Last Day of 2008

The year has come to an end. While I haven't been out caching as often as in years past I was able to put up good number (for me). These were some of the highlights of the year.

• Hid just one cache, but had 2 events and created an EarthCache
• Reached the 1400, 1500 and 1600 find milestones
• Found 42 caches on 11/16/08 around Las Vegas
• Found 37 caches on 08/02/08 with Biggieet_al
• Attended GeoWoodstock VI

Some of my favorite caches for 2008 include:

• Introductory cache offer
• Outer Limits
• Official GeoWoodstock VI Cache
• Beary Sweet Junk
• Just Clowning Around
• Old Railbed
• Great Meadow Rest Stop
• Homestead
• Crapped Out, I'm going caching
• Not Too Tough by a Mine Site
• February 23 On Mount Suribachi
• Oak Identification 101

The Highlight of the year was definitely attending Geowoodstock VI. It was quite an event and very fun to have that many like minded people all in one place. It almost makes me want to drive to Tennessee for the next one.

Last but not least a special thank you to all who hid the caches that I had so much fun finding. This coming year I'll try to do a little better and actually hide a few for you all to find. I hope to see you all on the trail in 2009. Have a Happy New Year!

One more

Just one more day to go this year and I got one more find as that last cache in Nevada was found today so I could log it... so I finish the year with 1620 total finds... unless I decide to find more tomorrow.

So I came up with a few statistics. I only went geocaching 31 days this year which is an all time low, but I averaged 9.9 finds per trip which is an all time high. I had 309 finds for the year which is my second highest ever and best since 2005.

I wonder how 2009 will go

Getting near the end... of 2008

So the year is coming to an end. 2008 has been pretty good for geocaching despite how slow I might appear to be. I'm trying to get my numbers together and start compiling a list of the best caches of 2008. I put up a list of my favorite finds for the year every December 31. Some people might look at my past lists and ask "why is that one on there" well sometimes its just a great hide, a great location, or the fact that I just had a lot of fun the day I found it so it sticks out in my mind. I tend to have a bias to caches found outside of the Rogue Valley probably because these trips tend to stay in my memory longer.

It looks like I'll end the year with 1619 finds, but I have one more find that I'm waiting to log (a cache in Nevada that was hidden while I was there... I'm waiting for someone to come along and log a FTF) For those who are pure in geocaching heart this might sound like cheating, but in a game with no rules or winners it doesn't really matter much does it? I probably have a couple dozen questionable finds. I could have had about 50 more finds if I claimed every cache that Sally hid while we were out caching... now that I've adopted most of them it would probably be really bad form to go and backlog them. It just goes to show that every cheater has his limits.

Merry Christmas!!!

In keeping with tradition I found one cache today in the cold with a bit of snow/rain falling

Starting Again

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas

Tuesday September 16

So in this backlog I was on a vacation of sorts. I took the week off of work and was just relaxing. I had been sick for several days however and thats not a good way to spend your time off. So what do you do when you don't feel well and its freezing outside? You wrap up in several layers and go geocaching of course.

On this day it had been freezing early, but by the time I thought about this around 11 the sun was out and things were starting to thaw. I drove up to the trails and started my hike. My understanding was that the trail made a loop so I took the high trail... well I'm not sure where that part of the trail actually led. I ended up on a dirt road where there was a lot of dumped trash. I took a few up hill shortcut trails and eventually worked my way back. I found the furthest out of the caches first, Twisted. I walked a ways back and one again found myself with a high trail or a low trail. This time I took the low trail and eventually came up on a cache that was between the two, Understanding... I walked up to it and after finding that one I decided to take the high trail. Well it turns out the next cache was on the low trail... this trail is actually a loop that starts just a ways down the path of the first low trail that I didn't take in the beginning... I didn't know this yet however. Are you still following me? anyway I was very close to two caches but ended up passing both of them and coming to the next, Happy Trails or Tails. So I found this one and this happens to be were the loop starts... and I had a cache on each side.... so I made the loop again finding Burned Out and then Oak Identification 101. This ended uncle Duck's new caches so I proceded back down the trail and picked up Huff & Puff and Midway which have been there for a while and I just hadn't gotten around to. I then walked back to the car and found the last cache I needed Tree Warts which gave me 8 for the day.

Backlog - December 6

Once again I have been neglecting my log so its time to make some new posts. This one is all about 12/06/08. I called my uncle Duck to see if he was interested in going caching since it was the first weekend in a month that I didn't have to work. It was cold and foggy so we started with breakfast at McDonalds... unlike LazyBoy who tries his best to confuse the poor kids by ordering round eggs and no cheese we just made regular orders and had them in seconds. Uncle Duck also introduced me to my newest addiction... McDonalds sweet tea.... that is good stuff.

