Nearly every day, both my OneDrive and my Facebook memories remind me how much I hiked last year. I talked with my new department head when one of the memories made me particularly embarrased at the amount that I hiked this year. That amount? Zero. So, wither One Guy Outdoors? I mean, my last post before this came in October and titled “AWOL“.
I mean, on this day last year alone, I discovered a pirate graveyard.
In A Word: No
If you read that last post, nothing changed. I tried to get back into Geocaching. I planned a way to get the final 300 caches I needed to get to 1000 for last year. Nothing inspired me to follow through with that plan. Work got way too busy, Christine took a job where she now commutes just as much as I did, and I stopped having time after school for my little hikes.
This year, I watched as all of the memories flooded my timelines. I also ignored them and dug deeper into my hibernation with indoor activities like Lego and miniature painting. So, why all of a sudden the change of heart and this post? First, I promise no actual change of heart. Second, it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want to. And, what exactly is it that I do do? Eh, I really wanted that joke to land. Poop jokes are always funny.
As I drove Quinn to drop him off for a friend’s birthday party, I he and I talked a little about my hiking habits last year versus this year. Then, as I drove home, I got an idea. It seems sustainable given my current energy level and commitment to Geocaching. I can find one geocache per month on a special day in those months. The following outlines the first 5 months of the year.
31 January – Birthday Cache
14 February – Valentine’s Day Cache
20 March – First Day of Spring Cache
9 April – Easter Cache
31 May – Memorial Day Cache
Epilogue
So, no. No to wither One Guy Outdoors. This year represents a reset of the page and my commitment to outdoor activities, geocaching included. One find per month gets me to 1073 by the end of the year. Add in souvenirs and bonus finds (most likely in Europe during our trip) and I can get to 1100 by 1 January 2024. The next major milestone is 2000. I doubt, with all of the finds near my house more or less gone and geocaching getting less popular around here, that I can ever consider 1000 finds in a year again. But, I have this entire year to come up with a plan and a theme for next year.
I last posted in May. I’m not sure why I stopped then. I can explain my more recent inactivity. It’s going to sound stupid, but that’s okay. I’m not the kind of person who shies away from sounding stupid every now and then. Also, I can’t explain why I’m suddenly back in October 2022. Maybe that will come through as I write this post.
I haven’t been geocaching since early in September. After successfully finishing my 365 day streak…I got absolutely nothing for it. I thought they might give me one of their virtual souvenirs for completing the streak. Nope. All I get is a mention on my statistics page about my streak.
And, so, I got frustrated by that development and got out of the habit of finding geocaches. I also said to my wife yesterday that I don’t have the same kind of time this year that I did last year. I took on two new clubs and am team leader. The only days that I get out close to on time is every other Monday and Friday. Even so, I am currently at 693 geocaches found this year. While exploring the boat ramp where Liam got his senior pictures done, I came to the realization that if I find 7 more geocaches this month, I’d only have to average about 5 per day over the last two months to get to the 1000 I hope for this year.
The Adventure
Mathematically, the more geocaches that I find in October 2022, the less I will have to average over the rest of the year. However, now that I’ve completed two of the longest “power trail” series of geocaches, it now becomes more difficult to find clumps of 5 to find every day. Therefore, I need to do some research and planning to properly utilize my free time.
Luckily, now that I know that the Geocaching web page doesn’t offer any souvenirs for streaks, I don’t have to kill myself finding caches every single day. I can find some on every other Monday, Friday, and maybe pick up some of the slack on the weekends. True, by taking off most of September and October I made things difficult on myself. But, aren’t comeback underdog stories the exact type that Americans love?
So, stay tuned as I figure out how to get these 1000 caches. As this post shows, I already have some ideas to get me to at least 700 by the end of October. I can go back to Pisgah State Park in New Hampshire for about a dozen. After that, things start to get difficult and that’s where I need to sit down with the map and put together a plan.
Epilogue
Truth be told, I don’t know what I will do if I actually succeed in finding the 1000 geocaches in 2022. The streak kept me interested and I can find inspiration to push through the end of the year for 1000. After that, though, what goal can I come up with to keep getting outside and keep this page alive?
