Bernheim Forest ColorFest and Geocaching

This weekend was the ColorFest fall festival at Bernheim Forest in Clermont, Ky. We had planned to go hiking at Bernheim and packed a lunch. We managed to get there before the big crowds and do a little hiking. We stopped at the gift shop/visitor center and there were booths set up with food vendors and Ky crafts. Inside the center I found the coolest "fairy" scarecrow by artist Wren Smith. Isn't this cool? I love the 2nd picture as all the light from the windows illuminates this wonderful art. Next year they are asking individuals and organizations to create their own artistic scarecrow to be on display at Bernheim. (click pictures for a larger view)






A woodturner from Kentucky demonstrates his work as a crowd gathers to watch. Everyone loves to see an artist in action. It really seems to draw them into your booth.



A nice view from the trail. And a pretty birch tree.


We also went geocaching that day. If you unfamiliar with geocaching, it's great fun. Basically you get the coordinates for a hidden item (the cache) and enter it into your gps. You also get clues, sometimes they are in code and you have to decipher them. Most of the time you have to go off the trail to find what you are looking for. The coordinates give you the general area and are not exact. We tried for four yesterday. Three of them were microcaches which means they could be as small as an altoids tin or a film canister. We never found those, and I was pretty discouraged. We gave it one last try for hunt #4. This one was described as a tall rubbermaid container wrapped in camo tape. The clue also told us it was in a hollow tree. It was quite a steep climb to make it to this one and you had to turn around as you were climbing to see the hollowed out part. My husband spotted the tree, as I had passed it up. This picture shows the location after removing the ground cover.

Inside these containers (which are often metal ammo boxes) you will find a log where everyone that has found the cache signs in and lists the date. Some people leave calling cards, like a business card that has their geocache name. There are usually trinkets inside the container, and if you take something you leave something and list it in the log. There is usually a pen inside unless it's a micro cache. You then go online when you get home and post to the person that created the cache that you found it. This info is listed for all to see. We normally print these out as they give clues about how to find them and if other people had trouble with the coordinates.

It's great fun if you've never tried it. All you need is a gps for trails(not a car gps). You can then type in the zip code of where you are traveling to and it will give you a list of the caches in the area! We try to do this whenever we travel.