York XIV, DelCo
I think a reasonable daytrip would be capped at around 100 miles from home. York Township is already at the 80-mile point, so there isn't much new geocaching territory left. So on Saturday, I thought I'd revisit Southeastern York and take a stab at geocaches that I'd skipped previously for various reasons and also geocaches that were confirmed missing and replaced. Also, there was a collection of puzzle caches around Red Lion that I solved since my last trip there. It was a mixed day. Some caches really were difficult. Others were difficult but I knew the tricks. "The river view 2" had 6 DNF logs in a row. After looking around for a while, I figured it was not in the obvious spot where the last six visitors were probably focused on. Sure enough, it was actually a bit beyond the wooden posts and bush at ground zero, and not in a spot that stood out. "The Cybermen", which also has a few DNFs, is tough to access in the summer but I saw it among the undergrowth.
"Ma & Pa Heritage Railroad Village Cache" was the most interesting location of the day. Obviously, permission had been granted for the geocache because it was placed inside one of the historic buildings and the trick was to figure out what I could actually open, once I was in there, to reveal it. Anyway, some tourists came by just as I was almost done with the cache. I talked to them and told them plainly that I was putting the geocache back in place. They didn't question it. They just looked at some of the antique stuff in there and shuffled off to the next building, so they might've simply assumed I was doing maintenance work.
On Sunday, I went to Marple, Springfield, Radnor, and then farther north to West Norriton and Center Square. I was again going for a mix of caches I skipped over or couldn't find previously and some new ones. "The Brotherhood catapult" was a challenging one. It's in a tree branch overhanging a parking lot. Many cachers mentioned using a tool or parking under the cache (and standing on the car) to retrieve it, but I decided to try just pulling on the branch, starting from near the trunk. To my surprise, the tree branch wasn't as stiff as I thought. I gave it a tug and followed the branch hand-over-hand towards the cache. When I was done with the cache, I released the branch and it sprang back to its original position. I've seen this kind of cache placement a lot on young pine trees in the pine barrens, so the only surprise here is I was able to use the same retrieval technique on a non-pine tree. "The Willows Two-Step: Step 1" was a cache I couldn't find years ago because of poor GPS reception in the thick woods. I revisited the cache site and had the same problem again. However, the new hint helped and after criss-crossing the area for a while, I stumbled across the cache.
Saturday 2015-06-20:
The river view 2 (Pennsylvania)
York 100 - Into Kreutz Creek (Pennsylvania)
The Cybermen (Doctor Who caching series) (Pennsylvania)
OWEN AND WILL'S GEOCACHE FUN 2 (Pennsylvania)
Penn Oaks (Pennsylvania)
The Family of 7 (Pennsylvania)
Humbuggery (Pennsylvania)
Fritz the Castaway (Pennsylvania)
The Black Knight (Pennsylvania)
Natural Attraction (Pennsylvania)
YOE RIP (Pennsylvania)
Scrambled Eggs and Bacon (Pennsylvania)
Do We Have to Read? (Pennsylvania)
History Fun (Pennsylvania)
The Avengers Vigenere (Pennsylvania)
Let Your Fingers Do Less Walking (Pennsylvania)
york 100-bridge 45 (Pennsylvania)
Ma & Pa Heritage Railroad Village Cache (Pennsylvania)
Tube In (Pennsylvania)
Tube Out (Pennsylvania)
York 100 - Woodbine (Pennsylvania)
log for the new year (Pennsylvania)
york 100-industrial park turnaround (Pennsylvania)
Green Monster (Pennsylvania)
Sunday 2015-06-21:
Welcome to Marple (Pennsylvania)
A Survivor Cache (Pennsylvania)
Thinking Outside the Scullion (Pennsylvania)
Life of PI (Pennsylvania)
A Bazaar Cache (Pennsylvania)
Cache Versus Stealth? (Pennsylvania)
The Brotherhood catapult (Pennsylvania)
Follow The Yellow Brick Wall (Pennsylvania)
Doctor Brightside's Delco Dollar Stash (Pennsylvania)
Library Signage (Pennsylvania)
Freedom Hollow (Pennsylvania)
So many choices... (Pennsylvania)
Rio (Pennsylvania)
The Willows Two-Step: Step 1 (Pennsylvania)
Pump it up with Helen and Ester (Pennsylvania)
Yum, Pizza and Hoagies (Pennsylvania)
Tennis Anyone? (Pennsylvania)
BLOCKS (Pennsylvania)
Center Square Cache (Pennsylvania)
Relax and Walk the Trail (Pennsylvania)
"Ma & Pa Heritage Railroad Village Cache" was the most interesting location of the day. Obviously, permission had been granted for the geocache because it was placed inside one of the historic buildings and the trick was to figure out what I could actually open, once I was in there, to reveal it. Anyway, some tourists came by just as I was almost done with the cache. I talked to them and told them plainly that I was putting the geocache back in place. They didn't question it. They just looked at some of the antique stuff in there and shuffled off to the next building, so they might've simply assumed I was doing maintenance work.
