Morton Fox's journal

It was snowing lightly on Saturday morning but there was enough time to get a few geocaches and take a short walk on a snowy bike path in Brookhaven before the heavier stuff started coming down.

By Sunday, the snow had stopped. Roads were okay, although most parking areas hadn't been cleared. I figured a thin layer of snow would not shut down most park parking areas, so I hit the cache factory area. (Plymouth Meeting, Lower Providence, North Wales, Franconia, and Perkasie this time) Didn't have many caches on the list -- mostly a bunch of new caches and a few that I skipped over or could not find on previous trips -- but winter conditions didn't really allow for a lot of driving around. Since temperatures had been in the 20s and below for a while, there were a lot of ice cascades but hopefully no dootie. "anatidaephobia" was one that I couldn't find previously because it was missing. I made another attempt since it's in the same park as one of the new caches. Thank goodness it was findable this time despite being at ground level and very small. That spot happened to be on the side of the log with less snow.

( The caches... )

There was a snowstorm predicted for Saturday but I wanted to see how many geocaches in Willisbrook Preserve I could finish before it started snowing. The snow started at around noon, a bit earlier than forecast, but I had already finished one of the two trail loops by then. I got out of there quickly because I knew secondary roads would get bad. For the rest of the day, I attended to accounting, taxes, and household chores that I'd been saving for a snowy day. (Cleaning the bathroom on a weekend? It's madness!)

After shoveling snow to clear my sidewalk and driveway on Sunday morning, I went to Coopersmith Park in West Goshen. I'd passed by those caches previously but this time, I brought the required equipment. "Smackwater Jack" is one of those caches where you need to bring water to float the cache container up a PVC tube. I really only needed the bucket and duct tape though because the nearby stream was flowing. The other cache in Coopersmith Park was also pretty neat. "Heard It Through the Grape Vine" was a bunch of grapes.

Then I returned to Willisbrook Preserve to finish what I started the previous day. There was another layer of slushy wet snow everywhere so walking around was a bit more difficult, but most of the caches were still findable. After that, I picked and chose geocaches around Malvern and Phoenixville. These varied in difficulty and some hill slopes were slippery.

( The caches... )

The weather system dumped quite a bit of snow on the area Thursday night and temperatures never got above freezing on Friday. So there was still a lot of snow (and snow/ice-covered roads) on Saturday. I decided it wasn't a great day to travel out very far and tried my hand at finding geocaches in the snow within New Castle County. Some, like the banana and the idol, were still pretty easy to find despite the snow. The banana was, by sheer luck, in the only spot in the woods that was sheltered from the snow. "A Hard Cache for You", on the other hand, lived up to its name. It's a micro cache on the ground, so to find it, I pretty much had to shovel snow all around the cache site until finally, I got it out. Anyway, despite the tough geocaching and slick roads, it was a good day to go out and the snow made for a change in scenery.

On Sunday, I went to the Chester/Delaware County border area, specifically Tredyffrin, Berwyn, Radnor, and St. Davids. This area actually seemed a bit more dangerous because there were some winding and hilly country roads that were made even more icy by the freezing rain overnight. With a little care though, my car didn't skid. I tried to pick geocaches that I thought would be easy in the snow. However, "Willow Lake TB Hotel" at Eastern University turned out to be surprisingly difficult because that area by the lake had a smooth layer of snow and the cache was not where I thought it would be from the description and logs. (GPS readings were a bit flaky in that area too, which didn't help matters.) My only recourse was to shovel snow speculatively in a number of places until I got it. The best part of the day was a walk on the snowy Radnor Trail for 3 geocaches. With no one else using the bike path, it was very quiet.

( The caches... )

I frequently have event conflicts. For example, this weekend, I could either have gone to a geocaching event on Long Beach Island and stayed the weekend or to Delaware Furbowl 50. In the end, there were more reasons to go to Furbowl. Firstly, the 50th Furbowl is quite a big milestone, drawing some visitors from far away. (Fibre Kitty from Massachusetts, Nbowa from Iowa) Also, I was told that Furbowls will be held less frequently in 2014, so it'll be two months until the next one. What tipped the scale though was the weather forecast. Snow was forecasted for Sunday (which turned out to be correct), so if I stayed overnight by the Jersey Shore, driving home on Sunday would be difficult.

