Y'all Come Geocaching

Hartwell

2009-02-22T19:00:00.001-05:00

Hartwell Dam

the GPS says straight ahead...

Lake Hartwell

Hartwell Depot

On Sunday afternoon we followed the GPS to the Hartwell Dam and a little dirt road down to the Savannah River below the dam. The water was a beautiful blue and the area was peaceful. Down on the river it was warm in the sun. We found the hidden cache there and noticed the next one was just 0.3 miles away, but across the river…

We then headed out to Lake Hartwell where it was way too cold and windy to be out there, but we managed to find a couple more caches.

Our last stop was in the town of Hartwell at the old Train Depot, it seems we missed the train but found the cache.

There are a lot more caches in this area, looking forward to finding them all!

Caches found today:
Craggy Rock
Easy to Overlook
B.O.R.A. Great Extravaganza Cache
Depot Train Station

Cromer's Mill Covered Bridge

2009-02-13T15:51:00.000-05:00

Franklin County, Georgia:

The Cromers settled on Nails Creek in Franklin County in 1845. Prior to the Civil War, the family operated a woolen mill near this site. Subsequently, the area maintained a cotton gin, flour mill and saw mill, though all operations had ceased by 1943. In 1907, the county contracted with James M. Hunt to build the present 110-foot bridge. Constructed in the Town lattice design, the bridge's web of planks crisscrossing at 45-to 60-degree angles are fastened with wooden pegs, or trunnels, at each intersection. Will Cromer, a descendant of the original family, built the stone abutments.

Cromer's Mill covered bridge was renovated by the DOT in 1999.

A must-see if in the area, wonderful craftsmanship in this lattice wood and peg construction. Thanks to geocaching for bringing us here!

More pictures here

Remember my name cache by Willbert

moonlighting

2009-02-08T19:00:00.002-05:00

Looking for the hidden cache in the graveyard... when the moon came out we gave up to try another day.

Ty Cobb resting place, Royston, Georgia

Remember Me?

Victoria Bryant State Park

2009-02-08T19:00:00.000-05:00

Our first caching since last May! It was a beautiful day to explore our new home away from home here in Royston, Georgia.

Victoria Bryant State Park has a lot of trails and water and is quite hilly for these otherwise flatlands.

Caches found today:

Victoria's Secret
Froggy
Goofys down on the farm
2B1ASK1 #3

Vacation Caching - Canadian Rockies

2008-05-29T17:54:00.003-05:00

Johnston Canyon

Chateau Lake Louise

Banff Gondola

We took all our geocaching stuff with us on our vacation to Canada, but often forgot to even look for caches! The scenery was so beautiful, several times at the end of the day we would think, I bet there was a geocache there.

But we did find 9 to add to our list. We visited Banff and Jasper National Parks, where there are mostly Earth Caches and Virtual caches, well worth the hunt!

Limestone Hoodoos in Banff
Sulphur Mountain
Johnston Canyon - Lower Falls
CanyonCache
Lake Louise Mini Cache
Lake of Little Fishes
Jasper Yellowhead Museum Cache
Sonny Anderson
Daps at Home

1926 to 2073 miles from home

Mount Yonah

2008-04-20T19:30:00.001-05:00

We finally climbed Yonah Mountain! The new Forest Service access trail is much better than the stories of way back when - walking up the road all the way. A good climb, great views, wildflowers, rock climbers, perfect weather!

Nacoochee's Revenge
3 Up Top

37 miles from home
4/20/2008

visitors

2008-03-29T19:30:00.008-05:00

Veteran cachers Bad Dawg and Johnnie Lacy
visit our neck of the woods.

Amicalola Approach

2008-03-26T19:00:00.001-05:00

Kyle was here for spring break and wanted to go caching, so off we went. We found several 'round town, then headed to Amicalola Falls State Park for a hike.

We hiked from the visitor's center at the entrance of the park, out the back door, and through the stone arch marking the beginning of the approach to the Appalachian Trail.

Found this neat Indian Trail Tree (pictured) right in the middle of the trail.

Found the Amicalola Approach Travel Bug Hotel cache right where it was supposed to be, and after phoning a friend, figured out the combination to the lock. (The numbers for the lock are found here).

Picked up this neat AT coin.

A beautiful day to be out caching, or playing hooky...

Green Mountain

2008-03-22T19:00:00.003-05:00

Out on a beautiful afternoon in Fannin County, old stomping ground. Hiked the trail from Deep Gap out to Green Mountain and back. A great place for a cache, no people around, good views of Lake Blue Ridge.

Aska for an Adventure

18 miles from home
03/22/2008

outstanding

2008-02-10T20:43:00.001-05:00

Our Tumblin Falls cache has been voted the 2007 Outstanding Scenic Location cache by the Georgia Geocachers Association. The entire list is here. Thanks GGA!

So if you are in the Ellijay area, come see us and hike to the falls, and see if you can find the cache hidden there.

Nantahala River

2008-02-09T19:30:00.000-05:00

The Nantahala River is in western North Carolina. It is a popular river for rafting and canoes. Nantahala is Cherokee, it translates into Land of the Noonday Sun. This name comes from the high cliffs and steep gorge walls along the river that shut out the direct light of the sun until nearly noon. There is a cache here called "Land of the Noonday Sun" but we didn't find that one.

Andrews Rest Stop
Bike Trail Bridge
Ferebee
Patton's Run
Nantahala Ent
Power House
Welcome to Graham County #1
Beyond the Painted Rock
Nantahala River Gorge Earthcache

62 miles from home
2/9/2008

Carter's Lake caches

2008-01-27T18:46:00.000-05:00

A beautiful day for geocaching, so we headed to nearby Carter's Lake, Woodring Branch area. We followed the Oak Ridge trail to find Woody's cache, where we picked up a Red Jeep TB. We met some fellow geocachers along the way - they recognized us as cachers by Buddy's hat!

Then we headed over to the Amadahy Trail and hiked around the shoreline of the lake. Amadahy is Cherokee for forest water. The hidden campground was great, and the cache there had an especially unique hiding place.

Pictured is Carter's Dam from the trail today.

Caches found today - 3

Woody's Woodring Cache
Amadahy Trail
Hikers, Bikers, and Boaters Campground

Catching up on caches

2008-01-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

We set out today to catch up on some local caches. Since we were out of town for work most of last year, and not caching in a while, there have been several new ones placed.

We ended up finding 13 today, and although there were no spectacular vistas or waterfalls or long hikes, we did find several caches hidden in the woods, a couple of creative birdhouse/cache containers, the usual lame micros, and one elusive DNF. We met some fellow cachers who spotted us making a beeline for a cache in a crowded park.

The Friendship House is a unique structure built right on one of the main streets in our little town of Ellijay, a building built out of wine bottles -2026 in all! According to the description, the house is beautifully lit up from the inside at night, and we are looking forward to seeing that. The micro cache here eluded us, but we will try again soon.

Another one of our goals for today was to find A Troll's Haven, placed by a family friend who is new to geocaching. We recently heard from Jason after many years, he was full of questions and excitement about geocaching.

He came to visit with his new wife and son. We showed him some things about caching, and he found our local cache here at the falls. In fact his enthusiasm is so catching, it has spurred us to get out there and find more caches!

Caches found today - 13

Down by the River
Wally's Stop and Shop
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
No Vacancy - Rm 319
A Troll's Haven
Down on the Corner
Alex's Second Toy Treasure Chest
Advantage #5
Homer's Honeydo List
The Weather Bees
Mount Reinhardt!
Cub Club
Advantage #6

Caching in Dahlonega

2007-12-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

Caching with friends!

Where could it be?

Gold Rush history lesson

Rest in peace

Caching in historic Dahlonega - from introducing friends to caching, to hiking, to tourists, to a driving tour history lesson, a great day to be out in the winter sunshine.

