Merry Christmas...
This Christmas began with a trip out to Leominster to stay with my dad, BomberJohn, on Christmas Eve night. The next day I unwrapped four great new 2006 Massachusetts geocoins (a collectors set and an extra nickel version for logging). I was also able to log many new geocoins that my dad had recently received thrrough trading with his friend frf. He even gave me a Travel Bug dogtag that he had received from the previous SNEG monthly event. After a couple days of celebrating the holiday, we figured it was time to get out and hunt down a few caches across the border of New Hampshire.
Before actually making our way across the northern border, we decided to try for two caches in our home state of Massachusetts in Ashburham. The caches were Mike's Midstate Movie Madness (GC5281) and Mt. What da heck? (GCH0HQ) in Ashburham State Forest. Mt. What da heck? actually ended up being a climb to the top of the 1800', Mt. Watatic, which may have had some of the coolest trail I've seen while geocaching. Once at the top, BomberJohn and I could see for quite a way. After finding these caches, we hiked back out to the car and drove north to the Granite State.
The first cache that we found in the state was Conversville Cache (GCMA22), which was an average cache hike along the edge of a pond just off of Rt. 119. Once at the cache, we were suprised to open it up and find one of frf's signature plastic corkscrews. The next cache was the Stearns Lamont Forest Cache (GCVJVN), which was just up the highway. The hike in was about a quarter of mile. At the cache site we were almost stumped for a minute, until I happened to stumble opon the container. We both left with GPSrs in hand and headed over to the pizza reastaurant just 100 yards down the street from the trail entrance and as we left for a few more before calling it a day, I thought, "where is my GPSr?" After searching the road, the trail, and the restaurant thoroughly, results came back negative and so I was forced to say good by to my good old Garmin Legend. Still, neither geocachers or the restaurant have contacted me with any information. After the experience of losing my Legend, we continued on with BomberJohn's 60CS at the Wheeler Trail cache (GCTP1J), which was a very cleverly camoflagued cache in an area of very bad receiption. After carefully searching for about fifteen minutes, BomberJohn spotted it, we quickly logged the find, and we hopped back into the car to find What A Birch Of A Cache (GCKYJB ). This was an even more clever hide created by the owner of the previous cache, with better coverage and a better hint. Again it was BomberJohn who was able to picked this one out and after logging it and hiking to the car, we drove to the parking for Apocalypse of The Well School (GCWFRQ) as the sun began sinking low. We dashed through the woods along the hilly trail, to the cache area, it took nearly fifteen minutes to find, but we were successful and did our usual log sign. The trails were only slightly lighted by the twilight and by the time we were back in the car, the were almost completely in the darkness of night.
Over the next few days, BomberJohn and I looked at a situations of getting me a new GPSr and we settled on the idea that I would buy his for a cheap price and he would buy the upgraded 60CSx. I also decided to purchase a years Premium Membership to Geocaching.com, as I had postponed doing so for too long. When I got home, I had to try out my new GPSr on a newly available member's cache, Historic MA RR Station Series-#10 Uxbridge (GCR6BR), which was in the center of the nearby town of Uxbridge. When I first walked in the door from my stay at my dad's I was happy to see that the gpsfun Volunteer Geocoin (TBP631) I had won was sitting right on my dinner table. Also, with new cache notifications, I received an e-mail on Saturday morning that Stanley's Backyard (GC102C1) been placed. I raced out the door, only to find four previous finders' logs, as I was later than most because I had had to work early that morning.
Before actually making our way across the northern border, we decided to try for two caches in our home state of Massachusetts in Ashburham. The caches were Mike's Midstate Movie Madness (GC5281) and Mt. What da heck? (GCH0HQ) in Ashburham State Forest. Mt. What da heck? actually ended up being a climb to the top of the 1800', Mt. Watatic, which may have had some of the coolest trail I've seen while geocaching. Once at the top, BomberJohn and I could see for quite a way. After finding these caches, we hiked back out to the car and drove north to the Granite State.
The first cache that we found in the state was Conversville Cache (GCMA22), which was an average cache hike along the edge of a pond just off of Rt. 119. Once at the cache, we were suprised to open it up and find one of frf's signature plastic corkscrews. The next cache was the Stearns Lamont Forest Cache (GCVJVN), which was just up the highway. The hike in was about a quarter of mile. At the cache site we were almost stumped for a minute, until I happened to stumble opon the container. We both left with GPSrs in hand and headed over to the pizza reastaurant just 100 yards down the street from the trail entrance and as we left for a few more before calling it a day, I thought, "where is my GPSr?" After searching the road, the trail, and the restaurant thoroughly, results came back negative and so I was forced to say good by to my good old Garmin Legend. Still, neither geocachers or the restaurant have contacted me with any information. After the experience of losing my Legend, we continued on with BomberJohn's 60CS at the Wheeler Trail cache (GCTP1J), which was a very cleverly camoflagued cache in an area of very bad receiption. After carefully searching for about fifteen minutes, BomberJohn spotted it, we quickly logged the find, and we hopped back into the car to find What A Birch Of A Cache (GCKYJB ). This was an even more clever hide created by the owner of the previous cache, with better coverage and a better hint. Again it was BomberJohn who was able to picked this one out and after logging it and hiking to the car, we drove to the parking for Apocalypse of The Well School (GCWFRQ) as the sun began sinking low. We dashed through the woods along the hilly trail, to the cache area, it took nearly fifteen minutes to find, but we were successful and did our usual log sign. The trails were only slightly lighted by the twilight and by the time we were back in the car, the were almost completely in the darkness of night.
Over the next few days, BomberJohn and I looked at a situations of getting me a new GPSr and we settled on the idea that I would buy his for a cheap price and he would buy the upgraded 60CSx. I also decided to purchase a years Premium Membership to Geocaching.com, as I had postponed doing so for too long. When I got home, I had to try out my new GPSr on a newly available member's cache, Historic MA RR Station Series-#10 Uxbridge (GCR6BR), which was in the center of the nearby town of Uxbridge. When I first walked in the door from my stay at my dad's I was happy to see that the gpsfun Volunteer Geocoin (TBP631) I had won was sitting right on my dinner table. Also, with new cache notifications, I received an e-mail on Saturday morning that Stanley's Backyard (GC102C1) been placed. I raced out the door, only to find four previous finders' logs, as I was later than most because I had had to work early that morning.
posted by BomberJjr at 8:30 PM
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