Stone Valley Vista

It has been almost a year since the happy gang got together on a cold January morning (15F) to go deep in the woods to find a cache named Dobby's Home. So while enjoying a nice Saturday evening dinner my phone rings and out of the silence it is Billy Blades, aka Moe2 of 2 Guys Named Moe, asking if I wanted to join them to locate Stone Valley Vista, a cache at the top of Stone Mountain where one will enjoy one of the nicest views on Standing Stone Trail.

So who could say no?

So off I go on a trek with the Moes, to locate more tupperware, or at least in this case an ammo box, in the woods.

When we got to the designated parking coordinates our GPS units, while correctly pointing in the direction of the cache, were in reality going to take us the wrong way along the wrong trail. Moe1 would have you believe her GPSr knew the correct way but in reality her unit had frozen and would always point "that way", whatever "that way" happened to be.

So there I was with all of 157 finds to my experience, with the great and experienced Moes, who were "arrow following" along the wrong trail. After stopping at the trail head I realized we were going the wrong way (despite the arrows on the GPS units) and turned the Moes around. So instead of mindlessly following the arrow on our equally mindless for 1.3 miles we began a long and interesting 2 mile hike up Standing Stone Trail. The trail got quite exciting at times,as I think they imported extra boulders along the way just for us!

When we get some ways behind the Greenwood Furnace church the side of the trail quickly drops off the mountain:

Billy "Goat" Blades can't wait to tempt fate:

A bit up the trail we spot a pipe coming out of the ground along the side of the trail:

Further up we spot this concrete pad, under which we think the pipe make an abrupt turn down the slope:

It wasn't until the way down we saw down at the bottom of the mountain there was a small dam on the creek and what looked to be a pump house. I wonder where this water was pumped to? And how did they keep it from freezing in the winter? I'll post an update when I get more information.

Anyway at least now our GPS units are pointing in the correct direction and the distance counter drop under one mile. Feeling confident at the .7 mile mark the trail makes a 180 degree turn and we walk back .1 mile or so before the trail again turns in the correct direction. At this point begins what is probably a very rocky climb for about .25 miles. The rocks have slowed down the Moes

and here is where I make my break for the cache....

Of course I stop along the way to wait for the Moes to catch up and sneak a peak at the view to come:

Despite waiting for them I manage to pull awayand get to the cache site well ahead of the Moes. Now I have to ask myself, do I be nice or do I pull a Dobby ? So I decide to be nice and pull a snack out of my bag and enjoy a nice meal while waiting for them to show up. The true "Billy Goat" easily traverses the rocky shoals:

and before you know it the cache is ours:

Great view from up here:

I logged the cache on site my my smart phone:

When you think you're alone in the woods, along comes another hiker:

who Moe1 convinces to take our picture:

Now I am not shorter then the Moes! I happened to be standing in a hole and Moe1 is doing her best to keep me there so I don't pop up to my true height. I guess we were having too much fun as the PSU student continued upon the trail and at a rather high rate of speed.

Billy tried to take a picture with his camera phone thru his binoculars:

No wonder the student left real fast. I would too.

So with one last look before we left

we departed the summit and headed back down to the car. Which we hoped didn't get towed away or worse.

On the way down we spotted some trees that began life under difficult circumstances, started out heading the wrong way, but somehow righted themselves and continued on life's journey.

Last October I had a DNF at another cache, Stone Blue Stream, so we head off to find that one. First we stop for something to eat at a new place, Couch's, along 305 just outside McAlevy's Fort. A welcome rest stop with good food, and 2008 dog licenses available to boot! Couch's looks like it fills a big need in the area and we managed to get in just as the Sunday after church crowd was letting out. After our pit stop we easily locate Stone Blue Stream thanks to our true Billy Goat's ability to cross raging torrents. With another cache in the found column we head for home to rest up after our latest adventures in the woods.

Caching with the Moes is always great fun. Yeah we rib on each other a lot but its part of teh unique fun we experience searching for tupperware. While my kids like to do the quich cache and dash and we enjoy quality family time together, they just don't like to do the deep woods caches. Enter the best caching friends one can have, 2 Guys Named Moe, to settle ones deep woods fix ;)