Friday, April 23, 2010

Parks large and small

Recently I had the opportunity to cache in an area that I seldom find myself in. we were heading down to St. Cloud. On the way there was a potential first to find just off Co Rd 530 down near where it meets the 417. Amazingly enough the cache was still unfound and we scored the FTF. Great way to start the day. There was a few nearby caches that we would grab before leaving the area to get to St. Cloud. One I was excited about because it was in an Environmental Protection Area (Over the hills and through the woods...Storybook GC23FG9 by Coasterfreak11) and it looked quite interesting.


We followed the obvious path down to where the coordinates were leading us. We came to a break in the fence right about where we needed a break and went in. The ground was quite wet in placed but not so bad that we could not continue.

The day was still young and the weather was cool so the short hike was enjoyable. We worked our way through the trees twisting and turning as we needed to all the while following our GPS never knowing what lay in store for us just ahead.



Now let me tell you that this picture does not do what was in front of us justice. That was the Rio Grande down there and our choice was to turn around or cross that make shift bridge. Use your imagination to picture the two little beings on my shoulders. One a little devil with a GPS unit telling me that the cache was worth it after all and well, it was just over there. The other, a little angel reminding me that I recently fell out of a tree while retrieving a cache and at least that time I had the ground under me. After much waffling it was decided that more study was needed and away we went. Sometimes the better part of valor is to chicken out.

So we continued on our way to St. Cloud one less smiley but at least we were dry. When we arrived we did some caching around East lake Tohopekaliga. We only intended to walk a little way and then reposition the car and finish the rest. Again the day was so good we just walk the entire distance. Only after we got the last one did we regret doing that. Could not do all that walking in the summer. Whew. Now the first park was the big one. One of the last caches for the day was in a park in the older section of St. Cloud. This one, Year of My Birthday GCMV7G by Loadbank, was in a micro park. This park dedicated in 1947 to the veterans of all wars from St. Cloud was not much bigger than my living room.










I love parks and it has become customary that we visit at least one when we cache. Obviously that is not hard. So another great day of Geocaching comes to an end. This stuff never gets old.

More discoveries await...