Today my friends, Vengeance is Mine.

I spent a good bit of the early spring and summer nursing my wounded pride from the epic failed assault on  Wanna Go to the Can on Bear Run? It rankled and picked at me, like a nasty rough wool blanket. So it came as no surprise to anyone that I eagerly answered Country_Rat’s call for volunteers to tackle this cache for his 200^th Find. No one ever said I was very smart.

The day dawned early, very early. And after a wretched late night of watching WVU play what passes for football these days, I wasn’t really what you’d call in prime hiking shape. None-the-less I stood glassy-eyed in the foyer, grasping my travel coffee mug amid gear and superfluous gear when Aquacache rang our wicked-loud doorbell that morning.

After making sure I had all my gear (and superfluous gear) sidekick patted me on the head and shoved me out the door, happy to let someone else be subjected to me all day – I suspect sidekick was eager for some peace and quiet to nurse his WVU football related anger before heading out to watch the Steelers play in Pittsburgh.

Running behind as always (my fault) the mighty AquaJeep sped ahead to the familiar meeting triangle of Rt. 50 / 92. And although Captain OCD was not to be joining us this fine, overcast, chilly morning I called ahead to let Rock_Rat, Country_Rat  and Gentleman-Carpenter know we were en route.

Since Aquacache had already been to the high clearance parking twice, he was elected to lead the small convoy (do 2 Jeeps count as a convoy? I’m kinda hazy on the number of vehicles required) to our destination.  We arrived at the low clearance parking to find the creek shockingly low. So low it barely even splashed as we drove across. Since Rock_Rat’s Jeep is the four-door variety, there was some discussion and scouting before a decision was reached to trudge onward and hopefully cut off some more distance (in hindsight this proved to be our best decision all day!). After finding a nice large, flat parking spot we tumbled out of the vehicles and set about putting on our gear.

And so here I have a happy little off topic paragraph about how in love I am with all the new fancy outdoor gear that is thin and lightweight but yet amazingly warm. I had on layers and layers (like a good little hiker) and by most outward appearances I seemed to still be a normal sized person in normal clothes, not some abdominal snowblob waddling up the trail. Yay for science!

Back to our story. This began much like the typical wvcoalcat cache does, walking on a trail / tram road / fire road and watching the distance between you and the cache go up while the arrow swings wildly around taunting you. At one point I (despite my experience) opened my mouth and the following words emerged, “Are we going the right way?” I just couldn’t help it. There is always something unsettling about getting further and further away from a ‘coalcat cache while walking down hill. Inevitable we were going to have to go up, up, up and then after finding the oxygen tanks stashed for any cachers brave enough to come this way, continue up, up and more up before reaching our goal.

And so we did. We climbed over downed trees, slid on loose leaf litter, stumbled blindly into holes (that would be me, mostly) and took lots of breaks. At one point we lost the trail. Finding it again was not so exciting since it went straight up the side of a smaller hill. Oh boy! My favorite, UP! Eventually we hit that point where we could continue on the trail as it (hopefully) wound slowly up to the top of the hill or just go for it.

Much like he did at Tater Knob, Country_Rat led the pack with a pace that seemed to indicate that he was on a pleasant stroll in the woods. I suspect he is insane. At any rate, the final ascent was not something that was enjoyable or pleasant which is why I forged ahead, looking down at my feet and thinking “well at least it isn’t icy”. Gasping for breath and wondering about my propensity to do stupid things, I crested the hill as Country_Rat said nonchalantly, “You see it?” to which I replied “Why yes I do – it’s over there.” (it was probably more like, ‘uh-huh’…gasp….point with hiking stick in general direction of cache…flop down on fallen tree).

A little while later, after my heart had returned to a normal beat and my legs had regained some feeling, Gentleman-Carpenter, Rock_Rat  and Aquacache arrived, stumbled toward us and the relief of a nice comfy tree to sit upon. Bless ‘coalcat for his consideration of such things when placing his cache

We signed the log book, took photos, enjoyed delicious food (yum, Twizzlers!), some “Vitamin I” and tried not to think about the descent, which was definitely going to include sliding, slipping, stumbling and possibly rolling if we were desperate. After enough time passed that our muscles were now good and cold and quite unhappy, our merry crew (delirious most likely) donned our packs and faced the inevitable walk / stumble / roll back to the Jeeps. Suffice to say, the trip down was much faster and before we knew it (delirium I’m telling you) there we were back at the parking. After debating different things such as the wonders of ice cubs that are not cubes but cylinders, different types of personal protection devices and the wonders of Twizzlers and banana flavored food bars, we unanimously agreed it was time to head to Cools Springs for proper post-wvcoalcat-cache-food.

