geocaching adventure

For Memorial Day Josh and I wanted to do something exciting outdoors, but weren't quite up for a long hike (the original plan), so instead we broke out his new handheld GPS and went geocaching right here in Charlottesville. We printed off the coordinates for seven caches at a local park, and headed out...



We found the first one! As you can see, it was a micro cache.


Josh is recording our find.


We ran into a creek next to the river at one point and had to find our way around. This part of the park was wooded and felt like we could have been miles away in the mountains.


The GPS is kind of fun because you know what direction to go, but you don't necessarily know where the trails are. Sometimes the GPS seems confused though, and you have to wander around in clearings until it figures itself out.


We couldn't find two of them, and we bipassed one when there were people around (apparently you're supposed to be secretive about geocaching and not let "muggles" see you). But we found four, so that's exciting. Here is Josh finding another one in a tree.


People trade out little toys and other random stuff. We added this to the cache.


At a different cache, we traded a finger puppet for this sweet eraser.


All the walking and searching for two hours, plus the 90 degree heat, meant a break by the river was necessary. Here you can see my first temporary tattoo of the summer.


We also ate snacks.


Overall we had a lot of fun being outside and finding "secret" caches. It was also nice to be reminded that the river and wooded parks are so close by. It was a successful first try at geocaching, and I'm sure we'll do it again.

montalto challenge take 2

So last Saturday was the Montalto Challenge, the all-uphill 5k that Josh and I did last year. We did it again, and we both improved!

This year I got word that a particular fourteen-year-old boy had the goal of beating me up the mountain. It's pretty nerve racking knowing you have to actually race an individual up a mountain, rather than simply run up with a friendly group and hope you do better than last year. Anyway, he was ahead of me for the first mile and a half, I passed him and was ahead for just a little while, and he was in front of me (but close and always in sight) the rest of the way up. Unfortunately the mountain part is just so awful that I couldn't care anymore, and the kid beat me. Sigh.

But I beat my time from last year by a minute, so I'm happy about that.

Here's the starting line. (Per usual, Josh took these photos.)


Here I am getting ready to start, wearing perhaps the most awesome running shirt ever. This is the shirt Josh made me for my birthday. (Also note the looong legs on the kid behind me in red...)


Did you want to see a closeup?


Here's how it looks down on the trail part.


And here's how it looks going up Montalto. Almost everyone has to stop and walk a little. (Also note that Josh must have stopped to turn around and take this. He's a hard core runner slash race photographer.)


See how high we're getting?


Josh got a couple of shots of me nearing the finish line, but I was dying, having just run up a mountain, and am not willing to share the unflattering pictures. Sorry.

Aah, the obligatory flared-nostrils-because-I'm-trying-to-catch-my-breath photo.


You can see Monticello just to the right of my arm.


Josh did great. He beat last year's time by 4:20, AND he came in second in his age group! Here he is with the other winners (he's over on the right end.)

EMT

Josh spent six months last year taking an EMT class, and now he's a real-life EMT. He started volunteering one day a week at a local rescue squad a couple months ago. Here he is sporting the stethoscope my grandpa gave him. Thumbs up for helping to save lives!