I last updated the page about a week ago for my Caching Christmas post. Truth be told, you haven’t missed much. My recent adventures paled in comparison to the ones before Christmas. No getting caught at the top of an unfamiliar peak and having to hike back down in the dark. Not a single night cache. Heck, I even failed on the one big geocache I tried to find a couple of days ago. All in all, I took this rest week seriously, even in the context of Geocaching. However, I wanted to update everyone on my mini milestone of 360 while geocaching New Year’s Eve and talk about my (possibly) insane goal for 2022.
The Geocaches (Finds Numbered 351-360, Days Numbered 113-118)
Although I called them all adventures on my Instagram, I hesitate to repeat that mistake here. Almost all of them are of the park and grab vintage. Even the one hike only brought me about a quarter of a mile along the trail to find two caches. But, I kept the streak going. Plus, I got some good pictures. And, they’re worth 1000 words a piece.
Just some pictures from the last week.
The Lost Towns Adventure (An Epic DNF)
I actually planned to have a big adventure cache this week. Searching the map brought me to the Lost Towns Adventure. It involves visiting local landmarks from towns lost due to the flooding to create the Quabbin Reservoir. I found the first two (Prescott and Nichewaug) quikly enough. I then went to find Dana, only to remember that it exists at the end of an almost two mile bike/hike and no amount of driving would get me there. Also, they don’t allow dogs on the Quabbin trails and I brought Bups along. So, the adventure ends there. I want to try again in the spring when I get a new bike.
A Geocaching Goal for 2022
As I mentioned, Geocaching New Year’s Eve only represented an excuse to write this post. Now that I have, I can write about the idea I came up with while finding one of the night caches. The Christmas music played softly on my phone in the darkness as I hiked quickly to the destination.
“What if,” my brain interjected in the middle of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, “you tried to find 1,000 caches in a calendar year.”
“Hmm,” I replied. “I’d only hae to find 3 caches a day. 20 or so a week. That doesn’t sound so difficult.”
So, starting tomorrow, I plan to find 3 caches a day. Barring that, I will try to make up for it on the weekends and keep the 20 per week pace alive. Above all, I remain committed to finding at least one cache per day until I get the streak to 366, so that I can order both the calendar and leap year Geocoins. If I plan it right, though, 1,000 isn’t out of the question.
Epilogue
I wrote today mainly to show that the page hasn’t gone dormant again. At least for the next few days, I have the time to write. After that, at least in the short term, I’m back to teaching. Long term, your guess is as good as mine as far as employment goes. But, I make a promise (and those who know me know how seriously I take my promises) that as long as I am able, I will continue to write here.
I said in my last entry that I would try to find 350 caches before Christmas. I planned on finding two of them near the Birch Hill Dam. This plan met with some resistance. First, the caches were on either side of the river and we couldn’t cross the damn to get there. Second, well you will just have to wait for the second because it is basically the story of the day for Christmas Eve. Plus, it sets up for my caching Christmas story.
That, folks, is called foreshadowing. And yes, it and this ghost of an apple tree and that statement are meant to be foreboding, too.
I received a souvenir from going out on Christmas Eve. Quinn only received cold toes. Lilo, too, because she stepped on some thin ice and her front paw fell into the water. As Meatloaf said, 2 outta 3 ain’t bad. In this case, though, it most certainly was bad. Hopefully caching Christmas Eve doesn’t bring a pox on our family.
A cool new concept on Geocaching that doesn’t necessarily add anything to the hobby other than giving virtual things to collect, too.
December 24, 2021 (Day Number 111, A DNF)
Quinn chose to come with me today. We also brought the dog. A ten minute drive got us to the parking area of Birch Hill Dam about 3/4 of a mile away. I know what you’re thinking. Trust me, I thought it at first, too. However, this walk took us along a paved service road, so no chance of it increasing 3 or 4 fold like the one in Shutesbury. It took a little longer than expected because we stopped a couple of times, once for a cool ice sheet and another for a waterfall.
Cool Ice Wall with Water Behind at Birch Hill Damn
Quinn noticed the icicles in the back first.
We made it to ground zero of the geocache near the dam. If I didn’t wander across the rock wall to the actual dam, I’d have thought the name of the cache, “Water, water everwhere” was sarcastic or a joke. As evidenced by the videos, we found plenty of water on the walk, but none at the actual cache area. Unfortunately, as you probably deduced, no cache either. We tried twice with no success. I admit. Terribly unexciting and anticlimactic.