In sum – awesome hike which we probably could not have accomplished in the ice and snow of February 2008. Great company as always. And hearty CONGRATULATIONS to Country_Rat for not only choosing a wvcoalcat cache as his 200th, but beating the rest of us to the top of the hill! That is one insane Rat!

Follow the link below more photographic evidence that we survived.

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Somehow we thought we’d manage to go on a horseback ride in the mountains, play golf and skeet shoot during this sort little jaunt. But in the grand tradition of me being unable to focus once actually on vacation, we accomplished none of the above.  Sometimes it’s just as much fun to wander around aimlessly – even when not in search of an ammo can.

Not to say that there wasn’t geocaching, because honestly, do I ever go anywhere that doesn’t inolve geocaching? Exactly. Since Knight Who Says Ni was in town as well, we decided it would be a great opportunity to knock off four pages of the DeLorme Challenge. It’s a good thing I keep dramamine in the glove compartment because all the tiny windy roads aren’t always agreeable to my stomach and that could have ended quite poorly for my new car.

We got all four pages (yay for us!) ,  had two DNFs, and managed to out wait a van full of guys in orange jumpsuits. Three people giving a grove of pine trees the shake down for 15 minutes must have looked completely normal to those guys! We continued to circle, look and poke even after the van had gone on to other areas that needed grounds keeping help to no avail. Oh the sadness of a DNF.

To bouy our spirits we headed back and indulged in tea. Chad honed in on a nice warm, suncovered spot where we settled in and tried not to fall asleep. It was a struggle, Kris battled back by sitting up prim and proper which makes it rather difficult to nod off. I relied on her to not let me slump forward and slide to the floor as I was getting pretty darn comfortable as I filled myself with lovely petite fours….mmmmm…..delicious tea cakes.  At any rate, we had urgent things to do after tea – such as find a place to eat and then get all dressed up. But more about the latter in a different post.

Ah, sometimes it is good to be me! Or Ping….it’s always good to be Ping.

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There is something about a ‘coalcat expedition into the Mon National Forest that also causes my loyal sidekick to perk up and say, “I’m in!” Guess he must be a nature boy at heart, although I suspect he wanted to see about taking some nice outdoor shots before all the leaves gave up and flung themselves to the ground.

So it was around 9:22 a.m. on Sunday that we found ourselves at the Rt. 38 / 92 split (in what we later discovered to be downtown Nestorville). This is amazing for one reason – we were early. We figured we were in the right spot because there was a Jeep there with moneytastesbad. The odd thing though, was that Captain OCD was not there. Nor was his esteemed brother wvcoalcat. Hmmm.

Upon consulting the map and re-reading wvhunter’s directions we decided that although the gas station where we found ourselves was not in fact an Exxon, it was clearly not also a Uhaul or Bait store. And that could mean just one thing, we were at the wrong Rt. 38 / 92 split. Coupled with the fact that it had been 50 degrees when we left Morgantown and was now currently around 35 meant it was starting out to be a banner day!

A quick jot down the road proved to be the correct split where the rest of the group was waiting. Properly assembled, ordered and organized, we headed off following the mighty catspoloder to the parking coords. Which was good, because this is often the part that involves driving aimlessly around the mighty forest.

All bundled up (cold, it’s cold in the woods) we headed out on the trail. It’s days like this that I’m completely thankful that I ponied up for the nice outdoor gear. Now just to make sure I hold onto the sunnies and not make the same mistake I made at “Slopping at the Trough” and “Loki’s Quest for Zombie Hobos”.

