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Crawling Through Bushes

Considering I was going to be visiting the Convocation Center at James Madison University, I decided to seek out “Zip It: 22807″ to see if I could locate it.

Going into this one, there were two bits that worried me a bit.

The first was finding a parking spot while the second was that one person found retrieving the cache in the past a bit of a “tight fit.”

I found a parking spot right off, although it was a risky place to park as it might well have drawn the ever possible parking ticket to my windshield, but in the end I found luck was with me as I managed to escape this.

The problem I faced, however, was exactly where this geocache might be hidden as there was a little bit of a signal bounce with the GPS for some reason.

In the end, I narrowed down the location, although freely admit that I took about five minutes longer than needed as I did not trust where common sense told me it would be.

After a bit of crawling around in the narrow “tunnels” of shrubbery, I found the cache tucked away among the branches of a bush.

To be honest, it reminded me a bit of shrubs I would tunnel into and play within as a child back in eastern North Carolina many years ago.

Logging my find, I moved rather quickly back to the car to make sure I escaped being ticketed.

— Mike Tripp / Hunter of Stories

Captain’s Log — Stardate: 20091014

Our ship emerged from warp this afternoon as we returned to port yet the date does not seem to match our mission time.

It must have been a timewarp as whatelse can explain the absence of activity from this ship and crew as well as the lateness of various mission reports that have been needing to be filed for some time now?

Look for logs to be caught up within the coming days as the crew of the Pathfinder prepares for an long-range mission of exploration that will take us in the direction of the Florida Quadrant within the next couple of weeks.

Respectfully,

Capt. Jonathan Hunter
Commanding Officer
U.S.S. Pathfinder

After finding another cache that was only a mile or so away, I overshot the location where “Oh-Barn-Di, Oh-Barn-Dah” was hidden and was forced to turn around and approach the location again.

There was definitely a barn at the location which at first was where I expected to find the geocache, but was surprised as it was actually hidden across the street.

It’s location was behind a telephone maintenance box and only after I began snapping photographs of Capt. Hunter with the geocache did I realize that there were quite a few plants with leaves of three.

Poison ivy? … Poison ivy?!? …. POISON IVY!!!!

Thankfully, I escaped without major harm although I did have a couple of itchy spots … could have been worse, however, as I was able to treat and get rid of the itch after only a few days of trying as opposed to the weeks and weeks experienced last time.

Decided to take a moment for myself and headed out looking for a couple of geocaches.

First on the list was “The Food on the Hill” which was a fairly straightforward hide and easily located as it was under a lamp skirt at the Blackwater Cafe … and I do believe the cafe was located on a small hill to boot … well, at least higher than surrounding locations.

Capt. Jonathan Hunter braves the briars and finds Outpost Blackberries (Island) Singin in the Dead of Night on an island in the Smith Mountain Lake Region of the Virginia Quadrant on Stardate: 20090807. (Photo by Mike Tripp/U.S.S. Pathfinder)

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Captain’s Log — Stardate: 20090807

An team from the U.S.S. Pathfinder hitched a ride out into the Smith Mountain Nebula aboard a Captain Daniel’s ship which was much better suited to navigating the region.

After making our approach, I led an away team which beamed to island serving as home for Outpost “Blackberries (Island) Singin in the Dead of Night” only to become caught in the tangle of native briars.

Managed to fight our way free, find the outpost and log our visit before departing the location.

Respectfully,

Capt. Jonathan Hunter
Commanding Officer
U.S.S. Pathfinder

Outpost Blackberries (Island) Singin in the Dead of Night was located on an island in the Smith Mountain Lake Region of the Virginia Quadrant on Stardate: 20090807. (Photo by Mike Tripp/U.S.S. Pathfinder)