Pick Me! Pick Me!

Pick Me! was the name of the cache, so it shouldn't have taken me so long to figure it out.  I finally realized the flowers were in a shady spot by themselves under a tree.  I looked closer and sure enough, they were silk.  Moved a piece of bark aside and discovered one of the blooms was glued to a film canister. 

I've gotten into the habit of loading geocaches near wherever I'm going to be, just in case I have time to kill.  I loaded some of them in Leander, Texas, near the KOA where I camped.  I found one hidden under the bolt cover in a light pole.  I had to look twice before I spotted it, though.  It was another one of those nano caches. 

It's a tiny magnetic canister with a miniature scroll log to sign.  This was the first time I've driven from cache to cache.  I normally walk.  I grabbed the cache, signed in my car, and did my best to replace without anyone seeing.   

Camping at the KOA wasn't too bad.  Most of the traffic cutting through my site was between the pool and a few RV's near my tent.  I did hear an adult scolding on of the kids,  "That's private property!"  There were some lazy grown-ups, too, but after the pool closed they went to bed.  After the sun set, it was cool enough to close all the privacy panels.  I left the rainfly off, so there was plenty of ventilation through the mesh panels in the roof.  I had the bathroom almost completely to myself since most of the campers were in RV's.  I might stay here again if all the state parks are full.     

I was in The Hill Country for a party barge that Hill Country Outdoors rented, but my GPS stopped working (the one I use to navigate in my car, not the geocaching GPS) and I didn't find the marina.  I have since purchased a map of the area, but not in time.  I missed my boat. :(  

Oh, well.  I'm already here.  I might as well enjoy other things the Hill Country has to offer.  I didn't get a chance to hunt for the geocaches in Pedernales (pronounced per-din-al-iz) State Park last week, so I went to get some of them.  They are harder to get to in the park, but more fun to find.  I had to leave the trail and bushwhack a little.  I even had to cross a couple of small streams.  I could step over the water easily, but it required climbing up and down the 10 to 15-foot banks which were not a gradual slope.  One was almost like  the walls of the rock climbing gym, except there were tree roots and limbs instead of rocks to grab for handholds.  It probably would have been easier if I had returned to my car and parked closer to a trailhead instead of just following the GPS signal to the next closest hide.  I got three:

 

   

Click to enlarge if you can't see them.