Saturday, November 24, 2012

Durant Park

- or - 

 How I learned To Stop Worrying About Park Closing Times And Cook The Survival Squirrel.

Avid readers of my blog (heya!) may recall that yesterday I toured around the Greater Raleigh NC area gathering 8 different geocache types (covered here if you missed it).  That adventure ended up in Durant Park.  We only found a few caches before the sun went down and we were forced to abandon ship before the park closed.

I had one more day in Raleigh, and I needed to kill some time, so I headed back to Durant Park solo to clear out the rest of the caches in the park.

I spent this morning walking through the parks many miles of trails, watching the wildlife and finding most of the caches (6 of 7 - I didn't look for the nano on the bridge - because, well,  it is a nano on a bridge).

I also pulled a lighter out of a cache (lighters are not acceptable trade items - but since the trader was a muggle who just happened to find the cache in question (he signed the log and told his story), and actually traded things instead of stealing them, I will refrain from going on a rant.  Tho I am gratified to know that if we had gotten locked inside the park last night (it was a possibility we discussed in detail yesterday) we could have feasted on cooked squirrel, instead of raw squirrel (which was HHH's plan - mine was to either resort to canabalism, or get a pizza delivered to the gate).  Geocaching saves lives (in theory) dang it!).

Durant park is a really nice park to spend a morning.  The trails are clear and nicely marked, the terrain is mostly flat, with the few hills being gentle and rolling.  There is a lot of wildlife (ducks, squirrels, and deer are prevalent).  The bushwhacking is easy (few thorns), and there are lots of creeks, and even two lakes.  I highly recommend spending some time there if you get the chance.

I will leave you with some more pics taken in the park, starting with this shot of a deer (ok, you got me.  Technically this was taken last night, not today, but it was the same park!  I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you snooping kids!)