Monday, May 30, 2011

Alma Pond and the canoe that could!

It was Memorial Day - a day to celebrate, reflect, give thanks and subsequently paddle my ass across open bodies of water to fulfil zero day obligations.  And as it would be on this beautiful sunny Memorial Day, I would also be able to test out my Szuchie Mark I canoe rack system by driving down to Alma Pond near Wellsville, New York.  So with our floatable steed Starseed thrown atop the Suvie, Chicky and I headed out nice and early to try and beat the heat before temperatures creeped into the 90's as predicted (WTF - this is springtime in NY, that's way too damn hot!).

I was a little leery about my hodge-podge canoe rack, but I'll be danged...the thing worked perfectly!  I was so proud...I might have to market them and make trillions.  T.S. Thule and Yakima, there's a new cowboy in town!  Ironically, as we were heading south driving through Belfast, a pickup truck passed us going the opposite direction with three canoes/kayaks on the hood - - all supported by a pair of two-by-fours.  So clearly I'm not the only person on Earth who isn't content in spending $300 on two slivers of Swedish-fabricated plastic.

The highlight of our pre-paddling day was stopping in Wellsville for breakfast.  There's a little place on South Main Street called The Modern Diner.  This was a "greasy spoon" in every sense of the word - highlighted by the novel fact that above the counter there was a sign that indicated the distance of just about every legitimate town in New York State.  So as I sat there nibbling on my omelet, I found solace in knowing Arcade was only 43 miles away.  Haha.

At around 9am we hit the shores of Alma Pond.  According to the DEC, this is an 86-arce artificial impoundment located on the headwaters of Honeoye Creek.  Up until a week ago, I didn't even know it existed - but once I noticed there was a canoe cache here called The Far Side of Alma Pond by Brownout, I knew I had to pay a visit ASAP.  And boy I was glad that we did.  Within moments of detatching Starseed from the sultry grip of my Szuchie Mark I's (the shameless plugs probably won't end anytime soon), we were preparing to cast off from the hand launch.  With the exception of one fisherman we ran into as he was packing up and heading out, there wasn't a soul to be found anywhere around Alma pond.  That = hecka awesome.

Chicky's butt...er...the pond I mean...after casting off!
The pond was extremely peaceful, and almost entirely surrounded by woods.  It was an amazing setting.  The two things that I found odd though, were the extreme abundance of huge swarming flies (eww...gross), and the fact that the lake was really cloudy.  Reading the DEC website now, I realize why that was:

Despite being a very shallow pond, aquatic vegetation is lacking due to the lack of transparency of the water generally caused by algae blooms and turbidity due to the feeding activity of the bullhead and carp.

That would explain the pea-soup thing Alma had going on:

That's some hardcore turbidity going on there.
The cache from the hand launch was a little under a third of a mile, so it wasn't going to be a very long paddle before arriving at our first stop.  Of course, as we got out into the center of the pond, we got a better perspective as to the beauty of this spot.


As we closed the last 400 feet to the cache we picked a point along the shore in a little cove to dock our dinghy and hike into the woods to find the prize.  This was a superbly secluded spot, and once we mastered the art of parallel parking a canoe, we exited the boat safely and prepared the 150 foot trek to the cache.  Here's a couple shots from our cove-away-from-cove:




The woods surrounding the pond were as stunning as the pond itself.  Lush vegitation, little babbling runoffs and plenty of big happy hardwoods.  I was excited as I approached the zero, because this cache had not been found since August 2010 and being the first-finder in nine months was a neat bonus to all this nonsense.  Sure enough, there was the cache ready to be found.  There's not much else I like more than finding a big old 50-caliber ammobox waiting for me!


There was some celebratory whooping-and-hollering to be heard as we cracked the can and did our admin duties.  We made sure to rehid it nice and good for the next fortunate finder, and returned to our cove to decide what we would do next.  According to the GPS, there was another cache called Alma Pond a half-mile away that was located right along the shore.  Sure you could park within 100 feet of it, but we came all this way and had to squeeze every second out of our paddle time here.  So it was decided to cross back to the other side of the lake to find this cache.  Safely into the canoe, we pushed off from shore and started northeast to our next destination.

