blazerfan's geocaching adventures

One cache, new phone

2012-01-31T21:20:00.000-08:00

A whole month gone by and I only have one cache to show for it

Dutch & Lucile

This cache was so easy that I didn't use my new GPS or even my new phone.

Previously I had an Android phone. I have used the geocaching app to find caches before but I didn't think it worked all that great. Android was buggy and in my opinion doesn't work all that well even when its running right. So I switched to the iPhone. I never thought I'd own an Apple product. It would seem to be against my very nature. But I've never been happier... it works so well. Best of all I can actually answer it. Probably 25% of all calls before my phone would freeze when I tried to answer. The only app I have purchased is the geocaching app and I'll have to try it out someday.

Sadly I am going to miss the Discover Roseburg 2 event this weekend. Might be able to grab a couple this month... we'll see

Last Day of 2011

2011-12-31T17:37:00.000-08:00

Well its the last day of 2011. Its been an interesting year, and my slowest to date geocaching wise. Honestly I have lost some of the "fire" that geocaching use to spark in me. When I started you could find amazing places and cool caches. Today it seems you just find micros along the road where there is no place to park. I still like to cache in groups, events, finding a few on a road trip, and hiking to find good caches. I just don't do it as often...

Highlights for the year include:

Completed the Discover Roseburg challenge
Found 42 caches on 7/30/11 with Biggieet_al
The Great Amazing Cache event
NBA lockout ended!

My favorite caches of 2011 include:

Overall 2011 was still a fun year. Thank you to everyone who hid the caches I found this year. Maybe some of that spark will return in the new year. Hope to see you all out on the trail in 2012 and I hope the world doesn't end.

Tom Pierce Trail

2011-12-26T22:59:00.000-08:00

Decided I needed a few more caches today so I could hit the 2222 find milestone. Sadly I guess I only needed 6 and now sit at 2223. I swear it said 2215 last night. Anyway it doesn't matter I'd have to pass it up someday.

Just to bring up old times 2223 caches ties me with the famous Rooster- for finds. Of course he quit caching a long time ago.

Today's finds included

T.P. Starter
millview#1
T. P. Trail #1
T. P. Trail #2
T. P. Trail #3
T. P. Trail #4
T. P. Trail #5

These were all on the newer Tom Pierce bike trail. Someday this should be the start of the greenway bike path all the way to Ashland. I just hope they finish it before I'm too old to ride on it.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T20:58:00.000-08:00

Hope all of you out there had a very Merry Christmas.

As I've done in the past I went out to find a geocache today. Just one this holiday. Probably could have squeezed in a couple more. Wasn't as cold today but it did sprinkle a little as we found it.

Reflections 1

Depending on how cold it is tomorrow I might try to find a few.

One more year

2011-12-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

Well its very well know that the world will probably end December 21, 2012

So I compiled a small list of "Bucket List" caches

Bombsite Cache
Pyramid Rock
Mt. Elijah Cache
3 Corners (SE Oregon Hatrick)
Alice's Rabbit Hole
DR. Who.
The Government Duck
Ramblin' Rogue aka Whoopee Tyee!
Five Bar
Hot Cache

I'm sure there are many more. Like any of the ones needed for The Oregon History Challenge!. If anyone local thinks they would like to try completing this challenge let me know.

All slow on the geocache front

2011-12-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

Its been rather cold around her for the last several weeks. Colder then usual I'd say, but dry and sunny for the most part. The sun might warm it up to the high 30's but that's about it. I have no problem with saying I am a fair weather geocacher.

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night..."

Bull$#!^ the postal service can have it... all of that stops me from geocaching on most occasions :)

With that said I have not found anything but an event in several weeks. I'll find at least one cache on Christmas day to keep with tradition, but that might be the last for 2011. The event was the

Second Annual Holiday Pot Luck Extravaganza

Great to see everyone and talk about old times. I even won a couple of raffle prizes. Lots of good food too.

Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year and after that the days will get longer. I'll soon have to write my summary of 2011. It might be a little shorter then past years with how slow I've been.

Slow

2011-11-22T21:53:00.001-08:00

I don't think I have done any geocaching since the last event. Even then I only went to the event (and I showed up late.) I'll admit to being a fair weather cacher. Maybe soon I'll get out for a dozen or so.

