One Guy Outdoors

Welcome to the page!  Continue scrolling for a brief history and my latest adventure. I hope you enjoy your visit and come back to see more of my adventures!

A couple of months ago, I was feeling a bit down.  I had applied for a full time position at one of the colleges that I’ve been working as an adjunct.  Spoiler Alert:  I didn’t get the job.  That’s not necessarily news.  I’ve applied for positions before and haven’t gotten them. The reasons that this situation hit me harder than those in the past are that I graduated from the school and I’ve been working there for almost 5 years.  I have roots and connections there.  Not that I’m asking for a free pass at the job.  I had just hoped that any status I built might translate into at least an interview and I didn’t even get that.  Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.  Cry me a river.  Build a bridge and get over it.  I promise, though, that I’m not just whining for the sake of whining.  I have three kids.  I deal with enough of that to know how annoying it is.  I’m just trying to set the scene, so to speak.  You see, I’m also a frustrated novelist.  Then again, who among the blogging committee isn’t.

I did what I usually do when things aren’t going quite right.  I try to convince myself that it doesn’t affect me as much as it actually does,   end up unloading all of my baggage onto my wife, and then my mother.  I’m not usually looking for anything from these rants like advice or sympathy.  Mostly, I’ve just found in my life that expressing my anger or disappointment in this fashion makes me feel better and lets me move on quicker.

Not only was that just as true this time, but I also took my mother’s advice. She said that I should start a blog–and if nothing else, I’m ready to blog–about either the outdoors or travelling with kids. Back when we traveled more, I considered doing something like that. However, we mostly just do the same 3 or 4 trips every year since we camp wherever we go. Since the kids are older, we pack the car like the Griswolds in National Lampoon’s Vacation. However, many of our trips, and my own adventures, involve being outdoors.

And, so, join me for “One Guy Outdoors”!

Prologue

Before I talk about the Harvard Forest #1 cache, allow me some brief therapy.

How long has it been this time? Last post was November 7, so just over a month. Why so long? Put simply, work is ridiculous this year. I just had my first observation on Friday. He came into my worst class. I’m trying hard to take the approach that it is a blessing in disguise because maybe he will be able to help me with the class. Past trauma tells me that this is the beginning of the end. I guess we will see which of these is true over the next 6 months.

Why did I start with that? Why do I do anything that I do? Clearly, this is weighing on me and will be until there is some resolution to the situation. Also, I suppose it serves the purpose of showing how crazy the year can be. Plus, that’s one of the least crazy thing to happen the last few weeks. Okay, two paragraphs of therapy out of the way. On to the actual introduction.

Over the last month, I found a cache every single day. I branched out into finding them at night. So far, only two can be classified as actual night caches, but they both offered new and exciting ways to treasure hunt. As I wrote to a friend, “I just stomped through the pitch black woods last night for about an hour to find a piece of Tupperware in and keep my streak alive.”





Yesterday’s Cache: Elwin’s Cache (Day Number 98)

I went searching for another geocache called “Bird’s Eye View“. Unfortunately, that one looked to be in a residential area and that scared me off. While out, I checked the Geocaching app and found that there was still a cache in the Bearsden Conservatory that I hadn’t found. Being that’s one of my favorite places to hike in the area, I quickly adjusted my plan. The directions brought me to the cabin on the premises (that I had actually forgotten existed and is able to be reserved) and I parked there. The reservation season is over for the cabin until March. That’s a bummer because March hasn’t been very winter like over the last couple of years. Oh well, there are two lean-tos in the area as well that maybe I can take my 4-season tent over for a weekend if it snows.

That’s neither here nor there other than the fact that it may become a post later in the winter. The important part is that I parked and then hiked for a bit, completely unaware (having forgotten) that there was a parking area a bit further up the road. Oh well, I got to hike a little bit, which is nice because the cache was hidden in the parking area. I quickly found the cache and then scooted off to the dump.

While at the dump, I got a call from Liam. I completely forgot that he offered to work a birthday party to pick up an extra hour. Once I saw the missed call, I came home, picked him up, dropped him off and then scooted back up to Bear’s Den to drop a trackable into the cache. I also put together a replacement cache for one I found on Friday (more on that in a couple of weeks), and tried to come up with some ideas for some hides of my own. All in all, it was a successful day for Geocaching.

Today’s Cache: Harvard Forest #1 (Day Number 99)

I planned to find this one yesterday. These Harvard Forest caches, including Harvard Forest #1, are “puzzle” caches. In their case, that simply means that you have to answer a question about something related to the forest. The question for this cache asked how many acorns are in the Harvard Forest logo. To Google! I would later learn that the cache owner kindly included a picture of the shield, so it wasn’t necessary to go to Google. Oh well, I was fact checking.

I started to get ready to head over and Christine asked where I was going. She then suggested that I bring Quinn because she’s convinced (and I agree) that he would have fun with geocaching. We also brought the dog. The last one of these I found was a bit of a hike, so I figured why not. This one ended up not being any of a hike, but originally I thought we might get at least a half mile total.

After figuring out that we were going in the wrong direction, I turned us around and parked in the Fisher Museum parking lot. The find was easy enough, but I gave Quinn a chance to try before showing him where to find it. Admittedly not the most interesting or exciting first trip. As Quinn said, “It wasn’t a hike and it wasn’t really a treasure.” Oh well, he did get a pretty goo indication of what it’s like to go caching with me. Driving 20 plus minutes for a quick park and grab, wrong coordinates, turning around, taking a good 15 minutes to figure out how to open the container, and remarking how helpful a pair of tweezers in my hiking go bag would be. Next week I will have to find a better treasure to find.

Epilogue

Overall, the last three days of caching have been great. I got the idea to help maintain the one I found on Friday and I have been low key obsessed with doing that ever since. Saturday ultimately took me to a favorite place and I got another trackable out into the wild. Then, today, I took Quinn along with me to find Harvard Forest #1. Again, even though this one wasn’t the most fun, there have to be some good hides around here for him to find. Plus, I found my bag of trackables. He will have fun with those as well. Tune in tomorrow for the big 100.