The Daring Adventures of Diefenbaker and Damned Rodan

Ms. Brugger went to another artsy-craftsy retreat this weekend, so friend and longtime geocaching partner Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) came up from Newbern, NC, for a long, bachelor-oriented geocaching weekend. He arrived early Thursday evening to find a rack of slow-cooked pork ribs with corn on the cob and cole slaw I'd made waiting for him. He brought with him some marginally fiery ghost-pepper infused vodka and a bottle of mezcal; I introduced him to my version of the Botanic Martini, which I had originally experienced at Nord Social in Midland, Michigan, last month. There may be a new convert to the cause. We sat out on the back deck with massive quantities of food and drink until quite late, and enjoyed the required, semi-inebriated phone conversation with Ms. B., which happens whenever we have one of these get-togethers. Fun was had.

Early Friday morning, after a breakfast of bacon and eggs, we departed for a long day of it on the geocaching trail, beginning with Rocky Mount, Virginia, at Bald Knob, a unique rocky, cactus-crowned ridge that rises above the town. I'd been there numerous times over the years (see "Number One and Driving High" for an example), but a new trail system was completed this past May, and several new geocaches awaited our attention. We found them without difficulty, but I also took Scott to an older cache I had previously found, and negotiating the intense terrain to reach it from where we departed the trail left us just about spent by the time we returned to the bottom. Silly me, I took no photos during the hike, but here's an older one:

A view of Rocky Mount, VA, from Bald Knob's summit

From Rocky Mount, we drove eastward to a spot along the Pigg River in Franklin County. During my days at Ferrum College, I spent a lot of time at the Pigg River (though much closer to Ferrum), frequently in search of various altered states, which I usually found. This time, there weren't any altered states, but we did find a very creative geocache.

 

From there, we drove on to Gretna, Virginia, for a quick park & grab hide. Then down to Danville, where we found a late lunch at the fairly new 301 Tavern on Craghead Street. The braying country music was a bit loud, but the food and drink (cheeseburger, fries, and Pernicious IPA) certainly hit the spot. Then we roved around Danville for a bit to complete the stages of a nice Adventure Lab cache created by friend Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom, with whom I've recently shared some awesome geocaching adventures).

 

It was a lot of driving (about 150 miles) for a relatively small number of caches, but damn, it was satisfying. After returning home and making ourselves reasonably presentable, we headed over to Hamlet Kitchen, which is a regular hangout for Kimberly and me, but on this day, I had to make do with Scott. Hey, no complaints from this quarter. We had a couple of glasses off wine and then ventured over to Yamato Japanese Restaurant for sushi. As we wandered in, we ran into friend Anne, with whom Ms. B. and I had enjoyed a fantastic Thai dinner (along with Anne's sister, Mary), a few weeks back. She joined us for dinner and some very fun conversation, and then Scott and I (after a brief liquor store stop) returned to Casa di Rodan to test a few spirits. I'd say they tested satisfactorily.

 

Interestingly, as we sat out on the back deck in the dark, something big, heavy, and quite angry-sounding went thumping and huffing through the woods right at the edge of the driveway, just beyond our line of sight. We have tons of deer, foxes, and coyotes in these woods, but whatever it was, I've never heard such a thing before. Wampus cat, I'd say.

 

Another shared call with Ms. B., and then... a good night.

A theme, perhaps?

An interesting view from my phone camera, facing upward to the underside of our deck umbrella

The view on our side of our phone call with Kimberly

The view on Kimberly's side of our phone call

Saturday morning, Scott and I got up early again. I made blueberry pancakes, and then we set out for very long walks on a couple of different legs of the roughly twelve-mile-long Dick & Willie Trail. Many of the caches along this trail belong to either me or friend Fishdownthestairs (a.k.a. Natalie), but since Scott had never found these, I was happy to go along and offer either help or heckling, whichever I figured would be more entertaining at the time. We put in about six miles of it, and then found lunch at Don Pepe's, a Mexican restaurant that's been here for a while, though I'd never tried it. Damn if it didn't turn out to be excellent—very authentic. We ended up having a mellow afternoon (I mostly worked on the blog) before I cooked up some BBQ chicken wings, which turned out better than satisfactory, I'd say

 

For the evening, we again sat outside, told stories, listened to music, and waited for our big huffing friend to come stomping through. It never did, though a rather cute little possum wandered by. We had a brief, enjoyable chat before he waddled off again.

