Bear Country and Geocaching

Bears in a tree!

Not far from our home is a business park that is well organized with lots of greenway walking areas, picnic areas, schools for the employee's children and woods. Naturally, there are also a number of geocaches in these woods and fields. One of the caches that grabbed my attention was Rock the Cazz Beah (GC4Q8TX). The cache was simple and fairly easy to find. What I liked the most was the location and the art work. Two bears were climbing a tree to get to the beehive and the honey.

There is a series in the area related to New England bridges. One of our geocachers is a transplanted New Englander and has placed a series of caches named after bridges up North. One of those is in this business park. I trekked to the GZ and began my search. All the office buildings surrounding the area provided a fishbowl experience for me. I was the fish and the employees at the water cooler were sure to have been wondering what the strange man was doing crawling around under the bridge.

Lost mind bridge

Has he lost his mind?

The iced over water made for a beautiful morning. I searched and searched, thus proving that I'd lost something. Fortunately it was too cold for folks to come out and ask me if I was all right. Finally I gave up. I'll have to come back when I am dressed appropriately and ready to fall into the water in order to get this one.

Another cache that eluded me was near a pond. I love the look of this area. As I tracked down the hill I realized that the cache was on the opposite side of the small spillway. The water flowing over the spillway was only an inch deep so I decided to cross it. I was fortunate not to fall when I lost my footing. I made it to the other side and purposed to go all the way around to get back to the car. I searched and searched but came up empty handed. That was all right thought. The hunt in a beautiful place is the real prize.

Waiting on an idea

My final cache in the business park was Waiting on an Idea (GC4PWFV). The title is a combination of thoughts as one clue. I parked nearby and walked to the GZ. It was a covered bus stop in the business park. I looked down and the "idea" that I was waiting for was right before me. I twisted it out of the ground, opened the light and found what I was looking for. I signed the log and was on my way.

Ok, so I called this "bear country". I guess the title is a little misleading. But the caches will be worth your while if you ever get down this way.

Geocaching the Grandover

Grandover Golf Course

One of the more exclusive residential areas around here is Grandover. It is a large golf complex with expensive housing and a large hotel for visitors. Thankfully some really nice caches have been scattered throughout the area. Most of the caches are part of a series called, "Geo-liter". While the name isn't all that appealing, these are often well done and well hidden caches. I sat out one morning to grab a few by myself. Most were fairly straight forward caches. There were a few that were more of a challenge than I was up to. For instance, climbing a tree is no longer a possibility for me now that I'm on blood thinners. I guess I'll have to bring my grandson along on a mopping up cache run to get to those that are out of my reach.

Great cache

Winter time along the golf course is pretty. I found several that were placed in beautiful locations. On one street there were some one million dollar homes being built. Across the street from one I found one cache in a fallen tree. One cache required me to work my way through the woods to avoid the briers that populated the open hillside. It was an unseasonably warm winter day so I'd decided to find a few caches on the way to the YMCA. So, here I was in shorts and paying the price as my legs got a little scratched up. Being on blood thinners the slightest scratch looks ten times worse than it really is. I came back from this hunt looking worse for the wear.

Tied off

"Suspended"

Probably my favorite cache was entitled Geo-liter 21 (GC47CH1). I
parked along the road near the golf course, trekked a short way into the woods and started my search at ground zero. It took me a few minutes to realize that I should look at the clue. "what happens to a kid who draws a picture of a gun at school", was the clue. I'd searched the ground around a log so now it was time to look up. I extended my search area out and happened upon some fishing line taunt across my path. I followed it down to the lower end to find it tied off. Then I let it down and found the "suspended" cache. I signed the log, snapped a few pictures and then hoisted the cache back into place. I like this kind of cache!

Stone walling

Further down the road I found another interesting cache. It was part of the Geo-liter series but

Underground

required that I climb into a culvert a little ways. Fortunately this was a larger culvert and I could sit upright. I got out my headlamp and soon had the large bison tube in hand. I had to wait out the passing cars so that I wouldn't raise too much suspicion from them as I came up out off the creek bed. I like this cache too!

Finally this caching excursion took me to some wall caches. There were several like this that were located in the stone walls that decorated

the entrances to the tunnels used by golfers in their golf carts as they traveled beneath the main road to get from one green to the next. These were pretty quick finds.

