Morton Fox's journal

Saturday was relatively simple. I only hiked in two areas: Hunn Park and the St. Jones River Greenway in Dover. These are not linear trails though. Some of the caches were located on offshoots from the main trail. In total, it was over 8 miles of walking round trip but there were no inclines and a lot of the trail was fine gravel or asphalt, so it's an easy walk. Not much scenery though, other than marshes and inlets.

Sunday's trip was mostly to the east and southeast of Baltimore to get the new geocaches in Middle River, Essex, and Canton. It was a rainy day though, so I decided to get some Munzees as well while waiting for the rain to taper off. There was still enough time for 16 geocaches. I'd never been to Canton before so it's a new area for me. The neighborhood looks like a mix of old and new. Office and shopping center development along the waterfront seems to be turning the area into another Towson or White Marsh.

( The caches... )

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fell on a weekend this year but I took Monday off to make it a 3-day weekend. Saturday's trip was to the area around Norristown, Lower/Upper Gwynedd, North Wales, and Colmar, where remarkably, there was still quite a bit of cache placement activity going on. The "phobia" series of caches was once again entertaining and disturbing, as one can see from this baby head, which was the "Pediophobia" cache. Since my itinerary wasn't too packed, I took a chance to do the two mile-long hikes on either side of the Gwynedd Nature Preserve.

Sunday's trip started with a long hike on the Horseshoe Trail for 9 geocaches. After that, I went to French Creek State Park, which I'd never visited before, for JQ004 - French Creek, a 15-year-old cache! It's in remarkably good shape despite its age. Just a bit rusty along the edges. Handheld GPSes weren't as good back then so the original coordinates were somewhat off. Fortunately, someone posted better coordinates in a recent cache log and I used those to cut down the search.

On Monday, I hit the areas to the North and Northeast of Baltimore again to get some caches that I hadn't had time for on previous trips. I visited the Jerusalem Mill section of Gunpowder Falls State Park, where the covered bridge stands. Elsewhere, in Parkville, there were a few neat caches, like Leaping Lizards. (although leaping was not recommended because it's up on a wall) In the evening, I went to the "Aint The Chocolate Hot Flash Mob # 8 Straight!" geocaching event at the Hunt Valley Towne Centre. It's an annual event but this is the first time I attended. Although it's an outdoor event during the winter, it was kind of nice by the fireplace and holiday light decorations.

( The caches... )

On Saturday, the plan was to head down towards the Dundalk area to attend a GIFF Screening event for this year's GIFF souvenir. I actually went quite a bit farther to North Point State Park and Sparrows Point before turning back around for the event. Originally, I thought it was going to be a backyard screening but the event was actually in a geocacher's living room, which was a better idea since it got cold in the evening. So I met a few local cachers. We sat and talked geocaching for a bit, but I didn't have time to stay to the end.

Sunday's trip was to Ambler, then Willow Grove and Warminster. The geocaching wasn't so good in that area, so I decided to switch things around and capture the Munzee trail in Warminster Community Park. It was a bike path with over 50 Munzees and 1 geocache along the way. After that, I picked a few more geocaches in Newtown and Yardley to get before dinner. One that I was surprised to find was "Not For Kiwi Birds" in the Newtown area. It was damaged and hadn't been maintained or visited in a while. I didn't think I was likely to find anything but gave it a shot anyway. After some diligent poking around, I noticed the attachment wire lying on the ground near a tree. Then it took more sweeping of the leaves in the vicinity before I recovered the small container. I'm not sure this kind of needle-in-the-haystack search is ever worth doing but I'm glad to be done with it.

( The caches... )

Last weekend, I could see the "Just An LPC Cache" geocache in Perry Hall but couldn't retrieve it because it was very high up on a lamp post. On Saturday, I returned with a ladder. It was still somewhat out of reach but with a walking stick, I was able to slowly slide it down until I could get it.

Sunday's trip was to Eagleville, Skippack, Ambler, Horsham, Willow Grove, and Abington to get most of the recently placed geocaches in the "cache factory" area. One series of geocaches was all about the phobias: Swinophobia, Taurophobia, Musophobia, and Chiroptophobia, which would be the fear of pigs, cows, mice/rats, and bats, respectively. The last one had an interesting placement. The "bat cave" was a hollow tree and one had to crawl into a tree hole at the base and stand up inside the tree to retrieve the bat. So it was essential to bring a flashlight for this one. The last interesting find of the day was a dragon sculpture in the middle of the woods of High School Park in Cheltenham.

( The caches... )

It was the third and last Mission GC weekend. This time, I needed to find a mystery geocache for the souvenir and the very first cache on Saturday, "A really old Smarty-Pants", fit the bill. It wasn't a very difficult mystery cache, so I'm surprised I hadn't gone for it yet. All the information you need comes from a historical marker (that you can look up online, but don't tell the cache owner! >.> ) and it's pretty much a park and grab once you have the final coordinates. So once I was done with that, everything else was gravy. There were some challenging caches and a weird one, Hungry Roach. Mr. Charles was a nice character, although his geocache took some looking to find.

Sunday's trip was to Lancaster again to find some new geocaches, both traditional and puzzle, that had been published during the week since my last visit. There was a new Pokemon-themed series, although I only did two of those. Then there was a short tour along the Susquehanna River for a bunch of caches in Washington Township and Columbia, including this turtle cache. The interesting thing about Lancaster County is the locals archive and replace sets of caches every now and then to keep things fresh. I was sure I'd finished the caches along the Enola Low-Grade Trail two years ago but there was a new set of caches, which I may return to when the weather is cool enough for a longer walk.