Until then I have been selling some things on eBay. I got rid of my old PDA. I wanted it so I could have cache pages and hints especially when I traveled. Plus it had built in Wi-Fi so I could surf the internet at any number of new hot spots that were popping up. I bought it March 23, 2005 and I don't remember what I spent but it was over $500. I sold it for $40. My new GPS keeps all the hints, pages and logs that I want for under $200.

Its funny all of the electronic gadgets I have had over the years. GPSs, phones, cameras, PDAs, computers, video cameras, web cams, CD players, MP3 players and a Kindle. All eventually replaced with something better and usually cheaper.

Rogue River Greenway

2011-10-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I tested my new GPS out on

Grants Pass Photo Cache

It was a fun walk around town. Also a good chance to test out the GPS with multiple waypoints of sorts.

Today I decided to try some newer caches along the Greenway from Rogue River to Valley of the Rogue state park. It was a great day for a bike ride and the path is now paved to just past the rest area. My finds for the day were

BERRY BUSH SAFARI
YA GOTTA LOVE IT!
RIN TIN TIN
"DANAGER" a Turner Cache
WATCH THE RIVER FLOW.
Don't look down yer nose,to find this one!
Many Trunks

The GPS works great I just have to get use to the menu. Was great to have the hints and logs available at my fingertips. Took a few pictures (Go milepost 1 1/4!)

New GPS

2011-10-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

Today I got a new Garmin eTrex 20 GPS. I've been wanting one with paperless geocaching for a while. The new Garmin eTrex line offered paperless caching at a more affordable price. Plus it can track GLONASS satellites giving you even more accuracy... and it is fast to get its position. Tomorrow I'll try and find a cache with it.

Oregon DeLorme Challenge

2011-10-14T21:39:00.000-07:00

5 years ago today SallyC and I completed the Oregon DeLorme Challenge. It still ranks as the top accomplishment of my geocaching career. Days of big numbers can't compare to those 77 caches.

I'm a big fan of challenge caches and feel they should have there own icon. Though personally I find it hard to compare say the ABC Challenge to those like the DeLorme or CCIO. I guess just like caches there is a challenge for everybody.

I want to visit Japan!

2011-10-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

So I just read this story about the Japan Tourism Agency's plan to give away 10,000 round trip tickets to promote a return of tourists to Japan. The catch you ask? You have to publicize your trip on blogs and social media sites. I have no problem with that... I'll gladly go to Japan and play tourist. Maybe I could find some geocaches over there. Take pictures of all the monuments. Eat at interesting restaurants. I'd gladly blog about it, tweet about it and facebook about it.

Never Forget

2011-09-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

More waterfalls

2011-09-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

So I visited a few other waterfalls. My GPS was having trouble keeping signal. Bad satelite day I guess. So I gave up geocaching and just went to the waterfalls.

Starting with Watson Creek Falls

Then continued on to Toketee Falls which I had visited before with SallyC

And last Dry Creek Falls

Waterfalls

2011-09-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

Today I took a trip along HWY 138 between Diamond Lake and Roseburg. There are many waterfalls along there. It wasn't a great day for GPS though. Coords bounced on me all day I started at National Creek Falls. I didn't find the cache as I didn't have the hint, but it was a nice hike.

After a stop at Diamond View. We went on to Clearwater Falls which was the location of an old Mailleman cache Transparent Wetness. Which I did find.

After that we stopped at Whitehorse falls and found the cache BRIDGE WHITEWATER which turned out to be the last of the day, but not the last waterfall.

Next three tomorrow

Found after nearly 6 years!

2011-08-30T21:23:00.001-07:00

After last being logged 09/18/2005 my Travel Bug Mosquito Trap is on the move again. Found in the wilds of Canada... where it has been a complete mystery.

Of my original 4 travel bugs it is now the last. I hope it can move around a bit more now. Geocaching has changed a lot in the last 6 years...

Pictures

2011-08-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

Decided it was about time to add some pictures from my trip to Denio and Fields. See my blog on Jun 25.

Camping

2011-08-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

I went camping with the family this weekend. Took our usual trip to Waldo Lake. Found a few caches in the Union Creek area. Only looked for one at Waldo which I did not find. There are a lot around there, just not enough time to get them all. A couple of them are on small islands. Someday I'll come with a boat and time.

