This year’s geocaching get-together at Potter’s Ponds was pretty typical, meaning that it was a total blast. I pulled the camp trailer up there on Thursday afternoon and set up camp, then spent the evening just hanging out and enjoying being in the mountains. I tried some fishing using lures but didn’t have any luck. I didn’t know that the guy in the campsite across the road from me was another geocacher or else I’d have invited him over to share my campfire. One other cacher showed up briefly to drop off his trailer and UTV, but then had to go right back home for some stuff that he forgot to bring.
The next morning, I ate breakfast and enjoyed my morning coffee outside in the cool air, then rode my ATV over to one of the ponds and did some fishing. This time I used PowerBait and caught a nice 13″ rainbow trout after a short time, but couldn’t get any bites after that. After lunch I rode my ATV up to Skyline Drive, found a geocache there and made a phone call (since that was the closest place I could get cell service), then went back to camp for a short nap. I did some more unsuccessful fishing, but when more people started trickling in to camp, I went back and stayed there for most of the evening. A group of us did try more fishing, but I spent most of my time there helping Traci fish and chasing my kids around. That evening around the campfire was pretty crazy, with the obligatory trip (or three) to the nearby night cache. I’m surprised we’ve never been kicked out of the campground with as much noise as we always make. 🙂
On Saturday morning everybody got a slow start, but around 11:00 or so a group of us finally rolled out of camp on ATVs and headed up to Skyline Drive. We found a few caches along the way, then, after having to stop and ask directions, found our way down the Reeder Canyon trail. The trail was dusty as hell and pretty slow-going, and not one of us escaped being totally coated in a thick layer of dust. Once we finally got to Joe’s Valley, we were able to haul ass up Miller Flat Road. Back at camp, we shared a potluck dinner and enjoyed a much quieter night around the campfire, though we still stayed up until nearly 2:00AM much like the previous night.
We had a potluck breakfast the next morning, after which everybody began packing up in preparation for heading home. After I changed a tire on the trailer which had gone flat while it was parked, I went for a short ATV ride. I’m glad I got at least some riding in, because shortly after I got back the rain started coming down. Traci and I were the last ones at camp, and while I was loading the ATVs into the trailer it really started pouring, so a fair amount of rain came into the trailer and I tracked some mud in with the ATVs. As soon as I got them loaded and tied down, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The drive toward home along Miller Flat Road got the trailer all muddy, but the the rest of the drive on the highway through more rain cleaned it all up.
I had such a good time that I forgot to take many photos (just like last year), but here are a few that I took over the past few days.