Again, I know that I used this prompt last year when I got the idea to update this daily. Again, I remembered this prompt then. I can’t remember what I wrote to answer what love is then, but now I’m going to simply copy and paste from my Father’s Day Instagram post last year. It more or less covers everything I want to say.
The Prompt
The Prompt: We each have many types of love relationships — parents, children, spouses, friends. And they’re not always with people; you may love an animal, or a place. Is there a single idea or definition that runs through all the varieties of “love”?
I usually make a crude joke at today’s expense, but I guess I’m feeling sentimental or nostalgic today, so if you actually read these, this one may be a bumpy ride.
Father’s Day means something different when your father has passed away. It is still a celebration but within that celebration is that constant ache in that piece of your heart that has been empty since they passed.
It has been over 17 years since my father passed away on December 1 from “complications due to the AIDS virus”. Makes it sound so neat and clean. Trust me, it wasn’t. I wasn’t there at the very end, but he got us all together the Thanksgiving weekend before to say good bye. He looked like hell frozen over and we all knew his intentions but, of course, nobody said them out loud.
Christine was tasked with calling me at work to let me know he has died. Either shock or an idiotic commitment to a place that didn’t share that commitment to me causes me to worry how they might cover a week of shifts if I went back home for the service and to reminisce/heal. Also, my boss at that place was a real ass.
But, I didn’t come here for that purpose. I was talking with a friend earlier and the topic of father’s came up. More recently, his became sick. But, at the time, he wasn’t. I can’t remember why we ended up talking about Dad. But, my response, simple and direct as ever, was, ” I miss the old bastard. Every single day.” Especially this day. I love you, Dad. I miss you. Happy father’s day.
Father’s Day: My Kids
Father’s Day also means something different when you are a father. I’ve already shared these pictures, but I’m not much of a pictures of my kids guy and Aiden hates having his taken, so you get the same pictures and none of Aiden by himself.
I also talked about them at great length in my anniversary thread. Having kids, for those who don’t know, obviously changes every aspect of your life and, honestly, not always for the better. But, as humans tend to ignore the negative over time and accentuate the positive, overall it has been a wonderful experience.
Some of our friends, families, and associates are in the early to middle stages of parenthood and it has been a joy sharing my own experiences as advice with them. It also has been a reminder that, while I always said I wasn’t going to miss it, I always do at least a little. I guess that gives me a reason to live long enough to become a grandfather.
So, I guess, uh, happy father’s day to me.
Father’s Day: School Kids
Father’s day has a different meaning when you teach. You entrust your kids to us for over 7 hours a day 180 days a year. We take that trust seriously and when we talk about them, we can’t help but call them our kids. We don’t always like them all, but we still love them.
I have been blessed to be on both sides of this mentoring relationship. In college, my physics professor Yadu, earned my undying loyalty by professing his love for swearing in our first class. He went on to earn my love by being one of the best mentors and teachers ever. I best sum him up by saying that I was waiting for him to show up to office hours. He walked into his office and proudly proclaimed to a colleague, “I just taught 50 minutes of physics without talking about physics once.” I went to him to ask for a book as his “textbook” for the class was a workbook without accompanying text. “You want a textbook? Here, here are some books” and he proceeded to throw books from his book shelf at me. I got that lesson, and many others, Yadu. Love you and miss you.
Jon, Tom, and Ileana all conspired to get me my first college teaching job at a time I thought myself unemployable in the field. Maria helped me build my confidence to fight for the job and Paula reminds me daily that, with some adjustments, my way really can work I have much to share about them, too, but tragically not enough space right now.
So, it is in their honor and memory that I love and care about every one of my kids in hopefully the way that they need. I mean, as my mom is quick to remind me, the letters and cards serve as proof that I’m doing something right. Just today, I have had 2 former students wish me a happy father’s day. Just know, kids, that I watch your posts with great pride and joy as you share your lives. Even if we haven’t talked, I still watch your present and future success with great interest. I cherish the time we had/have together.
Much love. Mr. Lucas.
The Epilogue
I think that says it all. Talk to you all tomorrow.
Mighty Morphing Power Rangers? Perhaps. We went through a phase where the boys enoyed the show. Heck, we went through three such phases, one for each of the boys. Every time, it took me back. Not to childhood. The first season of Power Rangers released when I was in high school. But, it took me back to one of my first teenage crushes, Kimberly the Pink Ranger. Heck, we even went to see the newest movie on opening weekend. I check periodically to see if they released any information on the sequel. So far, no luck.
