The Great Letchworth Adventure!

Last weekend I finished my cache (AKA: The Hike) in Letchworth State Park - and once it was all set in place I decided to let it cure until the following Friday.  I was really happy when it went live.  It's been a while coming, but it was finally out in the cosmos for mass consumption.  So knowing that there might be people looking to find this shiny new adventure, Chicky and I decided to spend the day caching/hiking in the park.  There are a few caches I wanted to work on, and at the same time I thought it would be neat to loiter in the area and see who might be brave enough to tackle this one. 

The morning started off a little precarious, as WNY was getting hammered with monsoon like rains.  Reports indicated that the storms would move out of the area by mid-morning, so we decided to start the morning off by snagging a little breakfast at the Eagle Inn, located in the cow-filled metropolis of Eagle, New York.  Haha.  From there we watched the rain pour and pour, but it must have been Mother Nature's last hurrah, because after that the hardest of the rain let up.

From there we were free to travel to Letchworth under cloudy and mostly dry skies.  The first stop was to cruise by the parking locations for my cache.  The Hike recommends parking in two different locations, one to start your journey and one to end your journey (there's about 2.5 miles of road between the start and end points of the cache).  Anyway, there were a few cars littered about on this side of the park - in what would turn out to be hunters actually (I have no clue what season is open right now...probably something bizarre). 

None of the vehicles looked familiar, so we headed into the park to start a cache called 20,000 Meters Under the Cache by MysterySolvers6.  I wish I could tell you what that means...but all I can figure is it's a play on words, from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by french novelist Jules Verne (who in his Wiki picture looks like a happy fella).  As far as I know, whales are not indigenous to mainland Western New York, and I'm pretty sure park management would be awful sore if you went tearing along the Genesee River in a submarine.  Not that I wouldn't consider it.  But I digress...

The cache is a 5-part multi, so it takes you to many different spots on your way to your final destination.  With the sun started to finally peek through the clouds, we parked near the first stage at Inspiration Point and started our journey.  While Chicky looked for the cache, I took pictures. 
 

Pretty sweet huh?

From there we made several other stops in order to complete the necessary requirements and find the final cache.  Because I don't want to give all the fun away, I will just shut up and post a few pictures for you to oooh and aww over.

The flowers are starting to bloom - yay!

The Lower Falls were raging really hard today.

Heading back down the trail.

No worries, there's like 18 more miles to go.  Haha.

In the end we got in a few miles of beautiful trail and scenery - in many places I haven't visited in years.  The longer we hiked, the nicer the day got.  By early afternoon, the sun was out and there were beautiful blue skies. This was the perfect day to be in Letchworth! 

At some point in the morning, while in between legs, we got a call from Paleoman and Butterflyguy.  They were working on my new cache!  I was pretty excited to hear from them, until they told me they had made a wrong turn somewhere.  After trying to figure out where exactly they were, we determined they had overshot a turn in the trail and were going to have to backtrack.  To provide a little guidance, Chicky and I headed over to the other side of the park and quickly made our way down the Bear Meadow access trail to where it met with the Finger Lakes Trail.  Just as we were approaching, I saw them crossing a gully just ahead.  I shouted out to them, and soon we were chatting about their already thrilling morning adventure!  After making sure they had all the necessary information, we parted ways - us back to the truck and them on to the rest of my cache.  I was pretty excited that there were people tackling it, even on a day as wet and muddy as this. 

Please someone might very well find the cache today, Chicky and I returned to our own caching adventure.  On our way back to conclude 20,000 Meters Under the Cache we made a pit stop at the Parade Grounds in Letchworth to find another cache I had started previously called Civil War Connections in LSP by Dehgewanus.  This is a puzzle/multi that explores the wealth of Civil War-related history that is present in the park.  Again, I don't want to give too much away - so here we go with a few pictures!!!

A biggun under the blue skies!

Chicky holding up the prize loud and proud!

Heading down the FLT under the sun - that's the way we rolllllllll.

After we were done playing on this particular section of FLT we went on to complete the rest of our geo-adventures - which actually required us to take a circuitous route to one leg where we ran into more cachers!  This time Howie and Jan were driving down the park road on the east side of the park - and happened to see us returning back to our truck.  It was really nice seeing them, and after chatting for a bit about the "geo-scene" we went our separate ways.  

Chicky and I eventually ended our day in Letchworth.  We had a blast playing in the park today, especially with the added bonus of seeing so many familiar friendly faces.  To celebrate the great hikes, good caches and fun times, we hit Carneys Market in Castile, NY for pizza slices and drinks.  It was delicious - and the perfect way to round out this Saturday outside.  In total, I ended up driving well over 100 miles in and around Letchworth - seeing so many beautiful sights.  I love this place - and I can't wait to return!