Tag Archives: geocaching

Wake up and wander West for breakfast, Bear’s Den and berry pie

Pine Grove Restaurant, Bluemont

I like the morning rush of a Saturday in springtime — the birds chirping exquisitely as they dart from worm to worm, wet grass beneath my bare feet as I race to the driveway to retrieve a dew-dipped newspaper, the blare of a manual alarm clock replaced by my own hushed awareness that the day is beginning.

Today, my body clock nudged me awake a little after 5am, and I’m loving the peaceful quiet of my Saturday morning. That will change shortly, of course. Five children will pound down the stairs in search of sustenance. The dogs will hover, waiting impatiently for their dishes to be filled. Soccer uniforms and baseball gloves will need to be hunted down. But for now, I’m reveling in the solitude of this rare Saturday morning. I can write the blog I wanted to write last weekend, after our completely spontaneous Sunday adventure.

We woke up everyone at a little after 7am so we could be at Saint James for the 7:45am service. Immediately afterwards, we piled into the Yukon and headed west to find Pine Grove Restaurant,  an unassuming brown wood building that houses one of the yummiest country-style breakfasts this family of seven has found around the county. Pine Grove is located in Bluemont at 574 Pine Grove Road, just off Route 7 West. Not only is the food delicious, but the wait staff couldn’t be friendlier or more accommodating. When we visited near Halloween, the girls were decked out in their country bumpkin best–including painted on freckles, pony tails and blacked out front teeth. When you chat with the staff, which of course we do, it’s evident that working here is nearly as fun as eating here. Attitude is everything, and

Pine Grove’s friendly staff delivers breakfast with a smile.

at Pine Grove Restaurant, service with a smile makes the meal all the more delightful.

On this early Sunday morning in May, we arrived with big-breakfast appetites, and were pleased with every aspect of our overly generous portions. Our kids wanted cheddar cheese in their eggs–no problem. I so appreciate that my steaming hot coffee is served in an extra-large ceramic coffee mug…not a dainty tea cup that needs three refills to equal a normal cup of coffee. Daily specials are listed on the blackboard, behind the cash register. Today, it was blueberry pancakes ($3.50 and so large they hung over the sides of the plate) and the tomato, feta and spinach omelette ($6.95). They also offer the 1-1-1 or 2-2-2 breakfast specials, which are easy on the wallet. Choose one egg, one meat and one bread–or two if your appetite, like our teen boys, is a little heftier. We’re usually torn between the sausage patties (mmmm) or the bacon strips, and flip a coin between their pancakes and french toast. Sean, our youngest at eight, has his own menu-must: the egg and sausage sandwich ($4.95).

Given to Pine Grove’s proximity to the Appalachian Trail, you’re as likely to spot a thru-hiker catching a hot meal as you are a local retired couple in their Sunday finest. We like this diversity, and the lack of pretense. There’s nothing fancy about Pine Grove, but everything feels just right the moment you walk through the door. It’s country perfect, and for this family of seven, we’ll take that any day of the week.

Bear’s Den Overlook–on the Appalachian Trail in Bluemont.

If you venture out to Pine Grove for breakfast, you’ve got plenty of time to hit the AT for a short hike to one of the best overlooks in the county: Bear’s Den. Buemont rests at the base of Snickers Gap and the Blue Ridge Mountains. According to LoudounHistory.org, Bluemont is the county’s loftiest community, perched at 680 feet, with the still-higher mountains as a beautiful backdrop. Bear’s Den Overlook provides a spectacular view of the Shenandoah River from high atop a rock outcropping. You can hike the moderately difficult trail–with kids and pets alike–from two directions. Our favorite route is to start from the public parking lot just off Route 7–at Blue Ridge Mountain Road. This is about a mile and half climb over somewhat rocky trails bordered by mountain laurel. Or, you can take the easy road, enter Bear’s Den from Blue Ridge Mountain Road, park in the lower lot and walk to Bear’s Den Hostel, and then follow signs to the AT and overlook. Either way, it’s a picture-perfect, year-round destination and one of nature’s best playgrounds, with plenty of rocks for young kids to slither through.

