Geocaching my way to Georgia

While on furlough we visit a number of churches. We recently had the opportunity to travel from Greensboro, NC down Interstate 85, through South Carolina and into Georgia. We ended up in Monroe, Ga for five days of speaking in supporting churches. On the way down we hit patches of rainy weather but that didn't stop us. Soon after passing the big peach water tower at Gaffney, SC we began picking up a few caches. One with historical significance was Possum Trot (GC1HC4M) a micro in the woods near an old-room school house built in the 1880's that has been moved and preserved. Next up was NUT CASE: Acorn-y Cache (GC195C3). This was probably my favorite of the entire trip. This is a spoiler so be prepared. When we got to the GZ we found a pretty hefty acorn hanging on a cable that we let down in order to get the 35mm canister out and sign the log. People are pretty creative. While in Monroe, Ga we spoke in five different churches. One day they took us to visit a small, rural church near Farmington, Ga where one of Southern Baptist's missionary heroes lived and worked during the Civil War years. Lottie Moon was a young single private tutor during the early 1860's when she attended the Freeman Creek Baptist Church. Lottie went on to become a well-known missionary who corresponded regularly with the stateside constituency during her long years in China. She was instrumental in helping Southern Baptist see the need for a cooperative giving program to support missions work overseas. If you are interested in learning more about Lottie Moon, check out http://www.sbhla.org/bio_moon.htm Another of our favorite sites was a Dukes of Hazard cache near the town of Social Circle, Ga. It is Alcovy Trestle - Dukes of Hazzard#1 (GC1AB79). I can just imagine Bo and Luke Duke driving the Robert E. Lee across that trestle bridge. Social Circle, GA is an interesting little town too. We broke away for an afternoon of caching there. The town got its name from a visitor who came upon a group of men sitting around a well near where the center of town now stands. They were hospitable to the stranger and invited him to join them in the circle. He stated that they were truly a "social circle". The new community had a name. I visited the First Baptist Church of Social Circle to speak. One of the Sunday School classes took me to it's most famous landmark, the Blue Willow Inn. What a country cooking spread they had there! Our little Georgia excursion was a blast. Let me recommend that you go down to Georgia when you can and find you some caches. Stop by Social Circle too.

Walton's Mountain Museum caching; Schuyler, Va.

Are you old enough to remember the television program The Waltons? It was one of our favorites when I was in high school and college. My parents particularly enjoyed it as it described the time they were growing up in the rural southland. While on a recent trip to central Virginia we had the chance to go see the Walton Mountain Museum in Schuyler (pronounced Skylar). It is situated in an old school house. This was a special time for my wife as one of her best memories is that of accompanying her mother on a trip to this place before she passed away some years back. We took a route recommended on the museum website to get there but on our way back south we cut through on what was described as the crocked road. No problem with that. It gave us a chance to see the Rockfish River and the changing leaves, not to mention allowing us to stop and pick up Farrar Bridge (GC100E1). This one was located at a steel frame bridge over the Rockfish River. We stopped and found the cache right away. We stayed on for about half an hour taking photos on the bridge. The countryside here is beautiful. It was fun to have our daughter and our granddaughter along with us. As we headed down Highway 29 towards Lynchburg we stopped in for Nelson County Rocks (GCW79V), a neat cache hidden in a specially prepared cache. Someday I'll have a nice shop where I can fabricate those neat cache containers.

A run in with the Mafia

SPOILER ALERT FOR GREENSBORO, NC: I'm taking every chance I get to get out and cache, particularly when the weather is good. Today was a beautiful clear day. It started out freezing but warmed up into the 60's during the afternoon. The afternoon included a slew of urban caches. The most interesting was related to the local High Point Mafia, a team of geocachers with a mafioso fame. I once attended a geocaching event that they put on. They go all out with the costumes and all. Looks like they have a cache centered around the theme of what happens when a family member or employee becomes a snitch. It is Offer U can't Refuse (GC1YVAR). I parked in the empty office building parking lots across the streets from the wooded area where I would find the cache. I walked across the expansive yard in front of the building, disturbing the Canadian geese as I walked past. Negotiating the mud slick hill to get down to ground zero took some doing. Once there the coordinates were right on. As you can see from the pictures there wasn't much of a challenge finding the cache. It was true to the theme. Looks like they cut off the snitch's hand, ring and all. They left some of their weapons in the guitar case too. I traded travel bugs and grabbed some pictures of this creative cache. Thanks to the High Point Mafia for this fine cache!

The Quaker Connection

My great-great-great-great-great grandfather John Frazier moved from Delaware to Guilford County, NC in 1754. He was a member of the Friends Society, known as Quakers. At this time he moved with his master. He was a 20-year old apprentice. In 1759 he married Abigail Millikan at the New Garden Friends Monthly Meeting. He acquired land near the present-day Guilford County and Randolph County lines. He was a simple farmer and his family was a part of the Center Friends Monthly Meeting once it was established. John Frazier did not fight in the Revolutionary War but had strong enough feelings about our nation's right to self-determination that he paid to finance two soldiers in the war. This earned him recognition as a patriot, even though he was a pacifist. In 1796 John's son, William, moved west to Jefferson Co., TN to help establish the Lost Creek Monthly Meeting. His daughter, Abigail, married a Baptist and was no longer allowed to be a Quaker. This was my great-great-great grandmother. In 1964 our family moved to Guilford County, NC. My father found work in the textile industry. No one in our family had any memories of our Quaker ancestors nor did we know of their sojourn in this same county many years before. It wasn't until 1980 that I became interested in genealogy after visiting with my ailing grandfather in East Tennessee and learning that his grandfather had fought in the Civil War. That information motivated me to begin years of research. The fruit of that labor is knowledge about where our family members were at significant times in the history of our country and even prior to that in Europe. One piece of that history was Quaker and it included the early years of settlement in Guilford County. I thought it only fitting for my grandson to have a cache named GGGGGGG Grandfather John Frazier (GCXXXXX) in order to commemorate the contributions of our Quaker ancestors. While not Quakers today (we are Baptists) we have crossed paths again with the Friends Society. My daughter is a graduate of Guilford College, the Quaker College right here at New Garden where John Frazier was married 250 years ago. I find the Quaker history fascinating and appreciate the good records that they kept. It makes family tree research much easier. If you get to visit the Guilford College area of west Greensboro, NC, be sure to stop in and visit some of the caches around the college. It will be worth your time.

