Last Day of 2013

It has been a year I'll long remember that's for sure. I lost my job, moved to the city and have hardly been geocaching at all. The geocaches I did find however have been pretty memorable. Some of the Highlights for the year include

• Hid one new cache
• Completed Counting Counties in Oregon
• Visited the corner of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada.
• Celebrated my 10th year of geocaching
• Trail Blazer season tickets!

Some of my favorite caches for 2013 include:

• Batteries Not Included
• Spring Has Sprung   
• Sprung-A-Creek  
• Anderson Crossing   
• Iaorne  
• 3 Corners (SE Oregon Hatrick) 
• Counting Counties in Oregon.
• Rocky Ridge  
• DR. Who.   
• Urban Cache: Plagiarized  

Last Year it was my goal to find more quality caches, and for the most part I did. Of my 51 finds I put 10 on the favorite list. I think now that I live in a new caching area I should have a big list for next year.

Thank you to everyone who hid the caches found in 2013. I hope to see you all out on the trail in the new year.

Portland Geocaching

I decided to take some time today to find a few geocaches. I decided I wanted 6 so I could reach 2400. There are several within walking distance of my house so I just started walking. These were my first 5

Tribute to Mapking
Patch of Green
Sully's Gulch
Left Turn
ELNN Cousins Cache

The sixth cache that I decided to make #2400 was

Urban Cache: Plagiarized

While I won't give it away totally I don't think it is any secret where the cache is located... in the Library. It took asking the right questions and a little looking, but it was a fun find.

Afterword I walked a couple blocks north and picked out the #1 Bento Korean BBQ cart for lunch. Some pretty good stuff.

A Belated Merry Christmas

I was down in Grants Pass for the holiday and then right back up to see the Trail Blazers beat the LA Clippers last night.

I still think that buying season tickets is the best thing I've done in a long time. Of course the Blazers are on fire right now and that makes it seem all the better. They take on the Miami Heat tomorrow and I'll be there.

Back to Christmas... it was a good day. Had some turkey and stuffing then went to find the traditional Christmas Cache

Oh Rats

This is the 11th year in a row with a find on Christmas. It all started when I saw a new cache pop up Christmas Day 2003. I made a run after the FTF, but discovered my uncle had beat me to it. That cache has been archived for a while, the hider Rogue Rat sadly passed away, and Uncle Duck doesn't chase FTF's anymore... but the Christmas cache tradition lives on. Its actually so quiet on the holiday it makes for an enjoyable muggle free time.

3 months

I've now lived in Portland for 3 months. Time just flies by it seems.

I haven't done any geocaching, but I thought about it. Since it isn't so freezing cold anymore maybe I'll get a couple before the end of the year. For sure I'll grab one on Christmas day as that has been tradition for the last 10 years.

Tomorrow I'll be driving down to GP for the holiday. Guess I should go get packed.

Portland update

It has been cold...

The blazers have won 10 in a row...

I found 2 geocaches... that was a while back, but they were my first since moving.

DR. Who.
The Mother Ship

The Dr. Who cache is a very unique one. The owner doesn't want details written about it, but I will say it was very well done. If you ever get a chance I would recommend going after it.

Go Blazers!

I wasn't going to buy season tickets this year. My plan was to see game by game what kind of deal I could find. By game 2 I had come to the conclusion that I live far too close not to go every game. So I bought myself season tickets.

Keeping it Real in the City of Weird

 
I'm one month into my new job and one month of living in Portland. So far its been fun. I think I fit well into my new job, but I have a lot of projects to start and I've been waiting on vender quotes and to be able to discuss things with management. Honestly I'd like to be much further ahead. I want to get things purchased and get started.

As for the city I've had some opportunity to explore downtown a bit the last couple of weekends due to the nice weather. I went to the Saturday Market, and tried a couple of food carts. I'm a big fan of the Max light rail to get around. Part of that is because on nice days its not a bad walk, I doubt I ride it as much in the rain.

