blazerfan's geocaching adventures

Totally not geocaching related

2009-07-10T07:56:00.000-07:00

Every few years in Las Vegas they blow up a perfectly good casino and they build a new one on the top of it. It doesn't matter if they built it 10 years ago... if Elvis got married there... if its the oldest building left on the strip. There is nothing that will stop the progress (except the economy I guess.)

The internet is the same way. The old is occasionally imploded to make way for the new. Recently I got an email saying that Yahoo was going to close GeoCities. For those of you who don't know, GeoCities was a site where you could build a free webpage. I built a webpage there on July 17, 1997. It is still there, but I gave up on editing it long ago. Sometime in October it will be gone forever. At its peak GeoCities was the 3rd most visited site on the web, full of communities of personal webpages. It could have been the myspace or facebook of the day with the right vision. As it was many people like myself built simple websites and enjoyed their small place on the web.

So the old internet is disapearing.... making way for the new.

Off the top 100

2009-07-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

With my lack of caching recently I have fallen off the list of the top 100 geocachers in Oregon. I am now ranked #101.

A couple really good cache outings will get me back up on the list, but I wouldn't be safe for too long. Too many cachers with more spare time to get big numbers. I guess it was inevitable that I'd be kicked off the list.

I'll see if I can't work my way back up the list this weekend... even if its just temporary.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

I sure hear a lot of pops and bangs outside. I'm pretty sure 65% of them aren't legal.... hehe.

Backlog - May 10

2009-07-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

This is my last backlog for a while. These events happened on May 10th... Mother's day.

My Dad told us about this waterfall he found while out quad riding so it was decided we'd have a picnic out there for Mother's Day. I decided it would be a good opportunity to hide a cache. The waterfall was nice and I found a good spot for a cache. I looked up the name of the creek... Little Craggy... so I called it Little Craggy Falls.

Later we went out to Applegate lake and decided to make the short hike out to the Bigfoot Trap. We found the following caches.

Bigfoot Cache Revisited
Collings Mtn. Trailhead
NOT FISHING LEAD

I also had a DNF on I B Lichen it! which was latter revised

Backlog - May 2

2009-07-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

I was being pretty lazy in may it appears. Found very few caches and I made even fewer blog entries. So we'll take the "wayback" machine all the way to May 2.

I was in Las Vegas again and it just happend to be the weekend of a flash mob event happening right on the strip WWFM V (Las Vegas) - Pirate's Booty. The idea was to stay away from Ground zero and try to blend in... then when the signal is given all group together. You weren't suppose to mingle with anyone till they made the call. I spotted a few cachers I had met previously on my trips and tried to stay away. I did say hi to a pair of cachers from Arizona as I walked to GZ... he asked how I knew he was a geocacher... I told him because of his geocaching t-shirt... hahaha. So we all grouped together and took some pictures. People on the strip looked at us like we were crazy. It was all good fun.

Just before the event I had stop to get a virtual cache

"The Presidential Suite"

A bit of interesting Las Vegas history.

I am currently reading two books about Las Vegas. Inside Las Vegas by Mario Puzo and The Green Felt Jungle by Ed Reid. One of these days I might even finish them.

Backlog - June 7

2009-06-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

For this backlog we go all the way back to June 7th. My Dad was off on a fishing trip so my Mom and Sister hatched this idea of going to Reno. I decided to tag along... when do I ever pass up an opportunity to visit casinos?

On the way there I found a few caches including #1800

Shasta Vista
Distant
Big Sign 89
Goat Fire
Don't Bug Me
Welcome to Nevada (or California)
Cinema Nevada

The last cache on the list was a puzzle that I found on accident.

This was my second trip to Reno. As an older and more experienced gambler it was a totally different experience then the last trip. Last time I was there the machines dropped coin, but all I saw this time were new modern machines that took bills. That was disapointing.

What! me geocaching?

2009-06-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

Friday night I got a call from Daveydude. I think he had called everyone else and was desperate for someone to go with him. Reluctantly I agreed to go geocaching the next morning at 7am!!!

So the next morning I got my lazy ass out of bed went down to McD's for a sausage egg biscuit... with cheese. Just something to sit in my gut a while and remind me why I sleep in on Saturdays. They are oh so tasty though. So I met up with Dave and we took his new geo-rig up Spencer creek.

