BB and I go geocaching at Wayside Inn

Usually geocaching is about a walk in the forest.  Today was very different.  We went over to Wayside Inn, a nearby historic inn, did a bit of geocaching and stopped in for a drink. 

Wayside is a fascinating historic restaurant and inn.  It's in Sudbury along the original Boston Post Rd, a colonial road between Boston and NY.  George and others stayed or passed by.  You can find out more about Wayside Inn here.

Historic Wayside Inn

The inn is also noteworthy because of its association with Henry Ford who used it as a center piece of a historic colonial village.  The area includes a historic chapel, active water driven mill, and school.  The school has an association with the well known nursery rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb."  It turns out there was a real Mary, lamb, and school.  Ford brought the historic one room school room to the Wayside grounds and the cache Mary Had A Little Cache derives from the story details.

The other cache Raiders of the Lost Geocache is by far one of the most interesting I've encountered.  It derives from "Raiders of the Lost Arc" where a staff is used to point to a treasure.  The cache takes advantage of a south facing porch on the chapel.  You use a staff of a certain length placed on a certain place on the porch at a certain time of day.  The staff shadow will fall on a particular brick with a set of GPS coordinates for the cache.  Very clever.

Here are the cache's for the day.

	Listing	Date	Log Type
	Mary Had A Little Cache	20 November 2010 15:27:00	Found it
	Raiders of the Lost Geocache	20 November 2010 15:28:00	Found it

Mary Had A Little Cache

Route to "Mary's"

After visiting Mary's school and solving the puzzle it is a short walk past the mill and mill pond to the cache.  We found it easily sitting in the open.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.  The walk along the mill pond was brisk today with blustery winds across the water.  The cache was in generally OK condition but the log was rather damp.

School house

Mill wheel and race

While on our way to the cache we stopped in the mill.  Definitely worth the effort.  We spent some time with the very interesting miller who after a bit of a quiz gave us a couple of pounds of fresh milled corn meal!  If you can, be sure and visit when the mill is in operation and take time to visit with the miller.

Raiders of the Lost Geocache

Route to "Raiders"

We stopped to visit the chapel though, I'll have to admit, I'd solved the puzzel another way.  The chapel is very classic New England structure and the porch and puzzle really clever.

After visiting the chapel we stopped in to the Wayside Inn to warm up and have a cocktail.  There is a small pub room with a warm fire that serves interesting cocktails including what is represented as America's first, two parts rum and one part ginger brandy served chilled.  One is plenty.


Warmed and fortified we walked behind the inn to the cache location.  The path goes behind a trout pond to a larger pond.  We found the cache quickly.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

As usual here are all the photos from today's adventure.

Geocaching near home.

Geocaches come in several different flavors. Traditional caches are the simplest. The cache is hidden at the specified coordinates. Go there, find it, sign the log and done. There are a number of others. The two I found today were a mystery cache and a multistage cache.

	Listing	Date	Log Type
	A Dozen Dozen Tracks	19 November 2010 13:52:00	Found it
	Nobscot Breeder Cache	19 November 2010 14:37:00	Found it

A Dozen Dozen Tracks is a mystery cache.  You need to solve a mystery or puzzle to find the cache.  I don't do many of those since I seem to be puzzle challenged.  But this one I'd actually solved some while ago to get to stage one but never actually took the time.  Today seemed like a good day so off I went.  The stage one Sudbury Valley Trustee property isn't listed anywhere that I could find but I'd driven by it several times on my way to Callahan park.  When I got to stage one I met a nice lady clearing a bit of brush from the property.  It turned out that she maintains the land which was a gift to the Trustees from her family.  We had a nice chat and when I mentioned geocaching she asked me about something she'd noticed on one of the trees.  She took me over and there was the stage one container big as you'd like.

Stage one From 2010-11-19

After a bit of effort I got the coordinates out and was on my way.  I'd never hiked this Trustee land before so off I went.  I found the cache lying in the open.  After signing the log I put the cache back and covered it.  The cache is full of interesting trade goods.

Route to final From 2010-11-19

The hike back out to my car went quickly.  Unfortunately, when I got to my car I realized that I no longer had my bag of trade goods!  After a bit of internal debate I decided to move along to Nobscot Breeder and come back later to retrieve my trade goods.


