Memories At The Lake

The first rays of the morning sun were just lighting our carport as I tucked the kids into the backseat of the car. Snuggled under their blankets, they sleepily exclaimed they were ready to go. My breath hung in the air as my wife and I double checked our list. Tent-check, cooler-check, coloring books-check, kitchen sink-everything but. I am always amazed at what we can cram into a four door Ford Contour. We were ready to go and with a turn of the ignition we began our long weekend of camping and geocaching in and around Crystal Springs on the southern shore of Lake Ouachita.

This is a wonderful time to be in the Ouachita Mountains. The many hues of green are just beginning to tease the visitor with the impending explosion of color that should be in full effect over the next couple of weeks. My wife and I enjoyed the scenery around us as we traveled Highway 270 toward Crystal Springs. Well what I could see along the way. Sometimes I wish our car had an autopilot so I could just sit back and enjoy the landscape as it passes by. It always makes me wonder what the view for travelers by train would have seen so long ago.

We stopped in Pencil Bluff to hunt a couple of geocaches there and to hide one just north of town. The kids were of course wide awake by now and livid with excitement. They love camping and couldn't wait for us to arrive at the campground.
We took some time and drove through the Thompkins Bend campground on our way to check it out. I was surprised at how nice it was. I have to admit I had been biased against Army Corps of Engineer campgrounds. This stemmed from a short visit to one that I really didn't think was very nice. I mistakenly assumed they were all old and run down. This trip opened my eyes.

We finally arrived at the Crystal Springs Recreational Area and it was very nice! The grounds were well kept and the bathhouses were in better shape than those at Lake Ouachita State Park! They even had hot showers. The tent only sites weren't the best in the world but we didn't have the funding for the nicer ones. The number one and two tent sites were fine though. They each had of course a tent pad and grill along with a fire ring and picnic table. Everything a family out for a weekend of camping could ask for.

After camping the first night we went into Hot Springs to complete the requirements for the "Tah-Ne-Co" EarthCache. We had a wonderful time visiting the visitors center and walking along Central Avenue. We returned by walking the promenade and visiting the cascade.When we returned to the car we got some cups and made hot cocoa from the springs for the kids. We drove to the tower and had a picnic nearby before we parked at the overlook on top of Hot springs mountain and hiked down to Goat Rock. It was just a fantastic day. We roasted some hot dogs over the campfire for dinner, our kids favorite, and then settled the kids down for bed.

Our last day was spent hunting geocaches around Crystal Springs. There was plenty of beautiful scenery and the kids always enjoy finding "treasure." We had so much fun we hated to leave. With winter fast approaching and all of the constraints of the holiday season it will be awhile before we get to go camping again. I love our little trips. There's just nothing like sitting in front of the campfire while watching your children run around playing whatever made-up game their imaginations have dreamed up. Watching them explore or share discoveries with each other. I even love the many questions they ask about all the nature around them. It's during these times I realize how truly blessed my wife and I are. Of all the places we've seen and memories made, sharing them with our children is true happiness.

Getting Outdoors On A Budget

It's been awhile since we've written anything in our blog. We have, of course, been busy with the kids and the new school year. Our oldest son is enjoying his first year of football and we can't wait until he plays his first game. GO BULLDOG'S!

We are still getting outdoors as much as possible. Though not nearly as often as we would like. Which is what got me to thinking about some of the difficulties of not only getting outside with kids but how to do so on a very tight budget. In this post I'll discuss how we have overcome some of the budget constraints.

There are a great many, what I like to call "pre-packaged", ways to get outdoors. These tend to be on the expensive side. Motel rental when far from home, restaurant expenses, and fees for attractions. This is often enough to discourage many families from even attempting to even try. There is where geocaching has made a world of difference.

We use geocaching, as well as other outdoor games, as an online "guide" to interesting destinations. Most of these are relatively unknown to the public at large. In contrast, they tend to be the best of the two. Kids will always enjoy a visit to an amusement park. But they enjoy a visit to a beautiful waterfall even more! The difference being the "pre-packaged" visit is fun, but visiting a unique location is an experience with memories that will last a lifetime.

