Cedar Ridge Picnic

Brugger and I have both been burning the candle at both ends lately, so, this weekend, we're gonna spend some quality time with each other and with some fantastic creative folks we haven't seen in far too long. We decided to kick things off a day early by hiking out on the nearby Cedar Ridge Trails in the Chatmoss area and having a picnic lunch. I've placed several geocaches on this trail system, and not too long ago, while I was exploring one of the trails I hadn't visited before, I discovered a lonely, half-hidden picnic table in the woods. So, this morning, we packed up some vittles and hoofed it out yonder for a nice picnic. The peaceful solitude with Ms. B. was just what the doctor ordered. A highlight was a little red fox that went running by us, though too fast for me to snag a photo. Anyhoo, what a beautiful day.

Cedar Ridge Trails

Quite a few years ago, by way of geocaching (I know, what a shock, right?), I discovered Cedar Ridge Trails in the Chatmoss neighborhood of Martinsville, just a few miles from home. If I rightly recall, the trail system was at least partially designed by my old friend, Jim Frith, who is a long-time avid cyclist (he set a world record for jumping his bike over a row of trash cans when we were in junior high school). Back in my earliest days of geocaching, I hunted a geocache out at Cedar Ridge, and a short time later, I placed a couple of my own out there.

 

I knew there was a great deal of the trail system I hadn't explored, even after all these years, so this morning, I headed out there to check on my old caches and scope out some locations where I might place a few new ones. After verifying my two caches were in place and in decent condition, I decided to venture out into the area of the Green Trail, which extends out to the west on the map above. The terrain out there is rugged in places, and especially on the Green Trail, it's quite beautiful, as you may deduce from the attached photos. The temperature hadn't yet hit oppressive heights this morning, but the humidity and mosquitoes were pretty monstrous (despite having covered myself head to toe with bug spray). Regardless, I fit in about three and a half miles, and found several enticing locations to place new caches.

 

I expect I'll be going out there again this week to set up the caches. I haven't yet set foot on the Light Blue Trail, out to the east, so I'll have to give that one a go on a future outing.

L: Old dude out in the woods somewhere; R: GPS track of my route along the trails