Clover Run was a completely pleasant stroll in the woods. Contrary to what ‘hunter would have everyone believe, his brother was not trying to off him when placing this cache. We did have a slight surprise when the pleasant view touted by the cat was obliterated by a thick field of wild cherry saplings. I can say with authority that those saplings were of the wild cherry because that’s what Mr. Surveyor said. Me, I don’t know my Ash from a hole in the ground.

Upon successfully finding the  tupperware in the woods and going through the ritual log signing, token collecting and re-hiding we headed back to the vehicles. I’ve often been accused of keeping a forced march pace, so this time around I mixed it up a bit hanging out in the back and middle of the pack before surging ahead. I think deep down I just miss Purple Monkey Dishwasher’s insane pace.

Back at the parking ‘coalcat assured us that Mail Route was an even easier hike than Clover Run.  This is where wvhunter assures me we went wrong. Personally I think he just has a persecution complex since the trail was clearly marked with plastic blue diamonds and was WAY wider than the pixie deer trail of “The Project” fame.   I should know, I’ve hiked both and this was a walk in the park compared to the other. Even the creek crossing was easy (says she who recently went sliding across a water fall in a moment of poor decision making). Hard to get the water in over top of the ol’ gortex shoes when the creek bed is dry. Now that’s my kind of water hazard!

After retrieving the gnawed upon cache container, replacing it with an ammo can and taking a break it was by unanimous consent to take the 89SC way back out. You know what? It was easier. I know this may come as a shock, but really, it was flat and easy.

More pictures of us walking around in the Mon National Forest, enjoy!

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The simple solution to that is to have one giant post crammed with unrelated photos where I ramble on about how much fun I had. But then I thought that would make me look like an even bigger slacker. So I’ll post a million small posts with pictures and hope no one notices.

First I managed to put over 4,000 miles on my new car between August 7 and September 30. Which pretty much tells you how many week days I spent driving up and down I-79. That in and of itself was not fun. Not even nearly. Bleh. But once at my destination (or even better once I dragged my sorry carcass home) I did manage to squeeze in some geocaching here and there.

I love this particular container, it’s at Tygart Lake. As you can tell, the little girl who decorated it loves ducks. In addition to the duck ammo can there is a sweet pig container. It is even more brightly decorated. Which is amazing that it can stay hidden at all. I understand that the trifecta is completed by a hand turkey. And some day I will go out and hunt the mighty hand turkey.

Along with CLCombat & Aquacache, I cached in Grafton where I nearly lost my hand to a skirt lifter cache at the Rite Aid. After applying first aid to my wrist and the soaking wet cache log (dried out on the AquaJeep hood), our merry little band then went to Tygart Lake. Once there we made some poor decisions about how to reach a few caches, cleaned out a bunch of spider webs and generally traipsed around the woods for several hours. From there we headed out to Moats Falls where it was spectacularly dry.

The place was nearly empty which is a small miracle since it was a pretty nice day out. I wish I’d taken the onus to bring the big digital camera, as it was my photography was kinda limited and I was getting a little hungry (ok, I could have gnawed on my arm at that point). Not to mention the sun was getting low and we were quite a ways from home.

With the water down so far, you get a good idea of why the area is so dangerous when the waters are flowing high and fast. Those are some nasty rocks there. Fortunately for us, all we had to worry about was who looked best in the festive orange sunglasses. I lost out since they didn’t go with my outfit for the day. I don’t look so good in blaze orange anyway.

Since we were all reaching the arm gnawing level of hunger we left Arden and headed back to gorge at Rio Grande in Sabraton, because when I think about stuffing myself, I think Rio Grande. Right!

And later, much later….like a week or maybe two it was time for Geocoinfest 2008.  I’d pretty much gotten over being an icon hound, but GCF was a mega event and just happened to be right up I-79. How could I resist? I was nice and invited Aquacache to go with me and even let him drive. Which was for the best because by that time I had exactly ZERO working GPS receivers. Yes, zero. Which makes geocaching rather difficult.

At any rate we had a fun time at the event, ran into a ton of old friends and met some new folks – which is always the case at these things.  Saw a small child stick his hand into a shark’s mouth

and won stuff! Yes indeed, I finally won something! Woo hooo! Which gave me anxiety because there was this giant table full of stuff and I had to choose. And I was the first person to go up…Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. So I did what I normally do when stuck in such a situation. I stuck my hand out and grabbed the thing nearest me. It just so happened to be a geocoin (whew…with so many people around it could have gotten dicey).

