Saturday Dec 8
After spending all day Friday walking around Lone Star Lakes park making sure every cache was ready to be found and had plenty of swag in each one I could hardly wait for the Bike n Hike Event to begin. Nana & I arrived early (or at least what we thought was early) only to find the parking lot almost full and plenty of cachers either coming back from nearby caches or standing around getting info on all the caches in the park. There were cachers not only from right here in the Hampton Roads area but I also met some folks from the Richmond and Williamsburg areas.
This was a great event hosted by the AllstarSS and you would not believe the number of door prizes handed out!!! Once the formal part of the event wound down everyone split up into groups and headed off in different directions. Having no caches to find (in the park) Nana and I decided to go with the group that was hiking the northern part of the park and act the part of a tour guide.. One by one we knocked out each cache as we walked the almost 2 miles (one direction) path through the lakes and the woods. We were almost to the "just published" cache when the biking group caught and passed us. We all made some minor attempts to distract/slow them down as they buzzed by us to get the FTF on the new cache.
Once we finished the caches along the northern part we made our way back to the staging area and then decided to stop for lunch at a quaint little eatery right outside the park. We all had a great lunch and then decided to head home and call it a day.
Special thanks goes out to the AllstarSS team as they, once again, hosted a great event. Fun was had by all!!!!!
Sunday Dec 9
Sunday morning Nana & I teamed up with alara to form Team TNA once again and headed off to Charles City county. I had been looking at the Map of our Virginia finds and realized that Charles City county had zero finds for Nana & I so the purpose of Sunday's trip was to get all the finds we could in this one county!
We started off with GC30K07 The Courthouse of Charles City County - this ended up being a nice little cache that was NOT where we thought it would be. Nana made the find after a few minutes and we now had 1 find in this county.
GC27PT5 - VCT Charles City Rest Stop was the next cache on the list. This cache is near the VCT biking/hiking trail which, for those of you who have never heard of it, is a very nice paved trail that starts in Jamestown and ends in Richmond. This was a rather unique cache and we luckily found it in less than 5 minutes.
GC179H5 - The Overlooked Cache - located in an out of the way park, we found this cache a little off from the coordinates but there is more than enough information on the cache page to make it a nice find. The view here is amazing and the park is gorgeous!!!
GC27PP2 - VCT Travel Bug Motel - this cache is also along the VCT trail and it is a short walk from nearby parking.
GC1MB5Q - Fish Farm - if you manage to find your way to the fish farm - please take a hike through the area. Although we found the cache with no problems we enjoyed the walk and the sights tremendously. There is a gigantic Loblolly pine a very short distance from the cache that will amaze you. Well worth the visit!!!
GC1CR08 - Curse of the FTF #12 (Richmond) Shirley, You Jest - other than all the old Shirley/surely jokes along the road on the way to this cache (which is a very easy P&G) - the Shirley Plantation is just down the road. The Shirley Plantation is Virginia's oldest plantation, it started in 1613 and is a working plantation, a private family home, and a National Historic Landmark.
GC2YAA2 - Off the beaten Path - this cache has earned its name - in a nice athletic park - this cache is well worth the visit!
GC19WM7 - Looking for a good time in Ruthville. A very nice multi-cache. You arrive at GZ, get some information from a sign then do a little elementary math - then a short walk later find a rather nice cache.
GC1JGJM - Welcome to P.F. - P.F. stands for Providence Forge - Nana & I love these quick P&G caches at historic areas!!!
GC1P0ZB - Crawfords Cache - this is a very good example of the "hanging out in the open" but still very hard to find cache. It amazes us how hard the totally obvious caches can sometimes be!
GCNG17 - Toe Ink - Located in the woods near a rest area - this is a very simple find. Pull off the road, stretch your legs and make the grab!
GC1P0X4 - Something's Blooming - a very quick P&G
GC1P0FX - Go-fer Ride - another quick P&G
GC2GD4A - Fire Watch - you usually find no trespassing signs on these old fire towers but none of us dared to climb to the top!
GC1GD4M - Anomalies: #2 The Practice Field - this is a quick P&G once you get to GZ - finding your way to GZ may be a trick though!
GC1KN0W - Antioch School - another cache in a historic location - great hide!
GC1PYDY - Elko Community Center - this is another really nice cache. You arrive at the community center, get some information from the signs, once again test your math skills with simple addition and subtraction and then go find the final. This particular cache had some previous DNF logs on the page but we managed to make the find after wandering around a bit!
GCYCYP - Swamped! - another quick find at a road side pull off with 3 historic signs - great information!
On our way back home now, we decided to grab two more caches that were up this way!
GC3YTQ9 - Animal Pen - yes we paid the fee to enter the park just for one cache!!!! The cache had been moved slightly due to construction but the name still fits. We arrived at GZ and a park employee ran over to show us the cache without us even asking for help! He had all sorts of information about not only the information but also the park! If you have never been up here to Chippokes Plantation State Park - please make the trip - there are 7 nice caches in the park and another 2 right outside the park. Be aware that there is a fee to enter this park but it is well worth the visit . This is a rather large park so we recommend bring the bikes!
Last cache of the day was GC3YTQN - Off the beaten path to Chippokes - located on a now dead end road on the way to Chippokes Plantation State Park - this was our last quick P&G for the day.
Favorites on the day were:
GC1P0ZB - Crawfords Cache, GC2GD4A - Fire Watch
Winner of the "Coveted" SNAP Cache of the Day was: GC3YTQ9 - Animal Pen - CONGRATS!!!
As always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!
SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa
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