Today, Father's Day, I received the ultimate present: a day of outdoors adventure with my daughter, ten-year old Little Leprechaun. Our destination today was "Hampton," a geocache that has been taunting us since we began geocaching more than two years ago. This cache takes the finder deep into the woods of rural Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to the site of an abandoned railroad town. Only ghosts and geocachers visit there now.
Why has Hampton taunted us? Because there's two very different routes to get there, and neither one is easy. You have your choice between an eight mile ride by mountain bike, or a challenging four-wheel drive expedition that includes a creek crossing that has flooded the floorboards of many a geocaching Jeep. Having no Jeep, we chose the mountain bike route.
We found the cache, explored the ruins of the ghost town of Hampton, and dropped off a Jeep Travel Bug in the cache. As we got on our bikes for the uphill climb home, boy did we wish we had a REAL Jeep! We were happy but tired by the time we put the bikes back on the car. With a Jeep, we could have driven to within sight of the geocache. It would have been a much different adventure. We'd like to think that we have the spirit of Jeep owners within us, regardless of the route we took. Half the fun is getting there.