Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Lake Anna State Park Geocaching

We visited Lake Anna State Park in Virginia to do some geocaching while my son was camping with friends.

Our host was kind enough to take us there by boat, which meant that we were able to find Rock Anna, a geocache hidden on a small island just off the park's beach and pier. This cache was our first five-star difficulty find. The range of difficulties run from one-star (accessible by wheelchair) to five-star (requires special equipment to get to the cache). The motor boat got close enough for us to jump onto the island. A few minutes of walking took us to the cache, which was not very well hidden (except for being on the island, of course).

View from the boat

The island was pathless

Looking around

The find

The rehide

Looking for a pickup

On shore, we first hunted down VSP Get L.O.S.T. at Lake Anna State Park, which was placed by the park rangers. The park is part of Virginia's state park system and if geocachers find multiple caches in multiple parks, they can get special prizes (see their web page). This cache's coordinates led us to a building on which the cache was hidden. Luckily we had our phones with us because a critical clue is in the cache's description. After deciphering that, our group was able to open the container and get the find.

At the park

A suspicious box

The log in the box

Heading for the next cache

Our second "on land" cache was another one hidden by the park rangers, though it was subsequently adopted by another geocacher. VSP Lake Anna Tree-mendous Adventure has a great hiding spot, a very unconventional stump in the middle of the forest.

The trunk

Swiveled open

Ammo box inside!

Further up the hill is JQ015- Lake Anna (75th Anniversary Adventure) which was a little easy to spot (after hiking into the woods).

Another suspicious spot

Heading out after the find

We headed for another cache, only to find a visitor hiding out among the fallen leaves!

Can you spot him?

Cutie close-up

On the trail along the lake is a cache hidden by some Girl Scouts. Lake Anna Hidden Treasure was easy to find. We signed the log book only to discover a second log book in the cache! I left a note online for the cache owner to come and take the first (almost full) log book home. We found an aerosol can inside (bug spray) which is an item not good for a geocache. We took it out to keep it from potentially exploding the cache.

Not so well hidden

While at the last cache, we put the call in for the boat to come back and pick us up. The ride back was a lot of fun.

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