Logs for lorriebird 

Wow, what a wonderful realized goal! This plan has been in place for more than a year as I booked a cruise out of Sydney and planned to leisurely take the train northbound from the airport and enjoy the day. But things happen, glitches occur and plans go sideways. Then when I finally landed in Sydney arriving from Tasmania this morning, I decided to just forgo the plans and take the quickest easiest way to the park via a very expensive Uber as it looked as if I would have a break from the stormy Sydney weather of late. The rains actually began to let up so I took the Uber to take advantage of the situation. I arrived at the park and set out on a quick jog down the trail to beat out the rains. It took only a few minutes to locate the stone steps thanks to the marked waypoint and then it was easy to find the trail that would take one close to GZ. I gathered the information I needed and my same Uber driver was still in the area so he answered the return trip call to this time drop me at the cruise port back in Sydney. Favorite point indeed and now the fourth oldest cache I have found. Photo posted, thank you! 

Holy CRAP it was cold on the summit today!! The wind blowing the cold rain sideways made for a most memorable experience, hah! Some of the tourist buses riders opted to stay on the bus. Unfortunately the rain clouds obscured much of our view, but I was thrilled to be here nonetheless. It was SO cold, I could only do two of the nearby Adventure Lab stages. But I wasnt leaving without climbing the final altitude of this cache. Thank you for the smiley, required photo attached to this log. Fave point indeed! 

What a fun virtual! We are on day trip and of course Richmond was one of the stops. But we had a great time walking around for a couple of hours and really enjoyed the town. Photo posted of the historic bridge. Thank you! 

My last cache in Richmond, a great way to end a wonderful afternoon! Thank you for the smiley, non spoiler photo posted. 

What a wonderful place! We booked a day tour that included the NationalPark on the way to Bonorong Wildlife Conservation Park. We loved the Big Tree walk as much as the falls! We were with a small group so we had to hurry on ahead in time to find the cache. Clever cammo and a fave point indeed! Non spoiler photo posted. 

Even though it rained most of the day, I couldnt pass up going geocaching during my first day in Tasmania! What a wonderful place this is and I regret so much that I only have two full days. At least I got to visit some wonderful places including the Salamanca market area. Loved the history lesson and appreciate the smiley! Answers have been sent and required photo posted. In my photo are a pair of kookaburra socks that I bought at the visitors center this morning! Thank you! 

Even though it rained most of the day I couldnt pass up caching in my first day in Tasmania! Today the water in the fountain had been dyed pink. I think I know the reason but cannot be sure. Anyway, answers have been sent to the CO and photo on location posted with this log. Thank you for the virtual cache and the real smile! 

Even though it rained most of the day, I couldnt pass up going geocaching during my first day in Tasmania! What a wonderful place this is and I regret so much that i only have two full days. At least I got to visit some wonderful places including the Kelly Steps. Loved the history lesson and appreciate the smiley! Answers have been sent and required photo posted. Thank you! 

Very clever! Hidden in plain sight. Opened easily but tougher to close back. Non spoiler photo posted, thank you! 

Happy 20th Birthday, Christmas Cache! How fun this special celebration event turned out to be! Not knowing how the attendance would be on Christmas Day, I am ever so grateful for the wonderful cachers who took time out of their Christmas Day to share in the 20th Birthday celebration for the Christmas Cache! Some very long drives and then bearing the coldest (for southwest Florida anyway!) weather of the year for our little birthday party. We were careful with our masks and our social distancing, and made one exception while we all held our respective breath to take just one non-mask photo, hah! A special thank you to MinotRanger (yes, from THAT Minot!) for supplying a beautiful birthday cake, thank you! Then a group of seven cachers hiked to the Christmas Cache on its very special birthday, regardless that a few had already hiked it before. One cool note, I also noticed that MinotRanger placed the 500th (!) favorite point on the Christmas Cache today, congratulations! Thank you all, and Merry Birthday! 

Good Morning Christmas Cache watchers! The Christmas Cache will celebrate a 20th Birthday on December 25, 2020! For those of you in town, we will be having a local event GC93PAQ to celebrate. There are usually a few people who wish to hike this cache on Christmas Day, so if you are in town and would like to attend the event, there will be an opportunity to team up and hike together. The event can be found here:

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC93PAQ_happy-20th-birthday-christmas-cache 

With apologies to the local charter boat Captains, I made this cache run on Bird power!