Then We went on a brief trip to Odell Lake and to Salt Creek Falls. Found a couple more caches and called it a trip

Caches for the trip were:
Road to Mill creek
Old Hat
Cachers Camp
Broken Tree
Old Ugly Snag
Mt. Mazama Viewpoint
Mt. Thielsen Wayside
Odell Troll
Afraid of Heights?

The story of a Cache

2011-08-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

Its been almost 6 years since I hid my cache Haines Apple Tree. I hid it with SallyC just before Iseek's (once) annual Wilderville event.

When I first started geocaching this was the first place I wanted to hide a cache. My grandpa had shown me this location years ago and its the kind of out of the way historical item that makes geocaching so much fun at times. However at the time it was already the location of a virtual called They Didn't See it Coming. J-Freaks who hid that cache had quit the hobby by the time I started. I spent a lot of time looking for a few of their missing caches. One of these caches was called Over the River and Thru the Woods. It was a multi cache and after confirming the final was gone I collected the first two stages which were mint tins. I used one of these tins for this cache after the virtual was archived.

Despite a recent DNF it is still there pretty much in the same spot SallyC and I left it. The marker itself is a bit crooked and the site is as overgrown as ever. Without giving away the details the apple tree itself is generally considered the second oldest in Oregon being planted somewhere around 1852-54... and it still has apples...

The Great Amazing Cache

2011-07-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first Great Amazing Cache event. This has been in the planning for a long time. I don't remember when I first heard about it, but it was at least January. I have to admit that a very secret event put on by two very new geocachers didn't get me excited. Often new cachers have grand ideas that never come to pass.

Sunday I got a call from Biggieet_al asking if I'd like to join a team with Daveydude and Golden Ace for this event. I didn't see any reason not to try it.

FatNinjuh and HsSrvnt put on a great event. The event, as it turns out, was a competition to complete a new 15 stage multi. Fastest time as well as a "closest time" to a secret preset number. Normally a 15 stage multi would hit my ignore list. In a group environment at the event it turned out to be a lot of fun. They had lots of prizes and trophies.

A lot of newer geocachers were in attendance. I am really going to need to start learning some of these names. Those I did know I had fun talking to. I've been pretty slow at caching but maybe I'll come up with some reasons to grab a few.

Some geocaching backlog

2011-06-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month I went with family on a trip to parts of Eastern Oregon. Are first stop was just for a night in Lakeview. In my quest for the State of Jefferson Counties Challenge we went a few miles out of the way south to grab a cache in Modoc County

Steep Grade

The next morning we drove east. Going through Adel, Oregon and then down to Denio, Nevada. There aren't many geocaches on this stretch of highway, but I found a few

Breadcrumbs #4... Pride
Breadcrumbs #6... Glider
Take ten at the Border
Warmth from within
Breadcrumbs #11... Denio

Many of these were hidden by a local Southern Oregon cacher 2trax. He had some more, but they were archived for being in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge even though they were right off the highway... one of them in a rest area. It would have been nice to have one in the rest area for sure. The refuge is nice. I saw a number of wild burros, horses and pronghorn but I can't see how a geocaching in the fenced rest area on the highway was a concern for the environment.

There is not much in Denio Junction. A store, gas station and small motel. The store had a cafe with pretty good food though. The hotel is commonly full from what I hear. There are many commercial opal mines in the area. Many of them let you pay to mine. I didn't try it Prices seemed to be $60-$150 depending on the mine and what you wanted to dig in.

Our destination was a bit further north to Fields, Oregon. Fields is about the same as Denio Junction. Just a store and gas station. There is a small motel and the Alvord Inn where we stayed. The store has world famous Hamburgers and Milkshakes. Our plan was just to look at wildlife and go to the several hot springs in the area. However they have had more water then anytime in the past 30 years. What is usually called the Alvord Desert was a lake. Many of the hot springs were unreachable due to the muddy road conditions. We still had fun and I found a recently hidden cache in town.

Stagecoach Roadhouse

The next part of our trip was to Summer Lake Hot Springs. This hot spring is private and has a several cabins and camp spots. The spring itself is fed into a large pool in a bathhouse. The pool is very nice but you run into a lot of weird people. There was a cache at the entrance

Hot Pools & Healing Waters

It was a fun trip. Maybe I'll get out for some more geocaching soon.

