Sunday Geocaching Outing

After early-morning (too early the first time around) birthday wishes for La-La (Happy Birthday La-La!!!), We loaded 2 geocaches into my GPSr and headed out this morning for some geocaching down past Tupper Lake...one was an easy one, good for warming us up (both literally and figuratively...it was 28 degrees in Lake Clear this morning and it's also been a while since we went geocaching)...

The second geocache was at the summit of Coney Mountain, a challenge along the lines of Panther, but new to all of us!


There were lots of great trees, living and dead, along the way, and Ben loved all of them...he was amazed at how bugs and time make hard wood so punky and easy to break apart...


There were a bunch of great erratics with trees growing over them, and Ben picked this one to take a rest/snack-break on...


This tree must have fallen over a couple of times in its youth, and grown bent for awhile before falling again...the result is that it has grown with this huge "N" curve in its trunk...


Another rest break further up the mountain saw Ben and Gail enjoying some snacks while the chilly sun fell through the maple leaves onto their faces...



We got up to the top shortly thereafter, and were amazed at the incredible view...this mountain has an incredible payoff, in terms of scenic value to energy expended...


Ben had a great time running around and playing on the top of the mountain, and eating raisins...


I had to do a runaround picture of us, with the High Peaks in the background...


Ben and Gail chilled out on the summit while I went down an alternate trail a bit to find the geocache...it was disappointingly empty (a situation that I remedied)...


He played with the awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (TMNT) that we had traded for in the first cache of the day while enjoying the view and sunlight and occasional scent of pleasantly rotting leaves from the woods below us...

A TMNT says "YARGHHH" like this...

Gail and Ben took a hug-break before heading down...we were very glad that Mommy could join us on this outing...she's between classes in her doctoral program, and the house is sparkling clean (Thanks Honey!)...


We started back down after hanging out on the top of Coney Mt. for a while, and had a fun time negotiating the slippery leaves and rocks and roots on the way back down...


On the way back home, we passed a couple of deer feasting on the side of the road near the Wawbeek...

A pile of PB&Js later, we trundled downstairs for a little Jimmy Neutron therapy in the horizontal position...we might have to light a fire in a bit, it's cold down here...