Day 23

Ali brought the Geodogs and met me at my office so we could travel over to Cleveland Metroparks' South Chagrin Reservation and walk the Buckeye Trail behind Shadow Lake. It was a great way to spend my lunch time and pick up the day's souvenir.

Day 22

Our journey for a geocache this evening brought us to Geauga Park District's Maple Highlands Bike Trail. Bike trails have become hosts to hundreds of caches locally. The weather this evening was perfect for taking a walk with Gwen and Phineas on this popular bike trail.

Day 21

We needed a cache, and we needed to go for groceries. There was an unfound cache in the edge of the woods at a nearby soccer park with our usual grocery store nearby. The cache was a nice throwback to the ones that we feasted on when we started caching. It was a reasonable size and hidden in the woods. It was a perfect fit, and dinner was great.

Day 20

After work I went out to seek our cache for the day. After a couple of missed attempts and muggles, I stopped at a nice, community park in Walton Hills where we have cached before. The cache was at the mid-point of a hiking trail that surrounded the ball fields and tennis courts. The park is heavily landscaped and had these flowers along the back of a concession stand.

Day 19

We had solved a new puzzle in Chardon and made that our find for the day. The puzzle was not far from our favorite miniature golf location so we stopped after the cache find and enjoyed a round. Ali had a tough start, but rallied for a big win.

Day 18

After lawn mowing and other outdoor chores, we returned to SGL91 southeast of Corry for a late afternoon of caching. The dogs were happy for a chance to take a long walk on the trail. Ali spotted some nice foxglove which almost made the blog photo, but how often can I get to use square-stemmed monkey flower in a blog post?

Day 17

We spent World Geocaching Day at the Laurel Mill Ski area. A number of years prior we enjoyed a fun day with friends participating in a Cito at this long cross-country trail. Today we returned with Gwen and Phineas to search for a number of the 46 caches now dotting the trails. Our day included 18 finds including an older multi and a lot of walking. It also included a very painful sting for Ali. :-(

Day 16

I have to admit that I am beginning to enjoy West Virginia caching. It takes a bit to get to the caches while driving the winding roads, but the trails are great and there are a lot of container caches available. Today's cache was at Summersville Lake. I missed a turn and took the wrong trail so I added a half star or so to the terrain, but it was a fun adventure with a big grouping of cardinal flower in bloom along the trail. The cache will be a favorite whenever we catch up on logging.

Day 15

It was an evening of caching in two states, North Carolina and Virginia. I was on my way home and was able to stop for a few finds. I was able to take some great walks and enjoy two super streams as well as teaming up with Ali to find a puzzle cache and meeting a new pair of cachers. It was a good day in the search for 31 days in a row.

Day 14

Today's find was going to take a lunchtime effort. I had an evening meeting for work between five and seven and didn't want to be potentially be caching in the dark. Instead, I made my way out at lunch to search for a multi about three miles from the office. It was low risk. I had found quality caches before hidden by the hider. It was a small at a park. What could go wrong? For starters, as I pulled into the parking lot of the park, I realized stage one was a skirt lifter about 30 feet from the picnic pavillion. The pavillion was filled with moms and toddlers attending what appeared to be a mommy lunch. Undaunted, I looked around and spotted an area at the far end of the park. It looked like a great area to stash a second stage. After the walk over, it took a minute or two before stage two was in hand. Stage three coordinates were entered in the gps and I was off to find the stage.... which was a second skirt lifter at the corner of a parked city services truck complete with two city employees enjoying lunch in the truck. :-( What was there to do besides take a walk in the woods at the other end of the park? I left the park with no find, but a nice walk.

I grabbed the find for the day with a micro at a small park about a mile away. To avoid muggles, I had to check my email while sitting on a rock about 30 feet from a mother and daughter enjoying a game of tennis. The nice flower below was from the park with the multi. Lunch didn't turn out as planned, but the find was made and a walk in the woods enjoyed.

Day 13

Usually when I travel to a remote office, there is a readily available supply of regular caches to find. Salisbury is a different story. I'm here two or three times a year, but each time I return there are almost no nearby regular caches to hunt. This trip was no different with three, unfound regulars in a ten-mile radius, my best option for spending the evening caching was to head about six miles from my office and hunt a few smalls. I found two smalls and a micro which yielded two nice walks in the woods and sunset at this small pond.