The day finally over, we participated in the post-event  tradition of caching our way home. Which started out  in a park in ride and ended up in a cemetery in the dead of night with only two maglites to guide us. I need to work on my decision making skills.

In Summary (because I remember the lesson of the closing paragraph)…lots of time flew by. There was geocaching. There was meeting other geocachers. There was little water at Arden and zombies in the cemetery. Oh no wait, I think there were zombies in the cemetery, but didn’t see any. I’m sure I heard them though. At any rate, a glut of geocaching.

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Knight Who Says Ni and wvhunter74, a little jealous because the Northern MAGPI were always having so much fun, set out to show us who put the “S” in sMAGPI! It was a bright, hot and beautiful day down in the Charleston area. Perfect for a little Meat, a little Greet, a few caches, some ammo can tossing and t-shirt bludgeoning. What more could a person want? Not a whole lot it turns out. First event of the day, after signing in of course, was to play Caching Feats Bingo. Person who gets the most squares filled wins. Sounds easy right? Well you can only use each cacher once. So who would admit to using a Magellan as their primary GPSr? Surely someone out there has DNF’d the same cache 3 times and admitted it. Cached in Europe? What about found an aquacache (not the person)….or who out there has a dedicated cachemobile? And then there were a few cachers who clearly had to fill in one specific square that could pertain only to them….Needless to say, people got to know each other really fast!

Next on the schedule (the very rough schedule to be certain) was the Ammo Can Toss. Those cachers that had attended the MEAT-n-Greet at Cooper’s Rock back in July knew what it was all about. Not one to make things easy, Knight Who Says Ni had upgraded to a 50 cal ammo can. Now that’s some serious weight to go tossing around. The crowd was a little unsure about this seemingly sacrilegious abuse of an ammo can, so wvhunter74 stepped up to the plate to demonstrate. Oh his throw was mighty alright, but the landing not so much. The can took a half roll, the lid exploded and rocks flew everywhere. Oops. After that demonstration and pretty much figuring things couldn’t get worse than that, cachers lined up to give it a go. Things were going smoothly with Beaver Crew in the lead. A few of the little cachers even stepped up to give the can a toss. And then from the back of the pack emerged the winner of the 3rd Great MEAT-n-Greet Ammo Can Toss 89SC. Without sidekick Little Wooden Boy around 89SC was the unspoken favorite (at least for those of us who’d attended the earlier competition in Morgantown). With a little experience behind him 89SC demonstrated the fine can tossing form that sent the can hurtling and then rolling, rolling, rolling….Winning distance was a hair over 50 feet.  

Saving the best for last, the sMAGPI crew unveiled as yet untried game in the geocaching community (thanks to ScoutingWV for give us the how-to)…..FROZEN T-SHIRT. What? Yes, you read right. Frozen t-shirts. All nicely folded, rolled, soaked and stuck in the freezer by Spotty Spotty Pony Girl on Thursday night. Even after transportation from Morgantown to Charleston early in the morning they were still a mass of ice.   The crowd was a bit dubious at first. How could you do anything with that? And were they really shirts? Not possible….but curiosity was too much and so soon all 14 shirts were handed out and the chaos began. First and foremost, how could you even get the frozen cylinders to open up even a little? Several methods were tried. Mashing was a good first option, until the rock that was being used started to crumble. Resources were limited and there was not exactly a good selection of large rocks laying about, so other options had to be sought out.  Since we had a water fountain on site some of the clever cachers headed over there hoping the luke warm water would speed up the thawing process maybe just a little. A few thought perhaps lemonade might aid in the melting process. Others (pbump) used the x-ray vision method which just didn’t do much at all. There was talk of using flames, but that was quickly put to rest by being declared illegal in the game. Eventually one of the younger cachers hit upon a brilliant plan….beat the shirts against the rocks. Soon others were joining it. It looked like a group of angry laundry men. Victory came to the cacher that first hit upon the beating the shirt on the rocks method . Oddly enough, cachers continued to work on the remaining shirts with some determination and it wasn’t too long before there were additional cachers wearing shredded, dripping, dirty shirts.