So after breakfast we hit a bunch of caches in town that he had but I didn't. He hoped it would warm up a bit, but it was not to be. We headed out to Elk Trails and grabbed a handful of caches. I got number 1600 at some point but I have not bothered to figure out which one it was. 23 in all. These were the finds for the day.

Unhoused
Lazy
Tummy Troubles
Centered
Square Tube
Yesteryear
GPFD 2
Went BANG!
Books, Books and We Hope, More Books
'TWEED
What street? #1
Holey Canoley!
GOURD ABOVE GROUND
Isaac's cache
February 23 On Mount Suribachi
Night Rider
Hsss
Recycle
Green Baron Flies Again
What A Way To Live
MICRO MOUSE
Horizontal Oak
No more lube TB Hotel

Pictures of Nevada

Earth Cache

While I was gone my Earth Cache was published. So if you are ever over by Plush, OR you can find my new cache

Oregon Sunstone Earthcache

Even More Las Vegas

I got back from my latest Las Vegas adventure yesterday. Probably my most balanced trip to Vegas so far as I came home with most of my money and some of my "losses" were actually spent on food and asprin.

Once again I spent some time on the Nevada forum and Moose Mob arranged a caching trip. I have to be honest and say most of the day I didn't know where the hell we were. I know we went through Searchlight, Laughlin, we could see Bullhead City accross the border with Arizona and even found a cache just accross the other border in California. It was a fun day with over 40 caches found.

I have yet to get my camera out and see what the pics I took look like, but I'll post a couple of them once I do.

Permission granted

Soon after asking permission for my Earthcache from the Lakeview BLM it was granted. So that was easy and mostly painless. They were very quick, but it has taken me a few days to get around to actually typing up a cache page to submit. Earthcaches are submitted and approved differently... you submit it right through the earthcache website and if they approve they submit the cache and later you adopt it.

I learned something while writing up the cache page. I'm not a geologist. Sunstones while interesting to find are really pretty boring to explain. I almost fell to sleep just reading about them... and most websites only have a brief description if they bother to put one at all.

Well anyway I submitted it so now its up to the GSA to decide if it meets the standards to be an Earthcache.

Permission is a dirty word

In one of my previous logs I mentioned the fact that you must have permission to set up an Earthcache (See guideline #6)

Obviously the extra hassle of getting permission knocked the wind out of the idea, but I've regained my breath and decided to write a letter to the Lakeview BLM to seak permission.

I'm a big believer in personal liberties. If my cache is sitting out on public land not hurting anyone then it should be allowed and I shouldn't have to ask anyone for permission. This might seem a little backwords in our current era of enviromentalism, sensitive ecosystems, and political correctness, but its still the way I feel.

Oh well I'll ask this time... it is rather harmless.

In the news

The local Medford newspaper has a story today about geocaching. Several locals get a mention including Beaver Lover, Peanuthead, The Lost Patrol and even myself.

You can read the article here.

Does it make me a more legit cacher now that I've been mentioned in the news paper? I'm glad she picked my better quotes. If she had just relied on me it would have been a terrible article. I think I did right by leading her to Chris, Nick and Mark... even if they are addicted to picking up Travel Bugs and Geocoins.

Update: I didn't notice at first that the captions on the pictures were wrong (they are now fixed online but the printed version is wrong.) Now people are going to think that I'm Peanuthead... or that Mark is blazerfan. I wasn't on the geocaching trip. Poor Peanuthead... he finally gets his picture in the paper and they put my name on it.

A Trip East

I was talked into going on a little camping trip with my family this weekend at Hart Mountain just outside of Plush, OR. I took a day off and ended up finding 8 caches along the way, but none on the other days. Mostly caches on Highway 140 between Medford and Lakeview. While in the area I saw some wildlife (including 30 bighorn sheep) and searched for sunstones.

There is a section of BLM land designated as a sunstone collection area. I took coordinates at the area with the idea of maybe setting up an Earthcache. When I got home and started filling out the form it is required that you have permission and a contact person to set up the cache. While it might not be hard to call the Lakeview BLM office and inquire about permission the whole idea just put an end to my enthusiasm. When there is no container and public land I just can't see the need to ask permission.

So these were my finds for the weekend:

CAMMO TOOLBOX
LAKE CREEK HIDE
Great Meadow Rest Stop
Sanitary Stop
3678
Old Railbed
Skidoosh!
breadcrumbs # 3....blue creek

Another Las Vegas Adventure

This week was my latest jaunt to the land of bright lights and money sucking casinos. I was in Las Vegas Monday through Friday for the WIB Technology Summit. The conference actually started on Wednesday so that left me all day Tuesday to cache. However like clockwork everything at the bank began to go haywire and I was on the phone nearly non-stop the first 3 days.

