Ok… I will admit it. I wasn’t too thrilled when Nikki brought Sam home from the La Porte breeders. But, after 6 months, Sam has found his way into the household and my heart. Not that I was ever thrilled with the puppy in the first place (still not in some ways), but it became a “can’t beat it so join it” situation. For the better, it is turning out to be.
But, today, a milestone was charted when I took Sam on his first geocaching hike. No one else could go this Sunday afternoon… Nikki had training at Dunkin to complete and the the kids were interested in other things, so I took Sam to Southwestway Park (southwest side of Indianapolis) for a 3.0 mile (round trip) hike to this geocache.
It was a thick dark overcast when we started our hike. Sam had to sniff every scent at every step but we eventually established a cadence we both could keep. The cache is hidden between two lakes in the southern area of the park. The trail passes an old, abandoned campground which has been reclaimed as a nature preserve. In fact, last week, when I was searching (by myself) for 3 other caches in the area, I saw two bald eagles flying overhead.
In the picture, the geocache is the small black box. It was hidden at the base of the tree behind Sam. The coordinates are N 39° 38.395 W 086° 14.781.
On the hike back to the car, we were caught in a cold downpour and became soaked almost immediately and the trail become a mud sluice. When I got home, I gave Sam a bath.
With the help of Sam for this particular cache, I have now found all 13 geocaches in Southwestway Park. With no additional geocaches to find in this park, maybe we should set our sights on Eagle Creek Park where another 13 geocaches await our discovery.
