A very hot day. Did a tour of Orange County going North from Sterling Forest, neatly sidestepping the heavy traffic that I hear choked up the Palisades Parkway.
Beyond Blue Lake- NEW CLUE ADDED (New York)
Sterling Forest in Tuxedo Park. A walk around the side of the lake generally on woods roads. Met the Australian (I'm guessing by the accent) park ranger in the parking area before the gate. He was patrolling the area. Our conversation revolved around how hot the weather was going to get.
Laurel Meadow Ponds Cache (New York)
Sterling Forest in Tuxedo Park. This one can be driven to within a few hundred feet provided the gate is open. And it was.
6 1/2 Station Road Pen Cache (New York)
In Goshen. What's with the 6 1/2? Cache was pretty close to the road but I parked in the parking area and took the short walk. Found the cache by accidentally stepping on it. (Gee... it's flat. It's on the ground. It's totally covered under leaves. It's bound to get stepped on sooner or later.) Didn't damage it, fortunately.
The Other Part of the Trail (New York)
Heritage Trail in Goshen. Quick and easy walk on a bike trail.
Circleville Park Cache (New York)
In Circleville. Had a bit of a problem driving to this one because the roads were closed for a parade. But after a short while, the roads were open again. Another easy walk around a lake.
Moonbeams Cache (New York)
Moonbeams Sanctuary in Middletown. Meadow area. Another short and easy walk.
Basher Kill Splendor (New York)
Bashakill WMA in Wurtsboro. (Sullivan County, not Orange) Big lake with dead trees sticking out of it. Short and sweet cache hunt.
Castle Playground (New York)
Town of Crawford Park in Pine Bush. Impressive wooden castle at the play area. Easy walk past the picnic area. I was surprised the cache hadn't been stolen as it was completely uncovered.
Log It (New York)
River Front Park in Montgomery. Scenic walk along the Wallkill River.
GeoRover #3 (New York)
A traveler. Found it in the 'Log It' geocache so it is a bonus.
Tri-State Cache (New York)
Laurel Grove Cemetery in Port Jervis. The cemetery is on a peninsula in the Delaware River. I think the end of it just about touches the point where NY, NJ and PA meet, and that's just under the I-84 bridge.
Put a Lid on It! (New York)
Orange Square in Port Jervis. Fastest cache yet.
Rock Bound Maiden (New York)
In Port Jervis. A walk along the old D&H canal that no longer has water. Still has mosquitoes though.
Down By The River (New York)
Sparrowbush Fishing Access in Sparrow Bush. Great beach but a bit crowded. The Pennsylvania side of the Delaware is very mountainous, as can be seen from this location.
Saturday
Went to Ulster County in NY. Hadn't been here much before because the Thruway is a boring drive with an exit only every 17 miles or so. Just think about it. If you miss an exit, it takes a gallon of gas to turn around!
unfinished jewel I (New York)
An alley in New Paltz. Easy enough walk once I fed the parking meter. (One nickel for half an hour.) Disaster struck though. When it was time to put the cache back in place, the magnet failed to stick and it fell all the way down into the hole! I told the cache owner about it and he thinks he can get it back using a long stick with a magnet at the end.
By the way, if this is New Paltz, where is Old Paltz or Paltz? Apparently, that's not the case here.
Hip Hop To The Rip Rop (New York)
Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in Rosendale. I accessed it from the cemetery, as recommended. Really a nice walking trail although the cache is halfway back up the hill.
Rainbow Express (New York)
Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in Rosendale. This is an odd area. There's a deep pool of water with an odd metal structure sticking diagonally out of it. GPS reception was horrible but I found the cache just by walking around and looking. Gotta love the big caches that are predominant here.
Nangie (New York)
Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in Rosendale. Recommended parking was further up North but I walked to this one via the rail trail. Met SYNCORE and his girlfriend at the cache site. He'd come all the way from New York City to go caching in Ulster County.
Shaupeneak Ridge (New York)
Shaupeneak Mountain in Esopus. Bushwhacked uphill from the closest road. Not the best way to go but it was only for a few hundred feet.
Hingle Dingle Dorgen (New York)
Black Creek Forest Preserve in Esopus. Hilly area but nice and there are lots of benches. And believe me, I needed those benches because it was hot and tiring going up the hill.
Blackberry Preserves (New York)
Further in from the other cache. This spot overlooks the Hudson River.
Regatta p690 (New York)
Charles Rider Park in Kingston. Came here after lunch. I waited out the hottest hour of the day at the Burger King. However, it wasn't any cooler when I arrived at this spot. Fortunately, it was only a few hundred feet up the hill of wildflowers. And then there was an uphill swamp where the cache was. Swamp on the hill? Weird.
Chucky Chunky (New York)
Sleightsburg Park in Esopus. This is a long sand spit that projects out into the Hudson River. Actually, this part looks more like a swamp.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (New York)
Esopus Meadows in Esopus. There's a lighthouse in the middle of the Hudson River in this area.
Rt.6 (New York)
Came back to Harriman State Park in Orange County for this one. A muddy walk along Lake Massawippa.
Sunday
Went to moose_is_loose's BBQ in Camden County. Met some folks from Northeast PA. KenDawg, a South Jersey geocacher, was there too. Good food. I had some chicken, some sausage, ice cream and the mud dessert. Funny thing is the church was next door so we had quite a surprise when the church music came on for the Sunday evening service.
That area is loaded with Wawa stores. There are some roads with multiple Wawa stores at 1-mile intervals. Stopped at one, and got some sandwiches and lots of Wawa iced tea for the day. That's the good stuff.
World's First all Recycled Bridge (New Jersey)
Goshen Pond Camping Area in the Wharton State Forest. Tried for this once before but didn't find it. Went back with a hint from the cache owner and found it easily, even if I still didn't believe it could be in there.
Dam-It! (New Jersey)
Quaker Bridge Road in the Wharton State Forest. Sand road and this is about as far as I dared to drive in. It gets worse further in. Didn't fall into the dam.
Hammonton Lake Park (New Jersey)
Hammonton Lake Park in Hammonton. Pretty straightforward as parking and walking details were given. Nice walk with a bit of a view of the hidden lake at the end.
GullyRats pts. 1 & 2 (New Jersey)
Bobby Almond Memorial Field in Oaklyn. The second cache container is different alright. Supposedly there's a tunnel somewhere but I never saw that because my route was quite a bit different from the suggested one.
GEOJUKEBOX (New Jersey)
Cooper River Parkway in Collingswood. Weird stone structure with steps between the dead end road and the park.
Locomotive Breath (New Jersey)
Wharton State Forest. I'd been by here earlier but not found it. A tricky micro cache. At the BBQ, KenDawg provided some hints so I came back here and found it successfully. The location is an old railroad trestle over a river. In addition to the cache, I found a pen hanging on a tree. Weird. Also picked some blueberries from the bushes along the tracks.
I've also started treating my clothes with Permethrin. It seems to be working really well. Haven't seen a single tick all weekend, even after going through some brushy areas in South Jersey's notorious tick country. Only problem is one can treats only two sets of clothing and needs to be reapplied every two weeks so it could get expensive. But getting Lyme disease would be more expensive so it is worth it.