Top 10 Caches in Isle of Wight County

Isle of Wight County Top 10 Caches by Favorite Points

 With the 13th Annual GCHR Picnic fast approaching, I figured I would put together several lists detailing the best caches around the area.  Today's list will be the best caches, based on favorite points, in the city of Isle of Wight.

The red dot (next to the "Y" in York) is the approximate location of the picnic.

For more information on the picnic - click here

Here is the list for Isle of Wight County – top 10 caches based on favorite points earned:

Note: Isle of Wight county contains the lovely city of Smithfield.

1.    GC3PTB0 – Smithfield’s Porcine Parade – 45 favorite points - hidden by chihuahuak94me.

  This a terrific puzzle cache located at downtown Smithfield.
Note from SNAP!!!: one of our all-time favorite caches

2.    GC18G9M – Woodland Correspondence – 36 favorite points – hidden by chihuahuak94me.

A great cache located in Carrolton Nike Park.
Note from SNAP!!!: A great cache - nice hike also.

3.    GC2NYVE – Off the beaten path – 32 favorite points – hidden by muskrat1337.

A very nice cache located in Windsor Castle Park.
Note from SNAP!!!: A nice cache in a huge park

4.    GCH51T – Smithfield’s Other Claim to Fame – 31 favorite points – hidden by Golfhaus.

This is a nice virtual cache is located near Smithfield.
Note from SNAP!!!: Another really nice virtual cache

5.    GC1WQAD – Bronze Statues Hold the Key – 29 favorite points

- hidden by chihuahuak94me.  Another great puzzle cache in downtown Smithfield.
Note from SNAP!!!: Great Cache - it will take you on a tour of downtown Smithfield!

6.    GC21H59 – Brick Chimney – 21 favorite points – hidden by chihuahuak94me.

This is a fun little cache is located in Windsor Castle Park.
Note from SNAP!!!: another nice cache in a lovely park

7.    GC316FH – schoolhouse museum – 21 favorite points – hidden by chihuahuak94me.

A nice little cache located at a historic schoolhouse in Smithfield.
Note from SNAP!!!: a nice cache in a historic location

8.    GC21GWW – Cache on a stick – 20 favorite points – hidden by chihuahuak94me.

Another nice cache located in Windsor Castle Park.
Note from SNAP!!!: just another great cache!

9.    GC22AJF – SSB – Fort Boykins Historic Park – 18 favorite points

– hidden by Star-Spangled Banner.  A great little multi-cache located

in a historic park north of Smithfield.
Note from SNAP!!!: Historic location - nice cacche

10.  GC1605B – All Gave Some, Some Gave All – 14 favorite points – hidden by zazth

and adopted by Chihuahuak94me.  A nice little cache in the heart of

downtown Smithfield.
Note from SNAP!!!: Great location - tricky little devil

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!

2 Quick Items for You

Not a normal blog but I wanted to get to things out to y'all.

1) With just a little over 2 1/2 months to go till the picnic, about half of the top 10 lists I have put together are now published both on the picnic site (click here)  and on a special page of this site (see menu on right side of page for the "13th ANNUAL GCHR PICNIC" page.  In fact of you go to the 13th ANNUAL PICNIC page on this site you will see almost 20 links to information not only for the picnic but also for local information AND all the lists I have been working on plus one special list coming at the end. 

AND

2) I normally try to post blogs in the same order as I accomplish them BUT in this case I am going to jump ahead just because of how good these two geocaches were.

If you normally read our blogs about or geocaching days you know that we NORMALLY have a really good cache at the end of the day to which we award our "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the day award.  

Sunday, Nana & I took off from the house early mainly to do some cache maintenance.  Since we were going as far as Scotland (West side of the Jamestown Ferry) we added just a few caches to break up the long trip.

After doing some maintenance we happened upon two really interesting caches.  The Cache Owner's name is somewhat familiar to me but that could just be a different cacher as the stat page shows snowurchin to be a fairly new cacher.

The first cache is GC5RAQT - Mate in One -  I arrived at GZ and was immediately smiling at what I had found and it only took a short while after to make the find of the cache.

Once I came out of the woods and told Nana what I had found and she then entered to take pics (no I will not spoil your fun by posting them here)

While She was taking pics I started reading the cache page for the second cache,  You HAVE TO READ this cache page - quite a lot of work went into it.  Once you have digested all that information follow the instructions on the page to get to GC5TRPC - North of Tower.  This cache was tremendous!!!   We awarded it the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day and it is well worth your visit.

