Hi, Tyson!

Bet you never thought we’d be the First Finders of this cache! Well, I didn’t think we would be either. I have to admit that yesterday morning’s cool temperatures and rain deterred us, and we planned our outing for this morning instead in the hope that the weather would be dry and sunny. As our luck would have it, it was cloudy and cold this morning when we started on our journey, and when I turned onto Route 309 I’m positive I saw a few snow flurries. The sun was coming out by the time we began our hike, though. You chose a terrific spot for this cache. The trail is one of the most scenic short trails I’ve hiked, and the sunlight made everything sparkle. The recent abundant rainfall made the falls spectacularly full and fast. Before long we neared the coordinates. Confronted with hundreds of potential hiding spots, we just didn’t know where to turn! We searched here, searched there, found nothing. Finally we made a joint decision to decrypt the clue, and found the cache immediately thereafter (we were so close!). It was expertly hidden. After removing it carefully from its hiding spot, in a flash Rich opened the cache and pulled out something tall and brightly colored and stuck it on my head. Feeling like a Dr. Seuss character but enjoying the warmth it provided, I wore the hat the entire time we spent at the cache site. I added a small Lego set to the cache and took the VW camper travel bug. A slow hike back to the car provided plenty of opportunities for taking photos and enjoying the rushing falls. I can hardly believe that neither one of us had been here before! It’s truly a beautiful area.

By the way, we were nearby on Saturday when you hid this cache during your camping trip so we’re aware what the conditions were like. How on earth did you survive all those bugs?!?! Thanks for a fabulous morning adventure!

Zhanna

Howdy, Tyson! I know I’m a little late getting this log entered but it’s been a hectic day. Zhanna and I agreed to meet up early this morning in order to get a decent start but I never expected we’d make “First Finders.” If it wasn’t for the rain and dampness, the almost Winter-like coldness and gusty breezes, we would have been here yesterday morning. But weather like that after the brief taste of Summer we experienced this past weekend held very little appeal for either of us. I’m glad we waited, though, because in spite of the chill morning air there was plenty of sunshine, no bugs at all to annoy us, and the scenery along Wallenpaupack Creek was simply gorgeous. We spent a good deal of time enjoying a slow hike, exploring the trail and the falls, and taking lots of photos. I’ve never visited this section of the park before. It’s certainly impressive.

We did have some trouble locating the cache since the area has dozens, if not hundreds of likely hiding spots! After about 20 minutes of searching I felt the urge to decipher the hint. The cache was so well hidden that I know I had walked past it a couple of times without realizing it. We tried to re-hide it in as much the same way as possible. I think your coordinates are just fine. The reception under the hemlocks is very erratic but I couldn’t come up with any better numbers, and yours kept bringing us back to the same spot time after time. Having signed the logbook I traded two Geocaching magnets and one of my cyclist’s key “chains” for the packet of mini-carabiners. Zhanna wore that comical hat all the while we were signing in and making trades, and I thought surely she was going to leave with it still on her head!

We spent the next several hours searching for benchmarks along Route 390, and then checked out another possible route for future recoveries before finally heading home in the afternoon. We’ve been concentrating mostly on benchmarks lately and it was a very pleasant change to get back to doing some Geocaching again. Thanks for a swell little adventure. ~Rich in NEPA~