VISIBILITY UNLIMITED

Yesterday Joyce & I headed up to the Highland Scenic Highway to scout some locations for a forthcoming cache I'm working on (wimps, weenies, and whiners need not apply). We found the sites we needed, enjoyed our hike, and got to enjoy one of the very few nearly perfect days for long distance seeing. Check 'em out:

For those who enjoy such things, there is already some snow on the ground at the higher elevations.

NOT A DAY FOR WEENIES

We were at it again yesterday, and it wasn't pretty--the weather I mean. Not a day for weather weenies (think chill, drizzle, wind, etc) or tiskaidekaphobics--those afraid of the letter 13, or things in groups of 13. Or even aroma weenies. More on that in a minute.

Check out some of our 13 finds on the day:

This one was entitled "The Smelly Cache". Why? Because it was located near (very near) a sewerage pumping station, and it took a long time to find into the bargain.

On the other hand, this was my 100th find since I've been GC'ing. BatikFreak10 was thoughtful enough to keep track and present me with a nice certificate of achievement she had made at the appropriate time. For a little sister, she's not too bad :-)

And this lovely spot, less than 100ft from a busy highway was not for terrain weenies either. Getting there was most of the fun!! We had to rock hop a creek--neither of us fell in, but that's a story for another time. Then it was creep through a heavy Rhododendron slick (some might call it an extensive stand)--uphill-- to reach the interesting rocks shown. The cache was an easy find once we got to the spot. Fun!!

Finally, it was not a day for daytime weenies either. We ran out of daylight getting this one. BF10 is filling out the log while I pretend to take photos from the actual cache location so as not to attract too much muggle interest.


13 for 13 for the day!! Not too bad, and my 100th into the bargain, and as always, a good lunch.

ALMOST A BIKE TRIP

I'm not one usually given to doing things on the spur of the moment--ask BatikFreak10 about picking new caching locations when we haven't yet finished the list from last time. So Joyce was a little surprised Saturday morning when she got up and heard my announcement "We're going to Elkins today." Joyce is more flexible than I so she simply said OK, and off we went--after loading a few GC'ing locations up that way into my GPS. The primary reason for the trip was really an excuse to drive the S-80. I really like the S-80. It easily puts me back into the bike ride frame of mind. It's agile, handles the mountain curves almost as well as the BMW did...oh, and it's fast!!

Our caches in Elkins were quickly found. I didn't pick the hardest ones available. Here I am dropping off a travel bug I picked up in Beckley a few weeks ago. Travel bugs can be attached to any object the owner desires--in this case a toy car--and given some assigned task. Travel around the state, the country, even the world are all standard travel bug tasks. Each bug is assigned a specific code number and can be followed on line as it makes its way from cache to cache. This one is taking part in a cross country race from NC to California.

After the caching duties were completed it was katy bar the door as far as the drive was concerned!! Back into full bike ride mode. We traveled quickly around the curves, passed others in what most would consider a too short passing zone (they weren't, what with bike like power on tap) and broke speed laws. Some laws we broke a little, others a lot. In the interest of full disclosure here, Joyce is as guilty as I when it comes to speed laws and sailing around curves. We've had to put aside the bike ride mentality for some years... now it seems to be back as strong as ever!!

I wonder if they'll let us join the "Sons of Anarchy"?

SNOW JOB

Yesterday Joyce wanted to go up to the Monongahela Forest (Kennison Mountain) and walk in the woods a little. Since there were a couple of caches up there that needed our visit it seemed like a good idea to get them before true winter set in. What we found was that winter was already well on its way at 4000ft. Nice walk and pretty scenes. Enjoy :-)

THEY'RE NOT ALL EASY

Do you see me way up there poking around? No, I'm not at the cache yet, I've still got several feet to climb, but I thought I'd check this spot while on my way to the more likely hide...

BatikFreak10 (Sister Sally) and I had a Waypoint_Wayne cache first on our list a couple of days ago. W_W is a great cacher. If you've been reading along he's the guy who set up the cache at which you had to listen to a telephone message to find the combination to a lock that had to be opened... You get the idea--he's clever!!

This time he had us running to a Mabscott WV cemetery to read an epitaph. The letters in the epitaph had to be converted to number values to give the coordinates for the actual cache location. The actual cache was only a few minutes drive from the cemetery, but the area was completely wild.

And then there was the climb to the cache itself. Pitons and rope would not have been out of order. But we prevailed!!

Later we ran into what is probably another Waypoint_Wayne cache, but under a slightly different name. This one was at the end of a very well-to-do street in Beckley WV, but was again a world away--in a very wild and secluded spot. The cache dealt with some tragic Beckley area history. There had been a massive explosion at the Raleigh Coal & Coke mine in 1940 (sound familiar?), and 9 miners died. In addition to the usual cache goodies, this site contained an extensive history of the disaster complete with reprints of newspaper articles and maps. Wonderful find.


Tough day. Our finds were not easy, physically and mentally. It seems there is more to Geocaching than just running around signing a log and collecting toys. We had a rewarding day.