Geocaching August 2024

After getting back from the California trip (which had geocaching in August too!), I renewed efforts locally. I found Changes in Latitude Challenge: 15 Degrees, Psychedelic Word Games #2, and Arlington FLAG. The "FLAG" is "Free Little Art Gallery" much like those free little libraries that are all over. Instead of books, there's tiny works of art on display. The gallery has a "take one, leave one" policy. I did not have any art on hand so I only took a picture.

Arlington FLAG

A more typical hiding area for the psychedelic cache

Lunch with Fuzzydave Is Always a Good Idea is a mystery cache that has a GZ near my home. I finally got around to signing the log after a month. Sometimes things are just busy! 

I drove over to Virginia for some errands an found Radio 1999: ....Baby One More Cache. It was an easy puzzle to solve once I figured out the key to the tunes. Too rainy for photos, though!

A challenge cache with a random assortment of requirement is hidden at a rest area on I-95. Challenge -100 Livestock + 100 Stroller + 100 Kids is easy to find, except for needing to find at least 100 caches with a livestock attribute, 100 with the stroller attribute, and 100 with the kids attribute. I didn't really plan to qualify for this but the geochecker showed I did, so I made the find.

Cache is over there!

I avenged a DNF at a cemetery, though the first time I could not make the find because the grave I was looking for was next to a burial in progress. An early weekday morning found the graveyard empty, so I could find Anna Schwarzkopf, a relative of the cache owner. The information on a nearby headstone gave me coordinates to the final find.

Cemetery

Near the cemetery I found a string of geocaches along Route 2. Chloe is a "friendly" geocacher is by a restaurant. Since I visited during the week, I had no problem with the breakfast crowd.

I worked at one of these in Jersey

Maybe I'll come back on the weekend?

I also found Chloe and Pop-Pop go for a walk and DD & BR. 

The next day I made some finds on Columbia trails, including an easy letterbox cache called Forward then Backward and Along Lizzie's Walk. They were both easy finds, nice on a hot afternoon!

Which way do I go?

I finally qualified for the Backyard BBQ Challenge and made the find in Columbia. Then I went over to Virginia and found one of the cornerstones of the District of Columbia, DC Cornerstone. The original layout for the district was a diamond shape including parts of Virginia and Maryland, straddling the Potomac River. The Virginia land was given back to the Commonwealth. The stone is still there. I also found Changes in Longitude Challenge: 25 Degrees, which I easily qualified for. The log was soaked so I could only barely sign it.

The cornerstone and me

A wet log

The Monday morning coffee club had a mega-travel bug that begged for a group picture. 

Photo by BansheeShadow

Beat the Clock in Maryland is a challenge cache that makes cachers go find four other caches hidden in Schooley Mill Park. Two of the other caches have been inactivated, so I did not do the run. I also finally finished A Drive Through Laurel's History 1/6, a multi-cache that goes all over Laurel, Maryland, gathering information for the final find. It was a fun cache that I am glad to have completed.  

That clock is really beaten

After a Saturday morning event, a group of cachers decided to solve the difficult Getting Your Bearing. I joined in the group. We wandered about downtown Sykesville gathering information then drove up to a park a mile away to make the final find. During the excursion, I picked up Black Friday, named after a flood in 1868 that wiped out most of the town but not Saint Joseph's Church and some other higher-up buildings. It's a virtual cache so I had to take a picture there.

View from the church steps

View of the church steps

Playground by the final stage of the multi-cache

The next week, I filled a calendar day with Starfish and Coffee which is near the Monday morning coffee crew meet-up (though I found it on a Sunday). 

Somewhere in there

I found one more bit of the Columbia Villages Adventure Lab, this time gathering information about a fish at the Long Reach Village Center.

Adventure Labs, now with fish!

For my last day of caching, I went to Annapolis for a handful. First was Random Wiki Puzzle: Airspeed Ambassador in the back of an office park. Then I went to a graveyard for Nightbreed Horror Series #3. The next three were all in walking distance of each other by the Parole downtown. Festival of Lights Night 8 (That's All Folks) is the end of a series I will have to start working on. Nearby is the multi-cache She Sell LOBs by the Seashore which was only two stages, so very easy to complete. The final stage put me near Festivus Cachimus (no relation to the Festival of Lights caches!), another easy find. 

The graveyard

The month ends at 38 finds, 418 total for the year, and 1439 overall total caches!