Tag: New Hampshire

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I want to know what love is

Prologue

Again, I know that I used this prompt last year when I got the idea to update this daily. Again, I remembered this prompt then. I can’t remember what I wrote to answer what love is then, but now I’m going to simply copy and paste from my Father’s Day Instagram post last year. It more or less covers everything I want to say.

The Prompt

The Prompt: We each have many types of love relationships — parents, children, spouses, friends. And they’re not always with people; you may love an animal, or a place. Is there a single idea or definition that runs through all the varieties of “love”?

Father’s Day: My Father

https://www.eriegaynews.com/news/article.php?recordid=200401donpaulobituary.html

I usually make a crude joke at today’s expense, but I guess I’m feeling sentimental or nostalgic today, so if you actually read these, this one may be a bumpy ride.

Father’s Day means something different when your father has passed away. It is still a celebration but within that celebration is that constant ache in that piece of your heart that has been empty since they passed.

It has been over 17 years since my father passed away on December 1 from “complications due to the AIDS virus”. Makes it sound so neat and clean. Trust me, it wasn’t. I wasn’t there at the very end, but he got us all together the Thanksgiving weekend before to say good bye. He looked like hell frozen over and we all knew his intentions but, of course, nobody said them out loud.

Christine was tasked with calling me at work to let me know he has died. Either shock or an idiotic commitment to a place that didn’t share that commitment to me causes me to worry how they might cover a week of shifts if I went back home for the service and to reminisce/heal. Also, my boss at that place was a real ass.

But, I didn’t come here for that purpose. I was talking with a friend earlier and the topic of father’s came up. More recently, his became sick. But, at the time, he wasn’t. I can’t remember why we ended up talking about Dad. But, my response, simple and direct as ever, was, ” I miss the old bastard. Every single day.” Especially this day. I love you, Dad. I miss you. Happy father’s day.

Father’s Day: My Kids

Father’s Day also means something different when you are a father. I’ve already shared these pictures, but I’m not much of a pictures of my kids guy and Aiden hates having his taken, so you get the same pictures and none of Aiden by himself.

I also talked about them at great length in my anniversary thread. Having kids, for those who don’t know, obviously changes every aspect of your life and, honestly, not always for the better. But, as humans tend to ignore the negative over time and accentuate the positive, overall it has been a wonderful experience.

Some of our friends, families, and associates are in the early to middle stages of parenthood and it has been a joy sharing my own experiences as advice with them. It also has been a reminder that, while I always said I wasn’t going to miss it, I always do at least a little. I guess that gives me a reason to live long enough to become a grandfather.

So, I guess, uh, happy father’s day to me.

Father’s Day: School Kids

Father’s day has a different meaning when you teach. You entrust your kids to us for over 7 hours a day 180 days a year. We take that trust seriously and when we talk about them, we can’t help but call them our kids. We don’t always like them all, but we still love them.

I have been blessed to be on both sides of this mentoring relationship. In college, my physics professor Yadu, earned my undying loyalty by professing his love for swearing in our first class. He went on to earn my love by being one of the best mentors and teachers ever. I best sum him up by saying that I was waiting for him to show up to office hours. He walked into his office and proudly proclaimed to a colleague, “I just taught 50 minutes of physics without talking about physics once.” I went to him to ask for a book as his “textbook” for the class was a workbook without accompanying text. “You want a textbook? Here, here are some books” and he proceeded to throw books from his book shelf at me. I got that lesson, and many others, Yadu. Love you and miss you.

Jon, Tom, and Ileana all conspired to get me my first college teaching job at a time I thought myself unemployable in the field. Maria helped me build my confidence to fight for the job and Paula reminds me daily that, with some adjustments, my way really can work I have much to share about them, too, but tragically not enough space right now.

So, it is in their honor and memory that I love and care about every one of my kids in hopefully the way that they need. I mean, as my mom is quick to remind me, the letters and cards serve as proof that I’m doing something right. Just today, I have had 2 former students wish me a happy father’s day. Just know, kids, that I watch your posts with great pride and joy as you share your lives. Even if we haven’t talked, I still watch your present and future success with great interest. I cherish the time we had/have together.

