mortonfox | Loch Raven, Earthcache Day (Reply)

Saturday was another trip to the northeast and north Baltimore area. "Oh My, Ducks, Goats, and Bulls" was a neat cache site because yes, there were goats and cows. The main part of the day though was a trip to Loch Raven Dam. On weekends, a section of Loch Raven Drive is closed to vehicular traffic and becomes a walkway. It's a nice walk with a few views of the reservoir. I went for the "LRD" series of caches by parking at one end of the closed road and taking a walk for half the caches. Then I drove over to the other end of the closed road and got the other half of the caches. That was about two miles of walking in total but it was easy because the road is level.

Sunday was International EarthCache Day 2015, so I wanted to find at least one earthcache to get the special souvenir for the day. An earthcache is a variation of the game where one visits a specific location or set of locations to learn about the geology of the area and verification of completion is by answering questions about the area or submitting photos. It turned out to be far harder than I thought to find an earthcache that I could do that day. The two earthcaches in Valley Forge that I'd planned on visiting were inaccessible because the park closed the whole trail in order to repair a bridge. That made no sense at all because the trail doesn't even cross the bridge, but who can divine the logic of the National Park Service? Fortunately, there was another earthcache just 8 miles away in Norristown Farm Park. So my earthcache for the day was about studying ripple marks on the rock bed next to Kepner Creek. It's a nice, shady spot.