Geocaching and Letterboxing in New Milford PA (with spoilers)

A friend on facebook was interested in seeing what geocaching was all about so I offered to take her with me. She took me up on that and on the morning of September 27 we headed to our first stop at the New Milford Cemetery. 

The geocache was called "New Milford Cemetery". It was hidden in an old stone wall. I really don't like old stone wall hides as people will ruin them to get to a cache but this one was easily able to be spotted without any trouble. 

In the same cemetery a letterbox was hidden. It was called "See Ya Later!!" We had to reach in the dirt between a small set of steps to find the little letterbox container. This carving was a treasure chest or suitcase (?) but I'm not sure how it fits in with the theme. 

The second geocache we went to find was Highland Falls Cache. We had to park along the side of the road as there really was no pull off. Then we had to descent over the guardrails to the waterfall. 

This took us a really long time to find but finally while climbing a really steep cliff I found it stuck in hollow of a tree. 

I picked up a trackable here called Geocache Trails. 

The third geocache we went to find was Don't Fall. This was hidden in the base of a tree by a creek. I think more exciting then finding the cache was the view underneath the concrete bridge next to it and the pretty ivy growing all over nearby. I am tempted to go back and dig some up to bring home to grow inside.

The last geocache we went to find was called View of the Creek. We looked around for along time and we could not find it. My gps had me going all over the place. I had to go home to get my children off the bus from school so I will have to try finding it again another time.

I created 2 geocaches & found 2 more (with spoilers)

I had been wanting to make my own geocaches since I got started geocaching about a year and a half ago. I made one but wanted to wait until I got a handheld gps so I could get more accurate coordinates. I finally got one and set out to place two geocaches on September 22.

Down the road is a tiny little old Jail. The road is called Jail Hill and some locals never realized what the building is or how the road got its name. The building is leaning quite badly and I think in a few years it will collapse. I've thought over the years how neat it would have been if someone had moved it and restored it to create a little town historical society. I wanted to bring people here to see it and learn a little about the areas history by placing a geocache there named Jail Hill.  It is on a very sharp corner and has a terrible bees nest on the front of it so I placed it down the street in site of the jail. It is hidden in a guard rail.

My husband died on March 22, 2011 and although he hated the outdoors and likely never would have gone geocaching if I was interested in it before he died I still wanted to create a geocache for him. After a lot of running back and forth to the Lakeview cemetery and my house I finally got it all in place. Behind his grave he is directly between two trees. I put a hook in the tree and hung a bottle from it that I had added a key ring to and covered with camo tape.  I would have loved to make it a theme of things my husband liked but I would have needed a larger container and there is very few places I could put a cache near his grave. I named this Remembering Jim.

When I can't find a geocache I add it to my watch list. When someone finds it sometimes I get a good hint that sends me back looking for it. This is the case with Billy Greenwood. Someone posted that they returned to look again and saw that a new bridge had been made. Last time I looked for this I couldn't figure out where to cross the water and realized their must have been a bridge that got washed out in one of the floods. I went back and finally found this cache (a medicine bottle) hidden in a tree. GZ was in awful shape. There was broken tvs and other garbage all over.

I happened to check the app and see if there were any new ones nearby and I saw one was placed at the Reddon's Sports Complex. I stopped and grabbed the FTF at this cache called Play Ball!!. I have gotten 3 FTFs now! It was a magnetic key holder stuck to the underside of a drinking fountain.

This brought my geocache total finds up to 126.

Geocaching adventures 9-21-16 (with spoilers)

There were a few new geocaches placed locally so I decided to get them as well as taking the remainder of the day to find some other older geocaches.

The first cache was called Forever Asleep. It was located in North Jackson Cemetery. I was the third person to find this. It was hidden in a very old stone wall. There was a nice bench you could sit on in front of the cache. There was a cute little ice cream eraser in the cache. My son eats chocolate ice cream every night for a bed time snack so I took this home for him and left something in its place.

