Thorns Part 2: Thornier

I forgot the machete again. I'm not even sure I own a machete, but it might be a good investment. I was back at Veteran's Park last Sunday, but Sean could not join me due to illness and lack of desire to walk around in the cold. Amelia joined me, however, as she needed to take some photographs of the park anyway, so I loaded up my GPS with the last two caches in Veteran's Park, and we were off.

The first cache was over by the lake entrance, not far from the infamous fence that nearly thwarted us during our last outing. After braving the harsh winds on the lakeside path, we came to a stand of trees near the fence, and the GPS informed us our prize lay on the other side. Recalling my bruised stomach last week, we elected to walk around the fence.

We came to a clearing in the trees and determined our cache was somewhere around there. "Around there" were trees, brambles, dead leaves and more brambles. My first thought was that it was lodged in the middle of a huge thorn bush. It was almost impossible to see into the middle of it, so it seemed like a logical spot, and I acquired an exciting number of lacerations before confirming that bush was, in fact, empty. The listing for the cache had warned to watch for poison ivy, so we found ourselves searching the woods, hoping to stumble upon poisonous plant life, since it would mean we were close.

At least twenty minutes later, after beating thorn bushes, kicking over rocks and logs, and searching every low tree branch in sight, I found myself inspecting a vine while trying desperately to remember lost Girl Scout training, when Amelia yelled out that she had found it. Apparently one of the rocks I had not kicked over was not a rock at all. Amelia had kicked it over, and low and behold, there was a small tupperware container beneath it. There were a few coins and some pretty stones, so Amelia took one of the stones for a school project and I left a bumper sticker. We signed the log and, victorious, went on our way.

The second cache was over near the playground entrance, but before we made our way over, Amelia stopped to take some pictures of the battlefield. We found a set of keys lying on the ground there, and mused over which brave Civil War soldier might have lost them.

After a brisk and tiring walk to the other entrance, the GPS led us to a path in the woods near the playground's parking lot. We followed the path until the compass started to point into the woods. We found a smaller, pseudo-path that led off of it, overgrown with thorn bushes about as tall as I am. Walking through the woods soon became an intricate dance, involving stepping on thorny stalks to keep them from catching on our jeans, while simultaneously ducking and lifting higher stalks to keep them from gouging out our eyes. We got caught up multiple times before finally entering a muddy clearing. The GPS led us to the muddiest part of the clearing, where several logs and dead branches formed shaky stepping stones over the mud. The cache, fortunately, wasn't hard to find, hidden in a tree with three trunks. It contained a tiny plastic frog, which Amelia also took for her project. I left another bumper sticker. I have a lot of bumper stickers. We left the woods tired and happy, although the happiness didn't last too long since we still had to walk all the way back to the lake entrance where we parked.

So far now, we have found five caches in Veteran's Park, and I'm pretty sure we've exhausted it's current supply. It was good newbie hunting ground, though, and I am now confident we are ready to level up into urban and, once the weather improves (and not before), state park caches.