We have been on an extended social distancing road trip covering thousands of miles. The good news is that finally Marooned was on my list because we had the kayaks strapped to the top of the pop-up camper! The only bummer is that due to the remnants of Hurricane Delta, the rains have been pretty non-stop for the short window we had in Georgia, so I decided to go ahead and paddle in the rain. I watched the radar and set off in between the heavier showers.

I did a little Google mapping beforehand and made my plan. I found Bethel Park to the north of the cache island with a great launch area. Park there at N34 13.651 W083 59.515. This will give you a very easy .6 paddle over to the island. There are places you can easily beach the kayak on the north side of the island, but this will give you about a 500 foot walk over a LOT of downfall to the cache. The recent storms have really made a mess adding to the downfall already there. Or you can paddle around to the south side of the island (perhaps 15 minutes more?) where the beach area is and have a closer easier walk to the cache, your call. I beached somewhere around N34 13.221 W083 59.066 at a very skinny piece of the island and hoofed it the rest of the way over the hill. It wasn't a pretty walk, but I was already out of the kayak and on foot so I pressed on.

Once I got to ground zero the find was pretty quick. I was a little concerned about all the newly downed trees on the island, but the cache was nestled securely in its place. There was no pen, so I donated one to the cause. Worked my way in, around and under the deadfall back to the kayak and headed back to the launch. Even in the rain I still had fun!

Thank you for maintaining this classic year 2000 oldie, favorite point indeed! 

I have hiked this loop so many times, but I never tire of this beautiful place!

Today was my annual maintenance run on all the caches in Collier Seminole State Park, and actually my number one target was the Christmas Cache. First of all, I couldn't understand how in the world the nearly new ammo can could have been flooded! Then when I saw the condition of the can, I understood. Someone some time back clearly left the can open, and then just threw the log into the can without putting it back into the double ziplocks (which were still there). The can also had been partially filled with garbage, and most all the swag was gone. The rope securing it up above the ground was missing entirely. There were no TB's in it either. My apologies to the recent hikers who found the container in this condition. I just shook my head when I saw it.

But now the better news! My brother Birdman1 and B777Batman hiked along with me to check out the cache and the trail conditions. We took the entire loop just to check it out. The north side of the loop is WET WET WET! Right now you will be wading the entire length as soon as you take the cut to the right for the bike trail. The trail has not been mowed for quite some time and along with the water are grasses and weeds thick on the trail and between knee and shoulder height all the way to the park property line. It really was not a very pleasant walk. On the way back we took the trail along the fence and hiked back via the old Marco Highway tram road, which was completely dry the entire way. So if you want to avoid wading, take the south end of the trail all the way until it circles back north at the far end, then double back the same way you came for the way out.

The ammo can has been replaced again with a brand new one and it has been filled with cool stuff mostly of the Christmas variety of course! New log, new everything. It has also been secured to a small tree and is wedged up off the ground a few inches.

Happy Christmas Caching and enjoy this gorgeous park!



 

Man, was this place crowded today! We surmise that the heavy rains over the past two days brought everyone out to the park to take advantage of their passes and experience a gorgeous day that wasn't too hot. Heck, even 'It's A Small World' had a waiting line!!! Yikes! Anyway, here is a photo of Sailgirl76 and I in front of the castle. Thank you for the classic Virtual Smiley! 

Well, this one turned out to be an adventure on several levels! I have a few challenge caches that I need to finalize, and one of them requires a few more finds on year 2000 caches. I happened to have a day of training in DFW and my S.O. B777Batman had a long layover in Ft Worth and so we were able to match up a couple of days in the area. At the last minute I made a search for year 2000 caches and saw that this one was a very reasonable distance drive from Ft Worth, and that we could do it and get back in time to make our timing obligation. The drive turned out to be quite pleasant, as was the walk on the nice trail. We made it to the bluff and headed up hill. We found the cache right away, but as others posted earlier, there were no less than 3(!) copperheads basking happily literally on top of the container! Well, nothing was going to stop me from grabbing this container so I retrieved the stick that the previous finder left behind, and was able to pick it up by the handle and lift it away from the snakes. They were not happy, but I was careful not to harass them nor hurt them while retrieving the ammo can, and they retreated inside the hollow log once I started moving the can. I have posted a photo of a shed skin that was still attached to the ammo can. Texas caching at its finest! Thank you so much for the grand-daddy smiley, and the adventure! Photos posted! 

