First Finds of 2013

Yesterday I went out geocaching with the specific intent of finding a couple of items known as 'trackables' in the geocaching world that I could move over to NC and put into the cache just hidden by my granddaughter.  I pulled that off without a lot of trouble at the first cache I went to and then headed out to a new park to wander in the boonies for a while to track down a couple more.  It's was a very nice location and one I've not been to before or even knew existed actually.  This geocaching is certainly getting me to identify a lot of interesting places to visit!  The place I went to was the Clinton Nature Preserve and it was very nice, and big.  Some photos and info about the place at:

http://www.celebratedouglascounty.com/view/departments/view_dept/&cdept=211&department=Clinton%20Nature%20Preserve

The park was empty on a 'winter' week day, of course, quite pretty and very quiet.  I took off and found the first cache pretty directly.  The coordinates for the second one, starting where I now was, had me off the trails and pretty much blazing a trail where none existed.  It was kind of fun and I came across some rock formations and the like that always intrigue me.  I'm always wondering just how these rocks came to be where they are.  Such as this one:

This thing is big, I'd say about 7 feet tall.  I found this particularly interesting because of the tree next to it.  The tree had to have started growing, and been pretty good size and strong, before this rock broke apart else the smaller piece would have fallen flat to the ground.  That means it broke apart not that long ago... much less than the age of the tree -- and then I just stood there wondering when and why it broke apart.  Wacky perhaps, but that's what I think about when I see things like this.   A long time ago, fall of 1970 I believe, I took a course in geology.  I remember that the course was most interesting and I enjoyed it but I can't remember anything I learned taking it.  Go figure.  Perhaps taking another geology class is in order so I can understand the things I am seeing.

These rocks are surrounding where the cache was. Again, I find it interesting that they're where they are in the first place!  I was walking down a pretty good hill to get to this location but it wasn't as though there was a massive mountain higher up where these would have come from.

 

Lastly, the walk took me across this stone 'face' or whatever the official description of something like this is.  This might have been the biggest section of this type of terrain I've ever seen although there is a smaller, although large, version of it walking out my front door and crossing the driveway.  It was obvious that water cascades over this from rain and such and I'm very glad I didn't have to walk on it when it was wet.  Thank God for small favors and another day of wandering in places I've never been to before :)