The Prompt
Yesterday, I said that I got the idea about this time last year that I got inspired to write daily. I didn’t remember if I wrote on yesterday’s prompt, but I remember today’s. Last year, apparently, I tried to morph the meaning of the word candle. Not having read the entry since then, I have no idea what that even means.
The Prompt: Language evolves. The meaning of a word can shift over time as we use it differently — think of “cool,” “heavy,” or even “literally.” Today, give a word an evolutionary push: give a common word a new meaning, explain it to us, and use it in the title of your post.
I admit that the thought of redefining a word is compelling. “Bad” becomes “good”. “Heavy” becomes a joke that endures through generations.” Hell, half of conversations these days are about what “can and can’t be said” in polite conversation. However, it takes a certain amount of hubris to think you can. Granted, I already show some of that hubris by writing my words here and expecting anyone to care. Nevertheless, my hubris has limits. And, so, no morphing of language today.
Today’s Adventure (Ashuelot Trail..Again)
I shared none of my pictures or video from today. I feel bad because I took the day off to stay home because of another doctor’s appointment. I know I shouldn’t but the old ways dies hard. Anyway, I continued my trek along the trail today and grabbed a whole bunch of caches. I also saw that cool hole in the tree and some dinosaur bones.
Epilogue
That’s how you’re going to leave this? Dinosaur bones? Yep. I think I will. You can see the picture in the head of the post. See. Dinosaur bones. Talk to you tomorrow.
I already considered skipping today. Ultimately makes no difference to anyone but me and the half a dozen or so (and that might be overestimating) of readers that regularly ome to the page. But, integrity is what happens when nobody is watching, right? So, I write. However, I probably only write the bare minimum today. We might have to get used to the bare minumum during the week until summer. Maybe, some days, when I admire the landscape, I will see the forest for the trees.
The only view of the river from this part of the trail.
Today’s Adventure (Ashuelot Trail Landscape)
In yesterday’s entry, I recapped my adventure from the end of March where I spooked a low level drug dealer near one of the local ponds. Since I said this entry will be short, I don’t have the space to recount another long adventure, so I will use the weekly entries to recap the daily. This may or may not work to catch us up. But, like I say at school, this is the only plan I have and I’m not afraid to fail if I learn from it.
Today, I needed to find some quick geocaches because Quinn had little league practice tonight. And, so, I went back to the Ashuelot Trail that runs through several towns in New Hampsire and roughly follows the Ashuelot River. One of my students, when I first told him about it, thought I might be through hiking. I, sadly, had to convey that it was only a multipurpose rail trail. Hmm, maybe I will use that as inspiration to do some through hiking this summer.
For now, back to the trail. Someone took the geocaching guidelines to heart back when geocaching first started and hid a geocache every 1/10 of a mile. As far as I know, there are at least 100 geocaches hidden just along this one trail. I used it to find 15 caches and break my daily record. Today, I just found 6 to keep current with my personal yearly goal of finding 1000 caches in the calendar year. In actuality, I’m remaining 60 caches off the pace. But, during summer, I’ll pick that up within a week.
The Prompt: Landscape
I mentioned in the last entry that I used a prompt of the day to keep myself honest and keep posting every day. I used that same document this year. I recognized some of the prompts. Oh well, I will mix up my responses to keep things fresh. I don’t remember if I used this one last year. Maybe, just maybe, I took the day off. Well, I’m going to use it this year.
The Prompt: When you gaze out your window — real or figurative — do you see the forest first, or the trees?
Generally speaking, I see the big picture first. I wrote earlier that maybe I will see the forest for the trees here on the web page. That could be said for much of my life. I just never concern myelf with the details. It gets me into trouble more often than not, but who has the time or energy?
I think people might tend to gravitate to “stop and smell the roses” as they get older. Perhaps, even I might learn. I remember quoting Ferris Bueller a couple of years ago in a Facebook post. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Only recently have I taken that advice to heart. I feel like life is finally where I want it to be.
