Solo Trip ...

I took a couple of days off to rest from 12 hour days at work the past couple of weeks. Made some time to go geocaching, the perfect way to get away!

Eglin Air Force Base has portions open to the public with a recreation permit. These parts of the reservation are full of geocaches!! Let's go!

It was a chilly day, and once I got under the shade of the forest, it was much colder. But it felt refreshing. This first cache of the day was inside of an old hollow tree. As I was walking up to it, I heard a loud noise about 50 yards from me, like an animal shaking a tree. I jumped about 50 feet in the air. Didn't see what it was, but I didn't hear it again. I snagged this cache, snapped a picture and took off!

Just because you have a GPSr, doesn't mean it's the best way to get to a geocache, as I found out. The GPSr was pointing about .20 of a mile from the "treasure" location. So I took a hike about 500 yards. Up large inclines, down steep hills. It wasn't a straight and easy path. After about 450 yards I see a road. Another 50 yards from the road was the cache. Yes, I could've taken a different road and only had to walk 50 yards. But, geocaching is more about the journey than the destination!! Plus, I would not have walked by the pond or heard the creek nearby going the "easy" way.

I went up the road a ways and found the coolest Geocache location yet. According to this cache owner's site, it was an old whiskey still from the 1920's that was built by the US Government! It was never completed, but the ruins of what they built still remain. It was down a very wooded path. Once the GPSr said I had arrived, I didn't see anything, until I walked a little closer in the woods. It jumped out at me! It was very eerie and very cool!! I had to take a self-portrait of me sitting by it.

After a few smaller locations, I headed back to the house. What a ton of fun today! See you on the next adventure!