The first food cart I tried was Iraqi, Saaj Baghdad. I had a lamb shish kabob with Iraqi style bread. It was pretty good. Not sure its my usual thing, but was a good change.

 

Next I tried Romanian, Delicios - Taste of Transylvania. I had these sausage like things called mici and fries. It was great. I am going back here again. I'm a picky eater and I didn't see much on their menu that didn't look good. It is hard to eat mici with a plastic fork though.

We're one week from the start of the NBA season, and I do have tickets to the Blazers home opener. I hope to get a little more city exploring in... especially the food carts.

I have looked for just one geocache (3 times) I don't know why I can't find it. Maybe I'll get around to a few one of these days.

New geocaching territory

I got a new job, but it is in Portland. I'm looking at apartments online. Talked on the phone with a property management group for a couple of buildings I liked the look of.  After looking around a bit it turns out Portland's rental market moves pretty fast, which isn't good for someone as indecisive as me.  I'll probably have to take a trip up there to look around. As for my house as soon as I empty it I'll see if I can get a property management group to rent it for me.

Since I grew up in Grants Pass and all my family live here I didn't really want to move, but after 4 months of unemployment I didn't think I should turn down a good opportunity. It will be a new adventure and at least I'll be in state. Plus, I was going a bit crazy being unemployed.

As for geocaching I'll have a whole new playing field so to speak. Miles and miles caches in every direction. Of course with how little I've been caching I have a pretty good amount to find right here. I'm undecided about what to do with my caches. I'll probably keep a few of them, and maybe archive or adopt out the rest. I'll just need some time to pick up containers.

State of Jefferson

On Thursday I took off for Reno. I attended the National Token Collectors annual show, but more on that some other time. My focus for the drive was to get the final 3 counties I needed for the State of Jefferson Counties Challenge

These were the caches I found

OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER
Kick The Can
2 JBs

The first 2 were on the way, but the third I had to drive about 8 miles out to. With those counties I should have all 19 needed to complete the challenge. Now we'll see how long it takes me to find the final.

Reno was surprisingly quiet for just before a holiday weekend. I've said before that Reno has really gone downhill since I first visited. There are still a lot of nice things about the place. Several casinos, lots of interesting restaurant choices (especially if you drive) and entertainment beyond casinos (like golf and museums.) Still it seems that people just aren't going there.

Took a trip out to Virginia City while I was there. It was fun to see a town pretty much as it was 100 years ago. The only thing that has changed are the shops. Where there was once gambling, booze and prostitutes now there are just gambling, booze and trinket shops... maybe some candy. The place is pretty much a giant tourist trap, but a fun visit.

Didn't bother with any geocaching in Nevada, but did find a couple on the way back

Bogard Cache
Rocky Ridge

The first at a rest area and the second at Subway Cave. Both of these I made the stop and decided to see if a cache was nearby. The cave was very interesting. I saw the sign for it driving down and stopped on the way back. If I had been seeking just caches this is the kind I'd like, but there were 700+ caches on my route pocket query making it almost imposable to pick out the ones that lead to interesting places.

Some geocaches

I'll start with a job hunt update. No job yet. You'd think I'd be an expert on interviewing by now, but obviously I am not. I have another interview this coming Tuesday in Medford. I took a trip to Portland for an interview earlier in the month and a phone interview with the same place. There could be a real possibility of me moving to Portland, but I won't get too far ahead of myself... have to be offered the job first.

As for geocaching I found a handful this month including a couple of FTFs

As the smoke cleared a bit I took the opportunity to go for a walk around the neighborhood and found

Concrete Memorial south
Kesterson

Both caches are in small parks here in Grants Pass, and both parks that I have once had geocaches of my own. These two should last for a little while.

Last weekend I went to Waldo Lake and found a few around there

GET MY POINT
WALDO BIKE 14
WALDO BIKE 13

The last two I was FTF on. Pretty fun to be first so many miles from home. I could have gotten more but they were on the path around the lake and unless I wanted to hike a couple of days I wasn't going to find them all. Its a popular mountain bike destination and on bike it could be done in a day.

