24 Hour Drive To Montauk!

[jdmidwest]

After a week from hell, it was time to get out of town. I had not been to Montauk since I closed it out last fall on Halloween. After seeing the forecast, I booked a room at the Country Inn in Licking. Calling for rain and a burn ban in the park killed the idea of camping. I hate camping without a fire, pretty boring sitting around a dark campsite drinking beer.

Picked my buddy up at Terre Du Lac at 9am Sat. It was already cloudy and misting by the time we made it to Potosi, so we decided to kick back and do some yard sales. Yard sales turned to flea markets and pawn shops by the time we arrived in Salem as the rain picked up some. We did that till 5 and closed the last one down. Checked into the motel in Licking and out came the GPS. Off to Houston to Geocache. Picked up a dozen caches then drove back to Licking to eat at Olig's BBQ. After that, we knocked out a few more caches in Licking and called it a night.

Got up this morning and had a nice breakfast at the Coffee Cup in Licking. Finished up finding the last few caches in Licking and off to Montauk.

Crowds were light and the river was low. We fished the upper end of the campground to the handicap bridge and caught several fish. All my fish in the morning were on a bead head nymph. After that, up to the fly area. We fished an hour in the catch and release stream. They were really liking the foam beetles and we caught several each. Then over to the river and we picked up several more on primrose and pearl and my new lightening bug.

Drove back home picking up a few more caches along Hwy 32. Followed a rain from Caledonia to TDL. Came home and watered the garden and the bees. A nice relaxing weekend.

[Quillback]

When I saw 24 hour drive to Montauk, I thought you were talking about Montauk on the eastern end of Long Island.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Good news to hear. I am planning a trip to Montauk sometime next month. Any other ideas, sugesstions would be appreciated as it will be my first time there. I plan on stopping at Reeds to get some info also.

Now on to the Geo cacheing, I have read about them in the paper, and have a slight interest. What is the ettiquete on them? Do you put something in place of the items you removed? Do you add to the items? Do you shift the items? I guess How does it work is my main question?

[jdmidwest]

I laughed at my buddy Sunday when we arrived at the park. It was the longest drive that I could remember getting to the park. In old days, get up a 3 and try to make the horn or shortly after. Anymore, Its more like this weekend, enjoy the trip and the sideshow, then catch a few fish.

Reeds is a good source for everything at the park, they should get you on track when you get there.

As far as Geocaching, www.geocaching.com is the place to go. It lists all the sites, you can download them to a gps or smartphone and head out. My buddy is a geocache fool, carries a bag of stuff to put and take. I just sign off and go. I like to dig thru and see what some leave and read the log. Some logs leave a paragraph or two, most are just dates and user names, mine is jdmidwest. They can take you to some interesting places, and that is what I like about it. Cemeteries are my favorite, there is alot of history in them. Some we have been to hold some of the original citizens that homestead the land.

Geocaching has been a great time killer between myself and some of my friends. It is like the old time scavenger hunt with modern tech. You can use a smartphone, but most are remote and you will not have a signal, so a dedicated gps device is needed. There is some skill and reasoning involved, most that place the cache try to hide them well to prevent the public from stealing them. I signed off on a log this weekend that was a magnetic tube about the size of a medium popper fly. I also visited one that held more trinkets than the local dollar store. It is fun to do when the weather deals you a crappy day but you still want to get out of the house.