Anyway, since I was going to Furbowl, I didn't go geocaching too far from home. I got two geocaches in Delaware and then 11 more in Havertown, Upper Darby, and West Philadelphia. West Philly wasn't that great for geocaching because of the scarcity of parking spaces. Nevertheless, I parallel-parked as expertly as I could and got a few caches there anyway. I stopped geocaching a bit early to come home for a change of clothing. (pants were muddy) Then I went to dinner and then to the bowling alley for Furbowl.

I've been to a bunch of Furbowls over the years but #50 was the best one I've been to in quite a while. It actually didn't feel too crowded despite the number of people attending, and I got to meet up with my friends again. Also, the fursuit lounge seemed more well-constructed than before, probably a result of incremental improvements over many months. It's amazing how much piping, curtains, and racks go up and then get taken down again at the end of the night. It's like a traveling stage show. This Furbowl, I took the opportunity to debut Rakket Raccoon, another new old fursuit (old, but new to me and perhaps new to folks around here) I recently acquired. Because of the season, I put the springy Santa hat, which Wildwolf had included in the shipment, on Rakket's head and that turned out to be a hit! Endless zany fun. It was also fun to mess with people who didn't know yet who was in the fursuit. Really kept them guessing since I often don't speak in fursuit.

Sunday was the day of the forecasted snow. It was only cloudy in the morning, so I thought I would dash out after breakfast for a few geocaches and head home once the snow started. There was already some snow when I got to Upper Providence, so I stopped after the third cache and headed home. Well, the snowstorm had taken Delaware County by surprise so they hadn't salted the roads. I was still able to drive home on the snowy roads at around 15mph with minimal traction problems. The funny thing was I noticed the salt truck was following me for a few miles, so I got no benefit from that. Also, it would be funny if my car was on Channel 6 news since the news van was following me too. Anyway, I got home safely even though the highway was a snow field littered with spun-out cars.

( The caches... )

It snowed on Friday evening. So what do I do on Saturday? Why, go out geocaching on the snow, of course. This time, I went to Vineland since there were some geocaches in the area that I didn't have time for when I did the Peaslee WMA Part 2 powertrail. The toughest two geocaches of the day were "Arbor Lake" and "The 1897 Bridge" because storm damage, possibly from Hurricane Sandy, had brought down trees and brush over the trail and there hasn't been any maintenance. I had no problems finding those caches themselves but actually getting there took some work. Rainbow Lake is an interesting spot because the lake cascades over a semi-circle dam. I don't think I've seen one like that before; it's usually either a straight line or rectangular. At the end of the afternoon, I hit a bunch of geocaches in Parvin State Park. I only had time for one trail with four geocaches plus one more, but it's the best I could do without taking a long walk to the other side of the park.

On Sunday, I felt like a Hardee's breakfast, so I planned a geocaching trip to mid-state Kent County. There was a new set of animal geocaches by Trison78, including a rabbit, an elephant, and a crocodile. Those were the highlights of the day.

( The caches... )

Icy rain, 30-35°F. A passing snow shower deposited a few inches of snow/ice mix overnight so I had to do a bit of work shoveling out the sidewalk and driveway and cleaning up the car before I headed out. I went to the "2012 Delaware Geocaching Lunch Event" (It was supposed to be a breakfast event but it got postponed a few hours because of the weather.) at Smyrna Diner in Smyrna. It was still raining at the time so it was good to have an indoor event. It was also good to meet up with some people who I ran into previously at geocache sites. I had a BLT. I thought I'd keep it simple this time but it's actually a pretty good BLT.

To be honest, I didn't think I'd do any geocaches after the event because of the freezing rain. However, I noticed that by 3pm, the rain had stopped. So I went and did six of the new geocaches that were placed for this event. Some of these were significantly easier with snow on the ground because all I had to do was follow tracks made by other geocachers until I got to a spot where all the tracks converged. The only real issue is snow made off-road parking harder in some places. Parking at "Diospyros Lane" was the worst because the road shoulder had become a mud pit. To play it safe, I parked my car with two wheels on the asphalt.

