The cloudy conditions reaped havoc on our Delorme PN-40 GPS unit and our 3G iPhone which also has built in GPS capabilities. However, although not the most productive day, we were able to log a few smiley faces and visited a few places in our home town we didn’t know existed.

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Our first stop was at the beautiful Blackwater Conservation Area. There are a number of caches hidden at this BREC managed park.

Initially the City/Parish had located this site as a mitigation area for drainage projects. The Army Corps of Engineers suggested that the City/Parish consider the rest of the site as an ecosystem restoration. After heavy mining, which removed a considerable amount of soil from the area, the restoration process began. Two lakes were created, new trees were brought into the area and a couple miles of scenic hiking trails were developed which provide a fantastic stage for treasure seeking Geocachers.

After exhausting the caches at Blackwater, we drove into town to do some “city caching”. We grabbed quite a few caches around the area before heading home for Lafayette.

Unfortunately, our day was cut short due to poor weather and night fall. We hope to plan another caching trip to Baton Rouge as soon as we can to take advantage of the dense number of caches in the area.

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Blackwater Conservation

The Myrtles Plantation boasts itself as being “one of America’s most haunted homes”. We stayed the night in the Oleander room. Although we did not experience any paranormal activity, we enjoyed our stay and took advantage of the nightly “Ghost Stories Tour”.

The plantation is rich in history and is located in a very scenic area. We had a great time snapping photos and enjoying the local cuisine.

If you’re looking for a “different” experience, give the Myrtles Bed and Breakfast a try and be sure to tell Chole we said hi!

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Myrtles Plantation St. Francisville, LA.

Pictured below are the most sneakiest caches we have ran across.

This one had us going for a while. We walked right up to this one and still didn’t realize that it was the cache.

  Me reading the sob story of a lost kitty

Ahh, this IS the cache, here’s the log!

The owner took the time to create a flyer asking for help to find his long lost kitty. It looked totally legit until we flipped the flyer over and spotted the log. This was truly a very creative cache!

We found another cache hidden by the same individual not far from the one pictured above. This one was unique as well. At first glance, it could easily go unnoticed but we quickly learned the tactics of this Geocacher and sniffed out his hide for another find!

Magnetic Letter…

…with the log on the back.

Below you can view a slide show of a few of our finds and a map to the Village of Maurice in Louisiana. Home of the famous City Bar!

Maurice, LA

It was so much fun hiking down the endless trails and jumping over mud holes. We covered about 5 miles so we definitely got our exercise along with a load of excitement. It was a little spooky considering you never knew when an alligator would appear or anything else for that matter. 

At one point, we heard a loud noise and saw these dark brown four legged animals running through the marsh, no clue to what it was and we were glad they were not running toward us. I wanted a picture of an alligator, so I looked long and hard and couldn’t seem to find one. Eventually, we passed a gentlemen hiking with his grandson and they said there was an alligator ahead on the trail. I got so excited and said, “Finally I get my picture” but still a little scared inside…….. Onward we went looking for the last cache on our list and found it nestled in all of the trees and marsh. After finding the last cache, we walked about another 500ft or so, and low and behold there was a five foot alligator! We took a lot of pictures up close and the alligator did not move an inch. It looked as if it were dead, so guess what Team Cache Fly does…… oh yea, throws a small branch on its head and no it definitely was not dead. It was a little scary! 

Overall this was the best Geocaching adventure we have been on and encourage other Geocachers to take on this challenge. Don’t be scared just bring a big stick or gun……Ha Ha!

Delorme Earthmate PN-40

We just received our DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 and it is fantastic! Best of all, unlimited map downloads for $30 per year!

Out of curiosity, what is your favorite device?

ZSandmann presented a number of options for “paperless caching”. Paperless Geocaching simply put, is the ability to carry all cache information on a PDA, cell phone, directly on your GPSr or a similar portable device. As opposed to physically printing all of this information, going paperless is less hassle, more convenient and well…a bit more techie.

It seemed from the diverse bunch of cachers at the gathering, there are a number of options for paperless caching. Some attendees, including myself, use their cell phones to store important cache information including the cache description, recent logs, hints (if provided) and of course coordinates. This is handy since it’s something you’re likely to have on your person at all times. Others use a PDA, GPSr and some tote along their laptops or netbooks.

There are a number of programs available to assist with transferring cache information to your device, all dependent on what type of platform and portable device you use. For example if you use a Blackberry, you may want to check out CacheBerry. If you’re using a Palm OS, Mobipocket Reader or Plucker can allow you to read HTML information that you can import using GSAK (the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife). Geocaching.com has developed a really nice iPhone app which provides a wealth of information regarding caches in your immediate area. Combined with Google Maps and the built in GPS abilities of the iPhone, I find it very easy to use and it is currently my preferred method of paperless geocaching. The Geocaching app can be found in the iTunes Store and it sells for $9.99.

For a complete list of recommended application for Windows, Mac and various portable devices, visit The Geocaching Software page on http://www.geocaching.com/.

Acadiana Gathering

Event Cache held in Scott, LA. on 01/03/09.