I always said that if I wanted to keep Deb happy and occupied for a long time all I had to do was give her a map.  Deb loves maps.  Deb also loves exploring new places.  Late in 1998 Deb and I had decided to leave the Bay Area and travel around the country.  For Christmas that year I got her a GPS and a set of Delorme Topo maps and maps of the USA all on CD-ROM.  Little did I know where that would lead six years later.

Very briefly, geocaching involves hundreds of thousands of people all over the world hiding little boxes of goodies and publishing on the Internet only the geographic coordinates so other people can meander around the countryside and find the box.  Naturally, it can get much more complicated than that, but you can learn all about it on the link below.

You can learn all about Geocaching by clicking here!

We recently discovered this web site and have enjoyed finding new parks, vistas and preserves to explore locally.  Here's some of the spots we have been to this winter:

Our first cache "It's Not the Allagash Cache" is actually alongside the Androscoggin River at the Pejebscot Power Dam.  Our friend, Sean, should recognize this spot.  He capsized the kayak at the takeout after a successful downriver journey last summer.  This is just down river from where we live.

Not the most attractive garb, but it was hunting season.  Don't go out without the orange.  this was mid-November so the temperatures had already started to drop.

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It's cold but not much snow up on Bradbury Mountain's Boundary Trail in nearby Pownal. This was an icy day (late December, 2003).  It had been warm, then refroze, leaving some slippery areas on the trails.  Even though it is cold, just dress for it.

  Summer cottage at Ocean Point Rocks out near Boothbay Harbor.  See ... no snow!!

There's another summer cottage.  Nice view.    Early January at Ocean Point Rocks.

Oven's Mouth, one of Boothbay's Land Trust preserves.  This is saltwater.  Very gorgeous.  We didn't  find the cache on our first visit.  It was the same day we went to Ocean Point Rocks and since daylight ends very early here in Maine in the middle of winter, we thought we ought to get out of the woods before dark.  We came back here at the end of February and there were loons floating about.

Frozen saltwater marsh at Hamilton Audubon Sanctuary.  You can see big blocks of ice from the tidal fluctuations.  Late February.  Just after a sticky snow last weekend.  The snow was soft and quiet today; no crunchies.  No birds seen in this preserve, but we did hear a woodpecker.  

      Miniature fir trees still blanketed at Hamilton Sanctuary.  Snowed 3 days ago.

No, we didn't touch this up.  Ice houses on the Androscoggin River near Brunswick.  They have red duct tape on the blue plastic icehouse.  Many Mainers wait for winter eagerly so they can go ice-fishing.  I don't get it!!  They haul one of these houses out onto the river or lake, carve a hole in the ice, drink, tell stories and fish.  Not everyone drinks and I'm sure not everyone fishes.