L: A couple of wacky gentleman on the trail; R: Diefenbaker trying to extricate himself from the depths of hell

Chorizo street tacos at Don Pepe's

Scott and Rufus engaged in a serious tête-à-tête

And, at last, Sunday morning, I made coffee and some very good egg bites for breakfast, and then Scott hit the road to return home. What a nice weekend all-around, though I certainly missed Kimberly, as I always do when she's gone. Scott's hoping to have us both down to their place in Newbern in the not-too-distant future, and to me, this sounds like a winning plan.

 

To old friends...

Another Day on the Geocaching Trail

Since my good friend and longtime geocaching partner, Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker) and his wife departed Asheboro, NC, for a new domicile on the NC coast a few months ago, day-long geocaching outings, particularly those involving trail hikes, have been few and far between. Still, from time to time, nice opportunities arise, and today, friend Tom (a.k.a. Skyhawk63), from Browns Summit, NC, had business in Martinsville and asked if I'd care to join him afterward on a caching trip northward — first to the town of Rocky Mount and then to the Lovely Valley Loop Trail near Smith Mountain Lake. Fifteen caches that neither of us had found awaited our efforts, one of which had yet to be found, so shoot yeah, I jumped at the chance.

 

It was hot, muggy, and buggy, but we enjoyed the hell out of spending time together and wandering about the woods to sign pieces of paper inside hidden containers. We found a wide variety of hide types; claimed the almost-coveted first-to-find honors on the unfound cache; spied what appeared to be an old, haunted church in the woods; and put in about five miles' worth of fancy footwork. Alas, I came home with three ticks and a slew of chigger bites, but them's the risks, and hopefully, neither of us will suffer any maladies as a result. I love the outdoors, but sometimes Mother Nature is a bitch. Over the years, I've had enough bug bites from woodland excursions for probably a dozen people, and so far, so good...

Yep, a mighty fine day overall, and I hope Mr. Skyhawk and I can hit the woods again in the very near future. Sometimes, you just gotta.

L: Our first-to-find scribble on the otherwise pristine logsheet; R: Where's that confounded cache?

I say, is that an old, haunted church in the woods?

Another Geo-Morning

Werewolf tracks!

Here in Martinsville, getting to geocaches is a bit more difficult and time-consuming than when we lived in Greensboro, but a pretty good crop of new ones have come out both north and south of here. For my birthday, I made an enjoyable jaunt southward; then, yesterday, Ms. B. and I went to Greensboro to run a bunch of errands as well as attend a Cinco de Mayo caching event hosted by friends Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom) & Punkins19 (a.k.a. Linda); and today, I got up early and drove to Rocky Mount, about 30 miles up the road, where I picked up a nice first-to-find on a new trail cache at Waid Park and then a couple of park & grabs.

 

Several hundred caches have come out (and keep coming out) around North Carolina's Piedmont Triad and even beyond, so I've been whittling my way through these, sometimes on my own, sometimes with the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars. These are all exclusively of the park & grab variety, but hey, it's still geocaching. I do need to revisit Greensboro soon to do maintenance on a few of my trail hides that have either gone missing or fallen into disrepair. Most likely next week. I expect I'll be able to fit in a number of park & grabs on that trip as well.

 

Happy hunting, and all that.

Lots of trees fallen over the trail. Duck, you sucker!

Mind  those revenuers!

The Multi-Cache of DOOM and Other Things

Getting ready to head up yonder

Early Saturday morning, friend Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) and I got together in Greensboro to hunt a bunch of newer geocaches that have come out in the area over the past few days. Friend Fishdownthestairs (a.k.a. Natalie) joined us for a brief while before she had to tend to other business. Scott and I made quite the day of it; at the end of the run, we logged 50 caches, a one-day total I haven't managed for several years now. We could have gotten many more than that if we weren't a couple of old and tired men, but we were, so we didn't.