Caches found today - 7

Christmas Eve in Dahlonega
Some Fun in Dahlonega
Go Saints!!!
Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills Cache
Murrayville
Girls, Girls, Girls
Brock Clan #3

32 miles from home
12/29/2007

Missionary Ridge

2007-08-18T19:00:00.000-05:00

New to an area? Just passing through? Want to see the hidden treasures?

Geocaching - its not just about the treasure, or even the hunt, sometimes it is all about the destination, the history lesson, the photo ops. Let geocaching be your travel guide and history teacher.

I am here just south of Chattanooga, and keep hearing about Missionary Ridge, but when searching the internet, only find stories of the history, the battles fought there, etc. I wonder what is up there? How to get there? Is there someplace to visit on the ridge, a park perhaps?

Then I remembered geocaching. There is always a geocache at neat places to see, so I checked it out and sure enough, a multi cache along the ridge, with 4 different sets of coordinates for places to park at historic sites.

The map and coordinates put me on the right path, and soon my car was climbing up Crest Road. All along the way were historic monuments to the Civil War - on the side of the road, in people's yards, over the edge of the guardrail. As I climbed higher, on the right side were great old houses looking out over the view - on the left side of the narrow road was a vista of surrounding ridges, the mighty Tennessee river a giant blue ribbon wrapping around and through the city in the valley.

My first stop was at Bragg's Reservation, the few parking places were taking up what used to be the Crest Road before the interstate cut out part of the ridge.

I read the historic marker, took pictures of the monuments, and imagined the Yankees taking the Battle of Missionary Ridge. I walked to the end of what once was a continuous ridge road, looked out at the distant view, and looked down into the huge cut in the mountain, where the sounds of 'progress' floated up to me from the interstate below.

Back on Crest Road, which now has to go down and cross a bridge to get to the other side of the once continuous ridge, I found three more historic sites to visit, all the while enjoying the scenic views.

Missionary Ridge is not as well known as nearby Lookout Mountain. It is mainly a residential area with a whole lot of history.

Even though I did not find the cache at the end, I was not at all disappointed, as I found what I was looking for. The trip was great, well planned out by a geocacher, with parking places and historic sites all laid out, thanks!

Missionary Ridge Cache

60 miles from home
8/18/2007

click photo for full album

Local Meet-n-Greet!

2007-08-04T21:00:00.000-05:00

A rare geocaching event in our little town!

It was great to see folks again like Johnnie, Bad Dawg, Hannah and the Owl. It was good to meet new folks to the game and others we had only read about.

We met Annie (aka Slayerette), whose exciting caching stories we have read for a while now, along with those of her dog (aka Dogapotamus).

Thanks to Slayerette for the great coins and to Johnnie for setting up this event.

Watch North Ga. Cachers Stuff Their Faces

10 miles from home
08/04/2007

Lookout

2007-05-31T09:09:00.000-05:00

One of our caches - Lookout! Atlanta - was found recently. Above is the view from the cache, but this is what boxerlady found on May 26th!

Reflections

2007-04-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

Reflection Riding Arboretum & Botanical Garden

Lots of trails to hike, peaceful drive, wildflowers, scenic views. Adjacent to the Chattanooga Nature Center at the base of Lookout Mountain.

Reflection Walking
Nelson's Cache

64 miles from home
04/22/2007

Chickamauga

2007-03-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

Caching around Chickamauga, Georgia. We learned how they used to make coke from coal at the Coke Oven park. We didn't find the geocache there, but a great little park and piece of area history.

The one-lane steel bridge at the edge of Chickamauga Battlefield Park, in the words of the cache owner: "They have become a rare relic in today's world of concrete and rebar." Today the bridge was busy with bikes and cars coming and going through the park.

Railway Express
Coke Oven Trilogy
Wallaceville Cemetery
Lion's Den
Ironworks: The Battle

Caches found today - 4

Camp Jordan

2007-03-07T19:30:00.000-05:00

We are staying in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA while Buddy builds a bank in Rock Spring. Checking out the local parks and geocaches!

Caches found today - 3
Miles hiked today - 3

Camp Jordan Creekside
Camp Jordan
Crossing Jordan

55 miles from home
03/07/2007

Return to Rock Town

2007-02-24T19:56:00.000-05:00

Ever since our first visit to Rock Town in December 2005, we have wanted to take the grandkids. Today was the day, and they really enjoyed climbing onto and in between the giant rock formations. They found the geocache there and the other 3 caches on Pigeon Mountain.

Calendar worthy

2006-12-30T06:22:00.000-05:00

GGA 2007 Calendars are ready, and our own Tumblin Falls is featured - twice!

Calendars available at CafePress

Return to Black Mountain

2006-10-29T19:30:00.000-05:00

Now that's a puzzle! Way over my head, or so I thought, but with a little help, was able to figure it out. It was way worth the trouble, after a climb of 700', what a tremendous view!

Lots of loot in this one - a Trez gold coin (but we have one), a certificate for a Johnnie Lacy geocoin (but we have one), one of phat.bak's voodoo dolls (!) - up until now, only heard of in the stories, but this one is going home with us, now to put it to use...

Also a surprise bonus cache inside the Black Mountain ammo box - Parasite Spawn #2. In this one was an Allen Lacy wooden nickel, so a new addition to our coin collection, and two smileys for the price of one today!

Caches found today - 2
Miles hiked today - 4

Return to Black Mountain 4.5/3.5
The Parasite Spawn #2 1/1

22 miles from home
10/29/2006

2%'er

2006-10-07T18:30:00.000-05:00

A puzzle cache, the cache owner estimates that only 2% of the people could solve it. But it is just an old-fashioned logic problem, piece o'cake! So, I guess we are 2%'ers! Found while camping at Lake Lanier - Bald Ridge Campground.

2%'er 4/2

33 miles from home
10/07/2006

Mt. LeConte

2006-09-25T18:00:00.000-05:00

Made the 10 mile round trip up to Mt. LeConte - no, not just for the geocaches there!

Stopped halfway at Alum Cave Bluffs for a quick smiley!

Met the llamas, boy were they tired!

Caches found - 3
Miles hiked this trip - 12

Alum Cave Bluff 1/3.5
Mt. LeConte 2.5/4.5
Llama's Lament 2.5/4.5

91 miles from home
09/25/2006

August contest photo - Discovery

2006-08-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

Local waterfalls

2006-08-13T18:00:00.000-05:00

More local waterfalls we didn't know were there. One of the perks of geocaching! But our daughter Carrie knew where they were, so she went with us.

Saw an interesting bird, not sure what kind, looked like it should have been at the beach.

We wondered about the name of the cache, but the logbook had the explanation - it was placed on July 4th, it is the first cache placed by the owners, and it is in an area where a lot of blasting has been done over the years - nearby marble quarry.

Blast Off! 2/2

8.3 miles from home
08/13/2006

Vacation caching

2006-07-31T18:00:00.000-05:00

St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, Florida

On vacation
at the beach,
camping,
and of course
a little geocaching...

Caches found today - 3

Gulf County Chamber of Commerce 1/1
Ship Yard Cove 2/1
Kids In Mind 1/1

333 - 342 miles from home
07/31/2006

Kids and smileys

2006-07-09T18:00:00.000-05:00

Water Wheel near Canton, Georgia

We tried to find the micro cache here at Water Wheel Six, but were discouraged by all the NO TRESPASSING signs, so we just got a picture, which when you stop and think, is really the reason for geocaching - finding neat places like this one.

Out with Kyle (a.k.a. shaper1)
and Madison (a.k.a. georgiamadison)
getting some caches in the Canton area.
I think they just like to get out with us old folks, and everyone's favorite part of the day was getting to eat at The Varsity!