There are a few new caches out there and only one of the old... boxerlover's Tie One On. Dave posted a DNF and the Boxer's archived it. It is probably there someplace, but it is very overgrown. I got a pretty good cut across my shin pushing my way through the brush and downed trees on the old road. We also made a mistake of splitting up... I took the old road and Dave cut up the hill. Then I heard him yell something I thought sounded like "I found it" so I sat around and waited... after waiting a while I thought he might have cut through the woods back to the car so I went back and he wasn't there... so I went back down the old road and started yelling for him. Eventually he yelled back and I learned he had been searching that whole time and hadn't found it. By that time we were both beat up and needed to look for easier caches.

We found 6 on the day... mostly easy enough

Rooty
Mossy Waterfall
Underwhere?
Hounds Rockpile
Nice park job honey.
Yo Adriene.
Wind in the trees

Trail Blazers

2009-06-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

No Geocaching for me this weekend. I did however get to meet 2 Trail Blazer dancers and Clyde Drexler this weekend at seperate events. The blazer dancers were signing posters at NAPA Autoparts on Friday. My coworker heard about it on the radio and told me to go down there so I did. They were very nice and posed for a couple of pictures and signed a poster.

Clyde was signing autographs at Lee's Mini Storage on Saturday. I guess the owner is a long time blazer fan himself and met Clyde when they traveled to the Basketball HOF to see Clyde inducted. The owner of this place had a lot of signed Drexler items in his office. So I don't know how he convinced Clyde to come down and sign autographs but I was glad he did. I waited in line for 4 hours. I had him sign a poster, and I took this picture of him signing a basketball.

An old cache

2009-06-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting my blog for too long. I can't believe I skipped a whole month. In the next few days I will backlog the events of the last month.

This weekend I went to Albany to visit. I didn't even take my GPS. I just haven't felt like geocaching lately, but I hope to get out a bit more in the next few weeks before the really hot weather strikes.

I did manage to find one cache. A webcam

Smile Your'e on Candid Camera II

I have been all but ignoring this cache for 6 years. I have driven by this one so many times. This day I just decided to stop and make the call.

An interesting event

2009-04-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

This Friday I am off to Las Vegas again. I decided not to pursue any geocaching adventures this time, but I'll take my GPS and maybe find a cache or two if I feel like it.

One cache I did notice was this event

WWFM V (Las Vegas)- Pirate's Booty

It is a flash mob event... the idea is to hang out and look like an average tourist and then all at once come together in a big group. I've never seen such a thing, but it is popular in some areas. Since I will be in town I'll probably try to attend. Depends on if I can wake up that early.

There are several caches along the strip. The main cache I have yet to get is the Welcome to Las Vegas sign virtual... there is also a regular cache there now... two caches in one stop. We are always either in a hurry going in or too tired on the way out to stop. If I went there with other geocachers it would be different. Maybe someone at the event will take the time to go with me.

March of Dimes

2009-04-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today was the big March of Dimes walk. Our team raised nearly $6000 and I raised $742. As it turned out I was not the #1 fund raiser on the team. I was beat in the last week by my coworker Megan. Her daughter was born 10 weeks early and is the reason many of us at the bank have adopted March of Dimes. Looking at her today you could never tell.

I was pleasantly surprised at the generosity of some people. I hope I wasn't too pushy... if so maybe I'll try new tactics for next year.

Check this out

2009-04-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

With this service you can get hints and log finds by text from your phone. Some of you might already know about this but it was all new to me.

Check out this link for details on how to set it up. It was really easy.

I already had it send me a hint (very fast) maybe this weekend after the March of Dimes walk I can try it out in the field. I have been to a lot of caches where this would never work, but for around town it looks like a nice feature.

I am still collecting funds for March of Dimes. It is not too late to donate

http://www.marchforbabies.org/blazerfan

Two sunny spring days

2009-04-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today and yesterday were both very nice spring days. A good chance to get out and find those caches I had been saving up. It feels good to walk around without a coat. My legs are sore and my neck feels slightly sunburned, but it is a good feeling.

Despite the good weather today and yesterday are completely different as far as geocaching goes. Yesterday I found 43 caches, mostly drive up micros. Today I found 2 caches after hiking up a steep mountain road. It just goes to show that there are caches of all kinds... you can look for whatever you want.