Much love. Mr. Lucas.

The Epilogue

I think that says it all. Talk to you all tomorrow.

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Morphing

Prologue

Mighty Morphing Power Rangers? Perhaps. We went through a phase where the boys enoyed the show. Heck, we went through three such phases, one for each of the boys. Every time, it took me back. Not to childhood. The first season of Power Rangers released when I was in high school. But, it took me back to one of my first teenage crushes, Kimberly the Pink Ranger. Heck, we even went to see the newest movie on opening weekend. I check periodically to see if they released any information on the sequel. So far, no luck.

The Prompt

Yesterday, I said that I got the idea about this time last year that I got inspired to write daily. I didn’t remember if I wrote on yesterday’s prompt, but I remember today’s. Last year, apparently, I tried to morph the meaning of the word candle. Not having read the entry since then, I have no idea what that even means.

The Prompt: Language evolves. The meaning of a word can shift over time as we use it differently — think of “cool,” “heavy,” or even “literally.” Today, give a word an evolutionary push: give a common word a new meaning, explain it to us, and use it in the title of your post.

I admit that the thought of redefining a word is compelling. “Bad” becomes “good”. “Heavy” becomes a joke that endures through generations.” Hell, half of conversations these days are about what “can and can’t be said” in polite conversation. However, it takes a certain amount of hubris to think you can. Granted, I already show some of that hubris by writing my words here and expecting anyone to care. Nevertheless, my hubris has limits. And, so, no morphing of language today.

Today’s Adventure (Ashuelot Trail..Again)

I shared none of my pictures or video from today. I feel bad because I took the day off to stay home because of another doctor’s appointment. I know I shouldn’t but the old ways dies hard. Anyway, I continued my trek along the trail today and grabbed a whole bunch of caches. I also saw that cool hole in the tree and some dinosaur bones.

Epilogue

That’s how you’re going to leave this? Dinosaur bones? Yep. I think I will. You can see the picture in the head of the post. See. Dinosaur bones. Talk to you tomorrow.

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Landscape

Prologue

I already considered skipping today. Ultimately makes no difference to anyone but me and the half a dozen or so (and that might be overestimating) of readers that regularly ome to the page. But, integrity is what happens when nobody is watching, right? So, I write. However, I probably only write the bare minimum today. We might have to get used to the bare minumum during the week until summer. Maybe, some days, when I admire the landscape, I will see the forest for the trees.

The only view of the river from this part of the trail.

Today’s Adventure (Ashuelot Trail Landscape)

In yesterday’s entry, I recapped my adventure from the end of March where I spooked a low level drug dealer near one of the local ponds. Since I said this entry will be short, I don’t have the space to recount another long adventure, so I will use the weekly entries to recap the daily. This may or may not work to catch us up. But, like I say at school, this is the only plan I have and I’m not afraid to fail if I learn from it.

Today, I needed to find some quick geocaches because Quinn had little league practice tonight. And, so, I went back to the Ashuelot Trail that runs through several towns in New Hampsire and roughly follows the Ashuelot River. One of my students, when I first told him about it, thought I might be through hiking. I, sadly, had to convey that it was only a multipurpose rail trail. Hmm, maybe I will use that as inspiration to do some through hiking this summer.

For now, back to the trail. Someone took the geocaching guidelines to heart back when geocaching first started and hid a geocache every 1/10 of a mile. As far as I know, there are at least 100 geocaches hidden just along this one trail. I used it to find 15 caches and break my daily record. Today, I just found 6 to keep current with my personal yearly goal of finding 1000 caches in the calendar year. In actuality, I’m remaining 60 caches off the pace. But, during summer, I’ll pick that up within a week.

The Prompt: Landscape

I mentioned in the last entry that I used a prompt of the day to keep myself honest and keep posting every day. I used that same document this year. I recognized some of the prompts. Oh well, I will mix up my responses to keep things fresh. I don’t remember if I used this one last year. Maybe, just maybe, I took the day off. Well, I’m going to use it this year.

