I could do it but I squeezed in 3 powertrails: Ted Harvey (14 caches) in Dover DE, TAD (49 caches) in Georgetown DE, and CMTPT (60 caches) in Jackson NJ. Of course, I did other geocaches on the way to/from and around those areas for a total of 151 caches this weekend. I went from morning to night both days, hopped in and out of the car a gazillion times, exhausted my phone battery logging geocaches in the field, and visited Hardee's a lot. Definitely a full weekend!
Saturday began with a few geocaches on the way to Dover and then the Ted Harvey series. This is a continuation to the previous Ted Harvey set in the Ted Harvey Wildlife Area. This time, I did numbers 17 to 30. Then I continued southwards to the Georgetown area for TAD #31 thru #78. The neat part is these geocaches are arranged in a large X, forming a piece of geo-art when viewed on a map. As you can see by the question marks in the picture, they are all puzzle caches. I wrote software to solve these and speed things along because working on 48 of those by hand would've been too much! "A TAD Off-Center", in the center of the X, is a different puzzle but I have software for this too.
On Sunday, I went to Colliers Mills Wildlife Area in Jackson for the CMTPT series. All these geocaches are hidden along the main sand road in that area. There were some rough spots but most of that sand road is hard-packed. All 60 caches are the exact same style of hide. Even so, some were much harder to find than others because of the way those were placed, the surrounding vegetation, and my fatigue levels throughout the day. But I stuck with it, found each one in sequence, and finally emerged at the other end of the sand road. After the CMTPT series, I headed over to Patriots Park for a few more geocaches and ran into a family who just started geocaching that day. They were stumped on the "Inspiration 5" cache but I looked around a bit and saw it. Then I told them about Colliers Mills and they wanted to try that too. They have no idea what they are in for! :)
( The caches...Collapse )
Since the weather was good and there was a proliferation of powertrails within two hours from home, I decided to see if I could do big cache runs both days of the weekend. I didn't think I could do it but I squeezed in 3 powertrails: Ted Harvey (14 caches) in Dover DE, TAD (49 caches) in Georgetown DE, and CMTPT (60 caches) in Jackson NJ. Of course, I did other geocaches on the way to/from and around those areas for a total of 151 caches this weekend. I went from morning to night both days, hopped in and out of the car a gazillion times, exhausted my phone battery logging geocaches in the field, and visited Hardee's a lot. Definitely a full weekend!
Saturday began with a few geocaches on the way to Dover and then the Ted Harvey series. This is a continuation to the previous Ted Harvey set in the Ted Harvey Wildlife Area. This time, I did numbers 17 to 30. Then I continued southwards to the Georgetown area for TAD #31 thru #78. The neat part is these geocaches are arranged in a large X, forming a piece of geo-art when viewed on a map. As you can see by the question marks in the picture, they are all puzzle caches. I wrote software to solve these and speed things along because working on 48 of those by hand would've been too much! "A TAD Off-Center", in the center of the X, is a different puzzle but I have software for this too.
On Sunday, I went to Colliers Mills Wildlife Area in Jackson for the CMTPT series. All these geocaches are hidden along the main sand road in that area. There were some rough spots but most of that sand road is hard-packed. All 60 caches are the exact same style of hide. Even so, some were much harder to find than others because of the way those were placed, the surrounding vegetation, and my fatigue levels throughout the day. But I stuck with it, found each one in sequence, and finally emerged at the other end of the sand road. After the CMTPT series, I headed over to Patriots Park for a few more geocaches and ran into a family who just started geocaching that day. They were stumped on the "Inspiration 5" cache but I looked around a bit and saw it. Then I told them about Colliers Mills and they wanted to try that too. They have no idea what they are in for! :)
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, March 4th, 2013
3:22 pm - LVGC Breakfast, 5/5 geocache, Take A Walk
On Saturday, I went to the LVGC Breakfast geocaching event at Borderline Restaurant in Bethlehem, PA. I ordered the breakfast special, which sounded like a simple thing but came on two plates! Probably a good thing it was filling though, because the group spent most of the day on a 4-mile hike on the towpath. It was fun. The group did two series of geocaches that were all in a row on the towpath. Then we relocated to another section of the towpath, closer to Easton, for more geocaches. After that, the group broke up but CaptainMath and I went off to do a few more geocaches, since both of us are from outside of the Lehigh Valley area and don't often get a chance to tackle the challenging caches there.
Since I returned from Lehigh Valley late on Saturday and woke up late on Sunday, I decided not to go too far from home. There was the new "Take A Walk" series of caches in East Goshen but 9 geocaches were not enough to fill the day, so I did some before and after those. Excalibur II is a 5/5 rated geocache in Talley Day Park, Wilmington. It's in the same spot as the former Excalibur geocache. A 5/5 rating is the highest level for difficulty and terrain, although I don't think it is as hard as the cache owner intended. As designed, one would have to climb a tree to get a tool to extract the cache. However, I had an idea what was required, so I brought my own retrieval tool (the 3-foot grabber) and that worked very well. I also met a nice horse near "By The Fence - Another Woodlawn Ammo Box".