So the first step is just using online, as well as guidebooks, resources to choose a destination. I'll be posting links to all of the resources we use to locate places of interest later. With the site selected the next obstacle to tackle is the expense of sleeping arrangements. The best answer for that is camping.

The expense of basic camping gear is almost non-existent when compared to motel fees. A tent (large enough for six people), lantern, and a cooler are all you need for a great time camping. While most people think of camping as a primitive experience, modern campgrounds have quite a few amenities. A modern campground has water (great for refilling containers), and showers (kids get DIRTY! LOL.), as well as grills and picnic tables provided. They are patrolled by staff and quite safe.

Camping is an adventure. Our children love exploring the area and looking for wildlife. Especially bugs! By choosing a campground that offers other activities, such as swimming and hiking, it guarantees for a fantastic trip. State parks are the best but there are quite a few fantastic campgrounds at bot Army Corps of Engineer areas and those managed by the Forest Service. In fact our favorite campground is Albert Pike which is managed by the Ouachita National Forest. Irregardless where you stay, you'll save a bundle of cash camping. For instance, our family attended an event in Clarksville not long ago. Staying for four days at a local motel (at a discount) ran over $240.00! A recent four day camping trip to Albert Pike cost $40.00. Now that's a difference! Not to mention the fun and memories made while camping far outweighed the experience at the motel. It's a win-win, more fun for far less money.

Once we've selected our destination and where we'll be camping, we use the internet and guidebooks to see what there is in the area to enjoy. Without fail, there is always more to do and see than we are capable of in the time of our visit. All of which are free of course. The selection of locations to see depends on the weather, time, and distance from the campground. We usually start with the one place we came to see in the first place and then work from there. The list is inevitably longer than we could possibly hope to complete but by doing that we always have a plan B, C, D etc. This allows us to be flexible. Which is a must when exploring an area with children.

Now we have a place to visit and plenty of things to see so now we need to figure out what it is we're going to do abut food. From experience, my best advice is to keep it simple. It's too easy to start gathering food stuffs and go overboard. You won't need it. Simple meals like sandwiches and hot dogs are best. The kids even get to help prepare dinner if you choose to grill. They love that! Boxed snacks (Goldfish, Graham Crackers, etc.) work best for snacks. They hold up to heat and don't get crunched while traveling as easily as potato chips do. They are healthier also. We like to take two graham crackers and place some peanut butter between them for a healthier "power snack" than chips or candy. It keeps the kids full longer also. It's also a lot cheaper to buy two liter drinks to refill squeegee type cups than to purchase cans and other drinks. Don't forget everything you'll need to make s'mores! That's a must. LOL.

That's the basic way we do it. As with anything, we learn more as we go. We take notes while we travel to help remind us of later of easier, cheaper ways to do something. There are so many wonderful places to visit in Arkansas I don't believe anyone could see them all in a lifetime. I'll add some links to our blog so anyone visiting can check them out and use them, as we have, to get outside and enjoy the wonder of our natural state.

