Suburban geocaching Framingham and Ashland

Went geocaching in suburban Framingham and Ashland.  Here's the summary:

• N'ice! - Park and grab with good winter parking.  Good hide.  TFTC. SL.
  
• Devil's Den - Neat site with good parking and access from behind Ashland.  DNF. 
  
• ICU - Park and grab with good winter parking.  DNF.
  
• Kidde-Fenwal - No safe legal parking so did not try.
  
• stone park - Neat little park with good winter parking.  TFTC. SL.
  
• Mercury Rising - Cool site but DNF.
  

N'ice! - This was just down the street from where I was caching yesterday but I didn't have time to attempt.  I came back today.  It's a quick park and grab with a good hide.  I found after only a few minutes.  SL.  TFTC.

Devil's Den - This is a neat site.  I cheated a bit and parked behind Ashland HS which makes it almost a park and grab.  The 'cave' is cool.  I wonder though what caused the boulders to pile up like that?  I walked around to the back side to GZ.  There were MANY good hiding spots.  Everything was covered in about 5" of icy snow.  I tried several likely spots but DNF.  I try again when the snow is gone.

ICU - Should have been a quick park and grab with good winter parking.  Unfortunately I DNF.  My guess is that it's under some ice.

Kidde-Fenwal - This was an interesting site but I couldn't find safe legal parking so I'll save it for another day.

stone park - This was a nice little park with good winter parking.  There was a great kids play area and a gazebo on the way to the cache.  I wouldn't have found with the icy snow except for the pile of twigs the previous finder left.

Mercury Rising - This was a nice spot by a mill pond.  Winter parking was OK if a bit muddy.  The pond itself was lovely.  There were two spillways in a sort of V.  GZ was easily found but without a hint finding a micro with the icy snow cover wasn't possible.  Another DNF for the day.

It was nice to get out even though I didn't find a lot of caches.  Several of the areas were very interesting particularly "Devil's Den" and "Mercury Rising."  I definitely return to these later when conditions improve.  Even so, I think I still prefer caching in more natural settings with more walking and less driving.  That's just me though and others would doubtless enjoy these caches.

Thanks to all the owners for their efforts.

Here are the photos of today's adventure (no spoilers).  As usual if you want larger images just click through.