Geocaching May 2024

The month started avenging a DNF (did not find) in Columbia. Thanks to the Kindness of a Neighbor memorializes the person who built this bridge out in the middle of the woods so people hiking the trail don't have to get wet.

Hidden on the bridge

Following the water theme, I found L'eau near the Mall in Columbia. Just On the Border is along the line between a cemetery and a business park. The nearby tree is eating up the fence between the two places! 

Nature taking it back

Not too far away is the actual cache for the mystery Re-Sigh-Cling?. New to the Neighborhood is in another nearby business park that is still under construction and only has a few businesses. 

I finally finished out the TYGR series with TYGR402: Go Fly a Kite. Somehow I didn't find this last time I tried (in the Fall) but it was super-obvious this time. The sculptures are still amazing. Nearby is Rt. 1 Express just off of Route 1 (go figure). The cache's bottom is missing (!) so I was unable to sign the log.

Kite cache

Empty cache

On a rainy day, I braved the elements to get another traditional cache day filled on the calendar. Apache Strong is by a ball field with some interesting architecture.

It doesn't look like a concession stand

After another Monday morning coffee group, I found Princess's Treasure on a rock wall in the woods.

The rock wall and me

I had a big hiatus then returned to caching later in the month with Pipe Dream, an easy and creative cache near the Mall in Columbia. Later in the day, we did the Crimes of the Centennial Century Adventure Lab and its associated Bonus Cache. The finds are all in Centennial Lake Park. The caches have a kid-theme so my kids helped out for a while.

Trying to avoid the photo by being too close or too far

Distracted by the playground

The lake (at least part of it)

Geese violating boundaries

Reunited at the playground

A few days later, I found several caches along the Short Line trail near Baltimore. Terminus is a multi-cache based on The Walking Dead TV show. It involved the whole line. Also on the line, I found What a Crappy Place to Find a Cache (yes, toilet-themed) and MD Cluedo 9 of 10 (yes, based on the board game). 

Trail head marker

Definitely reminiscent of Season 4 of TWD

I spent an hour in Woodmoor, Maryland, which has a surprising number of Little Free Libraries. Two of the caches, Maneater and The Safety Dance, are mystery caches, requiring a little bit of special knowledge to unlock (literally) the cache containers. The third, Straight Up, was a regular hide. While I was in the neighborhood I found Brood X, a cache inspired by cicadas.

LFL and Geocache!

Swag swap

I avenged a DNF at JC's Flea Circus, which is not at a circus location. I am sure the woods have plenty of insects in them. Last time I tried, I am pretty sure the container was gone because I looked in the exact same obvious area and did not make the find. The container is an ammo can, which is fairly large. The placement is deep in the woods, so I am sure no regular person happened across it. Maybe an animal did something?

Properly remote-looking geocache site

I went back over by the Northwest Branch to pick up a pocket of caches along the trail. Easy as 3.14159265358979323846264... was a puzzle cache involving Pi. You've Come A Long Way, Baby! is an earthcache about a rock formation that dates back 500 million years and to Antarctica. The rocks are also commemorated in Jutting Rocks, a traditional cache. My final find was Brookhaven, just outside the park near Brookhaven Drive.

Putting the "geo" in geocaching

LPC for 2/29 was actually placed in 2012 for that Leap Year. I finally found it this year. Also nearby are Foo's Former Fast Friend (which had a sleeping cockroach on it!) and The 11th Hour, a Tardis-shaped Little Free Library.

What's scarier--giant snail or regular cockroach?

Yes, it's bigger on the inside

I should have brought my fez

Cute Kid Pix September 2020

Here's some more pictures that didn't make their own blog post...

We went out to lunch one Saturday and went searching for geocaches in the neighborhood. Across from the restaurants is a business park that was deserted on the weekend. The business park had two fun caches. The first is Some Bunny Loves You Too, the name being a reference to the container. In the interests of not spoiling anything, we didn't take a picture of the container. We did take a shot of the kids searching for the cache.

Come here, bunny!

In the midst of the office buildings is a fun little pond with some dear deer sculptures.

A fun spot to walk around

The second cache, third little pig, was in a spot without any pigs in it! We figured out the situation quickly, resulting in another quick find.

Near the right spot

During a picnic with friends at Centennial Park, we found Eloise's Pond, a cache just off the trail that goes all the way around Centennial Lake. The pond is a separate body of water on the other side of the path. The cache owner wrote on the cache post that there's no real evidence for the pond's name other than a pin on Google Maps. The park has no signs or other indicators.

The cache is in there somewhere

Eloise's Pond...or is it?

After visiting the Underground Railroad Experience Trail, we went to Scoop and Paddles, which sadly is not a pub. Happily, it is an ice cream shop in Clarksville, part of the Common Kitchen. We had some nice and refreshing treats. 

The Common Kitchen

A choice of cones

We enjoyed the ice cream so much, we forgot to take pictures. It was delicious and well worth visiting.

The Anne Arundel County Library is currently offering curbside service. They also offered a free craft which we gratefully accepted. We put together our own Going on a Bear Hunt map!

Going on a Bear Hunt craft

While shopping for some camping gear, I found the Toys for Us, Toys for Them cache. The title refers to a store that is no longer in the shopping center thanks to it going out of business. The cache is still there.

The cache is in there somewhere