I had planned on going out with Hunter after his dad got back from a few hours of work Sunday morning, but he got himself in trouble and I said we wouldn't be going. But after I put B down for his nap and headed into town to get some groceries, the virtual cache I had been looking at the day before kept floating around in my mind.
Geocaching.com defines a virtual cache as "...a cache that exists in a form of a location. Depending on the cache "hider," a virtual cache could be to answer a question about a location, an interesting spot, a task, etc. The reward for these caches is the location itself and sharing information about your visit. Because of the nature of these geocaches, you must actually visit the location and acquire the coordinates there before you can post. In addition, although many locations are interesting, a virtual cache should be out of the ordinary enough to warrant logging a visit."
So there is no cache box to find and no small treasures to swap. Even though I had no idea what to expect, I'm sure Hunter would have been interested in going. The task was to go to the coordinates, take a short walk in the woods and look for a depression in the land by huge birch trees and outcroppings of rock and email the cache owner what image I see and what two words are above this image.
I left the grocery store behind and headed toward Chardon and this virtual cache. I knew where I was going as I've taken that road to town often enough. Richard told me to hang a right before the road I thought I'd be going to and told me, like he has before, that the cache I wanted was behind some houses. Now that I think about it, I don't remember if the unit could even see the road I eventually parked on, or else I'm sure he would have told me to drive down it because the cache was maybe 50 feet off this lake access road and since Richard is road locked, it must be that this dead end street isn't in his maps. Bummer. 
I do remember driving down the access road and seeing Richard's red arrow pointing to the checkered flag which is the icon for the coordinates I had entered. I almost decided not to look because there were teenagers riding their skateboards down the slightly inclined road, but I wasn't looking for a cache box but some work of art in the woods so I parked, locked my van and left with Ferdie, my digital camera and a small notebook to write down what image I'd find and the words above it. Without that, I can't claim to have found this cache!
It was a beautiful day, but the trees and the grass around me hadn't yet recovered from winters blanket. I'll have to bring Hunter back here during the summer, even better the fall. I have often driven down this road when the leaves have changed just to see their canopies come together above you. That day the sun was warm and wonderful, but the scene was pretty grey and dreary, and seeing the skid marks on the road from sqealing cars gone by, one which revved out while I was walking back to my van, scars the place even more.
I walked up the road, already in line with my west coordinates, and then turned into the woods for the north. I had to make a mental note to self that if I even think about finding a cache during a wet spring to not wear white sneakers!
The ground was muddy as I stepped over a small run of water heading down hill to a large area of rocks protruding out of the ground. I remember what the cache owner said about rock outcroppings and was glad the coordinates weren't over there because it looked a little steep!
I continued on my course and in the distance saw some grey stones in the earth, most covered in fuzzy green moss. I paused to let Ferdie reoriantate himself and found I was there. In front of me the stones were in a slight depression, as I was looking for. I have no idea what a beech tree looks like (my MIL is probably shaking her head :) ), but there were two huge tree trunks to the left of the stones and sunken ground.
I made the switch between GPS and camera and tried my best not to let the ground suck my shoes off my feet as I walked closer. I immediately saw writing on one of the stones. It looked like numbers, but there was no image and no words. I looked at the trees close by and then started to circle around the rocks. They didn't seem to be actualy rocks, but more of shaped pieces of stone, like large retaining wall blocks. I couldn't help but wonder what this place used to be. Did they once contain something, the first layer of a stone house? The cache creater noted about six months after he created this for his geocache community that he was told that local lore credits H.R. Wagner as the artist. That this man camped here in the early 1900's when this was a popular vacation community. 
Then I found what I had come here to find, what this man had carved and etched in the stone above it so long ago. Embossed in the dirty stone was the left profile of an indian complete with feather. Above the image were the words Chief Aquilla. Aquilla is the name of the lake that is just a stones throw away from this memorial. There were words on the other stones next to this one, but I couldn't make much of it out. The words Chief Aquilla however were deeper and more purposefully etched in the stone and will probably still be visible when the rest fades with the passing of time.
When I got back out to the road and set off downhill, the skateboarders were gone, but the air was not as still and quiet as it had been when that carving was still warm for the artists chisel. A souped up blue Neon tore out of the parking lot ahead of me and added new burn marks to the road. I could also hear my first lawnmower of the year. Our yard won't be seeing that for another month at least, when our foot steps no longer squish when we walk from the garage to shed.
When I got home my husband knew I hadn't just been grocery shopping. I had been gone about two hours, but the amount of groceries in my possession did not warrent such a long trip to town! I'm glad I took the time to take even that short walk in the woods. There are a couple caches off some nature trails I can probably take Dev and B too.
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