Earlier this week it was so hot that we took an afternoon off and went to the beach. Here on the North East Coast you have to take it when you get it and we decided to take it!

There are several great beaches nearby to where we live that sometimes it’s hard to choose which one to go to. This time we decided to go to the Lawrencetown Beach on Highway 207, the Marine Drive. Usually the temperature at this beach is considerably cooler than here at home and sometimes the fog can roll in quickly but since it was so hot here with such a beautiful blue sky we thought that we would take the chance. We were not disappointed. It was just cool enough to be enjoyable, the surf was rolling and we got to do some Geocaching!

Since we are not the ‘lay on the beach’ type (oh sure, there are times when we’ve been known to rest our weary bones (nap), or to read a book (nap) while protecting our selves from the sun by laying under a beach umbrella (nap)) we decided that today we would walk a section of the Atlantic View Trail. The Atlantic View Trail extends approximately 10kms (6 miles) from the Eastern end of the Salt Marsh Trail and past Lawrencetown Beach, following an old railroad bed. However, today we only walked a small section from the beach to where the trail crosses Highway 207.

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We headed out yesterday morning to explore a trail that has been calling us for years, the Lake Charles Trail at Shubie Park. Even though we live close by and are frequent visitors to the park, most recently for the CITO event, this was one part of the trail system that we had yet to venture on. We can’t think for the life of us why we had never been there before other than it was saved for a day like today. It really was a great day.

The Lake Charles Trail extends the full length of the lake and is a part of the Shubie Park shared-use trails and the Trans-Canada Trail. It skirts the water’s edge for most of its length, offering many great viewing areas and resting spots. The trail is well groomed and a favorite among hikers, joggers and cyclists. It is continually being extended where eventually it will follow the canal route all the way to the Bay of Fundy!

It took us just over four hours to do the round trip of around 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the parking lot to the end of the trail and back. This included stopping frequently to enjoy the views, to take photos, to have lunch and, of course, a bit of Geocaching! We were able to pick up a half a dozen caches along the way. (We even left a couple to bring us back here another time. :))

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Last week, while in Roseville, California for GeoWoodstock VI, we spent a day Geocaching at Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. The park is located in the Sierra-Nevada foothills about 25 miles east of Sacramento and it offers lots of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. Since we didn’t bring a horse or a bike we stuck to the hiking.

Throughout the weekend we were warned about the creepy-crawlies that inhabit North California, like rattle snakes and tarantulas as well as poison oak. Since we come from an area where the worse thing that can find you is a tick or maybe an angry duck we thought that today might qualify as a Challenge Cache. We were very careful to tap the caches with our walking sticks, watch where we stepped and jumped around and made noise. It must have worked because all we saw were eagles, lizards, chipmunks and deer.

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Well, it’s quite a spring! We were waiting for it for so long and when it came it really came! It has to be one of the best springs that we have had in this area for a long time. Unfortunately this meant trying to get things done around the house that we haven’t been able to get to for so many springtimes. I believe we got more done in the past month than we were able to do in the past 3 springs! We got the gardens cleaned up, a couple of new gardens put in, lots of dead trees cleaned up, tore down and replaced the driveway culvert ends and a whole lot more.

Now that this is all behind us we were finally able to get out for a bit of Geocaching this morning. We chose to do the trail around a small lake called Juniper Lake.

We found all six Geocaches that are on the trail. Each one was a pretty easy find. One in particular held a surprise for mrs_go. It was in the top of a hollowed out tree trunk and when she pulled it out she was greeted by a squirrel that popped it’s head up out of the trunk!

Here’s a photo of the squirrel near the cache. We tried to coax him back into the hole for a cool photo shot but he was a bit timid and stayed his distance. I guess we surprised him too!

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There’s this great Lebanese restaurant that we frequent located in a nearby business park. All their food is great but their Chicken Swarma Pita is ‘outa dis world’! We dropped by on Friday and shared one (yes, they’re that big!) and afterwards we went for a walk around a nearby lake to walk it off.

We picked up three more caches while we were there. They included this one that was between the cracks in a large rock:

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The sun finally broke out yesterday and the temperature rose to above 6C (42F). As my mother would have said, “It’s a great day to get out and blow off the stink”. So we did.

The trail we chose was at the end of a cul-de-sac just a few streets over from our home. We became aware of it at the beginning of the winter and we have been itching to get to it. Not only are there a couple of Geocaches along the route but the direction of the trail looked like it would connect to another area near our neighborhood that we were looking forward to exploring.

The first cache took us a fair distance off the trail and a bit of bushwhacking was required. We passed through several stands of birch trees which we’re sure will be even more alluring in a few months when crowned with green leaves. Nearby was a small pond still partially covered with ice:

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