Looking West from Sugarloaf

Searching for the cache

Could it be???

AH HA!

What to choose -- the doorknob, the business card or the rock? 

July 28, 2012 - Sugarloaf Mountain - West Overlook -- Here's the typical way we cache: Don't read the description of where to park. Use the GPS to figure out the closest place to park near the cache. Am usually WRONG. Head for the cache you intend to grab but find that as you travel you are getting no closer. Obviously you are circling your prey. Okay, now look at your GPS and realize there is actually ANOTHER cache in the area that's closer than the original cache you were looking for. So you decide to find that one instead. Now you realize that you have to leave the path and go straight up the side of the hill. Full bushwhacking ensues including a terrifying moment as your trampling sounds flush out a herd of deer that you are convinced is a grizzly bear. Finally you are close to your prey and your GPS tells you that you are mere feet away. HUZZAH! You FOUND IT!! Smile! Take a photo of your with the cache. Open the cache only to find out that all the good stuff has been taken and no is keeping with the geocaching motto of putting back as good or better than you take. Put the cache back as it was, climb down, turn the corner, and find out you are right next to a parking lot that you could've parked in rather than hiked for 3/4 of a mile through the bramble infested, spider-webbed, rock strewn, thorny woods. Sound familiar to anyone else???

We left a Bride and Groom TB since this cache has people coming to it pretty regularly. Please move it along and PLEASE only take as good as you put in to the cache! It makes it more fun for everyone. Plastic army men just are not cutting it, neither are girls pony tail holders or a....DOORKNOB???  Come on, people, can we try a little harder?  And a rock, a rock??? A ROCK???  We are SURROUNDED BY A BAJILLION ROCKS.  Wow.  The irony.

Walking the Path of History

Okay, who's going to stick their hand in there?

Pony TB poses by the Woodlawn Manor horsies

July 22, 2012 - The second cache of our day was on the Slave Trail of the Underground Railroad in Silver Spring near Woodlawn Manor.  We have been here SO MANY times for caches!  We even have an appointed place to put the bamboo stick we use as a "magic wand" for getting rid of spider webs as we geocache.  This one we found without too much trouble and without any snakes. I call that a WIN-WIN!  It was a really nice path and a good hike although it was probably a lot longer than it had to be due to our navigation errors on where to park. We had major trouble actually figuring out where to begin this and it took us three tries driving, parking, and walking before we ended up at Woodlawn Manor. We first parked at Sandy Spring Friends School and even got on the right trail but we were afraid we were on the Adventure Park "no trespassing" area so we left and went to Woodlawn Manor where we were positive that the Slave Trail is.  It turns out that 3/4 of the way through our hike we ended up RIGHT at the same place we started when we parked at the Sandy Spring Friends School so obviously we were on the "right track" with that trail and it would've ended up being a much easier hike! No matter though, it was a nice day, not too hot, and the trail was great. We found the cache without any problems. The Lorax Gang took the Pony tracker bug and I took Waldo. Now I know where he is! We left a Gnome tracker bug and a cool bouncy ball that lights up.  Of course taking so long on the trail meant that we all were going to be late for our next event which was a cook-out at the pool, but as you know, geocaching ALWAYS takes precedence!

Missing Maid Marion

Thar she blows!

July 22, 2012 -- Too many days without geocaching makes for a boring week!  I really wanted to go out on Saturday, but the weather had other things in mind.  It rained on and off all day and would've made for some messy geocaching.  Which, while it could be fun, could also be miserable so I opted to wait for Sunday and see if it would clear up.  It did, sort of.  At least it wasn't raining.  It was still wet, but that's okay. You just have to be careful on paths with leaves so as not to slip.  The Lorax Gang and I went off in search of the Robin Hood stash.  It was a pretty easy one to drive to.  We figured it was off Sherwood Forest Road - get it?  And it was!  The cache was in a really pretty neighborhood park.  There was a creek and a fallen log and it was just the kind of place that kids would probably spend HOURS in before the advent of video games, that is.  We're lucky that at least The Lorax Gang enjoys these outings!

Poison Ivy Parade

THIS is as close as I get to that buggy box!

Sissies.

July 18, 2012 - The gang went back to the Sandy Spring Cache to actually track it down so we could post another find!  We'd gotten close the night before but the dark had forced us to stop.  So we squeezed this one in between dinner and a visit to the neighbor's house (for The Lorax Gang).  Just enough time to nab another cache in the woods--which, by the way, were FILLED to the BRIM with the dreaded poison ivy.  Lucky for us (so far) we didn't get smacked with any, but JUST IN CASE, I headed to REI today to pick up some Tecnu which is body wash to get rid of the oils from poison oak and poison ivy.  Never can be too careful, I say!  I also got a first aid kit to put in my pack as well. My couple of scratches and the one bad fall on my knee are enough to convince me that a first aid kit is needed --especially for longer hikes in the backwoods like the Jenners3 did in Idaho.  Ah, Idaho, how I miss you!