Day 12

I was headed to Salisbury, North Carolina for work and wanted to find a few caches along the way. Until my last visit, West Virginia had not been a place of memorable caches for us. On my last trip home I had a great time caching here and this afternoon I continued that streak with a pair of nice caches along the Salmon Run Trail at Summersville Lake. I left a number of high terrain caches for a future trip south, but found a nice pair and saw some ducks on the water before the rain started.

Day 11

I was out caching solo again for most of the day with Geodogs Gwen and Phineas. We spent the afternoon caching on a trail in McKean County. Ali joined when she was back in the area so we could hunt a cache near the Allegheny Reservoir.

Day 10

I was caching solo with the dogs today since Ali was back at State College for the weekend. We grabbed a few caches on our way to a trail in Elk County. I was hoping for a long string of caches along an area where we could walk. The Doctor's Orders trail wasn't it. I didn't realize there was a popular atv trail at the end of the national forest road. Today must have been one of the busiest of the season with a steady stream of fast moving pick-ups towing atv's on trailers. I was still okay with those when I saw my first fracking truck. It was huge and it wasn't moving slowly. By the time we had grabbed a few caches along this forest road, we had been passed by four Fracking trucks and I decided to give up caching for the afternoon. We had fun crawling around on the rocks for this hide.

Day 9

I was on my way to Pennsylvania and stopped for a cache in eastern Geauga County. The southeastern half of the county has a large population of Amish. This cache was in a large township park. When I arrived, there were was only one other vehicle in the park. After I found the cache and signed the log, I noticed that a number of young Amish men had shown up and were at the one field. There were also these two buggies in the parking lot.

As I drove away I passed eight to ten more buggies with young Amish men headed toward the game. A little later on there were a handful of buggies with young Amish women and groups of young Amish women walking the road toward the park. It looked like a good night for baseball.

Day 8

Today's cache was in a thin strip of park bordering the local light rail system. It's a popular place to run and walk. It has also been home to a few geocaches over the years. The edge of the deep woods separating the park from the rail system make for a fun place to find a cache outside of the view of the passing muggles.

Day 7

We wanted to find a Lake County GeoTour cache at Mentor Marsh. It is the first cache ever permitted at the location. On the way, we stopped at a very busy Lake Metropark to find another cache. We were surprised to see a heron so close in a crowded park.

Day 6

This evening's cache was located at the libary in Solon. These creeping bellflower were within a few feet of the cache container.

Day 5

Day 5 was the first wall. I had been travelling for two weeks and just wanted to go home. After a couple of did not hunts for micros near my office, I fell back on a little-used, local park in Solon with two regular caches. I found them both and had a nice walk around the ponds at the park. The only pain of keeping the streak going was getting home after 8 on my first day back in town.

Day 4

We were driving country roads on the way to Buckeye Lake State Park and our fourth Ohio State Park find on a weekend of visiting state parks to qualify for the Ohio State Park Challenge. We stopped at a quiet, old cemetery cache very near this corn road.

Day 3

A.W. Marion State Park was the third of three new Ohio State Parks visited by us today as we work to qualify for the Ohio State Park Challenge. It was by far the best state park of the day with five miles of hiking trails in the woods and a quiet scenic lake to enjoy. There was a lot of rain which made the trails a little muddy but still manageable. We enjoyed this well done Chirp cache as part of our visit to the park.

Day 2

We were headed to southwest Ohio to visit the Prairie Cemetery Nature Preserves when we stopped to visit a multi at a berry farm on the way. This truck was parked in the drive of the farm.

Day 1

We don't usually run caching streaks so this will be a true challenge for us. Day 1 was celebrated with a find in wonderful Spokane, Washington. It was our account's first intercache at scenic Finch Arboretum. They won't all be so pleasant, but this one was a treat.

98.76% Complete

We finally found a cache to fill in the second last square on our difficulty/terrain matrix. We have 80 of the 81 spaces filled. The cache wasn't amazing and won't grab a favorite vote from us. It was a brutal hike out with thorns blocking most of the "path".

The trail out was nearly all bushwhack with a short path and a bridge over a stream at the end.

I needed to help Ali back from an encounter with boot-sucking mud at the cache site, but we survived the ordeal and made it to our hotel in time to enjoy a quiet dinner.