I haven’t skipped any CAM stories, yet. I’m not as fanatic about caching as some cachers I’ve heard of. I can stand to miss a day or two, and even pass up finding a cache when is close. I’d rather have a reason to return to a good caching site again.
A couple of days ago I received some email from Phil, another cacher offering to carpool with me when I went northeast for some caches, he was ok riding shotgun while I headed up to northeast Maryland for a CAM cache in Cecil County. He had already found that cache but had missed some other caches in the same park, And so after coffee in my favorite coffee shop in Columbia, we headed around Baltimore and up I-95. We easily found the Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area. There were a few other cars in the parking lot, but none of them had any sign that they belonged to geocachers. A little less than a half mile walk brought us to a babbling brook and our first cache in the park, the CAM-2012 Cecil County Cache. From there we crossed two streams, and climbed a grassy slope, and waded another stream to find two more, One of them was one of the caches placed back in 2004 for the first CAM. That was a good morning’s workout.\
Then we headed for North East. Yes there is a small town by that name in northeast Maryland. Phil wanted to log some caches in the “Captain John Smith Geotrail” and some in the “Maryland Municipal League” (MML) challenges. I had not logged them either, so after a stop for lunch we headed out to Elk Neck State Park and North East for caches in each place.
From there we set our sights on Havre de Grace and two caches in the Star Spangled Banner geotrail series and another of the MML caches. All day long the sun had shone, but the air temperature had felt cold, especially when we were close to the Chesapeake Bay and some of its tributaries, most of the time. But while we were at the Maritime Museum in Havre de Grace it felt really cold, and we were greeted by a small snow flurry. Finishing up up those caches we felt satisfied that we’d had a great day and headed back around Baltimore and homeward.
The next day I wanted to find another CAM cache, this one near Prettyboy Reservoir Park, north of Baltimore, and about a little over a mile each way The reservoir is one of three lakes that provide water for Baltimore City. Donna hadn’t been caching with me in a while, so she packed up a dog-dish and water for Greta, her Novia Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. We stopped at a local Subway for food for us. Greta’s not a “Geopup” but prefers to sniff everything else, that’s ok because it keeps me from hiking at my usual fast pace.
We found two easy bonus caches that were placed close to the trail on our way in.Then when we came into the vicinity of the cache the hike became a bit more difficult. This one was well hidden, and on the side of a hill. I had carried my camera hung around my neck, and remembering the day before I had both a down fest and a heavy coat. all that load really hampered me while I tried to look in all the likely hiding spots, that is until I shed it all. Then I could get to work and find my quarry. Success CAM-2012-Baltimore log signed.
Meanwhile Donna and Greta had descended the hill to the water’s edge, and what Greta really likes, a swim. She didn’t go far, we have a 20’ leash and don’t let her swim beyond reach.
Now for the harder part of the trek, getting back uphill. Once that was accomplished we strode back to the car, a bit slower than when we headed in.
I made one almost bad mistake the night before and didn’t correct it in the morning, The batteries on my Garmin 60CSx were almost dead from the day before. I didn’t replace them and by the time I remembered it there was nowhere to buy new ones, this park is out in the country side. The batteries lasted up to the cache. If needed I could have used my iPhone and some caching apps, but they are not as accurate as the Garmin. One more thing to remember for the check list – New Batteries!
So what’s the count now:
- Completed
- CAM 2012 Annapols
- CAM 2103 Cecil County
- CAM 2103 Baltimore
- Still waiting for me to find them
- CAM 2013 Montgomery County
- CAM 2013 Frederick County
- CAM 2013 Prince George’s County
- CAM 2013 Eastern Shore
- CAM 2013 Western Maryland
- CAM 2013 Ocean City
- CAM 2013 Southern Maryland
More CAM news as I get to them.
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