Epilogue
I said again, when confronted with the issue, “For me, my 20s were about making mistakes. Then, 30s were about amending for those mistakes, and finally in my 40s, I’m able to really start to figure out and enjoy things.” I mean, that’s all I can offer. When anyone asks for advice, I just say, enjoy the landscape of life as much as you can. Forest? Trees? It’s all the same to me.
Today, I write about success. I must admit that when it comes to my career, I don’t have much experience with success. I (only partly) joked recently that many of my teaching jobs came with a three year expiration date. At the risk of spoiling the journal entry, I fought that expiration date this time and actually won.
By won, I mean that I received a contract for a fourth year. This happened in spite of earlier pushback from administration and not (again) getting my license to teach. But, more on all of that later. I also started this blog as an attempt to “share the natural beauty of our world”. Granted, much of that beauty exists only in the states of Massachusetts and New Hampsire (sometimes Vermont and Rhode Island, rarely Maine, and almost never outside of New England), but as I’ve often parroted from my younger brother (paraphrased), “If you want to travel, why aren’t you travelling? Why wait to win the lottery? There’s plenty to see in your metaphorical backyard if you just know where to look.
The Adventure (Thursday 31 March 2022 Part 1)
In my last post (in which I promised to write more and then promptly ignored for another month plus), I promised more frequent updates. The only time I ever kept that promise was when I used the daily prompts last year. And, so, at around the same time, I attempt to daily blog. I thought I mentioned low level drug dealers in that post. Perhaps, I saved it for the preview blurb.
I went back to an area I hiked before in the snow. I never found the geocache in that area and I wanted to see if it was because of the snow. That often happens and you will notice a familiar refrain with recent updates. I parked in the parking area and started down the trail. A man suddenly appeared, as if he materialized out of thin air (he actually just walked out from behind the outhouse, but I sometimes have a flair for the dramatic), and stood there. I saw him talking on his phone, so paid him no mind.
I continued down the path. He seemed to follow me, but sometimes paranoia gets the better of me, so I paid no attention. As I searched the area, pretending to take pictures (my common cover for muggles while caching), he circled around to the other side of the trail. I decided to take a walk down the rest of the trail to the water to see if he might just leave. I took the two pictures at the bottom of the gallery, spent some time just looking at the water and then went back to find the cache.
When I got back to the cache location, he was nowhere to be found. Good, I thought, he’s gone. I can search in peace. Then, similar to the beginning of this adventure, he appeared out of nowhere at the top of the hill where I searched. Okay, now this is weird. Is this guy going to kill me? I learned later from a student that a murder actually happened in that area, so that’s fun.
I went back to pretending to take pictures as he walked down the path. What is he doing? Trying to get my scent to make it easier to hunt me? Whatever, time to find this cache. Nope, wrong again. He’s back Okay, this is definitely where I get murdered.
The Adventure (Thursday, 31 March 2022 Part 2)
“Pretty area.” He said. He’s attempting to get me to drop my guard to make it easier to murder me.
“It is very pretty.” I replied.
“Is the pond ice out?”
“Yes, there’s a little bit on the shore over there, but other than that, I didn’t see any. I came down here a couple of weeks ago when there was still snow and it was all ice.”
He nodded. Then awkward silence for a few minutes. “Are you a cop?”
Okay, do I say yes because we are in rural New Hampshire and “Blue Lives Matter”? Or, do I tell the truth and see where this takes me? “No.”
“Oh,” he stammers. Then, “I just saw you on your phone.”
“Just taking pictures.” I show him my lanyard with ID. “I’m a teacher and I work at the local school over there.”
More awkward silence. Then, in a halting voice, as if he’s not sure he even wants to ask, “Are you, uh, are you looking for, uh, are you looking for something?” I don’t remember the exact words, but he definitely implied that he carried drugs and wanted to sell them to someone, hopefully me.
I chuckled. After thinking he wanted to murder me, offering me drugs was a relief. “No, man, I’m good. Thanks.”
“Oh, uh, my mistake.” He still stammered and stumbled over his words. Then he ran off back to his car and left. Finally alone, I quickly found the geocache and went on to find a couple of others nearby. Never a dull moment in my life.
The Prompt: Success
The Prompt: Tell us about a time where everything you’d hoped would happen actually did.