Uwharrie National Forest Caching, Central North Carolina

While my wife visited with family in Wadesboro I made the 45-minute drive north into the Uwharrie National Forest on a beautiful, sunny Indian summer fall day. The circuit I drove took me to the National Forest, then to Albemarle and on to Oakville and back to Wadesboro. I avoided the micros when I got to Uwharrie. Why look for them until all the ammo boxes and lock n locks are gone. It was fun hiking the trails. I was a little concerned that I wasn't dressed in orange since hunters were starting to head out into the woods. Even though these trails are supposed to be protected I was still a little uncomfortable. I found some nice caches among the rocks and trees of Uwharrie. Lake Tillery was beautiful today. In Albemarle I stopped at Rock Creek park which runs along a creek and swamp area. I hiked about a quarter mile out a straight and paved vehicle trail to find Gabby Rocks (GC1FTH9). There was nothing spectacular about the cache itself but its what happened while I was out there. Here is a copy of my log:

This was my most exciting cache of the day. It was an easy find. Just as I put the cache back and checked my coordinates for the next cache I heard wood crack. Then I heard some large limbs falling. Then I heard a bigger cracking sound and saw a smaller rotted out tree fall against what turned out to be a larger rotted out tree. I took off running north on the trail as the big one started falling. I was concerned about the domino effect. I could have stayed put and been ok by 50 feet or so I estimate. I didn't go back. This is the first time a tree has fallen near me in the forest. It was a big one too. Thanks for the caching experience and the find.

I traveled south to Oakville, picking up caches along the way. There was one at the old train station in Oakville that is worth the stop. Nearby their was a park with several ammo cans in the park. As I traveled across northern Anson County I recalled the genealogy research I've done in this county and what I've learned about my wife's Revolutionary War and Civil War era ancestors. I had a great day today!

Discovering a moving TB

Wow! Our friends have really taken to geocaching. I love it! Just before returning to Ecuador to take up our work again, we had a great visit with some good friends we introduced to geocaching in July. After a great meal they told us that for Christmas one spouse had given the other a travel bug tag. This one is kind of different. The tag is magnetic and stuck on the back of a small convertible that frequents the rural roads around Greensboro and Pleasant Garden, NC. This TB has a tendency to spend hours parked in front of the Starbucks at the junction of South Elm/Eugene Street and Interstate 85 near Robin's Roost (GC1ZFV7). Check this geocache out when you get the chance. You might get the opportunity to discover Travel Bug My Sanity too.

Lake Townsend Trails, Greensboro, NC

The day started early. After some pretty rainy days we'd had one day for the ground to dry and I was ready to hit the trails. Lake Townsend, part of the watershed area for Greensboro, NC made the perfect place to get the chance to see what colder weather was doing to the woods around us. I had found most of the caches on the western-most part of Laurel Bluff Trail but need to finish the rest and then come back east along the north side of the lake. This time I went solo as Paula had things to do. She can only stand one good trail hike every week or two and she's done. I'm thankful she is understanding of me and supports my geocaching. I hiked out the trail about 2 miles before arriving at the point where I'd left off previously. It was right along the final approach for Air Harbor, a civilian airfield for small planes on the north side of Greensboro. Just off the run way to the north is the basin of the western-most part of Lake Townsend. When the floodgates of Lake Brandt are closed this area dries up to a small river instead of the lake-sized reservoir that it can be. One of the photos below shows that the water was pretty low in the morning as I started out. I made my way westward along the trail and found a number of regular size caches in the woods. I also ran into two groups of senior citizens hiking the trail. I was impressed as this is almost 4 miles between trail heads on the principle roads. One cache, Just another Box in the Woods (GC11Q8X) had not been found for eight months. There was one attempt a few months previously. It felt good to find this well-hidden, well-cammo'ed ammo box. It was kind of like reactivating the cache after so long. You can see a photo of the cache away from its hiding place above. I made it to the western most end of the trail, crossed the highway bridge to the north side and off I went to the east, working my way from cache to cache to get back to my car and completing a circuit of about 7 miles. The road that got me to the north side is right beside the dam that holds back Lake Brandt. With the recent rains it was time to open the floodgates and allow some of the water to run east into Lake Townsend. As I worked my way east the lake system was to my right. What had been swamp land was rapidly beginning to flood again. Thankfully all the caches are placed on higher ground and there is little impact on the trail. The circuit took me about 7 hours to complete, including time spent searching for caches. I'm soon going to exhaust the hiking trails around here with geocaches. These are the best. I'll take a trail through the woods and large geocaches over urban micros any and every day that I can. I recommend these trails for any of you geocachers who love the outdoors.