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Hiking at Ragged Mountain |
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Written by Mark D. Hall
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Sunday, 26 April 2009 18:08 |
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A few days ago, I got a call from Bubba42e, asking if I'd like to cache on Ragged Mountain (Berlin, CT) this weekend. We'd been talking about it for awhile, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I remember hearing J2Brew and Trix606 say they wanted to do the caches up there too, so we called them, and had a tream ready. Nancy and Skippermatt joined us on this exciting trek.
We started around 7:30 and met Trix at the parking lot on the west side and then drove over in John's truck to the south side to start the hike. That way we'd be able to grab all the caches and avoid hiking the mile plus walk back to the car. That doesn't sound like much, but Ragged is very, well, ragged, and the hiking is challenging.
Our first cache was the Bristol Test Tower (GC13W9C) by Tuckerman6288. The hike up was challenging and steady, and we had to rest a couple times along the way. We had some debate about whether the cache was on top or down low and shortly after we knew we'd made the wrong decision.
The view from the cache was amazing and a great way to start the day. It was very early, but the sun was already beating down on us, so we lathered up with lots of sunscreen and bug spray because the black flies were out in force. After this, we headed to Ragged Mountain Rocks (GC1KH9V), which was another fun cache. There was lots of bounce in the area, but Nancy zeroed in on the cache after a short search, and she didn't even have a GPS!
From there, we made our way around the mountian in a semi-methodical manner and ended up finding all the caches up there. We made great time and had completed everything by around 1:30, which was great! I drank all 100 ounces of water my CamelBak, which isn't unusual, but I did it about 2/3 of the way into the hike. It's been several hours since finishing, and I'm still hot!
Afterwards, we took a wrong turn, which worked out for the best beause we ended up less than half a mile to a new unfound cache and managed to get the first to find on it. That was an unexpected treat. Then, on the way home, we stopped at Wendy's and had some Frostys. Yummy. All in all, it was a great day.
Ragged Mountain is a great place to cache. It's not easy terrain (there are 4 terrains up there), but it's definitely fun. Being with a great group only made it better.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 April 2009 17:18 |
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Urban Caching in The Bronx |
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Written by Mark D. Hall
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Sunday, 22 March 2009 00:00 |
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 During the winter, I like to cache in areas that don't have much snow, and the Bronx has been on my "to do" list for awhile. I didn't make it there during the winter, but I had a great route plannned out and didn't want the caches to get archived before we found them and decided to head out today.
Nancy, Matt, Mr_CacheHound and I headed out at 6:00 a.m. to meet up with KB1JID and TreeMan at the McDonald's on I-95 in Milford and then follow each other to do the caches. Usually when I plan out a route, we start caching at the first cache we come to and then cache our way to the farthest cache, but this time we tried something different. We went to the farthest area and then cached our way back home. It makes the morning drive a little longer, but I liked it better because you're not having to drive as long at the end of the day when you're all tired and worn out.
I've cached in NYC (Queens) before but only for a few caches on the way to Long Island and in Manhattan (only for a few caches during Christmas time), so I wasn't sure what to expect in the Bronx. Well, I have to say that it was really fun. The caches were well done and of high quality with a mix of micros and some regulars hidden in plain site but totally not visible to muggles. We cleared out most of the caches in the Bronx proper but would definitely go back if more were placed.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 04 April 2009 20:41 |
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More Urban Caching in The Bronx |
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Written by Mark D. Hall
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Tuesday, 24 March 2009 00:00 |
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 Well, we had a small issue in the Bronx with a cache where the owner deleted our logs...twice. Can't say much about it with giving away the hide, but we all agreed that it was unfair and decided to make a return trip and make things right.
I do most of my caching on the weekend and had no idea what to expect with traffic going into the city, so we all agreed to meet up early to avoid any traffic jams. That was a great idea, but it didn't work much because we encountered a lot of traffic. What was funny was the traffic was heavier in CT than in NY closer to the city.
Well, we began caching our way south and grabbed a few on our way into the Bronx. On Sunday we had done a great virtual in Woodlawn Cemetery, and we were so impressed with the mausoleums that we wanted to return and tour the area. That was okay because today was just about having fun and not caching like crazy.
That doesn't mean we didn't cache because we did and had a great time. After rectifying the issue with the Bronx cache, we made our way back home and grabbed a bunch on the I-95 corridor. A couple really fun ones were in New Rochelle where you had to walk over some steel bridges to get out onto an island in the middle of the sound. We also found some neat puzzles in the Rye area.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 04 April 2009 21:35 |
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Snow Storm Cancels Caching Trip |
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Written by Mark D. Hall
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Monday, 02 March 2009 22:29 |
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 I took today off from work to go caching with J2Brew and Joesdolphins, but the crazy New England weather quickly put a stop to that by dumping eight or more inches of snow on us. We were going to spend the day caching in the Bronx and getting 30 or 40 caches.
This has been a tough winter with lots of snow and cold weather. It's really bummed me out and made me not want to cache much, but tonight I was driving home and saw the sky glowing a beautiful golden hue that made me realize spring is just around the corner with long, warm days.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 04 April 2009 12:05 |
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A few weeks ago, we decided to go caching up in Burlington, VT along with 
