2015-05-26: Out For A Drive Geocaching in Crystal River

For today's Geocaching drive, we decided to go someplace new. We had taken Hwy 50 all the way west to the Gulf of Mexico before. So this time we decided to drive Hwy 44 all the way to Crystal River.

Taking the Florida Turnpike north all the way to I-75, the next exit it Hwy 44. We exit there and head west, seeing what was there along the way. We stopped for several caches in Inverness including this creative, funny, or maybe you consider disgusting cache. Can you see the cache container? Yeah, it's under the fake poop!

From there we drove straight out to the end in Crystal River and Fort Island Park. Looking north you can see the nuclear power plant. From there we turned back and found five more caches in the area heading home.

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. 

2015-05-16: Ghost Town Cemetery and Geocaching with Friends

Today we were meeting some friends to go Geocaching on the west side of I-4 in Sanford, FL. They were driving down from North Florida and wasn't going to get there until late morning. So with Candy and I having time to spare, we decided to get some of the other area caches before hand.

Did you know there was a ghost town right there off of Hwy 46? Probably thousands of people drive by on that busy highway every day and not know about it. Well thanks to Geocaching, it told us there was once a small town there called Ethel established back in the 1800's. We parked down the road to the Rock Spring Run State Preserve and made the 1.5 mile round trip hike to visit the Ethel Cemetery.

After returning to our car, we made our way over to meet up with HorseshoeChamp, Geoturtlelover, and Parkhoppers to find the "Lucky 7" series of puzzle caches nearby. It was a pretty fun time and we ended finding a total of 39 caches for the day before heading home.

2015-05-03: Geocaching in Sumter County Florida

For today's adventure, we decided to drive west over to Sumter County, Florida. After driving up the Florida Turnpike and exiting onto State Road 50, our first stop was the Cracker Barrel in Clermont for a big breakfast! Then we continued west into Sumter County.

We then turned north onto US-301 and started Geocaching along the way. A few miles up the road was an undeveloped community that came to a halt during the real estate bust. There were 7 caches hidden among the pot holed roads and overgrown lots.

After that we continued west on Hwy 50 a few miles over to Withlacoochee Trail State Park. Instead of taking the paved trail, we took the Ridge Manor Trail Head into the woods. We hiked about a mile and found three caches, but wasn't much in a hiking mood. So we decided to return here another day and continued our drive.

We made our way over to CR-673 and completed the SKP power run of caches. We found 37 caches in total, saw a lot of ranches and pastures, and just enjoyed the day.