One Cache Found In Fuquay Varina, NC - Good Enough

I just had a day at work today and was in a mood that stated, "Must Get Out" or maybe it was my wife giving me a loving suggestion to go geocaching for an hour or so. It was late in the evening and I only had about an hour before the sun was completely gone. So with no particular place to go I decided to head over to Fuquay Varina, NC. As I approached a likely caching zone I remembered about a particular DNF I had from a few months ago. Why not, it was in a particularly wooded spot and with the sun fading fast I would have to look quickly. Boy what a difference that little amount of time makes. The area was now extremely overgrown and there was a ton of places for bad things to happen. A slightly steep but climbable downgrade, rusting metal, leg eating holes, spots for snakes to ambush and I personally saw four different types of spiders I had never seen before. Pity it was so dark out cuz I would have loved to have taken some nice closeup photos. Anyways, I finally made it down to what was left of the trail and looked at a very familiar spot. Shook my head and walked right up to ground zero and chose a likely spot. Sure enough there was the cache. Now in the photo I took out the actual cache for others who may recognize the background can enjoy the hunt as well. It is an area where an old mill once stood. Very peaceful with the sounds of the woods and water flowing over rocks which once powered a huge wheel.

It felt good being out in the fresh fall air and as I climbed out of the greenery my phone rang; it was Mrs. HeadHardHat wanting to go out for dinner. With the pangs of the day now subsided it just goes to show how geocaching can be such a stress relief. So the grand total of caches today was exactly one but that was more than good enough to help me find a little inner tranquility. Ahhhhhhh.

Adoption Cache Cleanup or My Afternoon in the Swamp

Had a great afternoon today. Started out by driving over to Fuquay-Varina, NC with the hopes of finding and if need be repairing some newly adopting caches.

My first stop was a bridge hide and before you start writing to me of the evils of such hides it is in the middle of nowhere. I too have seen the news with irresponsible hides in plain site of muggles under public bridges. For those who do this I can only remark " DON'T ! ". With this day and age of potential terrorism that strategy is pure stupidity. This hide however is on a back road with nobody for miles. The cache itself has been missing for months and I had already known it needed replacing. Since it was categorized as a micro I decided to go with something simple yet trustworthy. So my cache of choice was a 35mm canister with a magnet hold. I feel it will do the job and still give a slight challenge for those who seek it's smiley.

Next up was a cache that I originally did not feel comfortable going for earlier this year. It's called The Air In the Swamp is Terrible and at the time the thought of going deep into an unknown swamp by myself just did not set right. It is set near Terrible Creek and the satellite shots I had observed in Google Earth showed extreme swamp terrain nearby and I was just not ready for that yet. Fortunately for me I did go for it's sister cache The Swamp King and that was enough swampish fun for me.

Now that I have cached for a while I was actually looking forward to this afternoon hike. After parking in a convenient spot near the trail head I put on my calf high boots, donned my baseball hat, took my favorite walking stick then trotted towards the little micro in a swamp. My GPS had a fresh set of batteries and I made sure that tracking was turned on. Which was a good thing because after a few hundred feet in the trail turned into pure bushwhacking. The ground was moist but not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. There were relatively few bugs shy of a dragonfly or an occasional mosquito. There were however a huge amount of spider webs everywhere and I ended up using my walking stick more like a light saber than for prodding the ground. The smell of the area was dank and the humidity seemed higher than by my car even though I did not see all that much open water. It was amazingly quiet and I could hear all sorts of wildlife around me. To my left and above my head I heard a distinctive "who-who-whooooooo" which repeated several times. Then in the distance it was repeated again. For an instant I had the privilege of spotting a Great Horned Owl in the upper branches of a tree. Apparently there were two of them and they were calling to each other. Very cool.

I continued on and eventually walked up to ground zero. I looked everywhere and after about an hour I made the decision to simply replace the cache. While still at the original coordinates I found an acceptable cache host and placed the micro in it's new home. For a moment I thought of actually putting a larger cache at this site but only six people have gone for it so far. If more interest is generated I may put one out there that rivals Swamp King. We shall see.

Speaking of The Swamp King, on the way back to my car I stopped off to check on this very cool cache. As the royal keeper of the swamp it is in perfect shape and ready for it's next finder. I really hope they have as much fun looking for these caches as I had today. What a grand little adventure and something I can add to my treasure trove of memories.

I must admit as I exited the canopy of trees and felt the pathways open up there was a moment of relief. I absolutely love taking long walks in the woods but there really is a difference when you walk in a swamp. You have to be much more cautious where you walk, where you put your hands and taking that extra step of safety. Not because there is something waiting to get you around every corner. I know there are snakes, spiders and other creepy crawlies out there. You just have to use some common sense and poke those unknown areas with a stick. Above all you also need to get past your fears and do some honest to goodness exploring. How many times do we get to do that now-a-days? Enjoy these moments that caching provides to us. They will be the stories we tell our grandchildren and the memories that will help to keep us young.

DogsGo2 Do A Switch-A-Roo To Grab FTF

A couple of days ago I placed a rather nasty little cache entitled Krazy Pooh and a Good BM (GC1ET94). Yeah I know what you are thinking and in part you are correct, The cache which was made from a Krazy Glue container and uniquely cammied ended up looking like a little turd. For starters I created three of these but I have a feeling there will be more. Must be the potty humor tickling my funny bone. Long story short this little cache was hidden in a nice shady spot with a valid Bench Mark nearby. So if you go for this cache you get two finds in one.

When I originally placed Krazy Pooh I was not entirely comfortable with the coords that were generated. So to be sure I took the long car ride out (okay it's less than a mile from my home) to re verify everything. I do this because I personally can't stand having a very well camouflaged cache 60 feet off and I did not want to do that to others; so off I went.