( The caches... )

Saturday was the day of the 13th World-Wide Flash Mob. I attended the one in the Reading area, simply because that's where I was going for the day. There are fewer WWFM events this year and attendance is down. I was told that this is because Groundspeak has stopped offering a special souvenir for this annual event. I thought that was a pity since I couldn't believe a mere virtual token was enough to make or break a decision to attend an event. Regardless, I had a good time at this one. It was at a dog park in Jim Dietrich Park, although most of us didn't have dogs. After that, I continued geocaching around Reading and Muhlenberg, and ventured out to Kutztown again. Creative caches included an election cache, a few owls, and a birdhouse. There was also a Devil's Trail but I didn't know what that was about since the sign pointed into a wooden hut.

Sunday's trip was back to the Baltimore area, around Edgewood, Middle River, Essex, and Dundalk. There were lots of new caches to get since I hadn't been there in a while, although the most interesting ones were towards the end of the day in Dundalk. Understand the Buried History of Riverview Park was in an underground pedestrian tunnel. Of course, you can't take GPS readings underground so the cache owner provided a good hint for finding it. Also, the cache page has pointers to historical information on the (early 20th century) amusement park and industrial plant located at that site.

( The caches... )

Saturday morning, I went to the "Sofiecat Memorial Hike" geocaching event at Connie Batdorf Park in Pottstown. It's an event for a geocacher who passed away recently and also a group hike on the nearby Horseshoe Trail. Our group had a few vans and large vehicles, so we decided to shuttle everyone to the trailhead at the far end. Then those vehicles were parked at the other end of the trail so the rest of the group would only have to hike one way. It was only about a 3-mile hike but the Horseshoe Trail was hilly with lots of ups and downs, so it's still a workout. With a large group searching though, none of the 17 geocaches along the trail took very long to find. After the event and hike, I continued onwards to Morgantown and Reading for more geocaches, with an eye to finishing off any puzzle caches I had already solved. There were some neat caches, such as the reindeer, the teeth and a Marsha figurine.

Sunday's trip was to Maryland to get the latest collection of geocaches in the Hunt Valley area. It snowed in the afternoon but not enough to cover anything. I also took the opportunity to take a loop hike around Meadowood Park for the 4 caches there. I'd visited that park earlier in the year but it was too hot in the Summer. Wintertime, on the other hand, was just right, especially since the plant growth had died back enough to make those caches easily visible.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day, a Federal holiday. I had the day off but it was a cold day, so I decided not to travel out too far. Still, there was plenty to do around Pike Creek, Hockessin, Kennett Square, West Goshen, Frazer, and King of Prussia. There was a frog geocache. ("My name is not Kermit!") Also took a hike into McKaig Nature Center and saw an old furnace. And at the end of the day, I saw the 9/11 memorial near the King of Prussia Mall.

( The caches... )

Saturday's trip was first to Newark for some new geocaches and then to Perry Hall and Edgewood, in the northeast Baltimore area. Sunday's trip was to Audubon, the Gwynedds, Horsham, and then Abington. This is the time of year when the days are short and geocaching activity slows down. That doesn't mean there aren't any caches to find. It's a good opportunity to go back over the map and pick out the caches that I couldn't do over the summer because it was too hot and humid to hike or because the park was too busy. Indeed, Lukens Park in Horsham, which was packed every Summer weekend, was very quiet this Sunday and I was able to get in quickly and find the cache. And walking to "Hundred Aching Feet Woods" and "Get Low at Windlestrae", in Windlestrae Park, is pleasant when it is 60°F instead of 90°F.

( The caches... )

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.

( The caches... )

The first objective of the day was to find "The Dark Lord". This is the final cache of the Harry Potter series of geocaches in Northeast Baltimore. I was actually still missing one digit of the final coordinates. In keeping with the theme, one might say that I used some magic to scry the missing info but actually, I simply took a guess and verified it with the geochecker. The rest of the day was a geocaching spree around Pikesville, Reisterstown, Owings Mill and West Baltimore, parts of which I've never visited before. The Garrison Fort was an unusual historic site to see, right in the middle of a Pikesville residential area. (I hoped the locals were used to people coming in to gawk at the stone building.) Owings Mills had the strangest guardrail cache because it was on a sculpture with lots of colorful guardrails. Also interesting was "Tippy Top". The cache name told me where to go, which was to the very top of a free parking garage by the Owings Mills train station / library / shopping center. So it was fun driving up the ramps, although I was surprised that the garage was 7 levels high.

Sunday's trip was to the part of Bucks County to the north of Doylestown, including New Britain, Plumsteadville, Nockamixon, and Revere, since I didn't quite make it there on geocaching trips earlier this year. Summer plant growth was definitely a factor in search difficulty since many of the caches were in the woods. "Do Cachers Value Smileys? - cúig", in particular, was a crazy search since it was small and sitting on the ground with lots of weeds and branches in the way. That was almost like searching for a needle in a haystack but I eventually spotted it. "Twin Silo" was a bad bushwhack too because the best approach was pretty much straight into weeds that were more than six feet high. "A Pot of Swag For Geo-Kids" was along a trail that I'm guessing doesn't see much foot traffic outside of hunting season. It was overgrown with vegetation and hard to distinguish from any other part of the forest floor. Lego My Cache! was the interesting cache container of the day. The inner container, which holds the log sheet, is made of Lego bricks.

( The caches... )