Caches found today - 5

Generic Geocache 2/2
Canton's Big Ben 1.5/1.5
G.I.G.C. 1/2
You be the Judge! 1/1
Luck of the Draw 2.5/2.5

28 to 33 miles from home
07/09/2006

Independence Day caching

2006-07-04T18:00:00.000-05:00

We took our daughter and son-in-law out geocaching today.

Melissa didn't really love the hiking, sweating, ticks, or snakes, but she really liked the blackberries.

Keith took to geocaching like a duck to water, it's a geek thang. He got 7 caches on this, his first day out.

On this very hot July day, the best part was the air-conditioned restaurant nearby.

Caches found today - 3
Miles hiked today - 2

Canton Adventure Remixed 1/2.5
Canton Adventure Pennisetum Alopecuroides 3/2
Barrelin' into Canton 2/1.5

23 to 26 miles from home
07/04/2006

#200 at Woody Gap

2006-07-02T18:00:00.000-05:00

The view from the parking area at Woody Gap, where the Appalachian Trail crosses Georgia Highway #60.

Hiking south on the Appalachian Trail from Woody Gap about a mile, looking for the Black Mountain Trail Cache. An easy hike on this hot day, and easy cache find. But the best part was finding the expected rewards in the ammo box.

In the lid were the coordinates for another nearby cache Black Mountain Bonus, a micro in the woods, and also hidden in the ammo box was a coded message to find the Return to Black Mountain puzzle cache.

We went on to get the Bonus micro, and will save the other one for another (cooler) day, and hopefully in the fall when the leaves are gone to enjoy the view, as it involves climbing to the summit of Black Mountain.

As we were out to get 3 today (for me to reach the #200 milestone), we went on down Highway 60 a little ways to Suches, Georgia, and found the ammo box at Two Wheel Fun. Lots of folks out today, on motorcycles, mountain bikes, hiking, just enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Caches found today - 3
Miles hiked today - 2

Black Mountain Trail Cache 1.5/3
Black Mountain Bonus 2.5/3
Two Wheel Fun 1/1

20 - 22 miles from home
07/02/2006

Elusive finds

2006-07-01T18:00:00.000-05:00

Driving through the Cohutta Mountains looking for empathy.

Puzzle caches are hard! I have been looking at The Real Empathy Zone cache page off and on for a year or so. Even after I decoded all (at least I think all) of the hidden messages, I was still no closer to solving it. But I finally had an idea, e-mailed the cache owner (the infamous Old Geezer Johnnie Lacy) and he said it was correct, so off we went. It actually went as planned, and we ended up at the ammo box in the woods!

City Park, Chatsworth, Georgia

Another cache that has been elusive is The Chatsworth Sneak, which we first tried to find back in June 2005. We went back again to this very popular public city park, looking for a full size ammo box, where could it be? the hint said it was not under a park bench or in the fountain... and the hardest part was not looking too conspicuous (hence the name of the cache). We finally got lucky on this one also, and can cross it off our list!

The historic Wright Hotel, Chatsworth, Georgia

We picked up a few drive-by micros while out, and a neat geocoin. It was getting way too hot to be out caching, but the earlier two elusive finds made the day!

Caches found today - 5
Miles hiked today - 2

The Real Empathy Zone 3.5/3.5
The Chatsworth Sneak 1.5/1
Wright Hotel 4/2
Springplace Mission 1.5/1.5
Overlookn'the Wild 1.5/1.5

21 to 29 miles from home
07/01/2006

Gliding to #200

2006-06-18T18:00:00.000-05:00

Chilhowee Gliderport, Benton, Tennessee

This one is tied to my father's day gift from my daughters. At Sunday dinner out they gave me an envelope with a set of coordinates listed to retrieve my Father's day gift. Led us to the Field and a half hour fabulous excursion high in the sky with Sarah, a wonderful pilot and friendly soul who has moved here to live amongst us from Canada. As we were waiting for our turn to fly, we mentioned to her that we had first seen them flying from a cache site atop the mountain near the field, she mentioned that a cache was hidden nearby on site. So we called and had my son-in-law look up the cache and give us the coordinates and off we went. This one is my 200th so it was special also on a day I received an exceptional gift from my exceptional daughters...took the GTO TB to move on soon and had to leave cash as I wasn't prepared for trading. Thanks to all for a memorable Father's day adventure!!!!!

~from georgiabuddy's log

Chilhowee Gliderport

Park & Glide II 1/1

46.8 miles from home
06/18/2006

GGA June meeting

2006-06-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

Georgia Geocachers Association 5 year anniversary party/meeting/event! They say to become a member you just have to attend a meeting, so we did! They have monthly meetings all over the state, but this time it was just 6 miles away ~atcf~ at Amicalola State Park, so it was a must-do.

We met a lot of new folks, and revisited with some previous acquaintances. It was good to see Johnnie, Sledgehampster, and Big Rick again, and nice to put faces with names of some of the experienced old-timers like Erik, Mtn Man, phat.bak, Hannah and the Owl, KVOM, Trez, AB4N.

It was a treat to hear Owl1959 say that our waterfall cache is the best mountain cache to be hidden in Georgia since the Forest Service cache ban took effect, and that Hannah had a picture of our waterfalls as her computer desktop picture. Sledgehampster told us about the good time had at GeoWoodstock 4 in Texas, where he logged find #1000, and we got to see all his geocoins he brought to share. We learned that the ban on new cache placement in the national forest has been lifted, thanks to Trez, so we are looking forward to seeing more caches in this area!

A park ranger came by for a wildlife demonstration, we got to meet a very personable owl. More owl pictures taken by mertat. Georgiabuddy won one of the door prizes, a bumper sticker!

Earlier in the day we rode the rough forest service road up to Nimblewill Gap to try to find Forest Rescue, but were unsuccessful. We discovered later at the meeting that the elusive Stage 2 is missing.

We had lunch in nearby Dahlonega and picked up several drive-by micros in town before heading over to the meeting. After the meeting, we stopped on the way home to hike along Amicalola Creek and find As Time Goes By, and were pleasantly surprised to find a Trez Gold Coin!

Caches found today - 9

Fork in the Road 1.5/1.5
Hush Puppy 1.5/1.5
Do What Tastes Right 1.5/1.5
Always Low Prices. Always 1.5/1
I'm Lovin' It #2 1.5/1.5
Sick Folks 1.5/1.5
Gather 'Round the Good Stuff 2/2
As Time Goes By 2/3
Georgia Geocachers Assn 2006 June Meeting
1/1.5

6 - 22 miles from home
06/10/2006

When in Rome...

2006-05-29T18:00:00.000-05:00

Rome, Georgia river view - Memorial Day

On the way to the Rome Braves ballgame, it was way too hot to be out caching, but just had to get a few while in the area.

Ironworks: Papa's Bridge

Great old iron bridge across the river in downtown Rome.

One of the 7 hills of Rome (Myrtle Hill Cemetery circa 1857)

Watched the cannon fire on top of this hill and the parade on the road at the bottom of this hill in honor of Memorial Day.

Abandoned boathouse on disappeared Victory Lake, Berry College Campus - tried to find cache Wiley Coyote's #2 but decided to leave after a slithery resident poked his head out of one of the holes in the wall.

Caches found today - 4
Lunch Break Ver. 3.2 Redo 1.5/1
In Jackie's Shadow 1.5/1
Ironworks: Papa's Bridge 2/2
Monument Hill (3rd of the Rome Hills) 1/2

49-51 miles from home
05/29/2006

Ocoee

2006-04-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

Ocoee Whitewater Center

We headed up to the Ocoee River (site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater events) for some new caches there. The TVA regulates the water for hydroelectric power and to accomodate the whitewater enthusiasts. Today the river is calm and low, and not many people here.

