Another beautiful day

Well, I got a chance to get outside yesterday & do some caching in New Hampshire. I did several in a couple of local forests. Nice areas. Weather was cool, winds gusty, about 45° or so. Trails were a combination of frozen ground, wet snow, compacted snow, ice, & mud. But, despite all that, I still managed to grab 7 (seems to be my average on a day out lately). All that being said, The second to last cache I did, called Conversville Cache, was my favorite. I got a chance to get a few pics, which will be posted shortly. In particular, I got some of a few wood ducks, both floating around & taking off into flight, a nice picture over the pond, with a local hill as a backdrop, and, my favorite, I got a pic of a beaver lazing around on the ice. He was too far off for me to eye him, so, I whipped out the camera, zoomed in, snapped a pic, & hoped. Sure enough, when I downloaded the pics, it was definitely a beaver. I was kinda proud of myself. See the link to my album above. I am loading them as we speak.
Well, thats all I have today. LAtely I've been getting out a lot more with caching, and hope to continue that into the spring & summer.

A beautiful day to be out

Well, spring is finally here! As it was such a nice day outside, I decided to do two geocaches that were a bit of a hike. The first one was MA Ghost Town. This is in the Quabbin Reservoir area, which was originally the site of several towns, until they evacuated them all to make room for Boston's water supply. A good site for the history of it can be found here. The walk in was great, with the warm sun, the snow melting, and a pleasant stroll through the country. The cache itself was a virtual, which, technically, they cannot list anymore, so the hider placed a physical cache with the coords to the final (and other areas) in a can, that you can log after you make it to Dana Common.
Walking up this old road, one has time to ponder (it IS a 2 mile walk, after all) how much effort it must have taken these people to build towns back then. All that was made was done by manual labor; the rock walls New England is famous for, old cellar holes, dug by hand, foundations, with stones weighing more than the people moving them, even the wood was gathered locally. I cannot begin imagine how all these townfolk, from all the towns they were forced to abandon, must have felt to be relocated from what they built with their own hands. There were churches, schools, cemetaries, inns, as well as the farms & dwellings. There was even an old railroad that ran by here. But, their sacrifice has given us a beautiful place to walk, a controlled area for both forestry & wildlife, and has probably spawned more than a few ghost tales.
The second cache I went after was Harvard Forest. A more complete history of the forest can be found at this website. The walk, again, was about 2 miles one way, but well worth it. The route takes you around the pond, following a road. The road was a mix of dry forest floor, mud, slush, and combinations of the last two. This one also took about 2 hours to complete, but, I am a slow walker, and paused for several pictures.
Well, thats about all I have for now. I decided to take the day & do some caching instead of homework, so, now, I am once again behind. I am thinking that, this week, I will compare my two gear setups (ultralight & bushcraft) and post them here. So, until then, get outside!

Hammock experience & a camera

Well, I purchased a hamnmock from DD hammock last week, & got it in the mail Wednesday night. Needless to say, I was excited to try it out. Well, yesterday (thursday) was a gorgeous day, about 45 degrees outside, perfect for a trial nap. So, I throw the hammock, tarp, sleeping bag, mat, & canteen into my daypack, & head off into the woods.
I also brought along my new camera, and Olympus something or other. I figured I'd give two new items a try today :)
I find a nice spot, next to a beaver pond, with good, stout trees to set up. I get the tarp up, in about 5 minutes (with fiddling). Next, I string the hammock up. Get everything nice & set up, get the bug net up, then am about to get in, when I notice that there is a ripped seam. Disappointed, I take everything down, pack up, & head for home, to email the maker.
So, I email DD hammocks, and they ask that I ensure it is actually torn, as some folks confuse the two layers of nylon (to slip a sleep mat between)with a tear. I write back that, no, I am not confused, and take a picture of the tear. Upon further inspection, I see that, it is in fact not a tear, but the machine had missed stitching about a foot's worth of material (in the picture). So, as it stands currently, I am awaiting a response from them. In the interim, I've ordered a hennessy asym, and will review that as soon as I get it.
Oh, and the camera kicks ass ;)