Weekend Caching: West Tyson & Phantom Park

I decided to hunt a few more caches after work Friday, this time without my kiddo cache companions. Instead, I talked my good friend Toby into heading out to West Tyson with me (which was cool of him to go, seeing as how he had family coming in town and was on a tight schedule). Even though it was a little rainy, we didn’t let that stop us.

(Start of our trek, just beyond where we parked)

Before we even got to the gate before the trail started, we noticed this old abandoned structure. We weren’t quite sure what it was, it looked like some sort of farm house, but as we got closer we came to the conclusion that it was a more of barn or storage for farm equipment. It had an eery quality that comes with all abandoned structures that I visit, but the same strange beauty they all seem to have (in their own way).

When we peeked into the windows, we could see some ancient farm equipment. Definitely cool stuff!

We couldn’t really tell what they were and we didn’t go inside to fully explore.

So we started up the trail, which was very cool. Once we started uphill, it became very rocky (slippery wet rocks), but it was almost as if the rocks were laid out as stairs. After a pretty good hike upwards we finally came to our first cache of the day.

It was just a little off trail on a little rock outcropping. We found the cache pretty quickly – signed the logbook and moved on to the next cache. After a little trail hiking, it was time to go off trail again. This time is was downhill, steep downhill. West Tyson, while beautiful, is all over the map topographically. Toby was telling me that the part of the Chubb Trail that we were walking was one of the most technical trails for mountain bikers, and I can believe it. It would be a blast to bike through, but I fear the uphill climbing that would be required – much less the impact of wiping out on all the rocks. You could really mess yourself up on those trails!

From here we headed to the next cache, which was hidden in a little 10 foot cliff wall. The GPS took a little while to settle down and we overshot the GZ a little – which meant scaling down the wall – and then back up to find it. In all this wasn’t a bad thing, as we got to explore the area a little bit.

The location of the next cache was also gorgeous. Luckily we made it there without wiping out, but at this point the combination of rain and grabbing trees for support (and then having the water from leaves being shaken rain down on us) left us pretty wet. The GPS’s again were bouncing around, but when it settled we found the cache. We overshot it again by 20 feet or so, so we had to climb up a little to find it. After signing the logbook, we headed down the hill the rest of the way to check out the creek below. Toby actually climbed into it for some photos, I elected to stay out of it and take in the surroundings.

After climbing back up the hill, we went to the last cache for the day. It was pretty much right on the trail, so we found it pretty quickly. Like the rest of the caches, the swag was pretty sad – but in this cache we found a “Magic MeatBall” McDonalds toy. This little toy is one where you ask it a question and get Magic 8Ball responses (“The MeatBall says Yes”, “The MeatBall says No”, or “Ask again later”). Sarenna got one of these a while back and I used it for decision making for a while and got a kick out of it, so I talked Toby into grabbing it. Hopefully it will serve him well!

After this cache, we decided that 4 was enough and headed back. On the way, we ran across this little outcropping of purple flowers growing out of this fallen tree. It looked out of place growing there, enough so that we stopped to take a few pictures. I was bummed that I left my macro lens at home, so I just used my 17-55. Toby, on the other hand, got creative and flipped the 50mm lens he was using around. He didn’t have his reverse mount, so he handheld it. It was cool to see in action (I have read about it, but never seen it done) – and the results (via LCD) looked pretty good.

I wish I had my macro lens, but hand holding the 17-55 worked in a pinch:

We walked back to the car after this, 4 more caches found and I had a blast just hanging out with Toby for a few hours. It was near dark and I was anxious to see the kids. I did stop by Ace Hardware on the way home to get some waterproof spray paint for the 3 cache boxes (ammo cans) that I bought this week. I am placing my first hide tomorrow, so I need to get these guys ready to go.

Today, after working in the yard all day (took out 5 stumps and mowed), I decided to hit a park that I have read about, but never been to – Phantom Park in Des Pres. The plan was to find 3 caches and get a little fresh air and exercise – and enjoy the cooler weather we are getting this weekend. Sarenna and I left the trail about 200 feet in to find our first one, which she spotted right away.

After that cache, we moved on down the trail until we came to another foundation of an old house. I can’t believe how many old foundations we are finding in parks!   

This one even had an old bathtub off to the side of the foundation:

Sarenna found green slime (packaged) in the cache, so she snapped that up pretty quickly. I found a travel bug in it, which I grabbed and plan to move along. It’s final destination is the gulf coast, which I am planning on visiting in 6 weeks – so I will either hold it for that, or redeposit it in another cache in the area (haven’t decided). I tracked this bug at geocaching.com and apparently it started in this park -> moved to Weldon Springs -> came back (doh!). The location of this cache was pretty sweet though, I love exploring old ruins of habitats of days gone by!

En route to the third cache, we ran into a subdivision. The trail literally walked along the back yards of people’s homes! I could see where I needed to be and where we were, but didn’t want to cut through people’s yards. The trail ran along their yards, but I wasn’t sure where it went. We elected to head back to the car and try to drive to it. We found the cache site and the trail we were on would have led us to where we needed to be, had we stayed on it. Doh! Either way, we made our way to it. This cache was located in this little formation of rocks that was sort of unique.

Sarenna found the cache quickly, so we all signed it and decided it was getting dark enough that we should go get dinner and head home.

So I found 7 caches so far this weekend. Tomorrow we are headed to Sugar Creek park for a family get together for Ethan and Sarenna’s birthdays. Cake, washers, friends and family – I am looking forward to it. The best part (for me) is that we are also hiding our first cache in this park. Unfortunately I found out the other day that there is another cache in the same place I planned to hide this one. We’ll find another spot in the park, but given the amount of traffic this park sees, it will be tough to find a spot that doesn’t get trashed by kids in the area. Wish me luck!