Hi, Cat!

I simply couldn’t neglect this cache any longer. I was starting to feel sorry for it, and for you! Rich and I both wanted to take advantage of the beautiful sunny morning, a rare Spring-like treat in early February, so we headed to Hawley in search of your cache and possibly a nearby benchmark or two. With several inches of crusted-over snow still on the ground in most spots, I was concerned that we’d never find such a small container. Fortunately, the only problem the snow caused us was a perfectly synchronized slip & slide down the north side of the slope. Your coordinates were right on, and we poked around for just a few minutes before Rich announced that he’d found the cache. The container and contents were in excellent condition—just like the day they were placed there, I’m sure! We signed in around 10:00am, and I left a wooden nickel from an antique auto club meet and took the green alien. We carefully rehid the cache, had some fun taking photos, and then went off to find and document a nearby USGS benchmark before calling it a day. Thanks for providing a satisfying adventure and a most unusual First Find!

Zhanna

Howdy, C-I-T-H!

Wintertime for me typically means a natural decline in geocaching activities. Since January brought a spell of brutally cold temperatures and nearly twice the average snowfall for the month, it was probably wise that I waited so long to attempt your new cache. The past few days, on the other hand, have been unseasonably warm, which means a lot of snow has finally disappeared. Now seemed like a good time to take a drive out and give this one a shot.

After picking up Zhanna at her place around 8:30am this morning, we arrived at the park and quickly made our way along the path near the river, below the old railbed, toward the cache site. Perhaps several recent thawing and refreezing cycles have resulted in the thick, hard crust atop two to three inches of granular snow still covering the ground. This made footing a bit insecure, especially when our approach required us to climb up and over the steep bank. In an instant my feet went out from under me and I took a nice butt-slide most of the way back down! And in the midst of my little circus act I heard a squeal from Zhanna and saw that she, too, had slipped on the hill!

At the cache site itself we were fortunate to find several clear patches where potential hiding spots were either partially or completely exposed. But, this also made it evident that a lot of other good spots could still be covered and much more difficult to locate. We poked and probed the obvious places first and then searched further out, breaking through the icy crust and brushing away the snow while staying essentially in the area indicated by our GPS receivers. Your posted coordinates must be totally on target because it didn’t take too much longer to locate the container. It was in good condition, well covered, and everything inside was dry. We signed in as “First Finders” at 10:00am. I took one of the little alien eggs(?) and left a cyclist’s key-“chain.”

Except for the snow and the cooler temperature, the absence of copious amounts of poison ivy, your much-improved coordinates, and a more secure hiding place (no pesky critters to worry about here), this cache hunt was very reminiscent of the original “Lackawaxen in Hawley” that Zhanna and I completed last July. On the way back to the car we again stopped at the road bridge that crosses the river. This time Zhanna had a USGS benchmark that she wanted to make an official recovery report for. So we spent a few minutes at the east abutment, and then headed home.

Thanks for bringing me back to this interesting little park. All too often we say that we intend to return to a particularly nice place … but how many of us actually do it?!

~Rich in NEPA~