relaxed
schnee.Went geocaching in South Jersey today. Went to Mercer, Burlington, Camden and Salem Counties. Not a bad day. Only got questioned by two curious strangers. Met two geocachers. Nearly met two other geocachers. Did some sand road driving and walked across some frozen puddles. Made it home before the snow, not that there is much.
First stop was White City Ruins in the Roebling (Streets and Trips calls it "Robeling" :) ) Memorial Park near Trenton. Pretty easy and it turns out I was the first to get there. Very surprising as it'd been placed a little more than a week ago.
Up a stump in the 'hood was the next stop. The hardest part was finding a way in to the wooded area as it was surrounded by houses. I found the entrance at the end of a cul-de-sac quite by chance as I thought I'd made a wrong turn. The problem with the cache is it is located right next to some guy's back fence. So he came around to ask what was going on. I told him about the cache but I don't think he's the type who would go check it out.
Lake Loop in Princeton was next. It's a multi-stage cache but it wasn't difficult to find all three parts, and I managed not to fall off the first part while reading the coordinates. As a plus, it was a nice walk around the frozen lake.
Over the mound, and through the woods pretty much describes the route to the cache in Atco. The area looks very much like it could be part of the pine barrens, only with more junk on the ground. Found that
mopar and Mickey225 had signed in only 40 minutes before I did! I'm surprised we haven't met yet.Then it was a 40-mile drive on I-295 and US-130 into Salem County to DA Ponds. This area doesn't look like much from the outside but within the fenced area, there are lots of sand roads and ponds. Drove around very slowly so as not to break anything on the bumpy roads. Parked at a barrier only a few hundred feet from the cache and went the rest of the way on foot, walking across some huge frozen puddles along the way. Odd thing about this cache is it is rated 3.5 stars for terrain and yet I found it very easy to access. Perhaps it was because I went around the bushes and came in from the opposite side. I guess the straight-line approach would have been very thorny. And weirder still, the cache was easy to see despite it being described as well-hidden. But it was good nevertheless.
Filled up the tank in Runnemede (Black Horse Pike / Route 168) between I-295 and the Turnpike because gas there is cheaper than back home. The pump attendant told me that he had the same kind of GPS. Didn't stick around to ask if he went geocaching. :)
And finally, from the geocaching forums: I like this info card.