Driven by the streak, I found another cache across the river. Actually, I found it earlier as a backup and realized it was across the river when I wandered earlier in an attempt to grab it quickly after the other one fizzled. Driven by the streak, I loaded us back in the car and drove across the river. Technically, we drove over a bridge, but you get the idea. After parking, I geared up and leashed the dog. Cue the slow motion preparation montage.
December 24, 2021 (Day Number 111, Find Number 349)
We started walking. As soon as we passed the gate, I promptly slipped on a patch of snow covered ice. Aren’t you glad I cued the slow motion? Wasn’t that so much funnier in slow motion? I benefited from the slip though, when I realized that I left the bag in the car. Handing the leash off to Quinn, I slowly and painfully walked back to the car, retrieved the bag, and went carefully back to the gate. This slow motion brought to you by actual old age, not perceived coolness. Again, the hike went mostly smoothly. I need to spice these things up with more action or maybe intrigue.
You want action? Check out this tiny bridge.
Imagine if you will, Quinn, Bups, and I standing on the shore of this mighty body of water with only that single beam to cross. We give each other a knowing look. One of us may not make it to the other side alive. We have a duty to ourselves, our country, and all of you to find and extract that cache. Quinn performed his duty, crossing the bridge without hesitation. Lilo sized up the thundering river, coiled her back legs like springs and lept across the chasm with ease. I took a deep breath and then one step onto the beam. Another deep breath. Another step. Two more and then…my foot slipped! I lost my balance. Quinn reached out for me. Lilo barked and looked around for a stick in case I fell in. I saw my life flash before my eyes.
Just kidding. We all made it across without incident and continued down the path to the hiding spot. Quinn started to complain that his toes were getting cold. I doubled my efforts and checked some of the logs to see if the coordinates were solid. Turns out they weren’t, so I expanded my search. Finally found it, grabbed it, and dropped off a couple of trackables since it was a “hotel” and there weren’t any in there. When we returned to the car, I advised Quinn to take off his shoes and socks to help warm them.
If you’ve ever wondered what a cache looks like and what the heck is a “trackable”.
December 25 (Caching Christmas – NMAIN NSAL, Day Number 112, Find Number 350)
You may remember from my previous post that I wanted to find #350 before Christmas. That’s part of the reason I had two caches in the queue yesterday. Since I didn’t, that made the find on Christmas extra special. First, as usual, some background.
I bought a Jackbox bundle through Humble Bundle a few months ago. Aiden said he enjoyed playing the games. Anything to get time with your teenagers. Well, my laptop charging port went haywire and I have yet to get it fixed. So, I bought the most recent game on our XBox and we played it Christmas Eve. We enjoyed it so much, we wanted to play with the extended family. But, we forgot the XBox. Oh no!
Dad, as usual, to the rescue. I offered to get the XBox. And, caching Christmas?! I thought I found all of the caches near my in laws. Turned out I messed up a setting somehow and more appeared when I did my search. NMAIN NSAL was less than 5 miles away and a park and grab. Perfect. Cache found. XBox retrieved. Night saved?
Not so fast. The controller I picked didn’t work and we weren’t able to play Jackbox with the whole group. Bummer. But, the rest of the holiday has gone well in spite of the fact that I’ve spent the last two days searching and applying for new jobs. Oh well, can’t win em all.
Epilogue
As with many of our adventures, the first adventure has been the more adventurous. However, I’m personally excited about Christmas Day. Geocaching doesn’t recognize the 50s as official milestones, but after not being in the hobby for so long, I’m taking all the wins I can. Caching Christmas got me to 350 and that’s good enough for me. Yesterday I found another puzzle cache in the Harvard Forest among gunshots and threatening clouds. Today, I want to check out a place in Athol after dropping Liam off for work. Not sure when I’ll get around to documenting them, but stay tuned.
Today’s visit to Rocking Stones served once again as therapy. Even though I wrote less than two weeks ago this time, much happened in that short of a time. First, I’m seriously considering a new job. I got my observation report from that observation mentioned in that article. It was not great. In fact, it is looking more and more like it is the beginning of the end. It mentioned reminding me of my “role and responsibilities as a teacher”. I don’t think I need to tell you that is both demoralizing and dehumanizing. But, I just did.
And, so caused quite the stir by posting this on social media. Several colleagues reached out and I thank them for that. As I said to several of them, they are one of the only reasons that I continue to fight for the stupid job. I thought this might be my actual chance at redemption. That failed and now I’m done. Past time to move on..
