Another Geocaching Adventure

Well yesterday I wanted to give Julie a small break while Jack was taking a nap, so I took Paige and Jonah and we went to explore a park near our house. We are finding all sorts of small parks or wilderness areas we have never been to through Geocaching. It is really a lot of fun. I am into it, so is Paige. So anyway there were two in this park. The first was pretty easy to find. The GPS led us to a old mail truck in the middle of the woods. Why was there a old mail truck in the middle of the woods? How did it get there? Who knows, but it was kinda cool.



So anyway we found the cache pretty quickly. So then we headed on to find another that was (by GPS coordinates) not very far from where we were. This second one we had actually almost looked for a couple of weekends ago, but we couldn't find a way into the park from the other side closer to where the cache was hidden. From just off the road it looked like a pretty steep hill down, so we assumed the best way in was from the other side. So anyway, now we are coming from the other side so all is good, right? Not really...

We pretty quickly found a trail that looked like it would go down to the creek that runs through the park, which is where we needed to get, so we followed the trail. It was a little overgrown with sticker bushes and a little steep, but I figured it had to be the best way. No you may be wondering why I figure it had to be the best way. Basically, it was the first way I found, so that was good enough for me.

Anyway, so we started heading down and the trail became quickly denser and steeper. Oh yeah, it has been raining here now, summer is over... So Paige slipped first. Wasn't bad, she got right up, had one sticker stuck to her back, but she was a little scared. So I tried to hurry a little to get down to her. This is where I slipped. I went sliding right past her. Now she was really scared. Jonah meanwhile is up above both of us on the hill. So now I am about half way down (or at least I think) and the kids are above me. So first I get up, pull the sticker off me and hike back up to calm Paige. Then I go up a little further and get Jonah and carry him down over the spot where Paige and I slipped down to where Paige was. From this point on, I started carrying the kids down the hill. First Paige would go a little ways down, then I would go back up get Jonah and take him down past where Paige was, and then repeat. When we made it to the bottom we were all a little muddy and everyone had had multiple stickers pulled out of them. It was a great feeling. The best part was we now had a field of sticker bushes and nettles to cross to get to the creek. This is the part where common sense would tell you to turn around. Actually, that point probably should have come after Paige and I both slipped the first time. In either case, we didn't.
So we crossed the field of sticker bushes and nettles only to find out we were on the wrong side of the creek. At this point we are so into this adventure nothing can turn us back. So I cross the creek by myself just to see if it is safe. The water was about ankle deep. I crossed back over grabbed Paige and carried her over. When I turned around Jonah was already in. I ran back across to get him. I figure he was only in to his ankles so far, so I was okay, I just didn't want him to fall and get all wet. So I crossed again carrying Jonah and finally our search started. After about 15 minutes with no luck the kids were getting bored, plus Paige was constantly asking how we were getting back to the truck. She was really nervous of the possibility of going back the way we came, maybe she didn't like the sticker bushes tangled in her hair? At this point Paige pointed at another trail, this one was on the side of the creek we were on and looked nice; wide, no stickers and not so steep. Unfortunately it headed the wrong way. Paige talked me in to trying it anyway, so we walked up. When we got to the top it opened up and there was the road. Wow!!! Paige and Jonah were happy. This was the way we should have come in to find this cache; 2 of them in the park and both need to be accessed from different entrances, go figure. So back to the story, Paige really wanted to walk to the truck following the road, the only problem, the truck was about 3 miles away by road... So I convinced them to head back down and we would go back the way we came. I promised to carry them both all the way and make sure no one slipped, fell, or got stuck in sticker. Big promise, huh, since I really couldn't completely control this. So as the "Going on a Bear Hunt" story goes, we went back down the hill, across the creek, through the meadow of sticker and nettles, and up the steep hill. Me doing each of these three times because I couldn't carry them both at the same time. Here is a picture of the hill (our trail is on the left, hidden under the sticker bushes) and Paige and Jonah each waiting for me to return to get them at one point. No matter the situation, there is always time for a picture...




So when we finally all made it to the top the kids were happy again and Paige even said she had fun. Jonah wanted to be carried back to the car which was okay with me, because I couldn't get much dirtier at this point.

The final part of the story really came when I woke up this morning. My legs were still tingling from all the nettles. I don't think I have ever walked through so many...