The beginning was not auspicious - Only a culvert marker indicated the start of trails:
On the plus side, this forest has miles of trails. On the minus side, and this is a BIG minus, none of the trails are marked. Oh, there was the occasional cairn:
But other than that, nada. Which means that if I'm going to spend any time hiking there, I'm going to have to start marking trails. Seems like a project is brewing ...
I spend limited time there Saturday, because no marked trails = me getting lost = no bueno. The portion I did explore was mostly old growth pine:
Nobody drop any lit matches, okay?
I did find what appeared to be an old foundation:
At first I thought this tree had been used by bucks scraping the velvet off their antlers:
But on closer examination, the depth of the gouges indicated that birds had probably been pecking into the wood after insects:
Will I go back? Sure. As soon as I pick up a couple of cans of paint, to start marking trails.
6 comments:
A handheld GPS might be helpful too! I have one that I use for geocaching--it keeps me from being forever lost in the woods. ;)
You're making me crazy with worry and my husband crazy with envy. He will love these photos. (Thanks Mama D for the suggestion!)
Mama D, that is an excellent tip. Now I'm going to pick your brain - Do you recommend any particular brand? Is the learning curve steep? Do they come pre-loaded with topo maps, etc., or do you buy those separate and download them in? Do you need to know your coordinates when you start a hike? Does the GPS run on batteries? Do you ever get in a "no coverage" zone, like with a cell?
Questions, I haz them.
And Ginny, please don't worry about me. My sense of self-preservation is very strong.
I have a Garmin 450t. It was an older model when I bought it new (the fancy ones are expensive!) but it works great and came with topo maps. There was a bit of a learning curve but it wasn't too bad and I'm not a techie. There are other brands as well, though...any camping or outdoors store would have a number of them you could look at since fishermen and hunters use them a lot. Even if you aren't a cacher (although with the amount of time you spend in woods, I'd bet you've walked right past dozens of caches unknowingly) the advantage of having this sort of device is the compass and the ability to mark a waypoint (eg where you leave a trail, where you parked, etc) and then navigate back to that waypoint. I use that function every time I go more than 50 feet or so off a trail in the woods on a cache hunt. GPSrs run on batteries and I always carry extras with me, although they last a while. I've never encountered an a outdoors area with no signal, although some areas are better than others and cloud cover can affect accuracy as well. You can use the device to determine your coordinates at any time--you don't need to know them beforehand. Did I hit all your questions?? ;) Happy to help out as best I can!
Thanks for all the pro tips, Mama D! I'll put a GPS on my wishlist.
Oh, and I've accidentally found caches before! I always just leave them where they are.
On behalf of all cachers everywhere, thank you for that. ;)
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