Seneca County GeoTrail: Happy Caching on the Backroads

 So, what'cha doing this weekend? 

Funny how those words seem to get me and ShellyJean into the most trouble, isn't it? It's been a LONG winter with a lot of commitments so it was time to get away over Memorial Weekend. We had many options to choose from, but I'm glad SJ picked the Seneca County Geotrail (SCGT)!

Located about 1.5 hours south of Detroit (below Toledo & Sandusky), the SCGT runs from Fostoria to Tiffin to Attica. Honestly, I'm embarrassed to admit, I had never heard of these places, but I was game to SJ's suggestion. Turns out to be a lovely part of the state, flush with history, birds, and geocaches!

ShelleyJean and I setout early Saturday morning, with a plan to stay at the Hampton Inn in Tiffin overnight. 

There are 20 caches along the trail.  To earn the official Seneca County Geo Trail coin, you will need to complete 15 out of the 20 caches.  To receive the coin AND a trackable tag, please complete ALL 20 caches! [SCGT]

First stop was Fostoria, OH - originally famous for its Fostoria Glass.

Fostoria is now a destination for train-buffs as almost 120 trains passing through daily. We experienced their enthusiasm at the Fostoria Iron Triangle Railpark, families gathering with binoculars to watch the trains go by. Pretty fun listening to them reel off engine numbers and stats as we were busily groping the B&O Caboose for the geocache!

In addition to several caches around the small downtown, SCGT #6 was an Adventure Lab: Strolling in Fostoria. Not to give too much away, here are a few highlights from our visit: 

After a successful trek, we next headed to the Steyer Nature Preserve. To celebrate our arrival, the birds posed for pictures for SJ including two new "life list" bird, the blue bird and the yellow warbler! 

SJ took many beautiful pictures of the blue bird, so I hope she forgives me for picking "Mr. Grumpy Pants" for this post because I can't look at it without cracking up!

Photo by ShelleyJean

After the finding the cache, we sat on the picnic tables listening to the bird songs. This was definitely one of my two favorite stops - the other, Garlo Heritage Nature Preserve, happened to be a bird haven, too. SJ photographed 2 more "life lists" birds there, the Eastern Wood-Pewee and the Eastern Phoebe. 

Tiffin, Ohio, was a complete surprise! I wasn't expecting it to be so... established? Two Universities (Tiffin University and Heidelberg University), the lovely downtown including the Ritz Theatre (Michael Bolton in December!), and beautiful historic homes & parks along the riverfront. 

Here we spent the afternoon and the following morning completing 5 adventure labs, more geotrail caches, and several high-favorited puzzles. No GC codes here - I don't want to spoil these. 

East of Tiffin is the Attica-area, where we found the Garlo Heritage Nature Preserve, the geotrail Earth Cache at Seneca Caverns plus an Underground Railroad site while exploring the backroads of Seneca County! This was exactly the type of getaway we needed.

Dinner at The Wall Street Grill and an adventure through our first drive-thru convenience store ended our first night in Tiffin, Ohio. Sunday we completed the remaining Adventure Labs before turning home to Michigan. We had birding on the brain so we stopped at several Michigan State and Metro parks including the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.  SJ taking more pictures, but I sat watching the REAL wildlife, park visitors on a holiday weekend!

The geotrail was a lovely adventure, and I feel so energized! We were so impresses with the responsiveness of the CO (Seneca County) to our (probably too-numerous) communications. One of the last, included a message that they are working on a new geotrail (with a Virtual Reward) and hoping we will come back. Oh, we definitely will! 💚