The Prompt: When you gaze out your window — real or figurative — do you see the forest first, or the trees?

Generally speaking, I see the big picture first. I wrote earlier that maybe I will see the forest for the trees here on the web page. That could be said for much of my life. I just never concern myelf with the details. It gets me into trouble more often than not, but who has the time or energy?

I think people might tend to gravitate to “stop and smell the roses” as they get older. Perhaps, even I might learn. I remember quoting Ferris Bueller a couple of years ago in a Facebook post. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Only recently have I taken that advice to heart. I feel like life is finally where I want it to be.

Epilogue

I said again, when confronted with the issue, “For me, my 20s were about making mistakes. Then, 30s were about amending for those mistakes, and finally in my 40s, I’m able to really start to figure out and enjoy things.” I mean, that’s all I can offer. When anyone asks for advice, I just say, enjoy the landscape of life as much as you can. Forest? Trees? It’s all the same to me.

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Success

Prologue

Today, I write about success. I must admit that when it comes to my career, I don’t have much experience with success. I (only partly) joked recently that many of my teaching jobs came with a three year expiration date. At the risk of spoiling the journal entry, I fought that expiration date this time and actually won.

By won, I mean that I received a contract for a fourth year. This happened in spite of earlier pushback from administration and not (again) getting my license to teach. But, more on all of that later. I also started this blog as an attempt to “share the natural beauty of our world”. Granted, much of that beauty exists only in the states of Massachusetts and New Hampsire (sometimes Vermont and Rhode Island, rarely Maine, and almost never outside of New England), but as I’ve often parroted from my younger brother (paraphrased), “If you want to travel, why aren’t you travelling? Why wait to win the lottery? There’s plenty to see in your metaphorical backyard if you just know where to look.

The Adventure (Thursday 31 March 2022 Part 1)

In my last post (in which I promised to write more and then promptly ignored for another month plus), I promised more frequent updates. The only time I ever kept that promise was when I used the daily prompts last year. And, so, at around the same time, I attempt to daily blog. I thought I mentioned low level drug dealers in that post. Perhaps, I saved it for the preview blurb.

I went back to an area I hiked before in the snow. I never found the geocache in that area and I wanted to see if it was because of the snow. That often happens and you will notice a familiar refrain with recent updates. I parked in the parking area and started down the trail. A man suddenly appeared, as if he materialized out of thin air (he actually just walked out from behind the outhouse, but I sometimes have a flair for the dramatic), and stood there. I saw him talking on his phone, so paid him no mind.

I continued down the path. He seemed to follow me, but sometimes paranoia gets the better of me, so I paid no attention. As I searched the area, pretending to take pictures (my common cover for muggles while caching), he circled around to the other side of the trail. I decided to take a walk down the rest of the trail to the water to see if he might just leave. I took the two pictures at the bottom of the gallery, spent some time just looking at the water and then went back to find the cache.

When I got back to the cache location, he was nowhere to be found. Good, I thought, he’s gone. I can search in peace. Then, similar to the beginning of this adventure, he appeared out of nowhere at the top of the hill where I searched. Okay, now this is weird. Is this guy going to kill me? I learned later from a student that a murder actually happened in that area, so that’s fun.

I went back to pretending to take pictures as he walked down the path. What is he doing? Trying to get my scent to make it easier to hunt me? Whatever, time to find this cache. Nope, wrong again. He’s back Okay, this is definitely where I get murdered.

The Adventure (Thursday, 31 March 2022 Part 2)

“Pretty area.” He said. He’s attempting to get me to drop my guard to make it easier to murder me.

“It is very pretty.” I replied.

“Is the pond ice out?”

“Yes, there’s a little bit on the shore over there, but other than that, I didn’t see any. I came down here a couple of weeks ago when there was still snow and it was all ice.”

He nodded. Then awkward silence for a few minutes. “Are you a cop?”