Crystal Park Road

Many geocachers have placed caches along a route. Some are intended to help boost numbers and others to share an interesting area with other geocachers. Of course those are just generalizations, there are combinations and a myriad of reasons otherwise.
Our family enjoys planning trips to unknown areas. I actually have no less than eight different websites bookmarked that I use to try to find all available information about an area before we visit. I use them to find everything from historic locales to swimming holes. Of course we look at all the caches in the area also.
It was for the before mentioned reason that we were so excited to visit likestocanoe's Crystal Park series of caches placed along Crystal Park Road and part of the Womble Auto Tour. This series had everything! Beautiful Ouachita Mountain scenery, interesting historic locations, the perfect mix of conatiners that keeps the little cachers entertained, and caches that provide the more seasoned cacher with some challenging hunts. It just quite simply couldn't have been done any better.
The first stop in the series is Crystal Park Road. It's a simple roadside cache that is a great way to start the series. Any time the kids get to sort through traesure they have a blast. It was a great start and everyone was excited to see where we would be next! Of course we had an adventure there first. It's great to watch the kids just enjoy the outdoors and have a blast. Even if it does mean they make an impromptu slide out of the small hillside. LOL. There were far too many fantastic places we visited that day to mention in one blog. Some of the highlights were a recreational area built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) back in the mid 1930's. It has the kind of beauty that makes you take pause and let the world pass by. The cache there was a great hide. We even discovered a trail that we had no idea existed. It would make for a fantastic hike considering all of the natural wonder that can be seen from the road. We ended up spending over an hour at this location. Of course some of that time was because of technical difficulties I experienced with the cache itself. Let's just say that it was one of those situations that remind me of what a newb I am whenever I get to thinking I have any skill at all. HaHa.
Later we visited old buildings that had been used by the CCC as storage for explosives used in construction. Natural areas depicting the amazing beauty that can only be found in the Ouachita Mountains and a wonderful, refreshing mountain spring. That hands down beats any over priced trip to an amusement park. Have I said that we had the time of our lives yet!?
Our last cache hunt for the day was at an old homestead that had an abandoned crystal mine nearby. How cool is that! We finished off our day at the Charlton Recreational Area. It is another example of the many recreational areas built by the CCC. It still retains some of the original buildings and rock work but has been updated with modern facilities and even two jumping platforms for a fun way to get into the water. The wonderful thing about Charlton is that the water feeding the swimming area is spring fed maening that while the temperature outside is in the 90's, the water is a always cold. Very cold. It's awesome!
We have so many places we want to visit we'll run out of summer again before we do. Oh well. I'm still behind in posting everywhere we've visited but I'll catch up soon. Thanks to everyone who has taken a look. Leave a comment if you come by so we know you visited. Happy Caching!

Adventure In The Ozarks

We had originally planned to spend the weekend of June 21 camping at Lake Dardanelle State Park. I really wanted to hunt old river runners "Main Street" cache but our plans fell through. We settled on traveling north along old highway 71 to do some caching and visit some waterfalls. Our day was to conclude with a visit to Devil's Den State Park and the Devil's Den cave.

We left out early Saturday morning and started down scenic 71. It really is a beautiful drive. We traveled north until we reached Mountainburg and the MPC Walk cache. It was a great cache located behind a church on a neat little walking trail. We let the kids take a GPS each and conduct the hunt themselves which really added to their enjoyment. You can tell that by the look of victory on our son's face. They enjoyed it alot and it was just the beginning of what would be one of our best weekends ever!

After finding the MPC Walk cache we made our way to Artist Point Gift Shop. It's a neat little roadside attraction that has a mini-museum inside and of course tons of souvenirs. The best thing about it was there is a privately owned trail behind the store,(owned by the gift shop owners), which leads down to a wonderful waterfall named Artist Point Falls of course. The trail was great! There were some Indian carvings and a natural rock bridge along the way. The falls were running pretty well for late June and were well worth the trip. It was a very popular trail too! We met tons of other hikers and took loads of photos. Round trip it was 1.3 miles. It was a little steep going in and of course the hard part which is hiking out. The kids were fantastic. They just hiked along. The whole family just enjoyed ourselves being together and being among the wonderous beauty of the Ozark mountains. There's a magic at that location I can't quite put my finger on but we had the time of our lives. The photo on the right is about the best one my wife and I have ever had taken of us together and as a bonus our five year old son took it. It was taken along the trail after we had arrived at the falls and you can tell we were enjoying ourselves. It's a wonderful memory we'll always have and the day only got better from there.

