 | eCachecommentary from down jersey |
39° 13.415N
74° 53.191W
East Creek Trail
The East Creek Trail is a 7.16 mile trail in Belleplain State Forest in Cape May County, NJ. I wrote a review of this hike for LocalHikes.com several years ago.
This is one of my favorite trails to hike; it’s good exercise.
This hunt appears to be a duplicate of this one.
The other day I found some geocaches. One of the things I wanted to do with that tour was to play around again with EveryTrail. I had futzed last summer, but had forgotten about it. There have been some improvements, but it is still kludgy to use.
I had to edit out a portion of track so as not to disclose the locations of a couple puzzle caches. That is still a tedious process to do on their site. It seemed like that has to be done at the end of the process, so I ended up repeating myself.
One improvement they made is providing this nice little widget so I can display the map and some photographs on my site. I like that.
39° 14.083N
74° 54.450W
This cache changed the way I go geocaching. Long ago I cleared out this area. When reviewing maps later I noticed this cache. I wondered why I hadn’t sought it when I was in the area. It wasn’t even in my GPS to be found. It is on the border of Cumberland and Cape May counties, but in Cape May. When I ran my Cumberland filter it obviously did not show up. When I ran Cape May, I didn’t look at the map this far northwest as that is not the area I was concentrating on as I thought it was cleared. So now I go about this differently. 
Once I figured that out, I spotted the likely entry. I have been down here several times since, but it is either the first cache or the last of the run. Usually I have a desire to get to the furthest spot first and work back. By the time I am done, I am almost running late, so never stop on my way back. Today, I put in the middle, but up front.
After a successful four caches, I hit a snag at the Blue Hole. I had Circle of Life up next after this and I had DNFd that one previously too. This was going to be the rough period of the day. And I fully expected I might need to hoof it in here.
Anyhow, I drove in. The path narrowed, but it was possible. I had to jump a downed tree, but that went without a hitch.
I parked 150′ away and strolled down to the water. There were three swans hovering in the inlet here. As soon as they spotted me they took off! I like the sight of water birds flapping away.
The coordinates had me bouncing around down here. First one side of the trail. Then the other. I never seemed to get too close before they swung back. Frustrated after a couple minutes I stopped to enjoy the view. I then asked myself, “Where would you hide the cache?” That didn’t help either, but as I pondered that question, I spotted the red lid off in the distance. I don’t think the coordinates were pointing that direction either, but I stepped out and retrieved the container (mustard jar?).
I signed in and took a few more photographs.
On the way out, as I bounced along, I came across a couple hikers. At first I thought I was on the wrong trail, but it turns out I was correct. They stepped aside and let me pass. We exchanged pleasantries. I saw their truck a little closer to 347. Apparently, they were geocachers too. (more…)
39° 16.716N
74° 47.897W
After The Old Dam I headed down to this cache. I had to decide from whence to commence the hike in. I think I made the correct decision. I passed much illegal dumping before I got into the bog area. I shot right by the cache before looping back. Ah Maggie, one would think after all our time together we would have resolved that. Anyhow, came to the water. Saw a big footprint from someone who had misjudged his footing. I then began noticing other footprints in the snow. These were fresh. This guy must have approached differently.
Anyhow, slung back to an area and was within five feet when I did two loops around the same tree. While enjoying the walk through the soft snow on this gorgeous morning, Jerry was singing ever so sweetly in my ears.
A pistol shot at 5 o’clock
The bells of heaven ring
“Tell me what you done it for”
“No I won’t tell you a thing“Yesterday I begged you
before I hit the ground -
all I leave behind me
is only what I found“If you can abide it
let the hurdy-gurdy play -
Stranger ones have come by here
before they flew away“I will not condemn you
nor yet would I deny”
“I would ask the same of you
but failing will not die“Take up your china doll
it’s only fractured -
and just a little nervous
from the fall”
I could not have come up with a better song to capture the moment. Serendipity indeed.
A moment later the cache was in hand. Coordinates were just a bit loose for me, but nothing drastic . . . about 25′, which is certainly within range. One needs to remember, this is Belleplain. :) Cache was in fine shape and all was dry.
It seemed like there was even more dumping on the way out, yet, it was the same stuff I passed on the way in. Go figure. (more…)
39° 11.913N
74° 51.279W
Well, after a wonderful day, I thought I would try to squeeze one last one in. Sigh . . . it was a DNF. The caches that folks describe as clever or tough seem to be the ones that elude me. I suppose I suck at this game.
I saw the marker C.C. Cachers mentioned. But I saw no cache. After searching for a while, I decided to try another day.