If you kept current with my adventures this year, you may be surprised that I use this year as a measure of success. When I wrote someone to say, “I’m officially employed by Conant next year”, they replied, “Wasn’t it you who put forth you wouldn’t?” Well, yes, but as I explained, I never thought I’d make it past that three year expiration date for much of the year. It looked bleak.
Then, something changed. Actually, many things changed. Those things led to me getting offered a job working in STEM instead of exlusively math and ultimately, I made it beyond the expiration date. If I finish my licensure for next year, I have many more options open to me. I can stay where I am. Or, I can jump ship and come back across the border to make 15 to 20 thousand more in Massachachusetts.
To me, that’s the epitome of success. I now have full (or hopefully will after this year) agency over my career and will have actual options open to me. Every other time, my options were slim to none and I just took what life gave me. I never considered money as a marker to success and I always (well, mostly) feel sucessful as a father and a husband, so that’s all that remained. *knock wood* Now is a good time to be me.
Epilogue
I only made it through one day of adventures in this post. That’s okay. The next week is limited in scope. I spent much of it sick and had little to no energy to do anything besides lying down on the couch. So, I will be back and current before you know it. Until tomorrow!
I tried rebooting the pages again last week. That, as evidenced by nother week of radio silcence, failed. So I find myself, on 2 April 2022, attemping once again to make myself relevant through my writing. Well, aside from the fact that I often fall back on writing as my hobby to destress, I heard a podcast recently. “Wow!” You may think, “The guy who listens to podcasts during every commute heard a podcast! Stop the presses!”
Okay, okay, I get it. Perhaps that introduction leaves something to be desired. Let me explain further. The episode in question came courtesy of Planet Money. They told the story of a man who started a web page about soap operas without knowing a single thing about soap operas. He hired a freelancer to write for him and sold ad space with Google. By the time he sold the page for about 3/4 of a million dollars, it made over 40,000 dollars a month in ad revenue.
The epitome of success for an entire generation.
Hear me out. I’m not saying that my weekly ramblings are worth 40,000 dollars a month. However, I don’t think that I’m out of line to say that it might be worth more than the *checks spreadsheet* absolutely nothing in income that I currently make. So, time to research how to make that happen. In the meantime, enjoy the still (economically) worthless content. How long will it take to actually get caught up to 2 April 2022.
Monday, 21 March 2022Tuesday, 22 March 2022Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Monday 21 March 2022 and Tuesday 22 March 2022
I saw the names of the geocaches on the map and they made me chuckle; Sasquatch, Unicorn, and Cockapoo. I admit that they took longer than expected to find, but I still made it home with plenty of time to spare for dinner. Then, on Tuesday, I ended up on the other side of the Birch Hills Wildlife Management Area (WMA). That might not mean anything to you, but the geocaching web page offered a souvenir for hiding a geocache during the year. I tried to hide one earlier in the year, but the people who ran the conservation area denied me permission to do so.
While researching other areas to hide geocaches, I found that Massachusetts gives implied permission to all WMAs. I used that to my advantage a couple of weeks ago and found some nooks in the BHWMA to hide two geocaches. They approved them and I got my souvenir.
There’s the souvenir!
Wednesday 23 March 2022
We administered PSAT and SAT tests on Wednesday. They gave us the afternoon to prep and grade. I actually took advantage of the time and caught up on nearly everything. Then, after school, I went to find some geocaches at Dennison Lake. Originally, I thought I might find one set of caches, including some multi-caches (a type I haven’t found in quite a long time), but I ended up going the other way. Along that path, I found a letterbox hybrid cache. Letterboxing is a precursor (I think) to geocaching in which you are given a location and then clues from that location to find the treasure.
This one made me walk something like 75 steps, turn right, and the letterbox will be there. Apparently my strides were too long because I overshot the area by a good 25 feet. I circled back, though, and found the letterbox. You’re supposed to take a stamp and leave a stamp, but I don’t have stamps. I probably should get a stamp because I recently accidentally found another letterbox by accident. In both cases, I left a sketch of Garfield.