( The caches... )

Rain and snow, 35°F.

There was a geocaching event, "3,000 Trees at Stroud Preserve Pre-Event", in West Chester this morning, so I woke up early to get there by 8am. It was at Dunkin' Donuts, so we had donuts, of course. I also took the opportunity to use my DD birthday coupon to get a cappuccino latte. The event was originally a small gathering before heading over to Stroud Preserve to plant some trees. Unfortunately, the tree-planting was canceled because of the weather. It was raining early in the morning. Later, the rain turned to snow.

I went out to find a bunch of geocaches around Downingtown after the event. However, when the snow started coming down heavily, I decided to stop geocaching and go to Jimmy John's for a cheeseburger and chili cheese fries. And that was it for the first half of the day. It is unusually early for snow around here. It was also colder than usual, so overall, it was a rather winter-like day.

( The caches... )

Cloudy, 32-36°F. Strangely on a Saturday morning, I woke up early. As I was having breakfast, I checked the weather radar and noticed a storm system moving in from the northwest. But I thought I could grab a few geocaches in South Jersey and be back before anything started. I started with a nearby cache at Riverview Park in Pennsville and work my way out from there. The whole of South Jersey is blanketed in about 6-8 inches of snow. I was still able to find the caches without too much trouble, although I did bring a snow shovel to "dead end" and "Thompson Park Cache and Walk". "dead end" required some snow-shoveling before I saw what I needed to see, but I knew to focus my shoveling around likely cache spots. At "Brother's Keeper South TB Hostel", I talked to the car wash guy about the geocache because he already knew about the game and the box was in the woods behind the car wash. He thought it would be a real pain to find because of all the snow, but then I surprised him by going back there and picking it out in a minute!

I had an early lunch (11:30am!!) at Long John Silver's in Mantua since the 4th cache of the day brought me into that town. This time, I had a chicken and fish variety platter. It was a leisurely lunch with much use of free wi-fi internet since the restaurant wasn't busy. After that, I went for "Thompson Park Cache and Walk" since it was on the way home. Although it wasn't really far into the park, it was the longest walk of the day through a lot of snow that went above my ankles. However, I was very lucky in finding the cache. I thought I'd have to shovel out some snow to get an idea of where to look more closely but the first time I pushed the shovel into the snow, it hit the cache! Anyway, I returned home after that because by then, I was tired of walking around in the snow.

( The caches... )

Sunny, 43-48°F. This afternoon, I went for a small group of geocaches in Elk Township and Glassboro. Now, I knew New Jersey got more snow than my place but I didn't know exactly how much snow they had. This morning, my front yard was already mostly free of snow but the Elk Township soccer fields still had four inches of snow with snowdrifts as high as two feet! I sank in to my knees a couple of times while walking across the snow-covered field. Surprisingly, the first two geocaches were trivial to find, whether by design or by chance being in spots that happened to not be snowed under. The third cache was under snow. I thought I would have to dig up a lot of snow to find it because that area was under a uniform layer of snow with no telltale signs. Fortunately, I was a good guesser and found it in the second spot I poked at.

After leaving Elk Township, I headed over to Glassboro. At "Ruins of Cinder", I had some help because MuckSavage's tracks led me right to the cache. However, the cache hide was pretty obvious even with snow. Then I went to the Delsea Drive Senior Center Park for the last two caches of the day. Neither of the two were affected in any way by the snow, even with six inches of snow on the ground everywhere. I only had to look the right way to see what I needed to find those caches.

( The caches... )

The snow stopped shortly after 3pm. I measured the snow depth in the middle of the front yard and it was about 14.5 inches. I think that was the shallowest part of it. I stepped into one of the snowdrifts and it went up to my knees. This afternoon, we shoveled the front walkway, sidewalk, and driveway, and brushed snow off the car. Probably not going out anywhere until late Sunday. Tomorrow, we'll shovel the walkway to the backyard so that we can wheel out the trash bin for garbage collection. In the meantime, I'm apparently all stocked up on icicles. :)