little peter cottontail hopping down the caching trail

Sunday, April 4th was Easter. Easter is a time of many strange occurrences; saviors rise from the dead, rabbits lay eggs, and Target is closed. Due to our place of business being closed we had the opportunity to have a family get together. During these events we, of course, had an easter egg hunt. We have to keep our little cachers in shape! We also celebrated Zaiden's first birthday, our little boy is growing up so quick!

This is Vermont: Isle La Motte
With our bellies full from Easter lunch we set out to enjoy the weather, geocaching style! Our first stop of the day was a previous DNF. Between today and our last try at this cache the cache owner posted that the cache had migrated and he put it back where it belonged. At first Colette and Justin went searching for the cache, because the kids were sleeping. During this time I took some pictures of the surrounding area. The water was fairly calm and the birds were out. Once the kids woke up I got them out of the car and we chased after Co and Justin. Colette and I switched places because the cache was located in some tall grass and trees that were home to some barbed vines. After another fifteen minutes of searching Justin found the cache hidden in a spot we all swore we had checked more than once.

Goodsell Ridge Fossil Preserve
Next on the list was the Goodsell Ridge Fossil Preserve, which was also located on Isle La Motte. This was our very first earthcache. An earthcache is different than a traditional cache because the reward is not a box but rather the location itself. You can learn more about earthcaches at their website. To be able to log an earthcache as a find you have to answer questions provided by the cache owner, as well as take a picture of their request. We wrote down the answers we found on the information board located at the preserve and then walked around the provided trails and examined even more fossils.

J&B's Island Fever
After enjoying the path at the reserve as well as the fantastic weather we popped the GPS back on and headed for the next closest cache. J&B's Island Fever is named as such because it's on one of the many islands that make up the northeastern coast of Vermont. When we arrived at the location, which was at the end of a pier, there was a muggle couple enjoying the lake and skipping rocks. We got to the end of the pier and, I assume, scared them off, because they left not long after. Zoey resumed her rock tossing and Colette unsuccessfully tried her hand at skipping stones. Once the muggles were out of site Co started looking for the cache while I made sure Zoey didn't get too close to the water. After a moment Colette came running back to me, gibbering on about a giant spider. As a result I went down and started looking nearby, waving to the giant spider, and ultimately finding the cache not far from where she was looking. The cache was well placed but was still wet inside. I decided to sign the log but not take or leave anything. We all skipped a few more rocks and then headed out.

East Alburg Pizza
The Alburgh Recreational Rail Trail that I talked about in one of our first posts runs for 3.5 miles through a significant portion of Alburgh. During out first time on the trail we only traveled about half of it. Toward the end of the rail trail is two geocaches that we had seen but not tried due to weather. Seeing that it was so nice today I thought it would be great to give them a shot. This cache owner was nice enough to add a waypoint to the cache that showed where it was best to park. We pulled up, got the kids out, and started down the trail. Unfortunately the area was littered substantially, probably due to the residences nearby. We had forgotten bags to do some CITO (Cache In, Trash Out) so were unable to clean any of it up. After a few minutes walking on the trail Colette exclaimed that we had already passed the cache. She turned and walked right toward the tree that would ultimately be the home of this particular cache. She signed the log and placed it back, then we started down the trail to the next cache.

Not too long after we continued down the rail trail we heard a dog barking. I looked up to see a very large dog, barking and coming toward us. Colette started to become uneasy but I just continued walking. The dogs owner wasn't too far behind, but that doesn't make up for the fact that he was unleashed considering how large he was. Unfortunately this wasn't our only obstruction, because right after the house with the large dog thr trail got very, very muddy. We decided to turn back, feeling as if hurdles were suggesting we do so anyway. Later on I found out that the cache owner decided to temporarily disable the cache due to, oddly enough, muddy conditions and unleashed dogs!

IN BETWEEN (Tt-06)
Ah, IN BETWEEN, my arch nemesis! This would be attempt four at this cache. As I mentioned previously our GPS became very inaccurate when near the buildings that this cache is situated amongst. This time since we were going during a holiday, and the nearby businesses were all closed, there were absolutely no muggles to be found. Colette, determined to make me look bad, took Justin and they started looking. After a few minutes I re situated the car away from the building and pointed them in another direction. A moment later, success! Colette finally found the cache we tried for on multiple occasions! She opened it up and signed it.

It was a great day for caching!