Geocaching April 2024

This month started with a rainy early morning coffee club meeting. The rain didn't let up on that April Fools' Day, so I didn't find any regular caches until a break in the rain the next day. I avenged a DNF (Did Not Find) at Look, hun, I'm tellin' ya, it's right dair!, a Letterbox Hybrid cache that has instructions that were converted into "Baltimorese" by ChatGPT. I looked a few months ago and the container was missing; the cacher replaced it back at Christmastime and I've only gotten around to finding it again in April. After that, I found HC Soccer Series - Covenant Park and The Key to Soccer Success, both in Covenant Park (no surprise) that has a bunch of soccer fields (also no surprise). 

Not the most exciting picture, sorry! Not even the soccer field...

I finally took credit for OCCT #22: Ghostly Days Challenge, where a cacher qualifies by finding a virtual cache (whose icon is a ghost) on every numerical calendar day, not necessarily in the same month or year. The next day I found Random Wiki Puzzle Rose Gold (album) and Benfield Crossing. The Puzzle was easier to find; the Crossing hide is more challenging as it has natural camouflage.

Somewhere in there

Then, I found Out to Lunch, an easy traditional, and Maryland's Granite - Guilford Quartz Monzonite, a new earthcache in my area. The earthcache leads to the remains of a quarry whose stone was used for building roads, monuments, and even Saint Mary of the Mills Church!

Obligatory photo of me and the quarry

While my family went bike riding and I was mildly sick, I dropped them off at one point and drove to their endpoint by Lake Kittamaqundi. By the lake is a Wherigo cache called XOXO, Community. The final cache location did look like hugs and kisses would be going on--a wedding photo shoot was happening with the entire wedding party. I took a surreptitious snap.

The bride's maids

The Murder of Geo Cacher is a mystery cache that was fun to solve and find out in the woods. Seabiscuit - No More Whoa is part of a series in Wheaton Regional Park and filled in a traditional slot that was empty on my calendar. Since I was in the area, I also found the multi-cache Kemp Mill.

Murder site?

Mill site?

I filled another calendar with the puzzle cache Concert Conundrum which I had solved a while ago. The next day we went for a bike ride and I found two caches on the South Shore Trail in Anne Arundel County: Trail Head #2 and Who was the host of Jeopardy?, a cache giving tribute to Alex Trebek. The first cache was the best smelling cache ever, with a certain item inside of it!

"But the geocache is just over there..."

Vanilla is awesome!

Really long driveway

Speed limit sign (sorry it's blurry)

Flag Trivia is a puzzle cache that led to woods with a lot of critters.

Deer and fox

More deer

Two deer in the woods is better than one in the headlights

Choose the Harder Right is a jigsaw puzzle cache that solved quickly. Not as Convenient as the Store was a bit of a reach but not too challenging. Nearby, across a scary bridge, is RWP 1995 The Bud at The Glen, another easy puzzle to solve.

Bridge that will trouble your waters!

I made a trip to our local scout shop and found some geocaches nearby before the rain started in earnest. "Where's your other hand?" and RF1 were in the same parking lot, so easy to find both. Just down the street I found Cache with a heart, were I dropped off the Octopus travel coin that I picked up earlier in the month. 

Not very coin-shaped

Then I found my 1200th cache, a mystery cache called To Grandmother's House. The puzzle is based on equipment found in a park. Since the cache is from 2005, the playground has been rebuilt so the answers are not the same. Luckily, other cachers came up with workarounds in their posts so I could calculate the coordinates and make the find.

Starting point for my 1200th cache

Also in the area are The Blacks on Stamps..., Resting in Peace..., Community Heritage-Abraham Hall, and When the Iron Was Hot.... These made a nice beginning into the 1200s.

Abraham Hall

While on a trip to the National Gallery of Art, I snuck out and found Elm Tree #1, an amazing traditional cache in an area densely populated with tourists. I sailed over to the Navy Memorial to get the answer needed for The Lone Sailor, a virtual cache.

#1 elm in DC!

Navy Memorial and me

In Laurel, I followed the Wherigo cache Laurel - 150 Years! to its final near a very decorated (but not very comfortable-looking) bench.

Needs a cushion, if you ask me

This outdoor pool doesn't look to inviting either!

Demineur is a minesweeper-inspired mystery cache that took a bit of work for me to solve. Less difficult was Ghosts Walking which was along a sidewalk inbetween a graveyard and a library! No spooky pictures, sorry!

On a trip to Greenbelt, I found the virtual cache Mother and Child (with a statue-photo requirement), Greenbelt's War Memorial and Generous Joe (a mystery requiring info from the memorial to make the final find), and Double Take (a traditional cache with a 3D-printed maze container that was very difficult to open).

Greenbelt War Memorial

Greenbelt statue

On another trip, I found Inexplicable Guardrails of Central Maryland #4, but almost didn't make the find. One end of the rail is bent in leaving the usual hiding spot inaccessible. Luckily, the cache was in the other end of the rail. Also, I discovered two mile marker caches: Old Montgomery Road - Mile Marker 6 was a nano hidden in plain sight. Old Montgomery Road - Mile Marker 9 - Lazarus is in the Clarksville Commons area where the marker has been restored after all the construction around it.

Smashed-up guard rail

We went out to lunch in Silver Spring, Maryland, and I found At the Wall of a Giant. The town is right on the border with the District of Columbia, so we took a picture by the sign.

Ready for fun!

On the last day I had a last blitz with the mystery cache Way Off Base... (involving numbers using a different base), and the nearby traditionals Beat Indy, Thorn Guard, and Fassst Cache. 

It was a great month with 51 finds and a grand total of 1227.