The second geocache was called Take Comfort. I was the second one to find this geocache. It was located in a guardrail near Comforts Pond. I had never been there before but knew that people go fishing so I wanted to walk the trails to check things. As I headed down the main trail to the water I just about smack ran into a guy pooping. Long story short he was traveling across country on his bike. He had camped there for the night and making his way from New York to California.

The third geocache was called The Button Bottle. I expected this to be a lot harder then it was. I read the hint before I left which was "Stuck between a rock and an IDLE place". When I arrived at the coordinates I knew exactly where it was located. The hint was perfect. I didn't have many interesting buttons at home to trade but I took a seashell that someone left in there and dropped in a few buttons.

The next one was a bit further then I expected but it promised a nice view. It was called Ararat Cemetery. This was a larger container then the cemetery I had been to earlier but was also hidden in an old stone wall. The view was nice but was blocked by tall trees in the distance so I couldn't get a very good picture. However as I was walking I noticed this beautiful gravestone. You can tell how much this boy is loved by those he left behind.

A friend of mine had told me that a geocache had been placed at her farm. It is a wedding venue and bed and breakfast. The cache is called Fiddle Lake Farm. A bride and groom placed this cache on an old piece of farming equipment on the property. It was such a neat little hide. This was a lot neater hide then a guard rail cache and dash!

By this point I was terribly in need of a bathroom so I headed to a near by gas station called Arlo's. I did a search and found that there was geocache hidden there called ACS Micro. The gps had me going all over the place. I wandered through the woods on the opposite side of the road and everything. It was pretty embarrassing. The hint was terrible it said "Yes it is there!" That could be anywhere! I finally found it hidden under an old broken guardrail post that was laying almost flat on the ground.

Down the road a little ways was a geocache called Heading to the Lake. I had heard of Belmont Lake but had never been there until looking for this cache. It literally was along the road to the lake. It was a little bottle covered in camo tape hidden at the base of a speed limit sign.

I decided to head for home. I guess I wasn't really thinking very clearly and paying enough attention as I got pulled over by the police for speeding. I never speed so when I got pulled over I wasn't even sure why I was being pulled over. I was thankfully given a warning but I was pretty shaken up. I wanted to end my day on a better note so instead of heading home I headed to find another geocache before my kids got home from school.

 I went back to McKune Cemetery to look for a tiny geocache I couldn't seem to find a few days before. It was called Life's Harmony. The coordinates led me to a fenced in gravestone area. The hint was "Not on a hill" The last name on the gravestones were Cahill so I knew I was at the right spot. Today I found it quite easily. It felt wonderful to find this! I was the 5th one to find this geocache and I ended my day finding 8 geocaches!

Found two more geocaches bringing my total to 116 (with spoilers)

Sunday morning (September 18, 2016) I woke up very late and checked the geocaching app to see if there were any new ones nearby. There was a new one and it had not been found yet. I threw clothes on and hopped in my van to go look for it.

This geocache is called Peaceful Somber. It is located in a cemetery. I found it hidden in a tree in the middle of the cemetery. I did not intend to be the FTF but it worked out that way anyway so that's cool I have two under my belt now.

I picked up a brand new trackable called Eileen the Cat travel tag. I haven't found to many tags but this was the first that I was the FTF on. What was really sweet in this cache was the owners left a dog bone for the geodogs. Usually the FTF goes to a guy who takes his precious two dogs with him everywhere he goes.

I took my kids up to Staples to let my daughter spend a gift card she had won. As we were leaving I checked to see if there were any goecaches nearby. In the same parking lot was one called Tis the Season for Goodwill. It was hidden under a light pole near the Goodwill Store. Very cute name for the cache but it could easily be seen by muggles. 

Finding some new geocaches in an attempt to get a FTF (with spoilers)

Two women in town have created a bunch of geocaches. I have never had a FTF as I do not have the upgraded membership so I am not alerted to new caches in the area. They told me the caches they hid were active so I went to look on the morning of September 17, 2016.