 

Saturday evening, a new multi-cache ("The Multi-Cache of DOOM," GCB3JA4) came out in Rocky Mount, about 30 miles north of here, but Ms. B. and I had plans for Sunday: an excellent brunch at Hamlet Vineyards in Fieldale with friends Bob & Yvonne. A nice couple, Scott & Jamie, whom they had met at another recent event, joined us. For local wine, Hamlet's is very good, both reds and whites, and their food ain't half-bad. I had a very tasty gumbo with shrimp, chicken, and sausage; Brugger went with fresh-baked bread with an assortment of prosciutto, hummus, and spinach & artichoke dip. We give Hamlet very high marks all around.

 

This morning, I got up early and set out for Rocky Mount. A couple of times recently I had cached on the ridge where this new cache lurks, and I can tell you, the terrain up yonder is some kind of serious. Very steep; rocky; thick with brush, brambles, and briers; and covered with a carpet of cacti (last time, I brought home quite a few very annoying, hairlike needles in my hand). This multi-cache took me up the back side of the ridge, the lower slope of which you see in the photo above; in the past, I've gone up the other side, which may be marginally easier. Once you get into those trees up there, making forward progress becomes a real bear.

Upon arrival, I quickly found the first of the three stages, which lay close to the parking coordinates. The second lurked just inside the trees at roughly the highest point you see in the photo there. It was in a target-rich area, so it took me a while, but I eventually snagged the little bastard. Then... into the worst of the terrain. Whew! It didn't help that I ended up reaching the final stage by way of the most difficult route I could have chosen (needless to say, the descent was somewhat easier). The cache itself was a mint, 50-caliber ammo can, loaded with swag. So, I managed to grab the almost-coveted first-to-find honors here.

 

A physical ordeal to be sure, but a hell of a lot of fun. And now, back to the cactus...er...salt mines.

Near the Pigg River

After such an enjoyable day of geocaching yesterday, and with a trio of newish caches lurking not too far northward, I decided this morning that another outing was crucial for my peace of mind. So, I hit the back roads, bound for Franklin County, about 9 AM and aimed myself at a couple of caches in a little series called "Near the Pigg River," both of which—believe it or not—are near the Pigg River. Both of these were published over a week ago, but neither had been logged, probably due to the snow and ice last week, which is only now clearing up in many areas.

Upon arriving at the first location—"Near the Pigg River: Watch for Animals!" (GCB26R7)—I found myself looking at a bridge, and the terrain rating at the coordinates—three out of five—gave me an idea of where I needed to hunt. Sure enough, I found the cache in the first place I looked, and it was a cool enough hide to warrant giving it a favorite point (some geocachers look at favorite points to determine their targets in any given location). And, as I expected, I signed a blank log sheet, thus claiming the (not-really-all-that-coveted) first-to-find (FTF) honors.

The second cache—"Near the Pigg River: I Got a Big One!" (GCB26RD)—put me at another bridge over the Pigg River near an old dam and power station. At the near end of the bridge, I immediately saw a boat put-in area, so I decided to park there, only to discover as I drove down the steep hill that a substantial layer of ice still covered most of it. Ah, well... too late to back out now. So, I hoofed it across the bridge toward ground zero, only to discover a closer, less hazardous parking area. Oy vey! Anyway, I found the cache quickly, again taking FTF honors. Then I returned to the car and looked up that hill with some trepidation. I also discovered I had only one bar of phone service, and that was if I squinted and held my mouth just right. So, I really, really hoped the Rodan Mobile was good for getting past that ice.

I gave it a good running start and, fortunately, surmounted that hill with no problem. Thank you, my little Rodan Mobile!

The last of the caches—"Are You Guys Sick of Micros" (GCB1WET)—hid in Rocky Mount, in a well-populated commercial area. It had already been found, so no more FTFs today (although Scott and I claimed 16 yesterday, which was more than I had realized until I counted them all this morning). Once I had that one in the bag, I headed back to Martinsville, parked in the neighborhood, and went walking until I had reached my daily 5,000-step goal. I've now gone just over one full year of putting in at least 5,000 steps (about two and half miles) every day. Most days, I walk considerably more than that. My 366-day average (last year was a leap year) stands at 8,700 steps a day (just about four miles).

This next week, the weather is not looking good for geocaching (or outdoor activities in general), so I'm glad I availed myself of the opportunity today. Total geocache find count now stands at 15,394. The 13th of this month was my 17th geocaching anniversary, as a matter of fact. Dunno how I got that freakin' old...