So, kudos to Knight Who Says Ni and wvhunter74 for putting on a good show, stuffing us full of yummy food and letting us be ridiculous. You guys did good!  

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Since we were running a little behind (my fault….mine, mine, mine) there was already a good crowd assembled and lots of shouting. Well I think it was shouting, but it could have been wvhunter talking. I dunno. We managed to squish the vehicle into what I thought was the last parking spot – 89SC arrived shortly thereafter in his one-eyed MR2 and proved me wrong. Good thing this wasn’t an all day event or the law enforcement of the People’s Republik of Bridgeport would be on his trail.

More talking, shouting, wild gesticulations and general chaos ensued. Also there was voting on the name of the cache that was being placed, which resulted in more shouting and general chaos followed by the passing around of a voting sheet. Somewhere in there we started making pithy comments about CACA and the woods. Ok, so maybe they weren’t all the pithy, but we were trying. It’s hard to be uppity when you’re talking about CACA for goodness sakes!

After coming up with the name Wanna Go C.A.C.A. in the Can in the Woods? we headed out to place the cache. This presented us with a slight problem. You see geocachers are accustom to wandering around in the woods, sometimes even in large groups. But what we aren’t used to is not having a destination. We go out trying to get to a thing. Oh sure, some of us may follow the arrow blindly. Others may stay on the path and be deliberate, but the point is….we have a PLACE that we are trying to reach. That was not the case here. Had it not been for pbump who finally veered off the path and then 89SC who found a nice spot further up the trail we may still be out there, talking and walking with no end in sight.

When I heard the glorious words, “reminds me of Berry in the Woods” echoing across the rail trail I perked up. Ah, now that is a cache to be proud of! Of course I came scrambling up through the shrubbery and onto the trail and there, in blinding glory was the spot 89SC and sidekick were describing. The rest of the group were inclined to agree that the spot was a winner.

Captain OCD however refused to go place the cache as he was having flashbacks to BitW. 89SC grabbed the ammo can while Frank, 60Cent, Tee, sidekick and I followed. We were slightly disappointed that the trip up wasn’t as difficult as BitW, but the trip down was a little challenging. Not for 89SC though, who stuck his landing and was given a solid 8.5 by sidekick. I could be heard to say, “Wait ’till fall and six inches of leaves…” as we headed back down the trail.

Back at the parking coords (whew, someone marked the cars) we debriefed and rehydrated. And then there was your typical “we don’t have anything else to do, let’s stand out in the heat and talk caching” which always happens after a group outing. I was all ready to pull up a chair and join in for the rest of the afternoon, but Loyal sidekick had been patient and was clearly hungry, so we left first and went to Mamaw’s where delicious lasagna was awaiting….mmmmm. Sadly I missed the bagpiper due to our early exit,  although one of my fellow cachers was kind enough to call me on the phone so I could listen.

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The day started with a small mishap that involved my Dad (Foxtrot Bravo), his truck, my grill and I-68. We’d loaded the grill up into his truck, complete with cover and bungee corded it in. Yeah, that was fine until we hit the interstate. One minute Dad’s there and the next minute he wasn’t. Hmmm…apparently the billowing grill cover acted as a parachute and tried to take the grill out of the truck. Fortuntely the cover ripped free before Dad had an incident on his hands. I then missed the turn to Pavilion 3, despite that a) I am the one that reserved it and b) we always have the MnG here. As if that wasn’t enough to get the day going, imagine my shock as I was standing in the back of the truck trying to right my grill when a van load of people appeared. Um…uh oh, surely they couldn’t be cachers. The event didn’t officially start for another hour and a half. I was trying to figure out what was going on when they disappeared toward Rock City. Whew. A few minutes later the MAGPI reinforcements arrived.

The Winners

Ammo Can Toss (aka Toss This!) – Nicely done 89SC! He outgunned everyone except sidekick, who I disqualified, thought it might look bad for my sidekick to start walking away with prizes. The prize? A gently used ammo can. We eagerly await the placement of his upcoming cache. Perhaps he can call it Toss This

Find the X (aka How slow can you walk?) – Well placed, Aquacache. His Garmin Vista got him within 3 feet. The prize? A silver unactivated Australian Geocoin…. Frank n Beck donated this coin that they won for nominating last year’s Find the X as a WAY COOL game on the geocaching.com forums. We rock!