As I walked to the cache site I noticed someone already walking around. Without even clearly seeing them I shouted out "Did you find it yet"? I knew for sure it was cachers when I heard a muffled set of giggling coming from the other side of some young pines. That was when I introduced myself to Andy and Cindy a.k.a DogsGo2.

I really am glad I showed up when I did because it was clear to me the coords were off quite a bit and a general point helped get them looking in the right direction. As they searched we talked about our caching adventures and I found out that the caching couple live fairly close to this area. Zeroing in on ground zero they jokingly remarked that they did a switch-a-roo on everyone so they could get this FTF. It turns out on the same day Krazy Pooh went active they just published a dozen or so new caches west of us. Great tactic I thought to myself! Sure it was all coincidence but it is fun coincidences like this that make caching fun. With the sun slowly setting they split up and it was Cindy who found the cache. They have a great rivalry when it comes to caching and I think if she had an extra couple of seconds she would have loved signing the log, putting the cache back and let Andy struggle a little while longer hunting. Oh sweet victories, but Andy noticed she had found the prize. After putting back everything in its proper place we headed across the street to their first Bench Mark. As we looked in the tall grass the benchmark was found in short order and I showed how they can identify a benchmark by it's designated name.

With the sun now in it's last glimmers it was time to walk back to our vehicles and I smiled realizing how nice it was talking with DogsGo2 but it was time to say our farewell's. We of course traded cell phone numbers for that sometimes necessary PAF's and I would like to go caching with them sometime as well. I do so love being able to talk with fellow cachers. Putting names with faces makes going to events that much more enjoyable and you never know when you can invite nearby friends for a road trip. I wish Cindy and Andy all the best on their caching ventures and look forward to talking with them soon.

A Little Caching, A Little Rain, A Whole Lot of Friends

Had a really great day on Saturday. Spent the afternoon with my daughter Amanda (Geoness) caching in the Fuquay-Varina, NC area.

We started out by being able to get a handful of caches during the afternoon and even though we did not get huge numbers we did visit some real interesting places. For example, the photograph to the left shows the remains of an old mill off of Terrible Creek Pond. This was actually a DNF for us and with more search time I am sure we will eventually find the cache but that day we were tied to the clock and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. There were just so many areas the micro sized cache could be. Micros in general tend to be frustrating for me and after a short while my eyes were wondering much more on the actual mill wheel, granite pilings and other ancient tid bits that were just way too cool not to explore. We will come back soon and take another swing at this fun cache but for that afternoon more caches were waiting for us.





One of the most fun and most painful was a rather sharp edged adventure called The Heart of Fuquay which put us in a nice wood surrounded by wild raspberries and briers. It did not help that we were in shorts because of the heat but we managed to make it through and I just loved seeing Amanda's eyes get wide when we found the ammo box filled with goodies.

We traded a small tea set for Amanda with one of my signature first aid kits and the satisfaction of another smiley waiting for us when we log in at home.




Of course the icing on the cake for the day was attending the Our Friends the Wolves 5K Celebration Event. Here our good friend Horsegeeks a.k.a. Kenny and his wife hosted a fantastic get together at his home. The event was to celebrate the 5000th cache found by team Billwolf1 which is utterly amazing. About 30 of us invaded Horsegeeks Ranch where we had great food, fantastic conversation and a whole mob of fun people. Even though we did get a brief thunder boomer that came through it was not enough to even slow us down. What a fantastic time was had by all.

Daughter Geoness and HeadHardHat in Fuquay-Varina, NC

Well daughter Geoness and I took another swipe at Fuquay- Varina, NC for a couple of hours and pulled away with some nice nature trails and some Grab and Go's. Added ten caches to our ever growing list.

Seen to the left is her Geoness doing what she loves to do and that is finding ammo boxes. Sure she loves being first to find the micros. Mainly because the deal is who ever finds the cache first gets to sign first. But the ammo boxes is pure buried treasure.

I feel the same way too.. Shy of a half dozen ticks going for the ride we had a real great afternoon together.

I don't know who looks more forward to our time together but I know I am savoring mine while I can. She isn't going to stay 12 forever....

Only three until #200

Only three until #200.

We love benchmarks, it defines us and how we are doing in a particular point of interest.

In regards to Geocaching we count how many smilies we get or in other words how many caches we have found. I am just tickled pink to be hitting my 200th in the next day or so.

Shown above is #197 (Fuquay-Varina, NC) which means three more to go. Most likely will be tomorrow we will see but where or when ever it is I will post it here.

Swamp King Found! Fuquay -Varina, NC

Cache Found! Can we say SWAMP? Oh what fun and not a bad photo either. I was out by Fuquay-Varina, NC this afternoon. After getting all my chores done this morning and before the heavy rains came in I had some caching time by myself. One of my first tries was a little cache called The Swamp King. Now last year I am sure people had no problem walking right up to the cache due to the conditions of the drought. This year the drought is nothing but a memory and the swamp king was in his glory. Glad I had my calf high waders cuz I was gunna need them.

With my GPS in one hand and my walking pole in my other I did my little jaunt in the swamp. Black mud, skeeters, green vegetation everywhere. Was actually surprised that I did not bump into more wild life and/or snakes and other reptiles. Tons of birds but not a snake to be seen. Not even the usual hitchhikers. Though it definitely smelled and felt swampish.

Made short work of the very nicely hid cache, signed the log and traded one of my signature first aid kits for some poison ivy patches. Then off I go back whence I came.

The photo really tells it all. Lush green and a very eerie glow with the sun shining through the canopy. That was a very enjoyable trek.