Before I left I inquired on the Nevada Geocaching website for anyone interested in going with me and I found a lot of people. Our group ended up being vegaschick, AHOLLYS, chidyfam, and sappire34. We found a number of caches despite the constant interuption of my phone. These were the finds for the day

Absolutely Starbucks
On My Way Home
Bison 4
Hi! I'm Johnny Cache...
Go behind the wagon
NV801
A Piece of the Tropics
Bullet # 4
The Poet's Cache...Out of the Knight
City View
Bison 5
The Las Vegas Travel Bug Hostel
The Argument
A FAR OUT BUG DEPOT
Coin Swap Shop
Got Balls
Mountain View
That's How We Roll

Here is a pic of the caching crew. Thanks for the tour

Pizza and such

Saturday was the 5th. Annual Pizza By The Creekside. This event has become very popular and is always a great time. Geocachers from all over attend each year. Eyeseek2 makes several custom cache containers to give away. And they always seem to pick a weekend with perfect weather.

Before the event I got an email from drdan52000 about maybe hitting a few caches before the event. While I waited on him I got a second call from rain_man_rich and I told him he might as well join us. We only had time for a handful of caches but it was a fun. Here were our finds for the day

Saundering
Belly High
Fruity Crick
Beware The Bear
GPFD 3
AIR BALL
It Happens
What Street # 2

RIP Mr. Duckworth

Sad news today as former Trail Blazer Kevin Duckworth has passed away at the age of 44. Duck was one of my favorite players as a kid. He was money from 16 to 18 feet and other centers had to respect his shot this would pull shot blockers like Hakeem, Manute Bol, and Mark Eaton away from the basket. He was a two time All-Star and named the league's Most Improved Player in 1988. Besides being a good player he also seemed like a good person and I wish I would have gotten a chance to meet him.

Not clowning around

On Saturday DrDan and I went for the only 5/5 cache in the area Just Clowning Around . We were able to drive within .68 miles of the cache. That few tenths of a mile though were more or less straight down the hill. Going down was hard as we had to push our way through the underbrush while we slid down the steep slope. Anyone who has gone caching with me knows that I am not much for going downhill... I'm very cautious and slow, but I got there. We got down to the river and climbed the rock the cache was on. We didn't find much evidence of a cache, after confirming the old location with Tom Fuller I'm sure its gone. We replaced the cache with what we had and started the climb out. This is where the trip got worse for me as my legs were shot and started cramping up. I briefly considered the idea I might have to spend the night on the hill. With a lot of rest and water (thankfully I packed a lot) I was able to slowly work my way up the hill. It took me over twice as long to climb out as it did to come down. I forgot my camera on this trip, but Dan took this really nice picture upstream from the cache.

Events and stuff

My latest event blazerfan's Summer Geo-Bash went over pretty well. We had a good turnout of new and old cachers and even visitors from California. Got to test out the deck and my ability to grill. Overall it was a pretty good time. Maybe I'll think about it again next year.

Coming up next month is probably the most popular local event of the year the 5th. Annual Pizza By The Creekside. Iseek and Eyeseek2 always put out a bunch of new geocaches and the pizza in Wilderville is pretty good. For those coming from out of town this is by far the best event to attend.

1500 Plus

Last week Biggieet_al (aka Kelly) asked if I'd be interested in caching this weekend. Of course I was in for it so we headed to Jacksonville today and I had what I believe to be my second best day of caching ever with 37 finds including my 1500th. It was a fun day and despite having some well overgrown caches we ended up with just one no find. Here were the finds for the day

Twisty
The Way to Missouri
Great Joy
Swimm’n Hole
PROVOLT COMMUNITY CHURCH
Historic Bridge
WHERE'S JOSEPHINE COUNTY?
DEAD MAN'S CURVE
Applegate
BAH HUMBUG!!
RAT Office
SARAH ZIGLER TRAIL 2
MADRONE IS HOME
PARK here
NUNAN SQUARE
SOPHIA
WALNUT
KEEP THOSE PEARS OUTTA HERE !
4090
a TISKET ? a TASKET ? nope, a CAMMO BASKET !
CENTENNIAL
TRIBUTE TO DA DUDE
CORKED
BEEKMAN CANYON
PSEUDOTSUGA MANZIESH
WOODEN CAMMO
MEET ME AT THE TREE
THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM!
WILLARD
In Memory of Marc!
The Old Shell Game
Beary Sweet Junk
Wheezers Cache
LOGS AND MANURE
Roadside Ambiance
Piggies in a blanket
Wide Spot

Something you don't want to find geocaching

In case you haven't heard this story already this happened at the Thomas Creek Bridge cache in Curry County. This is actually a cache that I've looked at attempting because of its high terrain rating.