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Speed Pack (aka Put All that Carp BACK In The Can) – We now all know that Beck (of Frank n Beck) will never be caught by muggles! Her winning time was 24 seconds! The prize? The giant plastic ammo can filled with carp what I found in my house!

What’s in SSPG’s Geo-Bag? (aka Getting Personal with the GeoBag?) – Ok, so this is embarrassing…I can’t remember who won. But I do know that the winnner got 8 of the 11 items correct. UPDATE…I’ve been told ANTHUS wond this game….I also know that I clearly need to carry a poncho. BUT WAIT! There was a second prize in this game for “Most Creative List” which was won by Rock_Rat. His prize? A very nice Magellan GPSr complete with VHS instructional tape and manual. No more DNFs for him!

Grand Prize – Hiking Staff by Gentleman-Carpenter – This beautiful hiking staff with a WV state quarter mounted in the top was won by Determined2. I suspect there were a lot of envious cachers at the end of the day.

A few highlights…

• TeamOVCacher arrived bringing Brenda’s Birthday Bus Stop TB prompting shouts of “LOCK YOUR CAR!” to echo through the trees. We proudly displayed the sign but it wasn’t long before it had disappeared. Somehow it ended up poorly hidden in The Toy. Come on Rock_Rat you have to try harder than that…CLCombat’s truck was ripe for the picking. I retrieved the sign and put it back on display, heck there was plenty of time left and unsuspecting cachers will still arriving. After being hidden (and found) in several vehicles, including Rock_Rat’s Jeep, the TB made its way home with the very unsuspecting Rabbit Cops.
• Frank n Beck prevented the grill related melee of last year from repeating itself by showing up with a brand-spanking-new gas grill. All hail the mighty grill! I understand there were in fact several worshipers of said grill, but I have not received photographic evidence.
• Nightowls01 having me present wvhunter with a mystery bag full of “something he’s been wanting for a while”. Even after seeing wvhunter open the bag and reveal the stuffed kitty cat, someone had to explain it, I’m a little slow.

THE BIG SURPRISE

And finally, we had two surprises. Most of MAGPI already knew that wvhunter was going to receive a gold ammo can commemorating his 1000th find. It’s a pretty impressive number and it nearly killed him, I know, I was there at The Fellowship of Tater Cache. But I swear, I didn’t have anything to do with it. Honestly. Anyway, people were giving me the ol’ “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” about the gold can all day long. So it was not a great surprise to anyone but ‘hunter himself when I climbed back up on the table with the Giant Gold Ammo Can and started shouting for everyone’s attention (again…yeah, I like to be the center of attention!). I think he was pleasantly surprised with liquid contained within the can as well.

But wait….what’s this? Another milestone to commemorate? It isn’t’ every day someone finds his 100th FTF and it sure as heck isn’t every day that you meet a cacher who has at least one FTF every month for 36 months (yes, you read that right, 36 months in a row). No way was I going to let Aquacache’s milestone go by unnoticed. But what do you give someone to commemorate FTFs? How about a giant blank log book! Judging by the look on his face, I’d say Aquacache was surprised.

Much more happened, of course. But I’m only one Pony and I could not be in all places at all times…..So go check out the rest of the pics and leave your stories in the comments. And get ready for next year, because it is gonna be a blast!

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B. I like to geocache

A + B = Roadside Madness

It was hot and humid out today. And there was a chance of thunderstorms according to the all knowing NOAA. But the radar looked fair and I really, really wanted to hit Roadside Madness and thought a few extra eyes would be useful. Aquacache (one of my usual victims…um, volunteers I mean) seemed interested and loyal sidekick hemmed a bit but then said sure.

We piled into the Mighty Vue and headed up to Cooper’s Rock. The wind had started to kick up a bit and the sky was getting a little dark so an executive decision was made to take the easy route (that means driving between stages instead of walking around 6 miles). Who was I to argue? After all, they did volunteer to come with me!

