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CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Discussion of CAM, the CAM caches, etc. NO SPOILERS PLEASE!
devildog1540
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by devildog1540 »

3/13/2016
Wow! My favorite CAM cache ever. I started out at the free parking spot and took the high road above the canal. The trees were all starting to turn green and the redbud and dogwood trees are blooming. As you get closer to the visitor center you can see some views of the river, but nothing like the view from the overlook trail. I had never been to this park before and I had no idea the Potomac River had all those rocky gorges and falls. It was simply breathtaking. There is an earth cache along the overlook trail too and the landscape is amazing. A great hike today and the weather was perfect. After I found the CAM cache I took the canal path back. Both trails have different and great views.
acadiacats
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by acadiacats »

WE DID IT!!!! Warlock0714 and I completed CAM today, our very first CAM, did it in a little over 1,000 miles of driving that included a couple of long detours (one down to Martinsburg to pick up a geocoin we had earned last year, and today down to Manassas Battlefield where we got a Virginia badge on the way-as close as we are to VA, we had not gotten that state badge til today!).

So our last CAM cache turned out to be our favorite. Got to Great Falls early, around 930 and got started on our walk. The redbuds and dogwoods are blooming. The tiny bugs are out, but not biting (yet). The little turtles are out-today was a great day for them to sun on the logs in the still canal water. We saw quite a few. We walked to the cache, got it with no trouble, then took a side walk over to the island to walk along the boardwalks and view some of the gorges and falls. What a beautiful day! On the way back, we saw a team of mules being walked along the canal, and a Civil War living history set up near the visitor's center. Took some time to sit and eat some lunch then off we went, had decided to take a drive up to Point of Rocks, cross the river and head down to Manassas. Picked up a few caches along the way then spent a couple of hours walking the Battlefield during the late afternoon hours. Also saw along our drive: a parachutist, a hot air balloon and quite a few hawks. I used to go over to Great Falls back in early 80's to hike, (did the Billy Goat Trail many times) but had not been back til today. This gets a favorite from me!

Thank you for an awesome CAM! We enjoyed it totally, especially the tie in with the National Parks, all the more special. Crazy variations of weather but our finish was on a perfect day.
We did: Hampton on opening day as it is a one block walk from my house. The next Saturday we did G.A. P., Ferry Hill, (side trip to Martinsburg), Monocacy, Catoctin. The next Saturday we did Assateague then Blackwater. That same weekend on Sunday we did Greenbelt then Piscataway. And today, Great Falls. Thanks MGS, from two brand new members! Looking forward to the picnic! 8) 8)
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TheUnstealthy Monkey
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by TheUnstealthy Monkey »

Found 4/42016

Met up with Jmangeo to find this cache on a slightly rainy, gray and cold day. Started off at the main parking lot and made our way to each stage. Along the way, we were admiring the rock and roaring water from the trail. It took a minute to figure out hide, but eventually we found it! Great container chock full of SWAG for everyone! Dropped my glass geogem and signed the log.

I've been to Great Falls many times before. It's always good to go back whether it's to find a cache or just to enjoy a walk on the many trails there and enjoy the roaring waters of the Potomac River flowing through here. TFTC!!

PS - Zombie plague has spread to this cache!
ksullivan
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by ksullivan »

4/16 CAM cache #9
I was so excited to be able to do this cache with some of my favorite people (Evanspack, jcfdelaware, pegasusmoon, pyro1970, and Tabbikat.) We came up with a plan to do three CAM caches today and this was our last of the day.
This is a beautiful location and I am so glad that a CAM cache was placed here. We saw the horses pulling the boat in the canal. The canal locks were beautiful themselves, but nothing compares to the views we saw on the way to the geocache and on the trail to Olmsted Island. The puzzle was cool even though I had a hard time hearing the recording. It was a genius idea and a great partnership between the geocaching world and the NPS to use (and promote) their phone recordings! This hide will definitely get a favorite point from me when it is live!
I have been dying to come to this park since I hiked the VA side almost 2 years ago. Our plan was for Pegasusmoon, Pyro, and I to hike the Billy Goat trail after finding the CAM cache. We did part of it, but we were just too wiped out after a full day and I had forgotten my hiking boots. We will return when we have a full day to enjoy the trail. Thanks again for bringing us here!
SL TFTC
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MARYLANDCrab
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by MARYLANDCrab »