Seriously?  This is what I have to choose from?

ANYWAY, back to the cache -- our youngest Lorax member found this cache.  Unfortunately it was just COVERED in ants.  But being the intrepid explorer, I just picked it up and dusted it off.  Nothing too interesting inside this one.  I don't think people are taking the geocacher's code of honor to heart that you should put in something of the same value as the thing you remove from the cache.  I mean, a fork?  Really?  And some old crayons?  Hmph.  So took nothing, left nothing, signed log.  And off we went.

Signs of Life at the Spring!

Travelocity tracker bug ho!

July 17, 2012 - The Lorax Gang was up for a little geocaching fun so we went for a cache or two, albeit a little later than we usually do.  We went for a pretty easy one since one of our crew was having major thumb issues, and bushwhacking and thumb issues don't mix well.  We went to a park nearby -- again one that we've all lived by for years and years and never knew was there!  A local Girl Scout Cadet troop had hidden this stash right off the walking path so it was pretty easy to find which was lucky because our last try was DNF!  :(

Also lucky for us, there was a tracker bug in it!  And so we left a tracker bug and picked up the geo-gnome tracker bug seen here with one of the Lorax Gang.

The beautious Sandy Spring

We tried for a second at the reknowned Sandy Spring -- only reknowed because it is what the town is named after, not for its beauty or charm (right).  Our initial foray into the area was not successful because we were 0.2 miles away but could never seem to get any closer.  I made a note to self -- "read the dang Magellan user manual, you knucklehead!"  Finally, as darkness approached we got pretty near our quarry, about 200 ft. away, but alas, it was truly too dark to do anything about it, so we chalked this one up to being called for darkness and vowed to finish it another day!  -- Maybe....TOMORROW!!

Withdrawal Setting In

July 17, 2012  - Haven't been geocaching since last Saturday and our last venture to find Happy was very UN-Happy since he was a DNF.  I think withdrawal is setting in.  MUST--GEOCACHE--TONIGHT!!  I'm pulling out my cell to dial The Lorax Gang to see if they're up for a few park and grabs tonight.  Wish me luck!

Bashful Comes Out of Hiding (QFSW - Bashful)

Poor Bashful - and no wonder!  Look at him!

July 14, 2012 - (starts July 13, 2012)  This was just NOT a good day for geocaching.  It WAS a good day for getting lost, though.  Lorax #1 and I took off to find another in the Snow White series of caches - Bashful.  It was listed as not too bad to find. (2.5/2.5)  I think those numbers might want to be upped due to the ferocious storm on the 29th of June.  Things just aren't the same as they were before that storm hit.  We didn't have any problem finding the trail and heading off into the woods.  We were using my iPhone instead of my trusty Magellan eXplorist GC because I had forgotten to download this cache to the eXplorist before we set off.  I can tell you that I won't make THAT mistake any time soon again.  We got TOTALLY LOST, the app wouldn't update quickly enough and the closest we came to the find was something like 100ft.  That's a pretty big area to search when you are in the woods and losing the light very quickly.  Not only did we end up losing the light but we lost the trail!  We ended up in someone's back yard, tried to surreptiously hike through it to find the trail, got self-conscious that we were being watched and went BACK into the woods.  That lasted about five minutes since the trail was just GONE so we went back onto the property, walked down their very nice, very asphalt, and very bramble-less driveway to the main road which was the road we had started on, just pretty far down.  We had to hike quite a piece to get back to the car.  Very grumpy at not finding it (pun intended).

Bashful Cleans Up Well

And we're not in the Amazon, either!

July 14, 2012 - This time we took The Lorax Gang and two of the Jenners 3 to find it ALONG WITH the uploaded info in my trusty GPS. We were able to track Bashful's general area down, but he was being SUPER-Bashful.  Turns out he'd come out of his Tupperware home and was covered with dirt and---TERMITES! We cleaned him and his house up -- repaired the hole in the Tupperware with duct tape and put him back on slightly higher ground away from the mess and stress of the termite filled dirt. Bashful is much happier now and we're happy to have found him! OMG!  Speaking of amazing (and we were since I was talking about geocaching - :)  LOOK at this leaf!  It almost completely covers E!  And she's 10!  I could NOT get over the size of these leaves.  It was like we were in the Amazon or something, but no, just Wheaton Regional Park!