polskikrol

Well, it might be off-topic, since this is the Mid-Atlantic thread... But I would suggest my webcam cache on Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Took us two and a half days to hie there, but you could drive, or take the cog railway. Two and half days from NJ or Pinkham Notch? The webcam is a great cache and have done it at least twice already

Brian - Would be much appreciated if you end up deciding on the Catskills. I will check out the other options when I get home tonight. I myself am planning on "taking it easy" over 3 days to allow time for bagging some nearby peaks off the Devils Path.. would be 9 planned in total.

Dont suppose anyone lives close to the Devils Path in the Catskills and would be kindly available to provide a shuttle from the trailhead on Plattekill Clove Mountain Road (Rt 16) to Spruceton (Rt 6)? Alternatively, any resources for finding a kind soul to provide a shuttle between those 2 points?

Black Rock Forest, NY A nice 21.1 miles loop hike with 34 caches found along it. Long day starting at around 6AM and ending at around 8PM. However, well worth the effort due to waterfalls, summit views, swamps with boardwalks, etc.

Starting to get into hammock tenting and currently have an ENO System consisting of a SingleNest, DoubleNest, and Slap Strap Pro. Spent a night in the Catskills and it was a little chilly and had to put on extra socks, shirt, and sweatshirt to finally fall asleep. My sleeping bag is a North Face 20 or 30 degree mummy bag. Also have a bug net should it get bad however have no had issues yet. What would be the recommendations for the following: - Improving warmth? Invest in better sleeping bag? Get a blanket or something? - What tarp is recommended? Looks like the ENO Sil Dry Fly is out of stock and speaking with the manufacturer they are redesigning it.

I would recommend Panther Mountain which is probably around 5mi round trip with lots of good views of Devils Path. http://www.catskill-3500-club.org/catskill...er-mountain.htm It is also in the middle of what may have been a meteorite impact crater site. Just check out wikipedia for more info. There is also an Earthcache regarding this.

Catskills Adventure This past weekend had an epic 2 day weekend adventure culminating in the logging of Aircrash 4 (GCPY3E) by GPS Guy. Not recommended for non-seasoned hikers as this covered approximately 31.2 miles in the Catskills and ungodly elevation gain. As stated by GPS Guy on the cache page, nearby 3500+ peaks are doable and would make for a great weekend. Thus, the following were the 7 Catskills 3500 Central Region peaks I was able to summit on the loop hike (which did involve lots of bushwhacking): Fir Mnt (3620ft) - 2010-05-15 1020 Big Indian Mnt (3700ft) - 2010-05-15 1144 Eagle Mnt (3600ft) - 2010-05-15 1329 Balsam Mnt (3600ft) - 2010-05-15 1540 Balsam Lake Mnt (3723ft) - 2010-05-16 1207 Graham Mnt (3868ft) - 2010-05-16 1347 Doubletop Mnt (3869ft) - 2010-05-16 1604 Looking at the tracklog, Day 1 (15.2mi) is in red and Day 2 (16.0mi) is in blue. There was quite a bit of bushwhacking during the weekend which entailed following several river beds to gain access to the other side of the valley and subsequently a new ridge of mountains. Camped near the Shandaken Brook Lean-to in my hammock which was quite comfortable (once I put on extra socks and shirt) and relaxing (hanging about 10 feet from the therapeutic stream). In total I went through 8 liters of water and sustained only on pretzel sticks and gorp as I wanted to travel light without my camping stove. Finding Aircrash 4 was the icing on the cake following this awesome trekking adventure. Definitely one of the more challenging caches I have found (which I do appreciate). WARNING: Do not attempt this loop hike unless you are well prepared, seasoned, and know what you are doing!

If you are available any time during the weekday after 5PM I usually hike around in the Palisades and would be more than happy to accompany on a loop hike for some caches.

If you go to Englishtown auctions near Marlboro, NJ there is an army surplus vendor that sells them for 5$ each. Alternatively, you can pick them up from the store/warehouse in Princeton, NJ. Contact me directly and I can provide the information regarding this source.

Harriman State Park Notes: Parked at Elk Pen and ended up hiking 18.4 miles in just under 11 hours via the following trails: Appalachian Trail -> Arden-Surebridge -> Lichen -> Ramapo-Dunderberg -> Victory -> Unnamed Trails (Lake Sebago North/Western Shoreline) -> Triangle -> White Bar -> Island Pond Road -> Arden-Surebridge. If you are so inclined, there are 14 caches to find along this route and it is not very strenuous. On the way you pass 3 Shelters (Bald Rocks, Tom Jones, Unnamed Shelter (Route 106/White Bar)) - thus this can be turned into a 2 day weekend trip. Had lots of fun on this one.

