While out and about Geocaching, I usually have a friendly passenger. When I do remember to have both my camera and him at the same time, I try to make sure to get a few snapshots.
Here is Mr. Gnome at Cumberland Falls State Park not far from Corbin, Kentucky. I've been going to the falls for several years. In fact, growing up it was tradition to do the hike down to the foot of the falls. Then after we climbed up, we would grab an ice cream cone. Guess what - I still do that today!
For my fellow geocachers, there are a few geocaches that you can grab in the area. There is also a virtual geocache near the falls too. Cell phone signal is no count, so be sure to download the info in your GPS or save on your Iphone app BEFORE you go to the falls.
Be on the lookout for future Gnome Chronicles....but my little bearded friend really needs a name! Suggestions?
One neat aspect of geocaching is being able to find historical structures that are still in use. In Kentucky, some small town grocery stores remain vacant, but for many they keep running thanks to generations in the family. One such case is the Greenmount Grocery located not far from London, Kentucky near KY Highway 30. Due to the reconstruction of KY-30, the store is no longer a through path, but a tiny bit off the beaten path. It is well worth driving the less than a tenth of a mile for a delicious treat!
While you're at it, go visit Geocache "Seven Diamonds." It's code number is GC2TK2M.
A couple of weeks ago, we took part of the 7th
Annual Geocaching Event at Lake Cumberland here in Kentucky. We were pretty excited but nervous as we
didn’t know what to expect. Little did
we know, we would have so much fun and cannot wait until next year’s event!
After we registered at the Lure Lodge, we had a tiny bit of
free time to unpack our belongings and then head over to the activity
center. Over 70 fellow geocachers joined
us as Robert & Kathy Myers provided instructions on what to expect.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early and joined
back with everyone to get our coordinates.
Once we got our paperwork, away everyone dispersed. For us – we headed
to the dining room to have breakfast (yep that extra hour put us behind in the
end). It was pouring down rain and we
decided to take our time. Away we went
afterwards to go on our geocaching merrily little way!
Finally the rain passed over just as we got ready to
geocache. Rather than take the trails,
we did the driving around option. It was
comical running into fellow cachers as we were all racing around trying to find
the ever elusive clue.
Some highlights:
·
Measure of Faith cache that was actually a tape
measure pulled out to reveal the clue.
·
Stone Cold being a toughy with our GPS unit going
all over the place. In the end you pretty much had to turn over multiple rocks.
We didn’t find it. L
·
Seeing a whole fridge & some other kitchen
items in the middle of the woods. Oh and a boat!
There are many more memories made and we met several new
friends along with the way. During this
caching event, we had to find key word clues that were a cartoon
character. By the end of the day, we
found 24 geocaches out of 48. We would
have had more but the rain delayed us a bit.
The next day on our way “out the door,” we had another
series of 10 caches to grab. We
attempted 5 or 6 of them and got them all.
The funniest was “Find the Poo” as it was down in a hole.
We definitely will be back next year and hope to capture
even more geocaches. If you love
geocaching, the Lake Cumberland Geocaching Event is top notch and well
organized. I highly recommend it!
In Kentucky, there are an abundance of geocaches throughout the state. One fun activity to do while geocaching is to have a "fun run." I consider this to be a day of fun while finding geocaches.
Geocaching runs can be done in a variety of ways. Maybe you want to try to go all the way across the state and getting 1 cache per county? Or you want to explore one town for a day, being a tourist while geocaching? Perhaps it is to complete a challenge of county visits or see how many covered bridges along the way?
We recently went to Danville, Kentucky, and completed a mini run. We probably should have started in the morning, but were tempted by a breakfast at Cracker Barrel. (Quick place to grab a healthy breakfast!) So our start was actually around 1PM.
First stop was to visit Cedar Creek Lake. What a beautiful view! Cedar Creek is right off of Highway 150 before Danville. There are several geocaches in this area that provided photo opportunities with the lake.
One of the first caches that we found was disappointing though. It appears that a fellow geocacher (or muggle) decided to open the container and the contents. Everything was all over the ground. We did our geocaching duty by cleaning up the debris, putting the logbook in a new ziplock bag, and adding a few new items for trade items. There were a few other caches in the area and we hit those up too.
Next, we stopped by the memorial gardens were two caches were located. Both were fairly easy to find and parking was nearby.
On our way to Danville, we saw a HUGE garden statue/red barn business on the right. I really wanted to stop there and wish I had. Perhaps could have found a little gnome for our collection. :)
We reached Danville and holy cow there are a TON of caches. We went to both parks, lucking out at one of the parks to grab a few smileys, whereas the other park we came up empty as the ballfield that was left vacant. :(
Our favorite Geocache find of the day would be "Tanks A Lot" - GC145MW. It is located in a small park/fairgrounds in Danville. The cache location honors our military and is a really cool piece of history as well. It took us about 20 minutes and just as we were ready to give up, we glanced over and boom there it was. Sometimes just when you least expect it, you will find it!
In the end, we were able to find about 20 caches in the area, but had quite a few "did not find" caches. We plan to be back - and perhaps stop at that concrete statue place too!
Decisions, decisions. Sometimes it is hard to decide which GPS Unit to purchase. I finally took the plunge and purchased a GPS unit. I've been using my Iphone, but using it while Geocaching drained the battery big time. Plus if you got with some tree cover it was horrible on accuracy.
I settled for the
Magellan eXplorist 110 Handheld GPS
. The price and ease of use based on multiple user reviews on multiple websites made it seem like a feasible choice. Be on the lookout for a review after I take it on a test drive (hopefully this weekend!)
I have always enjoyed being in the outdoors. I have lived on a farm all my life, enjoy traveling, and have a sense of adventure. What better way than to start Geocaching? I started in 2011 and starting to gain momentum. Hopefully my stories of adventures will help you on your journey.
My geocaching equipment has been my Tom Tom GPS in my car and my Iphone using the Geocaching.com software. We are in the process of saving some money to get a handheld GPS.
I usually go with my best friend on geocaching hunts. It's usually sporatically when we do go, but we try to find a few if we are out of town. The best part of Geocaching is that it has helped us learn more about our state of Kentucky and see the beauty it has to offer.
So welcome to my little home on the web. Please feel free to leave a comment. If you have a Geocaching blog, please be sure to let me know!
Did you know that Ski originated from Kentucky? It received mentioned in the popular Kentucky Headhunters song, "Dumas Walker." One of the rarest things is finding it in the glass bottles. While on a recent trip to Berea, Kentucky, we stopped by the Amish Store just off of I-75. Low and behold, they had bottled Ski for sale. I just had to have it to quinch my thirst and energize me to continue our journey down the geocaching trail.
While out and about Geocaching, I usually have a friendly passenger. When I do remember to have both my camera and him at the same time, I try to make sure to get a few snapshots.
A couple of weeks ago, we took part of the 7th
Annual Geocaching Event at Lake Cumberland here in Kentucky. We were pretty excited but nervous as we
didn’t know what to expect. Little did
we know, we would have so much fun and cannot wait until next year’s event!
In Kentucky, there are an abundance of geocaches throughout the state. One fun activity to do while geocaching is to have a "fun run." I consider this to be a day of fun while finding geocaches.
to the Magellan CX0310SGXNA eXplorist 310 Waterproof Hiking GPS
and more.