It was gorgeous on the lake, and I really enjoyed every minute we spent floating about.  A half-mile in a canoe is extremely short, and in no time we rolled up near the cache site.  We saw a parking spot, so we pulled up and unloaded.  It seemed that every time we got close to the shore, the flies would become a swarming obnoxious mess.  There must have been 100 huge flies buzzing all over the place here.  It was surreal, and yes...a teeny-bit gross.  Haha.  Once we left the shore, it was mostly bug free, and after the GPS got done screwing around, it gave us a bead on the cache, and once again I was signing into an ammo can that I had paddled too.

Our parking spot for the Alma Pond cache.
Seemingly confidant in our unblemished canoe-wrangling skills, we attempted to re-enter Starseed and continue our sojourn at Alma Pond.  For whatever reason (be it the swarming flies, the sweltering heat, or the general euphoria one feels from geo-yachting), I sort of lost sight of the prize...and by that I mean the ability to maintain my balance while keeping Starseed afloat.  One second I was watching Chicky stabalize the canoe from shore while I hopped on and tried to keep her sturdy...the next moment I'm cannonballing into green water...

SPLASHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

Now that I was sufficiently wet from the neck down, I assessed the situation (while trying to ignore the fact that I smelled like week old fish).  Thankfully Chicky was high-and-dry on land with the electronics, so the only real harm done was that we had to dump a dozen gallons or so of pond water out of Starseed.  This was done pretty quick, and "Boarding Part II" went much more smoothly.  Here's what I look like after being B's D. in P.W.


By the time we arrived back at the launch, I had started to dry off.  Also, the pond had attracted quite a few visitors who gathered along the shore to fish, sun bathe and enjoy the amazing Memorial Day weather.  This was a great start to the canoeing season - here's hoping there are many more!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The great non-catered Pennsylvanian adventure...

I'm not exactly sure how we ended up in Northern Pennsylvania today...but for whatever reason, I feel like Cayuga and I were in search of a breakfast nook that accepted Mastercard.  Truth be told, we've traveled hundreds of miles for much less impressive reasons. 

Anyway, in a desperate search for bacon and eggs, we ended up screwing around Allegheny National Forest.  Located in Pennsylvania, and encompassing over 512,000 acres of territory (I just looked that up and might have pooped a little...WOW that is big).  There are many popular sections of ANF, but one of the more popular is the Kinzua Dam region.  The dam is considered one of the largest dams east of Mississippi River, and certainly an impressive sight to behold.  The dam in-turn created the Allegheny Reservoir.  The reservoir is 24 miles long and covers over 21,000 acres.  That's a whole lot of water folks.

What's that mean to this story?  Not much.  I'm just super fascinated by the stuff I just learned.  Haha.

Seriously though, our trek took us to the reservoir, and a spot called Rimrock Overlook.  This rocky bluff overlooks the reservoir, and boasts rock formations that are multiple stories in height.  Check out the link - because this is a most excellent spot (especially "the tunnel" and some of the caves in the area).  There's a couple ways to visit Rimrock Overlook.  The first being you can drive up the mountain and make the short walk to the cliffs.  The other is start down by the reservoir and hike the Rimrock Trail up.  Doing half of the latter was our plan of attack today - seeing as there were a couple new caches that we wanted to check out - one called Rimrock Trail Cache by Kcepenn being approximately halfway up the trail.

I know I know...I've bored you to death.  How about a picture?  Here's what the trailhead at the bottom looks like:


From there we started our journey by finding a pretty quick park-and grab, before finally sinking our teeth into a little "in the woods" hiking.  The trail was beautiful - and of course very much uphill.  Haha.  I didn't complain too much (which is normal hiking faire when uphill hiking becomes involved).  And because you're   been oh-so-amicable about reading this blahg, here are some more pictures to ogle over:

The start of the Rimrock trail before all that fun uphill stuff.
Cayuga doesn't only find caches...
The sun peeking through the ANF woodlot.
Aww...ain't he just the most precious thing.
More fun in the woods!
At the bottom looking toward a small portion of the reservoir.
Work it baby.
This venture out into ANF was exceptional, and from there we made a few other stops before slowly starting our way north.  There were a myriad of other new caches, but most of them were pretty unimpressive, unimaginative and unscrupulous.  All that junk aside, there was one particular spot that I loved.  It was located in Frewsburg, New York in a park called Erlandson Overview Park (and the aptly named Erlandson Overview Park Cache by the Carlsons).  How the hell we landed in Chautauqua County, New York is beyond me, but what we discovered was one of the highest points in the county, which if you looked nice and hard, you could see Chautauqua Lake off in the distance.  And in a Szuchie's Grand Escape first, we're going interactive!  Think of it as a much more interesting "Where's Waldo?"  See if you can find it in the picture below:

