Tag: Jaffrey NH

Posted on

First Two Weeks 2022

Prologue

I originally intended to update this page almost daily. Since work still prevents that from happening, I tempered my expectations to weekly. Something further prevented an update last week. Therefore, as a result, I present to you the first two weeks 2022 for One Guy Outdoors.

You may remember that I set two geocaching goals for myself this year. I want to find a geocache every day for 365 consecutive days for a calendar year and then find another on the 366th for a leap year. I doubt I can keep the streak alive for another 2 years to complete the feat in an actual leap year, especially with the rigor of my second goal.

My second goal came to me in a flash of inspiration (insanity?) as I hiked in the dark along one of my favorite new rail trails, the North Central Pathway. What if, I wondered, I found 1000 caches in the calendar year 2022. That requires finding 3 caches a day. No problem, right? Actually, so far, so good.

I know I should build suspense, but we’ve been over this before.

First Week 2022 (26 found, +5 on pace for 1000, 386 total)

I started the year by visiting a place that will become a new standard visit in the coming year, the white blazed trail that runs through several local towns. This time, I took the dog to the part of the trail on the border between Erving and Northfield. I found the trail while finding another geocache in the area and promised myself I’d come back. I’m glad I did. We spent a good hour and a half in those woods and found 5 geocaches. Good start

Celebrating the New Year by hiking the WBT in Erving with Bups.

./~On the second day of New Year ./~, I finished the Harvard Forest series of mystery caches. I started the tradition a few weeks ago with Quinn. He since bailed on me, probably just for the winter, so I finished the last couple by myself. While in the area, I noticed a series of caches on Tom Swamp road. One of the local breweries names their beers after local haunts, so I recognized it from that. I went over to find the caches to keep pace.

Last Harvard Forest and some Tom Swamp Road.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I found two series of caches in Winchendon and finished offmost of what remains of a local trail in Jaffrey/Rindge. Then, I took off from work to Covid test, so I took advantage of that to search around Birch Hill Dam before getting the test. As it turned out, I missed the testing window. Oops. Friday brought a snow day, the test, and a quick park and grab to keep the daily streak going.

Finishing out the week at Birch Hill Dam and a Winter Wonderland

Week 2 (17 found, +1 on pace for 1000, 403 total)

This week started off less promising and it shows in the numbers. I went to finish off another part of the WBT trail on the Northfield side, but ended up DNF on two of the five for the day. Then, icy conditions limited me to only a couple PNG on Sunday. Also, I tried to hide a geocache I planned for over a decade and got denied. It makes sense that they want to keep the hobby away from schools, but it still stung a little bit. I moved the cache. Did that make a difference? Ah, but now, I keep you in suspense.

A slow start to the week.

While hiking Monday, I received a text message from my friend Craig about watching the CFP. I talked a lot of crap about Alabama being plus money all day, so I figured what the heck. Why not? I finished another section of the North Central Pathway, but DNF’d a couple of them. I got back to my car about 6pm and over to Craig’s just about 7 after stopping for an unhealthy dinner. That meant I got home late on Monday. I texted Christine that I wanted to have only a quick find on Tuesday because I wanted to be home early.

Hike before watching the boring first half of the CFP Championship

The quick find on Tuesday took longer than anticiated because it froze in place. Wednesday went quickly and I got to exchange some trackables. Then, I drove into the hills of Warwick to find a state line marker cache after Dungeons and Dragons club and a conversation that went on for far too long on Thursday. A friendly local caught me on Thursday and I told her that I heard about the marker (truth) and was very interested in local history (half truth).

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

I finished the second week strong. Apparently, I have a reputation around school because a fellow math teacher and a couple of students asked me what hike I planned for the afternoon. Not one to usually plan, I actually found a loop trail in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire with a series of 6 caches. I only found 4 of them, but I need to go back to drop off a souvenir because the first of the 4 is my 400th find!

Fitzwilliam Forest Loop

Epilogue

I consider the first two weeks 2022 an absolute success. In spite of some DNF, I found enough caches to stay slightly ahead of my pace to find 1000 in the calendar year. Also kept my streak of days going in spite of some challenges. I hiked familiar trails. I found some new places. If the rest of the year goes as well as the first two weeks 2022, I will have no problem meeting both of my geocaching goals. I don’t have any goals for hides, even if the main geocaching webpage made 2022 the year of the hide, but I do have several hides planned. Stay tuned to hear of the progress.

Posted on

Ha Ha Ha (Tell Us a Joke)

Prologue

That title looks like something vomited out by the reject Joker from The Suicide Squad movie. You want me to “tell us a joke”, do you? I, uh, I am not great at telling jokes. Granted I tell them better than my mother. I guess you will just have to take my word for it since many of you have probably never heard my mother tell a joke. We’ve arrived at a similar place as my classes. How much do you trust me? I mean, seriously. I just admitted that I can’t tell a joke very well. So, I suppose that gives me some credibility. Right?

The Adventure

Today (Yesterday), I went into school for the last teacher day. I worried that I might not be able to finish all of my tasks in a timely fashion. A few times I discussed with people that I didn’t know if it was an ADHD thing or a guy thing, but I felt very overwhelmed by the to do list given to us by administration Instead of being able to chunk the tasks, my brain kept telling me that I needed to finish all of them simultaneously.

Well, armed with this minor bout of anxiety, I faced the list with a tenacity not normally associated with me. I checked off the things that I knew I finished on Friday even if they didn’t feel finished. They were finished, but for whatever reason, I convinced myself there was more to do than there actually was. At approximately 1:15 pm, I went into my neighbor teacher’s classroom to celebrate my completion of all of the tasks. I visited a couple of other times to update her on progress.

After school, some teachers went to a local golf club. My kayaking partner in crime (well, we actually only had one trip last year, but I want to get out more this year) convinced me to go out because she promised to treat. And, she bought me a soft pretzel with cheese that was so good! So, the outdoor adventure wasn’t so much outdoor, but it was still fun.

Tell Us A Joke

No, I don’t think I will. I legitimately don’t have any jokes other than the stupid ones that I wore on my math shirts every Friday. Now, I feel like that needs to be explained. One of the science teachers came up with the idea for them to wear science T-shirts and for us to wear math themed shirts. I didn’t have any, so I had to purchase them.

The names on mine were different, but this was my favorite one to wear. Get it here.

Epilogue

Talking with a trusted associate, we asked one another how our days went. I answered with, “Relieved. Excited about the trip on Thursday. Happy I got to hang out with other teachers. So, I’d say mostly good. Actually all good. No need to qualify it otherwise.” Today (Yesterday) was a good start to summer. As with most things, today (tomorrow) represented a bit of a crash back to earth. But, they can’t all be winners.

Proudly powered by WordPress