geocache mission

Fort Mountain was our address this weekend. The “Trading Post” had wifi, but in the so-called “cottages” I could barely squeak an Edge connection on my phone. More on our weekend later this week….

As we were leaving, my parents pulled up to the cottage with a plan. Not quite fully formed, but a plan. We headed out (in three cars — which I think we could have reduced by at least one of maybe even two for some of the trip) to a really remote lake, Peeple’s Lake.

The mission was to find a geocache, but not just that, the mission of the cache was to pick up a couple bags of trash. As we parked — not so easy amongst the trailers for the ATVs — we spotted way more poison ivy than trash. As we walked towards the trash, we left the poison ivy (which I am now a pro at spotting) and found lots of dwarf iris plants, though not the orange and purple ones we saw at Fort Mountain.

flowers - 26 apr 2009

flowers - 26 apr 2009

The geocache was found by my dad who can spot them a mile away. The girls found treasures. I took photos. I got SO close to a snake and didn’t realize it until Camille was a foot away from it, then I panicked. I thought it was a water moccasin; my dad said it wasn’t. We continued on, seeing less innocuous forms of wildlife, until I found a big tick on Chloe’s cheek.

snake - 26 apr 2009

flowers - 26 apr 2009

Argh! If I show my kids that nature terrifies me, how are they not going to be nervous?? Chloe is such a naturalist, I don’t think I’ve scared her from venturing out…. Here’s my dad with the trash that we carted out …!

trash - 26 apr 2009