How did I go from “guess I’m in this for the long haul” to “past time to move on” so quickly? Well, as Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around every once in a while, you could miss it.” Let me slow things down and tell you about my adventures in Shutesbury and then Rocking Stones.
Wednesday’s Cache: MA NET 14.2 (Day Number 109, Cache Number 346)
I planned this one the night before. As I scrolled through the map on the Geocaching web page, I saw this one hadn’t been found for over a year. While this should put me off, geocachers take pride in “resurrection” caches. Plus, I planned a back up in case it went missing in the year plus. Eventually I ended up on another of our patented undermaintained dirt roads that is evntually going to destroy the undercarriage of my tiny Honda Fit.
Not this time, though. So, I parked in a muddy area and hoped that I would be able to pull back out when done. Okay, it’s a 3/4 mile hike. Doing a quick calculation in my head, “At an average pace, it takes a human about 15 minutes to walk a mile. So, this should take about that.” A few things. (a) It is 3/4 mile as the crow flies. (b) While hiking, I thought, “Oh boy, the return trip is going to be a bear. It’s all uphill on the way back.” So, the terrain isn’t at all flat.
I tried uploading a video to show some peaceful rain drops, but it didn’t work so it’s a lame sign.
As a result, my 15 minutes tops hike turned into more like a half an hour to 45 minutes. That’s still not bad, but the scenery at this time of year was very brown. To add insulto to injury, I found almost no running water other than a small stream. As many of you know, I seek running water. I never knew why that was until a few weeks ago hiking with my wife. We found a large waterfall while hiking a place called Bear’s Den in New Salem. Funny enough, it is different from the place called Bear’s Den in Athol.
Small stream found at the beginning of the hike.
Why, though, running water? What I discovered at New Salem Bear’s Den is that running water calms my thoughts. It slows down my brain and lets me live in the moment. Life according to Ferris Bueller and all. “Wait, what’s this? Is that running water I hear in the distance? Double time it, soldier!”
Bridge ahead. Oh, talk about a troubled bridge over running water. Well, here goes nothing.
Finding this cache was one of my most daring (?) adventures in a while. It made me think of when I was a kid and me and my friend Rusty played “Pluto Explorers” near the frozen creek behind my house. We both ended up soaked, but clearly that’s now a core memory for me. I wonder what ever happened to Rusty.
In any case, these caches are usually hanging from a tree. Looks like it is that tree near the shore. Wait, is it? No. Hmm, they wouldn’t hide it over *pause for effect, realization hits* there. Crap. Yep, there it is. Watch the video for the rest of the story.
The rest of the story. Oh, and I did get my boot wet on the return trip, so I sort of lied.
Yesterday’s Cache: Rocking Stones x2 (Day Number 110, Cache Number 347 and 348)
Geocaching introduces me to new places nearly every single day. Granted, I live in rural New England, an area steeped in history and hidden gems in nature. I found this hidden gem, again, while scrolling the Geocaching map on my phone. Bonus! It’s an Earthcache in the Rocking Stones Area in Barre. I think I explained Earthcaches before, but here’s a quick reminder. An Earthcache leads the geocacher to a, for lack of a better term, hidden gem in nature and asks them to perform a sequence of tasks related to the geology of the area. Bonus! There’s a traditional cache up here, too. Two found in a day for the first time in a while. This one actually required me to do some measurement and math. How could I say no?
The obligatory selfie to get credit. The rock formation in question. The hiding spot for the other cache.
Admittedly, today’s adventure was less adventurous than yesterday. However, I measured that bottom rock with a 6 inch ruler and my finger as a spacer to get the area. I arrived at 28.875, because of course I did, and an estimate of height of the overall formation at 10-12 feet. The person who listed the cache came back to say the “actual” answers were 27 and 11 feet. Not bad for a half foot ruler.
Epilogue
I meant to post this yesterday, but got distracted by the new Spider-Man movie and then finishing up the Hawkeye series. So, it goes up on Christmas Eve. I have my adventure for today planned. I want to find two more today to get up to 350 before Christmas as a goal I just made up for myself. They are part of series of dam caches, so running water guaranteed. No idea how to celebrate Christmas yet as a geocacher, but stay tuned for that.
Before I talk about the Harvard Forest #1 cache, allow me some brief therapy.
How long has it been this time? Last post was November 7, so just over a month. Why so long? Put simply, work is ridiculous this year. I just had my first observation on Friday. He came into my worst class. I’m trying hard to take the approach that it is a blessing in disguise because maybe he will be able to help me with the class. Past trauma tells me that this is the beginning of the end. I guess we will see which of these is true over the next 6 months.