Thursday 24 March 2022
A student said to me in response to the pictures, “Was the school day really awesome?” I replied, “Goodness no.” “Oh, that makes sense,” he said, “because I didn’t think it was anything special.” “Yeah,” I finished, “the place I hiked was amazing.” “Oh yeah,” he said to a peer,’you found a crypt and a lake the color of Baja Blast.” In addition to that, I hiked down and then up and then up and then down. I found two caches that went hidden for over a year. In the biz, we call that a resurrection. I often write it as “rezz” in my logs because I’m cool like that.
Honestly, I can’t explain it any better than that. The hike down took me to an amazing river. Then, I searched for a good 45 minutes before finding it. My log read, “I poked and prodded with my hiking stick. *squish* *squish* over and over for 45 minutes *squish* *squish* *thud*. Wait, was that a thud? *thud* Definitely a thud.” Then, the other log (after another half an hour of searching), “This is the reason that I love this hobby.”
Friday 25 March 2022 and Sunday 27 March 2022
On Friday, I returned to the scene of a crime, as it were. When I went to that trail system a couple of weeks ago, I parked in a spot that poved inconvenient for another person. She called me an a-hole and I told her to eff off. Ah, the unspoken camraderie of fellow hikers. This time, I hiked for a short period of time to get home for dinner and trivia night. We won.
Then, on Sunday, I took Quinn to the YMCA to sign up for and practice for little league. While there, I noticed a cache was activated again. They only activate it for the spring, summer, and fall because they hid it in their front yard and they don’t want the liability of someone falling on the ice. I took Quinn over and he looked for it while I looked up if we were actually in the right spot. We were and he reported, “I just found a birdhouse.” Bingo.
Saturday, 26 March 2022
I went back over to Poplar Mountain on Saturday. I saw six other caches over there that I missed missed during my visit with Christine and Lilo. Two of them were on top of the moutain and they didn’t want to climb a mountain that day. I already made them climb part of it unkowingly, so I didn’t push it. Well, I wanted those caches, so I returned.
I found not only the caches, but wonderful vistas of all around our area. I also grabbed the other caches and dropped off some themed “swag” into a like minded pirate geocache. Somehow, I spent 6 hours out that day without realizing it. I said to more than one person, “I just lose track of time out there.” While not on the same level as Thursday, I enjoyed myself and wish all hikes can be like this one.
Epilogue
And, so I find myself on 2 April 2022 writing about two weeks ago. I want to find a way to share my adventures with others and give them the same thrill that I get from exploring right in our back yard. I always see the posts, “If I ever got rich, I’d just travel.” I want to show people that you don’t have to be rich. There are hidden treasures all around just waiting to be discovered. For now, join me tomorrow and hopepfully not weeks from 2 April 2022.
I fell off the face of the earth again there. It’s not that things haven’t been happening. In fact, I found a cache for 193 straight days as of today. Granted, I am about a week and a half off my pace for finding the 1000 in the calendar year, but I’m not too worried about it. I have a plan over April vacation to try to find 100 caches in that week. There’s a trail a couple of towns over that has about 100 caches. I’m not sure if they are all active, but I have a few weeks to figure that out. For now, a brief update about recent adventures in Geocaching.
February 2022
I followed up a strong January 2022 (95 found) with a more modest February. I found just under 70 caches in February. However, I successfully convinced Christine to come with me to find one of the local mountain series of caches. We completed that one February 22 for way more than the two caches needed to get the souvenir for that very special date. Then, I took both she and Quinn to another local mountain to find some caches over there. That might have been in March, though, so I’ll keep that one brief right now.
I’m most proud of keeping the streak going. I tried once before (even blogging about it like I am now to try to keep myself motivated) but failed. Then, I watched as a World of Warcraft and Facebook friend completed 365+. I think he ended up with almost two years worth of a streak. So, the fact that I have put together over a half a year and don’t see myself slowing any time soon is enough to make a cold and dreary February a success.
March 2022
My pace slowed even more in March. As of right now, I’m under 40 caches, which puts me on pace for about the same as February and maybe even less. As I mentioned, I’m not terribly concerned about that since I have plans to go into overdrive for April vacation and find 100 in that week alone. Plus, the weather is getting warmer and DST means that I get more daylight, which I took advantage of today by getting a couple of caches on a local trail that I had to leave behind during the winter.
