Adventures in Caching, Burroughs Park Style

In Texas, the best time for caching is in the in-between stages of the seasons. I like to joke that most places have four seasons and Texas has two - the hot and rainy and the cold and rainy. Since we are closer to the equator than most of the other states, particularly down here, our weather is more reminscent of the tropics than the four seasons of the more northern states.
Right now it is one of the best times to cache, one of those in-between stages, right after the cold weather and before the hot weather begins. People don't cache as much down here between June and September as they do in other parts of the year, because it is just too darn hot and humid. During this time, though, they are caching like crazy, and in order to keep my standing on the Grand Poobah list, I have to as well. Which is fine, because there is nothing I would rather be doing on a beautiful day like today than hiking in the woods looking for camoed items.
We had not established a plan for our day, but my husband wanted to take the older son fishing, and I wanted to take the younger one caching. We agreed to make it a mutual plan and go to a park I suggested that had a large lake for fishing and miles of great trails and caches, including roughly seven I haven't found yet.
We also agreed we should take two cars. He took the oldest child and oldest dog in the pickup, and carried the red wagon and fishing gear in the bed of the truck. I took the youngest dog and youngest child in my Honda, carrying the diaper bag, caching gear, and picnic lunch. My husband had slaved away in the morning deboning the leftover fried chicken from dinner the other night and making us sandwiches, and I had packed the drinks and chips.
I beat him to the park by a good twenty minutes, because he had stopped for more fishing supplies. The young child played on the playground, going down slides and getting pushed on swings. I keep reminding myself to make a commitment to taking him to places like this, because he digs this type of activity so much. His whole face lights up when I push him forward on the swing.
Once my husband showed up, we all ate our sandwiches at a shady picnic bench, and then he began scouting out a good fishing spot. By this time, I had everything loaded in the red wagon, and began my journey for caches.
I had finally solved yet another of the five or so puzzle caches in this park, and when my GPSr got reception, it turns out I was only 0.12 mile from the location for this one. I headed off down a shady path, towing the wagon behind me.
I had come up with this idea for lessening my irritation with Scout, who wants to run each way on the trail, sniffing each tree and bush to decide if he needs to mark it or not. It drives me crazy to feel the stress on my wrist with each direction and speed change, so I secured the leash around my waist and had hands-free dog walking action. I really like this, and it might be a way I can exercise with him more often from now on. He and I both need more exercise, but taking him with me when I run usually exercises only my patience.
So we arrived at a spot on the trail where the GPSr says we need to go 65 ft off trail, only I know from previous logs that the cache is within 20 ft of the trail. I pull the wagon a short way in and begin my search. The baby wanted to come, too, which was fine because I found it easily enough. It wasn't well-hidden, but in such a spot that no one was likely to find it. These are my favorite kind of finds, because I hate having to search all over the woods that no one even goes in because someone wants to be sneaky in their hiding spot, especially when I have the kids with me. The inside of the cache was wet, so I chose not to leave one of the geocoins I had with me inside it, and also was the reason I let the little one take the whiffle ball even though we had no trade items. Even trade items will just go bad in this cache with all the wetness.
We got back on the trail and kept walking. When I arrived at a crossroads, I had a choice to turn right towards one I have been meaning to find, or go left towards a new one that has been driving people crazy so far. I chose left, because I was feeling fresh and hoping I could find the high difficulty cache. There was a chance I could even be FTF on a cache near the one I was going for. They had both been published the same day, but no one had been able to find one of them yet, despite some serious effort.
It was a nice walk to the area where both of them were. It was such a nice day, with a sun shining but a hint of chilly wind, the kind of day where you would be happy in either shorts and a tee shirt or jeans and a sweatshirt. I knew we were approaching the right area when I came upon a surrealistic scene, with mist coming up from a swamp, fallen trees, and palm fronds all around. It looked like a scene from the show Lost, which could be why the cacher chose this location, seeing as how it states on the cache page that "This cache is a tribute to my favorite television show". It was a cool area, but the GPSr was going nuts, the dog was running wild (I had released him from the leash), and the kid was sick of the wagon and wanted to be held. I was carrying him up and down these little pine needle covered inclines, ducking under branches and dodging spider webs, and it was just making me cranky and frustrated. Since the level of difficulty was so high and the reception questionable, I decided to let this one go and keep on keeping on. I would like to come back on a day without children where I can leisurely search.