There is a 30 mile trail system in the national forest adjacent to the river, we hiked on the Bear Paw trail for about 2-1/2 miles. The trail is named for the bear claws seen on this beech tree. We saw quite a few mountain bikers, but we were the only hikers.

View from Chilhowee Mountain

Next up Oswald Dome Road, stopping to enjoy the views at the overlooks. The water in the picture is the Ocoee River as it flows into Parksville Lake, Sugarloaf Mountain is on the right, the Cumberland Plateau off in the distance on the right, and the Cohutta Mountains on the left. We parked at the gate to the Oswald Tower Road and hiked up the 2-1/2 mile round trip. There are 7 towers on top of Oswald Dome, and we saw 3 gliders soaring by on the wind.

Benton Falls

There is a cache at Benton Falls, but we did not find it! We did find a beautiful set of waterfalls, though, which is one of the perks of geocaching. The hike to the falls was 3 miles roundtrip. Pictured is georgiabuddy on the right of the falls, as the cache description said - on the right of the falls about 10-15' up...

Caches found today - 9, miles hiked 8
Welcome to McCaysville 2/1.5
On the Line 1.5/1.5
Olympic Site 2/2
Bear Paw 3/3
Copper Road 1.5/1.5
That's My Window on the World 3/1.5
Soldiers 1/1
The Oswald Dome Tower Cache 2.5/3
Take Out 1/1.5

28-44 miles from home
04/09/2006

Return to Dawson Forest

2006-04-02T18:00:00.000-05:00

More caches have been put out in the Dawson Forest. This area has been very popular for caching this year, probably because it is one of the few cache-friendly places left. NO caches in State Parks, National Forest Service land, National Parks. The rangers here at Dawson Forest know about geocaching, and will even give you directions. Today we saw a ranger and he wanted to know if we had gotten the little micro over by the river ford? After last weekend's experience, it is nice to be welcomed!

The old steel bridge is near the Old Hickory cache, and when looking at the topo map for this area, it looks like just across that bridge is where the old nuclear reactor building was. The rock formation is near the Signature Cache, right on the Etowah River.

The Chief Rising Fawn cache had the coordinates in Cherokee language on the cache page:

and after googling I came up with part of the numbers, but not enough. BUT there was a hint for it at the nearby Signature Cache. So we did Signature first and got the bearing and distance from there, georgiabuddy projected it on the GPS and it worked great, we went right to it!

Caches found today:
Where Did the Covered Bridge Go? 1.5/1.5
Signature Cache 4.5/4.5
Old Hickory 3/3
Chief Rising Fawn 3/3

12-20 miles from home
04/02/2006

Raccoon Mountain

2006-04-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

TVA's Raccoon Mountain

A turbine like the ones inside the hydro electric plant here

View of Chattanooga from Raccoon Mountain East Overlook

10 feet diameter valve - part of hydro electric plant here

Switchyard atop Raccoon Mountain, designed to blend in with the environment

Caches found today
Coon Mountain Spinny Thang 1.5/1.5
Tinker Toys Two 1.5/1.5
Reservoir Overlook 2/2
Stolen Waters Earthcache 1/1
Pluto's Door 2/2.5

68 miles from home
04/01/2006

Cashes Valley Adventure

2006-03-26T19:00:00.000-05:00

Cashes Valley
Fightingtown Creek
Gilmer County, Georgia
There were two new caches placed in Cashes Valley recently, one of which had not been found yet, so we headed out, taking Shaper1 and Auntie Carrie with us on a pretty Sunday drive in the mountains. From the description, it sounded like a nice secluded place, the road going in and out of the National forest land, following along beside and fording Fightingtown creek 4 times. So we set out to be the FTF on this one. The road and creek crossings were great, a lot of water! We got to what the stone monument said was Cashes Valley Cemetery. We had not seen a house for a long time, guess this used to be a community. Dates on headstones were in the 1800s. Shaper found the "Rest in Cache" right away, it was in a birdhouse with a geocaching sticker on it, pretty neat hiding place. Shaper immediately grabbed the WJTB and left a Sharkey TB.

From there we walked up the road a little farther to look for "End of the Road - V2". Georgiabuddy spotted it under a log right by the road. As he was opening up the ammo box, up drives a pickup truck with an angry local - ranting about trespassers at this spot and in the adjacent cemetery. Luckily Georgiabuddy spoke the right language and we made it out of there in one piece, taking the ammo box with us, promising to get it back to the owner. We didn't bother to even look in the box until we got home, but we were not the FTF, someone had been there but not logged it yet. We did get a GGA geocoin out of the box for our trouble!

When we were safely back home, we reported the incident to geocaching.com and those two caches were archived. We notified the one owner that we had his ammo box if he wanted it back, and the owner of the birdhouse cache in the cemetery said he was going to retrieve it soon. When he did go to get it, it had been torn off the tree and thrown out into the creek.

Our first bad geocaching experience. Some advice - don't go geocaching alone, and always ask permission when placing a cache.

Caches found today:

Rest in Cache 1/4.5
End of the Trail - V2 1.5/2.5
Homers Toolshed 1/1
Rebel Yell 1/1
17 to 21 miles from home
03/26/2006

Not Your Average Walk In The Park

2006-02-26T15:47:00.000-05:00

Carter's Lake, a Corp of Engineers Lake project in north Georgia.

A new cache at Carter's Lake - a 5 stage multi-cache and two mile total hiking time. The cache was posted a week ago, and no one has logged it yet. We have not had much luck with multi-stage caches before, but we set out to see if we could find some or all of the stages. The cache location was the Oak Hill park at Carter's Lake, which has been closed since the 80s. Lots of roads, picnic tables, grills, campsites just going to waste. The whole area is gated off, and once you park and hike in, it is very quiet and deserted. The lake was pretty today with the sun shining on it. We were the FTF(!!) all 5 stages, coming away with a 1996 Atlanta Olympic pin for a prize.

On the way over there, we stopped to get another local cache. When we started geocaching, there were almost no caches in this area, now they are popping up all over, keeping us busy just finding the local ones.

Family Fun on the Run 2/2
Not Your Average Walk In The Park 3/2.5
7.5 to 14.1 miles from home
02/26/2005

Working for cache

2006-02-20T19:00:00.001-05:00

When georgiabuddy goes out of town to work, he also has to cache of course! These two caches were found in Virginia:

Deep in the Hundred Acre Woods 1.5/2
Natural Twins 1.5/2
479 miles from home
02/20/2006

Nuclear Note

2006-02-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

This cache is placed in the Dawson Forest WMA, home of a former nuclear reactor owned by Lockheed Corp. It is a popular place for caching, jeep riding, hiking, and horseback riding. The Etowah River runs near the cache site.

Nuclear Note cache first appeared as a newly placed cache on Sunday morning, 2/12/06. According to the story, the note pictured was found sealed in a glass bottle buried near the abandoned nuclear reactor building. The note was removed from the bottle and seemed not to be legible, possibly a foreign language? Or did long exposure to radiation distort or scramble the letters? We puzzled over it for a while, left it alone for a while, then came back to it. Suddenly it clicked and off we went looking for the cache. We really did not know what we were looking for, as the description eluded to maybe more than one stage, which meant it could be anything from bullet-sized to a large ammo box. So we scoured the hillside at what we thought were the correct coordinates.

After searching for over half an hour and not finding it, we read over the cache description page once again. It mentioned looking behind the old reactor building where the glass bottle was found, so off we went to see if there might be a clue there. We did not find anything there, but found some more cachers nearby, looking all over for the same cache, even climbing a tree. Going home empty handed, we figured we had lost our chance at a FTF, as surely someone would find it before we could get back. We e-mailed the owner to please verify the coordinates we had deduced from the puzzle. He promptly responded with the verification of the numbers and gave us a little hint as to where to look.

