Geocaching Tuesday

Another beautiful early spring day so I went out to do a bit of geocaching.

I started with MIHF.  Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  Even though it is currently 'unavailable' my watch recently reported that it had been found.  Since I was in the area today I decided to visit the site.  I'm glad I did since it was an interesting place, particularly with the description of the disaster!  It's a short walk in/out, only about 1300'.  The cache is in surprisingly good shape even though the container is broken.  I've sent an email to Revenge of the Den Leader so it can be replaced.  The cache is not snow friendly.

Since I was near Jaws of the Monster I decided to visit again.  Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  I'd visited here during the winter but wasn't able to park easily so I didn't attempt it.  Today parking was not a problem.  I tried the trail for a bit but since it was not headed toward the cache I decided to bushwack in through open woodland.  I quickly found the cache.  WOW, what a great hide.  After finding my courage I reached in and removed the cache.  Unfortunately, it isn't water tight and the log was wet and full.  The cache is not snow friendly.

	Train Rock was nearby so I decided to visit.  Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC. The walk in was easy (about 1300' round trip) and I quickly found the cache (not snow friendly).  It is in good order.

	Even though I'd already had 3 finds today, none had required much of a walk.  So I decided to visit Want a Lift?.  Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  While the walk was not over long, the hill, oh the HILL.  I huffed and puffed my way to the top and walked into the woods.  The open woodland is easy enough to bushwack through and I quickly found the cache. It's not snow friendly.

As usual, here's a link to all of today's photos.  There are some spoilers.

Geocaching Friday and Saturday

I had an appointment in Lexington Friday mourning and decided to do a little geocaching.

Started with Rocky Ridge Multicache.  Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  I'd checked this out online before departing.  There is good parking at the office park S of the cache and a trail leading in.  This makes the route only about 2000'.

 It was an easy walk to the stage 1 GZ over open snow free trails.  Stage 2 was back the way I came in so I turned back and quickly found the ridge.  There are some interesting views from the ridge.

The cache is nearby and was completely visible.

I opened it and signed the log.  I added some cover material when I replaced it.

While I was in the area I decided to try the nearby Send Out Succour to Juniper Hill.  There is good parking at the end of Barberry Rd. and it's an easy walk through wetland to GZ for stage 1.  You need to cross a number of streams but there are nice plank bridges.

I found stage 1 fairly quickly and got the Morse code for stage 2.  My Morse is a bit rusty (being old and a geek is occasionally useful) but armed with the coordinates for stage 2 I continued down the trail.  This seemed to lead to someone's yard so I doubled back and returned to a trail heading N toward GZ through the wetland.  It was occasionally muddy but passable the day I was there.  Eventually the trail turned W toward the stage 2 GZ.  This was in an interesting open hill. 

I spent about 40 minutes looking for stage 2 but DNF.

I drove home and had some lunch.  Afterward, I decided to try Greenwood Memorial Cache again.  BB and I had tried this cache Thursday but DNF.  I'd studied the plaques and realized that I might have made a mistake when I solved the stage 1 puzzle.  Armed with a new set of coordinates I decided to try again.  This was one of THOSE experiences involving 2.33mi of hiking and ANOTHER DNF after walking to the new stage 2 coordinates not finding the cache again, walking back to the graves, calculating another stage 2 coordinate (made a simple error) walking back to the the new new stage 2 not finding it there wandering through the wetland and loosing a glove on the way back to my car.

Occasionally geocaching is like that.

Today (Saturday) I decided to try yet again and hopefully find my lost glove.  Before starting out I reviewed the cache logs and photos carefully.  I decided to try at another GZ with the 1003 offset and the image of the Girl Scout find.  Armed with this new information BB and I went out again and quickly walked in.  Sure enough it was at the new new new GZ.

The coordinates for the final are definitely bogus!  While at the final stage I took a number of GPS readings under clear skies with good GPS accuracy at the final coordinates and computed a new set of final stage puzzle factors.  The N factor I got is 1553 and the W factor is 1000.

I signed the log and BB and I hiked back out.

 As usual here are all the photos from this 2 day adventure.  There are some spoilers.

BB and I try geocaching

BB was off today.  It was rather nice to have her around after several weeks of the software conversions at the hospital interfering with her Thursday day off.

We slept in and after a quiet mourning went out to run errands and go for a cache walk.

We tried again to access Down by the River.  We'd tried to go to this cache some while back but were unable to reach it because we couldn't find the trail (it was behind some trucks doing maintenance on the pumping station).  I'd been by later and found the trail, so today seemed like a good day ... NOT.  Here's what we ran into when we tried to walk to the pipe bridge:

As you can see, it's under about 18" of water!  I tried to find other access but there seems to be a fair bit of posted property on the far side of the river.  Oh well, perhaps another time.

We drove back to Sudbury to Karma Coffee.  If you've not been there, it has much to recommend it.  It's a small coffee roasting and cafe with by far the best dark roast coffee anywhere around. 

After a coffee fix, we went over to Greenwood Memorial Cache.  This is near where BB had a house before we moved to Sudbury.  We got to stage one OK, but I messed up the stage two calculations and, of course, we DNF the final.  Sigh.  That said it was a nice 1.5 mile walk.  Here's a photo of the grave site:

I pulled one wrong date from the plaques.  While we were very near the real coordinates, we were off by enough to miss the find.  It's a nice walk though, so I'll go back when a get a chance and find the final.

