“Strategies Against Architecture” and Such

“Strategies Against Architecture” is the name of a series of geocaches in the Triangle of North Carolina, where the caches are placed in or around the crumbling remains of old structures, usually in the remote woods. Several different geocachers from that area have placed caches in the series. The photo at left shows such remains — however much of them you can see. All that's left of this one is an old stone chimney, some random stones from the foundation, and a few piles of ancient refuse. This was clearly once a house, but there’s no telling how long ago it fell into ruin. The state of the remains suggests it's been many, many decades since this was a habitable dwelling. I do love discovering locations such as this, particularly when they are a bit more intact. Geocaching has taken me to many of these. Happily, we found the cache here in good condition.

It turned out to be another fine day for a gathering of Team No Dead Weight: friends Natalie (a.k.a. Fishdownthestair) and Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker). We chose as our primary destination the gamelands along Jordan Lake, accessed from Seaforth Road. Natalie and I had cleared a section of these gamelands a few months back, but we had left an even dozen caches out there unclaimed. All that wilderness seemed a pretty good place to hunt caches while practicing social distancing, and that, sure enough, turned out to be the case. There were a couple of others cars in the parking area, but we never saw another living soul at there. Hardly a surprise, given the relatively vast area, the rugged terrain, and the scarcity of trails. Quite a difference from some of the nearby hiking trails, where the parking areas were filled beyond overflowing, with cars lining both sides of the highways.

Too. Many. Motherfucking. People. Oy. Thanks be to Yog I am not a people.

Until today, we’ve had a mild spring, probably the mildest in a decade or more. It’s been great for getting out hiking during the pandemic, but today, the heat — right about the 90-degree mark — and excessive humidity made for some exhausting hiking. No matter; we found some excellent caches, got in plenty of exercise, and enjoyed each other’s company (from at least the requisite six feet at all times). I was pleasantly taken to see the signatures of my former next-door neighbors, Paul & Jamie, a.k.a. TravelinFarmFam, on some of the cache logs. They had apparently been out there caching on my birthday.

Happily, in the Cary/Apex area, there are still quite a few wilderness areas/gamelands/parks loaded with caches, so I hope I won’t run out of relatively nearby places to hike and hunt caches anytime soon.

Stay safe.

All that remains of the old foundation at "Strategies Against Architecture: Neglect" (GC24VTD)

This is not the cache.

Neither is this.

One of the more scenic areas we found on our excursion into the gamelands

And another.

Left: dinosaur bones? Right: We never found a trail until we were on our way back to the cars.

Venturing Forth to Seaforth

A couple of the Usual Suspects: Old Rodan, Ms. Fishdownthestair

As we count down to Christmas, overworked and overloaded doesn't begin to describe the state of affairs at Casa di Rodan. This past week, two old friends of the family passed away in Martinsville — Willard Harris, who had been one of my parents' best friends since I was a kid, and Ron Ferrill, father of my early 1980s girlfriend Allison. On Thursday, I went up to the Ville to attend Mr. Ferrill's viewing at the funeral home. I did get to see Allison for the first time in almost 40 years, as well as her mom, whom I've encountered a handful of times over the years. It was good to see them, sad under the circumstances. I had long admired and liked Mr. Ferrill, who was one of Martinsville's preeminent citizens during my lifetime. Interestingly, I ran into Mrs. Isley, my fifth-grade English teacher. Talk about a pleasant surprise.

Yesterday, after a quick visit with Mum, Brugger and I joined up with friends Terry & Beth to sample a few spirits at the Winston-Salem Wine Market as well as at Raylen Vineyards, not far away. The spirits flowed very nicely (and there was a new geocache at the Wine Market, which I happily claimed). Afterward, we retired to the Nelsons' place to have some vittles and watch Animal House and Stripes. And those were fun, as I'd not seen either in many years.

From the racket we heard in the distance, I'm pretty
sure Bigfoot was out there playing Bigfoot party games.

Today, friend Natalie (a.k.a. fishdownthestair) and I ventured forth to the gamelands between Seaforth Road and Jordan Lake, just outside Pittsboro, that we might hunt a number of the geocaches lurking back in those woods. Most of the caches there go back many years — most of those we hunted today date back to 2007, with a handful from 2010. Virtually every one of those we found (seven, plus one park & grab along the road) was truly a moldy oldie, but at least we managed to get our sigs on the log sheets. We logged DNFs (Did Not Find) on two, which we're confident have simply gone missing. However, it was at the site of one of those we didn't find that we discovered the most intriguing location of the day — an old family graveyard in the woods, with graves going back as far as the late 18th century. The newest marker that I found was from 1914. Ms. FDTS and I spent quite a while both looking for the errant container as well as exploring the realm of the dead. As I've said before, lovely, hidden places such as this one surely take some of the annoyance out of being buried.

At the end of the geocaching, some five hours and three-plus miles later, we hauled ourselves over to our traditional post-caching in Pittsboro lunch location, The Carolina Brewery. Both of us availed ourselves to the Winter Special "Brewer's Burger," with grilled onions, black-pepper mayo, pickles, and pepper jack cheese. I had one of their nice Flagship IPAs to accompany. Say what you will, I am a fan of the IPAs, at least on those relatively rare occasions that I partake of beer.

And that was the outing in a nutshell. Back to the frenetic work pace, at least until Tuesday....

If I don't make it back here before then, well, Merry Honkin' Christmas to the lot of ye.

A nice view of Pirates' Cove on Jordan Lake

One of the walking dead near the old graveyard. Note it wears blaze orange, no doubt to avoid
being shot in the head by accident.

Some of the ancient graves

Caching goes better with Coke.