BODY IDENTIFIED AS MISSING CRESCENT CITY WOMAN
Published: July 24, 2008
By Nicholas Grube
WesCom News Service

Two hikers found Michelle Ashlee Dickson's body Wednesday while they were geocaching near the Thomas Creek Bridge between Brookings and Gold Beach.

Dickson, 23, has been missing since last week and authorities had suspected foul play was involved with her disappearance.

"We confirmed that it is her," Del Norte County Sheriff's Office Commander Bill Steven said. "We are treating it as a homicide."

Oregon State Police is taking the lead on the investigation of the crime scene with assistance from the Curry County Sheriff's Office, Steven said. "They're listing it as a suspicious death investigation."

Steven said the two hikers stumbled upon Dickson's body while geocaching—which is a recreational GPS treasure hunting activity—in the ravine that the Thomas Creek Bridge spans on Wednesday. The Thomas Creek Bridge is the highest bridge in Oregon—345 feet tall—and is located north of Brookings.

Local Search and Rescue crews stayed with the body last night, and are now working with Oregon authorities to help them access the crime scene and recover Dickson's body.

The Del Norte County Sheriff's Office named 27-year-old Josiah M. Miller a suspect earlier in the week, when blood was found inside of his vehicle. Miller, who is originally from Del Norte County and now lives in Arcata, is a friend of Dickson's. He is also the last known person to see her.

He has not been arrested.

A Department of Justice crime lab in Eureka is still processing the blood evidence found inside Miller's truck to see if it belongs to Dickson.

I also found this portion of another story

Authorities found Dickson's car burning at the beach where she had reportedly met Miller. But they were stumped as to her whereabouts. A week later in Oregon, a grandfather, his grandson and a foreign exchange student from France were geo-caching - using a GPS device to hunt for a "treasure" someone else hid, - in the woods under the Thomas Creek Bridge when they found Dickson's body, Steven said.

A good day for caching

Today I went out and found 5 caches

Squirrel Egg
Again and again
Lifes A Beach
Shepherd's tool
Combo Cache

That puts me at 1471 finds. One more then Lazyboy. For those of you who are fairly new or out of state Lazyboy was an old time geocacher in Oregon. He was somewhat legendary for speaking his mind about gc.com and what he didn't like about it. It even got him banned from the gc.com forums for a long time. In September 2005 he archived all of his caches and hasn't had a find since July 06. Its only a tribute to my slowness that it took me so long to pass him. Now I guess I'll have to look forward to reaching the 1588 finds of Rooster-.

My new event

blazerfan's Summer Geo-Bash

A new cache

I hid my first new cache in a long time last night

Oregon Trailbreakers

When I first heard of geocaching I immediatly thought of two places that needed caches. Haines Apple Tree and Croxton Memorial Park and both had caches at the time. I'm proud to keep these areas active with caches today.

I haven't been very active at all lately and it shows. I have several containers stored up however and as the summer turns to fall I hope to hide a few more caches.

No one has proposed a cache event lately... I wonder how a BBQ event at my house would go over?

Another Vegas weekend

I spent this last weekend again in Las Vegas. As always I lost a bunch of money, but had a good time. I had only one geocache find for the weekend.

LV Money-makers

This weekend was also the last days of the NBA summer league. I was able to watch the Trail Blazers summer league squad win their last two games. I also got to meet blazers GM Kevin Pritchard and radio announcer Brian Wheeler. There were a number of NBA couches and players around that I saw at different times. Here are the pictures I got with KP and Wheels.

Sunday picnic

I went to a picnic yesterday and followed it up with about 11 caches. Could have found a few more but I went and bought a new patio table and chairs instead. These were the finds for the day.

Right in Front of You
Not out in the Woods
Right Arrow
Rusty
Serenity
No Sir-ee
Cross over
Hooked
Ride on in
Knight's Banjo
Turner Call Home

Post GeoWoodstock Pizza

Today was my Post GeoWoodstock Pizza (LIV) event. We had geocachers from all over but the turnout was actually pretty low. It's a fun group though and I had fun chatting with everyone. Along with the event I was able to grab a handful of caches.

GPFD 1
Piped
GEOCACHERS PRIZE
ACT #1
ACT #2
Standing at the Corner

I did have a no find at ACT #3 but it was probably just my own blindness. I haven't been caching much and I might be out of practice. With gas over $4 a gallon I might not be finding a whole lot this summer.