Parked the Mighty Vue close to stage one, got out and BLAM…here comes the rain. Fortunately I found it pretty fast. Back into the car, plug in the new coords and on to stage two. You know what? Pine trees really don’t offer that much shelter from the rain. I circled one area while the guys were giving another group of trees the shake down. It was getting a little dark and this was maybe starting to seem like not such a good idea when I found the container. Yay! New coords and now on to stage 3. At this point we were getting pretty darn wet, which is pretty much a serious understatement. Zero’d in on stage 3 pretty fast, noted the new coords (well really we took photos since I have an issue with numbers) and ran for the car and plugged in the last set of coordinates.

Ok. We now have the coords to the final stage and the rain is really, really kicking up. But we’re soo close. Is the rain slacking off a little maybe? Are we getting a respite? Is Mother Nature taking pity on us? We’ll see. Pull in and walk zombie-like into the forest. We’re only 200 or so feet away, but Aquacache’s fancy GPSr is having fits and I’m having a hard time keeping mine dry. Which is about the time that Mother Nature lets rip with pelting, driving, bone soaking rain. And thunder…and lightening, possibly also more wind. It was hard to tell. The assault was so much that my PDA freaked out and shut off (guess water will do that to electronics). So there we are, water running off us, our clothes getting heavier and heavier. My electronics getting wetter and wetter and no cache. Finally I manage to coerce a few seconds of activity out of the PDA and shout out the clue to Aquacache, who happened to be standing right beside the hide.

So now what? How do you open a container, let along sign the log book when you are dripping water and the rain is still pelting down? Cleverly. Very cleverly that’s how. Sidekick took off his dripping booney hat, rung it out and held it over the ziplock while Aquacache extracted the log. My job was to sign the log (after taking the pic). I couldn’t do this without, of course, stepping in a hole and injuring myself. But as sidekick pointed out, what’s geocaching without a little blood loss? Scrawl our names on the paper, reverse process and run like heck back to the Mighty Vue. Well actually it was more like stumble along the newly formed stream…how did we miss that on the way in? Are we lost? Did someone mark the car? Is this going to end like the Blair Witch Project? Or are the zombie hobos going to get us? (doubt it, even they have sense enough to stay out of the pelting, driving thunderstorm of soppiness)

So much for a nice relaxing afternoon of caching!

Secondary mission: go to Irish Fest and see The Tossers rock out. (Kris, Rick & Vince had the same plan!)

From my vantage point the trip was not too bad. Hey when you are short you can stretch ALL the way out in the back seat. I think Chad disagreed since he drove the entire way.

Our first order of business after making it into Chicago was to go and see the “Bean” since it wasn’t finished the last time we were in town. Wow, what a difference 3 years makes!

The Lake just amazes me. I have a hard time comprehending that it is a Lake. Looking out onto the horizon and there seems to be no end. And the water is amazingly clear. Ping has been to Chicago many times before but never had the chance to get his pic taken so we of course had to stop and do the tourist thing. Which left lots of people shaking their heads as we made our way through the city!

After a stop for a snack and refreshments at the Pier itself, we hailed a cab and waiting in rush hour traffic. Yep, we are smart. Kudos to our driver though, he worked hard to get us over to the Irish Fest and we arrived just as the gates were opening. And then there was booze. And delicious booze it was indeed. Although sadly we missed opportunities for free booze and food since we weren’t single and couldn’t participate in the Hooley. Drat! It was hot outside but nice and cool inside. Eventually after a harrowing hotel ordeal <Boo! Hiss! to the Millennium Knickerbocker>, Kris, Rick & Vince appeared. Nothing like driving from Morrisvale, WV to Chicago, IL in one fell swoop. But they made it with time to NOM and shop before The Tossers took over the place. The show was, of course, awesome. To say it rocked would be so cliche, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it! Best $8 event I’ve ever been to (yep, $8 in advance, how great is that? Oh sure, we had to stay over, but that’s part of vacation and Dad picked up the petroleum bill, so we are in good shape)

Day 2: Chicagoland

So when I didn’t think our trip to Chicago could get any better, it did. We’d been out and about geocaching and enjoying the gorgeous day, having some yummy Thai food and just being on vacation. As we neared our hotel I heard drums. Odd, but whatever. Then I noticed a crowd on the sidewalk very near our hotel. The crowd was clapping and dancing to the drum….even more odd. But wait! It gets totally better because in the middle of that crowd was a man on a white horse…I kid you not!   Those of you who know me, know that I love a) horses and b) shiny things. OMG, both together and in front of our hotel nearly caused me to self-combust on the spot! I took pictures, lots and lots and lots of pictures and was in the enviable position of being beside the door when the groom (it was a wedding from what I gathered) dismounted and was greeted by the bride’s family. And then I took more pictures of the horse!

