Afternoon Delight!

YAY! I finally managed to sneak in a day for myself with nothing on the books(well, actually I have TONS of stuff to work on, but dangit I just HAD to get outside and hit the trail!)

I decided to try the Beaverdam circuit of caches earlier this morning, but my caching gear was scattered all over the house and it took a while to get organized. I finally set out at 1 pm or so and made my way down to Mt. Hope Road. As I strapped on my leg bag and backpack a young gentleman came off of the north trail head with a hunting bow and a string of carp - really big ones! He spotted my Sig Sauer and stopped to chat for a moment. I'll tell ya, I have a great respect for folks who can muster a bow with accuracy!

I made my way down to the end of the road for the first find and walked right up to the first stage of a multi. This was good feeling... I was starting to wonder if my caching skills had suffered from this long absence and my fears were quickly allayed. The weather was just starting to turn when I started the hike, but I had looked at the doppler out of Sterling before leaving home and was betting that the approaching showers would move east faster than they were moving south.

Good thing I didn't bet any money...

The rain started as I followed the trail north, but rain doesn't bother me much unless it's a downpour and I can't see. I scored my first cache find at Merganser Point and IT FELT GREAT! I walked right up to the hide, which was in a tree, and sat for a while reading the log comments which got me to reminiscing... With those 400 plus finds, I have a lot of very fond memories!

I eventually closed and rehid the cache and started bushwhacking to the next cache. Ahhh...yessss... the smell of the good earth, the spider webs all over my arms wrapping fresh thorn scratches - I was in my element! From nowhere the song 'Afternoon Delight' popped into my head, complete with that lovely four part harmony, and I sang through rain and pickers to GZ at Feeder Stream.

Now, the thunder had picked up a bit and I was seeing CTC lightning through the canopy, but the afternoon heavy departures from IAD were still rumbling by so I figured it couldn't be all THAT bad. It wasn't, but as I closed and rehid the cache the rain started in earnest. I didn't see any clearing to the northwest, so I decided to follow the feeder stream up to the road for a quicker hike back the car. That was an enjoyable hide, even in the pouring rain.

I can't wait to get back here in fair weather to finish out the series - I am quite fond of this area and I am very glad to see that cache master 'B Team' has populated the entire reservoir with hides.