Oh, another thing in March that makes me proud! After striking out on my fourth hide, I successfully got hides number 4 and 5. They are in a local wildlife management area that I hiked and cached the other day. I hope to fill about a miles length at the trail I went on today and I still have at least one other puzzle cache that I plan to put together by the end of the year.
Epilogue
I apologize that this is so short and not terribly exciting. I promised a brief update and that’s what I delivered. At least I updated again and I hope to remember to give weekly updates instead of every other month. Stay tuned for hopefully exciting adventures to come!
I needed to go into Turner’s Falls. Christine planned to go out for dinner with a friend. When I got home, me and the boys would have pizza and maybe watch a movie without her. I wanted to leav work early to get home in a timely fashion. And, so it was, that last Friday became a day of PNG for me. If I put togther a list of geocaches quickly found, I might be able to get 10 of them and put myself way ahead of my pace to find 1000 in the year.
Here, you probably expect me to lament about my bad luck and toss out another geocaching abbreviation, DNF, a few times. I mean, who am I to deny my beloved readers? One of the pieces of advice I received as a young teacher that stayed with me is always start with the bad news. And, so I heed the advice of younger me and start with the bad news.
A Day of DNF (JKLOL)
I made it to Northfield before registering my first DNF for the day. Before that, everything came up Millhouse. Six found in a row. The funny thing is that several of the logs said how easy the cache was to find. I gave it the old college try, poking and prodding in a likely hiding spot as the cache listing said, to no avail. See if you can find it.
The other lost opportunity of the day lies buried under a mountain of snow and ice. I scaled that mountain, dug deep into a fissure at the apex. My search proved futile. Dejected and suddenly devoid of the joy of that find after the frustration of striking out numerous times, I stared into the distance. Pondering about what life I was living, I also contemplated just walking away. No more searches. Not another hike. Never again. But, who would that hurt? What about those beloved readers I mentioned earlier? I soldier on.
Focus on the Positive
As it probably is in most of my life, while I focus on the negative the positive far outweighed it. The title of the post is A Day of PNG. I ended up searching for about an hour and a half and found nine total geocaches in that time. 9 wins against 2 losses? That’s good enough for first place in pretty much any playoff race. Sorry, I’m still high from the Bills/Chiefs game on Sunday night. More on that tomorrow or Thursday on the main page. Plus, and I don’t know why, I’m stalling for time. Nevertheless, it worked. I came up with a theme for the finds. Let me introduce to you the first (annual? monthly? weekly?) Day of PNG Awards.
Favorite Container
C is for Cookie – What does the title make you think? Yep, I thought the exact same thing and for good reason. Now, though, you probably wonder how exctly they pulled it all off. Once again, I thought the same thing and with good reason. A cookie monster geocache? What the heck? Well, luckily, I can show you what the heck.
C is for Cookie
Most Scenic Location
The Schell Bridge #1 – I found this one completely by accident during my drive. It looked, from the map, like I might be able to cross the bridge and grab a second. It wasn’t until I started walking that it dawned on me that the bridge was most likely one of the many condemned in the state. Still, as I approached, I met the most wonderful views of the day. I’m sure you will agree.
Best (Worst) Display of Racism on a Memorial
Captain Beers Last Stand – I think I went to find this one years ago when I first started geocaching. Naively, I rushed to find the cache because I thought passing motorists might interpret my search as a terrorist act and pull over to administer a citizen’s arrest. I should have known then, as I do now, that our inherently selfish species either (a) doesn’t care all that much that I might be a terrorist or (b) is afraid that I might be in distress and they’d have to help. Sorry, that last bit was unnecessarily negative. I rescind my comment.
The point is that in my rush before I never actually found the cache. This time, armed with the knowledge of my near invisibility, I crossed the road, fumbled around for a bit, pretended to take a picture (because you truly never know when that rouge element might try something), and found the cache. As often happens with these things, you get a little bigotry with your sightseeing.
In case you want to give the benefit of the doubt, a local high school sports mascot was the “Red Raiders” until last year. Even then, they staged a school committee discussion of 2 hours of white people saying how much the name represented a part of their heritage. Yeah…
Best Sunset View
I really thought I was going to award this one to the bridge picture. I like my bridge pictures very much. Then, as I scrolled through, I saw the other sunset picture and liked that one very much, too. I leave it up to you to break the tie. Whichever one you like, that one wins!