( The caches...Collapse )
On Saturday, I went to the LVGC Breakfast geocaching event at Borderline Restaurant in Bethlehem, PA. I ordered the breakfast special, which sounded like a simple thing but came on two plates! Probably a good thing it was filling though, because the group spent most of the day on a 4-mile hike on the towpath. It was fun. The group did two series of geocaches that were all in a row on the towpath. Then we relocated to another section of the towpath, closer to Easton, for more geocaches. After that, the group broke up but CaptainMath and I went off to do a few more geocaches, since both of us are from outside of the Lehigh Valley area and don't often get a chance to tackle the challenging caches there.
Since I returned from Lehigh Valley late on Saturday and woke up late on Sunday, I decided not to go too far from home. There was the new "Take A Walk" series of caches in East Goshen but 9 geocaches were not enough to fill the day, so I did some before and after those. Excalibur II is a 5/5 rated geocache in Talley Day Park, Wilmington. It's in the same spot as the former Excalibur geocache. A 5/5 rating is the highest level for difficulty and terrain, although I don't think it is as hard as the cache owner intended. As designed, one would have to climb a tree to get a tool to extract the cache. However, I had an idea what was required, so I brought my own retrieval tool (the 3-foot grabber) and that worked very well. I also met a nice horse near "By The Fence - Another Woodlawn Ammo Box".
( The caches...Collapse )
Wednesday, February 27th, 2013
3:24 pm - Naturalization Followup
After the oath ceremony back in January, I had a couple of things to take care of. I needed to register to vote since I was unable to get that done at the voter registration table in the ceremonial courtroom. I figured it would also be handy to get a passport. And finally, after browsing around the web a bit, I found out through newcitizen.us that I also needed to report my change in status to the Social Security Administration.
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After the oath ceremony back in January, I had a couple of things to take care of. I needed to register to vote since I was unable to get that done at the voter registration table in the ceremonial courtroom. I figured it would also be handy to get a passport. And finally, after browsing around the web a bit, I found out through newcitizen.us that I also needed to report my change in status to the Social Security Administration.
( Read more...Collapse )
Monday, February 25th, 2013
12:27 pm - Kent County and local DE/MD
It rained all day on Saturday but I figured I could still do some geocaches, as long as there wasn't too much walking. So I went for the Ted Harvey series in Kent County. These geocaches are all along a dirt road in the Ted Harvey Conservation Area. Only the last one, the TB Hotel, was beyond a closed gate and took about a 0.1-mile hike. I didn't get too wet from the rain. On the way to Ted Harvey, I noticed a big fire on Bay Road. The smoke was thick enough to obscure vision and slow traffic to a crawl on DE Route 1. It was still smoldering after I did the 17 Ted Harvey caches and returned to that area. Nothing to worry about though. I found out later that it was merely a training exercise for Dover-area firefighters. For the rest of the day, I just finished off the rest of the new caches in the county with a tour around Dover, Camden and Felton.
Sunday had good weather. There was a geocaching event in the northern Philadelphia area but at the last minute, I decided against attending that one. So I remained fairly local. After a Hardee's breakfast, I geocached in Elkton and Chesapeake City before returning to Newark, Pike Creek, and Wilmington. The last cache of the day was at the Greenbank Dam ruins and by then, I had 25 finds for the day, all within 20 miles of home. Not bad at all!
( The caches...Collapse )
It rained all day on Saturday but I figured I could still do some geocaches, as long as there wasn't too much walking. So I went for the Ted Harvey series in Kent County. These geocaches are all along a dirt road in the Ted Harvey Conservation Area. Only the last one, the TB Hotel, was beyond a closed gate and took about a 0.1-mile hike. I didn't get too wet from the rain. On the way to Ted Harvey, I noticed a big fire on Bay Road. The smoke was thick enough to obscure vision and slow traffic to a crawl on DE Route 1. It was still smoldering after I did the 17 Ted Harvey caches and returned to that area. Nothing to worry about though. I found out later that it was merely a training exercise for Dover-area firefighters. For the rest of the day, I just finished off the rest of the new caches in the county with a tour around Dover, Camden and Felton.
Sunday had good weather. There was a geocaching event in the northern Philadelphia area but at the last minute, I decided against attending that one. So I remained fairly local. After a Hardee's breakfast, I geocached in Elkton and Chesapeake City before returning to Newark, Pike Creek, and Wilmington. The last cache of the day was at the Greenbank Dam ruins and by then, I had 25 finds for the day, all within 20 miles of home. Not bad at all!