March for Babies

2011-05-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who donated to the March of Babies this year, or have donated in the past. Despite a late start and the rough economy we managed to raise over $3000. The weather for walking was good and it was a fun time had by all. Many children were there that in the past probably wouldn't have survived so you can see the progress being made.

A new project... not geocaching related

2011-04-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

A while back I saw a blog about refurbishing an old Telephone bench. I liked the idea a lot as I enjoy old things, and I remember my grandparents having one. Today the idea of having a desk and chair devoted to your telephone seems very strange. I don't even have a home phone... just my cell.

So I was looking for something about the same style as my grandparents had and finally found one on craigslist... but it was in Corvallis. I had a friend of mine buy it, and used it as a good excuse to go visit.

Initially I sanded it and tried to stain it a bit darker. Because it was made of two different kinds of wood this looked very uneven. So I ended up painting it black and recovered the seat. Add in an old rotary phone and this is how it looks now

Event and State of Jefferson Challenge

2011-04-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today was the April Geocaching Fools Party. Nice to have another event. We use to have them a bit more regular.

I talked to the "Evil" DrDan52000 and he was asking about the State of Jefferson Counties Challenge. This is a map of the Counties you must complete

All caches must be found after 06/17/2009.

March for Babies

2011-03-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Once again this year I will be participating in the annual March for Babies on April 30th. This is year 4 and its still my charity of choice because it has a big positive impact on young lives. These babies may be screwed up by their parents or society later, but at least we can give them a positive and healthy beginning. To the right ----> is a link to my page. Anything you can donate would be appreciated.

Actual Geocaching

2011-03-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I decided it was time to complete another challenge cache. I had lots of fun with the Oregon DeLorme Challenge and even the ABC Challenge. The one I picked has been on my list for a while.

State of Jefferson Counties Challenge

The State of Jefferson being a proposed state made up of parts of Oregon and California. 19 counties total to find caches in. No problem except gas is nearing $4 a gallon and there is a lot of ground to cover.

All caches have to be found since the challenge was created. So I figured I could take my time. I quickly marked off Josephine, Jackson and Curry counties as those are the nearest to me. Over the course of the 2010 I found the remaining counties in Oregon (Douglas, Coos, Klamath, and Lake) but I still had none of the 12 I needed in California. I just don't get to California very often.

When a chance came up to visit a friend down around the bay area I decided to make this challenge an extra reason just to get up and go.

I took vacation days on Thursday and Friday and took off late the morning of the 17th. My goal was a simple 3 caches in Del Norte, Humboldt and Trinity Counties. Trinity county being a good 80 miles out of the way round trip. Despite a lot of rain I managed these three

Collier Tunnel Rest Area
Willow Creek Rock Pile
BIG BEAR WHERE ARE YOU

I stayed the night in Eureka and took off the next day. I only had Mendocino County on my path. It was raining even worse but I chose a cache I could just about drive right up to.

Andersonia

After spending a day with non-geocaching friends I took off for I-5. I found caches in Glenn and Butte Counties in heavy rain. It let up a bit for my find in Tehama County. Then the rain really drenched me in Shasta County. I decided to head for home that night and try searching for a Siskiyou County cache in the dark. Then I hit heavy snow. Going 20MPH with a white knuckled grip on my steering wheel made me forget about caches. I stopped in Yreka not ready to face the possibility of more snow over Siskiyou Pass. The next morning was cold and just a bit of rain. The nearest cache to my hotel had several DNFs so I decided that I'd find one later. So these were my last finds of the trip

Farmer Dwayne
Gianella Bridge
Gyle Rd Cache
Diamond in the Rough

Now I have Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen and Plumas counties to complete. In June I have a planned trip to Eastern Oregon. A side trip to Modoc County could happen. The last 3 I could take out in a day trip or weekend trip to Reno. We'll see...

The Great War

2011-03-04T15:16:00.000-08:00

I'm a little slow on my news these days I guess. Only today did I hear that Frank Buckles, the last US Veteran of World War I had died.