I really enjoyed the caching at the Grandover. If you get the opportunity to visit our part of the country, check these out.

New Year Night Caching to get to # 2500

We had a great New Year's Eve but were undecided on what to do on New Year's Day. We slept in, had breakfast and all. But I could tell my wife was homesick to see some of her mom's relatives about an two hours south of here. I recommended a day trip and she was in for it. This was the fastest I saw her get ready for anything. We were out the door and driving south in no time. We drove straight through to make it in time for lunch with the her aunt and a cousin. I don't know what your New Year's

thanks to beardenb

traditions are but her family was big into eating a lunch of collard greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread and hog jowls. Now I've been in a number of countries and have seen some interesting, even strange New Year's traditions. See a previous blog from January 2, 2011 entitled, "The Old Man...an Ecuadorian New Year's Tradition" to learn more. Even though I was raised in the southeastern US and had heard of folks eating this special meal on New Year's Day, my family didn't prepare this meal. Let's just say it was good to visit the extended family.

Play. Station

When we finished up there we had less than an hour of daylight left. I had the goal of getting 15 geocaches on the way home in order to reach #2500 this day. We drove from the North Carolina town of Wadesboro to the east to the town of Rockingham to start our search. There were several urban and suburban caches there that I hoped to get before dark. Also, most of these were small and bigger. I'm used to micros in an urban setting like High Point (where we live) so this was a nice touch. We visited a Veteran's Memorial and a dead end road to find some fairly standard caches. My first favorite cache was entitled, Play. Station (GC1N1BM). It was an old train station in downtown Rockingham. We worked our way around the side of the building to begin our search for this regular-size cache. At first the signal bounce was a problem but finally I had the cache in hand. It had lots of trade items and was in good shape. We signed the log and moved on. We moved up the hill to the county courthouse. Being New Year's Day there were very few people out. We grabbed a virtual at the courthouse before heading over to the site of the Cole Murder. The cache of the same name (GC3XKEN) was hidden in a bush right on the street and below the front window of an administrative office in the "manufacturing building", as it was called. Read the story in the cache page. Yes, someone was killed here in the early part of the last century. I suspect that the cache owner has the cache outside of his workplace window so he can watch cachers beat the bushes. It was a nice ammo can on a major downtown street. We DNFed a few caches downtown. They just seemed to be gone! With the sun going down, we headed north out of Rockingham on the Interstate.

 We took a side road at one point to look for Off the Beath Path (GC1CJ21). It caused us to stop on the side of a country road right in the middle of two homes to walk 70 feet into a field to find a large cache under a big white bucket that was situated about 30 feet from someone's bedroom window. By this time the sun was basically gone and I was using my twilight vision. It felt kind of awkward, like I was on someone's property. I guess I was. The cache page said "permission from owner to hide" but it still felt wrong. I signed and got out of there, even as the neighbor was giving me the eye.

sumajhuarmi @ Kiln Cache Virtual

Soon we were in the Pottery Producing Area of Central North Carolina. We tracked into the small town of Seagrove, NC in the dark. We drove to a virtual cache at The North Carolina Pottery Center. This was an old cache, one that predates the "no photo" requirement. Here we had to log along with a photo with the gpsr next to the sign. These photos were night photos so the light is low. Kiln Cache (GCHTNM) was fun. It would have been more fun if we could have toured this place. We'll have to come back when it is open.

From here we hit the Interstate and head about 15 miles further north to the town of Ashboro, NC. We were now getting back into our geocaching territory where we recognized the cache owners by name. There were a few caches in the 100 series that seemed like pretty easy roadside caches. I had my headlamp and was ready to search for these. We stopped in and around the Randolph County Community College to find a couple and to DNF a couple. We stopped to eat at a Bojangles and DNFed the last of these easy ones just as I got to #2499. What to do? It was time to head home and I am not connected with a smart phone and have no additional caches up my sleeve to find. How will I make my #2500 tonight.