On this particular Sunday morning, we skipped the hike but instead headed even farther west to Berryville in search of more geocaches to uncover. And that’s precisely what we did, finding a nano-sized hide clinging to the wrought iron fence that surrounds the courthouse. And a sneaky little hide  in the the white storybook park gazebo, placed to celebrate a wedding of young loves. We learned a little about the Battle of Catoctin Springs on another find. We stopped at Tastee Freeze for chocolate-dipped soft serve cones and parked ourselves at a nearby picnic table as our melting towers dripped sweat cream all over our fingers. We landed at the Berryville community park, which was one of the best discoveries of the day. We couldn’t find one of the tricky geocaches at the park, but who cares because we found the best playground in the world–slides so high and winding that our kids felt they’d been transported to a big-time amusement park. Only it was free–and line free. Even the light rain that arrived as they climbed and jumped and slid couldn’t deter them from exploring every inch of this amazing playground. You can bet we’ll be heading back on another westward meander.

In all, we found 12 geocaches, some along rarely traveled dirt and gravel roads, others expertly hidden along Main Street in plain view. The three kids who came along, although slightly squished in the rear seat of our Jeep, only broke into backseat squabbles a few times, thank goodness. It was an incredible day out and about in Loudoun and Clarke counties–not necessarily because of what we did or where we went, but because our day wasn’t scheduled to the minute or even the hour. After church, we just rambled west, our GPS leading us to the next great cache. The more geocaching we do, the more we realize that the best part of this newfound passion is that it gets us outside, together, and never fails to deliver something unexpected–new information, new sites, new challenges.

Sean, Mike, Bryan and Cady showcasing our Battle of Catoctin Springs geocache find.

On our way home from Berryville, we stopped at another of our family’s favorite destinations: Hill High Orchard, the well-known Route 7 landmark with the covered wagon sitting out front. You should never be in such a hurry that you can’t stop at Hill High. Sodas, ice cream, barbecue and country ham sandwiches, preserves, coffee, country crafts and dozens of flaky, mouth-watering pies that can be boxed in about two minutes flat. Hill High currently shares their building with an art gallery and winery–more reasons to visit. You can grab breakfast, lunch, dinner or just a snack for the car ride. This general store, with its worn hardwood floors and shelves teeming with local preserves and crafts, is just the place to “feel” LoCo.

A FEW OTHER NEARBY STOPOVERS:

I’m going to add a few more pictures to this when I can figure out how to post without sending my text haywire. Right now, I’m slightly frustrated by my own ignorance. I’ll tackle those editing details later. For now, I’m off to enjoy my weekend–plant some perennials, clean the upstairs bathrooms and head to the NOVAGO spring geocaching event at the Blue Ridge Center tomorrow, a first for our family. Hope you enjoy your weekend…get out there and live the life God intended us to live…surrounded by his awesome creation.

Wherever you go, be Loudoun Crazy–Martha :)

Hello world!

Oh Geo! Or why muddy meandering makes me happy.

If you aren’t yet familiar with geocaching and you have kids under the age of 18, you’re missing out on making some mudlicious memories. Loudoun County, and Leesburg in particular, is rife with hidden treasures awaiting your discovery.

Our family stumbled on geocaching last spring, after one of my kindergarten kids brought in a geocoin for his show-and-tell. Boy could you tell from that little boy’s ear-to-ear grin that geocaching had given him a veritable king’s treasure. One simple coin and he was richer than rich. I came home that afternoon and immediately googled geocaching, finding geocaching.com.