Found on 18 April 2016. Found this cache with Mdfroglover, her husband and grandson. Day was beautiful but a bit on the warm side. This was a great location - saw all sorts of wildlife: ducks, geese, turtles, buzzards, and my personal favorite: a baby snake. Had a front seat for a river search - again emphasizing the dangerous nature of the Potomac at Great Falls. TFTC!
zorrobarnes
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by zorrobarnes »

April 15, 2016 - Jeanne and I decided to get this cache today as the weather promised to be great and it was. We got the info for S2 of the CAM cache, went to S2 and used the phone method to get the info for the final. Before heading to the final we hiked south and took a photo of the bench mark. On the way back we didn't look closely enough at the final location and walked a hundred feet or more on the wrong side before catching our mistake. Once on track we quickly made our way to the GZ area, but were initially drawn to the obvious object, but which was not the cache location. Finally found the cache and logged in.
Another nice hide and a big thanks to NPS for the hide.
We then spent some time observing the falls and collecting info for the earth cache.
samaurai_xlii
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by samaurai_xlii »

Took a couple of days off in the center of the week to finish up CAM. We got here on 20 April in the morning. Luckily this was the week that National Parks are free to all visitors. Sadly, we had already purchased an annual pass, something tough to use in Maryland.
We are also collecting National Park cancellations for our National Park Passports and foolishly forgot to bring the passport with us as we went into the visitor's center and decided to use our printed CAM pages. Man was that an error! The volunteer behind the desk went apoplectic when he spied our geocaching information. He absolutely insisted that there was no way that anyone had ever gotten permission to place a physical cache in the park. I showed him the cache pages and he just wouldn't listen. He wanted to detain us and call the rangers in to have us remove the cache from the park and it was disconcerting at best, made us question the validity of the cache. We ended up scooting out leaving the first two pages of the cache, the ones that describe the permission and the park area; we didn't leave the actual cache information. It was a very unpleasant experience. Would be cachers beware: not all park staff has been informed that these caches have been placed. Do your best to be polite and respectful if questioned or grilled.
In better news, we really had a great time here. The locks, the cache and the falls on olmstead island were well worth the visit. I am pretty sure I hadn't been to this area of the canal before. Thanks for setting this great cache, Coming here was enriching.
samaurai_xlii
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by samaurai_xlii »

Took a couple of days off in the center of the week to finish up CAM. We got here on 20 April in the morning. Luckily this was the week that National Parks are free to all visitors. Sadly, we had already purchased an annual pass, something tough to use in Maryland.
We are also collecting National Park cancellations for our National Park Passports and foolishly forgot to bring the passport with us as we went into the visitor's center and decided to use our printed CAM pages. Man was that an error! The volunteer behind the desk went apoplectic when he spied our geocaching information. He absolutely insisted that there was no way that anyone had ever gotten permission to place a physical cache in the park. I showed him the cache pages and he just wouldn't listen. He wanted to detain us and call the rangers in to have us remove the cache from the park and it was disconcerting at best, made us question the validity of the cache. We ended up scooting out leaving the first two pages of the cache, the ones that describe the permission and the park area; we didn't leave the actual cache information. It was a very unpleasant experience. Would be cachers beware: not all park staff has been informed that these caches have been placed. Do your best to be polite and respectful if questioned or grilled.
In better news, we really had a great time here. The locks, the cache and the falls on olmstead island were well worth the visit. I am pretty sure I hadn't been to this area of the canal before. Thanks for setting this great cache, Coming here was enriching.
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SimmyJellers
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by SimmyJellers »

4/24/2016
Out with my 2 best caching buddies, JoshInChains and Cinnamon. Sadly, no Charlie the Dog on this years CAM adventures. We knocked out 4 more of the CAM’s today around the center of Maryland.
Great Falls, what a beautiful place I have sadly not been to before. I will make it back here. It was unbelievably crowded, and I was told that it is always that crowded, wowzers! Thanks for bringing us out here!
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sfcchaz
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by sfcchaz »

4/24/16 - I spent the day caching with wizardofmd69, Dixiegurl Suzanne, GnomeGCer and Biblical. Our goal today was to attend the CITO in Hagerstown, find the 2 CAM caches and any we could in between. We were successful. We signed the log with some variation of Team CAM to conserve space. I ended the day with 18 finds and 2 DNFs.