After hiking to the falls we grabbed a few geocaches along the way and even recovered the Gaylor triangulation station. Seeing the tower was neat and we visited with someone who lived next door to the azimuth mark. Her kids even helped me find it. Of course bothe her kids and ours played for awhile while we talked about how it was such a shame to see this unique area so deteriorated due to the interstate being put in.

We arrived at Devil's Den State Park early afternoon and made a half hearted attempt to find a cache there but we were hungry so we gave up and had a picnic. Let me tell you, when Mrs. Navigator puts together a picnic it is out of this world! Yet another reason I'm on a diet. LOL : ). After filling our bellies and the kids playing at the playground, we started our hike along Devil's Den Trail. It's a self guided tour that is just packed with tons of things to see and explore. Our main goal was to explore Devil's Den Cave. I was a little worried about how the twins would do but once we got in there they absolutely loved it! The cave itself is 550 feet long. We were climbing around getting muddy and wet but also having the time of our lives. We made it roughly 450 feet into the cave before I decided it was time to turn around. It does get a little technical towards the end and with the kids and the lights we had it just wasn't the right time. I never could have imagined that I would have had three kids upset about leaving a dark cave!

We were so excited after exciting the cave we decided to just go ahead and hike the remainder of the trail. There was a lot to see. Even another waterfall which unfortunately wasn't flowing very well despite it having rained on us for a short while during our hike. It did provide a nice place to get your head wet and cool down though!

We got back to the trailhead and cleaned the kids up before our return trip home. As we drove back the way we came to take I-540 for the return trip home we saw seven deer along the road.

The following day we took the kids swimming at Natural Dam. That location is just spectacular. The locals have trashed it pretty bad which is a shame. When we finally found the cache there it was destroyed. It's an older cache and the can had started leaking ruining the contents. I had an extra on hand so I replaced it and the swag. In a weird way I felt honored to help out in keeping such a fantastic cache going. I'm taking the summer kids out again later this week and then we're planning a trip to the Womble Road Auto Tour and all the neat caches placed there. I just love summer. Happy Caching!

Kids Summer Group - Week 1

It's been a very busy week! After what seemed whirlwind event attending things were starting to calm around the navigator home and then came the time for me to start leading a group of kids in the summer SBMH (School Based Mental Health) program. I had kids from kindergarten all the way to eighth grade.

The kids were of course separated into groups. The first two groups that I had were all older. I had several meetings with the program director and he basically said where we go was up to me. Now at first that sounds fairly simple, but this would be many of the kids first time out in the woods and of course their first geocache! See the problem. A lame experience and it could turn them off of being outdoors altogether. Not good.

I found a nearby cache that was perfect. A great cache at a historic old dam with a roughly one and a half mile hike in along a trail. As the day approached I was very excited. We all met at the school and after introductions we loaded the bus to begin our adventure. Of course the bus wouldn't start! After half an hour of wondering what we were going to do it was discovered that the rear exit door had been improperly closed. Apparently that triggered a safety trigger not allowing the bus to start. On our way finally I talked to the kids about geocaching and what is involved. They asked all the usual questions about what a cache was, are they buried, is there money, etc. Everything was great until we got about half way there. That's when the rain started. Ugh!! That's what happened last year!

It rained all the way to the parking area and I knew it was going to rain the whole time. I was surprised to see that it didn't bother the kids one little bit. They were actually excited! We made our way from the trail head for the Bomber Trail which we would follow to The CCC Dam Bomber Trail cache. We had a great hike in and made wonderful time. The kids were so excited when we arrived at the Dam. One thing that shocked me was that as we hiked in I talked to them about what the CCC was and about trail ethics. When I asked them about the mountains we all call home not one of them knew their name. It was sad really to see such great kids deprived of enjoying everything nature has to offer.

I took them in groups across the Dam and they loved the hunt and of course trading! I'm glad I brought an extra large bag of swag for them to go through. They cleaned me out!! LOL. The looks on their faces as they found the cache and went through the contents was priceless. They had a blast! So did the therapists that went along. They asked more questions than the kids did.

