Martic Township Park Hike & Cache

On Wednesday I went for a hike in search of a cache. I had put it off since the last time I was here it was a bit challenging since I was still smoking. Wow what a difference since I quit. I didn't want to stop hiking even after I found the cache! This is such a picturesque place. The terrain just keeps you wanting to see what is on the other side of the next hill or what's in the next valley.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Spoiler Alert! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Images below show the cache and may reveal the location.

For some reason this hike became more about the bugs then the cache even though the cache was very well hidden and an enjoyable find. It started almost as soon as I got there. I am normally not bothered too much by gnats, flies or mosquitoes during the day, but they all made there presence known as soon as I hit the trail. I'm thinking it was the pancakes for breakfast which is out of the ordinary for me.

After finding the cache I was attracted by a wild daisy with a very small garden wasp on it. It just seemed like something you would see, well, in a garden, not in the middle of the woods.


As I wandered along the path I saw many interesting plants, structures and insects like the Jade colored beetle and the moth that looked like a flying leaf. But the oddest bug landed on my sunglasses just as I got in the car to go home. I thought it was a smudge as I put my sunglasses on and started to pull away, then the smudge moved.


I gently tapped him off of my sunglasses onto the trunk, but I have no clue what that bug is that I chased across the trunk of my car to get a picture of. If you are wondering, the end with the "pincers" and feelers or antenna is the front, or at least the direction it moves very fast in. I have to admit that it was a bit unnerving to have this critter less than a quarter inch from my eye after I think about it.

I loved this hike and the cache and even the bugs, ok, not the gnats in the corner of my eye or the mosquitoes, but the rest of it. I actually went for a short bike ride that night to see the stars, sorry no photos, but to be able to ride a short distance and see so much more of the sky woke me up and made me feel alive at midnight.