Both of these are must do caches !!!

Next time you are out in Isle of Wight county - make sure you drop by and do these 2 caches!

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!

Isle of Wight County Top Caches by Favorite Points

Planning your caching around the picnic?  Coming in from out of town, and want to make sure you don’t miss some of the best caches?  Over the next few weeks, we’ll be generating several lists to help with this.

Each list will detail the best geocaches in each city in the Hampton Roads and surrounding areas based on the number of favorite points these caches have earned.

Here is the list for Isle of Wight County (this includes Smithfield) – top 10 caches based on favorite points earned:

1.    GC3PTB0 – Smithfield’s Porcine Parade – 30 favorite points - hidden by chihuahuak94me.  This a terrific puzzle cache located at downtown Smithfield.

2.    GC1WQAD – Bronze Statues Hold the Key – 28 favorite points - hidden by chihuahuak94me.  Another great puzzle cache in downtown Smithfield. 

3.    GC18G9M – Woodland Correspondence – 26 favorite points – hidden by chihuahuak94me.  A great cache located in Carrolton Nike Park.

4.    GC2NYVE – Off the beaten path – 24 favorite points – hidden by muskrat1337.  A very nice cache located in Windsor Castle Park.

5.    GC21GWW – Cache on a stick – 19 favorite points – hidden by chihuahuak94me.  Another nice cache located in Windsor Castle Park.

6.    GCH51T – Smithfield’s Other Claim to Fame – 17 favorite points – hidden by Golfhaus.  This is a nice virtual cache is located near Smithfield.

7.    GC21H59 – Brick Chimney – 17 favorite points – hidden by chihuahuak94me.  This is a fun little cache is located in Windsor Castle Park.

8.    GC22AJF – SSB – Fort Boykins Historic Park – 16 favorite points – hidden by Star-Spangled Banner.  A great little multi-cache located in a historic park north of Smithfield.

9.    GC316FH – schoolhouse museum – 12 favorite points – hidden by chihuahuak94me.  A nice little cache located at a historic schoolhouse in Smithfield.

10.  GC3ENCD – You See UMC #6 – Benns Anew – 10 favorite points – hidden by bdramatic.  A nice little cache south of Smithfield.

GCHR 11th Annual Picnic - August 31st, 2013 - GC42NJJ - A MEGA-event

Every Labor Day Weekend for the 11 years GCHR (GeoCaching Hampton Roads) has held their Annual Picnic.  Last year (2012), the event became a MEGA-event making the picnic Virginia's first ever Mega-event.  This year, 2013, GCHR once again is planning another great event, hopefully, to meet and exceed last year's totals of fun, excitement and attendance.  Vendors are returning again, and new vendors are planning on attending.  The staff and volunteers of GCHR are deep into planning and if the planning meeting that I attended yesterday is any indication - fun will be had by all!!!

I have been compiling lists of top caches in the area for the event.  So as an intro into The Hampton Roads area - here is some information that may assist you if you are planning on coming to the area for the picnic.

The Hampton Roads area

Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia. Hampton Roads is notable for its large military presence and its year-round ice-free harbor, and hundreds of miles of waterfront property and beaches, all of which contribute to the diversity and stability of the region's economy.

The water area known as Hampton Roads is one of the world's largest natural harbors, and incorporates the mouths of the Elizabeth River and James River with several smaller rivers and itself empties into the Chesapeake Bay near its mouth leading to the Atlantic Ocean.

The land area includes dozens of cities, counties and towns on the Virginia Peninsula and in South Hampton Roads. Some of the more outlying areas from the harbor may or may not be included as part of "Hampton Roads", depending upon the organization or purpose. For a commonly used example, as defined for federal economic purposes, the Hampton Roads metropolitan statistical area (MSA) additionally includes two counties in northeastern North Carolina and two counties in Virginia’s Middle Peninsula. Officially, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA has a population of about 1.7 million, the 36th-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

The area is steeped in 400 years of American history and hundreds of historical sites and attractions in the area draw visitors from around the world each year. The harbor was the key to the Hampton Roads area's growth, both on land and in water-related activities and events. The harbor and its tributary waterways were (and still are) both important transportation conduits and obstacles to other land-based commerce and travel. Creating and maintaining adequate infrastructure has long been a major challenge. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) and the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (MMMBT) are major harbor crossings of the Hampton Roads Beltway which links each of the largest population centers of Hampton Roads. In 2007, the new Hampton Roads Transportation Authority (HRTA) was formed under a controversial state law to levy various additional taxes to generate funding for major regional transportation projects, including a long-sought and costly third crossing of the harbor of Hampton Roads.

