Zombie Parent's Guide: Geocaching October 2025

The month started in "Shark Park" with a series of shark-themed caches hidden in Wheaton Regional Park. Gentle Giant, The Meg, Sharknado, and CandyGram all had their charms. Sharknado was the best, with an interesting puzzle and a great finale.

Gentle Giant

Lid of the cache

Reenacting a popular scene

The Meg!

An Historic Superstar is a cache dedicated to Benjamin Banneker, a free Black man who was a gentleman scientist and was part of the survey team that set the boundary stones for the District of Columbia.

The other house on the Banneker property

I went to Mount Airy, Maryland, to find another of the GeoTour locations celebrating America's 250th year (next year) and found some extra caches too. 7 - Pine Grove Chapel is at the historic chapel that's still in use as a non-denominational chapel. During the Civil War, a New Jersey regiment used it as a barracks while guarding the National Road and the B&O railway. Also in town, I found Yellowrose70 Milestone 4000!!! Rock On!, Mount Airy Remembers, Odometer Math, Mount Airy P&G, When You Need a Simple Multi #5, and Carroll County Icon Challenge.

Pine Grove Chapel

I attended a community celebration, 2025 CCE -- Bowie State University, and also found Bowie - 125 Souvenir Challenge, Look Left and Right, Charlotte's Cache, and 4th Annual A5K Bonus.

Charlotte's guardrail

On a drive up to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I found 14 Catoctin Furnace- HCWHA US 250th GeoTour, 19 Smithsburg Heritage Walk - HCWHA US 250th GeoTour, and Hammonds Rock Earthcache. So it filled more of the history tour and I found an old earthcache to fill a calendar need. The drive up the hill was quiet perilous--an unpaved road with no maintenance. Driving down was even worse!

Catoctin Furnace

The rocks were nice when I got there!

The old "chip on my shoulder" shot

In Lancaster, I found some Adventure Labs to finish a souvenir and then got Time Capsule, my 2100th cache! It was just outside Saint Mary's Catholic Church.

Found at night!

The next day we went to Central Park (which is not in the center of the city) and found Garden of Five Senses and Woodsy Walk.

Sign for the Garden

One of the Hearing features

Devil's Walking Stick--probably don't touch this thorn-grower

On the way back home I found Chickie's Rock Overlook and Chickie's Rock Overlook Virtual Challenge. I also signed the Zero to Ten Challenge (which requires caches with the words for numbers 1 through 10 in the title), which I am not qualified for yet.

On Chickie's Rock

Unobstructed view of Susquehanna River

Back home I attended the Monday Morning coffee group and a Cache In/Trash Out event. I made the kids come with me for the CITO so they could get service hours for scouts and school.

Strawbridge House in Maryland is the First Home of American Methodism, the Robert Strawbridge House. Strawbridge moved from Ireland to Maryland and established a Methodist meeting house in the outskirts of Maryland in 1761. The site has a lot of buildings recreating the original farm and church buildings. I came here mostly for 6 Strawbridge Shrine - HCWHA US 250th GeoTour and picked up the other two caches here.

Robert Strawbridge Statue

Strawbridge House

While in the area, I also found Libertytown Watershed and 8 Old Nat'l Pike Park - HCWHA US 250th GeoTour and National Road Milestone 35.

At the watershed

Mile marker!

Another day I avenged a DNF at Prince of Peace Labyrinth where I realized my GPS must have been a little off the previous day. While in the neighborhood, I solved the mystery cache at P.O. Box - Crofton. and found Crickets. A nearby cache had muggles around it so I will have to come back to the area in due course.

My wife and I went on a driving date, mostly to get Calvert County off my list of Maryland Counties. We found a whole slew of caches there, mostly in the (commercial) town center: Obligatory Wally World Cache, Geocaching Crossword, Greene Apple, Directionally Challenged, Park & Hide, It's Not Math, It's Just Numbers, A Break from Fortnite, Small Hands Required, I Found It Guys, Oh Wait..., and My Precious.