We headed out bright and early the next morning (Monday the 13th) (who's supposed to be working?) and after scrambling around on that hillside some more, finally found the cache container. With trepidation, we peeked into the logbook and lo and behold, it was completely empty, void of any former signatures. We were the FTF!! Woohoo!! A very exciting day, we took the volunteer coin that was in the cache and left a TB.

While visiting with the other cachers on Sunday, we learned some more about the area. When driving through there, there seems to be not much left of any buildings, but we were told that most of the facility was/is underground, and there are tunnels all over the place to connect the different buildings. The tunnels are filled with water now, after being abandoned for so long. There are still radiation monitoring devices found around the area.

NOTE: No one found this for 6 more days after we had been there!

Nuclear Note 2.5/3
18.2 miles from home
02/13/2006

Firefly Treasure Hunting

2006-02-01T22:00:00.000-05:00

This cache has been out since December 19th, and we have been watching it and reading the logs to see what it was all about. We have never been night caching. Finally, late one afternoon we loaded up all our geocaching stuff and flashlights and headed out. Yet another cache in the Dawson Forest, area of the abandoned nuclear reactor. Seemed appropriate that things would be glowing in the dark in this forest, spooky indeed. We stopped by to get another easy cache on the way there, killing some time and daylight.

It was still light when we arrived, and we started up the designated trail to see what we could see. I had no idea what we were looking for, but Buddy had done his homework and promptly showed me a small refector on a tree, about eye level. It was pretty hard to see in the daylight, but we waited a while and the reflectors or 'fireflies' started showing up better in the growing darkness with the flashlights. We had actually found quite a few of them in the daylight, but it was a whole different story at night, very spooky indeed. I don't know that I will do that again, and I definitely know I won't do it in the summertime! Buddy snagged the coveted White Jeep before heading back.

The reflectors/fireflies are only visible going into the cache, but are on the wrong sides of the trees to see them going out. We were talking to some fellow cachers, one who works at the local sheriff's department and he said just the other day they had to come rescue a woman here at this cache. She found her way in fine, but couldn't find her way out. (She left her GPS in the car !?!)

Night caching was quite an experience! What will they think of next?

NOTE: Buddy took our grandson, Kyle, out night caching to this one on February 7th, he loved it as always!

Firefly Treasure Hunting 2.5/3
Hollow V Micro 1.5/2
18.8 miles from home
02/01/2006

Local parks

2006-01-31T19:00:00.000-05:00

Three local caches placed recently, two micros and a small cache, just right for an afternoon after work. Found a nice little park in Talking Rock we didn't know about and learned the history of the Hook and Eye Line of the Georgia Northeastern Railroad.

Hook 1.1
Round Mountain Overlook 2/2
Hefner Park 1.5/1
9 to 13 miles from home

The Stamp Creek Walk into History

2006-01-28T19:00:00.000-05:00

Beautiful Stamp Creek in the Pine Log WMA in northern Georgia.

It was supposed to be a 3.3 mile round trip, but luckily the gate was open and we drove right in. We spotted the towering stone furnace from the road, and hiked over to it.

From the cache page - "When you get in the area of the cache, you'll be near an imposing structure that was built around 1830. Place your hand on the rocks and "communicate" with those who built the structure before the Civil War. Ponder the amount of work involved in making it and in operating it." One part of the furnace was opened up, and I peeked in, seeing all the way out the top. The stonework was very impressive, the straight corners, old time craftsmanship seldom seen today.

This furnace is one of more than a dozen such smelters that operated in this area in the mid 19th century. The ruins of six of the furnaces still exist, and two more ruins are submerged deep below the surface of Lake Allatoona. The most accessible and well preserved is Cooper Furnace in the park below the Allatoona Lake dam.

We found the cache nearby, but as is often the case, the cache find was secondary to the historical find.

All caches found today:

The Stamp Creek Walk Into History 2.5/3
Something Funky 1.5/1.5
Sedona's Cache 2/2.5
Cali's Cache 2/2.5
Canton Action Packed Adventure 1/1

20 to 28 miles from home
01/28/2006

Bridges Volunteers Built

2006-01-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

This beautiful area has been made more accessable thanks to the volunteer efforts of The Mountain Stewards in partnership with our Georgia DNR and with financial support from Arch Treatment Technologies. Available are a number of trails, campsites, picnic tables, fire rings.

The Bridges Volunteers Built 2/3
Trout Supply Cache 2.5/3
What Was This Site's History? 1.5/1.5
7 to 9 miles from home

Pigeon Mountain/Lafayette

2005-12-31T19:00:00.001-05:00

Pigeon Mountain, Georgia

On the way to Rocktown, the forest service road came from the valley below, climbing up to here to the crest of Pigeon Mountain. The forest service brochure spoke of hang-gliding, and it looks like we found the jumping off spot. We found the three caches on this mountain, but the real find is this view. Great place for our traditional PBJ lunch!

On the way home we stopped in Lafayette for several more caches, seeing a lot of the town and learning some local history.

All caches found today:
Overlook Cache @ P.M. 1.5/2
On The Way To Rock Town 1/2
Pigeon's View 2.5/3
Jack and Jill went up the hill to geocache 1.5/4
Down in the Depot 2/1
Hello, I'm Johnny Cache 2.5/2
Lafayette Remembers 2/1.5

58 miles from home
12/31/2005

Rock Town

2005-12-31T19:00:00.000-05:00

Rock Town, Pigeon Mountain WMA northwest Georgia.

We have been reading about this cache location for a while and waited until winter to try it. After leaving the Pigeon Mountain Overlook, we made our way toward Rocktown. We missed the little dirt road turnoff the first time by, as there was no sign, but quickly realized our mistake as reminded by the GPS.

There was almost no traffic on the road, and we thought we might have the place to ourselves, no muggles to worry about! Were we ever wrong. Soon there were vehicles parked on both sides of the small road, cars, trucks, vans, a mini-bus, all with faraway tags. We arrived at the crowded parking area and realized what the attraction was when we saw folks with their rock climbing gear heading toward the trail.

The trail was a level, wide footpath, well used by many. Near the end we starting seeing strange boulders and outcroppings, named Rock Town by those who pass through it. It is well named, for it indeed looks like a town.

More than 200 million years ago this area was once great ocean, that at one time completely covered both Pigeon and Lookout Mountains. The water washed away the softer limestone while leaving other, more durable rock. In many places the effect of the water is apparent, from curved holes in solid rock to tiny mazes of stone netting.

In downtown Rock Town you can visit the Champagne Glass, where water has eroded the base of a 50-foot tall rock, leaving the cap precariously balanced on what little remains.

We wound our way in and out and around and through and over the rocks. We found the cache in an out of the way spot and made our trades. Rock Town was well worth the trip, looking forward to bringing the family back.

Rock Town 3/3
58.7 miles from home
12/31/2005

Gatlinburg Christmas trip

2005-12-03T19:00:00.000-05:00

Just a quick trip to see the Christmas Parade in Gatlinburg. It was a rainy weekend and there were way too many folks in town, so not much caching was done. A couple of cemetery caches, the only peaceful places we found all weekend!

Restin' N The Grove 2/2
He's Alive! XXIX Huskey Grove 2/2
93 miles from home
12/03/2005

Cold Cache

2005-11-26T19:00:00.000-05:00

Rich Mountain WMA north of Ellijay, Georgia

The long awaited opening of the forest service road, after being closed for almost 2 years, the newly refurbished road is like a highway! Lots of fun for jeep riding. There are several caches up in these woods, and a lot of folks have been waiting for the gates to come down. They are down now for hunting season, so watch out! Get out the orange vests.

We met up with Jeep Cachers (pictured) the Saturday after Thanksgiving and found this cache on top of Cold Mountain, just about a mile hike in from the road. Jeep Cacher's Son was along, leading the pack up the mountain. We let him have one of our GPS units to try, and he was off! It was hard to keep up with him, as he was getting so excited the closer he got. Before long we heard the familiar whoop of Found It! A great introduction to the fun of caching.

