Geocaching Adventure Day

Getting settled in and relaxing was the order of the day yesterday. We made a quick run into Custer to pick up fresh salad fixins' and stopped on the way to visit with Pat and Mike McFall for a few minutes. We got to meet their sweet cat, Ms. Megabyte2. You will have to check out their blog for her story, she is truly an angel kitty.

Then later in the afternoon, we took ourselves up to the porch at the office and sat awhile with Larry and Geri for an informal happy hour. We visited with them for nearly 3 hours, just telling stories and getting better acquainted with them. In all of our travels, we have never met any better campground owners. This past winter, they were able to do some traveling of their own, with a nice trailer they'd recently purchased. Larry was telling us that they were amazed by how some campgrounds are not clean, neat, well-run, etc. I told him I wasn't kidding when I said they are honestly exceptional in this business. As we sat there, a couple of rigs came in. As the people came up the steps to check in, Geri walked over to them and introduced herself and welcomed them. Every one who came up to the office was greeted warmly. It really is an outstanding campground, but don't tell everyone because we want to be able to get a space here every summer!

This morning, Pat and Mike came over to go geocaching. They've never been, but wanted to see what it's all about. Here at the campground, there is a 3-part cache. Jim and I had located the first 2 parts since we've been here. The last part is located about .3 mile up on top of a ridge behind the campground, and we saved that one for today. The 4 of us hiked up the ridge, and Pat found her first cache!

Mike was getting ready to head down while Pat re-hid the cache:

We came back down to the office and talked to Geri a few minutes, and she told us about another cache located not far from here. This one would involve a more serious hike, so Jim decided to do a few things around here instead. He wanted to get the front of the Castle cleaned up and get some things organized. I got the coordinates entered into my gps, then Pat, Mike and I took off in search of Beecher's Pillars. We sure had a good and challenging hike! This one was about a mile off the road, up some very steep, rocky terrain. It was quite an adventure, and I sure hope the McFalls enjoyed the outing, because I sure did. It felt great to get out and do some hiking and introduce them to the fun of geocaching. There are hundreds of caches in this area, and I plan to find a few more while we're here.

Pat and I on the trail of cache #2:

Beecher's Pillars:

Wow! What an incredible view from near the top:

Mike was scoping out the possible hiding place of the cache:

Pretty flowers on the trail:

This afternoon has been busy with us resting. I've heard people talk about doing nothing, but never getting it finished. That's how I've felt this afternoon. I'm trying real hard to do nothing, but can't seem to get it completed. Maybe tomorrow! I'll keep trying...