Wow [:O] the park was absolutely packed on this beautiful day. We did this one the alternate method as a couple of the guys were having phone issues. We then made our way to GZ while taking in all of the sites along the way. We made the find quite easily as there was another cacher jut getting there in front of us - Paklein58 - nice meeting you. Gathered the required information and went on our way. TNLN TFTC
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coupleocachers
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by coupleocachers »

#10 of #10

We finished, we finished.
Dudleygrunt, Codyhollowfarm, Raizinbran, AmeliaGrace, Dbzdude and Us finsished with this cache. We made our way to groundzero. Grabbing the information from stage 1 and making our way to stage 2.

We got the coordinates to the final and made our way to groundzero. While some of the group went pass groundzero, Beau stopped and started looking in a area and found the cache with no problem. We were able to open the cache with no problem and was signing the log as we finished CAM.

This also completes our 10th year of doing CAM. Can you believe that we started in 2007 and have been doing it for 10 years. Can't wait until next year.

The MGS Core and Previous Core did a great job this year for the CAM cache.

Caches found
10 out of 10 CAM caches
425 Miles Drivin Today
12 Caches found 5 CAM caches 7 Non-CAMS
1 stop for lunch yummy.

Thanks for all the hardwork.
We are now Mr. And Mrs. Coupleocachers and Proud parents of AmeliaGrace
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LestISmiteThee
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by LestISmiteThee »

I was determined to get a CAM cache today despite the threat of rain and the overall gloomy weather, so I'm glad I came to Great Falls because it's beautiful! I'll let the photos speak for themselves. This was my fave CAM cache so far because of the location and the steps involved to find the final. Will definitely come back for all these cool EarthCaches!

CAM cache #6 down, 4 more to go!

[LestISmiteThee's TB Tattoo Geo-miles:
Traveling the world, one Geocache at a time...](http://coord.info/TB4Z1B7)
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joejackson
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by joejackson »

Whoops. Wrong board! Moved to C&O Canal Ferry Hill. Where's the delete button?
Last edited by joejackson on Sun May 01, 2016 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ameliagrace
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by ameliagrace »

4/24/2016

#10 with Mommy and Daddy(coupleocachers) and Uncle Cody(dbzdude). This was our biggest group for CAM. We had Mrs. Seekpeekrs, Mr. DudleyGrunt, Mrs. Ponylovermom, Mrs. Codyhollowfarm, Raizinbran, andafriend, Ms.Eissak and Mrs.TBFreed with us today.

This was our last cache of the day and my last CAM cache. I really enjoyed the hike to this cache with the falls to my right and the Canal to the right. I walked to every CAM cache today. I got a piggy back ride from Mrs. Codyhollowfarm and Daddy. After finding the CAM cache we took a group photo and I held up all 10 of my fingers. Thanks for the fun time.

#10 out of 10 CAM done.
bneeriemer
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by bneeriemer »

This was our 6th CAM cache. Talk about crowded. Everybody was out for Mother's day in the sun.
Fortunately the gz is in a quiet corner. We had the great opportunity to introduce two college gals to geocaching. We led them to gz, and let them loose with the hint. It took a few tries but they found it. I gave them the combination and they were hooked.

Meanwhile on the way we visited the actual great falls. That was spectacular.

Unfortunately we won't finish in time for the picnic, but we hope to grab the colonial farm before archiving.
TheLoneBaker
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Re: CAM 2016 — C&O Canal: Great Falls

Post by TheLoneBaker »

May 2, 2016

Seeing as time was starting to run out to finish CAM I decided to hop on my bicycle once again and head for Great Falls. I once again used the public bus system to get within a few miles or so and then biked the rest of the way.

Since I was on a bicycle I decided to take the free route even though it proved to be a bit longer. Of course it turned out that I was biking right by the various waypoints of the geocache as I headed to the posted location without knowing it. I also had quite a bit of confusion with this particular geocache but in the end using a bit of common sense I was able to find the information I needed and get the combination. It also turned out I had passed by a couple copies of the sign with the phone number on my route. The bridge waypoint even turned out to be for the very bridge I had crossed previously.

But back across I went leaving my bike locked up and I soon had the cache in hand. Then it was just a matter of crossing the bridge again, grabbing my bike, and biking back to the bus stop I had gotten off at. This time though I went out the main entrance because I knew it would be free to leave that way. Though I ended up making a wrong turn at the main road and ended up biking a couple extra miles.

Yet again I failed to encounter a fellow geocacher while tackling this CAM cache though there were plenty of muggles out on the trail.

6 down, 4 to go!
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