Each week I try to bill 50 hours between writing, studying and looking for a job. My instinct to stay "productive" is balanced by a voice telling me to stay in bed watching Seinfeld in my underwear. Worse yet, I don't know which part of me is the crazy one. So to hedge my bets I pick one midday indulgence a week. This fall, my slacker moment was geocaching through Breakheart Reservation, the scene of many a past snowball fight.
In addition to exercise and fresh air, these hikes fulfilled my primary domestic responsibility of keeping Shula out of trouble.
Beginner's Guide to Geocaching
Breakheart was my first attempt to geocache since I struck out on Nantucket in August.
Geocaching.com’s maps show only the paved roads, not the park's hiking trails. The hidden treasures should make woodlands like Breakheart sparkle with adventure. Instead, I am slowed down comparing my phone's map with the physical map in my hand.
Shula and I started with a cache called "Off the Beaten Path". About 16 caches are hidden throughout Breakheart, but this cache is hidden alone on the park's eastern end. It's in an area I may never have explored otherwise.
My GPS led me to a wooden bridge spanning the Saugus River. For once, my phone wasn't zonking out, possibly because there was less tree cover by the river. If my reading was accurate then, the cache was underneath.
Climbing down the rocks, stepping over a dead bird, I peeked under the boards. I reached through a thick nest of webs to pull out the plastic container. The dog and I had solved our first mystery!
The next week, I searched for the "Breakheart Flume" cache. I brought along a comic book. I decided that since I was geocaching as Reading Quietly, I should leave reading material in all the caches I found.
Since the flume is too easy to reach by the paved roads, just for fun, I walked along the Ridge Trail before cutting back between the Upper and Lower Ponds. I remembered the flume area well from my childhood. I am sure I've peed in those bushes.
But I couldn't find a cache in there. My phone's GPS kept changing its directions. I have since read that once one is within 20 feet, one has to start looking by eye.
I joked in a tweet that Shula's snout would not let us down. But Shula, as much as I love having her out there with me, is a hindrance. With my phone in one hand and Shula's leash in the other, I don't have a free hand to dig.
On my next trip, I had two dogs! I told myself not to even bother geocaching with a leash in each hand. But I couldn't resist. On the way back to the parking lot, I made a run at "Foggy Breakheart". It was not on a trail, just 100 feet off the paved road.
I tried to at least brush at stuff with my foot and to look up into trees. Still did not see anything that resembled a cache.
TGIF
After two no-finds, I took a break from geocaching. On our next trip, Shula and I returned to the Flume Trail just to enjoy the fall weather and, I had to admit it, the foliage.
Hiking is like being in the middle of a fall storm. One can literally watch the leaves fall to the ground, especially on this day, as the sky grew dark and the wind picked up.
We reached the end of the Outer Loop Trail just as the Northeast Metro Tech ended classes for the week. I have talked about the importance of a Saturday activity. It is equally important to have a Friday activity to enjoy the rhythm of weekend's start, when no one should be thinking about homework.
Fall hiking was a pretty good one for both Shula and me. Breakheart has a dog park now where I can let Shula off the leash without guilt or fear. Shula made a new friend nearly every trip we made.
Trails & Hills
There is a flipside to my childhood nostalgia for Breakheart. These are the same woods where I whined about not having a girlfriend in 7th grade, the same place kids from my high school went to drink. Even putting that aside, compared to hiking the White Mountains, Breakheart is a massive step back.
Still, Breakheart has some fun trails. I think the best trail is on west side of the park. The Ridge Trail goes over all the high points of the park, giving one nice views of the Boston skyline. One goes from fording swamps to climbing rocky outcroppings.
Plus, there is a geocache at the trail's most remote point: Crow's Hill. I feel deep enough in the woods to release Shula. She always starts with a full gallop forward and back. Then she settles down in a way she never does at the beach or in the city. She happily trots next me like an animal avatar from World of Warcraft.
The cache, called "Crow's Nest", has a hint that says the Boston skyline is not visible from where the cache is hidden. In any case, there are no marked trails going up to Crow's Hill.
Shula and I tried to go but the approach is very thorny and her leash got tangled up. I lifted her off the ground, but did not turn around. Instead I tried to climb up with a terrified Wheaten in my hands. When we finally turned around and she was safely back on the ground, I worried she'd just flop down. But she was as eager as ever to continue the adventure.
While writing this post, I spent a lot of time looking at the Breakheart geocaching.com map. There are caches all over the trail. Now I'm reenergized to go after them...just in time for winter adventures.
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