Trust me...Chatty Lake is in this pic somewhere...
The hills are alive with...breakfast I hope!
A great vantage point from Erlandson Overview Park.
Plenty to see here - and some nice trails to boot!
From there Cayuga and I slowly wrapped up our whirlwind adventure.  Ironically, after spending several hours driving all over Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania, we never did find a breakfast joint that would take credit cards!  We failed...but hey, we had fun in the process and saw some pretty sweet sights!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Necessity meets stupidity (AKA: How I changed the world with $10.62).

There have been many inspiring artists, inventors and thinkers throughout the annals of history.  These Renaissance men created beautiful images and items of untold use with their own hands.  They looked at the world around them and sought answers for the questions surrounding mankind.  Their brilliance had no end, and when they seamlessly mastered one vocation, they would explore another to the benefit and awe of all humanity.  You have heard their names as examples of the most ingenious minds of all time...Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, Issac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Colonel Harland Sanders....the list goes on and on.  They were innovators, and their contributions still amaze us today.

This story is not about such a scenario, individual or circumstance.  Not even close.

You see...a couple of years ago, Chicky procured a canoe.  It's pretty.  Here's a picture of what it looks like floating on grass:


It's named Starseed (because all sea-faring crafts need a name).  The name of this particular vessel was derived from a Canadian rock group named Our Lady Peace and their song Starseed.  The story goes that, as we were trying to decide what to name the canoe, this jaunty tune came on the radio.  Being one of our personal fav's, we had to try it out...and the name stuck.  Inconsequential history is fun right?

Since that time, we've had to haul Starseed around using my parent's pickup as it was the only vehicle we had available to us that could carry around a 150-pound yacht.  Of course using the truck came with a slew of strings attached, including a hefty gas bills.  The negotiation process alone was traumatic!

Anyway, this past winter that all changed .  I purchased my Suvie, and now had something that could transport our dear Starseed from one location to another.  The hitch in this well designed plan, was that while my Suvie had roof rails (the rails that run parallel to the sides of the vehicle), it didn't come with crossbars that ran from one rail to another.  When I asked the nice people at the Nissan dealership how much installing two cheaply made slats of plastic totalling seven feet would run me, they smiled and said, "$300 dollars, with about $75 to install."  After I finished laughing in their faces and inquiring if they realized how ridiculous they sounded saying that out loud with a straight face, I decided to do some research of my own.

Apparently crossbars for a Nissan Suvie are forged in the fires of Mordor and varnished with the tears of angels because well known roof rack distributors like Thule and Yackima wanted well over $300 for their product.  So I was reduces to skulking around discount rack places.  It was there I learned that my Nissan has the largest damn roof rails on earth.  It would take you a three day trip just to circumvent around their girth.  I like my Suvie, but WTF Nissan!?!?

Nation.....I'm not a tightwad, but to pay $300+ for something I'll use a handful of times a year seems excessive and dumb.  Especially for something that is just glorified PVC pipe clamped to my roof!

And then it hit me....eat your heart out Da Vinci:


Yes folks, handcrafted from the tawdry isles of Value Home Center - I give you the Szuchie Mark I roof crossbars.  They are sleek, aerodynamic, can handle 200 pounds of cargo, and are designed with Sharpie block lettering.  All this and more can be yours for the affordable price of $10.62. 

What's that you say, how can such a high-quality peice of American craftsmanship be so affordable? 

Believe it or not, eight feet of PVC pipe is unlawfully cheap.  That alone was $8.  Throw in four caps for the ends, and a dozen zip ties...and you have yourself the most ghetto damn roof rack system on the face of the planet.  As this particular blahg entry has most unequivocally illustrated, I'm a total idiot.  But I'm not such an idiot that I won't run some field trials of this extravagant system.

