Most of the time when I travel I'll plot out a geocache every hour so I can stop and stretch my legs. I got tired of that on this trip so I searched the area around my route to see if there were any parks with geocaches. A park with four or five caches hidden in the woods and within walking distance is better than eight guardrail caches. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the quick and easy caches. There are times that is all I have time for. But when I want the real thrill of the hunt, this is what is necessary.
We were traveling from Asheville, NC to High Point, NC along Interstate 40. That's what caused us to stop at Glen Hilton Park in Hickory, NC. I've never visited the town of Hickory. Truthfully I guess I still need to visit downtown Hickory. The route from the Interstate to the Park took us around the center of town and left us in this riverside park. We ate our picnic at a park picnic table before setting out on our adventure.
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| Disassemble required |
We headed to the first cache, a tree cache located near part of the disc golf course that cuts and weaves itself through the park. We tried to be discrete but that can't be done when the supposed muggles playing disc golf are really lapsed geocachers. "Hey, did you find the cache?", sort of shocked me out of my complacency. We talked a while and then off we went for the next one. This time we were looking for something well hidden. We were looking for
Evil cache 2 "The Park" (GC39JFN). We got to the coordinates and found ourselves at a gazebo. We looked and looked before finally deciding to disassemble an object that looked like it belonged but didn't. This was one of the most complex caches I've found. It required that we reel the prize in without breaking the fishing line. We did it but I don't know how long this one will survive. Survive it has thought.
We crossed a small footbridge across a creek and up into the woods to look for the majority of the caches left to be
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| Footbridge |
found. It was starting to get hot and muggy. We made our way through the trails and the disc golf "greens" finding several caches on the way. There weren't too many muggles out this day so we had the place to ourselves. It gave us the opportunity to talk as we walked through the beautiful pine woods so common to the Carolinas. After having lived so many years in Latin America it's good to be back in the old North State. I understand James Taylor just a touch better now.
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| "The mother of all bison tubes" |
Next came
Glen Hilton Camo (GC391C1). Along with sumajhuarmi we made our way down the well trodden trails to ground zero. It was amazing to me that something so big as "the mother of all bison tubes" could veil itself from my vision but it did. Suddenly, as I was standing next to it, sumajhuarmi called the siting. It could have bit me if it were anything with teeth.
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| sumajhuarmi found this "monkey" |
Further down the trail we came up on
Fun as a Barrel of Monkeys (GC44PB6). After reading the cache description we were surprised what we found. It was a barrel but there were no monkeys there.
We had a great time in Glen Hilton Park. I think I'll do this again. Of course when traveling stopping for a couple of hours of caching in the heat makes you less than presentable at the Cracker Barrell. Keep that in mind. I sure enjoyed the caching thought.Wherever you are, keep on caching!
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| Stairway |
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| Boardwalk over the swamp...and to a cache |
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