On Sunday, I went to Marple, Springfield, Radnor, and then farther north to West Norriton and Center Square. I was again going for a mix of caches I skipped over or couldn't find previously and some new ones. "The Brotherhood catapult" was a challenging one. It's in a tree branch overhanging a parking lot. Many cachers mentioned using a tool or parking under the cache (and standing on the car) to retrieve it, but I decided to try just pulling on the branch, starting from near the trunk. To my surprise, the tree branch wasn't as stiff as I thought. I gave it a tug and followed the branch hand-over-hand towards the cache. When I was done with the cache, I released the branch and it sprang back to its original position. I've seen this kind of cache placement a lot on young pine trees in the pine barrens, so the only surprise here is I was able to use the same retrieval technique on a non-pine tree. "The Willows Two-Step: Step 1" was a cache I couldn't find years ago because of poor GPS reception in the thick woods. I revisited the cache site and had the same problem again. However, the new hint helped and after criss-crossing the area for a while, I stumbled across the cache.
Saturday 2015-06-20:
The river view 2 (Pennsylvania)
York 100 - Into Kreutz Creek (Pennsylvania)
The Cybermen (Doctor Who caching series) (Pennsylvania)
OWEN AND WILL'S GEOCACHE FUN 2 (Pennsylvania)
Penn Oaks (Pennsylvania)
The Family of 7 (Pennsylvania)
Humbuggery (Pennsylvania)
Fritz the Castaway (Pennsylvania)
The Black Knight (Pennsylvania)
Natural Attraction (Pennsylvania)
YOE RIP (Pennsylvania)
Scrambled Eggs and Bacon (Pennsylvania)
Do We Have to Read? (Pennsylvania)
History Fun (Pennsylvania)
The Avengers Vigenere (Pennsylvania)
Let Your Fingers Do Less Walking (Pennsylvania)
york 100-bridge 45 (Pennsylvania)
Ma & Pa Heritage Railroad Village Cache (Pennsylvania)
Tube In (Pennsylvania)
Tube Out (Pennsylvania)
York 100 - Woodbine (Pennsylvania)
log for the new year (Pennsylvania)
york 100-industrial park turnaround (Pennsylvania)
Green Monster (Pennsylvania)
Sunday 2015-06-21:
Welcome to Marple (Pennsylvania)
A Survivor Cache (Pennsylvania)
Thinking Outside the Scullion (Pennsylvania)
Life of PI (Pennsylvania)
A Bazaar Cache (Pennsylvania)
Cache Versus Stealth? (Pennsylvania)
The Brotherhood catapult (Pennsylvania)
Follow The Yellow Brick Wall (Pennsylvania)
Doctor Brightside's Delco Dollar Stash (Pennsylvania)
Library Signage (Pennsylvania)
Freedom Hollow (Pennsylvania)
So many choices... (Pennsylvania)
Rio (Pennsylvania)
The Willows Two-Step: Step 1 (Pennsylvania)
Pump it up with Helen and Ester (Pennsylvania)
Yum, Pizza and Hoagies (Pennsylvania)
Tennis Anyone? (Pennsylvania)
BLOCKS (Pennsylvania)
Center Square Cache (Pennsylvania)
Relax and Walk the Trail (Pennsylvania)