Nobscot Breeder Cache I drove around to parking for Breeder.  BB and I had tried to find this cache once during the winter without success.

Route to Breeder and back to Dozen to fetch trade goods. From 2010-11-19

When I got to stage one I found it reasonably quickly.  This is really a summer only cache.  I don't think stage one could be found in the snow.

Not really something one could find in snow! From 2010-11-19

Armed with the final coordinates I walked along.  Found the cache well enough but didn't open as I've bad knees and am somewhat claustrophobic.

On my hike in I realized that the white blaze trail I passed was the trail that goes past "Dozen."  It was still fairly early so I decided to walk in from where I was.  It's a nice hike although about twice as far.  Sure enough I'd put my bag of trade goods in "Dozen."  I retrieved it and walked back out.

Here's a slide show of today's photos.

Quick geocache while BB shops

BB decided to go out shopping after our bike ride.  It's nice to have a hobby I suppose.  I took the opportunity to see if I could find  Sudbury Garrison.  I'd solved the puzzle some while ago but never got around to trying to find the cache.  I walked in a couple of days ago but DNF.  After checking the coordinates with the cache owner (they were good) and getting a helpful hint I returned today.  Even with the hint it took a bit of looking as the cache was well covered with leaves and there was a bit of GPS bounce that initially had GZ about 30' S of the actual location.  I just love it when the coordinates depend on which side of the tree you stand on!  GPS is wonderful, really it is, but reflections are a real pain.  At any event here is the route and a picture near GZ.  All the photos follow.

Route	NeAr GZ

BB and I go for a 7 mi bike ride

One of the nice things about New England are the wonderful fall days.  This was yet another one with temperatures in the 40s, bright sun, and clear sky.  We've had many of those this year and it's a great treat.  BB and I decided to go for a bit of a bike ride.  Here's the path we took:

From 2010-11-18

We ended up on the south side of Willis Pond.  I've never seen this part of the pond and it was rather spectacular when viewed from the bluff above the pond.  We also noticed a public beach and canoe launch that I didn't know existed.  I continue to be surprised by the amount of water and public land around us.

On the way back we cut through the Hopbrook Marsh and rode out on the RR trail.  Even so we managed an average speed of almost 6 mph.  It's not much as biking goes I know but almost twice what we've been averaging.  A bit more of an improvement and we'll be able to do some of the bike club rides.  That might be fun.

Here are all the photos from today.

Great Brook geocaching adventure

Went to Great Brook for an afternoon of geocaching.  Here's the log:

	Listing	Date	Log Type
	Austin2Boston	17 November 2010 13:21:00	Found it
	Summer Cottage for Let	17 November 2010 13:44:00	Found it
	Wolf Den 12	17 November 2010 14:11:00	Found it
	Cobra Den	17 November 2010 14:22:00	Found it
	Feel Sorry	17 November 2010 14:23:00	Found it
	Yet Another GBF Cache	17 November 2010 14:36:00	Found it
	Ranger Smith	17 November 2010 14:52:00	Found it
	Gas Saver IX	17 November 2010 15:04:00	Didn't find it
	Swamp Monster	17 November 2010 15:21:00	Found it
	Lowell, aka Second Mass	17 November 2010 15:36:00	Found it
	A Million Bucks!	17 November 2010 15:47:00	Found it
	This was Cache Me If You Can	17 November 2010 16:04:00	Found it

Found 11 and DNF 1!

Great Brook State Forest is a really interesting place.  When I lived nearby in Chelmsford I use to run and ski in the area frequently.  I parked at the cross country ski barn.  There's a $2 parking fee now but if you're a senior you can get a free state parking pass.  I stopped by the park HQ and picked one up.  Had a nice conversation with the state ranger on duty.  Then it was off to caching along this route.

Route and profile

Austin2Boston It was a fairly short walk into "Austin2Bostin."  It took a bit of looking to find the cache with a recent deadfall in the way.  With last night's rain the footing was a bit dodgy but I climbed around and looked until I found it.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

First find up here somewhere.  Lots of rocks in NE.

