Tag: Royalston MA

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

Caching Christmas – Find Number 350

Prologue

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.

Proudly powered by WordPress