New Deck

I've been sick as a dog the last few days so no geocaching for me. This weekend with the event maybe I'll get out for a few.

The only good part of the weekend is that after a lot of waiting and even more money my deck is finally finished. It just needs some deck furniture and the grill connected.

This is my old deck like thing.


And this is my new deck

The Caches and People of GeoWoodstock

Well unlike some at GeoWoodstock I only found a handful of caches each day. 10 on Friday, 9 on Saturday, and 6 on Sunday including the events. The whole event was well organized... they had booths, drawings, seminars, travel bugs organized, and the food was good (they even had fortune cookies with geo-fortunes). My only suggestion would have been to have an area for trading geocoins and signature items. I packed my geocoins a long way just to end up trading 1 and coming back with 4 others... so instead of shrinking my collection it grew.

Thanks to IceCreamMan (the author of Serial Finder), Mauison, LoriDarlin, and Allanon my geocoin trading friends of old for the new coins.

It was also fun to meet YahotsWalker, RetiredProf, and 2Dee2Dee who are all finders of the Oregon DeLorme Challenge.

I met several Oregon cachers for the first time at this event. Sad to have to drive that for South to meet people from the North. Of course I saw a lot of cachers I knew as well. When reading through the logs its also amazing how many I missed seeing... I was literally there for 9 hours walking around so how did I miss so many people?

These were the finds for the weekend

Friday:
Last Chance to hate I-5
Barrier to Nowhere
You Call, We Haul !
T.B. HOTEL
Seven Iron
Hollar Fore
Hottest place on Earth
Lotsa-H2O
Friday Night Meet & Greet
Yuba City Park Cache #13 Clark Ave Waypoint

Saturday:
GeoWoodstock VI
Official GeoWoodstock VI Cache
My Little Pumpkin Cache
Pumpkin Head
Guido's Cactus Patch Cache
Guido's 1st & E Pole cache
Eye Level and Shiney
Angels in the Outfield
Mr. Electric Goes to Wheatland

Sunday:
DON'T JUMP
SHADY REST
colusa memorial park
All Geared Up
Sofa Dads
Tauhindauli

One more person to mention. It was especially nice of Cosmiccowgirl of the Hardings to stop and say hi and admit that she reads my blog... I knew I had readers I just knew it :)

GeoWoodstock VI

This was a great event. I met a lot of cachers... I specifically sought out a few and was able to find most of them. Geocoin trading partners of old, Oregon DeLorme challenge finders, and even blog readers. Was great to see everyone and put faces to names I often only saw in forums.

Wouldn't Lazyboy be jealous?

Look who I met... Jeremy is a pretty nice guy

Off to GeoWoodstock

I have not found a cache since my trip to Las Vegas so hopefully my trip to GeoWoodstock will light a spark under me to find a few. I should be in Yuba City tonight and might even make the Friday meet and greet event. Hope to see a few of my readers there.

Las Vegas

This last weekend I spent in Las Vegas. I had a nice time and lost a lot of money. My one good win was that I took 5th place out of 43 in a poker tournament. Other then that I was down on my luck most of the weekend.

Since it wasn't too hot I was able to find a few of the vituals on the strip. I left myself a few for next time. My finds for the weekend were

LAKE-VEGAS
Eiffel Tower
Toga Party
MM MM Good
IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

Un-published Geocaching Event

This Sunday the 27th at 2pm there will be an unpublished geocaching event at the Williams Hwy Abby's in Grants Pass (N 42° 25.274 W 123° 20.078)

Fresh_Meat and geniustara will be in attendance for the first time since 2005. A lot has changed since then including a rule that says we need 2 weeks notice to have an event.

I could go on a Lazyboy style rant about now, but I just don't have the passion or fire to put behind it like he would. Personally I think that with our history of small, local pizza events in the area the two week rule is excessive. Our largely informal get togethers really don't attract too many out of town visitors besides those who travel the state extensively. If you miss one event you simply wait till the next. Of course I don't make the rules I just follow them, but sometimes I can see why Lazyboy and Rooster lost interest.

Trail Blazers

Yesterday I went to my first Trail Blazer game of the season. They took on the Dallas Mavericks and played very well leading pretty much the whole game. They let the Mavs come back at the end but hung on for the win.

I've been boycotting the Blazers this season because of their TV coverage in our area (ie "little of none") If I hadn't got these tickets for free it would have been the first season since 1996 that I didn't go to a game. I didn't buy any food at the Rose Garden... and no shirts, sweaters, hats or anything all season long. Obviously my impact has not been very significant. Sadly I now feel that my only hope for getting CSN (the new channel with the Blazer games) lies with the Oregon Ducks. If UofO decides to show football games on CSN maybe the Duck fans will be vocal enough to get Charter to pick up the station.