So yesterday I woke up and looked out my window. It was already sunny and warming up. I looked at the caches I needed in the area and I called up Uncle Duck, I knew he would be up to going along even though he had all but two of them. We covered the north part of Grants Pass, up to Hugo, and then back. I needed 56 caches to reach 1800 finds and that was a very reachable number, but I got tired and decided to call it a day. I didn't count as I went along, but in the end I had 43. These were the finds

City Folk
I B I V
What Street #3
Ogle again
Healing Help
Old Airport
Unidentifiable
New Nano
Traffic Watch
Stick in the Mud
Coordinate Setting 101
SCAREDY CAT!
What Street # 4
Sparrow 2 The Saga Continues
Pin Up ( Or Hubba Hubba)
Stainless
Quick and Easy
Buck Brush 2 "More Bang For Your Buck"
Dead Antlers
Clip Job
Patrolled or Paroled?
Power to the People
TWIGLETS
Stick
"Duck" Laid an Egg
R U Tired of Caching
I Luv I-5
Sticks and Potholes
Uno Again?
Groovey
Cavity
Holy Moley
uno
Get after it time's a flying
Stuffed
Chevron
Hole in None
JCRW
Future Park
Everyday Goodness
Posted
Udderless
Wagner Meadows

Today I woke up and looked out the window at another nice sunny day. I was just looking at caches when I got a phone call. It was Daveydude asking if I had seen a pair of new geocaches in Gold Hill from the Lost Patrol. To be honest I had not noticed them yet. I don't often look for new caches. These two caches were up Nugget Butte on the North side of Gold Hill. I met Dave at the post office downtown and I stopped at the market for lunch to pack up with me (some very healthy corn dogs, but despite Dave's claims no soda for me). We took the hike slow, and stopped often. As the first good hike of the spring I was winded quickly. The first cache Not There Yet was near the top at a set of towers. A half mile beyond Nugget Butte was a pretty easy hike after making it up that far. The road is steap in places, but these caches are easily reachable if you take your time. On the way back down we exchanged a few stories of caches past and decided to call it a day.

Backlog - March 28

2009-04-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I can't seem to remember to do same day blogs anymore. Oh well the events in this blog happened on March 28 which was the day of the big pizza event Arthur's Round Table. Our Southern Oregon events are getting larger. We completley filled the back room much like we did at Tubby's the month before. Perhaps as the weather gets nicer we will have a couple of events outside in a park somewhere. I probably won't do another back yard BBQ event this year... just too many people for my yard and deck to handle.

Just before the event I pulled up on a crew finding Pizza Power which I promptly took from them and signed.

After the event Kelly showed us some of his new caches and I found a couple more with GlenMart. These included

Pucker up!!
Where Is Ashley?
Cliché
NOTHING'S EASY!

After finding those I decided to go over to the library and find

Free Wifi 2
Oregon Reads -- Medford area

Free Wifi 2 is an old Lazyboy cache from the days before his break from caching. I'm not sure why I hadn't found it yet. Very easy. The Oregon Reads cache is a very odd one. They put out a series of these in Jackson county as events since they were suppose to be temporary. Now they are regular caches, but the coords of this one were off by nearly a tenth of a mile. Since most libraries in the county already have a cache nearby I think they might have spoofed the coords to get them approved. That is just a guess because the coords were just not close.

I finished the day by finding a couple in the parking lot of the rogue valley mall

BACK TO BACK
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER

6 years ago today

2009-03-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

March 26, 2003 I found my first geocache

State quarter cache

I had no GPS and no clue what I was getting myself into. That little film canister with a couple of quarters and a wadded up peice of paper would lead to hundreds of adventures. It might not have been the most exciting cache by todays standards, but there was something about the hunt... and that moment of finding it... I was hooked.

Little did I know that 6 years later I'd still be having fun at it. I have a website and blog devoted to the hobby, and many new friends some of which I only know by their odd nicknames.

I have found 114 caches so far this year which puts me well on pace to shatter my previous record of 321 in a year. Last year I set my second highest mark with 309. So despite seeming to slow down I am finding as many as ever.

No whining... the controversy

2009-03-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

As of late there has been some talk about a new cache in the area

NO WHINING

I've had conversations with a few geocachers about this one. I also declined the opportunity to search for it earlier in the week. Lets face it... I'll probably never get around to it. The cache started with 12 DNFs. That is about 10 more then it takes to be on my list to skip, but not everyone is as smart as me.