When I chose the "Find Nearest" option on the GPSr, I realized I had passed the other new one no one had found yet, but decided to keep heading northeast, which would eventually lead me back to the area where my husband and other child were fishing. The next one out that direction was 0.28 mile away, so I kept on trucking.
I had been wanting to find this next one for a while, since it was a nice big one that always had traveling items in it. Last time I was at this park, hiking with Lara, we had almost went for this one, but the GPSr had shown that we needed to go 260 ft into the woods, and we weren't in the mood for bushwacking, since we had been hiking and caching for like an hour and were kinda hot and icky. We had considered heading up the greenway to where the fenceline was, but I didn't think there was another trail leading to the left up that way, so we hadn't tried.

Today I was determined to get there. I didn't notice before that the sandy trail along the greenway has a slight incline to it, but I did notice that today, as I hauled the wagon behind me loaded with thirty pounds of kid, diaper bag, caching bag and jug of water. The cool air and exertion was making my lungs ache briefly on exhale, and for a moment I pondered if this was an effective use of my energy, until I concluded there was nothing I would rather be doing this day than exactly this: being outside, involved in a physical task, surrounded by nature, on a quest, with my beautiful and incredible child and dog.
I reached the fenceline and saw that there was, in fact, a trail leading to the left and back up, right where the coords had wanted to take me. As I started down the trail, K started to fuss because he wanted to get out, so I let him, knowing full well it would slow me down incredibly. I was 500 ft from the cache and of course I wanted to race to the find, but I reminded myself that my true purpose here was to appreciate nature with my child, so I let go of the GPSr and the number countdown for a while and ooo-ed and ahh-ed over pine cones and lichen, laughed as he tried to write on the bark of a tree with the pine cones, and took pictures of him chasing leaves.
In the end, we eventually reached the cache, and I was happy that I managed to spy it from the edge of the forest and didn't have some frustrating woods search carring the baby. I pointed K in the general direction and said "where's the geocache, baby?" and he ran straight for it, laughing, because he knows by now that we get to open it and check out all the cool stuff inside. I dropped off the BJS 500 Cache Challenge geocoin and picked up the Arizona bug, which doesn't have a picture on its page but is a cute koala toy.
After this we found a trail that led us right to the spot where hubby and son were fishing, but they weren't there anymore. For a second I didn't know which side of the lake to head to, but I caught a glimpse of my son and dog cavorting to the left and headed that way. I couldn't figure out at first why they were heading into the woods and not standing by the lake, but when I got there, I saw what was going on. They had found another body of water, this one smaller and more serene, tucked into the woods. There were three mallard ducks swimming by and a turtle was sunning himself on a log, none very concerned about the attempts at fishing by my guys, or even the dogs eyeing them from the shore.
At this point, I had been pulling that wagon around the woods for an hour or so, and I was hot. My husband remarked that my face was flushed, and my body was telling me I needed a break, but my mind was fixating on the rest of the caches in the park. The little one absolutely fell apart, though, a few minutes later, and it was clear he was overdue for a nap. I took off for the car and for home, all the while tracking the location of the closest cache, which was another puzzle I had solved some time back. As I pointed the Honda out of the park, I was still watching the number drop, and when I saw a parking spot within 500 ft of this last cache, I had to go. I got the dog and the kid back out and carried this sleepy child across a muddy field, letting the dog run free. The field ended at a path which wrapped around into the woods, and I found the cache quickly, thank goodness.
My shoes that I bought last week in San Marcos were officially broken in today as I walked back through the muddy field carrying the child, sloppy ground splashing mud up along the front of my clean Adidas. We weren't five minutes into the drive when the little one fell asleep, and he still sleeps now, an hour later.
It was a great day, and even though it was only three finds, they were a perfect three finds in great weather. It feels great to have those two puzzle caches off my "nearest unfound" list, since I don't typically solve puzzle caches. I don't know if that is because I am being intellectually lazy or that I am going for the easiest ones first, but it does give me a sense of accomplishment to know that I worked at them and got the right answer, and I also feel good about the physical activity we had today, and the seized opportunity to get the kids and dogs outside somewhere cool.