A great time was had by all, we went on from here to the Rich Mtn. Delight just down the road. We saw lots of hunters and campsites and talked to one ranger. We passed by the hunting check-in station where a bear was being weighed in.

The mountain views were spectacular, not a power line or cell tower in sight!

Cold Cache 1.5/3.5
Rich Mtn. Delight 2/3
13 miles from home
11/26/2005

Thanksgiving caching

2005-11-25T19:00:00.000-05:00

Out the day after Thanksgiving working off some pie. Went up to Rich Mountain to scout out the new forest service road opening, and found Solaros Cache. Came back through town and up to the top of Talona Mountain, with views in all directions today. After finding that one, picked up a couple others in the area. A beautiful day to be outside!

Caches found today:
Solaros Cache 2/4.5
Talona Mtn. Cache 1/1.5
Talona Creek Camping Cache 1/1
Toadially Cool Cache 1/1
9 - 12 miles from home
11/25/2005

Pigeon Forge

2005-11-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

A weekend camping trip to the Smokies, and caching in Pigeon Forge, Wear Valley, and Townsend.

Welcome to Bear Country! Boyd's Bear Factory.

The Old Mill.

A lot of caches in this area are in cemeteries, and just looking at the headstones is sometimes worth the trip!

All caches this trip (15!):
Restin' in a Hurst 2/1.5
He's Alive XXVI Valley View 2.5/1.5
Wildcat Cache 2/3
Townsend Turtle 1/1.5
Ellie's Small Stuff II 1.5/1.5
Welcome to Townsend 1/1
Sevier Park and Find 1.5/1.5
MH
To All The Patriots 2/1
Millin' Around 1.5/1
Pull Out # 5 2/1.5
Welcome to Bear Country 1.5/1.5
Wiley Oakley 1.5/1.5
Pull Out #2 1/1
Pull Out #4 2/1.5

95 miles from home
11/12/2005 - 11/13/2005

Silver Comet Trail

2005-10-02T18:00:00.000-05:00

Silver Comet Trail, a Rails to Trails project east of Atlanta.

We went down to the Silver Comet Trail today with Ryan and Carrie. We rode our bicycles 12 miles on the former railroad trail, picking up 7 caches along the way. We went through the 800 foot long Brushy Mountain Tunnel. A great way to go caching!

Silver Comet Trail
Silver Comet Trail Map

All caches found today:
85 West at the SCT 1.5/2
Fern Rock 2/2.5
Raccoon Creek Cache 2.5/2.5
Silver Cliffs 2/3
Bubbas Silver Comet Cache 2/1
Castle Rock 1.5/2.5
Deer Crossing on the Comet 2/1.5
55 miles from home
10/02/2005

Dahlonega area caches

2005-09-18T18:00:00.000-05:00

Just out for a Sunday afternoon caching, into the national forest service for the first two, one by Lance Creek and one by the Etowah River. Then on to Dahlonega and north to see Boggs Creek and Desoto Falls. Checking out lots of good camping spots for later.

Caches found today:
Lance Creek 2/3.5
The Bradford Cache 3/2
Ben's Bogg Creek Bonanza 1.5/1.5
Desoto Between Falls 2.5/2.5
11 - 28 miles from home
09/18/2005

The Stone Door Earthcache

2005-08-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

The Stone Door in the Cumberland Plateau of central Tennessee is a spectacular natural phenomenon, well worth the visit. "An Earthcache is a special place that people can visit to learn about a unique geoscience feature or aspect of our Earth." There is not a physical cache container here, the experience is the cache.

We made the several hour trek to this beautiful place and the 1 mile hike over to the Stone Door, all well worth it. BUT just seeing the Stone Door was not the real reason for our trip.

Just a week ago we met a veteran geocacher, Johnnie Lacy, and he was showing off his newest geocoin, and talking about putting the coins out in mountain caches with lots of hiking involved. He said that just the week before he had gone with a group up to the Stone Door, and he wanted to leave a coin there, but cache containers are not allowed in the park. So, while hiking the 8-mile loop trail around the gorge, he 'accidentally' dropped one of his coins, and 'being too lazy to pick it up, he used a rock to cover it over with his foot.'

After this meeting, we came home and promptly logged onto the Stone Door Cache page and read the logs, finding the one where Johnnie mentioned dropping his coin, and the coordinates of the spot. We decided we needed to make a trip to Tennessee. After seeing the Stone Door, we started out on the 8-mile loop trail with the coordinates of the coin in the GPS. At about 4 miles we zeroed in on the location, and there it was! The REAL reason for this trip.

We headed on around the loop, hurried along by the booming thunder which was getting closer and closer. By the time we got back to the Jeep it was pouring rain. Thanks, Johnnie!

See the Johnnie Lacy Coin
What is an Earthcache?

All caches found today:
The Stone Door Earthcache 2.5/2.5
Beersheba Springs 1/1
Westbound Over Monteagle 1/1
Eastbound Over Monteagle 1/1
95 miles from home
08/06/2005

Lunch at the Lake

2005-07-30T18:00:00.000-05:00

Lake Allatoona, North Georgia

Our first geocaching event! Bad Dawg cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and provided all the food.

We got to meet lots of folks who, up until now, we had just known by their nicknames and through their logs on geocaching.com. We met the infamous 'Old Geezer' Johnnie Lacy, AtlantaGal, Cymbaline, Yoyo Man, Pez, Sledgehampster, and a lot more.

After the get-together, folks spread out to do the local caches. We kept seeing the same people all over town. At one point there was about 8 of us all standing in the parking lot at McDonald's looking up into a tree. We had all been there about 15 minutes, way too long for a micro at McDonald's, and were about to leave when up drove Sledgehampster, the master! He got out of his car, walked up to the tree and immediately spotted it. It was a small bullet-sized cannister wrapped in camo tape, containing a small log - which we all promptly signed.

All caches found this date:
Lunch at the Lake
Lakeside View in Winter 2/2
Off Your Rocker in Cartersville 2/1.5
Leave the light on, Wally! 1.5/1.5
What would Sam think? 1.5/1.5
Who...Who...Who 'der? #4: Cartersville 1/1
Caching "in the Buff" 1.5/1
Von Ryan's Express 1.5/1.5
The Big Orange #1 1.5/1
Target in sight! 1.5/1.5
Cartersville Multi #1 2.5/1
Thorny 1.5/1
34 miles from home
07/30/2005

Out with the kids

2005-07-14T18:00:00.000-05:00

The grandkids are always wanting to go geocaching, so we hit up a few this afternoon in the area. They love to check out the loot in the cache, taking a long time looking over each item to assess its value.

Caches found today:
Kelly's Cache 1/1
Another Dam Cache 1/1
Meek's Park 1/1.5
North Georgia Technical College - Blairsville 1/1.5
10 - 30 miles from home
07/14/2005

Mt. Pisgah

2005-07-09T18:00:00.000-05:00

View from Mt. Pisgah
Blue Ridge Parkway
North Carolina
elevation 5700

An anniversary trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway, we stayed at Mt. Pisgah Inn. The anniversary was just an excuse, the real reason was for geocaching, as there was supposed to be a White Jeep at the nearby Buck Spring Trail Cache and a Yellow Jeep at the Mt. Pisgah cache.

We headed out first for the White Jeep, going down behind the Inn on the grown-up Buck Spring Trail. The previous log had mentioned 'rattler' and walking through the knee-high grass, that is all I was thinking about. Down, down the mountain we went, criss-crossing the same stream several times, until we finally came to the right place, and voila! The white jeep as still there! Our first WJTB!