Okay, do I say yes because we are in rural New Hampshire and “Blue Lives Matter”? Or, do I tell the truth and see where this takes me? “No.”

“Oh,” he stammers. Then, “I just saw you on your phone.”

“Just taking pictures.” I show him my lanyard with ID. “I’m a teacher and I work at the local school over there.”

More awkward silence. Then, in a halting voice, as if he’s not sure he even wants to ask, “Are you, uh, are you looking for, uh, are you looking for something?” I don’t remember the exact words, but he definitely implied that he carried drugs and wanted to sell them to someone, hopefully me.

I chuckled. After thinking he wanted to murder me, offering me drugs was a relief. “No, man, I’m good. Thanks.”

“Oh, uh, my mistake.” He still stammered and stumbled over his words. Then he ran off back to his car and left. Finally alone, I quickly found the geocache and went on to find a couple of others nearby. Never a dull moment in my life.

The Prompt: Success

The Prompt: Tell us about a time where everything you’d hoped would happen actually did.

If you kept current with my adventures this year, you may be surprised that I use this year as a measure of success. When I wrote someone to say, “I’m officially employed by Conant next year”, they replied, “Wasn’t it you who put forth you wouldn’t?” Well, yes, but as I explained, I never thought I’d make it past that three year expiration date for much of the year. It looked bleak.

Then, something changed. Actually, many things changed. Those things led to me getting offered a job working in STEM instead of exlusively math and ultimately, I made it beyond the expiration date. If I finish my licensure for next year, I have many more options open to me. I can stay where I am. Or, I can jump ship and come back across the border to make 15 to 20 thousand more in Massachachusetts.

To me, that’s the epitome of success. I now have full (or hopefully will after this year) agency over my career and will have actual options open to me. Every other time, my options were slim to none and I just took what life gave me. I never considered money as a marker to success and I always (well, mostly) feel sucessful as a father and a husband, so that’s all that remained. *knock wood* Now is a good time to be me.

Epilogue

I only made it through one day of adventures in this post. That’s okay. The next week is limited in scope. I spent much of it sick and had little to no energy to do anything besides lying down on the couch. So, I will be back and current before you know it. Until tomorrow!

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Recent Highlights – An update on 2 April 2022

Prologue

I tried rebooting the pages again last week. That, as evidenced by nother week of radio silcence, failed. So I find myself, on 2 April 2022, attemping once again to make myself relevant through my writing. Well, aside from the fact that I often fall back on writing as my hobby to destress, I heard a podcast recently. “Wow!” You may think, “The guy who listens to podcasts during every commute heard a podcast! Stop the presses!”

Okay, okay, I get it. Perhaps that introduction leaves something to be desired. Let me explain further. The episode in question came courtesy of Planet Money. They told the story of a man who started a web page about soap operas without knowing a single thing about soap operas. He hired a freelancer to write for him and sold ad space with Google. By the time he sold the page for about 3/4 of a million dollars, it made over 40,000 dollars a month in ad revenue.

The epitome of success for an entire generation.

Hear me out. I’m not saying that my weekly ramblings are worth 40,000 dollars a month. However, I don’t think that I’m out of line to say that it might be worth more than the *checks spreadsheet* absolutely nothing in income that I currently make. So, time to research how to make that happen. In the meantime, enjoy the still (economically) worthless content. How long will it take to actually get caught up to 2 April 2022.

Monday, 21 March 2022
Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Wednesday, 23 March 2022

Monday 21 March 2022 and Tuesday 22 March 2022

I saw the names of the geocaches on the map and they made me chuckle; Sasquatch, Unicorn, and Cockapoo. I admit that they took longer than expected to find, but I still made it home with plenty of time to spare for dinner. Then, on Tuesday, I ended up on the other side of the Birch Hills Wildlife Management Area (WMA). That might not mean anything to you, but the geocaching web page offered a souvenir for hiding a geocache during the year. I tried to hide one earlier in the year, but the people who ran the conservation area denied me permission to do so.