The problem with a difficult cache is that the area gets torn up by everyone that looks. Rocks get thrown about, moss gets stripped from trees, sticks and leaves get moved around until only bare dirt remains... and on and on. No single geocacher is usually to blame for this, it just gets a little worse on each visit. A standard geocache in a natural setting has an impact, but the difficulty amplifies that impact. The difficulty of a cache should take into account the environment that it is hidden in.

With that said I haven't actually looked at the area... or for the cache. There are plenty of caches around to find so I probably never will.

Central Oregon Run

2009-03-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my Parent's 40th wedding anneversary. They decided to celebrate by us all going to dinner at the Cowboy Dinner Tree near Silver Lake, OR. On the way over I picked out a few caches to find... and we had plenty of time to search for them all. I had 9 lined up and only 1 was too snowed in to search for. These were my finds

Crystal - an old virtual at the Crystal Springs rest stop towards Ft. Klamath. It would be easy to hide a traditional cache in this area, which is probably why virtuals eventually grew out of favor. There was a lot of snow here so I suppose a virtual might be the best year round option.

Going to School - This is a cache Lazyboy would be proud of. Despite it being easy I still had to climb over some snow.

Do You Feel Lucky? - a fun cache near the Kla-Mo-Ya Casino

TIMBERRR!!! - Oregon History Lesson #17 - In an old logging museum right off Hwy 97

El Fuego - just off Hwy 97

Beef ? No. - A nice break on the road to Silver Lake.

STUMP ROCK 49 - A five month old cache that was still waiting for a finder. Nearly 100 miles as the crow flies from my house and I was the FTF.

State Plates - Probably the easiest logscaler cache you will ever find. I left my GPS sitting by the cache and had to go back for it a few hours later. I didn't worry much about someone picking it up as its pretty quiete out there.

More March of Dimes

2009-02-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

I had initially set my goal for March of Dimes to $500 and I achieved it. However I reached it with the generous help of many people I had never met... while many of my friends and family have yet to donate... so it would seem that I have more fundraising potential. After talking with my coworkers I have decided to raise my goal.

If you haven't already please click on the link and make a donation. Your money will help prevent birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality

http://www.marchforbabies.org/blazerfan

Backlog - February 7

2009-02-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

In today's backlog of geocaching events past I was in Las Vegas. At the Weekend Before the Super Bowl Pizza Fest Lost Patrol had given me a group of wooden nickels that he has found in different places. Included in that was a small geocoin that wanted to go to Las Vegas. On this trip I hadn't planned to do much geocaching besides maybe a virtual, but now I had to find one big enough to hold this coin. My choice was

A Kiwi Connection - Las Vegas

It was an easy enough cache to find just off the north end of the strip near the Wynn casino. I got around to it early and the weather was clear, by the time I reached the cache though it had started to rain. It rained on my hard as I walked back. I was soaked and could ring water from my jacket. When I got back to my room I had to dry my shoes with the hair dryer. Overall it was a fun weekend and I ended up winning money... which I promptly spent.

Backlog - February 14-15

2009-02-20T09:03:00.000-08:00

I have been neglecting my blog again... I've been sick with the flu the last couple of days so I haven't even thought much about geocaching. Since I am back to work and almost feeling better I thought I'd start with a backlog of caches from the weekend of the 14th.

So the weekend was the Go Coastal-Wintertime Fun-1 # 3 event. This event is one of the biggest in the state and they have a lot of sponsor give aways. We take up a large portion of a Chinese buffet restaurant. I had planned to maybe take off Friday and go with Duck and Kelly to spend a couple extra days over there searching for caches. I had a hard time getting the day off work so I decided not to go. Later I got a call from Daveydude he wanted to go over Saturday and stay till Sunday and that worked out well.

Dave and I cleaned up the area before and after the event. The event its self was a lot of fun... good food and good people.

The weather was so nice that Daveydude and I walked all over town picking up all sorts of caches... just an hour or so later it unleashed a big rainstorm. Otherwise it was sunny most of the weekend. These were my finds before the event.

Cache Across America - Oregon
GRANDMA GRANDMA
Rock My World!
in the middle
summer wild flowers
Our Dearly Departed
Captanrdr's Grassy Knoll
Drive-in Theater Myrtle Lane
Does Any Body Really Know What Time It Is?
one nation under God
Jade's Rescue Me
Dancin' for Cache
In-Spire-d
Courtesy Cache

These were the finds after the event

Lab Cache
Ariolimax Columbianus
AT THE PORT
Roundabout
Stumped at the park
Another Bay Area Welcome
Poisson's Inspiration
Woof!
Hey Myrtle!
Marshfield Softball
Skeezix
AAA or AA
Is It an Ash or Is It an Oak?
What a tub of a tug
One Watershed, Many Needs
Bad Duck's Evil Cache #1
Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial
E.T., Your Mama Wants You
Defending Hog Heaven
Even the View is a Winner!