A HUUUUGE thank you to Taurusgirl70 for replacing the ammo can during my absence! I am very grateful to you! 

Crap. I can't believe my shiny new and fully stocked ammo can was a victim of the recent controlled burn. I am seriously bummed. Thank you so much for the heads up on the condition of the cache. This old cache is extremely busy this time of year so I don't want to disable it. But will be a while before I can again hike this trail to fix it up again. If any cacher who is planning to hike this one in the near future is interested in helping out with this please let me know. I will be happy to supply a new ammo can. In the meantime, please be prepared for a functional but burned ammo can with only a log inside. 

I finally got a chance to break away from my tour group and headed out on a geocaching walk. I see that the CO disabled this one only yesterday. That is ok, I always come prepared to help out with maintenance while I travel. I replaced the cache with a nano just as the hint described. I even managed to wait out the lady selling her fruit before I could approach the bench. The CO may enable the cache any time! Thanks for the smiley. 

Yippee!!!!!! GC72, Finland’s oldest geocache! We went for quality and this may well be our only cache in Finland today during our port of call off the Brilliance of the Seas. Gorgeous hike in the woods after talking Klaus, a very nice taxi driver into taking us to the middle of nowhere and dropping us off at the side of the highway at the edge of the woods...and waiting for us to come back out. He kept asking us, “Are you SURE this is where you want to get out?” Thank you for maintaining this classic oldest cache! Photo posted and favorite point indeed 

Thank you for your suggestion about disabling the cache. Right now the park is doing the best they can working with hired crews who are clearing the trails. However, the trails are being opened and closed at varying times depending on where the work in the park is being done on a given day and the closures are not always planned in advance given the nature of the work being done. Please continue to check with the park before making the trip out to the park. Discussions with the park ended with leaving the cache enabled in hopes that cachers would check with the park in advance so that some trails and caches may still be accessible during the varied closure times. I would rather not close the cache off completely from everyone during the cleanup in hopes that some cachers may hit an open day, but will disable it completely if this continues to be an issue. Thank you for your understanding, we are all doing the best we can. 

HOORAY!!!!!!!!! Thank you SO much for your field report, I am very grateful to you and thrilled to hear that the recently replaced Christmas Cache made it through the hurricane! I can't believe it was still up out of the water. My hat is off to you, APawInMyFace and you have no idea how much you have made my day! 

Dear cachers, as you know, the entire state of Florida was horribly affected by Hurricane Irma. Many cache owners are busy putting their homes and lives back together and caching may be down the list for a while. Many Florida caches will be damaged or soaked, but not all of them. I will be checking on my caches as much I can over the next few weeks and months, but many of mine are in remote areas of Florida. It will take a while to get to them all. In the meantime, if you are out caching, please post a condition report for the cache owner. And if you are able or interested, please also consider helping out by doing field maintenance. Thank you! 

Wow, what a hike today! Finally had an opportunity to get out and replace the rusting ammo can with a brand new shiny one full of Christmas cheer! [^] Caught up with Ranger Michelle and was fortunate enough to meet the new Park Specialist Patrick. They accompanied me for a while on the trail, but finally they held back and sent me off on my own for the duration. Don't really blame them for not wanting to spend the rest of their work day in soaked boots! Sadly the red ants had decided that it was a great place to build a nest, so none of the content of the old ammo can was salvageable. I grabbed the bag of TBs that was in the container and brought them all home. I will take this opportunity to clean up the TB list that is no longer accurate. This is a difficult (but I think fun!) time to hike the Christmas Cache. The mosquitoes are a force to be reckoned with and your feet WILL get wet on the trail so please plan accordingly. All the heavy rains we have had have encouraged much growth on the trail and the vegetation is pretty high along the south side of the trail loop. The new can is up out of the water nestled in a cabbage palm. Please keep it up off the ground this time of year to help prolong the life of the new ammo can. Happy Christmas Caching! (Photos attached) 

Hooray!!!!!! The trail construction is completed and the trail is back open to stay! Thank you all for your patience, and when you go please be sure and thank the park for taking such good care of our beloved Christmas Cache, Florida's oldest! IMPORTANT NOTE! Please know that the mosquitoes at CSSP are among the worst I have ever experienced, so be prepared!!! They are especially heinous out there at the moment. I will get out there asap and replace the ammo can, but the one that is there is just fine in the meantime. Happy caching! 

