Geocaching Adventures Part 7

October 12, 2008 - International Earthcache Day!

International Earthcache Day is held at the beginning of Earth Sciences' Week, sponsored by the Geological Society of America. They encourage people, not just geocachers, to get out and learn about the earth. In 2007, a couple of friends and I spent "Earthcache Day" together. We headed to Virginia to specifically visit GC105P8 "Wetlands: A Natural Treasure. That day we wandered around Huntley Meadows Park gathering the information. We then spent another great couple of hours in another portion of the park finding the other traditional caches there. This year we wanted to go bigger and better. So we ventured off to Great Falls National Park. Located on each side of the falls are two earthcaches. We visited an old gold mine, for the "Gold in Maryland" earthcache.. The hike to that one was fantastic. We then headed over to the Virginia side of the falls to visit the GCZDA0 Great Falls Earthcache. For this one we had to visited various lookouts along the river for some amazing scenery. We then had another terrific hike out to GCZP3V Mather Gorge. This one took us from the top of the falls down about 9/10 of a mile down to a terrific spot to look back up the gorge itself. After making our way back to the car we realized that we had missed one of the earthcaches on the Maryland side, since it looked like on the map and GPSr that it was in Virginia. But it could only be accessed from the Maryland side. Once back we visited GCZCGF Great Falls Olmstead Island along with about 200 of our closest muggle friends. But they were more concerned with looking at the falls and the kayakers enjoying them.

The entire day was a blast! Great hikes, with terrific scenery accompanied by good friends. Can't wait to see where we go next year!

I realize that this may not be the best or most descriptive posting of a such a great day. But sometimes words escape me. If you are interested in seeing a few pictures of the day check out the "other pics" link on the right side. Then look at the "12 of Twelve for October." More geocaching news later...

10/20/08 Life in general

Man it has been a very, very , very long time since I have posted here! Over a month since I decided to let people know how things are going.

First let me say that life is very good right now. (Hope I don't jinx it there.) I am getting home nice and early after school because I finally got out of coaching volleyball. I have to say that I am much happier now knowing that I don't have to think about the sport that I once loved every waking moment for 3 months. Now I get home and have a chance to see my sons - it couldn't get much better than that.

School is going well. My classes are made up of some really nice students. Most are hard-working while others could show a little more effort but they do have great personalities. The first quarter is quickly coming to an end and some will be very surprised by their grades, especially since 70% of that grade comes from performance on quizzes and tests. It will be a rude awakening for many. But I have tried to keep them abreast of the situation.

My wife and I have bought a small 49.5 cc engine scooter. Most days we do carpool, since Valerie's schedule has changed and we can go in and leave at the same time. But I wanted to do what I could to use a smaller amount of gasoline. I have to say that I love riding it, even if it is cold in the morning. I was really stoked for about two weeks, until I rode by a couple of mile markers and realized that the odometer measures in kilometers rather than miles. But 87 mpg is far better than my Durango which gets 15 mpg on a really good day.

As for the geocaching front - I have to say that it has only gotten better. I have tried to get back to caching the way I really liked when I first started. Getting out in the woods and taking a really nice walk or hike. But more about that later. I have hidden one new cache, just last week. Calvert History 101 is another cache that I hope people will enjoy because it takes them to various locations around the southern part. Many will drive all around to gather the information but others will click the one button on the page that will help. Each of the historical markers is a "waymark" and the information can be read from each of their listings. I hope that people enjoy it!

Honest to goodness - no sooner do I write that everything is going well I develop a pretty bad pain in the neck, literally. More later.