While researching other areas to hide geocaches, I found that Massachusetts gives implied permission to all WMAs. I used that to my advantage a couple of weeks ago and found some nooks in the BHWMA to hide two geocaches. They approved them and I got my souvenir.

There’s the souvenir!

Wednesday 23 March 2022

We administered PSAT and SAT tests on Wednesday. They gave us the afternoon to prep and grade. I actually took advantage of the time and caught up on nearly everything. Then, after school, I went to find some geocaches at Dennison Lake. Originally, I thought I might find one set of caches, including some multi-caches (a type I haven’t found in quite a long time), but I ended up going the other way. Along that path, I found a letterbox hybrid cache. Letterboxing is a precursor (I think) to geocaching in which you are given a location and then clues from that location to find the treasure.

This one made me walk something like 75 steps, turn right, and the letterbox will be there. Apparently my strides were too long because I overshot the area by a good 25 feet. I circled back, though, and found the letterbox. You’re supposed to take a stamp and leave a stamp, but I don’t have stamps. I probably should get a stamp because I recently accidentally found another letterbox by accident. In both cases, I left a sketch of Garfield.

Thursday 24 March 2022

A student said to me in response to the pictures, “Was the school day really awesome?” I replied, “Goodness no.” “Oh, that makes sense,” he said, “because I didn’t think it was anything special.” “Yeah,” I finished, “the place I hiked was amazing.” “Oh yeah,” he said to a peer,’you found a crypt and a lake the color of Baja Blast.” In addition to that, I hiked down and then up and then up and then down. I found two caches that went hidden for over a year. In the biz, we call that a resurrection. I often write it as “rezz” in my logs because I’m cool like that.

Honestly, I can’t explain it any better than that. The hike down took me to an amazing river. Then, I searched for a good 45 minutes before finding it. My log read, “I poked and prodded with my hiking stick. *squish* *squish* over and over for 45 minutes *squish* *squish* *thud*. Wait, was that a thud? *thud* Definitely a thud.” Then, the other log (after another half an hour of searching), “This is the reason that I love this hobby.”

Friday 25 March 2022 and Sunday 27 March 2022

On Friday, I returned to the scene of a crime, as it were. When I went to that trail system a couple of weeks ago, I parked in a spot that poved inconvenient for another person. She called me an a-hole and I told her to eff off. Ah, the unspoken camraderie of fellow hikers. This time, I hiked for a short period of time to get home for dinner and trivia night. We won.

Then, on Sunday, I took Quinn to the YMCA to sign up for and practice for little league. While there, I noticed a cache was activated again. They only activate it for the spring, summer, and fall because they hid it in their front yard and they don’t want the liability of someone falling on the ice. I took Quinn over and he looked for it while I looked up if we were actually in the right spot. We were and he reported, “I just found a birdhouse.” Bingo.

Saturday, 26 March 2022

I went back over to Poplar Mountain on Saturday. I saw six other caches over there that I missed missed during my visit with Christine and Lilo. Two of them were on top of the moutain and they didn’t want to climb a mountain that day. I already made them climb part of it unkowingly, so I didn’t push it. Well, I wanted those caches, so I returned.

I found not only the caches, but wonderful vistas of all around our area. I also grabbed the other caches and dropped off some themed “swag” into a like minded pirate geocache. Somehow, I spent 6 hours out that day without realizing it. I said to more than one person, “I just lose track of time out there.” While not on the same level as Thursday, I enjoyed myself and wish all hikes can be like this one.

Epilogue

And, so I find myself on 2 April 2022 writing about two weeks ago. I want to find a way to share my adventures with others and give them the same thrill that I get from exploring right in our back yard. I always see the posts, “If I ever got rich, I’d just travel.” I want to show people that you don’t have to be rich. There are hidden treasures all around just waiting to be discovered. For now, join me tomorrow and hopepfully not weeks from 2 April 2022.