The Christmas Cache trail is still closed. I will keep posting updates as they are available. The cache is not available until the trail is re-opened. When it is once again available, I will also be replacing the ammo can. Thanks for your patience! 

Hi Christmas Cache watchers. I spoke with the park today about the trail closure. The trail maintenance is being done by a private company and the park does not yet have a timeline on the finish date. They estimate at least one more week and possibly longer. Unfortunately the Christmas Cache will be unavailable the entire time the trail is closed as there is tree felling during the maintenance process. I will call the park again next week and will post updates as I get them. Thank you for your patience, the park is good to Geocaching and we are grateful for their continued support of the cache. 

The Christmas Cache is currently unavailable due to trail maintenance. The park phone number is 239-394-3397. Please contact the park before you go to make sure the trail is open. This cache cannot be accessed during the trail closure. Please do not attempt to access this cache via any other way as you will be trespassing on private lands. The cache will be disabled until the trail maintenance is complete. Collier Seminole State Park has been very good to Geocaching over the years and we are grateful that they have been so willing to allow the Christmas Cache to continue to reside in the park. Finds logged will be verified and finds logged during trail closure will be deleted. Thank you for understanding that not following park rules will endanger the future of Florida's oldest cache. 

Thank you for the heads up, but this cache is already on the maintenance list of caches to repair as this incredibly busy tourist season winds down. This ammo can will be replaced as soon as time and work schedule allows. 

A big Congrats and an even bigger THANK YOU! ...to cacher EstesLynne for not only finding the Christmas cache, but for writing such a wonderful log. It was so refreshing to see the result of a cacher doing their homework and preparing for a hike before setting out into the wilderness not just in Florida, but anywhere. My hat is off to you for a job well done, (like hundreds of others before you have done).

Your log made me laugh out loud in several places, not the least was your reference to the very recent public debacle that happened which no doubt resulted in great expense for Florida taxpayers.

Thank you for reminding the public that while Geocaching is a game and a most wonderful sport, it is still an activity that requires planning and preparation. Things can and do go wrong in the wilderness, but we must prepare in advance to reduce the possibility of missteps. Thank you for showing us how it is done.

Thank you also for treating Florida's oldest cache, it's environment, and Collier Seminole State Park with the full respect it deserves. We are so very lucky to have CSSP host the Christmas Cache, and cachers like you will help us keep this cache alive always. Bravo! [^] 

Wow, CKayaks, you got more of an experience than what is required to find this cache! ...and you even took the time to write such a wonderful log. In today's world of 'TFTC's', your efforts are greatly appreciated. Please let us know if you find your wallet! 

Back in town again for another layover in one of my favorite cities! Visiting TB's... 

Back in Buenos Aires and stopping by one of my favorite cache locations for some traveling TB;s to visit. 

Now THIS is a very special cache.... but I probably need to explain!

ZSteve and I have been in Australia all this week but have been saving this cache for our last day as it is the closest one to our hotel Ibis. We decided to wait and find this cache for a challenge we are working on to find two caches far apart on the same day. Thanks to the time change on our flight home to the USA, we will be able to find this cache early Sunday morning, and still be able to find another cache today back home in Florida!

We got up early at 4am and walked over here in the dark, cold rainy morning armed with flashlights. Of course, at this hour we didn't even have to worry about muggles other than the ones wandering around at the end of their night in the nearby clubs! Luckily it was an easy find and we were signing the log about 4:20 am Sunday morning the 27th.

This afternoon we will seek out a cache near the Miami International Airport to complete our challenge.

Thanks for the smiley! 

Our last day in Australia, so we weren't going to let a little rain get in our way! We took the ferry over to spend the afternoon in the zoo today, but still had an hour left before our return ferry. Spent some time hiking on the trails and the boardwalk and completely enjoyed our time here. Thanks for the smiley! 

GREAT cache!

Our last caching day in Australia, so we weren't going to let a little rain get in our way! We decided to take the ferry over and spend the afternoon in the zoo. We spent almost five hours there but never really made it past the Australia section!