High Above Rocky Mount and Stuck by Stickers

Several years ago, Ms. B. and I had climbed a huge, rock-crowned ridge in Rocky Mount, VA, to hunt for a geocache. It's a cool location, with panoramic views of the area, and the rocks are all covered with flat, low-growing cactus. On that first trip up there, I found the cache, but it was archived at some point afterward.

Looking down the slope from GZ

This past year, a different geocacher placed a new cache up there, but it had only been found a time or two before it went missing. Friend Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) and I had ventured up there to hunt it, but by then, it was already gone. Happily, the cache was recently replaced, so I decided to drive up to Rocky Mount again this morning to give it another look-see.

The ridge is very steep and slick with dead leaves, so getting up to ground zero made for a fair physical challenge. Then, once I reached the top, I inadvertently stuck my hand into a cluster of cactus, so I've been trying to extract thousands of little piss-ant cactus needles for the past several hours, and in some cases, it has been an exercise in futility. To be sure, ground zero is a target-rich area, with countless clusters of rocks, trees, logs, nooks, crannies, etc., that might hide a geocache — especially a pill bottle, like this one.

I was up there hunting for so long, I eventually reached out to the cache hiders for a hint. Even once they provided one, it took me a long time to find the thing. The coordinates are pretty far off, so I shot some new ones and posted them with my log for the benefit of future hunters. Anyway, at long last, mission accomplished.

Afterward, I found lunch at the nearby Rocky Mount Smokehouse — a fairly decent pulled pork sandwich with deep-fried corn on the cob on the side, which was interesting enough. Then I cruised over to nearby Ferrum, my old alma mater, where I roamed about for a while before heading back home.

Now, if I could just get the last coupla thousand cactus needles out of my hand....

Close to the edge

A target-rich location

High above the town of Rocky Mount, VA

Tricks, Treats, Ghosties, Ghoulies, and Disembodied Heads

Ahh, there's nothing like some spooky Halloween (or in this case, pre-Halloween) geocaching. On Monday, I hauled myself up the thirty or so miles of scenic backroads to Rocky Mount, VA, primarily to hunt an Adventure Lab cache that takes you on a fun little ghost tour of downtown. Before hitting the town proper, though, I detoured over to some nearby woods to hunt a handful of caches I had yet to find. The first of these made my day — primarily because I did not expect what I found. Needless to say, the photo is a spoiler, so for the sake of the geocachers who follow this blog, I'll not reveal the cache name or its location. Suffice it to say that this one pretty well made my day.

After snagging a couple of more hides, I headed into town to hunt the ghostly Adventure Lab cache. It had five stages, each of which took me to a supposedly haunted location. None of these were particularly spooky, but I enjoyed visiting them for their historic significance. The most interesting to me was finding the original law office of Confederate General Jubal Early, under whom my great-great-great-grandfather and his brothers served during the Civil War. I hope that if any of these ghosts are roaming out and about, they haven't remained "unrepentant rebels," as Early himself was reputed to be following the war.

After the geocaching, I found a so-so lunch at a little Japanese place in Rocky Mount and then rode over to Ferrum College for a brief visit to my old alma mater. After that, home.

For the evening's entertainment, Ms. B. and I watched Hocus Pocus, which is one of her Halloween standards. Back when, I never thought I'd particularly enjoy this one, but it turns out that I very much do. Go figure.

Jubal Early's original law office in Rocky Mount, VA

The reputedly haunted "Farm at the Furnace"

Come Halloween morning, I was up early to fire up the crockpot for a big-ass pork butt. I had it cooking all day, seasoned it up nicely, and, come dinnertime, Ms. B. and I found ourselves with a damned good pulled pork feast. Our plan was to sit out on the front porch with the yard decorations blazing in hopes we might get a few trick-or-treaters. Since I hadn't spent Halloween in this house for many, many years, I had no idea what the turnout might be like.