This coming Thursday I am going to Reno for the National Token Collectors Association annual token show.  I've belonged to the club for a number of years and this is the closest the show has been to me so I'll take advantage. I plan to use the trip to complete the State of Jefferson Counties Challenge. I've been working on it for a few years. After I complete it it should only take me a few more years to go get the final.

Job search & geocaches

Earlier this week I had interviews in Corvallis and Newport for different jobs. Tomorrow I am going to make an all day trip to Portland for another interview.

Corvallis is a posability

Newport I've never had a worse interview.

It was nice to get out of the smoke though, and I found two caches while I waited in Corvallis

Not Hidden
Old Mill

Both were pretty easy and it wasn't too hot there to go grab them. I thought about looking for a few on the coast but I came right home after my interview. I did stop at the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. I've wanted to see that since I was in grade school. Honestly I probably would have enjoyed it more at that age too.

July update

You'd think with all this spare time on my hands that I'd update this blog once in a while. My job search is still ongoing. I think I am running out of options in Southern Oregon. There is a good possibility that I need to move. I've already ruled out Washington. Unless something big comes up I think any move will be in state.

Last weekend I spent in Portland. I walked around downtown and checked out the food carts. I've wanted to check this out for a long time. There are so many carts. Every kind of food you can imagine you will find. I had Indian food for lunch and chicken & waffles for dinner. You could eat at a different cart breakfast lunch and dinner for a year and never repeat.

Vacation part 2

Yesterday I left off with finds near Jordan Valley. After we went out to Three Forks we made a trip out to Leslie Gulch. Some of the best scenery in Oregon out there.

Just one find out there as well despite a few being available.

Dianne's Cache on Trip to Leslie Gulch

After that we went to Farewell Bend State Park. As I recovered from my sun burn I didn't worry about geocaches. Though I did look for one in Huntington that was missing.

Leaving there my sister and I took off for John Day. We visited some old family friends and then went to lunch at the Dayville Cafe. The Cafe is run by some friends of mine who moved from Grants Pass. I worked with Deanne for many years at the bank so if you go out there say hi for me.

 

After lunch we went out to the Painted Hills. This is part of the John Day Fossil Beds. It is a pretty amazing place to see.

 

My last geocache came later that night when I finally went out to the Redmond area to get the Final for Counting Counties in Oregon. I completed the challenge in 2007 so I might hold the record for the longest time between completion and find.

Three Corners and back

I took a few days off for some big geocaching adventure. The first day I spent at Hart Mt Antelope refuge. No geocaches there, but I did get major sunburn when hiking up the hill near Poker Jim Ridge. It was cool and sunny and I never really thought about sun screen. I'm still recovering.

The next day my Dad and I trekked out to McDermitt, NV from here we would make our way out to Three Corners. This is the corner confluence of Oregon, Idaho and border of Nevada. I've been thinking about this cache for years. Its been on my bucket list and probably talked about in this blog a time or two. Many long nights I've studied aerial photos and maps dreaming of the day.

I tried not to let my major sunburn ruin things for me. It is a long ride starting on the McDermitt Indian Reservation and going through the Quinn River Canyon. This part of the trip is really very nice. Tons of wild flowers on the hills this time of year. The road crosses the river a few times but right now its not an issue. As you get out of the canyon the terrain becomes flat expanses of sage brush. The road is heavily rutted and you need a high clearance 4x4. Reaching the corner though was quite an experience.

 

We also took a trip up to a location called Anderson Crossing, This is a spot you can go down the canyon and cross the Little Owyhee River. I also learned that Owyhee is an old spelling of Hawaii and the area was named after 3 Hawaiian trappers, Who would have known? Finds on this trip include

Quinn River Guarded

Hoonda 

Dusty Trails 

Anderson Crossing 

Drum up your luck 

Iaorne 

3 Corners (SE Oregon Hatrick) 

Coming back we went to Jordan Valley, OR the next day and took a trip out to an area called 3 Forks where a couple forks of the Owyhee River come together. Only found one cache down there

My Daughter Had To Go Pee 4/09

There is also a nearby hotspring. The road to that one is an adventure. Here you can see it across the river. It was occupied so we didn't try to go over there.