Here is a picture of me at the game



I also found three geocaches on a brief stop in Corvallis on my trip north.

Whimsical Academic Jail
GGG #1
The Cedars

First to Find

Well yesterday I decided to go after a new cache that had sat for a couple of days. No reason not to claim a FTF if I give everyone ample chance to go get it. If I didn't Uncle Duck would have eventually. So it was a good hide and I tried to make it a little harder by looking all around first.

Not Just Any Bridge

A forgotten geo-birthday

Well my official geo-birthday is November 30, 2002. That is when I signed up for my account, but in reality I didn't find my first cache until March 26, 2003. So it has now been 5 years since I started this little hobby.

I'd say I have stayed pretty active that whole time. I've had my ups and downs over the years. There have been a lot of great finds. Lots of rocks, logs, stumps, piles of sticks, trees, bushes, guardrails, benches and lamp post covers. I've seen a lot of geocachers come and go from the game. The rules have changed. The caches have changed...

The first time I went geocaching with my Uncle Duck we found 10 caches... 2 were virtual, 1 micro, 2 would be considered small (that size didn't exist then) and 5 were regular size. This last Sunday we found 32... 2 were regular, 8 were small and 22 were micros. I don't complain about this too much though. I know how to find more challenging caches when I want to.

Overall its been a fun 5 years and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

How I love this Spring time weather!

Today was a unique experience because I witnessed a rare weather phenomenon. It was bright and sunny... and snowing. How on earth can the sun shine while its snowing? Oh my how funny the weather can be in early Spring.

Well my Uncle talked me into going caching today and I ended up with 32 finds, and just one no find. We were stumped by Double Stump but otherwise had good luck. I found an intact Grants Pass Coca-Cola bottle near one cache... that pretty much made my day. I also reached the 1400 finds mark. Here were the finds on the day:

Scorched
Start on Colonial Valley
Arch
Tiny Waterfall
SURVIVAL KIT
Pretty Little Walk
No Hunting
Seen Better Days
Equine Footwear
Colonial Golf
Numbers Builder
Sparrow
Tree Wart
Nasty Nano
Bank on It or Vice Versa
Rock !!!!!!!
Old Post
Arf, Arf
I'm Blue
Rochole
Little Fir
1285
Cedar and Fir
Giant Ponderosa
Jumpin Off With Joe
Pastor ized
Privacy
Sign to Assemble
Grape Patch
Freeway View
Drie Dennen
Four or More

Here is a picture of my coke bottle, and one of Duck and Iseeks looking at Duck's new PDA

A non geocaching weekend

Despite having a bit of nice weather I decided to do some work around the house rather then go geocaching. I imagine this home owning stuff will get in the way often. I ended up trimming the hedge in my yard, cutting down some big bushes, and pulling up a lot of vines.


Starting yesterday my old deck is being torn down... and will soon start construction on a new one. Now my backyard and front yard are a mess. I'm not sure exactly what the new deck will look like yet, but it should be nice.

Grabbing some new caches

Today I found a few caches that were approved just after last weeks event. I'm not sure why they weren't approved before the event but I guess it gave me a few to find this weekend. These were the finds on the day

Guiding Light
Trinity
Park Here Too
Walkway
Walleyed
Power to Walk

13 Minute Mile

Sorry about my delay in reporting on my mile run progress. First the run was scheduled for Thursday, but I had to cancel because my brother had a birthday party that I spaced out on. I was accused of delay tactics. So we rescheduled for Friday and it was cold and rainy, but we decided it would be a rain or shine event. This was a big deal at work. We probably had 20 people plus spouses come down to watch us run.

I clipped off my first lap in good time, but when I turned the corner of lap two my poor left calf just decided to seize up on me. I tried to stretch it out, but I was already done for... I walked the corners and tried jogging the straightaways best I could for a time of 12:55. Even if my calf was alright I think one more lap and I would have been too winded to run anymore. Kyle who was my running partner on this day finished in just over 8 minutes... of course he's 20 and runs on his treadmill occasionally. He still did very well for someone who never ran like that before. I was impressed.

So I have set a goal for myself... I want to be able to run a 6 minute mile again. Over the next few weeks I plan to work my way back into running. Hopefully soon I'll be able to run that 9 minute mile and work my way down from there. I've already told Kyle my plans to hold another Big Run event and he is in for it... we also inspired a couple of others to give it a try. So I'll try to keep everyone up to date on my progress.

9 Minute Mile

This is off topic of geocaching, but then again I don't post as much ever since I decided to keep the topic on geocaching. So you'll probably see a few more odd blogs tossed in this year.

