Westport Loop

We decided that since we had not visited the Westport area yet this summer, it would be a good to head that way for on a geocaching run.  I figured out a route that would take us one way and bring us back another, and then created a pocket query for the leg of the route we had not covered before (well, we had, but there were lots of new caches that way, as well as plenty we still had not bothered to look for). 

Well, the first cache along that route was down a side road we never even saw, so we'll look for that another time.  The second one had us stopping at a place where people could launch their boats.  There were picnic tables there, and a decent view, so we may go back someday for a picnic. We've never been there before, but of course, have driven by it many times over the years.  That's what I like best about geocachingt.....finding these nice places you never would have found otherwise.  And the treasure, for me, at this stop was a flower growing in the water by the dock.  I'm used to water lilies, but I've never seen this flower before.  I have no idea what it is.  If you recognize it, please leave a comment.

After that we happened upon a flee market at Crosby.  I  have shown you pictures before of the delapitated looking shelters that we thought used to be used for a flee market. Well, apparently that flee market is still in business, and one of the vendors told us that the stalls had been repaired a lot over the past few years.  It was a very interesting market, and the prices were lower than at most such places.  I got a casserole dish, to replace one that had it's lid go missing a few years ago. It's in excellent shape and only cost $5.  I also got a bag full of metals (or whatever) for a buck. I'll likely put most of them in caches over the next couple of months.  Only two of them were duplicated.  I think at least one of them will find itself in some artistic creation someday, but otherwise most of them can go be cache trinkets.

 

The Flee Market was at the turn off to a little village called Newboro, where there is a big store that I often hear people raving about.  I had never been to the store before, so after tryng to find another cache (that may be missing since the last couple of people didn't find it either) we went to check out the store.  It is quite large, and there is everything imaginable in there, but none of it is cheap.  Up on the third floor, where the furniture was, we found an interesting structure.  It was set up like a pioneer home but roped off so you could only see it from above. 

After we were finished looking around there, we decided to skip the rest of the caches in that village (though we discovered we had actually done two of them before, and never logged them) and go find something to eat.  We headed for Westport, and had a lovely lunch at Steve's Restaurant.   

Then, rather than head to the cottage by our regular route, we scooted back to Hutchings Road near Newboro. We had never been down that road before, but it had two caches hidden along it.  The first was easy to find, and I was able to leave a travel bug at that location.  That was probably making it travel in the wrong direction but I didn't want to hold onto it any longer.  This road was very scenic, with lots of hills and twists and turns.  The second cache was hidden somewhere on a hillside, with lots of big trees, close to the corner of Perth Road, near Bedford Mills.  We never found the cache, but I enjoyed seeing the big old trees.  If you happen to venture down this way, do turn left onto Perth Road and pick up another couple of caches very near by. I'm sure you will enjoy the short loop around the mill pond.  Some good scenes.  

We went from here to the cottage, visited for a very short time with my son and his family (it was about 4:30pm by then and they were packing up to go home anyway). Then we continued our tour, stopping at a few more places on the way home. We went home by the route where there were more caches than on the route coming in, but didn't do them all anyway.  That's okay though, as most of the ones we didn't look for were at the end closer to home and we can go there more easily sometime when we just want to go treasure hunting.

 

Four of the ones we did do on the way home were at various points along Grants Creek. Each time it was at a place where the road crossed the creek, which meant we occasionally had to go down a side road to get to those places.  Again, the sights were worth the trip. 

Actually, there was an old mill at one of these locations too.  I do wish someone would find a use for this building as it looks to be in good shape, other than the broken windows

 

At the other end of that road there was the usual cemetary to explore.  That cache was easy enough to find. The graves were not as old as most grave yards these geocachers tend to take us too. The church was built in 1856. 

It was well after 7pm by this time, so we decided we had had enough for one day, and went home.