Unique caches found along the way

This blog has spoilers for the Greensboro/High Point NC area. I love being in the US and having a cache-rich environment. With this comes the many LPCs, which don't take much to find, just the effort to walk across a parking lot. While these tend to get old there are on ocassion some unique caches worth highlighting. I left home around 7 a.m. when my wife heads out running. On this particular day I headed down Highway 68 and then hit part of the greenway along the east fork of Deep River. The greenway runs along that fork of the river, an area where I hiked and played when I was growing up. Just 1/5th of a mile from the beginning of the greenway I found a surprising cache. I found a paved turn off at a stoplight. The turn off was a deadend within a few feet of the stoplight. I guess they are planning on putting something in the large field soon. I parked and head out tracking to ground zero. As I headed across the field I was surprised that the GZ wasn't going to be at the treeline where a creek ran but right in the middle of an open field. When I got to within 50 feet I saw the cache. It is represented in the photo. The hint on this one said that you might need a rabies shot after signing the cache. There was no paper log. At first I thought that it had been muggled. In fact the inside of the wolf's plastic body was starting to fill with signatures. Around the wolf, which was facing folks walking up from the turn off and showing its teeth, were several fake rabbit carcuses. I signed, got a picture and headed on my way. I really appreciate this cache owner's effort to provide a unique, interesting geocache. Another interesting cache starts out as a rant. You are encouraged to sign a petition at the location of the cache to give attention to Wilbur. The cache itself isn't all that unusual or challenging. I appreciated the theme for the cache. I signed the petition as I think Wilbur ought to get his far share of recognition too! And finally I went to a cache and was surprised to see that it required some extra effort I had not anticipated. I suffer a little bit of claustrophobia so I decided to recruit some more geocachers to help me. On Saturday morning my wife and the other couple (chanak80 and chickenlvr413) joined me at the GZ. We found the underground entry and off we went. I should say that chickenlvr413 and I went in for the find. The others stayed topside. The walk required us to be hunched over but the space was ample for walking. We had our headlamps on. The walk was about 400 yards by my estimate because the gpsr doesn't work underground. We found the cache and were out within 8 minutes. This is how you hide an ammo can of any size in an urban setting with a small likelihood that it will be muggled. Now my wife calls me a sewer rat. I had fun!

Caching on the UNC-Greensboro Campus

This blog has spoiler shots for caches on the UNCG campus. The best time to cache on a university campus is between semesters. With just a week to go before classes started the weather broke from its daily high 90's and dipped into the 70's. It was great. I parked my car off campus and made a circuit around the campus finding all but one very difficult cache. There were a number of interesting caches along the way. Some were placed by students. The challenging cache is called High Rise Valley (GC1B119). Check it out. The majority of those who hunt it come away with a DNF. It's there, it is just well hidden. At this writting I figure among those who came up empty handed on this cache. I moved about the campus largely unobserved since the students weren't there yet. The cool weather was great. It really helped me as I'm suffering from some poison ivy I got when I went searching for a cache in a patch of woods where my wife said "don't go". She was right! Most of the caches here are micros given the urban setting. One of my favorite is represented in a photo. I will not specifically say which cache it was. With the electrical cable running out of it one would think it was something official. The cache was inside the device. I figured this out after a good 20 minutes of searching the nearby bushes. As I continue to look for caches around the area I am expanding the search area more and more. To date I've kept up my daily caching excursions. Today makes day #40 and counting!

Caching on Topsail Island, NC

This blog has some spoilers related to Topsail Island. Our family had a great opportunity to do something we've never done. Our two married daughters and their families joined us with our youngest daughter for a week at North Topsail Island. It was great! We had fun, no one got sunburned too badly and the grandkids had a great time. So did the grandparents. It also gave me the chance to find a few caches in the area. Since our youngest needed experience behind the wheel of her car before getting her driver's license, it made for a good combination. She drove me around to a number of the caches. We cached in places like the boardwalk along the beach, the freshwater inlet behind the island and down into Wilmington. Some of my favorite caches were The Raven (GC1GYTC), The New River Estuary Earthcache (GC1H9V4) and No Wetlands, No Fish! (GC1MHRC). If you get the chance to visit Topsail Island check out the good caches the local cachers, and a few visitors, have placed. There are some good ones. There is one that I simply haven't been able to crack. About a little over half the searchers come up empty-handed. I probably gave three hours to this one over the last two years. Maybe next year I'll find "Can U Sea the Diamond" (GC1B8RC).

Good friends become GEOCACHERS!

SPOILER ALERT: If you geocache in the Greensboro, NC area you'll probably want to avoid this blog.

Last week we had the pleasure of taking some really good friends out to experience geocaching for the first time. Along with our grandson, Paula and I went to the Grandover Resort area on the south side of Greensboro, NC to look for a cluster of caches near where our friends live. Since then I've seen that chickenlvr413 and her husband are out and about finding their own caches. Probably the best cache we found that day was Diamonds are a girls best friend (GC1PPY8). The log entries are great. When Robin lifted the covering and found the cache she let out a blood-curdling scream and then realized what she had found. The cache owner did a great job with this one!

The High Point Mafia

We experienced a first soon after returning to the US. We went to a geocacher meet and greet affair in High Point, NC. A group of geocachers known as the High Point Mafia put on an event where geocachers from the area could gather, match up faces with user names and just have fun. Paula, Rubi, Karen (our granddaughter) and I attended. It was event Dinner with the "Family" (GC1VZX). The food was good and I met a number of local geocachers. It turned out that several know my sister and are part of the same church as she. Not to be out done, there were some rough characters at the dinner. Check out the pictures. We saw a whole new side to geocachers tonight. They like to get together and have fun. The High Point Mafia dressed the part. We had a great time and the southern cooking, well, it was something we've been missing!