So my plan will be to attached these to my Suvie, and spend the day doing what I would normally do.  If they don't fly off and impale any unexpected passersby, I'm golden baby.  This weekend I could be canoeing!!!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

My Saturday Tour of Catt County

I woke up early this morning - and south into Cattaraugus County I went!  When May rolls around, that means it's time for the Allegany Geo-Bash, a huge caching event which is held in Allegany State Park.  This is an annual event, which first started in 2006.  At the time, it was a tiny local affair (with under 100 attendees).  Over the years, it's grown into a mega-event, with approximately 500 people visiting from all over the country, with even some people flying in internationally to attend.  It the largest annual event of it's kind in New York and Pennsylvania (but I have no real research to back that up...haha).

I'm not really the 'event attending' type (at least not as much these days...which I think probably needs some amending), but I did want to pop in and pick up some event swag and say "hi" to one of the organizers, a gentleman that goes by the handle of HeadMJ.  He's been responsible for placing some of my favorite caches in the park (which I have probably discuss ad nauseum in other posts...haha), so I thought it would be cool to meet him in person for the first time.  Anyhoo, checking out the event and meeting him was the first part of my plan.  The second was to work on the Enchanted Mountains GeoTrail (EMGT).

The EMGT's are a series of 32 caches in Cattaraugus County - one per each of the 32 townships.  The object is to visit each town, find the cache, write down the keyword, and upon completing all 32, you turn in all the keywords to get a coin or a tractor or some damn thing.  Hahaha.  Aside from handing out free stuff, the series was devised by the Catt County Tourism Department to bolster the regional economy.  If geocaching has taught me anything, it's that people will travel to complete challenges, series, and other unique caches.  So why not exploit that in the form of "tourist" dollars to support the local economy.  It's a pretty cool idea, which has been utilized in some form or another in other areas of the country.  The most notable one within striking distance from WNY is the Allegheny GeoTrail in North Eastern Pennsylvania.

Bored yet?  Yeah yeah...I'm starting to bore myself too.  Anyway...the purpose of all that rambling was to convey the following:  Eric + Catt County = plenty of nerdy caching.  Incidentally, that also means a lot of driving.  I visited the vast majority of south/southwest Catt County today.  All of the caches were relatively quick finds, so I won't blah-blah about them individually, but instead show you photos of everything I saw!  How "yay" is that kiddies!?!

The Main Admin Building overlooking Redhouse Lake in ASP.
The trailhead (and cutsie bridge) in ASP along the
North Country Trail (NCT).
Just 18 miles?  Nahhhhhhhhhhh...
Larch along the NCT in ASP.
Carrollton has the cutest critters EVER!
Looking at the babbling splendor of Rice Brook in Carrollton.
Onoville Marina...totally awesome!
An old cemetery in Conewango...the last stop on my
whirlwind tour of Cattaraugus County!

In total I probably put like 12,000 miles on my car and spent a small fortune on gas, but the end result was a great day outside exploring many places I had never visited before.  My only regret was that I didn't have more time, as I'm sure there were many quality caches that I passed which would have taken me to additional spots.  I guess it will have to wait until my next motorcar tour around the County.

Only 5 more townships left...then I'm done!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Puzzled and Lost in Stiggy Park

It was a zero day.  A zero day unlike any other.  Whoa…let me put the literary brakes on that…let’s not get too carried away just yet.  For most of the morning and afternoon, it poured out, just as it’s been prone to do every day this spring.  I was starting to think that the powers of nature were going to call my bluff (you know, the one where I flip the sky the bird and say I’m going caching come hell or high water.  Yeah, that bluff…)  Truth of the matter is, it’s mostly smoke and mirrors.  I would go hiking in the rain, but it probably wouldn’t be as much fun for me as it is for some psychotic bloggers I know.

So I sat there pouting, wondering if the clouds would miraculously disintegrate, while at the same time angels would fall from the heavens, choirs would sing, I would quarterback a team to the Super Bowl, I win a billion dollars, discover I was the Lindbergh baby, befriend the Cadbury Bunny and subsequently master Midas’ golden touch.

Believe it or not, I might be the Lindbergh baby, but in other news…the weather actually started to break!  According to Cayuga-Watch-4 reports from Amherst, he indicated that the sun did indeed still exist.  With a zero day cleaving a whole in my pocket, and the possibility of sunlight up north, I decided to head to West Seneca to try All is Not Lost by Hucklebuckle.  There was a smidgen of novelty attributable to this cache.  It has only 4 finders since being placed in January 2010, it’s considered a lonesome cache seeing as it has not been found in over a year, it’s a puzzle I actually solved (I’m as shocked as anyone), AND it’s placed by everyone’s favorite retired-twelve-times-over-but-still-caching cacher, H to the Bizzle!