Thanks to sauvageone

We headed home with a plan. It took another 30 minutes or so to get there. We ran in the house, found a cache list I had made up for the previous day that had cache information for a nearby premium cache called, Tube Try Out! (GC3D5CW), and then headed out to wrap up the evening with #2500 in the dark. This cache was only a few minutes away. We pulled into a good parking area and saw that it required a trip into the woods. No muggles were around but sumajhuarmi wasn't crazy about traipsing around in the woods. I went with my headlamp. I tracked right to the GZ and started cautiously shining my light around. I didn't know if night watchmen might be around or not. Soon I saw the cache in the tree. I signed the log and with celebration replaced it and headed to the car. I was thankful to have made my goal. I'm also thankful that sumajhuarmi put up with my need to get to this goal tonight.

Chair City Caching Experience

The Chair City

Big 105

A simple LPC????

The cache

the reverse side

It slipped right off

I got all dressed up to attend the funeral service of the father of a new friend and member of our congregation. As I left home I threw my swag bag in the car in case the opportunity was there to find a cache or two. After the funeral, which gave me the chance to be in an area where I've not done any caching, I plugged in the coordinates for the first cache. I pulled into a parking space near the GZ and started walking down the sidewalk. Here I am dressed in a suit and tie walking down the street past the bandstand and the old railroad car in Thomasville, NC. Everyone is looking at me. I came to one of the biggest chairs I've ever seen. It commemorates the furniture industry and its impact on the town of Thomasville. I got a picture of the chair and then started my search. Wouldn't you know it. It took me back behind the large chair to a picnic table near where two muggles were sitting. I couldn't afford to slide into the picnic table benches and get my clothes messed up so I had to pass on Have a Seat (GCXW10).  I got back in the car and headed to the next one. It also turned out to be more demanding than my apparel would support. Back in the car again. Number 3 worked in my favor. It was a P&G on a busy street. From there I went out to a small town park and started my search for Big 105 (GC1D6DH). Sure enough, it was a Howitzer canon and would have required some climbing up under it to make the find. I grabbed a photo and moved on. I'll have to get back here another day. The last cache on my list turned out to be one of my favorites. It was entitled, Caching Around Town #3 (GC1TN2B). I pulled in and headed around behind a car wash. No one was around so I had some privacy. I headed right to the lamp post certain that this was an easy one. I lifted the skirt and found the magnetic container. Instead of a log sheet I found taped in the container a message encouraging me to keep looking as this wouldn't be as easy as an LPC. I took a photo and chuckled. I replaced the decoy cache and started looking. I looked all along a fence, checking out all the knot holes. This was listed as size not chosen so it could be anything. I looked behind a hanging sign, I pulled the car up and looked in the concrete below where I'd been parked, I tracked out and in again but always came right back to the same lamp post. Then I felt of the electrical cover on the side of the poll. It began to twist off as I pressed. There it was! A small electrical cover fixed to the poll with magnets. I signed the log, snapped some pictures and replaced it. This cache owner gets a "favorite" for his creativity! Time was up and I had to head back home. I only got the two caches but know for sure I'll be back to Thomasville to find some more caches!

Moravian Village of Peace at Christmas Time

Dead Man's Cave

Flower Labyrinth with sumajhuarmi

Second, third, fourth house and so on

sumajhuarmi at the Coffee Pot

We are from the Piedmont region of North Carolina and have never made a thorough visit to Old Salem until now. It is our 37th wedding anniversary so I typically plan a mystery get-away for sumajhuarmi and myself. It's usually a surprise for Paula and this was no exception. I had clues for her to use to get us to the Old Salem via several geocaches in the city of Winston-Salem,Dead Man's Cave (GCA6E4). I immediately began my search of the area while sumajhuarmi attended to a phone call. The cave was really no more than a rock over-cropping with a jumble of large stones underneath. I was down on my hands and knees trying not to get my cloths dirty while shining a small flashlight into

Behind the Single Brother's House

The Zeverly Inn where we stayed

the nooks and carnies of the little cave. sumajhuarmi
walked back and forth talking on the phone and then without as much as an inflection in her voice said, "It's right here" and kept on with her telephone conversations. It took me nearly 20 seconds to back out of the mouth of the cave and see the cache hidden right there in plain sight at the opening of the cave. Too easy! We signed the log and were on our way. No dead men here.
NC. We headed out on Friday afternoon