I decided to look for start with Life is Grand. I drove to the wrong cemetery at first and then had to head down the street. I headed to GZ and looked around for a very long time but could not find this geocache anywhere. My cell phone had really a really bad gps signal this weekend so the closest accuracy I could get was 200 feet. I looked around in pretty much every tree near GZ and finally found it. I was so excited to get my first FTF!

As I was logging my find on the app and leaving a truck pulled up and two guys and three dogs came into the cemetery. This was TundraWolf and MrMacMan2u and their dogs Luna, Jewel and Meeka. The dogs were so sweet and friendly. I got some really good advice on handheld gps's. They looked for the cache and it was not where it was supposed to be. I pointed them in the correct direction and they found it about 80 feet from where the coordinates said on the app.

The second cache I went to find was The Sign of the Cross. This cache got its name because on the satellite image the huge trees along the path in the cemetery look like they form a cross. This cache was much easier to find. It was a coppenhagen can covered with camo tape. It was slid under a monument. I ran into TundraWolf and MrMacMan2u again here and we discovered this cache together. It was at that point I noticed his truck had a huge sticker on the window of a travel bug. When I remarked about it they told me it is a real travel bug that I can log. I thought that was probably one of the coolest ideas I had heard!

The third cache was Susquehanna Bridge Part 2. When I arrived I saw another geocacher Jon884 there trying to find it. He said he had been looking for a half hour and could not find it anywhere. Together he and I looked for a half hour and finally had to give up. I texted the girl who created this one asking for another hint. She told me that it had been moved and the coordinates were being updated. So while this should have been a quick cache and dash it had me and this other guy crawling around on the bridge looking everywhere for it. It was pretty humorous really. I went home and waited to hear back from her and the guy went to eat lunch at a local cafe. She told me that it was moved to the other side of the bridge near a flag. I knew exactly where that was. I messaged the geocacher and told him about it and headed to town. I went to the guardrail and there it was a magnet key holder with a log in it. Boy was I happy to find that and be done. It was in a pretty little spot where they moved it to.

This was a pretty cool thing that I got to meet three different geocachers today. TundraWolf has 13,696 geocache finds and over 900 are FTFs, MrMacman2uhas 950 finds and Jon884 has 3,658 finds. I am at a measly 115 finds.

My man and I went to Subway to eat and since it was nice out I wanted to sit outside and eat. We drove to a park where I could find a geocache called The Secret Park (Tribute) when I was done. I did not realize that I was at the wrong park though. The closest I could get to the cache was 80 feet and I had already crossed a creek and could not make a path through the bamboo. My boyfriend suggested driving down the road and seeing what was on the other side. As we were driving I looked at the description again and realized that there was another park down what looked like just someones driveway.

My cells gps was still barely picking up a signal. I followed the path down through the woods. I got to 45 feet and the accuracy was 145 feet so I gave up and turned to leave. As I did I just happened to look at the fallen tree limb behind me. I peeked over it and saw a smooth round spot and said huh that's neat a smooth spot. Then I did a double take and realized it was the cache. I could not believe I found it. This was such a clever hide.

Geocaching adventures 9-16-16 (with spoilers)

Two local woman have created geocaches my area. I set out to find one but someone beat me to being the FTF by about a half hour. This one was really neat its called Go to the Light. In a cemetery that obviously is a play on words. What I expected was that this would be a cache hidden in the base of a light pole. When I arrived at the cemetery though I saw there was no light poles. The description said that "GZ must have been hit by lighting at one time". As I got to Ground zero I saw a blackened hold in a tree. I leaned in and saw a flashlight hidden in the tree. 

Inside the cache I found a Pathtag that the FTF had left. It was beautiful. I had never heard of them before so I took it home to find out more information about it. I hope to find others in the future to add to my collection.

I thought today would be a beautiful day to go search for a geocache that my children and I could not find before. It is called The Old Putnam Mill. I think that it may have been moved from where it was located when we originally looked. I spotted the rock in front of the tree as soon as I pulled up. There was a tiny little glass bottle with a log in it. 

