I don’t know where to begin our story….

O.K. here is where I’ll start….We get up sorta late on Sunday morning, like 9:00. Andrew was suppose to be at the Topsham Fire Station at 8:00, but since he is only a junior and not a paid per-diem firefighter it was no big deal. So I print off seven (7) to do caches in Freeport and we head to the fire station to drop Andrew off for the day. We (Cheryl and I) head out for a day of caching. It was our 18th anniversary and we couldn’t think of anything better to do together than caching. Oh yeah, we had our loving dog, A.J. the caching dog too.

So, we are heading to Freeport and I was thinking about starting at the new cache over in Yarmouth, GCXNND – EARTHA’S CACHE by hoamdezinahs. Cheryl wanted to start at the new South Freeport one, TOWN WHARF GCXNM6 by Gob-ler. Guess where we started? That’s right – the TOWN WHARF. I must admit this was probably the right choice since all of the other caches fell right in line/order for the rest of the day. Well, at the Town Wharf cache we met up with Owana and another caching family and we all found and signed the cache. Thanks Gob-ler this was a fun little cache. Well, we all dispersed in different cache directions, we were headed to Bliss Woods since that was the direction we were heading. Here is where the ADVENTURE and probably our most memorable anniversary for the rest of our lives will begin.

Let me start by saying I learned three (3) very important lessons on this day of Sunday, August 27, 2006.

  • Always mark your car so you can find it!
  • Always listen to your wife! (Men you know what I mean. When there is no one to ask directions, listen to your wife!)
  • Always follow the dog; he knows his way back to the car!

O.K., so we park at the trailhead to Bliss Woods. We meet up with two other cachers who have just completed the NEFF Bliss Woods Cache challenge and they were off to Wiscasset to get that NEFF cache.

We headed in and stopped just inside the tree line to fix the GPS on the closer of the two caches. I see the Kiosk off to the right but the GPS says go left. Who needs a trail map anyway when you have a GPS!!! Off we go with the dog leading the way up the hill. We find the first cache, sign the log, leave a TB, put the cache back and call up the next cache. The GPS is telling us .40 miles this way… Do we go this way? NOOOOOOO, we go back the way we came until we get to .39 miles and a cross trail towards the original Bliss Woods cache.

Walking the trails was nice but I kept telling Cheryl that if we had come in from the L. L. Bean Stonewood Building parking lot that the cache would have only been .18 miles into the woods. Not a big deal as we were up for an adventure. Well we find the cache, sign the log and are ready to head back to the car. I think it best to bushwhack since it looked like the “White” trail has got to cross here at some point. This is where Cheryl starts telling me “Lets go back the way we came.” “Lets follow A.J. he knows where he’s going.” Well we come to this BIG ravine and I decide IT IS best to get back on the trail like Cheryl has asked to do. We find the white trail and it seems to go forevah! The GPS is telling us the cache is now .59 miles behind us…to far to go back that way; lets keep going forward the trail MUST loop around? By now I just want to get out of these freaking woods and neither the dog or the wife is happy with me because I insist on going forward.
AH, human beings and animals, we must be close to civilization… We stop and talk to a lady and pat her dog for a few minutes and off we go. You think I would have asked her if we were headed in the right direction for the trailhead. NOOOOOOOO, I can’t do that. I’m a male!!! Well we walk for what seemed like a 1000 more miles and come up in a field. There are houses along the edge and I see a road. Cheryl asks, “Do you know where we are?” I answer, “Yep…Nope! If we can get to the road I’ll know.”

We follow the edge of the field and at some point we catch an opening into another field. Being as observant as I am I see a little sign that says we are entering the Bliss Woods Preserve.

See Cheryl, I told you I knew where we are!!! Yeah, Right….

Well we trek through the next field only to run out of any trail that may have existed. We do see a house under construction, some road, and a potential trail. The trail certainly was not a hiking trail and when we got into the woods close enough to the house their dog started barking at us. I did not feel comfortable going through their yard so I thought I’d continue to bush whack through this very deep ravine that we have crossed 3 or 4 times, through the swampy, tangled brush to the road.

Now the peoples’ dog has barked enough to raise their suspicion as to who was in the woods, that they came hollering for identification as to who we were. I just wanted out and I went running through the brush and mud only to fall down and get a little muddy. It could have been worse. Cheryl seeing me take off running looked around for some sticks to help her across the mud and through the brush with out having to get to dirty. Now that we are on the other side of the swampy area Cheryl feels foolish to have to ask directions, after all she’s holding the GPS! Your not suppose to be lost with one of those high tech gadgets, RIGHT!!!

By now the people have caught up with us and I holler to them that I just want out of the woods and were are trying to get back to the parking lot. They had a good laugh at our expense…I’m soaking wet with sweat, and mud. Cheryl is frustrated with me and the dog, wet and muddy is dieing of thirst. The gentleman tells us to come up to his driveway, go to the end take a left out on to the dirt road then right at the tar road and the parking lot is about ½ a mile away.

Following those directions we head out and FINALLY we are back to the car in about ten minutes. The dog getting his drink, us having a snack and contemplating if we should continue on to the remaining 4 caches I had printed out.

We did go and finish our cache list for the day. I was to tired to tell the story to the kids. My toes hurt, my neck hurt, my brain hurt, I don’t think there was nay part of my body that didn’t hurt. Cheryl was feeling the same way but she couldn’t wait to tell Jess and Andrew what their Dad put their Mom through on our 18th anniversary.

You know the funny thing is… the cache page; which we had in hand has the parking coordinates listed in the write up!!!

All in a day of caching!!!!!