Hiking

112,000 Rain Drops

Diet 7-UP was on sale at Walgreen’s starting this morning so we hightailed it over there to pick some up. The price of four 12 packs for $11 with a bonus of a $2 coupon for use on your next visit was about as good as it gets. We managed to make it to the store with the top down, but had to put it up to go inside, which we expected because for the first time in about a month we are going to get some rain. There were only three on the shelf, which we expected and why we hustled over there early on a Sunday, but the the guy running the place offered to check in the back, he came out with one, which we didn’t expect. On the way home the Emperor passed the 112,000 mile point, which I expected, because we went the long way home just for that reason.

We started yesterday morning with a 4 mile foray into Hitchcock Woods. They were having a “Festival of the Woods” with lots of programs, events and demonstrations. We would have liked to have seen the raptor demonstration, but knew we wouldn’t stay long enough for it because it didn’t start ’til after noon. So we just opted to hike in from one end and end up at the Show Ring where all the action was, just to see what we could see. As we got close to the ring we came across a few folks horseback riding. I thought maybe I’d snap a photo or two of them, but my camera wouldn’t come on. My first guess as to why was that the battery was dead. That guess was confirmed wrong when I opened the battery door, the battery wasn’t there. It was home still plugged into the charger. Oops.

We ended up yesterday with a 2.9 mile walk around Phinizy Swamp in Augusta with the MMC. The staff of the Swamp offer a full moon walk a few times a year, but we had the place to ourselves because we are special and one of the docents is a club member. Even though it was not the actual night of the full moon and we were stuck with just a waning gibbous with 95% of the visible disk illuminated we all had a great time. Because it was still pretty dark we thought we saw silhouettes of several types of egrets, maybe an owl and possibly an alligator. We did see a small possum as we had to use a flashlights beam to shoo him away from the boardwalk we were both were on.

Because we were a few minutes early for the Club meet up, Donna and I roamed the deteriorating parking lot of the deserted Regency Mall and grabbed 3 geocaches.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 843

Accidental Geocaching

Algae Covered PondAfter spending the morning cooking (quiche, bread, cookies, lasagna) and watching TV (5 “Christmas” episodes of West Wing) we decided to get out and take a walk in Hitchcock Woods before the threatened rains came (still waiting.)

We walked the Palmetto Trail and had a pleasant little walk except for the time I slipped trying to avoid a muddy spot and got my knee dirty. On the way back up the hill from Crazy Creek towards our car Donna said, “Didn’t there used to be a cache around here?” “Yeah, ” I said, “I remember we had to ask for a hint from the CO.” She wondered out loud, “Think it is still there?” I allowed that it probably wasn’t, as it, along with ours and others, got caught up in the Great Hitchcock Woods Cache Purge of ’09. We looked over towards the small tree it was hidden in and there it was, still hanging in a branch eye high. It was easily spotted because of the lack of foliage this time of year.

We went over and opened it up and right on top was a Travel Bug. Poor thing it had been stranded there since July. We decided to take it with us and then after some consideration we decided to take the cache itself. It was supposed to be picked up and removed by the owner in August. We’ll move the TB along and I’ll contact the owner and see if she wants her container back.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 514

Back Into The Woods

Swampy CutToday was the second Glorious Fall Day® in a row and for the first time in about three months we went for a walk in Hitchcock Woods. Took a nice little 3-1/2 mile walk among the falling leaves.

Because the weather was perfect for it as well as walking in the woods, the Emperor got the full spa treatment; bug/tar removal on the nose and rocker panels, a good washing, headlights polished, wax and a window washing. We are now set for the winter.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 471

Boyd Pond

Boyd PondWe spent a pleasant morning traipsing through the woods surrounding Boyd Pond today. Boyd Pond is a recreation area slash park that is southwest of Aiken and when we first moved here it was available only to employees of the Big Bomb Plant, but now it is open to every Tom, Dick & Harry (I think.) There is a switchback laden trail on the east side of the lake for hiking and biking along with a straighter, shorter nature trail. On the west side is a park with a boat launch, picnic tables, playgrounds and softball fields. We did all 5 caches here, 3 east and two west while walking 4-1/2 miles.

Lunch was outside at Moe’s watching the Whiskey Road traffic zoom by and the afternoon was spent watching Season 7 Disc 2 of West Wing. Only 15 episodes left…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 386

Really Expensive Pedometer II

Have I mentioned lately that my GPSr isn’t working? I thought so. We are approximately 4 days into the 12 to 15 working days before our repaired unit is scheduled to be returned to us.

Two working days into the process we knew we wouldn’t be able to make it that long. We bought a new Garmin eTrex Vista? HCx from Walmart online and had it shipped to us. The UPS man dropped it on the doorstep this afternoon.

This is a slightly upgraded unit compared to the one that is broken and in for repair. It has a micrSD slot so there can be a lot more stuff stored in the unit, like gigabytes worth instead of just 24 Meg. It has an electric compass, so when I stop befuddled in the middle of the woods while looking for a cache, the needle will still be pointing at the cache instead flopping around. It has a barometric altimeter, so I will know how high we are above sea level (which the Venture does too when the topo maps are used) or maybe when there is an approaching storm. It also has the ability to give point to point on road directions like a Tom Tom or similar, but we probably will never use that feature.

There are ammo cans shaking in there hiding spots just knowing we are back in the game again.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 386

Yucca Valley

Yucca ValleyWe saw no yucca plants on the Yucca Valley trail in Hitchcock Woods when we traveled it yesterday. I would tell you how far we walked in the woods, but I can’t because our GPSr is broken and hopefully in Olathe, Kansas by now.

This morning we got up early-ish and rode a big loop ending up downtown to pay bills. Unfortunately the New Moon wasn’t open so we couldn’t get a muffin for breakfast. Ended up at Waffle House.

After breakfast we drove over to Augusta to take a picture of a hockey puck in front of the James Brown Arena, which is as close to geocaching as we could get. Have I mentioned our GPSr is broken?

On the way home from Georgia a line of birds started to waltz out out in front of us way out on Pine Log Rd. They got part way and turned around and then as soon as I got by they came back out and completed the trip.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 382

Email Dance

I received a reply from the SCDNR guy this morning:

The regulation is more up-to-date than you can find. Typically, there is a delay from the time of approval to the point the internet regulations are updated.

I do appreciate your interest in the heritage preserve program, and I encourage you to consider use of SCDNR properties through other allowed activities such as hiking or birding. Below is a link to all of the HPs found in SC.

Then a minute later:

I forgot…can you send me the lat/longs for Henderson & Savannah HPs.

He seems kind of anxious to get the lat & long of those caches…In his original email he mentions Regulation 123-203 (T) and at first I though maybe the T was a revision level, but after reading the regs posted on the SC Gov Site I’m thinking the T represents a new section of the code as the current one ends at S. I’m having a hard time believing that geocaching would warrant its own section, but hey what do I know. So I asked him for a copy:

Wow, more up to date than September 26, 2008. Is there anyway I can get a copy of the updated regs? There is a gathering of local geocachers this coming weekend and I would like to let them know about this change.

That was at quarter to 10 this morning. So far no response.

I think I’m going to contact the local cache reviewer and clue him in to my conversation, maybe he can even get a copy of the updated regulations.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 359