This was placed at the site of an old lumber mill from the late 1800s. It used to be a local swimming hole when the geocache owner was young. I thought this was a gorgeous spot for a cache. 

The third geocache I went to look for was Jackson Cemetery. My brother in law and our children and I had looked for this about a year prior and could not find it. Today I found it within about a minute of getting to GZ. It was attached to the back of a fence. Too bad we didn't find this one last time I think my son would have liked it. I am glad that I finally made the find though!

I had enough time left to look for one more cache. I headed to a new one called Connemara Butter Box. I have never heard of this butter before so I was intrigued to see what this cache looked liked. It took me awhile to find this as I was thinking about the description and hint of another cache so I got the two confused. I finally climbed down the rocks to get a better view of the water and saw the cache tucked in between the boulders. 

Geocaching Adventures 9-15-16 (with spoilers)

I needed to exchange some pants at Kmart so I figured I would go geocaching on the way. I had to stop at a rest area to use the restroom because I drank to much coffee...as usual. I checked and there were two geocaches located there.

The first one I-81 Southbound was very easy to find. It was hidden in a guardrail way away from the very heavily traffic area.

The second one Southward Bound was much harder to find. My cell phone just would not get me close enough to find it. I was looking around the ground for the most and in nooks of the tree trunks. I did not want to give up and after looking through the photos others had posted I finally looked around the middle of the trees and boom there it was. A decon container attached to the tree in plain site. This was a long walk from the rest area through the woods. I was very glad I finally found it and did not have to turn away with a DNF.

I had a little time to kill and had been wanting to find a certain cache for quite awhile. This one Above the Falls was recommended to not take children to and I am glad I took the advice. It was a bit of a tricky area to climb along a little waterfall by a very busy highway. The waterfall was only a trickle this day so I didn't bother to take any photos. It is gorgeous towards the winter time and early spring. I absolutely love finding ammo cans so this was a fun one for me!

I got my first geocoin and found 6 geocaches (with spoilers!!)

Tuesday September 13, 2016 I set out to finish the geotrail I was following. 

The last place I had to stop to find a geocache to finish the trail was to the Cornell Cooperative Extension Broome County in Dickinson NY. The name of this cache is 4-H Tech Wizards GeoTrail Cache #17. 

I was so happy to find the last birdhouse and get the last crayon rubbing. I turned my finished log in and got my very first geocoin. After almost 400 miles and 4 days of geocaching I felt very accomplished. Before I left I toured the Cutler Botanic Garden and was so impressed with how much work was put into creating such a pretty place for people to visit for free.

I looked to see what geocaches were nearby and saw one that looked fun. It was called Hey... LEsGo Caching. This one was fairly easy. It said to park at the gas station and so I did and took a little walk until I spotted a lightpost. I lifted up the base and there was the cute little lego figure and the keychain holding the log. 

Another one nearby was called Recycling Guard Dog. I pulled into the wrong parking lot and figured well as long as they don't come yell at me I will just park here and walk up to wherever this cache is. I wandered up the hill and saw the Broome Recycling building. I thought I was going to be greeted by a dog. Well I got a pretty good chuckle when I found this geocache in the guardrail and it had a little dog figurine tied to it. 

I went for the second time in search of a geocache called Not a Walk in the Park (For Cody). I came at a really bad time of year. Thankfully I did not get any ticks on my but the area was so grown up with grasses and thorns that I couldn't get close enough to the cache to even see it. I will have to go back again for this another time as I really want to find it. 

A little over a year ago my children and I went to CMJ Park and tried to find a geocache called What did they build this out of? It was a really neat little place and we searched for so long and finally have to quit. Since I had plenty of time I wanted to go back and find this one. I was there a very long time and another guy came and was trying to find it as well. I decided to finally climb up on the building and look and see if it was behind the bars and there it was. I was so excited to finally find it! This was a really tricky cache. No matter how many times you come to this neat little pagoda there is just something else you spot. Such an interesting place at a really nice park! This is my 100th geocache find!

