On New Years Day, the girls and I invited some new friends for a hike at the local Vassar Farms and Ecological Preserve. I looked at the trail maps and found some geocaches for us to find while out. We have never been to this location yet so I didn't really know what we were getting into.
What a beautiful treat so close to home. The preserve has wide open fields that give you a glimpse of some peaks in the Hudson Valley. The weather was perfect and the first half of the hike was dreamy. All three girls were happy and finding geocaches easily.
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| Our first find of the day and our friend's first find ever! |
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| Look mom! |
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| The girls were so excited to see what was in this geocache. Thankfully I stuffed my pockets full of random trinkets before we left. Each girl got two goods from the various caches today! |
When we entered a shady area, the cold set in and some little toes began to freeze. The girls learned a valuable lesson from this first hike of 52. Don't stomp around in puddles at the beginning of any hike. But, overall it was a fun day. We are growing our tribe and introducing new friends to the love of geocaching.
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| Rock collecting turned into an installation piece |
A couple of tips that were highlighted today:
1. Let the kids move at their pace. Having a friend along with you to chat with helps pass the time nicely.
2. All them to create with their surrounds.
3. Always wear warmer socks then you think you will need
4. Bring a pen/pencil and a couple small toys if you are geocaching while hiking.
Here is to the best year yet and pushing ourselves to 52 hikes in 2017! Our mileage so far is 2.65 miles.