Refuse from the rain -- on the Bridge of Death

after she got off work. I was already a free man. We drove the short distance from
High Point to Winston-Salem to get to our first cache. I only had a few caches planned as the main event was to be our stay in Old Salem. The first cache was situated in a hilly park in south Winston. We started down a step embankment to find the GZ for

From Dead Man's Cave we headed east to find one I'd already logged. I wanted sumajhuarmi to see Flower Labyrinth (GCB79B). I'd been here four years ago and on a sunny day in the early fall. Today was a cold, winter day in December. Add to it that some vandals have broken several of the wooden benches surrounding the labyrinth. sumajhuarmi made her way to the center of the labyrinth and I got her picture. She gathered the necessary information for this virtual cache and we were on our way.

God's Acre

The next cache totally deceived me. On paper it looked Gateway Natural Center: Monarch Butterfly (GC4KNNX) and out of the car I jumped to track it down. sumajhuarmi was dressed too nicely to make the trek into the briers and all so she guarded the car. I tracked in several times to try to fix the GZ. I was getting a little bounce but more than anything my GPSr was taking me to an improbable place. I combed the area but no regular cache was to be found. I gave up after a fair amount of time and we moved on down the road. The next clue took us to our destination and we were on a timetable. Later when I revisited the cache page I discovered that the last finder had recommended much better coordinates for the find. Bad coordinates!!!
like it was at a nature center. It turned out to be a creek side winter field. We pulled into within 100 feet of the GZ for

Within minutes we were parking and beginning our search for Monty Python Series: #2 - The Bridge of Death (GC2CT4B). This took us to a wall at the base of one of the supports for the bridge between the Visitor's Center and another museum at the Old Salem Moravian Village. We started a systematic search of the wall. Soon we had the cache in hand, signed the log and were on our way.

Rainy day Christmas music at the Salem square

The next cache was just a few blocks up the street and at the heart of Old Salem. It was when sumajhuarmi found this cache that I was going to tell her that we were staying at the Bed & Breakfast just a block away. We pulled into a parking space and set out for a 60 ft walk to the GZ. Old Salem (GZ4JDN9). We searched and searched thoroughly but found no cache. Since there was another hour and a half of sunshine left, we quickly checked into our bed & breakfast and headed out to get some photos of Old Salem's buildings before the gloomy day of cold rain promised for the next day.

Sunshine or rain, Old Salem proved to be worth every cent. We loved the Zeverly Inn right on Main Street of Old Salem. The breakfast was great! Old Salem was full of beauty, particularly at this festive Christmas time. I was most interested with the history of this Moravian community. The choir system -- nothing to do with singing -- in which Moravians are classified by their marital status into young girls, older girls, girls ready to be married, married and widows while the boys are also similarly classified. At age 14 the children moved into either the Single Men's House or the Single Women's House where they lived, learned a trade and awaited the day that they might marry. While it speaks to commitment, the thought of a parent giving up their children to an extra-familiar institution which would train them seemed a little too communal for me. It also seemed a bit more than Scripture demands of the family. While I respect the Moravians, on this count I don't agree with them. Of course, this was the expectation years ago, not today.

The most impressive event during the holidays was the Candle Tea. We waited in the rain and cold for 50 minutes to get in. We were shown how to make festive wax candles, sang Christmas carols with our Moravian hosts, ate sugar cake and drank hot coffee (so good on a cold, rainy day) and toured all the historic buildings in the town. The reenactors (they preferred to be called interpreters) were dressed in authentic 18th century clothing and stayed true to their roles as they talked with us. There were several there to guide us in every building.

We walked through a portion of God's Acre, the Moravian Cemetery on the north side of town. All the headstones were the same and laid down on the ground, not erect as in most cemeteries. What struck me most has to do with the previous paragraph. Although choirs do not regiment the lives of Moravians today, in death it does. They are buried not as family units but by their choirs. Most interesting.

I hope you'll get the chance to visit this historic and picturesque location. What the Moravians of Salem accomplished is admirable. There's so much to see and more than a few geocaches nearby in Winston-Salem.

Jamestown Christmas Parade Caching

One of the pleasures of being back in the USA comes at Christmas. We missed it last year but not this year. I'm talking about the small town parade. We were speaking in a small Baptist Church about 10 miles east of Jamestown, NC. When we finished our lunch engagement after church, off we went, cutting across country, grabbing a few geocaches and timing everything so that we made it to Jamestown before the parade began. We grabbed three easy caches and made it. We parked in the parking lot of the local Methodist Church and rushed to find our place along the parade route.

