2015-03-07: Geocaching Around Clermont and South Lake County

Right off the bat, we had a change of plans. Our initial plan for today was to head back up to the Ocala National Forest to do some more Geocaching. However as we were getting ready, I noticed a cache that had published 2 days ago up in Oakland had yet to be found. So off we went.

We drove quickly north up the Florida turnpike and exited off at Oakland. A few minutes later and we pulled into the Oakland Nature Preserve. It took a little bit trying to figure out the right trail getting back to the cache, but eventually we did it. After finding the cache container and opening a nice clean log sheet, we stamped our AwayWeGo to the top spot for the First To Find!

From there we just decided to head west over into the Clermont area for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and keep Geocaching in South Lake County. A few urban caches nearby before driving over to Lake Louisa Rd and two more caches within the Crooked River Preserve. A couple miles down the road was another cache at the entrance to the former Lake Susan Lodge. Probably a cool place back in the day, but now closed and gated off.

Making our way over to SR-33 and headed south, grabbing a few caches along the way. After finding 12 caches for the day we decided to head on back home. Maybe tomorrow we'll do our original plan of the ONF.

2015-02-21: Geocaching and a Long Hike in the Ocala National Forest

WOW, what a hike! Today we met up with another cacher, RD69, to hike another section of the Florida Trail through the Ocala National Forest. The rendezvous point was where the Florida Trail crosses Hwy 42 near Paisley. We left one car there, jumped into the other and drove around up to CR445 to begin the hike there.

We hiked a total of around 13 miles averaging between the 2 GPS's and one pedometer. Along the way we found 60 caches with only 2 DNF's. Another great day in the ONF grabbing caches, hiking, and enjoying the outdoors. What's next?

This tree looks like a gorilla ran into it at full charge!

This section had a boardwalk running through the scrub.

2015-02-15: Geocaching St Augustine, Green Cove Springs, and Palatka

A few days ago was the first anniversary of my first date with Candy. So we decided to spend the weekend up in St Augustine. Unfortunately, today was the day to head back home to Orlando. Instead of the direct I-95 to I-4 drive, we decided to take the scenic route. Even though she grew up in St Augustine, Candy didn't recall ever going west of I-95. So west it was!

We took State Road 16 westbound over to County Road 13 where we found our first cache on the pier at Outback Crab Shack. It was right on the banks of Six Mile Creek. It was a nice view of the river.

The cache was located down at the end of the pier.

From there we continued on SR-16 crossed the St Johns River over to Green Cove Springs. There was a virtual geocache at the springs. The city has built a circular walkway around the spring which flows out to the side. From there the water flows down and drains into the St Johns River.

We then followed US-17 south to Palatka where we found four more caches before heading home through the Ocala National Forest.

2015-02-08: Geocaching and Hiking in Gemini Springs Park Pt2

So today we drove back up to Gemini Springs Park in DeBary, FL to finish finding the remaining caches in the park. During the previous visit, we hiked the nature trails to the east. This time we hiked the paved trails to the south and west. A little bit longer a walk and found a total of 15 caches found. Another good day in the outdoors.

2015-02-07: Geocaching Power Trail in the Ocala National Forest

Today we took another drive up to the Ocala National Forest. This is practically a never ending place to go caching because before you can find them all, they get archived and replaced with new caches due to several events held up here throughout the year. We don't have the opportunity to spend much time up here, so we don't come even close to getting them all!

Anyway, today was a day for the quick (hopefully! some can be challenging) power run along the roadside. Not a day for photo opps, just some park and grabs. But we did manage to find 35 more caches in about 2 hours time up here.

And as usual when leaving the ONF, we stopped at Beef O'Brady's in Umatilla to eat. Not a whole lot of choices in Umatilla anyway.

See ya next time...