At first, we just dabbled in this newfound GPS-guided treasure hunt. We’d go out hunting every now and then, our handy dandy Apple iPhone serving as our official GPS device. We always enjoyed the find, but it wasn’t until this month that we officially became bonafide geocaching addicts. Come to find out, there are a lot of similarly minded geocaching nuts out there, all traipsing through overgrown fields, cobbled downtown side streets, and steel and concrete jungles to unlock the mystery of the next geocache. Nothing quite beats the thrill of shouting “Found it” while my husband is 15 feet away digging through rotting leaves, hoping he finds the cache before me. Yesterday, I won 2-1. Yep, that’s right–we spent two hours on our own–after our Costco shopping trip–hiking the muddied, tree-laiden trails of Red Rocks Overlook. The storm took its toll on the pines and hardwoods that frame the trail, but we trudged on, alternating between watching our steps and our iPhones (we used both his and mine, as we were tracking two long-hidden caches). Of the trio we found yesterday–two of which were hidden in 2001–one hadn’t been uncovered for over a month. Talk about feeling special! And then there was the view we’d never seen–a glorious overlook high above the swollen Potomac River. And the up-close chance encounter with some less-timid deer, out for their late afternoon snack. And me in flip flops…toes dipped in deep chocolate mud.

There’s lot to love about geocaching, and it’s for anyone with a sense of adventure. There are easy-to-find caches, or hides, as you’ll hear them referred, and then there are those that would likely stump the best and brightest MIT grads. The variety and number of caches hidden worldwide is astounding–and the number grows daily. There are puzzlers, virtual caches, underwater caches, multi-level caches and the geocaching.com websites states that geocaches can even be hidden in outer space. Not sure when the last Shuttle is launching, but I kind of wonder if there’s a geocache on the moon.

Back to the addiction, it’s consuming. We’ve outfitted a gallon-sized Ziploc bag with all our geocaching necessities–a flashlight for when darkness arrives before the find does, plenty of trinkets and treasures to trade, a camera, and a few ballpoint pens. You never know when it’s BYOP! For the future geocachers, that means “bring your own pen” because the cache is so itty bitty (possibly smaller than the fingernail on your pinky finger) that it was impossible for the cache owner to add a writing utensil. We’ve found camouflaged caches on light posts (a seeming favorite), wedged in rotted out stumps, hanging by a strings in trees and fenceposts, and magnetically clinging to every size and shape of metal.

Last weekend, I enlisted my Mom and eldest daughter, Shelby, for our Edenton, NC geocaching expedition. We were visiting my parents, sharing a beautiful church service at St. Anne’s, dining at the Nothin’ Fancy restaurant (oh my gosh, were the crabcakes and cornbread Bon Appetit good!). But the geocaching bug overpowered me, and thank goodness my Mom was up for treasure hunting in her hometown. We found two of the three on our short list. I can tell, my Mom had fun…we all explored and giggled and amazed ourselves with our ingenuity. Heck, when we couldn’t pull the miniscule log roll from within the magnetic nano we found, Mom headed over to the local fishermen and, in her most gracious Southern accent, asked for assistance. The fisherman stopped fishing, pulled out his rather large knife, and expertly removed the scroll. We got our BYOP ballpoint out and scribbled our code name: 7up4fun. Turned out that the day before, the same fisherman had been sitting on the bench where said cache was located when another geocacher, laptop in hand, had stumbled by on the same search. I can only imagine what that local Edenton fisherman must think of we out-of-town treasure seekers. So my Mom knew best when I was a youngster, and she still knows best. Later that afternoon, for another find, Mom was using a long stick to pull a tiny black and highlight-yellow snake from within the hide location. Thanks, Mom.

We hid our first geocache last night, and it was published among the website listings at around 8:50pm. Twenty-seven minutes later, some other geocaching addict, on his way to a movie with his wife, forewent date night to instead be the FTF (first to find) “Jeepers Peepers”–our ode to the springtime amphibian troubadors. Now it’s your turn to find our cache fully loaded with kid-friendly treasures. In doing so, you’ll find that the greatest treasure you really find is yourself! :)

There’s plenty more I’d love to tell you about geocaching, but why read about someone else’s crazy good adventures when you can start having some of your own. Go to geocaching.com and sign up for a free membership–or go hog-wild with a premium membership (great for even more cheap thrills). Then, let me know what you think. Am I nuts? Or is this the best thing since Andy Gibb and Twinkies?

Go head, use your GPS today to navigate a blessed adventure with someone you love :)