It was considerably more impressive than I'd expected. We'd counted on a handful, at best, but we ended up with something like thirty. The weather cooperated nicely; it rained during the morning but cleared up by mid-afternoon. After the first couple of groups, I had to hie myself back to the grocery store to pick up more goodies. Happily, they'd already reduced the price on most of the chocolate treats, so I got a whole bunch of the good stuff (Reese's Take Fives). We still ended up with a wee bit left. But I found it very gratifying to see quite a few kids in costume — and all very polite. I understand the turnout was good just about everywhere in town. That makes me feel rather less curmudgeonly than usual.

To end the evening, we watched Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, which Ms. B. wanted to see. I think I saw this as a kid, but I can't be 100% certain. Anyway, it was fairly fun, with great animation. Then we put on Carpenter's Halloween just for shits & giggles, but by the time we got well into the film, the day's rigors and the evening's drink served to mellow me out a bit before the end of the film (as in snoring mellow, according to Brugger). Anyhoo, at least I know how the movie ends.

T'was a damn nice Halloween. I'll take it.

Appetizers on the porch prior to having trick-or-treaters (Mmm.)

Happy Horrorween!

Bad George and Other Blasts From the Past

A busy week it was. Hardly unexpectedly, I received a call from my former boss, asking if I would care to put in a few hours per month freelancing, since, without me, they're pretty much up to their ears in alligators. It's actually a welcome opportunity to keep doing a job I know and enjoy. Plus there's the extra bucks, which can't hurt. I also made considerable progress on Georgia: The Haunting of Tate's Mill. I can see the light at the end of this one.

A few new, local geocaches came out this past week, so I put in a couple of rigorous cache hunts — one in the dumping rain that so waterlogged me that I still have water in my shoes. Friend Old Rob and I shared in the first-to-find, so that made us both smile real big.

In Martinsville over the weekend, I discovered a couple of folders that contained scads of school papers and artwork by both my brother and me, which my mom had saved. I had no idea these existed. Some went back as far as kindergarten. The image you see upstairs there is a pen & ink rendering of my great-uncle Herbert's place in Gainesville, GA, which I drew sometime in the 1980s. My aunt Dot made it into the cover of a greeting card. Perhaps my favorite discovery among these treasures was an unfinished class drawing from second grade. Written on it was the following exchange between my teacher, Ms. Jackson, and me:

Mark: "Sorry I did not get throu. Goarge botherd me."

Ms. Jackson: "Please try to finish your work in the morning. You do not need to talk to George."

I remember George well. I haven't seen him since early in elementary school, but I did find him online. He is apparently an attorney over in Winston-Salem.

Many of my old drawings were plenty violent, with Indian massacres, knights battling on castle towers, dinosaurs and other monsters chowing down on innocent passersby. Some were a bit nicer. There were drawings of my family traveling in an airplane; a pretty decent rendering of my dog, Patty; and a number of reasonably well-rendered space rockets. Below is a drawing I made in third grade, which I thought was actually pretty cool.

On Saturday, I rode up to Rocky Mount to hunt a few caches. It was pretty chilly and very windy for most of the time I was out and about. The couple of hides I found at the Franklin County Parks & Recreation Center on Sontag Road proved simple enough. But at Waid Park, I turned a medium difficulty hike into a rugged and fairly risky venture by doing what I tend to do best: plow straight ahead from point A to point B, damning the torpedoes in the process. I ended up skirting a lengthy portion of the Pigg River, the banks of which were steep and treacherous, and from which a bad step would have had disastrous consequences. Fortunately, I managed to maintain my footing. Once past that little obstacle, I found myself negotiating some hairy inclines and dense, difficult woods. But again, I prevailed, and, soon enough, had the cache in hand. As one might surmise, I felt the effects of this little outing pretty severely a little later. However, once back at home, a fine dinner and some wine with Ms. B. made for a comfortable, relaxing evening.

This morning, friend Natalie (a.k.a. Fishdownthestairs) and I headed down to Siler City, where we knocked out a few entertaining caches we both still needed.

Ms. B. and I are currently working our way through Twin Peaks again, from start to finish. The craving was upon both of us, and it's been quite the treat, since I haven't watched it with her for about a decade. And she'd never seen the third season (The Return), which we just started this evening. She's not the devoted David Lynch fan that I am, but she's been enjoying it so far.

For the coming week, I'm hoping to reach the end of Georgia: The Haunting of Tate's Mill. I'm definitely ready to get this one out to the publisher and into the hands of readers.