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A Day of PNG: Friday, January 21, 2022

Prologue

I needed to go into Turner’s Falls. Christine planned to go out for dinner with a friend. When I got home, me and the boys would have pizza and maybe watch a movie without her. I wanted to leav work early to get home in a timely fashion. And, so it was, that last Friday became a day of PNG for me. If I put togther a list of geocaches quickly found, I might be able to get 10 of them and put myself way ahead of my pace to find 1000 in the year.

Here, you probably expect me to lament about my bad luck and toss out another geocaching abbreviation, DNF, a few times. I mean, who am I to deny my beloved readers? One of the pieces of advice I received as a young teacher that stayed with me is always start with the bad news. And, so I heed the advice of younger me and start with the bad news.

A Day of DNF (JKLOL)

I made it to Northfield before registering my first DNF for the day. Before that, everything came up Millhouse. Six found in a row. The funny thing is that several of the logs said how easy the cache was to find. I gave it the old college try, poking and prodding in a likely hiding spot as the cache listing said, to no avail. See if you can find it.

The other lost opportunity of the day lies buried under a mountain of snow and ice. I scaled that mountain, dug deep into a fissure at the apex. My search proved futile. Dejected and suddenly devoid of the joy of that find after the frustration of striking out numerous times, I stared into the distance. Pondering about what life I was living, I also contemplated just walking away. No more searches. Not another hike. Never again. But, who would that hurt? What about those beloved readers I mentioned earlier? I soldier on.

Focus on the Positive

As it probably is in most of my life, while I focus on the negative the positive far outweighed it. The title of the post is A Day of PNG. I ended up searching for about an hour and a half and found nine total geocaches in that time. 9 wins against 2 losses? That’s good enough for first place in pretty much any playoff race. Sorry, I’m still high from the Bills/Chiefs game on Sunday night. More on that tomorrow or Thursday on the main page. Plus, and I don’t know why, I’m stalling for time. Nevertheless, it worked. I came up with a theme for the finds. Let me introduce to you the first (annual? monthly? weekly?) Day of PNG Awards.

Favorite Container

C is for Cookie – What does the title make you think? Yep, I thought the exact same thing and for good reason. Now, though, you probably wonder how exctly they pulled it all off. Once again, I thought the same thing and with good reason. A cookie monster geocache? What the heck? Well, luckily, I can show you what the heck.

C is for Cookie

Most Scenic Location

The Schell Bridge #1 – I found this one completely by accident during my drive. It looked, from the map, like I might be able to cross the bridge and grab a second. It wasn’t until I started walking that it dawned on me that the bridge was most likely one of the many condemned in the state. Still, as I approached, I met the most wonderful views of the day. I’m sure you will agree.

Best (Worst) Display of Racism on a Memorial

Captain Beers Last Stand – I think I went to find this one years ago when I first started geocaching. Naively, I rushed to find the cache because I thought passing motorists might interpret my search as a terrorist act and pull over to administer a citizen’s arrest. I should have known then, as I do now, that our inherently selfish species either (a) doesn’t care all that much that I might be a terrorist or (b) is afraid that I might be in distress and they’d have to help. Sorry, that last bit was unnecessarily negative. I rescind my comment.

The point is that in my rush before I never actually found the cache. This time, armed with the knowledge of my near invisibility, I crossed the road, fumbled around for a bit, pretended to take a picture (because you truly never know when that rouge element might try something), and found the cache. As often happens with these things, you get a little bigotry with your sightseeing.

In case you want to give the benefit of the doubt, a local high school sports mascot was the “Red Raiders” until last year. Even then, they staged a school committee discussion of 2 hours of white people saying how much the name represented a part of their heritage. Yeah…

Best Sunset View

I really thought I was going to award this one to the bridge picture. I like my bridge pictures very much. Then, as I scrolled through, I saw the other sunset picture and liked that one very much, too. I leave it up to you to break the tie. Whichever one you like, that one wins!

Rock the Vote.

