Aaahhh… What a fantastic weekend I had! It was one of those weekends where I didn’t have much down time to relax but didn’t mind it at all.

Things kicked off on Friday night after work with a hike at one of my favorite local trails, at Boone County Cliffs State Nature Preserve. Couldn’t have asked for better weather, either. Temps in the lower 70s, party cloudy skies and a slight breeze. Awesome! There were two geocaches hidden out that way, so I ventured out with the purpose of finding them. However, I outsmarted myself. I had the coordinates for the caches, but I was convinced they were at the Nature Preserve, so that’s where I headed. As I hiked along the 2.4 mile loop trail, I realized that I wasn’t getting any closer to the caches. I figured that I would eventually loop around and get closer to them, but no such luck. When I ended up back at the start of the trail, I knew that I wasn’t in the right area. Since it was getting dark (and I was low on gas - oops!), I decided to call the hunt for the day and try again later. At least it was still a great hike!

Saturday’s weather was just as perfect as Friday’s, so I decided to take another stab at getting the caches. This time, I decided to go to the right area. I actually looked at the map online this time and discovered another park less than a mile down the road from Boone Cliffs - Middle Creek Park. Surprise! I’ve lived in this area all my life and never knew the park was there. I mistakenly thought that Boone Cliffs was actually the same as Middle Creek Park, since the road to get to the cliffs was Middle Creek Rd. Geocaching taught me otherwise, though, and introduced me to a new park. As I set out on the one of the many trails in this park, my GPS told me I was much closer to the caches than I had been the previous day. That was a good sign! Even though it hadn’t rained in several days, the trails at Middle Creek were really muddy, probably as a result of the horses that are allowed on these trails. Made the going a little tough, but still manageable. I found the first of the two caches - the Sleeping Fawn/Broken Hollow cache - with no problem. The second one was a bit elusive, though. I searched for about 30 mins with no luck before I had to leave. Big plans for the evening, and I was already cutting it close, so the Crazy Cache would have to wait for another day. Making a not-so-smart decision, I decided to take a different trail back to the parking lot. I thought this trail would be easier and more direct, which definitely was not the case. What had been about a 15 min hike to the cache ended up being almost twice that on the way out.

The hurry to get home was for something that I, and several others, had anxiously been waiting for - a night-time game of paintball! My fellow paintballers Scott, Sean, Paul and I had been talking about getting a night game together for a while and we finally did. The day was picked, glow-in-the-dark paintballs and glow sticks ordered and word sent out to others who we thought would be interested in playing. The evening’s weather turned out to be perfect as eleven people came out to shoot each other while stumbling around in the blackness. We had never done this before, so we didn’t know how it would go, but there was only one way to find out! We divided into two teams, got our markers ready and loaded, taped a glow stick to each arm and hit the woods. The games turned out to be a bit long, since it was obviously hard to aim, the going was a bit rough since it was pitch black and the glow-in-the-dark paintballs didn’t work as we hoped they would, but it was all part of the experience. We played two games of capture the flag in, with my team winning both (by landslides if I may say so ) and I definitely enjoyed the experience. Not everyone did, though, since the games were so long and trees, branches and bushes kept jumping out at people (ouch - that tree that smacked me is going down next time!). Thanks to everyone who came out to play, though!

After we finished paintball, several people headed home, but the hardy among us - Paul, Emily, Scott, Lori and I - stuck around and camped out. We relaxed around the fire for a bit while enjoying smores (or just good ol’ chocolate bars in my case) before turning in for the night. All in all, a great evening!

Sunday was Father’s Day, so that meant spending some quality time with the family - eating and telling stories. First, though, I was determined to find the Crazy Cache, so I headed out to the Middle Creek area one more time. Having learned from last time and thinking about possible hiding places for the cache, I went right to it. I was in and out of the park in under an hour, with another find to mark off the list. The weather was fantastic once again, but I didn’t have all that much time to linger in the park or venture down more trails. I’ll be back, though! These two caches brings my total up to 15. It won’t be long before I start hiding some of my own. I already have three general areas picked out. Now I just need to pick a more specific spot in these areas, get a container and come up with a theme.

The weekend ended with a Father’s Day dinner at O’Charley’s, my favorite restaurant. I love those rolls! It was good to have the family together, but we were missing my brother, who’s down in Nashville with his new wife. Don’t forget about us up here in Northern KY, bro!

The weekend is now over and another another work week is underway. I’m refreshed and feeling good, so bring it on!