Geocaching

Rich Creek Riches

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GC3F0
37.684783 -81.933867

21-06-23 GC3F0

Awesome!

This trip I am has been haphazardly thrown together. I had this on the list as an add-on at the end of the trip if I felt like dropping down on the way home. More and more, I was thinking of lopping off this leg. But a change in plans over the weekend delayed my trip by a day. For some reason, I decided to do the loop I had planned (NJ>NY>PA>OH>MI>IN>KY>WV>VA?MD>DE>NJ) backwards. I had hopes of knocking this one out yesterday, but after I logged my VA cache, I saw I had seven more hours to get here. I thought it was seven hours from NJ. Yeah, I really didn’t plan. And then along the way I saw it was a two-hour hike. Huh? Yeah, no way there was time to bang that out yesterday. Then I totally missed the turn off the highway. I lost an hour backtracking. As I twisted and turned on all those back roads, I began to think I wouldn’t find a place to stay for the night. An hour+ from the highway, I hadn’t seen a place to stay or eat. When I came to the Stone Creek Lodge, I jumped at it even though it was 30 minutes out. Can’t say it was kind of place, but it was a bed; I needed one.

Woke up this morning and headed over to the mountain. The road in looked fine. Loved all the chickens. Then the pavement ended and up I went . . . and went . . . and went. I began thinking that I was nuts. What if I got stuck? No way anyone was going to rescue me up here. My trip would be ruined and I actually need my vehicle. It got rough. The ground was uneven and a major rut was what I was negotiating. I looked at the GPSr and was .9 miles away. Didn’t someone say they hiked from a mile out? Indeed they did. Somehow, I managed to turn around. I got to the “leveled” area and parked it. I used new tools on my vehicle on this trip: the two low gears and the parking brake. I live on a coastal plain; there are no hills let alone mountains. 🙂

At the last minute before I left yesterday, I tossed in a sweater. Well, that was still wet from yesterday’s downpour. I left the vehicle at 43° in shorts. Cold and wet I headed off. I hoofed it up. Yes, I breathed hard at first, but I got my wind and enjoyed thr journey.

Loved this hike. I truly enjoy working for my meal. Every step was a rise in elevation. At the end, I was pleased to have level ground for a few feet. And looky there, into the woods to boot. Lovely. Just lovely. And yes, at the end, an ammo can! I cannot think of a better experience.

Have to love that when I open a logbook of a cache 525 miles from home, I see locals’ names in it. It’s just like caching at home. Enjoyed that the original logbook is still there. It’s in rough shape. There are two other logbooks in addition. Neither is full.

A perma-smile implanted itself on my face here. It has lasted all day! This was just a splendid experience for me from start to finish. Thank you for keeping this one going; I appreciate it

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