Epilogue

Park and Grab caches get a bad name in the community. I understand on one level why. People want to be introduced to new and interesting places and sometimes the act of simply parking and grabbing a cache doesn’t give you the time to truly appreciate where the cache led you. However, during my day of PNG, I both found a good amount of caches and took time at each place to discover why the cache owner considered it to be special enough to share. I look forward to my next day of PNG and hope that it will be as special as this one.

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Celebrating 10s: Third Week of 2022

Prologue

I told you in my last post that I planned to update weekly since daily is not an option. Honestly, if you care that much to follow my daily adventures, go to Instagram. In any case, I thank you for any support you provide, even if it is just liking my photos or reading these posts. I came up with the title for this particular post when I discovered that (a) I found a cache for 140 consecutive days, (b) I found 80 caches in the month of January already, and (c) I have 440 total finds. And, so, I am celebrating 10s this week

Maybe I mentioned this already, but Covid-19 finally hit our house. Liam tested positive first, followed by Quinn, and now Christine took a rapid test that came back positive. I think both Aiden and I had it. We think he caught it early in the pandemic and I’m pretty sure I got it over Thanksgiving break. None of that it worth celebrating. Especially since it messes with my posting schedule on the other page. Oh well, I have another idea to fill in the gap. For now, join me in celebrating 10s.

Third Week 2022 (37 Found, +14 on pace for 1000, 440 total) – Celebrating 10s

The week started and ended the same way. Driving around the area in single digit temperatures to find some park and grab caches. Last week I went in the Erving and Warwick area. Today, I went the other direction to Erving and Northfield. Both times I spent more time than I probably should, but I also had fun and got some good pictures

Adventures in Erving, Warwick, and Northfield

On Sunday (the 16th), I took advantage of comparativey warmer weather to visit a place I put on my list earlier in the week. I never heard of the place, but I saw a waterfall on the map and that’s enough for me. When I told Christine where I went, she responded, “Oh, I’ve heard of that place. I would have gone. But, I wouldn’t have climbed a mountain.” That’s because when I got there and then, when I recounted my adventure, I said, “Oh, I have a mountain to climb here.” I survived in spite of having to take a couple of breathers on the way up and a likely concussion on the way down. See the video for more.

Near concussion after falling down the mountainside.

All in all, I found 5 caches on the day. I swapped out some geocoins and got some more ideas for travel bugs once they come in the mail. And, I just checked the mail and they came! Maybe I will write a midweek update explaining travel bugs and my bugs that I’m sending out into the wild. I, for one, am excited to see if they fulfill their destinies. Getting back to Farley Ledge, I took so many pictures and I want to finish out the other part of the trail, which is actually a part of the WBT. You probably recognize that from previous posts.

As I wrote on Instagram, “I respect God for making the Sabbath a day of rest. But, I have a mountain to climb.”

Instead, I more or less took Monday off. It snowed, then rained, then iced. So, I found a cache that I thought I found almost a decade ago when I first started geocaching. On Tuesday, I drove to Peterborogh because I found a small hiking area with a few caches. I also promised the girls that I’d go to the basketball game, so I needed something quick.

As a bonus, the morning sky at my school.

That’s when, as they say, the wheels came off. I got a text from Christine that Quinn tested positive. Because she just started a new job, I needed to take two days off with him, one to test and the other becuse his school made him quarantine for 5 days. While in Greenfield getting the tests on Tuesday, we found a couple of caches. Quinn grabbed a beanie baby owl from one of them. On Wednesday, I went to the dump and rewarded myself for finally getting caught up on grading by going to another wildlife reservation and trying to find a series of caches. I also thought I found a spot for another cache, but misjudged the distance. So, I need to go back and move it about 50 feet.

Correcting music, a few cache containers, and visiting an old haunt to pick up some ghosts.

Epilogue

I never expected to meet my goals this well. I thought maybe I’d keep up on the daily streak because that one means quite a bit to me and I’m over a third of the way into it right now. But, the finding 1000 caches has been so far quite easy. *knock wood*. Though, I will say that I’m finding less and less park and grab caches close to home on days where I can’t hike because of the cold. This week we were celebrating 10s. What comes next week?

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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.

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