After our hike, we ran the grocery errand.  There was some very nice fish available today, so we'll have a Mexican fish dish for dinner tonight.  I should note here, that I don't mean border Mex, but Mexican.  If you travel to central or south Mexico, you'll realize that they have fish from BOTH oceans and much of the cuisine reflects French and Spanish cooking (Mexico was part of France at one point).  At any event I'm looking forward to a nice dinner.

Geocaching 3/3/2010

I've finally got things working again with the PN40.  What a struggle!  I ended up having to reformat user data and reload again, but at least things are back working.

This was a rather mixed day with snow, rain, snow, rain, and allegedly 2" of new snow coming overnight.  Welcome to New England weather.

I decided to do a multi today, Concord Dozen.  I don't do many of these as I prefer the instant gratification of traditional caches.  This is one of BugTracer's and he'd mentioned that it was reasonable in winter so I thought I'd have a go.

Stage 1 is just off RT 27 by the river.  You can actually drive to GZ so this part is very simple.  Once there you need a date off of the monument to get to stage 2.  While there I took a few minutes to look at the river, very flooded and walk down the old road a bit.  Interesting.  After I got back to the car I took the date and solved for the reasonably nearby stage 2.  Driving was a bit of an issue as the direct route is flooded this time of year.  I ended going back to town center to get to stage 2.

Route within Sudbury	You can drive to the stage 1 monument
The river was seriously high today	There's parking for a few cars but it could get muddy

Stage 2 is a short drive to some nearby Sudbury Valley Trustee property.  It's only a brief walk from the trailhead with some OK small car parking on the side of the road.  This is a lovely forest I'd not visited previously.  It turns out there is access from the nearby school parking lot which would have provided better parking and a somewhat longer walk.  I didn't know this until after I'd already parked on the road.  At any event it is only a short walk to the stage 2 GZ.  I found stage 2 reasonably quickly.  It's definitely NOT snow friendly.  It's also a bit rusted but I was able to get it open OK and get the coordinates for the final.

Property trail map showing parking at nearby school	Near GZ

I drove around to the nearby school and parked.  It is only another short walk to the final over some rather hilly terrain and then into some VERY wet land where the final is hidden.  Boots of some sort are definitely called for.  Given the location I suspect it's wet year round.  I found it after only a bit of searching and some careful foot placement to get to GZ.

Cut through playground to get to trails	Near GZ things get really wet.  Boots are definitely wanted.
At first I thought it was here.  It's NOT.	Perhaps over there somewhere; if you can get to it without getting wet.

This was not my usual multi-cache day but I'd had other things to attend to and didn't have a lot of time.  At any event, I've put a found next to this cache.

As usual here are all the photos.  WARNING!  I've only posted a link since there are serious spoilers here.

2010-03-03 Geocaching

Geocaching 3/2/2010

After speaking with Delorme again about the Cache Register/geocaching.com issue I tried their 'fix'.  I'd tried it previously without luck but just to be sure I tried it again.  While the caches now load as caches not waypoints, the names are GCxxxx codes not the actual cache name.  Sigh!  Hopefully, there will be a fix sometime soon.

Notwithstanding the issue, I went out and had a pleasant afternoon in the mild weather.  Here's where I went.

homies - DNF.  There were signs of considerable flooding from the recent rain near GZ.  If the cache was down low it may have been washed away.  I'll put a watch on it and see if anyone else has any luck.

Parking at apartments.	Some signs of flooding.

Tick Free 7 - Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  This is a nice park and grab that is certainly snow friendly.

Parking looks plowed but was muddy today	Very snow friendly

Attack 01 of the Almonds - Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  I'd never been to this conservation land before.  It's really charming with the stream and many interesting rock outcroppings.  This cache is a park and grab but not snow friendly and was easily found.

Yet another wonderful Sudbury Valley site	Near GZ.  Not snow friendly.

Garfield Woods - Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  Continuing into the conservation land this is a charming walk.  I made the mistake of bushwacking instead of staying on the blue trail.  While the walk was a bit more challenging, it did take me past some interesting rock outcrops and glacial erratics.  I had to go a bit off trail to get around some flooding on the way out.

Route I took.  Stay on blue trail don't bushwack!	Found it.

Torch Tuber - Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  On the way back home I stopped at this Bolton town land.  The path in goes around a lovely small pond with this cache just on the other side of the dam.  It was completely exposed and clearly visible.  I signed the log and then re-hid the cache with some additional cover material.  While the cache is easily accessed, it is not snow friendly.

Cache was completely uncovered	I added some hide material

Fyfeshire Conservation - Found it.  SL/TNLN/TFTC.  Continuing down the path from Torch Tuber and around a larger pond I quickly found the cache.  Interestingly, there was some evidence of recent beaver activity.  The cache is not snow friendly.

Recent beaver activity near GZ	Hid it a bit better

I reconnoitered a couple of other caches on the way home.  But it was getting a bit late so I didn't stop.

Here are all the photos from today's adventures.

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.