“Just a short, easy hike!”  That’s what I said, anyway!

We had taken the kids out to the check on the booth and showcases at Crazy Daisy’s and had replaced Shelby’s thirteenth birthday cache, Thirteen Wishes.  The weather was nice and the temperature was very comfortable so I asked Laura if she was up to about a one mile, easy hike to grab two geocaches.

I had mapped it out in my head and on Google maps months ago and thought I knew what I was doing.  Apparently, my memory is not that good anymore!!

I knew the best place to park would be at the Disaster Recovery building and take the utility road through the wood to Ground Zero since there is no real path to take.  This was going to be such an easy hike, mostly level (in my head), we didn’t even bring the walking sticks.

The Easy Hike

We started walking down the path and were immediately greeted by a large mud puddle.  That’s okay!  We just carefully worked our way around the soft muddy edge of the puddle.  And off we went up the road for a nice easy hike.(I will never live down saying that!!)

After walking for about a half a mile, I looked at the GPSr which showed we were only a tenth of a mile closer to the cache.  We then turned a sharp curve and started uphill… a very steep hill!!

I figured this was the only slope that we would have to deal with so it would be okay, right?  Wrong!!!  It leveled out for a few minutes and then the road disappeared in front of us.  Not really, but it was even steeper going down.  Then back up!!

When we reached the top of this next hill, the road split, one going straight and one to the left. I checked the GPSr and decided to head straight.  After traveling a few hundred yards, I realized we were getting further away from the geocache.  Turn around!!

We arrived at the split again and took a right.  The road started uphill again (I didn’t know the terrain was this steep in this area)!

It appears this road has had some recent work since it was littered with broken and chewed up trees and limbs, making it a little tough to walk on.  We continued on until we reached the top of this gently rising path.

View near Hippy Tree Geocache

What a great view, but where did the road go?  Oh, it went down steeply again!!!

We were within 300 feet of ground zero so I had to continue on, but I offered to let everyone else stay behind while I went to find it.  Laura, Shelby and Nick decided to take the time to rest before we headed back to the truck (At this point, there was no way I would be able to talk them into going after the second geocache, GC261MD – Take a Hike 01, I had planned to grab!)  Dave decided to continue on with me.

We traveled on down the road for another hundred feet and then cut off into the woods.  It didn’t take long to figure out how this geocache got its name (GCTAEQ – Hippy Tree).

Dave at Hippy Tree Geocache

We looked through the contents of the container, read several of the entertaining logs from previous finders, signed it ourselves and then headed back the way we came.

On the way back to the truck, we took a straighter path that seemed to be less steep.  By the time the truck came into view, I was hearing sighs of relief from all members of the crew!

It was a nice, easy hike (or not!) and time spent together as a family.  It was worth all the trouble no matter how much fabric it is going to cost me (Laura buys fabric to punish me for these hikes). Maybe I should invest in some topographical maps!