Geocaching November 2024

The month started at a Little Free Library cache called Jump (LFLs of Woodmoor), themed after the Van Halen song Jump. The container is very cute and well constructed, convincing me to give them a favorite point. That day I also found Dinosaur Series #6...Fabrosaurus, a traditional cache not too far away. The series is mostly archived so I will not be finding a lot more dino caches.

The next day I hosted the Monday Morning Coffee Meetup and then found X - Playground Puzzle, adding to my mystery cache calendar.

Non-spoiler photo

Running errands, I found The Back Side of Radio near a radio tower in the Wheaton area. It was an easier find than I was expecting. The next day, I continued a Lord of the Rings series finding Two Towers, which yielded information for the final puzzle. Since I was in the neighborhood, I also discovered T361 (put out by a scout) and Travel Souvenirs. 

Ent bridge at Two Towers

The next day I found the cryptic 828282 ad nauseum, a puzzle cache that again added to the mystery calendar. While running errands, I also found MD Cluedo 2 of 10, a series based on the board game Clue, and ColumbiaTraveler Cache by a hotel. I think I found one of the Cluedo caches before but can't find the clues from the cache, so I suppose I will have to repeat the feat.

Lead pipe by Cluedo cache

A mystery cache called Invisible was easy to find after solving its online puzzle. The container was just transparent.

Invisible's perfectly visible container

The hiding spot

When Life Gives You Lemons is a fun mystery cache with a fun container. On the same day, I found Twofer and Centennial 5 nearby. The last cache was on the edge of a golf course. I could almost see players in the distance.

You can tell from the grass, this is not part of the course

I found another set of mysteries the next day--BACK TO BACK and ^Easier than the cache to the north. Also in the area is Biking Bowie: Another Dead End, a classic "in the woods" cache just off a bike path.

Water by the backs

I went back to Lake Frank to get AVISO PELIGRO! and MM Trail: Branch. They were both forest finds that were surprisingly easy. 

The stream that feeds into Lake Frank

Uprooted is in Rockburn Branch Park along with MGS Summer Picnic Icebreaker. Both were standard finds.

The logs broke the ice?

v -- Easier Than the Cache to the South was another Bowie find, along with 2023 End of the Road and a letterbox in the middle of the woods called BABY NEW YEAR. 

Daniels Hilltop and The Dalek of Daniels Cache are located in the Daniels section of Patapsco Valley State Park. We went on a family hike there and made the finds. 

The hilltop

The Dalek

The second to last day to fill on my traditional calendar I found Crackers over the Keyboard, an easy cache and dash in Burtonsville. So easy, I did not take a picture!

After another Monday Morning Coffee, I found 12-12-12 Challenge - Hikers (12 one milers) to fill another mystery day. The cache was amongst a lot of thorns on a trail in the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area.

The thorns were later

I finally finished my traditional calendar with two Odenton caches--SideTracked - Odenton and Despicable Inexplicable Guardrail Cache. With the calendar done, I went over to OCCT #26: Traditional Calendar Challenge for a mystery cache find. 

I had to add an extra log to the guardrail cache

The guardrail

The mystery cache was not in the speeding camera!

The next day, I found the mystery Random Wiki Puzzle: Maureen Howard, which I had solved long ago (I don't even remember the solution, but it involved visiting wikipedia). I also scored two traditionals nearby (working toward 1000 traditionals)--EASY PEASY - SISTER CACHE and, presumably related, Mister Hide, which is not named after the Robert Louis Stevenson character. I figured out what it was named after. 

Near the hide

Back at the Mall in Columbia, I found Harold's House and Alpha and Omega, both fairly easy finds. 
WHOS CACHE was an easy puzzle to solve once I decrypted the code.

The Alpha spot

Hiking to whos

We did another hike at Great Falls, this time on the gold mine trail (yes, there is a gold mine in Maryland!). Naturally, there was an earthcache called The Gold of Maryland that required a few answers and a picture. We also found the mystery cache C&O Canal: Great Falls: CAM 2016 on the trails and Potomac Parking in a parking lot by a French bakery where we got a treat afterward.

Water tower at the gold mine

View from the CAM cache

Log from the CAM cache

Mission Labyrinth was another mystery cache that I overthought. After getting the solution, I made the find easily. 

On the way to our Virginia Thanksgiving getaway, we stopped in Manassas, where I found Jingle Bells Batman (Still) Smells..., an easy and fun mystery. Also nearby on the Manassas Battlefield National Park is the virtual "Rally behind the Virginians" by a famous statue.

Stonewall Jackson and me

At Skyline Cavern, I discovered the answers for its earthcache. Then we hiked up to Eagle Rock Vista and found Eagle Rock the cache. The view was amazing!

At Eagle Rock

The next day I found Wild Cherry, a traditional cache by the Strasburg Visitor Center. It was not too far off into the woods, making it an easy find. At least I didn't have to go into a cave!

Cave near GZ

It would make a good hiding spot...

The last day of November saw a bunch of caching on our way home from Virginia. 128 NY Vol. Regiment is hidden by a memorial to a Civil War regiment. That spot is also part of an Adventure Lab I completed about the Battle of Cedar Creek. Next, I found Haunted Wayside Inn (CANV) and the rest of the Adventure Lab. We went to Winchester for lunch and visited the Handley Library which has three geocaches: an earthcache called Indiana Limestone and the Temple of Books, The Judge's Gift to Winchester, and Haunted Handley Library (CANV) by the same cacher. Maybe I should have found these haunted ones in October?

Memorial to the 128th Regiment

Last location for the Adventure Lab

Handley Library

I finished the month with 59 finds and a grand total of 1595. I finished filling in the traditional calendar. Now I am working on getting the number of traditionals up to 1000 (I am at 992, so very feasible) and filling in the mystery cache calendar (I need about 200 days filled, so not very feasible).