Rock the Vote.
Epilogue
Park and Grab caches get a bad name in the community. I understand on one level why. People want to be introduced to new and interesting places and sometimes the act of simply parking and grabbing a cache doesn’t give you the time to truly appreciate where the cache led you. However, during my day of PNG, I both found a good amount of caches and took time at each place to discover why the cache owner considered it to be special enough to share. I look forward to my next day of PNG and hope that it will be as special as this one.
I told you in my last post that I planned to update weekly since daily is not an option. Honestly, if you care that much to follow my daily adventures, go to Instagram. In any case, I thank you for any support you provide, even if it is just liking my photos or reading these posts. I came up with the title for this particular post when I discovered that (a) I found a cache for 140 consecutive days, (b) I found 80 caches in the month of January already, and (c) I have 440 total finds. And, so, I am celebrating 10s this week
Maybe I mentioned this already, but Covid-19 finally hit our house. Liam tested positive first, followed by Quinn, and now Christine took a rapid test that came back positive. I think both Aiden and I had it. We think he caught it early in the pandemic and I’m pretty sure I got it over Thanksgiving break. None of that it worth celebrating. Especially since it messes with my posting schedule on the other page. Oh well, I have another idea to fill in the gap. For now, join me in celebrating 10s.
Third Week 2022 (37 Found, +14 on pace for 1000, 440 total) – Celebrating 10s
The week started and ended the same way. Driving around the area in single digit temperatures to find some park and grab caches. Last week I went in the Erving and Warwick area. Today, I went the other direction to Erving and Northfield. Both times I spent more time than I probably should, but I also had fun and got some good pictures
Adventures in Erving, Warwick, and Northfield
On Sunday (the 16th), I took advantage of comparativey warmer weather to visit a place I put on my list earlier in the week. I never heard of the place, but I saw a waterfall on the map and that’s enough for me. When I told Christine where I went, she responded, “Oh, I’ve heard of that place. I would have gone. But, I wouldn’t have climbed a mountain.” That’s because when I got there and then, when I recounted my adventure, I said, “Oh, I have a mountain to climb here.” I survived in spite of having to take a couple of breathers on the way up and a likely concussion on the way down. See the video for more.
Near concussion after falling down the mountainside.
All in all, I found 5 caches on the day. I swapped out some geocoins and got some more ideas for travel bugs once they come in the mail. And, I just checked the mail and they came! Maybe I will write a midweek update explaining travel bugs and my bugs that I’m sending out into the wild. I, for one, am excited to see if they fulfill their destinies. Getting back to Farley Ledge, I took so many pictures and I want to finish out the other part of the trail, which is actually a part of the WBT. You probably recognize that from previous posts.
As I wrote on Instagram, “I respect God for making the Sabbath a day of rest. But, I have a mountain to climb.”
Instead, I more or less took Monday off. It snowed, then rained, then iced. So, I found a cache that I thought I found almost a decade ago when I first started geocaching. On Tuesday, I drove to Peterborogh because I found a small hiking area with a few caches. I also promised the girls that I’d go to the basketball game, so I needed something quick.
As a bonus, the morning sky at my school.
That’s when, as they say, the wheels came off. I got a text from Christine that Quinn tested positive. Because she just started a new job, I needed to take two days off with him, one to test and the other becuse his school made him quarantine for 5 days. While in Greenfield getting the tests on Tuesday, we found a couple of caches. Quinn grabbed a beanie baby owl from one of them. On Wednesday, I went to the dump and rewarded myself for finally getting caught up on grading by going to another wildlife reservation and trying to find a series of caches. I also thought I found a spot for another cache, but misjudged the distance. So, I need to go back and move it about 50 feet.
Correcting music, a few cache containers, and visiting an old haunt to pick up some ghosts.
Epilogue
I never expected to meet my goals this well. I thought maybe I’d keep up on the daily streak because that one means quite a bit to me and I’m over a third of the way into it right now. But, the finding 1000 caches has been so far quite easy. *knock wood*. Though, I will say that I’m finding less and less park and grab caches close to home on days where I can’t hike because of the cold. This week we were celebrating 10s. What comes next week?