Found 2 other caches on the highway and in Jordan Valley

Rock Creek Seeding
**~Steve**~

More on the trip tomorrow...

Grants Pass Food Carts 2.0

I've been preparing for this post for a while. As I wrote last year GP is now home to a few food carts. The main one being Sàigòn Xích lô. This cart caused some controversy and brought more carts with it. The city council ended up changing the rules a bit. Carts can no longer park on the street so they have to rent a spot on private property.

Sàigòn Xích lô is still going and now parked at the corner of 7th and D. Some of the other carts I mentioned last year have disappeared, but this year brings more carts and the new "cart pod". The pod is at the corner of 6th and K and has 4 carts.

Taste of Alaska:

This cart was around last year. I've gotten a chance to try his WTF burger. Its kind of like a hot pocket. Other items on the menu include sushi made with pickled fish, King Crab chowder, and fish tacos.



Flor de IZOTE:

This cart has Salvadorian and Mexican food. I tried a burrito and it was pretty good. I imagine the rest of the menu is pretty good as well.

Your Wingman:

This cart of course sells chicken wings... and I love chicken wings. Lots of flavors to choose from. I'll have to try a few more before I decide which is the best.

Valentino's:

I haven't tried this cart yet. I've heard good things about the hamburgers. They also have sub sandwiches, and it seems like they have some other Italian food. I'll give it a try soon if I can.

If anyone knows of other food carts in the area let me know. I should have all sorts of time to check them out.

Washington and back

Well a lot has gone on over the last few days. May 15th was my last day with the bank after over 10 years. So I've been unemployed just over a week. On Tuesday I made the drive up to Burlington, Washington to talk to a small bank about a potential position. I spent Wednesday talking to people at the bank and exploring the area, and on Thursday I drove back.

You shouldn't take pictures when you drive
 

Thursday also happened to be the day that the bridge on I-5 between Mt. Vernon and Burlington collapsed. As it just happened to work out, because I stayed in Mt Vernon I never actually crossed the bridge on this portion of I-5 because I used the bridge that now acts as a detour. It is a miracle that no one was killed.

The job itself sounded perfect. The town and location were pretty nice. But it is a long ways from family. I'd have to rent my house which would probably mean spending some money to fix up the yard, and buy a new dishwasher.

Maybe the bridge collapse is an ominous sign.

Well anyway no matter what I decide to do what really matters for this blog is that I did take the time to find a few caches.

Road Rage #3
Scatter Creek Rest Stop
Burlington Bootcamp

Just a couple rest area caches and an easy one in Burlington. I think that each one extended my furthest north cache. It was raining for a lot of the trip or I could have grabbed a lot more. That would be one thing about moving north... lots of new caching territory.

Since it was raining and I've wanted a good one fore a while, I stopped at Cabela's and got a new rain jacket. I went with tan

I also took a side trip out to Deception Pass. This bridge should last for a while.

A wigwag?

Leave it to Peanuthead to teach me something new

I was looking at caches in downtown Medford and saw this one

Wigwag

A Wigwag it seems is what they call those old fashion rail road crossing signs that flash and swing when a train comes. I remember one being in the Hugo area. It seems that only 44 of them are left in the country. The ones that exist are grandfathered in as they quit installing them in 1949. Once they can't fix it anymore this one will be gone as well. Just more proof that geocaching isn't always about the find.

Saturday

So Saturday was my dad's birthday. Even though its a 4 hour drive we usually go have dinner at the Cowboy Dinner Tree in Silver Lake, OR.

We've done this for a few years now, and its become habit to find a few caches along the way. This year I found 8

FORT KLAMATH CEMETERY
STOP AHEAD
SNAGGED
Twist & Turn
KCSDTAG #2
One Fish ~ Two Fish
Spring Has Sprung
Sprung-A-Creek

Those last two are really old caches and part of the The Oregon History Challenge!

