Rt. 395: Up, Down, and All Around

After getting out of work early yesterday, I decided to call up Snidy to see if he wanted to go out geocaching. I had a few scattered ones that I had been keeping my eye on and was in posession of a southbound geocoin. I ended up selecting two caches from the Webster/Dudley area, Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubuna (GCCC88) and Crawford Notch Cache (GCW4PX), which only be a short ride on 395 south and one in Auburn, Eddy Pond Bug Hotel (GCHHPH), for which we would drive to by means of 395 north and drive through a few back roads to return to Snidy's house afterward.
We pulled into the parking entrance to the Webster Lake cache (Chargogg...) and were completely shocked by the $20 parking fee. After learning of the price, we said no thanks and put the Cachemobile in reverse. From looking at previous logs, it looks like a visit after 5 PM will get me in there without handing over an arm and a leg to accomplish the easy find. Though bummed after the failure to get this cache, Snidy and I continued on to find Crawford Notch Cache at Ardlock Acres in Dudley. This was plot of land donated by the Crawford family, with a few nice trails that seem to have been worn in by ATVs. It was a nice little hike out to the cache site, which itself was a pretty nice place to stop and check out the cache. I actually left the Alec's Tribute Geocoin that I found last week in Auburn in this cache and picked up a Birdsong-n-Bud wooden nickel to add to my signature item collection. We hiked back out to the car and hopped back on 395 to Auburn.
In Auburn, we checked out theEddy Pond Bug Hotel, which BomberJohn had done monthes before. Just as my dad saw old men roaming around in the area, Snidy and I saw an older man doing just that. He eventually went back to his car and admired the pond. Once he was out of the direction we had to go, we got out of the car and took the short trek through the woods to the TB Hotel. The cache was an easy find. I took a MountainWanderer card to, again, add to the collection. Snidy and I then got out of there and went to his house to log our finds.