All righty then. Get on with you. Peace out.

My first-grade rendering of a United DC-8, circa 1966

Cowboys and Indians having a bad time of it, from my kindergarten days

Fire at Camelot! One of my third-grade drawings

Little Mountain Falls, Cane Creek Mountain, and More

I don't think my knees — and possibly the rest of me — have been this worn out for a while. At least not since I went up Grassy Hill Ridge in Rocky Mount, VA, for a geocache several weeks ago (“Oh, My Achin Feetz,” Feb. 21, 2022). On Friday, I departed Greensboro early in the day, bound for Fairy Stone Park, VA, where a couple of newish caches — one traditional (“A Bench with a View #4” GC9PFKB) and one EarthCache (“Little Mountain Falls” GC9EDWH) — lay in wait for me. The steep and sometimes rugged terrain at Fairy Stone has many times both done me a world of good and damn near done me in. The hike on Friday afternoon was far from the longest I’ve undertaken there, but the elevation changes along the way presented both my legs and my lungs with a healthy challenge. There’s a plenty of up and down both ways, but for the most part, the outbound journey was primarily downhill, leaving the rigorous uphill trek for the return. The scenery in this particular corner of the world is gorgeous, even between seasons as we are. Give it a couple of weeks, and these woods will be as green and lush as a rain forest. In autumn, the colors, as I can testify from considerable experience, are stunning. Little Mountain Falls isn’t especially huge, but the stream trickles down numerous tiers from a significant height — considerably higher than the photograph on the left can capture.

Happily, I found the caches I sought and lived to hike another day. Indeed, I was soon back at it, this time on a regular Sunday geocaching outing with a pair of old farts (friends Diefenbaker, a.k.a. Scott, and Old Rob, a.k.a. Old Rob) at the Cane Creek Mountain Preserve in Alamance County. The hike here, while quite pleasant, was not as strenuous as the one at Fairy Stone. Mind you, it could have been, had we dragged Robert up the mountain to find a number of caches he had not yet claimed. However, since Scott and I both had already found those, Rob declined, ostensibly to save us from undertaking a rugged hike for caches we had already found. When it comes down to it, I’m reasonably certain Old Rob simply didn’t cotton to the idea of having cardiac arrest until he had found all the other caches we had targeted for this trip. At Cane Creek, we found one cache relatively quickly, while the other required an inordinate amount of time searching due to mercilessly bouncing coordinates. In the end, though... happily... we prevailed.

Once done at Cane Creek, we zipped over to the nearby community of Swepsonville, where a relatively short trek on the trail took us to another newish cache. Here, our quarry was easily found and required no hairy terrain stunts to reach. However, I kind of wanted to undertake a hairy terrain stunt, and since the the opportunity was there, with Mr. Scott’s assistance, I availed myself to it (see the photo at right). And then, on to nearby Mebane we went, where we found a couple of more relatively easy hides and then busted the hell out of some lunch at the excellent Catrina's Mexican Restaurant, which Ms. B. had recommended following a visit during one of her artsy-fartsy-craftsy retreats in that area. Ms. B. done good with her recommendation.

Next week... believe it or not, I foresee more hiking and caching. Until then, this is your host, Damned Rodan, saying—

Three Old Farts — Old Rodan, Old Rob, Old Diefenbaker — at the Haw River in Swepsonville

Oh, My Achin’ Feetz

It was a fine weekend for hiking and geocaching, and I put in more mileage, in rugged terrain, than I have in many moons. On my way to Martinsville on Friday afternoon, I detoured to the Knight Brown Preserve, near Belews Lake in Rockingham County, to hunt a cache that’s been awaiting my attention for months now. That hike was about a 3-mile round trip, and though the terrain is not particularly rugged, it presents the hiker with lots of elevation changes. Steep elevation changes. Speaking of elevation changes at the cache coordinates, there was a massive fallen tree over a gully, which offered a splendid vantage point from which to survey one’s kingdom. Always one to appreciate a physical challenge, I was hoping the cache might be up in its branches somewhere, but previous posted logs insinuated that it was not. Never you mind, I decided to go up in that tree anyhow, for we must get our jollies as we can. It was from that vantage point that I noticed the cache, just a few feet away, at a much lower elevation. I would have preferred to have to climb for it, but hey... I found it and signed the log so I could claim it. And I got my jollies in the big tree. That’s a good day.