I needed to get groceries before heading home so I stopped at Walmart just down the street. There was a geocache there called Always #50 Johnson City so of course I had to try to find it. I thought it was under a lightpost like the one I had found earlier but after prying around with a pen trying to get something out from under it I decided to quit. As I turned to go into the store I realized a few feet away was a no parking sign. That is where I found this tiny little nano. I had poked around so long trying to find this that I was sure I had attracted a ton of attention. I skipped signing the log knowing how hard they are to get out and sign and just put it back and marked my find on the app. 

I was really pressed for time but I knew that right across the street was a geocache called THE WALL. I have driven past this building a few times and always wanted to stop and get a better look so this was my chance. I was a bit confused on where the gps on my phone was telling me this was located. I finally decided to check out the guardrail. Once I got down and looked I spotted the tiny magnetic nano immediately. 

This was such a great day of geocaching getting so see all these interesting places. This is truly what makes geocaching exciting. 

Day 3 on the 4-H Tech Wizards GeoTrail (with spoilers!!!)

Friday September 9th I set out to check off more caches on the Geotrail I was following. 

My first stop of the day was to find 4-H Tech Wizards Geo-Trail Cache #3. The geocache was not active yet but it was set up so we knew what the coordinates were and could go do the crayon rubbing and sign the log. This cache was located at the Binghamton Vistors Center / Roberson Museum in the city of Binghamton. I thought this would be a quick stop but I was so close to the river I had to check out underneath the Memorial Bridge. The view is quite beautiful. While it is awful to ruin things I do enjoy looking at all the graffiti. 

My second geocache was 4-H Tech Wizards Geo-Trail Cache #13. This was located at the Finch Hollow Nature Center in Union NY. I had always wanted to come here and hike the trail so this was the perfect day to do it. While I was there I also found an older geocache that was hidden on the trail. It was called "Billy Goats Gruff" so when I got within 40 feet I had a pretty good idea where to look.... under the bridge... bingo! Lots of great goodies inside the ammo can for kids!

My fourth geocache was 4-H Tech Wizards Geo-Trail Cache #14. It was located at Sugar Creek Maple Farm in Vestal NY. 

My fifth geocache was 4-H Tech Wizards Geo-Trail Cache #16. It was located at Shelldon's Produce in Triangle NY. It was probably the smallest little shop I visited on the whole trail. It was so cute. 

My sixth geocache was 4-H Tech Wizards Geo-Trail Cache #7. It was located at Light House Landing in Lisle NY. Looking around it looks like a really fun place to camp. 

My seventh geocache was 4-H Tech Wizards Geo-Trail Cache #10. It was located at Jada Hill Farm in Sanford NY. I had always wanted to visit here as they have fun family events sometimes throughout the fall. The woman who owns it came out to greet me and we talked for a bit about the trail and geocaching in general. She told me that when the cache was brand new she put some of her homemade goats milk soap in the cache. I wish I had been the first to find on that one! She was very nice I enjoyed stopping there. 

My final geocache of the day was not part of the trail but I passed Tuscarora Scout Reservation on the way to previous cache so I wanted to make a quick stop. This cache is called Baden-Powell Cache, Treasures : Cache to Cub Scouts. I had come here with my children in the summer and the woman who runs security obviously did not want us there. My cell phone wouldn't get me any closer to the cache then 90 feet and with her standing there watching us I felt to uncomfortable climbing the rocks to use the hint "Climb the Steps To Tuscarora with not reservation". I knew the camp closed the third week of August so this was the perfect time for me to stop. 

This time I climbed the steps and sure enough there was a hole in the top where the cache was hidden. I found a trackable inside called Hoover the Hummingbird (AKA Flitter by my 5 yr old Travel Tag. 

After tallying it all up I had found 8 geocaches in one day. I am pretty sure that is a new record for me!