Why did I start with that? Why do I do anything that I do? Clearly, this is weighing on me and will be until there is some resolution to the situation. Also, I suppose it serves the purpose of showing how crazy the year can be. Plus, that’s one of the least crazy thing to happen the last few weeks. Okay, two paragraphs of therapy out of the way. On to the actual introduction.
Over the last month, I found a cache every single day. I branched out into finding them at night. So far, only two can be classified as actual night caches, but they both offered new and exciting ways to treasure hunt. As I wrote to a friend, “I just stomped through the pitch black woods last night for about an hour to find a piece of Tupperware in and keep my streak alive.”
Granted, the search was fun and the entire time I worried that El Chupacabra might eat me. But, I found it!
Plus, the moon during this hike was absolutely gorgeous. Totally made up for the fact that I had to pass through a spoopy tunnel while walking along the trail and I’d have died a satisfied man.
Yesterday’s Cache: Elwin’s Cache (Day Number 98)
I went searching for another geocache called “Bird’s Eye View“. Unfortunately, that one looked to be in a residential area and that scared me off. While out, I checked the Geocaching app and found that there was still a cache in the Bearsden Conservatory that I hadn’t found. Being that’s one of my favorite places to hike in the area, I quickly adjusted my plan. The directions brought me to the cabin on the premises (that I had actually forgotten existed and is able to be reserved) and I parked there. The reservation season is over for the cabin until March. That’s a bummer because March hasn’t been very winter like over the last couple of years. Oh well, there are two lean-tos in the area as well that maybe I can take my 4-season tent over for a weekend if it snows.
A pretty pond near where I parked, the cabin in question, and a couple of pictures from the actual parking area.
That’s neither here nor there other than the fact that it may become a post later in the winter. The important part is that I parked and then hiked for a bit, completely unaware (having forgotten) that there was a parking area a bit further up the road. Oh well, I got to hike a little bit, which is nice because the cache was hidden in the parking area. I quickly found the cache and then scooted off to the dump.
While at the dump, I got a call from Liam. I completely forgot that he offered to work a birthday party to pick up an extra hour. Once I saw the missed call, I came home, picked him up, dropped him off and then scooted back up to Bear’s Den to drop a trackable into the cache. I also put together a replacement cache for one I found on Friday (more on that in a couple of weeks), and tried to come up with some ideas for some hides of my own. All in all, it was a successful day for Geocaching.
Today’s Cache: Harvard Forest #1 (Day Number 99)
I planned to find this one yesterday. These Harvard Forest caches, including Harvard Forest #1, are “puzzle” caches. In their case, that simply means that you have to answer a question about something related to the forest. The question for this cache asked how many acorns are in the Harvard Forest logo. To Google! I would later learn that the cache owner kindly included a picture of the shield, so it wasn’t necessary to go to Google. Oh well, I was fact checking.
Spoiler Alert: There are two acorns.
I started to get ready to head over and Christine asked where I was going. She then suggested that I bring Quinn because she’s convinced (and I agree) that he would have fun with geocaching. We also brought the dog. The last one of these I found was a bit of a hike, so I figured why not. This one ended up not being any of a hike, but originally I thought we might get at least a half mile total.
That’s because I put in the wrong coordinates and drove us through a few of these massive puddles and then started hiking before realizing my mistake.
After figuring out that we were going in the wrong direction, I turned us around and parked in the Fisher Museum parking lot. The find was easy enough, but I gave Quinn a chance to try before showing him where to find it. Admittedly not the most interesting or exciting first trip. As Quinn said, “It wasn’t a hike and it wasn’t really a treasure.” Oh well, he did get a pretty goo indication of what it’s like to go caching with me. Driving 20 plus minutes for a quick park and grab, wrong coordinates, turning around, taking a good 15 minutes to figure out how to open the container, and remarking how helpful a pair of tweezers in my hiking go bag would be. Next week I will have to find a better treasure to find.
Epilogue
Overall, the last three days of caching have been great. I got the idea to help maintain the one I found on Friday and I have been low key obsessed with doing that ever since. Saturday ultimately took me to a favorite place and I got another trackable out into the wild. Then, today, I took Quinn along with me to find Harvard Forest #1. Again, even though this one wasn’t the most fun, there have to be some good hides around here for him to find. Plus, I found my bag of trackables. He will have fun with those as well. Tune in tomorrow for the big 100.