Once settled at Pleasant Hill for the evening, I ordered some chicken tenders from Coach’s Neighborhood Grill via Doordash, and after the afternoon’s hike, the dead bird hit the spot. I put on This Island Earth for the evening’s entertainment, but I ended up dozing through a portion of it. It’s one of those science-fiction movies from childhood that have stood out in mind for all these years. I’ve watched it a handful of times in the intervening years, but I kind of hate that I missed part of it this time around. I can always watch it again, at least as long as it’s on YouTube. The print excellent — the best I’ve seen of it.

One of the things I adore about Pleasant Hill is the minimal light pollution at night. From the hilltop on which the house rests, the view of the sky is often spectacular. Friday night was very cold but clear, and I spent a little while outside enjoying the view. Even with my phone camera, I got a few decent shots of the constellation Orion.

“Orion, won’t you give me your star sign.”

On Saturday morning, I drove up to Rocky Mount, VA, hoping to claim a recently placed cache and a much older multi (which has been out there since before I started geocaching in 2008) called Grassy Hill Ridge (GCQXD4). The new one was a quick and easy find at a signpost; Grassy Hill Ridge is one that, a few years back, friend Natalie (a.k.a. Ms. Fishdownthestairs) and I had sought, but the first stage was missing, so we hadn’t been able to go on with the hunt. Reaching this cache requires a roughly three-mile hike up and down a rugged mountainside. For most of that hike, the ascent was steady, on a reasonably well-worn trail. However, the last few hundred feet required negotiating a very steep, rocky incline that tested the limits of my stamina. I took even more care than usual in rough terrain, since I was out there alone, a long way from help. I really did not want to fall and bust something worse than my pride. Happily, I made the find and returned to civilization with all parts intact. Aching, but intact.

Grassy Hill Ridge. Not much grass, but lots of rocks. The cache lurks way up at the top of the ridge—
several hundred feet above where I’m standing to take this photo.

Looking down from GZ, with the cache in the foreground. It’s a long, long way down!

After the hike and a late, ungodly overpriced lunch from Dairy Queen, I buzzed back to Greensboro. Ms. B. and I are back watching Game of Thrones from the beginning, so we spent most of the rest of the evening in front of the television, covered with cats.

Sunday, my traditional geocaching day, usually with the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars, was indeed a caching day, but with only friend Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker), as none of the rest of the gang was available. And it was another day of hiking rugged terrain, this time in the Uwharrie Mountains. We planned to meet at the Eldorado Outpost, but I had stopped for a cache on my way there, and Scott happened to see my car as he was passing by. We grabbed that cache and then headed to the trading post. From there, we headed deeper into the forest. We put in a good five miles of hiking in moderate to tough terrain, claimed a slew of caches, and returned to the outpost, where we enjoyed a very good, far more reasonably priced lunch than I’d had at Dairy Queen the previous day.

Old Rodan at “Poser Rock”

Guardrails along the woodland trail. Don’t see that every day.

A couple of tired old farts

Today, Monday, is Presidents Day, but since I’m no longer forced to operate on a company schedule, remembering such days doesn’t come so readily. Ms. B. is off work, though, so she is a woman of leisure today (although she did do a spot of housecleaning this morning, which was good, since the cleaning needed to be done, and it was most definitely her turn... haha). I was all set to finish up this blog and dive into continuing work on Georgia: The Haunting of Tate’s Mill, but right about the time I settled into my office chair, I received email notifications that a couple of new caches had just been published. These were over in Graham, on the Long Meadow section of the Haw River Trail. Figuring I might be able to snag the first-to-find honors (which really aren’t a significant honor), I bolted out the door and drove out to the trail. Happily, I was able to find both caches — and, sure enough, I found them first. So, the old sore feet got an additional reason to be sore, though this hike (about 2.5 miles) was not rugged at all. But it was fun. And I got first-to-find.

NOW it’s back to work on the Ameri-Scares book. Toodles.

Passing under Interstate 40/85 on the Haw River Trail

Ground Zero: the cache is there... somewhere.