You avoided all of the caches placed my ThirstyMick, slukster, and myself to the north/west :[ Would suggest those before it gets too hot outside otherwise you may run out of water packing all of those small bottles

Wish I saw this post earlier Just finished the NJ Section of the AT from Route 17A (NY) to Route 80 (PA) over the course of 6 days. Quite an experience and I am sure I passed many caches. However, given that it rained 3/6 days, I probably would have forgone the caching anyways. Hope you enjoyed the trip!

Everyone caches for different reasons - I myself enjoy a nice long hike to challenge myself and get my mind off from work while hiking for a goal, geocaches in this case. To each his own. If you examine most of the tracklogs I post, it is possible to omit a few loops and thereby make the hike shorter. Also, it is possible to use cutover trails to reduce the size of the loops. While my hikes may be lengthy and not appealing to everyone, it may give a conceptual idea to how much area can be covered in a certain amount of miles. Most NJ/NY trail maps do not provide distances between points along a trail (trail miles) and as such what you think is a 5 miles hike may actually be a 9 mile hike. Just because I did it, does not mean others should. However, I expect my tracklogs could give others and idea of what is possible any they can adjust their trips accordingly. If you want post a hike under 12 miles long, please be my guest. At least I am posting some tracklogs of what Northern NJ / Southern NY has to over for those willing to put in the miles.

Anyone have any recommendations on wool socks for the winter cold and wetness? Also, any recommendations on where one can get these on the cheap? I could care less about designs on them, etc and am trying to find a way to get these in bulk.

This loop hike I think should be called "Tour de Ramapo". Nice grueling 16.1 mile hike in just under 7 hours to grab wjgrun's new caches. Will be planning on something similar but for Ringwood. Disclaimer: Would not recommend the above unless you have plenty of water, are in good shape, and somewhat insane

For President's Day ended up hiking 13.8 miles over the course of 12.5 hours with wjgrun in Abram S. Hewitt State Forest. The tracklog just shows the caches which were new for me and we visited about 8 more in addition which I had found previously. Really nice part of Northern NJ.

Woodbine, NJ 8 inches.

Looks like Delorme Earthmate is going to come with SPOT builtin. Amozon Linky You may want to wait for this before blowing all that money

Really nice compilation! Finally got a chance to see it as we block youtube at work and my workstation does not have sound :[ Enjoyed the slideshow with some Troegs Unfiltered Wheat and raised by bottle to another great 10 years - cheers!

I would upmod this however the site provides no such functionality

Presume you dont work Monday - Friday?

Looks like obtaining permits for hiking in the Newark Watershed is nearly impossible. Called the The Newark Watershed Conservation & Development Corporation (NWCDC) Echo Lake Office this morning and found out the following: - They are no longer open on Weekends during late fall, winter, early spring. This is despite their website mentioning otherwise. http://www.newarkwatershed.com/html/contact.html - Apparently they also do not do mail order unless you are only a member of the NYNJTC and are one of their trail maintainers. I advised that this is not what the following link says: http://www.nynjtc.org/trails/peqpermit.html . They will not accept mail in of photocopies of AMC or NYNJTC membership cards as you must be one of their trail maintainers. - When I asked for a contact to escalate these issues, I was rudely hung up on by the lady at the Echo Lake Office. - The only way to receive a permit is to show up in the office, during their weekday hours, and pick one up. Love the discrimination against people that actually work for a living. Must be nice to have an office job and not to be bothered by weekend hikers / weekday workers coming in. - Sent an email to info@newarkwatershed.com and it was never answered or acknowledged. Thus, I am not sure how many geocachers are legitimately logging these NWCDC area caches or how they are obtaining permits. If there is something I am missing, please enlighten me.

excuse me? You have brought is much enjoyment on the trails. thank you. Would that be English or some odd dialect ? Perhaps, "You have brought us much enjoyment on the trails."

Even if the password data was encrypted in the database, I presume the SMTP server would still send the password in plaintext over the Internet. Better approach may be a one time accessible URL to allow the password to be changed over an HTTPS connection. Does Groundspeak even provide HTTPS encryption for logins? If you are on the road and using someones wireless (like a hotel or starbucks hotspot, etc) its possible someone could be sniffing packets in promiscuous mode.

As today was a bank holiday, good time to enjoy the day off at Bear Mountain Ended up hiking 17.3 miles over 9 hours on a nice lollipop loop with highlights including Bear Mountain Bridge, Anthony's Nose, and Bear Mountain. There are a few other caches that can be grabbed near Doodletown if you want to forgo the Camp Smith Trail (Blue). The following was the trail order: 9W Bike Path -> Cornell Mine Trail (Blue) -> 1777E -> Appalachian Trail -> Route 202 -> Appalachian Trail -> Camp Smith Trail (Blue) -> Route 202 -> Appalachian Trail -> Unmarked Path -> Major Welch Trail (Red/White) -> Appalachian Trail -> Unmarked Path -> Appalachian Trail -> 1777E -> Cornell Mine Trail (Blue).