This cache was a crazy wee puzzle, that required you to solve another puzzle, find that cache, and then get the coordinates for this puzzle.  Follow that?  The premise was based on the TV show Lost, which I know absolutely nothing about.  Normally I would treat you to a dweeby dissertation on important plot points, but I’ve decided that I can let Huck do that since he is now aware that this blog exists (and it’s about time he started pulling his damn weight anyway). 

All aspects of this cache were hidden in Stiglmeier Park (AKA: Losson and/or Stiggy Park).  THAT, is something I WILL ramble on about.  According to Hiking Trails in Western New York, Stiggy Park encompasses 308 acres of grounds, including nature trails and sports fields.  As geo-history goes, at one point in time this Park was a cache-finding oasis, to the extent that there were only a couple spots where you could put a cache that met Geocaching.com's distance compliance guidelines (which requires that all physical caches should be 528 feet (0.10) from one another).  Needless to say the park was pretty crammed with hides - but interestingly enough, almost all of them were decent and of the non-micro variety. 

Before caching, I didn't know this park existed - but since my first visit here (sometime in 2006), I've been here numerous times to hike and have wild and zany adventures.  Today was the first time I had set foot in the park in a couple years - so it was wonderful to return.  As I pulled into the parking lot, Huck sat there waiting for me.  Reunited (and feeling so good), we made our way to the first stop to retrieve the necessary coordinates for the All is Not Lost.


The great thing about Stiggy Park is that the trail system here is very well designed and even better maintained.  There are many wooden bridges, and the little swamps and other open hardwoods sections of the forest are exceptional.  Plus, the animals are really tame and often times deer will walk within 30 feet of you and not be bothered in the least bit. 

The trail in was pretty muddy - and since I was a dummy I was wearing crocs and not something more conducive to mud and water.  I sucked it up and soon we found the necessary information I needed to get to the final for All is Not Lost.

Huck striking a pose...I think.  Haha.

The view near our first stop!
After I had the coords, we returned back to the vehicles as we had to travel to a different section of the park.  This took us down a new set of trails, and some bushwhacking to get to the right spot to find the cache.  When caches aren't found for this long, I always wonder if they are still there - - but this section of the park was pretty remote, and upon our approach, I found the cache very quick!  The first finder in over a year...sweeeeet:


When I cracked the cache I was surprised to see some scribbles inside.  Then I realized it was something Chicky and I had wrote a few years back when Huck celebrated his "nearly" 1,000 cache find in 2007.  Apparently Huck loves the environment, so he recycled his golden ammo can.  :-]

Note the diverse amount of swag in this cache...
Yes folks, that's just about all of it.  Haha.
When it was all said and done, we returned back to the parking area and spent a hour and change chatting about the scene, politics, religion and all the other stuff you'd never expect to hear going down in Stiggy Park. It was good times, and a lot of fun.  This is how more zero days should be - fo' sho'!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Village of Arcade Park: A rainy day cache and dash.

Saturday had been one big smelly butt-licking washout.  All it seems to be doing this Spring is rain...rain...rain...rain...rain.  When it's not raining, it's drizzling.  Sometimes to mix it up it sprinkles, downpours, mists, showers, pours, storms and whatever other ways you can categorize non-stop-bloody precipitation!

You'll have to pardon me - I've spent far too much time watching it rain these last couple weeks.  Actually, I think at this rate, it will go down as being one of the wettest Springs in Western New York.  Eric no likey!  The continuous rain has been hampering my ability to get outside and enjoy the outdoors.  While I should head to the gym to get my buff on, I'd much rather prefer to enjoy a nice walk through the woods exploring the outdoors. 

I did get to enjoy being outside a little today.  Early this AM I spend a couple hours helping my Mom spread about 9 tons of gravel around the driveway and other spots in the yard.  It was decent exercise, and thankfully the weather held out for the majority of the festivities.  Sadly, the rest of the day was pretty wet and sloppy.  In the late afternoon//early evening I was sitting at home listening to the pitter-patter of rain drops when a brand-spanking-new cache hit my radar.