Afterward we had about an hour before our return ferry, but it was getting close to dark. We decided to go for this multi anyway and see if we had time to complete it. We were intrigued since it was a fairly new cache.

We found ourselves at stage one, realizing that we now had more hiking to do at a (sort of) offset hike to find the numbers we needed to move forward. We set off down the trail to the lookout area and were happy we decided to go for it. Beautiful view! Found the plaque easily and computed the math. It was almost dark now and knew we would have to be careful on the trail and also hurry as to not miss the ferry. We saw where ground zero was going to be and decided again to keep going while looking over our shoulder at the harbour for our approaching ferry. Luckily for us we were able to find the cache quickly thanks to the good coords. Happily surprised to find ourselves only the third to find! [^]

Cache is in great shape and we hurried along the dark path back to the ferry port. We really enjoyed this cache, thank you so much! 

Our last day in Australia so we decided to take the ferry over and spend the afternoon in the zoo. We had a lovely day and then had about an hour for caching before our return ferry. Our first goal was of course to hike over and find this old Virtual. We hiked the muddy and trail and then the boardwalk all along the beach for a gorgeous walk. It took about 20 minutes at a good pace to arrive at ground zero from the ferry port.

We spent some time in the area thinking about how it much have been when this was used as a security site. Thank you for bringing us here, we enjoyed our time and the history!

Photo posted of ZSteve at the nearby rifle wall.

PS: Cool! I just realized that this was cache #25,100! Yay! 

Figured out where we needed to go once we saw the area. Unfortunately for us the site is popular and we had to wait out a couple of muggles who were having a picnic. After a little while they departed and we were able to make the find. Nice cache location! 

This one could have been a problem given all the possible hide locations. Luckily for us we were fortunate to have no mugs present so the prize was located quickly. Thanks for the smiley! 

Our second to last day to experience Sydney. ZSteve and I headed out for a little night caching tonight. Not too much trouble finding this one, thanks for the smiley! 

What a wonderful place to begin a multi cache. Thank you for highlighting this monument. ZSteve and I set out for a little night caching so the area seemed even more poignant. We quickly located the names in question and calculated the final. The final coords were spot on and we had the cache in hand within minutes. Thank you for a very nice multi cache. 

The hint made me laugh. After reading that of course we had to seek out the cache! Saw immediately where we needed to go. Thanks for the smile and the smiley! 

ZSteve and I set out for little night caching as this is our second to last day in Sydney. We wanted to make sure we got down to this area for a pie at the famous Harry's before we headed for home. This cache was nearby and quite findable in the dark. Great hiding place and the hint made me smile. Thanks for the cache! 

Unfortunately we are officially throwing in the towel here.

We made four visits to ground zero looking for the final, to no avail. This early Saturday (before any muggles showed up) we attacked the site armed with flashlights and video cameras to be able to view the areas we could not reach in case it was simply pushed back too far.

Sadly we were not successful.

Oh well. We did enjoy working the puzzle.

Thanks to the CO who confirmed our coords for us.

Best of luck to the next searchers! 

This cache is very near where ZSteve and I are staying at the Ibis hotel. We have been here twice so far looking for this cache. The CO confirmed that we solved the puzzle correctly and that we are looking in the right location but so far we have been unable to locate the prize. We have one more day in Sydney and will try one more time to find the cache. It would be a shame to go home without a find here but we haven't given up yet! 

We found this one but only with the help of previous cachers. Please update the coords on the cache page as the find is now 100 feet off the posted coords. 

Our last caching day in Australia, so we weren't going to let a little rain get in our way! Easy once we finally found ourselves in the right location. Thanks for the smiley. 

Our second to last day in Sydney so ZSteve and I headed out for a little night caching. Luckily we found this one without too much trouble. Thanks for the smiley! 

What a pretty little pocket park! This afternoon there were many muggles and their four-legged friends around so we had to be patient before we could grab the cache. Finally we prevailed but had to scratch our initials on a tiny sliver of paper as the log on this one is full. Sorry we didn't have a proper replacment. Thanks for the smiley! 

Our last caching day in Australia, so we weren't going to let a little rain get in our way! Cache is in fine shape and we appreciate the smiley. 

Another lovely pocket park! It was a beautiful Saturday morning so we had to be stealthy to avoid the nearby giggling muggles playing nearby. Luckily we were able to access GZ without being seen. Thank you for bringing us to this pretty site!