From 2010-11-17

Summer Cottage for Let  was my next stop.  It rained briefly along the way but not hard.  Good thing as I'd decided to leave my rain gear in the car.  As usual I chose the wrong trail and ended up bushwhacking to GZ.  Neat view!  A bit of searching found the cache.  Took a few minutes to explore the "cottage."  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

The cottage.  A bit rough.

From 2010-11-17

Feel Sorry was my next stop today.  Did another bit of bushwhacking after yet again choosing the wrong trail.  Found the cache quickly enough.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

Wolf Den 12 was my next stop.  Another wrong trail and another bit of bushwhacking.  I found it quickly and took a moment to enjoy the nearby pond.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

Cobra Den was next along the route.  It was a quick find across a new (to me) bridge.  The state has done some really nice work on the trails since I lived in Chelmsford and it's easy, if a bit confusing, to hike the various trails.  Just a bit further along the trail I happened along a small group of Mallards.  Very nice.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

Mallards along the way

From 2010-11-17

Yet Another GBF Cache Was next along my route.  It was another quick find.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

Ranger Smith Was my next stop.  I've always liked this area with the nice private cabin and the old mill pond.  I had to look a bit to find the cache with a bit of GPS bounce in this area.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

The cabin

From 2010-11-17

Down stream from the dam

From 2010-11-17

Gas Saver IX This is just on the other side of the road and should have been a quick find.  Unfortunately, DNF!  I checked using the clue rather thoroughly so I suspect it's gone.

Swamp Monster After my one DNF for the day this was an interesting cache.  Like previous finds I was on the wrong side of the water and had to hike around to get to the cache.  Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures as this is a neat site and the cache is in plain view.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

Lowell, aka Second Mass It was getting late but when I read the description and realized this is the second oldest Mass cache I made an extra effort to find this one.  It was well hidden but didn't take overlong to find.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

A Million Bucks! I was trying to get back to my car before dark but this was along the way so I took a moment to stop.  TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

This was Cache Me If You Can On the way back to the car I walked past this one and took a moment to find it. TFTC/SL/TN/left geocards.

From here it was a reasonably quick walk back to the car.

As usual I took lots of photos.  Here's the slide show.  You can click through to see the album.

Out geocaching

Out geocaching  under overcast skys but no rain.

Started with a puzzle cache, Sudbury Garrison.  I'd solved this puzzle some while ago based on this monument:

The Monumet

The historical story of Sudbury is interesting filled with colonial era indian wars and the American revolution.  It's always fun to visit some of the sites where history really happened.  At any event I tried the solution and had a lovely walk.  Alas, I didn't find the cache.  Here's the route I took.

Route and profile

Flush with a frustrating failure I went along to Who Am I.  This is another bit of Sudbury history. Babe Ruth  lived in Sudbury for a bit and, alledgely, Sudbury is where the Babe Ruth Piano and Curse of the Bambino happened.  I've driven by here frequently but never took the time to do the cache.  Today seemed like a good day to stop at Stearns Millpond and walk over.

Sterns Millpond

As usual here are photos from today's adventures.

Fall cleanup day

Summer is such fun.  We put the deck furniture out and enjoy the season outdoors as much as possible.  Alas, summer is followed by fall then winter.  In winter it snows here.  I like the snow.  It makes everything all white and new looking.  And, if you wait until sprint, it will melt and vanish in a blaze of color.  Unfortunately, snow and deck furniture are incompatible.  So today all the outdoor furniture  had to come in.  When you've got three large decks it means moving a lot of furniture inside.  It took Mike and I the better part of 2 hours.

Then it was time to deal with leafs again.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like leafs.  In the summer they help keep the house cool and shady.  Good idea that.  Then in the fall they turn such lovely colors.  I like that a lot as well.  Then they fall to the ground which is good in that it lets the winter sun into the house.  Unfortunately, they ones on the driveway, yard, and decks have to be cleaned up.  This is the part of the whole leaf thing that I think needs a complete rethink.  Mike and I spent another few hours cleaning up god's leaf mess since we may have an early snow in the next week or so.  It's the second time we've done it this year.  I'm hopeful that it will be the last but there are still many of those little buggers on the trees waiting for an excuse to visit the ground.

I suppose I shouldn't complain over much but leaf raking is not my idea of a grand way to spend the day.