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, February 18th, 2013
12:05 pm - Valentine's Day event, TAD series, Montgomery/Bucks
Saturday was a rainy day with a bit of snow mixed in, but I went down to southern Delaware anyway for the "Who's your Valentine?" geocaching event at Stargate Diner in Seaford. They had breakfast buffet, which I got since it was the simplest option. I won a heart-shaped geocoin in the event raffle, which was a surprise since there were a lot more attendees than prizes. After that, we went out to do geocaches in the area. I did a few easy ones to warm up before hitting the Trails Across Delmarva (TAD) series near Laurel. It wasn't really a trail because all those geocaches are along the side of Route 24, but those were good for a rainy day. Some were on the other side, so my plan was to do all the ones on the outbound side and hit the rest on the way back. It didn't quite work out that way because there was a difficult one that I needed to think about and ended up crossing the road for later on. Thank goodness there wasn't too much traffic.
At the end of the day, I ran into GreatOdyssey, Corpseplow, and Mistyteal, so we did a bunch of geocaches in downtown Laurel as a group. I thought it was funny that I went all the way to southern Delaware just to team up with folks who are local to me but it was a great time!
Sunday was sunny but windy and cold. I figured winter was the best time to do geocaches in thorny locations, so I headed up to Horsham and Warrington to finish those off. There were a good many geocache sites that I'd skipped last summer because of thick vegetation but in the winter, none of them posed a significant problem.
( The caches...Collapse )
Saturday was a rainy day with a bit of snow mixed in, but I went down to southern Delaware anyway for the "Who's your Valentine?" geocaching event at Stargate Diner in Seaford. They had breakfast buffet, which I got since it was the simplest option. I won a heart-shaped geocoin in the event raffle, which was a surprise since there were a lot more attendees than prizes. After that, we went out to do geocaches in the area. I did a few easy ones to warm up before hitting the Trails Across Delmarva (TAD) series near Laurel. It wasn't really a trail because all those geocaches are along the side of Route 24, but those were good for a rainy day. Some were on the other side, so my plan was to do all the ones on the outbound side and hit the rest on the way back. It didn't quite work out that way because there was a difficult one that I needed to think about and ended up crossing the road for later on. Thank goodness there wasn't too much traffic.
At the end of the day, I ran into GreatOdyssey, Corpseplow, and Mistyteal, so we did a bunch of geocaches in downtown Laurel as a group. I thought it was funny that I went all the way to southern Delaware just to team up with folks who are local to me but it was a great time!
Sunday was sunny but windy and cold. I figured winter was the best time to do geocaches in thorny locations, so I headed up to Horsham and Warrington to finish those off. There were a good many geocache sites that I'd skipped last summer because of thick vegetation but in the winter, none of them posed a significant problem.
( The caches...Collapse )
Monday, February 11th, 2013
4:37 pm - Montgomery County winter wonderland
Much of the northeast had a snowstorm on Friday night but Delaware had nothing. Montgomery County in Pennsylvania only had one or two inches of snow but I thought it was worth a visit to capture a few snowy scenes like these pictures from Swedeland Park and Prophecy Creek Park. On Saturday, I started with a few geocaches in Conshohocken because there were puzzle caches there that I'd solved. Then I continued northwards through Ambler, Whitpain, and North Wales. Some geocaches were findable with or without snow; others were difficult or close to impossible, although in a few exceptional cases, the snow cover helped me focus my search by hiding distractions. I didn't have to leap for "LEAP LUNCH CACHE" but it was actually rather challenging because the snow made the downhill approach quite slippery. Fortunately, I only fell down once.
On Sunday, I continued geocaching where I stopped on Saturday. This time, I covered Montgomeryville and Warrington, focusing on the multitude of geocaches in Windlestrae Park and Spring Valley Park. (The "SVP" series) After a whole day of snow melt, there was significantly less snow on Sunday, although there was still some in wooded areas. "You Scream" is actually easier during the winter. Usually, if a cache is hidden in vegetation, it's in an evergreen so that the difficulty remains constant throughout the year. This one, though, is in a deciduous bush so it's quite obvious this time of the year.
( The caches...Collapse )
Much of the northeast had a snowstorm on Friday night but Delaware had nothing. Montgomery County in Pennsylvania only had one or two inches of snow but I thought it was worth a visit to capture a few snowy scenes like these pictures from Swedeland Park and Prophecy Creek Park. On Saturday, I started with a few geocaches in Conshohocken because there were puzzle caches there that I'd solved. Then I continued northwards through Ambler, Whitpain, and North Wales. Some geocaches were findable with or without snow; others were difficult or close to impossible, although in a few exceptional cases, the snow cover helped me focus my search by hiding distractions. I didn't have to leap for "LEAP LUNCH CACHE" but it was actually rather challenging because the snow made the downhill approach quite slippery. Fortunately, I only fell down once.
On Sunday, I continued geocaching where I stopped on Saturday. This time, I covered Montgomeryville and Warrington, focusing on the multitude of geocaches in Windlestrae Park and Spring Valley Park. (The "SVP" series) After a whole day of snow melt, there was significantly less snow on Sunday, although there was still some in wooded areas. "You Scream" is actually easier during the winter. Usually, if a cache is hidden in vegetation, it's in an evergreen so that the difficulty remains constant throughout the year. This one, though, is in a deciduous bush so it's quite obvious this time of the year.
( The caches...Collapse )