Anyway yesterday somehow the topic of jogging came up. My boss asks me is I thought I could jog a mile... so I said "yeah I think I can". Well that led him to bet me that I couldn't. So he set a time limit of 9 minutes. I can run, walk, jog whatever but I have to complete 4 laps at the GPHS track in 9 minutes. Its one of the more interesting bets I've ever made. Back in my High School Track and Cross Country days I could have done it without thinking. But that was 12 years and 50 pounds ago. So I'll be attempting this tomorrow... I'll let everyone know how it goes if I live through it.

A couple more

Well a lot of caches were finally approved today so I was able to log the last 2 I found on Sunday

Industry
A_CORNy Cache #2

That made 9 for the day. There are now quite a few local caches to be found again. I'll have to scope them out and make sure they meet my new "non-residential" requirment.

Cachin' with the Beav and the Peanut

Today was the Time to Surface event and as always it was a fun time seeing everyone. After the event I invited myself to go along with Beaver Lover and Peanuthead to find a few caches. We drove all around Grants Pass and found many. I have no clue how many I found as some have yet to be approved, but were available as print outs at the event. I helped them find a few that they had trouble finding in the past and it was a good time. My list of approved finds looks something like this for the moment

LET'S GO BOWLING
Brothers Three
JUST ANOTHER CACHE
TREE POCKET
Tree Pocket Two
Way Up There

un-productive

Well I sat around all weekend and didn't do a single thing. the closest to being productive I got was that I cleaned the stove in my kitchen.

I'm beginning a plan of attack for some caches to get closer to the "Well Rounded Cacher" challenge. There aren't many high terrain and difficulty caches around here. There is a 5/5 down the river called Just Clowning Around. It would require rafting... or hiking with a swim across the river. Tom Fuller was able to find it cutting cross country from a BLM road. Personally that rafting trip is probably a little out of my league... and I'm not a very good swimmer. So that leaves the final option, but less then a month after Tom's find James Kim got lost in the same area and who knows if the gate is open now or not. There is still quite a bit of snow in the hills so it won't be worth exploring the idea for a while. It is on the "to do" list though.

It will take some real planning to get some of these...

Difficulty and Terrain

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of the Fizzy Challenge. The idea is to find a cache for every D/T pairing. That is 81 caches. You must also have all the active cache types (ie traditional, muti, virtual)

Oregon has such a challege

Oregon's "Well Rounded Cacher" aka Oregon's Fizzy

I've been looking at this challege since the first one popped up in California. I need 33 more combinations to complete it. Most of them being the high terrain dificulty. I also need a CITO event and a Letterbox Hybrid cache. I've noticed a few local caches that will get me a good start on completing this. I might even go after a couple this weekend. Here is my total distribution so far.

Just short of a dozen

Today I got a late start but decided I wanted to find some caches. I took off at 3pm and had 10 caches and 2 no finds before 5pm.

I also had quite an experience at the Paradise Banjo cache. I stopped and found the cache quickly I took it a few feet to my car so I could sit everything on the hood as I signed the log when I heard someone call out "can I help you?" I looked around and saw two women standing up the hill at a nearby house. Sometimes I take the time to explain geocaching... but on this day I took the "just stopped to make a phone call" approuch as I held up my GPS... "from the bushes" she answered. Well I knew at that point I was caught so I mentioned geocaching and they knew exactly what I was talking about. In fact they may have been geocachers or knew some as soon the cache owners were contacted and asked to remove the caches... both in the area are now archived.

I think that is for the better. I am never comfortable in residential areas. Urban is one thing, but when you get to sneaking around peoples property that could lead to very uncomfortable situations. As I clean up the area I might start being a little pickier about caches and start avoiding this kind.

These were the finds for the day

Stored By The Planes
Paradise
Holes Everywhere
Don't Dig
Circle The Wagons
Johnny Popper
Retirement Plan
PARADISE BANJO
End of Three
HUGO PULL OFF

Bike Riding

Well I didn't get my bike fixed for nothing. I actually got out riding today. I decided today was the day to pick up the Rogue River greenway caches. I couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. I started the day with a quick stop to the bike store that fixed up my tires. I was looking for a mount for my GPS. Daveydude had a holder on one of his bikes built just perfect to hold most GPS units... I wanted one like it but they didn't have a thing. I told one of the guys where I was going riding and he told me the trail wasn't finished and hadn't even been graveled yet. Not sure what trail he was talking about as this trail is now paved from depot bridge to about a 3/4 mile from Valley of the Rogue park. Getting to stop for a cache every quarter mile made the bike ride easy. I got 7 caches on the trail and I attemped two on the way back the first I got muggled out of and the second I found without much problem. Despite having plenty of daylight left I decided I needed to go grocery shopping and come home and do some laundry. These were the finds on the day.

