Starting the 4-H Tech Wizards GeoTrail (with spoilers)

Yesterday I finally got time to do a little geocaching. I wanted to start the 4-H Tech Wizards GeoTrail the day the event started but I woke up late and forgot about it.

First I had to make a run to town and print out a log for the crayon rubbings. The Broome County 4-H group hid geocaches inside bird houses in 17 different townships in the county. Once you fill up your log you can turn it in for a souvenir coin. None of the caches tell where the cache is located only the town.

I decided to start with the first geocache in the series called "4-H Tech Wizards GeoTrail cache #1". This one was in the town of Barker. When I arrived at Dutch Hill Creamery I looked around for a few minutes trying to figure out where the geocache was. I forgot they were all inside birdhouses. I looked at the hint "Creamery" and still couldn't figure it out. I was  nervous to walk around the property without permission.



I went inside the little store to ask for advice but it was self serve. I shut the door and left and a thought struck me. I looked around the side of the building and sure enough there was a red birdhouse. I was nervous to open it in case it was a real bird house. I opened the latch and was correct it was the geocache. I was so excited to check the first one off the trail. I had brought my kids to this farm two years before for a Broome County Farm day event.

I wanted to continue the trail in order so my next stop was to Chenango to find the geocache "4-H Tech Wizards GeoTrail cache #2". This was placed at Apple Hills Farm. This place was wonderful. There was a little area where you could feed and pet a pig, a donkey? and a sheep. There was a big hunk of fatty muscle or something on the top of the donkey I wondered about. The geocache was on the front of where the animal petting area is. There is a farmers market inside and a little restaurant. I have heard great reviews about this place so I look forward to coming to do a more through visit with my children in the future.

The 3rd cache in this series is not listed yet but we were given the coordinates if we did want to find it and log it at a later time. I was getting pressed for time as I had a lot of groceries to do. I decided to skip messing around with trying to use the coordinates to find the next cache and went and did what I thought would be a cache nearby. 

This cache was called "4-H Teach Wizards GeoTrail cache #11" It was placed in the Town of Binghamton (NOT the city of Binghamton which is where I got confused) at the Binghamton Township Historical Museum. Unfortunately the museum was not open. I would have loved to take a tour. 

I was shocked how far out of the way this cache was from where I expected. I had to go to Wal-mart and get groceries before I headed home. 

I got to town with a few minutes to spare before my children got home so I decided to stop at a park and find the geocache there called "Child's Play". About a week prior to this I had helped the two girls who placed this. When it was in place they let me look for it. I found it pretty fast but it was a really neat hide. Since it was kind of cheating I did not want to log it that day. I wanted someone else to be the first to find it using the coordinates. Now that someone else found it I went and logged this cache.

In the first three geocaches I found something to trade in each. I was really excited to find the vintage cabbage patch stamper. I dropped off a trackable at the first cache as well. From start to finish I drove 107 miles. I have now reached a total of 82 geocaches I have found.