After Chad talked me down from that experience we headed out to the Land of Geeks – aka Fry’s Electronics. This was dangerous territory for both of us, since I own lots and lots of gadgets which “require” lots and lots of accessories. And for Chad it was dangerous because…well it was a shop that sold bits and pieces of computers. I present, Chad in the land of Motherboards…. There was lots and lots of looking and examining and walking in circles, but in the end Chad left without purchasing a single thing. I, on the other hand…I got new toys! Who in the world would ever have thought I would have a phone that has 2 GB of storage or that so much stuff could fit on such a tiny piece of plastic. Chances of me losing that SD card? Extremely High.

Finally back in the land of Golden Domes and so forth, we took a trip to see the newest member of the Berry Clan. After all this time (just over 34 years) Mamaw is now a Great-Grandmother courtesy of my cousin Shelly. And truth be told, while The Tossers were awesome and it’s always fun to visit Chicagoland, we really came up to see Jackson and Shelly. He was doing the obligatory baby thing of sleeping when we arrived and woke up long enough to demonstrate how strong he is. Man, who would expect a month-old to nearly be able to fling himself off my lap? Uh, not me. But no worries, I wrestled him into submission.

Without any fanfare, I present the link to the rest of THIS set of pictures. More posted shortly.

[Show as slideshow]

 

It was with a little trepidation, therefore, that I signed on for yet another adventure along that cagey river. My decision was in no way influenced by the following:

• I didn’t have to work the next day and so was free to spend quality time nursing my new (if any) injuries.
• It was the single day of sunshine promised all week.
• The cache had been DNF’d several times recently
• The cache owner was going to be there with a fresh ammo can

Meeting up with the cache owner and his squeaky Jeep, and knowing that Route 7 is a windy evil thing, I offered to drive. It was that or spend the entire journey with my head hung out the window trying not to barf on the AquaJeep.

First stop as we played, “Hey have you got this cache yet?” was Multi at the Mart by the very evil wvhunter. Stage 1, no problem. Parked right in front of it. Stage 2 seemed as if it would be no problem until I got there and realized that I was going to be giving blood for this cache. I poked, I prodded, I climbed the pile o’stuff and came up empty. “^%$###@@$#$%@!)(*&*&^” I thought to myself.

After trying remarkably hard not to maim myself, I was ready to call it a DNF from my perch atop the pile o’stuff, but Aquacache (who had in fact been FTF) and was better dressed to battle the pointy plants continued on until the wondrous sound of wood striking plastic was heard. And there was rejoicing.

Having bested one of the brothers, there was time for a very quick stop at Browns Park Cache, which I should have found ages ago. Forgoing the bug spray (because I’m dumb) I marched to the hide which was guarded by a million mosquitoes. Oh boy, no good came of that I can tell you. Beat a hasty retreat to the Mighty Vue and finally off to the parking for A Hike on the Cheat.

The river was running nice and fast, but not nearly high enough to have wiped out the cache. Glad I wasn’t around that day because it had clearly happened since not only was the original Can gone, the rock that had helped hold it in place had been moved a bit.

So, signed the log, popped in a horse shoe and hung out and waited while the cache owner tried to wedge the new (and smaller) ammo can in place. Let’s hope teh water doesn’t come back another time.

So that accomplished and with still plenty o’daylight left we headed back to the “scenic view of river” waypoint. Was hoping to see some kayakers in action on this trip, but no such luck. But since it was such a nice spot, we stopped and refueled – mmm, melted chocolate chip granola bar and mashed herb and cheese crackers. Now that’s good eatin’

So, in short. Nice hike. Nice hide. Beautiful scenery. Go do it now. Yes, now. Go. Hurry. Now.