Geocaching, the military, and bow hunting
Yesterday, I was out geocaching and with the expectation that it would be cool and quiet afternoon. This was not too be. As I was driving up to the trailhead I passed two groups of army recruits decked in cammo, face paint and carrying an assortment of rifles, sniper scopes, and machine guns. They looked like a serious and dangerous bunch. At the last moment, I noticed that most of the guns were plugged. They were hoping to ambush another platoon concealed much deeper along the trail. Lucky for me the first geocache was in the opposite direction and an easy find. I continued along the trail and noticed a guy in cammo sitting midway up a tree keeping very calm and quiet. Later I would find out that the woods were occupied by deer hunters with bows. The third cache find was what I call a “gotcha.” The cache was suspended 15 feet in the air and hanging from the nub of a branch. Standing on a three foot stump and using a 10 foot long branch I was able to knock the cache down. As I was lifting the cache back into place along came a couple of deer hunters wanting to know what I was doing. I showed them the cache and my GPS and explained what geocaching was all about. Before they headed back along the trail I asked them what to do when in the woods during deer season; do you move silently or make some noise. They suggested to make more noise that you would expect of a deer prancing through the forest.
Sneaky Geocaches
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/October_geocaching#5258909155126784450″img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;” src=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/October_geocaching#5258909155126784450″ alt=”" border=”0″ //abr /Yesterday, I went a href=”http://geocaching.com/”geocaching /aalong the Ottawa River and eventually located a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/October_geocaching#5258909155126784450″sneaky geocache/a. The GPS told me that I was within a couple of feet of the cache but where could it be. This a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/October_geocaching#5258909132969510242″link/a shows where the cache is. The cacher had transported the tree segment home, sliced off the top, ground out the core and the put dowling support to secure the top. From a distance it looks like a large tree stump sitting next to the river. Afterwards I was reading the logs and noticed that the tree had stumped a lot of people.
Awesome weekend in Baltimore
pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”I spent last weekend having an incredible great time in Baltimore. I arrived span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_0″on Friday afternoon/span and Jason met me at the airport. We headed over to Whole Foods for a late lunch as I was famished. After lunch we headed back to a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason/a’s place to chip away at a layer ofa href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961858028694850″ cement in his bathroom/a as earlier in the week the span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_1″bathroom tiles/span didn’t set properly. Having two hammers and chisels beaver away at the floor allowed us to nearly get the floor free of cement debris a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961887688044562″1/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961900507305986″2/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962202913047938″ /a. In the evening we headed south to Glen Echo, which is south-west of Washington for some swing dancing. Jam Cellar and Sac au Lait were hosting an outdoor dance in the old bummer car pavilion. It was a great venue and the music was good./span/span/p pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_2″On Saturday/span, we headed back to Jason’s house and spent much of the morning a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962202913047938″scouring the bathroom floor/a of cement so that a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961917531645746″Em could lay the tiles /ain the afternoon. In the afternoon a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961937557762834″Jason grouting another bathroom/a and I was cool to act as a support person doing chores for Jason and Em. In the evening we headed over to span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_3″a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962402529089538″Camden Yard/as/span to take in an Orioles game. It game started late as the “O’s” were playing a double-header. We had great seats and we watched a good game despite the fact that “O’s” lost. /span/span/p pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”We started off Sunday with a large breakfast (home-made waffles) at Jason’s parents place. Jason gave me some tips on how to get a target=”_blank” href=”http://my.yahoo.com/”span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_4″my Yahoo/span/a Mail on my iPhone/iPod Touch which was really good. Afterwards, we headed to REI as I had an order that needed to be picked up. I was able to buy two BPA free Nalgene bottles which was sweet. We next headed in a North-Western direction to the Catochin Mountains close to span style=”border-bottom: medium none; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_5″Thurmont, MD/span. Much of the day was spent hiking and doing some light climbing. I was happy to watch Jason scale some steep rock faces. (Note to self – I should have brought my span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_6″climbing shoes/span and harness.) (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962447391337314″Wolf Rock/a n39 38.042 w077 26.258) There was a little exciting when we were at Wolf Rock. I found a crevasse in the some rocks which allowed me toa href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962484508068962″ lay back a/and to take and get in some Ramp;R. Once Jason had climbed Wolf Rock he set his eyes on a more a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962462154446386″ambitious goal of seeing his could climb through a rock face underneath me/a. He got very close to the surface only to find he couldn’t get his chest through a small crevasse. What to do? The only solution was to head back down the way he came. It was a hot day and the rocks were slippery. As he was heading down Jason lost his grips and fell 15 feet bouncing from one rock to another. It was a WOW moment. A little later we headed south back to Em’s place for an awesome lasagna dinner with family friends.br //span/span/ppbr /span lang=”en-us”/span/ppspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#/abr //span/span/p pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_7″On Monday/span, Scott, Jason and I headed over to span style=”border-bottom: medium none; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_8″Home Depot/span to get some Hardi-backer flooring boards. I had estimated that we would need 14 boards by measuring the area and adding in an error factor (15%). After lunch we laid down the cement, Hardi-backer boards, and screwed in 850 screws. Having three people working on the task meant that we always had a ready-supply of cement, some putting in the screws while someone else was measuring the next board. In the evening we headed to the Austin Grill for some swing dancing. I head a great time dancing while many folks that I had danced with before. We close out the evening doing something quite memorable and that is playing wordabble on our span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_9″ipod/span Touch/iPhone./span/span/p pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_10″On Tuesday/span, we had a leisurely morning which was great. We exchanged gifts and I’m pleased with my JetBoil. For lunch we headed to Rosina’s which is a sort of tradition. In the early afternoon I headed back to Ottawa by way of span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_11″Philadelphia/span./span/span/p
Animals in the Hinterland
Today I was geocaching in the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenbelt_%28Ottawa%29″Greenbelt/a of Ottawa and trying to locate some caches in deer yards. As I was walking to my next cache I heard a branch crack and stopped dead in my tracks. This could have been a good or bad decision. If a tree or branch was falling I was going to get whacked. I was lucky as whatever made the noise stopped too. Through the cedar underbrush I could see that I was five feet away from a deer. We stared at each other for a while and then it flicked it tail and was off on its way. A little later on I spotted another one heading away in the distance. My current find tally is 875 and so my goal of 900+ finds by the end of the year is quickly coming within sight.
The Spitting Goose
Today, I decided to have lunch down near the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_River”Ottawa River /aalong the bike path. As I was walking along the path I was approached by a spitting a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Goose”Canada goose /awhich is a sign that it was upset. I moved along a little further and it started to follow. I opened up a 200 yard gap and sat down to eat my Ruffles. A short while later along comes the waddling goose. It started to spit at me again so I walked a little further along the path. At this point the goose backed off and it was happy to munch on dandelions. Is this normal goose behavior sort of, as this is the peak season for mating and reproducing. The goose wanted to guard its turf against invaders even if they are six feet tall and it is a mere two feet tall.br /br /Close to where I live there is a railway bridge that runs across the river a goose has setup camp underneath one of the abutments. It has built a nest and laid a couple of eggs. I pass by the spot a couple of times a day and notice the progress. I’ll try to get down there with the camera to capture some of the sights. As I meandered back to the office I kept a safe distance from the goose who was keeping a watchful over me.