It was called Wild Spirit Boy Scout Cache by Nature Noggins and it was located right next door to me in the Arcade Village Park!  A few things excited me about this cache...unto which I will detail in numerical list form (dedicated to Jeff...haha):
  1. It's not often a cache posts close to home,
  2. Usually when a cache posts nearby...I'm no where near home!
  3. The hides that have been popping up lately just have not been of a very high quality; and finally
  4. This cache was a 50 cal. ammo can!
All reasons to take into consideration when evaluating my uber-doober level of excitement.  Hehe.  Arcade Park is a pretty spacious park, full of baseball fields and other open areas.  There's only two good areas to hide a cache here - and that is near the creek on the south side of the park, and the woods around the sledding hill on the eastern end.  In the past, a handful of caches have been placed in the park.  In chronological order of course:
As you can see, there hasn't been a new cache placed in the park since 2006.  Of course several of these caches lingered for a few years, but ultimately Arcade Park has been cache-free since the Spring of 2009 (when the Tree Series Final faded into dust...saw dust that is...mwahahahahaha). 

Anyways...I was surprised to see a cache pop-up under a mile away from where I was sitting, so I decided to scope it out.  Ironically, I had just put my batteries in the charger in the event of some impromptu caching.  They were hovering just above "E", but I figured they held just enough juice to get me to the cache site.  With that, I loaded up my junk, and it was onward and upward to the Arcade Park!

Fortunate for me and my fading batteries, the cache was only about 500 feet from legitimate parking.  I made the short walk along side one of the baseball diamonds, and into the woods I plunged.  I had hiked here a few years ago, haphazardly scouting out it's potential as a cache hiding spot.  I never found anything that screamed out to me to place a cache here, and since I'm not a cache placer for the sake of cache placing, the area remained "uncached."  I had to tip-toe around a few pricker bushes and slide down a small muddy hill - but I was soon at my zero inspecting some likely spots for a cache.  A few spots looked ripe for an ammo can - only I discovered them to be barren of such treats!  Eventually I found the cache (in like the third place I looked...haha).  I signed in and rehid it good for the next group of eager beavers to find.

Up until this point, the rain had held off...but the sky looked as though it was ready to pour at any second.  I returned to my Suvie, and enjoyed some time in the park with my windows down and The Lowest of the Low rocking some tunes.  This brief respite from rain was exceptional...but eventually it started to sprinkle...building into a heavier more substantial rain.  So with that I packed up and returned home, to sit and glare unforgivingly at the falling drops outside!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Doing the Carlton.

Thursday I had a doctor's appointment, and upon my release I was left to my own devices with a nice slice of afternoon all to myself.  To top it off, I had a zero day - so the caching world was my oyster.  My plan of action was to head to Carlton Hill State Forest in the northeast corner of Wyoming County, New York.  This 2,580 acre plot of land is a multiple use area that can be used for birdwatching, camping, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hunting, fishing and trapping.  It's also the only state forest within the boundaries of Wyoming County!

The cache I planned on chasing after was The Forgotten Side of Carlton Hill by Brogan.  According to Mr. Brogan, this was a .40 mile hike into the woods.  Maybe it's me, but Carlton Hill has always had a weird stigma about it.  Maybe because when I first visited here in 2007 I was indirectly shot at while doing this cache.  I suppose that's something that will stick with you.  Haha.

Anyway, I figured this would be the perfect cache for me to do today.  The benefit of having a couple unexpected free hours on my hands, meant I could travel farther to hike without the burden of darkness or being out too dang late.  During this deluge of good fortune, I did manage to send Brogan a quick text letting him know of my plans - and after being inundated by his usual staple of harassing comments - he decided to meet me there.

I arrived at what I thought were the parking coords.  I packed up and started down the trail, only to learn the cache was actually .80 away.  I was a little confused, but then realized that I had to park at the next road over, which would slice the distance in half.  I think we all know by now that I approach caching with a "trial by fire" mentality.  Haha.  So, down the road I went to the appropriate parking.  As I made my approach, I noticed another car there and the closer I got, the more of a weird "something is going down" vibe I got.  There, looking suspicious, were a couple of kids giving off the impression that some kind of unsavory deal was going down.  Seriously though, who wears gangsta-wear when they go for a hike in the woods?  I equate it to seeing a line of penguins waddling through the sands of Death Valley.  You instantly know something is utterly out of whack.