It was an unseasonably warm day. Some folks were in short sleeves and comfortably so. As we stood on the corner we saw all the local organizations and high school floats go by... and then came Santa Claus. Every float, marching band and show car that passed was the source of more candy than kids get on Halloween. The streets were littered with candy. At times the kids were darting out in between the floats to grab the candy. The drivers stopped and waited while they got their haul of candy.

Nearby there were two caches that needed our attention. Don't go postal!!! (GC4HA1B) about made me go postal. I searched and searched and had to give up because of muggles. Then I went Garden of Statues (GC4H7KZ) and also came up empty. They've been found recently so I'm not giving up. I'll go back for these two.

Later in the evening we went back to our church, Friendly
Avenue Baptist Church of Greensboro. We hung the greens in the worship center. Check out the pictures of our Living Christmas Tree presentation. Yes, those are choir members in the tree like ornaments. The music and the message was great!

I hope you are having a Merry Christmas season! God bless!

I watched a Black Snake eat a white mouse....

Nothing like a trail in the woods!

I took off this afternoon with the goal of finding two caches. Oh well, I only found one. Since my good friends blessed me with a gift premium membership today, I had to go! With my new job and its demands I have gotten tied down and not done enough geocaching. I've basically reserved geocaching for when I'm making a trip somewhere. This gives me new zeal to get out and find more caches. Thanks chanak80 and chickenlvr413!

Plastic or metal?

I pulled into the Piedmont Environmental Center on this beautiful, unseasonably warm day, parked the car and punched in the coordinates for the first cache. There are trails all over the place here. Nonetheless, with the leaves off the trees and good visibility, I preferred to take a straight line to the cache through the woods. As I approached the GZ for RPStew's 55th Birthday Bash Cache (GC4TBKZ) I had to wait out a muggle walking his dog on one of the trails. Once he was no longer a factor I quickly recovered the cache. I'd not seen this kind of cache before. I guess these are new. It looked like an ammo can but was plastic. I signed the log, made my trade and headed on to the next cache.

Again I cut across the land and through the woods disregarding the trails. Soon I was at the GZ. The cache for Weathered Smooth (GC3CB7K) page said it was pretty straight forward. I tracked into the GZ from three or four angles to get a good intersect. It usually put me right by a dead cedar. The tree trunk, still standing, was white and weathered smooth. It had to be this. I looked in every crevice I could find. No obvious (as the cache page stated) cache. I spent half an hour searching and then expanding my search. In the end I had to give up and log this one as a DNF. I later read that the last finder several months back had found it laying out and left it where it was. It is gone now.


I returned to the visitor's center. I'd never been inside so I took advantage of the opportunity.

In case you forgot your tent

Inside I found a few Indian arrowheads and ax heads in a display. The most interesting thing were the snake exhibits. There were about eight glass front window cages, most with snakes. Among them were rattlesnakes and copperheads as well as your garden variety black snake. While I was watching the manager told me he hoped I wasn't squeamish as he opened the back of the cage and tossed in a little white mouse. The mouse had no idea what was coming. The snake, obviously accustomed to food when the door opened, was on alert. He began to track the mouse. The mouse had not a clue. It wondered around until the first strike attempt by the snake. I watched as the mouse then scurried off, crossing over the snake's long body. As the mouse crossed over the snake the snake struck, biting itself. I realized that the snake was operating of movement more than visual acuity. After a few more strikes the snake had his prey. He balled up around it and continued to press his teeth into the mouse. The manager feeds the snakes once every ten days in winter. Imagine waiting another ten days to eat. Maybe that is why he took his time. I decided I'd seen enough and left him to enjoy his meal. To pick my spirits up, after the demise of the mouse, I visited the tee pee structure on the grounds. I wouldn't want to be in there tonight unless I had a good sleeping bag liner and a good fire.

Even though it was a short geocaching outing, it was fun. I wish tomorrow would cooperate. They are forecasting a 50 degree drop in temps as the Canadian cold air mass hits North Carolina along with rain.