0611-1325 42.78672, -74.86205
I arrived with plenty of time to set up in campsite 37, a space off by it's self across the road from the main campground, them go see the covered bridge and try to solve the field puzzle cache. Next thing I knew, I was bushwhacking my way to a Letterbox cache in the woods. There was more, but I decided to save them for next day after my visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The next morning I took a really nice shower, but on my San Diego Padres gear, packed up and drove the 8 miles south to Cooperstown. I parked at the trolly ride lot, but found out the trolly does not begin until Saturday. Good opportunity to get some steps in, it was about 3 kilometer walk to the museum. The first thing I noticed is the town was much more humble looking than I expected. I was prepared with MLB influenced hoopla and hype. There was banners for the upcoming inductees, but not a lot of MLB extravagance. The town has been kept small, historic and simple.
The museum is 3 stories of a lot of memorabilia with the plaque room on the first floor. I started on the 2nd floor, watched a 17 minute introduction film, then wandered through the many exhibits, finishing in the plaque room. The plaques are arrayed, grouped by years, so I started at the beginning and took my time, stopping at Tony Gwynn's remembering how he evolved into "Mr. Padre" in which there will never be another like him. I spent 2 hours in the museum then went to find the various hides.
There was a real nice Adventure Lab with a puzzle bonus cache. Now this is was I really like about geocaching, it takes to some spots that you might never have a reason to go and see. The bonus took me almost out of town to a really cool stone bridge. The cache was a baseball bat hollowed out at to top.
That left me on the opposite side of the tow, so I had a nice stroll back to the RAMVAN, where I made a sandwich and a coffee before I went back to the campground.
I stopped at the park entrance to get the first stage of a 2 stage multi-cache. The first stage was a small Tupperware painting to blend in with the block wall right in front of the office window. What I found was a laminated written note " go inside and ask for the final." Inside I showed them the note and the reached under the counter and handed me a ammo box.
I signed the log and the ranger gave me a cool coin trackable. Apparently there was a cache challenge in the area and this was the last of the challenge. So you win a coin.
I had the whole afternoon left to get on Jaguarundi and go after some more hides. I rode as far around the park as the trails would take me. Returned to camp to plan the next days journey. Not all who wander are lost 😃
That was definitely an adventure. I would also have thought that the town would be more hyped. Why did they choose Cooperstown for the museum? That bridge is awesome.
ReplyDeleteI talked to one the Staff "Joe" and I asked him why Cooperstown. He said it is mostly funded by local people that are committed to keeping it small.
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