Another View of the New Bridge
Green Way(from the other end)
The Green Way #1 (from the other end)
The Green Way #2 (from the other end)
SPLIT HAIR
CORNER CACHE
Cache Alone The Trail
See The Little People

A few more

Today rather than bike riding I decided to do a bit of hiking. I started the day with a stop at the all sport park and a walk accross the pedestrian bridge for the cache Christmas Cookies. It was hidden very near the site of an old cache. Funny how new cachers seem to find the same hiding spots. I dropped off the travel bug Par Team's Pumbaa as I thought this cache in town would get it moving sooner. I rarely pick up TBs anymore, but this one had sat up in the hills for a month so I decided to try and get it moving.

After finding that cache I headed for Cathedral Hills and the newer caches there. I took the backside trail up the hill and found Clover Lawn Peak. Again this cache is very close to an old Duck cache. It was good to get out for a little hiking. I really need to do a few more like these. When my GPS zeroed out I stopped for a bit to rest and took off my backpack. I began to search and soon noticed I had sat my backpack right on the cache. After finding that one I trotted down the hill to find Outer Limits. I am only the 3rd finder so far. I made pretty good time there and back and was not as winded as I had imagined. It was a very nice area for a cache and I enjoyed the hike.

I had plans to have pizza with the family at 5 and I got off the trail just in time to find one more cache, signed. This one was easy and only required a short walk down the bikepath from a nearby parking lot. So only 4 caches on the day, but they were quality caches. I have one more day off and I plan to find a few more caches tomorrow.

Start of the weekend

Well today was the start of a 3 day weekend. It was nice and sunny. I got out for a dozen caches. I started up Granite Hill Rd then out to Hugo and down the freeway with a brief stop at the rest area. After stopping at home to log them I went out to find a few more in the redwood area. Once again I was caching with just my GPS... no hints or descriptions. Some caches I just feel a little uncomfortable searching for when I have the clue... so when I don't I often don't even stop or give up quickly. I don't log these as DNFs since I didn't give it much of a try... I had a few of those today as well.

I aslo finally got new tubes for my bicycle tires. I went for a short ride and found I am badly out of shape. But I still think I'll try riding along the greenway from Rogue River to Valley of the Rogue park and get all those caches. Maybe with frequent stops I'll be able to do it. Probably tomorrow or Monday... we'll see. I hope to find caches on each day this weekend so I need to plan a few for tomorrow.

Here were my finds for the day:

Twin Pines
Irrigated
Apathetic Arachnid
Introductory cache offer
Dapple
All Duded Up
Take a Break
Guarded
The Old Redwood
WINTER WHEAT
WOOD
Short Stop

2 more

Sunday I decided I had time to grab a couple of caches. I grabbed a cache that I couldn't find due to muggles the day before. Then I drove out to my parents for dinner and I found one out that direction. So I only got two but with my lack of caching as of late its a pretty good number. This next weekend is a 3 day for me so if the weather is nice maybe I can get a few more. These were the finds on the day

Submerge
ROCK'N'CACHE!

Cache day

Yesterday I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and find a few caches. After searching for a couple I gave my uncle a call and while he had found all of then I was looking for he said he'd come along (that keeps me from having to call him for hints). So I found 14 on the day and even found a couple with rain_man_rich and ridemcowgirl who we were following for a portion of the day. These were the days finds.

Plum Crazy
G.M.
Grey in Grey
In Return
It's Done
Errors
Found Item
California Here We Come
Bros. Headquarters
TREEKLE
Three Trunks
Pig Banjo
I'll Fly Away
Pine-ing Away

There are still a lot of caches I have saved up to find in the area. Not sure if I'll get out for any today or not.

First caches of '08

Yes, I have been rather slow at caching the last few months. Bad weather and a new house have cut down on my time for caching. So today in the rain and cold I decided to get a few. If I had a better rain coat I probably would have gone for more. Of course its not even noon yet I might feel like going out again in a while. So far these are the finds for the day

Sweet Tooth
Another Creeky Cache
Check It!
Thanks

2008

Well blogging this year isn't off to a very good start. I don't have internet at my new house yet. I was weighing my options as far as TV and internet... finally decided to just get cable. So it will be installed this weekend.

I really wanted an option where I could get more Blazer games as Charter Cable doesn't carry the Comcast Sports NW channel that most games are on now. If I went with a dish then I'd have to buy NBA League Pass and there was conflicting information on if those games would be blacked out or not. In the end I just hope that CSN is added by Charter soon.

Maybe I'll get off my lazy butt and find a few caches this weekend after my internet is in.