I took the younger group out the next day. The therapists were still tired from the day before and really didn't want to hike very far. I decided on taking the kids to Talimena Treasures - Pioneer Cemetery cache. After my orientation we walked the short distance to the cache. Some of the kids from yesterday had asked permission to go again today which I thought was cool. The did have fun! Anyway, the kids hunt for awhile and i finally go to show them where the cache is hidden. Only I can't find it!
Oh no. I'm starting to freak out a little and my mind is racing for an impromptu plan b when one of the grade school kids looks at me and says " I see a white Tupperware, is that it?" Yep. it was. I was shown up by a little kid. It was hilarious. We all had a great laugh and the look of pride and accomplishment on that little boys face was all worth it. I'd go through a thousand little embarrassments to see that!

It was great taking them out and we have two trips planned next week. Culminating with a trip to Mt. Magazine State Park. It's going to be great.

National Trails Day CITO Event

This past weekend we attended the Natinal Trails Day CITO Event hosted by lake Ouachita State park. I honestly didn't expect to have as much fun as we did. It was just a quick cleanup and then I figured my family and I would hike some trails, grab some caches, and then go swimming finally settling down at our campsite for our favorite dinner: hot dogs and s'mores!

What a surprise that event turned out to be. There wasn't a large turnout but everyone that did had an incredible time! Our host for the event was park interpreter Susan. She did a marvelous job organizing the cleanup and keeping a bunch of easily distracted, sweaty geocachers on task. Of course after all the trash was collected we settled down to a wonderful lunch provided by the park. Afterwards, she even took us out on a enormous tour boat to grab some caches. How cool was that!

Susan's just starting out geocaching and is working on hosting another event this fall at the park. This one will be a campout also. Oh yeah! Our favorite!

We made some new friends over the weekend also. It was the husband and wife caching team of QuartzCachers. I'd spoken to Bruce briefly at other events but had never had the chance until this one to hang out and just chat. Both our families hit it off. Especially the kids! We're going to hook up in Hot Springs to do the Tah-Ne-Co earthcache located in Hot Springs National Park. It will take the better part of a day to do it and ging along with friends just promises for a great day.

ArkGeo 2008 Annual Social

It's been awhile since I updated anything. We've been having a blast!!! So many things going on and so many places we've visited. You just have to love summer!

We were recently featured in an article about geocaching. It was published on May 30th in the Exploring Arkansas insert of the Arkansas-Democrat Gazette. I have to admit it was pretty cool to be interviewed and see our family pictured in the newspaper. You can't see it online anymore without paying for it but I saved it on Photobucket.

We were lucky enough to attend two really spectacular events recently. The first was the ArkGeo 2008 Annual Social. The event was a campout held over the weekend at Lake Catherine Sate Park and it was great. The event Saturday was filled with catching up with old friends and making some new ones. One of those is the caching team of likestocanoe. They are great people. Just some of the nicest , friendliest, I could go on but you get the point. They brought their boat out to the lake and offered to take everyone tubing! WOOHOO! You know my family was first in line. Well, my wife and kids were the only one's who went. A fun day was had by all. The ArkGeo CITO event held the next day wasn't as attended as I had hoped but there was a good turnout. We picked up all the trash we could find. That was a very clean park.

I did get to squeeze in some caching on Saturday night. I hunted the LC Distant Night Cache by SJClimber with a group of other cachers about 11:00 at night. I love night caches. They are really a fun way to hunt a cache. Especially down a trail. It was awesome. We grabbed a couple more caches on the way back before returning to the campfire for some more s'mores, hot dogs, and relaxation. Until the racoons came...

There must have been over a dozen of the late night raiders. Big ones too! They had no fear of humans. You'd chase one off and he'd run and stop just ahead of you and wait for you to give up. It was a war of attrition. They won. After securing all our food stuffs we just sat back and listened to the trash can lids fall. It was hilarious!!

It was a great weekend and we look forward to hopefully more similar events in Arkansas.