Friday, June 25, 2010

A DUCKY Adventure: June 25, 2010




Mama Duck and two babies
Originally uploaded by JuneNY
Luckless and I met up at 11:30 or so in Oneonta in order to go geocaching for a few hours. I told her which caches were available that we have not found yet. She really wanted to find THE HATCHERY, so we headed to Riddell Park, just outside of Oneonta in the Colliersville area.

The cache site was about a half a mile from the parking area. It was a gorgeous day, hot but not too terribly humid. Once we got to the area where the geocache was hidden, Luckless found it quickly.

It was a HUGE round canister. We took it to a nearby picnic area so we could sit at a picnic table. We had a bit of trouble opening it, but we finally realized that the container did not PRY open, that the top turned to the left and came off.

Inside was a large MAMA DUCK, and a bunch of small baby ducks. TEAM DUCKY provided markers so that each finder can decorate their own ducky. The MAMA DUCK (seen in the picture up above) is the "log" for the cache and each finder signs on it. Luckless and I signed the log and then we each proceded to make our own baby duck. Luckless had a theme all picked out before we got there. Her theme was "hatchling". I did not have a theme or any ideas, so I just decorated my little duck and named it "ducky duck". Am I not at all creative or what? I do not have a creative bone in my body.

We were able to sit at a picnic table in a very nice picnic area on the edge of Schenevus Creek while we decorated our ducks. (middle picture up above shows my decorated duck). It was so much fun to make my own ducky, and so nice to spend time along the creek. When finished, we packed up the geocache and took it back to the site, and Luckless rehid it. I thoroughly enjoyed walking this trail at Riddell, except for the part when we ran into a couple of people with a dog that was NOT on a leash. (people who do not follow basic rules irritate me and I do not like dogs a whole lot). We went back to van and discussed what geocache to search for next.

We decided on DUCKY DEAD END FOUR, but we took a short break and stopped at PONDO'S for ice cream. I had a large marshmallow sundae with soft chocolate ice cream. It was really good. Then we headed over to the Charlotte Creek Fishing Access area. We located part one, but the clue did not work for us. There was a pen inside the cache which has a tiny light on it. We tried everything we could think of to light up a spot that would give us the coordinates for the second part of the cache, with no luck. Luckless had located the second part (without the coordinates) a few days before that, so we headed towards the spot where she found it.

It was like a walk through the jungle! (see picture way up at the top) That area is so overgrown. I doubt if many fishermen really take the time and effort to walk back to the fishing area. But we followed what tracks we could see (very faint in places) and eventually arrived at the cache site. There are a lot of wild rose bushes with prickers, and also some kind of shrubbery or small trees that have HUGE leaves. I had a heck of a time finding it and Luckless had to play the "hot and cold" game to help me zero in on it. Eventually, I found it, and signed the log and rehid it. Now it was time for another walk through the JUNGLE of ONEONTA. This time I moved faster, since I knew what to expect and I was anxious to get away from the bugs, mud puddles and overgrowth.

I dropped Leslie off, picked up some milk and headed for home. It was a fun afternoon!


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