2015-01-25: A Quick Greek Festival Followed by Geocaching

Today started out a little different than normal. We were headed up to Belleview, FL to attend the St Marks Greek Orthodox Church's annual Greek Festival. Being half Greek myself, I have been to a few of these in Orlando but it has been a long time. We were to meet up with some of my mother and other relatives there. However, when we arrived it was already packed!

After walking around the outside vendors and tables, we squeezed our way through the indoor fellowship hall where rows of tables for eating and watching, vendor tables lined the walls, a Greek band playing music on one side, and dancing in the middle. We finally managed to make our way through, viewing everything, and getting back outside where there was a little more breathing room!

Continuing looking around, I spotted my uncle and my cousin. My uncles wife wasn't feeling well and stayed home. My mother and other aunt hadn't arrived yet. We chatted for a few minutes, but it was too crowded for us to hang around any longer. So back in our car to go Geocaching and exploring the area.

We managed to find 13 Geocaches in the area, some longhorn cattle, and this huge oak tree. Another great day and another area explored. Where to next?

2015-01-17: Cacheapalooza 9 Geocaching and Hiking in Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Today was the day for Cacheapalooza 9, a huge Mega event located in South Florida at the Jonathan Dickinson State Park. A Mega event means that more than 500 geocachers have to log their attended in order to qualify. I think this is my 3rd trip done to a Cacheapalooza and Candy's first.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park is an 18 square mile park located just south of Stuart, FL in Martin County. It contains miles of hiking and biking trails, canoe and kayaking opportunities, and more.

They day started out fairly cool and warmed up slightly as we began hiking. We checked in, signed the log book, and looked around at the crowd to see if any of our caching friends were here. We saw some of their cars in the parking lot but not at the pavilion. They must be out already on the trails.

So Candy and I selected one of the many trails and began hiking through the scrub. Starting out at the pavilion, we headed north along the Kitching Creek Trail to the Connecting Trail finding caches along the way. That trail takes you over to the Red Loop Trail.

After hiking up the Red Trail for a little bit, I turned west on the Ocean to Lake Trail when I should have turned east. But I didn't have a trail map and I couldn't remember which way I had taken on previous visits. Anyway, we continue finding caches, crossed over Kitching Creek and turned left again on the multi-use trail headed south. This should take us back near the pavilion and the parking lot, right? Hmmm

Continuing south and grabbing caches, I noticed on my GPS that the caches started curving to the west past and away from the pavilion. Looking at the satellite view, there looked to be campsite trail that might cross back over the creek so we could return to the pavilion. Well the photo below shows what we found at the end of the trail. There was no bridge to cross over to the other side.

So it was either continue southwest and loop WAY around the bottom and then back north OR backtrack the way we came. We chose the shorter backtrack route! After six miles of hiking, we finally made it back to the pavilion. Saw a couple of friends and chatted for a little bit. Then we drove into town and found a Chili's to grab some food, drink, and relax a while before the long drive back up to Orlando.

Another great day of adventure! See ya next time...

2015-01-03: Geocaching with Friends in the Ocala National Forest

It's always fun to go Geocaching with a group of friends and yesterday (Jan 3rd) was one of those days. We met up with YankaBucs, MsYB, HorseshoeChamp, Geoturtlelover, and ItchyFeet2Wander in the Ocala National Forrest to find the TAFF and Breaking Bad series of caches. It was a fun fast day in the ONF and we managed to find 65 caches before Candy and I called it a day and headed home. Didn't take a whole lot of pictures except for this creative cache container and a couple of deer and bear tracks.
Today (Jan 4th) Candy and I drove back up to the ONF again to find some more of the TAFF series of caches along with a few others mixed in along the way. We added 42 caches to the found column today.

2015-01-01: Geocaching a Power Run and a FTF

Today was a day for some easy Geocaching finds to boost my finds total. There was a power run down near Bartow that I had started a couple years ago, but never finished. Today would be a good day for that.

On the way down however, we stopped in South Clermont near the Four Corners area to grab a few new caches that had recently been placed. There were four along CR474 and we managed to be First To Find on one and Second on the other three. Yippee! It's always fun to get the FTF!

After that, we continued towards Bartow. We ended up with 28 caches for the day, a FTF, a nice drive enjoying the fresh air, but only one photo... this pretty cool moth on a tree:

2014-12-26: Geocaching and Hiking Wekiva River Preserve

Today was a day to go hiking in Florida! It was nice and cool, yet clear and sunny. Perfect weather for a long hike through the woods and Geocaching. We drove up to the Lower Wekiva River Preserve State Park which is located west of Sanford, Florida along State Road 46.

It was a nice hike at around 8 miles. Even going through the scrub with full sun was bearable because of the cool temperature. We were here a few months back, but it was too hot and didn't get very far. We found a total of 11 Geocaches and DNF'd two. Overall it was a great day.