2015-06-06: From Weir-dos to Hiking to Climbing Trees

Today was a mix of a little bit of everything. Taking Candy's granddaughter along with us, we started out in the Dr. Phillips area having lunch at The Greek Flame restaurant. I have hidden a Geocache there on their patio and just recently someone stole the contents out of it. And next week I'm hosting another Geocaching event there.

After lunch we drove down the street by the library to grab an Earthcache about Weir Dams. Behind the library and along Dr. Phillips Rd are several Weir Dams one after another that help to slow the flow of water. We strolled along side getting the answers we needed for the cache, took some pictures, and headed back to the car.

We then headed down to St Cloud and further south on Canoe Creek Rd. The next cache was a short hike in Parker Hammocks, the Prairie Lakes Unit of the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area.

From there we continued on Canoe Creek Rd over to US-441 south towards YeeHaw Junction. We found several more of those Puzzle / Challenge caches along the roadside and a few more traditional caches. Two of which were my favorite tree climbing caches! Makes me feel like a kid again.

I hope you are enjoying our adventures. Feel free to leave your comments. We'd love to hear from you. Until next time...

2015-05-24: Geocaching Power Run and Short Hike

Today we returned to find more of the power run caches along US-441 near YeeHaw Junction. After Geocaching 2 hours and 31 caches later, the heat had gotten to us and we called it quits with the power run. Driving down to State Road 60 turning east, we headed for Blue Cypress Lake.

There were another 12 caches along Blue Cypress Lake Rd and we found those too. The last of which was a nice little hike down a trail through the swamp. The last two caches down at the end on the lake by Middleton Fish Camp we couldn't get too because we didn't want to get wet.

We called it a day after hanging out by the lake for a few minutes and then headed back for home. Until next time...

2015-05-17: Geocaching, GeoArt, Power Run and Baseball

OK let me just make this announcement: I do NOT like baseball, I don't know much about baseball, even more so I don't know anything about the New York Yankees! Why do I start with these statements you ask? Because in order for us to find today's bunch of Geocaches, I had to spend a couple of hours researching New York Yankees trivia! 

Today we were heading south to go Geocaching along US-441 between Holopaw and YeeHaw Junction. Along 30 mile that stretch of road you'll find hundreds of caches. At the north end nearest Holopaw, is a group of puzzle caches that form the New York Yankees logo into a GeoArt design. To solve the puzzles and get the correct coordinates for the caches you have to answer trivia questions for the Yankees. 40 questions in all and 40 questions to Google and look up! Ugh!

Anyway, we drove down to start finding the caches and encountered a rain shower. We had to drive several miles through the rain to get past it. So we skipped the first 15 or so caches and started near the middle. We worked our way south getting the remaining puzzle caches.

After those we encountered those caches which we had already found the last time we were down this way. So we drove past all those until we got to my previous DNF called "Treediculous." Remember that one? I spent about 20-30 minutes up in the tree only to come away without a find? Anyway this time I was determined to find it! I climbed up again and after about 15 minutes, I found it! YAY!! That made the day!

After the tree climb, we continued south and picked up where we previously left off. About an hour later, we turned back around towards home stopping to find those few we passed earlier because of the rain. We completed our second GeoArt. 

2014-10-26: A Power Run, A Tree Climb, and a Lakeside Stroll

Today's Geocaching adventure takes us south of Orlando and down into Osceola County. Last year another Geocacher decided to hide caches along US441 from Holopaw all the way down and beyond Yeehaw Junction. For 40 miles and about every 520'-600' there's a cache hidden. This is whats called a power run. Not much in the way of exciting or fun caches, but definitely a way of increasing your find count.

We started out a little bit late in the morning and we took Candy's granddaughter along with us. Well the only sightseeing down that way is the occasional group of cows or a floating butterfly. She was having fun for probably the first half. But after 41 quick park & grab caches, someone was way past bored by now.

There was one unique cache mixed in with the rest called Treediculous. It was rated a Difficulty of 5 and a Terrain of 4.5 on a scale of 1-5. All I know was that I get to pretend I'm a kid again and climb a tree! Yippee! I guess I climbed up about 20 ft and looked all over for a well hidden micro cache. I spent about 30-40 minutes up there looking under moss, among the leaves, different branches, but could not find it. While it drove me crazy, I still had fun. Having a DNF just means I get to climb it again the next time I'm down here!

Even though there were hundreds of caches left for us to find, we called it a day and drove back north up into St Cloud. We then stopped at Chisholm Park on the SE banks of the East Lake Tohopekaliga. There we enjoyed some of the more natural aspects of the lake with the large oaks and various wildlife.

The last stop before heading home was the recently renovated Lakefront Park located at the southernmost part of East Lake Tohopekaliga. We strolled the paved walking trails, took some photos, and the granddaughter got to play on the playground. It was a nice end to a beautiful day!