The Wilmaston Chronicles
Sunny but very windy; 37-50°F. The wind was so strong this morning that I had put the trash can back upright when I took the trash out. On the plus side, it appears that the duct tape I used to fix the loose piece of siding is holding up pretty well even though that's a very unprofessional way of doing that repair. Anyway, I went out to do two more of the Railroad History series of caches in Wilmington. I'd been chipping away at this series after work since the caches are roughly between work and home, but the two I did today weren't doable at night. After that, I did one cache in Newark before zipping over to Aston and Media for the rest of the day's caches.
Aston was pretty much snow-free after the last few days of 60-degree weather. There were still patches of ice but for the most part, it was a nice walk. I did two one-mile round trip hikes. One was for "Rails and Trails 2" along an old railbed. Of course, it was not all sunshine and roses, or whatever analogy is appropriate. There were dangerous sign-eating trees.
The last cache of the day, "Martin's Mill?", turned out to be the most difficult one of the day. That wasn't because the cache was hard to find but because it was frozen into ice. You can see the ice in this picture I took in the park. 99.99% of the park was already snow-free, so what are the odds the cache would be inside one of the few remaining patches of ice? I couldn't find the cache in any of the non-ice spots near that location so by deduction, the cache had to be in the ice and I verified that by poking at the ice. However, there was a rock on top of the cache and both rock and cache were frozen into the ice. I tried to chip at the ice with my hiking pole but that didn't work. Then I had an idea. I went down to the stream and picked up a decent-sized rock. I took the rock and used it to hammer at the ice until the cache came loose. That took a few minutes of work but it was quite effective!
Dinner (well, pre-dinner) was a Chipotle Prime Rib Sub at Quiznos in Claymont, since they've been pretty good at sending out coupons recently.
Thursday:
DeRRH01 - H&H is Building History (Delaware)
Friday:
DERRH03-Condutors in Training (Delaware)
End of the Line is Under the Arch (Delaware)
Saturday:
DeRRH02-The Old and the New Bridges (Delaware)
DeRRH05-Look Down and than Way Up (Delaware)
P.O. Box - Newark (Delaware)
A giant cache (Pennsylvania)
Play Ball or Die (Pennsylvania)
Rails and Trails 2 (Pennsylvania)
A Rocky Start (Pennsylvania)
The Coop's Warning (Pennsylvania)
Quakers Resting (Pennsylvania)
Martin's Mill? (Pennsylvania)
Aston was pretty much snow-free after the last few days of 60-degree weather. There were still patches of ice but for the most part, it was a nice walk. I did two one-mile round trip hikes. One was for "Rails and Trails 2" along an old railbed. Of course, it was not all sunshine and roses, or whatever analogy is appropriate. There were dangerous sign-eating trees.
The last cache of the day, "Martin's Mill?", turned out to be the most difficult one of the day. That wasn't because the cache was hard to find but because it was frozen into ice. You can see the ice in this picture I took in the park. 99.99% of the park was already snow-free, so what are the odds the cache would be inside one of the few remaining patches of ice? I couldn't find the cache in any of the non-ice spots near that location so by deduction, the cache had to be in the ice and I verified that by poking at the ice. However, there was a rock on top of the cache and both rock and cache were frozen into the ice. I tried to chip at the ice with my hiking pole but that didn't work. Then I had an idea. I went down to the stream and picked up a decent-sized rock. I took the rock and used it to hammer at the ice until the cache came loose. That took a few minutes of work but it was quite effective!
Dinner (well, pre-dinner) was a Chipotle Prime Rib Sub at Quiznos in Claymont, since they've been pretty good at sending out coupons recently.
Thursday:
DeRRH01 - H&H is Building History (Delaware)
Friday:
DERRH03-Condutors in Training (Delaware)
End of the Line is Under the Arch (Delaware)
Saturday:
DeRRH02-The Old and the New Bridges (Delaware)
DeRRH05-Look Down and than Way Up (Delaware)
P.O. Box - Newark (Delaware)
A giant cache (Pennsylvania)
Play Ball or Die (Pennsylvania)
Rails and Trails 2 (Pennsylvania)
A Rocky Start (Pennsylvania)
The Coop's Warning (Pennsylvania)
Quakers Resting (Pennsylvania)
Martin's Mill? (Pennsylvania)