And on Sunday we found these caches

Don't 'B' nervous
Mutt and Jeff
Ho! Ho! Ho!
NO MAIL HERE!
Captanrdr's "Daveydude Special"
In the Woods at Empire Lakes
Pick Me! Pick Me!
'The World Is Our Playing Field'
Play Time
Red Dyke
Guard The Post Libby
river bend

March of Dimes

2009-01-22T15:15:00.000-08:00

I've got 3 months to raise money for the annual March of Babies. More or less I got tricked into it last year by my coworkers for my "health" since they were walking. I didn't know much about it at the time besides that you walk 6 miles. The only money I raised was what I donated, and our team was one of the lowest fundraisers. This year we have all vowed to pick up the pace on asking for donations. The cause is a good one so if you want to help out visit my web page

http://www.marchforbabies.org/blazerfan

Don't worry I'll remind you all again before its over and I added a statbar to the lower right side of the blog.

Almost to Butte Falls

2009-01-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

So I got a call on Sunday from my Uncle Duck asking if I wanted to go geocaching on Monday. Since it was MLK day I had the time off and it sounded like a good plan. We decided to head up to Butte Falls to get all the caches we passed on the way up to the Cache Machine on Friday. We started caching in Gold Hill and worked our way up towards Butte Falls. We never reached the city limits (ie the cattle guard) as we had too many others to find. We stopped at LazyBoy's house and he convinced us we could find another half dozen in the dark. I was convinced we had about 40 finds, but in the end I had 53 which tied my all time high. If I had known I was so close to the record I might have stopped for one more. These were the finds for the day

Lovey Dovey
Dardanelles II
Tribute Cache
Water Works
Madrone
Dowden Falls
Broken Arrow
Bridget
Creeky Cache
234 Gold
Hanky
Pankey
OLD OAK TREE
BEWARE BLACK CATS
BARKING DOGS
MERRY GEO-CHRISTMAS
All you get for Christmas
Christmas Coal
NICKEL
COWS
Most Photographed Building in Oregon?
Miss Muffet
HOLY GROUND
This Way To Butte Falls
Gravel, Gravel
GREENBIRD
A guard rail on the way to Butte Falls
Hey It's A Bus Stop On The Way To Butte Falls!
Nether-Nether Land
Bus Stop on the Way To Butte Falls
I'm Getting Closer To Butte Falls
Bovine Escalator
two of spade
TUMBLE ROCK
BIT .THE. BULLET
What is Cobleigh?
It's A Stump On The Way To Butte Falls
Water For Residents Only
On Obenchain
Come and get me,Lazyboy!
GEPPERT BUTTE RD.
Fork In The Road
CAMO GLOVES
Warty's Butte Falls Bus Stop
BUS TURN
Crowing About Things
B- F- L
Hot Dog LazyBoy's Back!
The Long,Long Log
The Legend of Lazyboy
NEAR OWL BEND
The PIERCE Ransh
COW COUNTRY

First cache of 2009

2009-01-16T20:52:00.000-08:00

Automated Cache Machine redux

I was a bit bored at work and decided to look at LazyBoy's blog. Not 15 minutes before he had posted about reactivated the old Cache Machine. The new cache had not even been approved yet. I called Uncle Duck and asked if he'd like to go and find it again. I lefty work early and then took off for Butte Falls. We were First to Find and enjoyed chatting with Al and Jill for a while.

It might have been the only cache of the day, but it was a fun one.

2009 off with a bang

2009-01-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

So my first post of 2009. I suppose this is the first post because nothing has happened so far this year. I haven't gone caching or done anything else even remotely exciting.

I did book another weekend trip to Las Vegas. February 6-9. I'm still undecided as to if I'll seek out another geocaching group like my last couple of visits. I'll probably just look for a couple of virtual caches I have yet to find.

I might find some caches this weekend if the weather is good. Its a 3 day weekend so hopefully one of those days will be nice.

Last Day of 2008

2008-12-31T08:59:00.000-08:00

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:

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!