Recognizing that this wasn't a normal (or legitimate) phenomenon in the boondock wilds of Wyoming County, I pulled a U-turn and decided I would try my luck at accessing the cache from the other side of Carlton Hill.  Of course, enroute I ran into Brogan and his mon amie, Easygoer.  In doing so, I was convinced to return to the parking spot from whence I had come.  Hesitantly I returned down the road again only to find the parking lot now empty.  WTF universe, why do screw with me?!?

Now that Brogan and Easygoer were sufficiently amused by things I claim to have witnessed but that clearly fail to exist, we hit the trail towards the cache.  I've found that if you do a cache with Brogan, you just pick a direction.  After a dozen steps or so, if you realize he's not behind you - you can be assured that you are going the wrong way.  I like to employ this strategy whenever possible...however I have to do it more consistently.  I say that because half way into our hike, I chose to head down into the gully and approach the cache that way (knowing based on topo maps that in the end I'd end up there anyhow).  That folks - was a bad idea.  The bright side though was I had company!  Poor Easygoer, who is not versed in my reckless and asinine use of the "trial by fire" mantra, followed me down in the pint-sized-ravine that was full of water, mud, bugs and other assorted goo's.  Brogan laughed at us, and continued on down the trail alongside the gully.

After dodging a few bowling ball-sized rocks that serendipitously came flying down from the trail above (from Brogan....with love), we arrived near our zero.  The hiding spot was pretty easy to spot - although a little uphill climbing was required to retrieve the cache.  I did my best mountain goat impersonation while Brogan and Easygoer relaxed below checking out the Jack in the Pulpits that lined the creek.  I snagged the cache, signed us in, and rehid it, before climbing back down from my lofty perch.

Once reunited with the rest of the crew, Brogan hatched a scheme to continue our hike in order to explore additional spots inside Carlton Hill.  This idea was met with mild enthusiasm.  Unfortunately mild enthusiasm (or even a complete lack of) isn't enough to deter Brogan, so off we went to places unknown!  While I do like exploring, I don't think I was in the right frame of mind this afternoon - but I faithfully followed.  We saw some pretty cool stuff, including another nearby ravine that I got to "monster hill butt slide" into.  Yes kiddies...it really is as awesome as it sounds!  The results are always pretty funny and usually involve soggy wet asses.  Hahaha.

So down the shale hill I went and when I got to the creek bed my ars was caked in mud and my legs were a little nicked up by shale (which FYI is an inherent risk of the monster hill butt slide).  From there we hiked up the creek, encountering a ton of little waterfalls and other beautiful sights.  The one downfall to this came when...well...I fell down.  :-)  I was trying to get underneath a blow down over the creek and ended up falling onto some shale that cut my arm and hand.  So needless to say, by this time I was wet, muddy, cut, bleeding and tired.  Did I also mention the part about the bugs flying into my face one after another?  I'm sure I must have! 

It wasn't that bad, I swear...I was just pretty beat up by the time we had to scramble up the last hill to return to the trail.  From there we took a long hike back to the cars.  When it was all said and done I was pretty tired and glad to be back out after enduring quite a beating.  We spent a while chatting at the parking lot, imbibing in a couple tasty and refreshing beverages before heading our separate ways.

Carlton Hill kicked me around a little, but I had fun and did so with good company.  My only regret is that I didn't perform this catchy number after finding the cache.  What the heck was I thinking?!?!?!?!?!?!  Haha.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Scoby Dam Park - An adventure of headbuttable proportions...

The sun was out, the skies were blue, and I was saddled with a zero day.  I reviewed the geo-landscape to see what was close to home which would also provide me with an adequate find in a nice spot.  I just can't bring myself to find a two-second park and grabs after work...because if I don't find something that has a little content, I'll feel guilty.  I know, I'm a dweeb...I just can't help myself.

The hide that caught my eye and would sufficiently fulfill all of my stringent geo-needs was Try this View of 219 by Topher&Wendall.  This cache is located in Scoby Dam Park in the town of Springville, New York.  According to Mr. Scott Ensminger and his extremely informative website:

Scoby Dam is an mothballed hydroelectric dam on Cattaraugus Creek. Built in 1924 the dam is 30 feet in height and 182 feet in width. It supplied electricity to the Village of Springville from 1924 to 1996. The area became an Erie County park in April of 2001. Scoby Dam Park is a strip of land along the bank of Cattaraugus Creek. The park is a popular area for fishing and hiking to enjoy the scenery along the creek.

