Lancaster XX - Kirkwood, Drumore, Holtwood; York I - Airville, Lower Chanceford

Sunny and 80-85°F. Went to southern Lancaster County to do the Hillbilly series of geocaches. This is now the only part of Lancaster County I can get to directly without running into major road construction along the way. Even then, there was a bit of roadwork. After doing the series, I visited Drumore Park, Muddy Run, and a few State Game Lands for more geocaches. Did quite a bit of hiking at Muddy Run and the State Game Lands. Also crossed over into York County and hit an SGL there too. "On Solid Rock I Stand" was probably the toughest hike of the day because of the elevation change and the lack of trail maintenance. Overall, the area reminded me of upstate New York. It's rural (all country roads, some unpaved), hilly, and rocky with large rock formations. However, the wooded areas had rather sparse undergrowth, which made for good backcountry hiking.

I worked out some Lancaster County puzzle caches on Wednesday. Since I passed through Leola on my way home and since the solution to "Carl Friedrich Gauss" pointed to a roadside spot that seemed safe to access at night, I did that one as an after-dinner cache. I'll have to return to Leola during the day for the other puzzle caches.

And finally, I have an MPG measurement using E0 gas on this Lancaster round-trip. Apparently, my car gets 7% better MPG when I switch from E10 to E5 gas. It's E5 because I had half a tank of E10 when I added E0. This is a significant result because going by energy content alone, I'd expect a negligible difference of about 1.5%. However, I have to make more measurements in case this one is a fluke. Another excuse to go to Lancaster again. :)

( The caches... )