Geocaching 3/1/2010

I called Delorme today to check into the issue with Cache Register and geocaching.com.  After a rather long hold time I finally got a support tech.  He didn't seem to be aware of the issue!  We chatted for a bit and he indicated that he would check with development to make sure they were working the problem.  Not especially encouraging!  We'll see what happens.

Faced with possible problems with Cache Register I decided to explore GSAK as an alternative.  Many cachers use this program and speak well of it.  After a bit of experimentation I was able to load caches reasonably and subsequently unload cache status.  Unfortunately, cache status was NOT updated on GC.com and it looks like the field notes in the GPSr are not uploaded as is done with Cache Register.  That's a bummer but not necessarily a deal breaker if CR continues to be broken.

I did go out today to try to find at least one cache, Babe Ruth's Piano.  Parked off of Old Marlborough Rd. at N42° 24.5591' W71° 26.9502'.  It looks like it is probably plowed with space for a number of cars.  Nearby is some sort of interesting federal facility surrounded by a fairly serious fence.

Route, about 2 miles

Federal facility near parking

I walked in on the L road heading south.  This is an interesting old road of some sort surrounded on both sides by marsh.

Road

Marsh

 
Along the way I passed some geese and a beaver hutch.  Very interesting.

Geese

Beaver hutch

I had to bushwack through some very nasty thorns to get around a flooded area.

A bit further along I got to a side trail headed toward GZ.  Just a bit along the trail is the 'Babe Ruth' side.

Side trail

'Babe Ruth' house

 A bit of searching and the hint found stage 1 with coordinates to the very nearby final.  I had a bit of misadventure when I entered a partially wrong coordinate that put the final 50 miles away.  I knew this wasn't right and after a bit of puzzling put the right coordinates in and quickly found the final.
   

Stage 1	Final
Final.  Camo tape gone.	Cache in good order

After signing the log and replacing the cache I decided to continue along the road and come out via the Assabet perimeter road. This allowed me to avoid the flooded area and have a bit of a longer walk.  This longer route lovely walk over nice trails and past both a pond with fishing and extensive wetlands was very nice.

Fishing in this pond

Extensive wetlands

This is a very nice cache.  I'm a bit surprised that it is not visited more often.

As usual here are all the photos from this adventure.