The MSA consists of these locations in Virginia:

• Gloucester County
• Isle of Wight County
• James City County
• Mathews County
• York County
• City of Chesapeake
• City of Hampton
• City of Newport News
• City of Norfolk
• City of Poquoson
• City of Portsmouth
• City of Suffolk
• City of Virginia Beach
• City of Williamsburg

The MSA also includes the following locations in North Carolina:

• Currituck County
• Gates County

Saturday 8 September Recap

You can't get a FTF (First to Find) if you sleep in!  Yes we got a late start but we were still hoping we could get a FTF when we left the house and headed out towards Isle of Wight.  We were still hoping for a Co-FTF as we approached GZ and realized Grandpa gene had just pulled into the parking area for the cache.  We thought that right up until we opened the log and realized those Smithfield cachers had NOT slept in like Nana & I did.  Needless to say we found a fantastic hide.  The container itself was not all that special but the way it was hid made this the winner of the "Coveted" Nana & Papa Cache of the day Award and a favorite point.  GC3WAFH - "Water" you looking for? - a real new cache and a great hide!  What a great way to start the day!

From there we proceeded to Portsmouth to pick up what was supposed to be a harder cache.  We had actually been by the area before and decided to wait for cooler weather.  I just couldn't wait any longer as the cache was calling my name!  Nana & I searched high and low before I finally pulled out the phone to PAF.  A short time later, after receiving a nice clue from a fellow cacher, Nana & I discovered the little devil!   GC3DWJJ - J8 GCHR Battleship bites the bottom of the ocean!

We drove down to downtown Portsmouth and as I searched for a parking place we knew this was going to be a difficult hide.  GC3RRDW - Paper Palace - not only do you have to dodge the muggles but the granite building will play havoc with your GPS signal.  We searched a short time before giving up.  We will be back to wipe this DNF off our list!

Norfolk was our next stop.  We had searched for this cache earlier and came up empty.  GC3RQQH - The Port's Mouth - this time we walked right to it - funny how these things tend to hide really good on some days and on others they practically wave at you as you walk up to them!

We went by several parks in Norfolk to try and knock out some more Battleships but it seemed every park was having big activities this Saturday.  We really should have gotten an earlier start!

We ended up in Ocean View and quickly made our way over to GC3VAPY - OV Gun - Nana & I searched this gun intimately!  I finally had enough and pulled out my phone to give southtexas a piece of my mind - his answer was "I'm not sure where it is".  Seems a previous finder had moved it and the CO didn't have a clue where it was.  Nana & I tried some more but eventually gave up.  **Note - later it seems southtexas went out to the gun to discover he had to PAF to find his own cache!  LOL!  All is well now (I hope) and Nana & I will be back up that way to hopefully find the cache another day!

GC3T4T6 - Xactly where you think  - this was a very quick find - we pulled up - spotted some muggles - waited them out - then made the grab

GC3V96P - Lucky Number 17 - another quick park n grab!

GC31BZP - Ashes to Caches - it is rare to see a cache this size in the city - but Nana 7 I were proud to find it and award it a favorite point!

GC3DWFK - I6 - GCHR Battleship - Nana & I pulled the SNAP-mobile into a little park and we weren't sure we were in the correct place.  Maybe we should have approached from the other side.  A few minutes later I spotted something out of the corner of my eye and sure 'nuff - there it was!

GC3BXDF - "I'M A little cache..." - A great view near GZ and we were finally lucky enough to find a location with absolutely no muggles around.  We made the find quickly and proceeded to the next cache!

GC3EZDY - H10 - GCHR Battleship - we did have a little trouble finding a place to park the SNAP-mobile but we finally parked the van in a nearly empty parking lot and walked to GZ - the logs seemed to indicate this would either be a very hard or a very easy find.  Lucky for us we found it quickly!

Since we got such a late start and drove from Suffolk to Isle of Wight then back to Portsmouth, Norfolk and Virginia Beach - we decided to call it a day as we had a BIG day planned for Sunday.  Give me a day or two and find out how we did Sunday on our 14 hour ride, bike, walk, bike some more, then walk some more Sunday cache run to South-Central Virginia.  Also find out soon why we say we are still novice cachers.

I promise that Sunday's recap will be amusing!  <scratch....itch....scratch!>

As always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa