Geocaching Fun, and a Face Plant

The past couple of weeks we've been staying close to camp, since our journey over to the Black Canyon and Ouray. We've recenently started geocaching, mainly due to the enthusiastic discussions with our fellow workamper Sandi. Most of you who RV know about geocaching already, but for those who don't, you can learn all about it here. As Sandi's husband Joe explains it, you use a handheld GPS worth a few hundred dollars, using technology worth billions of dollars (satellites) to "find stuff" :-). It's a modern day treasure hunt. The neat thing about it is that you go places looking for these caches that you may never have discovered otherwise.

So on one of our days off the past week, we picked one that was close by, and decided to go find it. It sounded nice, at the top of a waterfall, and would be a nice walk to take the pups on as well. We had planned on leaving early, but were also making breakfast that morning for the other workampers...omelets in a bag. We were going to make them for our "breakfast for dinner" potluck, but had some technical issues at the time. Being that we had three dozen eggs, we offered to make breakfast Sunday morning instead :-). So we got off to a little later start than we had hoped...after all, it is August in the mountains, and the afternoon rains almost always come through on the mountain. Anyway, we loaded up the water bottles, got our co-ordinates for the cache, and set off on Brown's Creek Trail to the waterfall.

The first mile was ALL uphill...lots of huffing and puffing, but great views of the valley behind us

We walked through trees...

and meadows....

and over logs crossing streams...the dogs had a definite advantage here!

and finally made it to Brown's Creek Waterfalls. It was really pretty, but I had read our directions wrong, and instead of being a 3 mile round trip hike, it was 3 miles one way. 

The cache co-ordinates were indicating that the cache was to our right, up the huge pile of boulders....I was not confident enough to climb up the pile, and with a 3 mile hike facing me for the return trip, did not want to walk further to find a route around. But we did see some nice waterfalls!

It was a very rocky hike back down the mountain, and we needed to go slow and careful to not twist an ankle!

A dip in Brown's Creeks at the end was refreshing for the pups!

The next day we wanted to go out again, but after six miles my body rebelled about doing another hike! So we picked a scenic drive, from the town of Como over the Boreas Pass to Breckenridge. It was a beautiful day, one of the monthly residents, Mike and Gigi, had recommended it, so we packed up the pups, maps, some geocache co-ordinates, and off we went again.

My research had told me to stop at Mountain Man Gallery for a roadmap guide to the pass, with numbered markers to guide us through the history of the pass. Unfortunately, the owner, also the postmaster, after she finished loading mail into the old-fashioned metal boxes in the back of the gallery, told me the markers were all taken down, so the guide was useless and she didn't print it anymore. Well, alrighty then!

Como has several interesting buildings, this train roundhouse is one. The historical societies raise money to slowly restore these buildings.

Up the road we went, looking for our first geocache...Roberts Cabin

Found it!

On the road again for the next one...

Al spotted this one!

Our last cache required more searching...

Beautiful view!

Even Chelsea joined in the climb

and another find :-).

That was our last cache for the day. We headed onward up to the summit....

Another Continental Divide Pass sign for my collection :-).

Several buildings were restored by historical societies, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign :-).

We continued down the pass and into the ski town Breckenridge..looking for some lunch before heading back to Chalk Creek. We found a puppy-friendly spot at The Whale's Tale, also known as the gathering spot for the "After the Catch: season six" episode of "Deadliest Catch" series. Lunch was tasty, and we strolled around town for awhile...

A cute store with beautiful gardens

Casey was quite concerned about this!

Cupcakes, anyone??

So, we had a very nice couple of days off, and got started on a new hobby, geocaching. But lest anyone thinks that only good things happen around here, :-), I do have to admit that I had a bit of a fall yesterday :-(. It was totally my fault, and was on the flattest, easiest trail around that we walk on. We had gone out after working the morning shift, and took the dogs with us. After finding a few caches, we decided to take them for a quick walk on River Walk, in town, before going to dinner. I saw some cool ducks on the river, and I was paying attention to my phone, trying to ID the ducks, rather than what was going on around me. Well, Chelsea, whose leash I was holding, decided she had to go see another dog coming our way, and took off. I was completely caught off guard, and ended up getting dragged down, doing a face plant into the gravel path. Long story short, I am now sporting a very fashionable 10 stitches on my chin. And no, there are no pictures :-). Just goes to show you, it only takes seconds of inattention to lead to an accident. Otherwise, we're all fine, and its a minor bump in the road. Onto the next adventure!