After climbing back up that mountain and eating lunch at the Inn restaurant, we headed for Mt. Pisgah. This trail was much more used and very steep, as the sign says - elevation gain 712 feet. We found the cache just below the summit, but there was no yellow jeep there. Oh well, we had climbed Mt. Pisgah, which is worth doing, and I have the t-shirt to prove it!

Mt. Pisgah 3.5/3.5
Buck Spring Trail Cache 3/3
108 miles from home
07/09/2005

Bell Mountain

2005-06-25T18:00:00.000-05:00

Bell Mountain

Hiawassee, Georgia

Bell Mountain is an abandoned quarry and now a popular location for visitors and locals because of the great mountain-top views and unique quarry surroundings.

The GPS took us all around this mountain until we finally stopped for directions for the right road to the top. The jeep climbed the narrow mountain road to within a quarter mile of the top, where the gate blocked the way. If not for the gate, the boulders in the road would have worked just as well to encourage us to stop.

We hiked the rest of the way up to the top and were pleasantly surprised at the spectular panoramic views. The entire top of the mountain is solid rock and has been quarried in the past, leaving great uninterrupted views. After exploring the neat area, we searched out the cache (hidden in the rocks of course). Another neat place we would have not known about or visited, but for geocaching.

Next we decided to try a new multi-cache also in Hiawassee, the Kanati Stone Mystery. This cache had four parts, but unlike the usual multi-caches where you don't get credit for the find unless you find all the stages, this one gives you credit for each stage. We saw all of Hiawassee and surrounding areas in the search for these stages, it was a very well done cache. We did not do the 4th stage, as it required a boat!

Caches found today:
Bell Mountain 2/3
The Kanati Stone Mystery Caches 1, 2 and 3 2/1
Jackrabbit Mountain 2.5/2.5
45 miles from home
06/25/2005

John's Overlook

2005-06-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

John's Mountain Overlook in northwest Georgia

After two days of geocaching in the Pocket in John's Mountain WMA, we ended up here at the overlook for the last cache of the day, enjoying a beautiful view looking west. We hiked along the ridge trail to the cache location and were rewarded with the find of a collector's geocoin! AtlantaGal's 2005 coin was in the cache, and we gladly took it to add to our collection. On the way down here, we had stopped by Fort Mountain to be the FTF on a new cache there! All-in-all a good weekend!

Geocoins

John's Overlook 2/3.5
Rebel Without a Cache 3/3
Silver Moon and Stars 1.5/2
check it out 3/1
136 Pinhotti #1 1.5/2
snake creek cache 2.5/2
Goose Overlook 1.5/2.5
BangBang 1.5/2
534 CSA CSX 1.5/1.5
Fort Mountain DVD Drive By 2/2
42 miles from home
06/18/2005 - 06/19/2005

Elberton caches

2005-06-15T18:02:00.000-05:00

Georgia Guidestones, Elberton, Georgia

Georgiabuddy spent some time in Elberton working and picked up some local caches there. Elberton is known for its granite production and fine fishing on Lake Russell.

Caches found in Elberton:
The Granite Bowl 1/2 FTF!!
M.A. Sutton Memorial Park 1/3
"Dutchy" 3/1
Pearl Mill Cache 1/1
Old Dan Tucker 1/1.5
Stonehenge? 3.5/1
100 miles from home

He also went to South Carolina for a day, and found this one:
Where's "The Bus"? 1/1.5
274 miles from home

Old Copper Road

2005-05-28T18:00:00.000-05:00

After stopping by to look for a local cache by the Cartecay River, we headed up to Tennessee. We stopped by the Earthcache at the Burra Burra Copper Mine, taking a picture of the blue water in the collapsed mine. From there we headed north following the 'Old Copper Road' along the Ocoee River to discover Goforth Creek, a great area for creek walking on all the big boulders. On further north to hike about 3 miles in the national forest to the Scenic Spur Trail. This cache was just placed a few days ago and we were the FTF!!

Caches found today:
The Great Copper Basin Earthcache
Scenic Spur Trail No. 78 2/3
Goforth 2/2.5
Cartecay Coin Cache 1.5/3
40 miles from home
05/28/2005

Portland Cave

2005-05-07T18:00:00.000-05:00

Portland Cave,
Northwest Georgia

This is one of those caches that you read about and see the pictures and finally get to see it for yourself. We took Kyle along and it was well worth it.

Portland Cave is actually an abandoned quarry, and the way to get there is to hike along the railroad tracks that lead right to it. A very COOL place to visit and explore. We found the cache about 200 yards away, but as is often the case, the attraction was not the cache.

From Portland Cave, we went over to the Brushy Mountain Cache. It took us quite a while of searching and butt-surfing on the steep hillsides, but we finally found this one, X marks the spot. According to the cache page, the cache was placed close to a 19th century relic. On the way out we saw the relic, very much a surprise.

The next stop was a couple of caches on the Silver Comet Trail. This is a former railroad, converted to a paved trail for hiking, bicycling, horseback riding, etc. We hiked to the two caches found there today and vowed to come back with bicycles next time.

All caches found today:
Portland Cave 2/1.5
The Brushy Mountain Cache 2/2.5
Van Wert Trail Head on SCT 1.5/1.5
Ma's Bottom 1/1.5
Steel Horse Hideaway 1.5/1
Round a bout the Square 1/1

56 miles from home
05/07/2005

Helton Creek Falls

2005-05-01T18:00:00.000-05:00

Helton Creek Falls, near Blairsville, Georgia

After finding a newly placed local cache, we headed up to Blairsville and Helton Creek Falls. We had been to the falls before (before we were geocachers) and enjoyed a return visit. The cache was found and after enjoying the falls we continued on the dirt road, fording the stream, and eventually coming out on Richard Russell Scenic Highway. We got to ford another stream when looking for the 4R's cache, and then on to Dukes Creek Falls. Lots of water to see today!

Caches found today:
Downtown Ellijay Drive Thru
Dukes Creek Falls Cache 1/1.5
4R's 2/3
Helton Creek Falls 2/4
34 miles from home
05/01/2005

Cohutta Mountains

2005-04-16T18:00:00.000-05:00

Fire tower atop Grassy Mountain near Lake Conasauga, the highest lake in Georgia.

Ride on the gravel forest service roads climbing ever up. Stopped by Barnes Creek falls for the Not 2 EZ cache, it wasn't too hard. Then on to the top. The road goes all the way to the fire tower, but as our luck would have it, the gate was closed about a mile down, so we hoofed it the rest of the way. Spectacular clear views today and pink trillium as a perk.

Caches found today:
Mountain View 3/3
S&J's Cohutta Drive By 1.5/1.5
Not 2 EZ 3.5/1.5
20 - 26 miles from home
04/16/2005

Dawson area

2005-04-03T18:00:00.002-05:00

We headed east into Dawson County, first stopping by the Amicalola River for the Fern City Swimming Hole cache, finding it and seeing the rope from the tree where brave folks jump into the river.

Next we set out to find some of a series of caches called Hollow V - small cache containers hidden either in a hollow part of a tree or a V made by tree branches. We found a couple of those along with the Magic Dam Cache.

When trying to find the Reactor Road cache, we had our first visit to the Dawson Forest WMA, which we were to learn is the home of an abandoned nuclear reactor, hence the cache name. We had fun riding around this area and learning a little about it, and found the cache.

Fern City Swimming Hole 1.5/1.5
The Hollow V Regular 1.5/1.5
Magic Dam Cache 2.5/3.5
The Hollow V Multi 2.5/2.5
Reactor Road Ver 1.4 2/2.5
13 to 22 miles from home
04/03/2005

Caches placed

2005-04-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

This is our first cache hide, so we placed it on our own property, as we wanted to share the beauty of our falls with other nature lovers. Also a list of the other caches placed by us and Shaper.

