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100 Geocache Benchmark today!!

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Today was such a beautiful day. The sun is finally starting to come out again, and the temperature made for some superb caching. On this trip, we visited a friend in Clintonville who was interested in learning about geocaching. We didn't have any specific spots in mind, so we just started walking toward the Olentangy bike trail.

If Olentangy sounds familiar, it's because it was the location of our last blog post. We left a few loose ends here last time we came, and it only made sense to finish what we started. Our first cache was a multi-stage dedicated to deceased family-pets. Nick, our supposed cacher-in-training, ended up being a natural - finding this one while I was still trying to spot the GZ on my phone. I guess sometimes it's better to look up once in awhile.

Our second find was an ammo-box cache that we'd missed on our last visit. On this trip the foliage wasn't as thick, and I was able to make the find in a few minutes. The next cache was another one that we had missed in Union Cemetery. The walk there was nice, and we were glad to get a chance to check out the wetlands path. We changed our vantage-point from last visit, and quickly found the pill-bottle cache under a group of rocks.

We were a bit unprepared for our last stop, so we decided to regroup with some flashlights.

The infamous Blood Bowl and the Gates of Hell.

This place was a real treat for me. When I was younger I used to come here to skateboard with my friends. The drainage ditch retaining walls are perfectly angled to carve up and down. This cache was actually inside of a concrete drainage pipe under High street. Water rushed quickly through the middle of the tunnel and the ceiling was damp with condensation - dripping uncomfortably on your head from time to time. Previous cachers had noted that there are bats in the pipe occasionally, but fortunately we didn't have to contend with anything other than soggy shoes.

On our way home, the emergency sirens kicked on. On the northern horizon, a massive wall of black clouds pushed south - forcing us to take refuge at a nearby friend's house. The sky couldn't decide between a torrential downpour or hail, so it gave us both. Hudson street quickly turned into the Hudson river, and we took bets on how far a Wendy's cup could make it down the street. Everyone talked and after a few cold beverages, we eventually made it home. A proper end to a satisfying day. 

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Olentango and Cache.

It was high-noon at the Olentangy river. Tempers were high, as we looked for our very first cache. Our parking situation was really sketchy and I, always worrying, rushed Vanessa because I didn't want her truck to get towed. Needless to say, we came up empty handed, but we were down - not out. Following a new lead, we made our way to Union Cemetery. The wrought iron gates looked closed when we got there, but we eventually found an opening. The first site there was a small cache hidden inside of one of the gates. There were a lot of obvious places, but they all had spider webs and/or egg sacs in them. I'm not sure of a lot of things, but I know that putting your finger in a dark hole is typically a bad idea. We gave up on this one after twenty-or-so minutes. The second site was much more promising, and we made short work of it, snagging a TB in the process. I was sad to find a headstone that had been completely consumed by a bush, making it impossible to read. The maintenance at this cemetery seemed really shoddy, especially since it's the final resting place for many veterans. 

In 1806, a man named Balser Hess was buried here as a Revolutionary War veteran. Hess was a Northwest Territory pioneer, and this was the land that his family had settled on. Over the next forty years, several more Hess' were buried on the plot, along with other families in the area. In 1847, it was officially established as Union Cemetery after being purchased from the Hess family. The cemetery itself is immense now, spanning over one-hundred and twenty five acres and is the final resting place for around seventy-thousand people. I only recently found out that OSU football coach, "Woody" Hayes, and Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas are buried here. I wanted to find both graves, but there weren't too many hours left in the day, and this was our first find.

Our subsequent caches were all along Olentangy river, taking us through Whetstone Park, The Park of Roses, and Clinton-Como Park. It was a beautiful day out and the exercise was a good change of pace. I wish all of our days turned out this well. 

We ended our day by taking the 2nd TB we found home to meet our pet cockroach :)

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Ohio State Campus, Columbus oh

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After a long dry spell...

Today was a extremely successful day! We started off the morning working our way towards Newark and Buckeye Lake, which we thought would be a good place drop the nautical themed TB we found a few weeks ago. Our favorite area was previously home to an amusement park from early 1910 until its deterioration in the late 1960's.

Buckeye Lake Park was known as "The Playground of Ohio", a place for families and summer memories. Now when visiting you will find people of all ages fishing and boating all day long still creating those family bonds.

An interesting note about the stone pillars in the picture below, they are remnants of the previous roller coaster called, "The Wild Mouse". This particular coaster ran above the water. It was sad but humbling to picture what it might have been, if time hadn't taken it back. 

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Rencache day

It was a beautiful day unlike the days to follow. Hardly a cloud in the sky, cool breeze, and the Renaissance festival with a side of geocaching. Could you really ask for more?

We started the day nice and early to look for caches long our way. Our first stop was Columbus. We were both so very excited to be able to get out and try our finding abilities there. We found some awesome areas, places you would never expect to find in a busy city like Columbus. Unfortunately we were not able to find the cache because found ourselves in someones home under this specific bridge

:/ 

Next stop! Waynesville, OH.

Before ending our day with some of our furthest geocaches from home, we spent the day with the lords and ladies of present time and enjoyed a fantastic joust.

The Caesar Lake state park was beautiful! The terrain was a small challenge and the paths unclear at times, but it was a beautiful hike. We hope we get a chance to go back soon.

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Rainy Day Hunt

We spent this wet day running errands, and geocaching of course. After a long night of trying to figure out which caches we wanted to hit on our way to the store near town we finally had a game plan. 

Two caches in the morning and six more that evening.

The beginning of the day was very fruitful after going directly to a cache and finding it within two minutes, we were excited! This is when we went back to a cache we had tried to find a couple days earlier. We pulled up to park and what do we find? OH NO! Muggles. I instantly felt disappointed that we might have to pass this one up again, when Shane noticed that the men inspecting the pond might actually be leaving. In the meantime, we made another circle around, admiring the Halloween decorations people in the neighborhood had hung. As we came back around to where the GZ should be, we saw the men leaving and a perfect time to make the swoop! After fifteen minutes or so we finally found the "inconspicuous" container that we'd both looked over, thinking it was merely trash.

Two for two! We were looking GREAT!

Later, after letting our shoes dry out, we headed out for another round. This time we had our hearts set on six caches with daylight dwindling, an ambitious endeavor. We found a few really neat places that we hadn't been to before and learned some history about our local town. However, by nightfall we were only able to find 2/6 caches :(

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10.9.11

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First day of geocaching - QR CODES

Today was our first day Geocaching, what an experience! We visited quite a few places close to home, and were surprised at how many we pass by on our everyday commute.

If you've found one of our QR codes, Hello! Vanessa and I (Shane), printed the codes out so we could meet fellow 'cachers. You can also follow the link below to reach our geocaching.com profile. Add us! 

Look forward to hearing from you and sharing our stories!

-Shane and Vanessa 

--http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?id=5117819--