I now have 8 of the 22 caches for the challenge. All the others look like fun. I'd need a partner for some of them. I might have to try and convince people to help me get these.

A new cache

I may have said once that I didn't plan to hide any easy micros anymore, but I couldn't help myself on this one.

The 10 year itch

10 years ago today

Its been 10 years since I found my first geocache. It seems like just yesterday... if yesterday was 10 years ago. Well anyway its been a long time I guess. A lot of things have changed since then. There are a lot more caches today, but more isn't always better. Its not so much that quality has diminished... you always had some poor ones. Its just that when I first started many caches led you to someplace new. A trail I'd never hiked. A historic sign I'd never read. A place I had never visited. You can still get this somewhat by caching away from home, but even then, without some research you'll be finding a lot of parking lots, bushes, and gravel pull outs.

I did find a cache today Don't get stumped. It was close to work and easy to find, but way too many houses around for my liking. I hope to get out and hike for some soon.

Sickly

Well ever since my last post I have been sick as a dog. I even took sick days at work. Big deal for me. I only took 2 sick days in my first 10 years on the job.

Anyway I felt so bad I never watched or even followed wrestling this weekend. I slept through it.

I skipped my coin club meeting on Thursday.

I honestly don't know what happened to the week. I didn't feel well last weekend. Took Monday off thinking that I'd be better, and I did. Tuesday when I made my last post I was fine and thought I was recovering. Wednesday and Thursday were the worst. I'm still congested. Whatever is going around seems to stick with people for a couple weeks.

I had planned to take tomorrow off and find a cache for my 10 years. I never found a great one so I think I might just do what I did 10 years ago... find an easy one after work.

Wrestling

This Thursday will begin the 2013 NCAA Wrestling championships. Oregon State will be in attendance as the Pac 12 champions. Otherwise I don't know very much about wrestling to be honest. I've never really watched it. It was a High School sport, but never one I considered participating in.

So why do I care?

First because Oregon State has a wrestling team and UofO doesn't (they dropped wrestling to add baseball because they were jealous of our back to back national championships) It would be too funny to pick up a national championship in wrestling now (I think we're 9th ranked)

Second because Wrestling was eliminated from the 2020 Olympic Games. I mean while I didn't watch or follow it much I certainly did more then other sports kept like Modern Pentathlon and Rhythm Gymnastics. I know that eliminating those sports would make others unhappy, but wrestling is one of the oldest. Something like it was certainly part of the original Olympic games in Greece and it has been a part of every modern Olympic games since they started in 1896.

I want to believe the Olympics are more then just TV ratings and politics. I want to believe that tradition can play a part. That a sport were poor and wealthy nations are on an equal footing can still exist.

So I'm trying to pay attention... at least for the weekend.

Sunny Day

With a bit of sunshine yesterday. I decided to go after a few geocaches. Ended up with just two but it was fun to get out

Quinta Ochoa Tacos
"Shortcut" 

Its also coming up on 10 years since my first geocache. I started about the same time as many other area geocachers. Its been fun to share the last 10 years of adventures with them

Biggieet_al - 02/22/2003
Iseek & Eyeseek2 - 02/23/2003
blazerfan - 03/26/2003
drdan52000 - 04/01/2003
Duck-n-Deedy - 04/02/2003

I'm looking for a good cache to find on my 10 year anniversary. I'm planning on taking the day off if its nice. Send me some good ideas.

Another Month

1/6 of the year is over. It seems like 2013 just started.

Geocaching has been slow even though there have been a few nice days. I did find one cache this month

Fishy

It was a pretty easy nano. Nothing to get too excited about, but it was fun on a nice sunny day.

Cold

A quick blog before the end of the month. I did find one cache

Batteries Not Included

It was a cool container. The placement makes me think it will end up missing soon. I'm hoping for some warmer weather in February. There are usually a few nice days before the sporadic weather of spring begins.