Tumblin Falls 2/2
Lookout! Atlanta 1/1
No Mo Monument 2/3.5
Marbleous, Absolutely Marbleous 2/1
Peaceful Pickens Park 1.5/1.5
Homer D. Poe 1/1
Satan's Joint 2/3.5
Lookin O'er the New Horizon 1/1

Kyle's recordbreaking day

2005-03-19T19:00:00.001-05:00

After taking Kyle geocaching last weekend, he was chomping at the bit to go again. So we headed south to see what we could find. We ended up finding 11 in one day!

We visited the small town of Ballground, did a couple of city drive-by micros, hiked along the Etowah River to two different caches, discovered 3 parks we didn't know were there, and found the remains of an old mill which used cotton grown nearby to make ropes.

A great time was had by all, especially the last stop - eating at the Varsity, a family favorite!

All caches found today:
Who's on First 1/1
What's on Second 1/1
I Don't Know's on Third 1/1
HAZCACHE 1/1.5
Who...Who...Who 'der?: Canton 1/1
The Point of the Mission 1/1.5
Etowah Cache 2/3
Barnett Park Cache 2.5/2
Publix Enemy #4 1/1
Down From Nashville 2/2
Tie One On! 1/2

16 to 32 miles from home
03/19/2005

Grandkids geocaching

2005-03-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

Two of the grandkids' first geocaching experience, Kyle and Sarah went out with us today. Buddy explained all about how the GPS works, and they picked out usernames, Shaper and Treeshadow. We headed out on our now favorite forest service road. We went to the Hickory Flat cemetery to park and the kids rode on the merry-go-round there. Then we headed down the trail for the first find. Kyle zeroed in on the cache behind a stump with no problem, now the big decision, what to take and what to leave?

The next stop was Rock Lake. The kids found this one easily also, but while we were there, we were buzzed by helicopters. We had heard that the nearby Ranger training camp used this area of remote forest for training, it was very exciting.

But the real excitement of the trip was when we met the Rangers up close. We were headed from Rock Creek over to the Toccoa Suspension Bridge to show it to the kids. When we got to the place we had parked last time, the gate was open, so we drove right in. We noticed the camouflaged Rangers slinking through the woods, trying to be invisible. We got near the bridge and were going to park, but were approached by a Ranger in charge who said, "You might not want to park there, sir." It seems those rangers we passed hiking were headed to this spot for an attack. We decided to come back another day!

Hickory Flat 2/2
Rock Lake 1.5/1.5
13 - 15 miles from home
03/13/2005

Cachemobile

2005-03-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

After the harried trip to Nimblewill Gap, we decided not to subject our truck to that again, a good excuse to get a Jeep!

Carter's Lake

2005-03-06T19:00:00.000-05:00

Carter's Lake is located nearby, and until today we had never hiked any of the trails there, thanks to geocaching we discovered some great nearby trails.

We started out the day on the north side of the lake at one of the many streams feeding the lake and followed the Tumbling Waters Nature Trail half a mile over to this cache. It didn't take too long to find this one - I am not sure what the difficulty rating was at the time, but as of May 2005 it has been hidden more aggressively and the rating changed to 4.5/2.

After stopping to pick up a well hidden micro at the Federal Road historical sign, we made our way around the lake, the next stop was at lower side of the dam, where there is a bird sanctuary.

The Hidden Pond Songbird Trail Cache was a tough one to find. At the time we found it, it was an ammo can hidden very aggressively in some rocks. According to the cache page, in May 2005 it was changed to a micro.

The next stop was on up to the top side of the dam to hike one mile out on the Talking Rock Nature Trail to look for the Empty Jar cache, another find!

Except for the Federal Road micro, all of these caches were put out by the Lacy family, excellent hikes and scenery.

Tumbling Water
Old Federal Road #4-Forks in the Road 1.5/1.5
Hidden Pond Songbird Trail 4/1.5
Empty Jar 2/2.5

From 15 to 22 miles from home
03/06/2005

Nearby AT caches

2005-03-05T19:00:00.000-05:00

Traveled the forest service roads to get close to the AT. Parked at the lot for Springer Mountain and headed out for our first find of the day, Gilmer Cache. A nice walk of about 20 minutes, found the cache not far off the trail.

Back on the forest service roads over to Hickory Flat Cemetery, visited with an AT through-hiker setting up camp. Parked nearby and hiked the 2 miles roundtrip to Long Creek Falls Cache, stopping on the way to get the Big Poplar Cache. Beautiful day to hike on the trail.

Gilmer Cache 1/1.5
Big Poplar 1.5/2
Long Creek Falls Cache 2/2.5
10-12 miles from home
03/05/2005

Gatlinburg

2005-02-26T19:00:00.000-05:00

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Our first caching away from home at our favorite get-away place, Gatlinburg, TN. As many times as we have been here, we discovered several new places today. The view from the Park Vista Hotel, the city park by Roaring Fork Creek, two more small parks we didn't know were there.

And most surprising of all was the peaceful White Oak Flats cemetery, just behind one of the busiest shopping areas in town.

Caches found this trip:
Going to Gatlinburg? 1.5/1.5
GSMNPS Rangers 2/2
Roaring Fork Creek 1.5/1.5
Ogle Cache 1.5/1.5
A Park Vista Above Gatlinburg 1.5/1.5
White Oak Flats 1.5/2

An elusive micro DNF this trip, but picked it up another time:
Jacque's Walkway 2.5/1.5

92 miles from home
02/26/2005

Nimblewill Gap

2005-02-19T19:00:00.000-05:00

Nimblewill Gap on the Approach Trail of the AT to Springer Mountain.

The trail crosses the forest service road at the gap, an easy drive in from Nimblewill Church. Which is what we discovered too late. Looking at the map, it looked closer coming in from the north on Old Bucktown Road. Closer maybe, but the road was all but gone. Park here at Nimblewill Gap and hike on the AT approach trail to the Black Mountain Cache and High Shoals Old Coins Cache.

Tragedy virtual cache is the plaque is at the gap in memory of a plane crash on nearby Springer Mountain.

The trail from the gap up to Black Mountain, note the blue blaze for the AT approach trail. A half mile trek up to get the cache.

Indian Trail Tree near the Amicalola Challenge cache. We came in from Amicalola Falls for this one and Uncle Mateson, on the road to Nimblewill Gap.

02/19/2005 Black Mountain 2/3.5
02/19/2005 High Shoals Old Coins Cache 1/3.5
02/18/2005 Tragedy 1/3.5
02/16/2005 Uncle Mateson 1/4
02/16/2005 Amicalola Challenge 4/2

all less than 10 miles from home (as the crow flies of course)

Toccoa Suspension Bridge

2005-02-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

Toccoa Suspension Bridge

Blue Ridge WMA

Chattahoochee National Forest

The longest suspension bridge in Georgia, over the Toccoa River, the crossing for the Appalachian Trail and the Benton MacKaye Trail.

Our first geocache find! We brought Carrie along to show her what we had been talking about. We followed the forest service roads until finally coming to a gate, got out and started hiking.

The bridge is built over a huge curve in the river, a great place to camp. After admiring the bridge we started looking for the cache. Luckily it was not too hard, since we were novices. After doing the trading, Buddy took us back to the truck a 'shorter way' according to the GPS - our first bushwhacking experience!

Toccoa Suspension Bridge 2/3
15.9 miles from home
02/12/2005

Geocoins we have collected

2005-02-11T19:00:00.000-05:00

Lakebum

Annie "Slayerette" E-Team coin

Lacy Geocachers wooden nickel "Annie was here" from event GC142C1

Johnnie Lacy
'Old Geezer'
Coin

AtlantaGal 2005 Coin

Erik - Groundspeak Volunteer Coin - set free

GGA 2005

Trez's Pirate Treazure Coin

Frozen Bone coin - set free

CoinTracking.com