In addition to Scoby Dam, the park also follows the banks of Cattaraugus Creek.  Along the creek is a trail that will take you underneath Route 219 and the two bridges that are now erected to cross the Catt Creek gorge.  It's awesome and looks something like this:


The bridge in the foreground is 165 feet above the creek and is the "old" route 219 bridge, while the one in the back clocks in at 230 feet above Catt Creek and is part of the extension for the 219 expressway which they completed in November of 2010.  Of course both structures get plenty of use, and having the opportunity to see it from below is spectacular. 

My first visit here was in 2006 to find the now archived Cattaraugus Creek #2 Scoby Dam by Balloonpilot and Chickenlips.  Interestingly enough the new cache here is only 170-feet or so from the Balloonpilot and Chickenlips original offering.  Not much of a change, but when you hike here it's always a wonderful experience.  As usual, I had my camera along with me, and capture a great many sites from this gorgeous location.

Scoby Dam on my hike in.
The trail in alongside Cattaraugus Creek.
More from the creekside trail towards the cache location.
The sun peering over the gorge walls...also a little waterfall
emptying into the creek!  Pretty snazzy this place!
I arrived at the cache, and as I expected I was treated to a great view of the 219 bridges.  I spent a few minutes gawking at the work that must have gone into constructing the new bridge.  Soon I clued in on the cache site.  Maybe it was me, or my GPS, but I couldn't get a reliable bead on where the cache location was.  I kept pointing at the supports under the old 219 bridge, but wasn't coming up with the find.  At one point I ducked under a metal beam, and thinking I had cleared it I popped back up smash my skull into one of the rivets in the beam.  Now I was frustrated and woozy.  Great!  The "funny" to come out of this is now I can say I've headbutted the 219 bridge.  Bridge 1, Szuchie 0. 

Anyway...my aptitude for persevering was waning, but eventually I caught the right angle and made the find.  After I did the deed, I rehid the cache and once again spent a little time taking pictures of this extremely awesome spot.

The moon hovering over the new 219.
After loitering for a sufficient amount of time, I started my hike back.  In total I think it's probably a mile and a quarter round trip for this cache - so I was looking forward to the long walk out.  I wasn't too long into my return hike before I met my first snake of the year.  Ain't he cute?!?


From there it was smooth sailing back to my SUVIE and the completion of yet another wonderful hike here in Scoby Dam.  The bonus is that there is another cache in this park - so a return visit is in my immediate future!  I'm def. looking forward to it.  :-)

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mother's Day....in a marsh.

Happy Mother's Day!  And of course, what better way to celebrate then by going for a short and beautiful early morning hike by yourself into a swamp to fulfill a zero-day obligation.  Okay, so maybe that's completely nontraditional - but I did it anyway dammit!  Haha. 

Since I was slated to be at Mom's around 9am to cook breakfast for her (and the other vagrants mingling about), I had to get on the trail early.  The cache that was to be the Vivien Leigh to my Clark Gable, was Meandering Through the Marsh by Paleoman52.  The cache page boasted a three-quarter of a mile round trip hike down a rails-to-trails through a beautiful swamp.  How could I resist such temptation?

I hit the trail around 7:30-ish, with plenty of time to dawdle about taking pictures and doing the other nerdy things I do oh-so-well.  Everything I love about early morning hiking was in full force today.  The sun's rays were just starting to poke through the trees, the air was cool and crisp and there was a thin fog covering the world.  It was epic Szuchie hiking weather boys and girls.

The sun's rays streaming through the morning fog.
How much fun does this trail look?!?  :-)
Wait a minute! There's things here! There's rocks, there's trees, there's birds, there's squirrels.
Come on, we'll bless them all until we get vashnigyered.
Look closely for the wildlife kids.
I love early morning shadows.
Golden Rod leafing out.
The hike to the cache was awesome - and the swamp was spectacular.  What made it even more enjoyable, was the fact that the air was cool and therefore there were no bugs to be found.  Couldn't have planned that better if I say so myself!  After finding the cache, I really didn't want to leave this area as I was having myself such a good ole' time...so I decided to continue my hike until the trail left the swamp and entered into the woods. 


I really enjoyed this section of trail, and after maybe another half mile or so of hiking, I saw that my time here was starting to grow short.  So I spent a few minutes listening to the song birds, before doubling back to my SUVIE.  In total I did around a mile and a half - which was the perfect way to start a marvelous day filled with family and friends.