Fisher Cats and Bunny Rabbits

This was a geocaching filled weekend. Saturday we went out somewhat late and intended on clearing a few caches in the Lynn Woods, which we hadn't managed to clear. It is a HUGE reservation, one of which we've only scratched the surface of in the past 15 or so years of living in this area.

We got the first cache, one which we attempted over a year ago but we didn't approach it correctly and bushwhacked up from the main trail to some precarious and dangerous spots. This time, I found the right trail which kicked our asses but provided us with some tremendous views from the top boulder. It was pretty awesome. We meandered down from the "summit" of Mt. Hermon (I believe is the name of the top of the boulder) and got to the main, flat, nice trail which everyone who walks or mountain bikes the area is familiar with.

We took another skinny trail up over rocks and crazy vistas, wandering like Moses and the Israelites through the wilderness hoping that some bottled water or manna would appear from heaven. Looking at the map we thought we'd have a half mile walk to the second cache. Ha! not so, when Doug leads the way. None of us were properly prepared for this walk, it was hot, we had no water and very little bug spray with us. We were beat by the time we got there. But.

There are two nice things about screwing up which are sometimes very true. The first is that you get to see unexpected stuff, which you wouldn't have seen if you took the right path in. For instance, we ended up at a spot called Overlook Crag, which provided some breeze-laden, tremendous views of Walden Lake, all the way to Rte 1. It was something we would have totally missed out on if we'd gone the "right" way. Second, is once you make a mistake while out in the woods, especially a big but still small and manageable reservation like this one, you can find the quicker route out, which we did.

We got back to the car right before a gianormous thunderstorm dropped on the area, and drank a lot of water and came home and crashed.

On Sunday, we got another late start. Jessica went to K's house (she's fresh out of the hospital after having her major brain surgery, and so Jess went to spend time with her). Doug planned out 8 caches, most of which were tiny little micro caches, of which we couldn't find two. Micros can be tricky... or they get stolen because they are in heavily trafficked areas. We found four, missed two, and gave up on finding parking for two others because it was already 7pm and we were all getting cranky.

We did, however, see fisher cats on the first cache. Doug startled them from about 10 feet away and they treed themselves, hanging out up there checking us out. There were two of them, and if I didn't know how ferocious they're known for being, I would think these were some cute and cuddly little guys... they have sweet little faces and inquisitive eyes. I tried to take pictures of them, but the sun was behind the tree and I don't think I can even photoshop the image enough to make them look like anything other than brown lumps.

And all I gotta say right here is thank Jebus for Wikipedia. I wanted a webpage about Fisher Cats, and Google returned a couple of light-in-content pages about the animal, and five gagillion pages about the baseball team in Manchester NH. Pfth. Yay for Wikipedia, which immediately returned a very detailed page, just what I wanted.

At another cache, there was a lavish garden and bunny rabbits living in the bushes. The one we saw was very brave and didn't run when I approached to take pictures. He must be used to people.

Well, I'm going to slap this entry up even though I'm not quite done with it. I've gotta jet to take Geoff to camp in NH. Why I signed up for this week when they don't provide transportation is beyond me. What was I thinking!!! Luckily I got up hella early, did about an hour's worth of work for the office, and managed to crank out this entry. I'm hyper productive. All on just 2 cups of coffee! Woot!

More later.