He lied about his age and enlisted at 16 serving as a ambulance driver. During World War II as a civilian working in the shipping business he was captured by the Japanese and helpd in a prison camp for nearly 4 years. Yet to all this he lived to the age of 110 and dedicated his last years to creating a national memorial for those who served in "the Great War" A memorial he never got to see built.

Born when William McKinley was president, his life spanned nearly the whole 20th Century. Its hard to imagine the world as it had changed to him. Everything we take for granted today such as cars, airplanes, computers, cell phones and GPS all invented in his lifetime.

When I was young I remember WWI veterans in the Memorial Day parade riding in a truck. Each year their numbers got smaller... and then one year there were none. Now that is true for all time, Frank was the last one. Thanks to an exception to the normal rules he will be burried at Arlington National Cemetery. Sadly, a bill to allow him to lay in state at the Capital was denied.

http://www.wwimemorial.org/

Concert for George

2011-02-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

Today would have been George Harrison's 68th birthday. To celebrate all day they are streaming the Concert for George free. You can hear Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Billy Preston, Ringo Star, Paul McCartney and others sing some of George's songs. A good mix of what he did with the Beatles and solo. It starts with an Indian music section just to make you feel worldly. Makes for great office listening on this cold, but sunny, Friday.

Busy times... and an upcoming event

2011-01-19T10:25:00.001-08:00

Had a major system conversion at work this weekend. I can finally breath easy for a bit. Worked a lot of extra hours and a holiday. Seems to be going well. Getting this final step out of the way should mean more free time for geocaching.

Besides the Roseburg event in my last blog the annual Coos Bay event is coming up

"Cache the Coast" - Wintertime Fun-1 #5

This is always a fun one and I hope to attend again.

Discover Roseburg

2011-01-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Daveydude mentioned this event cache to me today

Discover Roseburg

They give you a passport and you visit spots around town. It sounds like lots of fun and unless I-5 is closed by snow I'll try to attend.

They had something a lot like this in Salt Lake City for Geocoinfest (which I thought about attending but ended up in Las Vegas instead.) They hid caches along the light rail line and you had a passport to complete.

Last year I planned to do something a lot like this. I bought a bunch of rubber stamps to prepare a "Southern Oregon Passport" series. I think the main reason I didn't complete it was because I was torn between making the caches difficult (nothing I hide is very hard, but I'm talking "hiking required") or making the caches easy so that more people would find it. I still have the stamps and containers so maybe this will still happen.

Last Day of 2010

2010-12-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

The last day of 2010. It has been a very up and down year. Geocaching wise it was my slowest ever, but it did have some memorable moments. Geocaches in Las Vegas, the Oregon Coast, and even a trip up the Willamette Pass Resort gondola to find caches on Eagle Peak. And of course a bunch of great caches at home. Some of us locals even spent a day introducing kids to geocaching at a local science fair. Some highlights for the year include:

The Super Science Saturday event (sadly my only "hide" this year)
Reached the 1900, 2000, and 2100 cache milestones
Found 29 & 31 caches on February 13 & 14
Found 32 caches on July 4th (with 11 DNFs)

Some of my favorite caches of 2010 include:

Hopefully 2011 goes a little better for geocaching, but 2010 had it moments. Thank you to everyone who hid all the caches found... and all the caches to find for next year. See you out on the trail.

Another year down

2010-12-29T10:38:00.000-08:00

I think it is safe to say now that I won't be doing any geocaching the rest of the year. I opened my garage door this morning to leave for work and was quite surprised to see snow falling. Unless I want to find night caches in the snow.

So I will end with 221 finds for 2010. By far my worst year ever. It doesn't help that I have had a lack of enthusiasm for the sport. Let alone the whole FDIC takeover thing at work.

I have had a bit of the geocaching bug lately so that might help 2011 be a little bit better. Also now it may be easier to find quality caches for the weekend with the cache favorite system recently put in. If more people will take the time to mark some of their favorites then it will be a good system. That way you could find a cache with a few votes and plan a trip to get it... and get a few others in the area and on the way that maybe don't have votes but you might as well grab. Last year one of my goals was to be more "picky" about the caches I'd seek. What I really ended up doing was not going out to find any. Maybe this will help.

I am a bit dissapointed that my favorite personal hide doesn't have a favorite vote. My top vote getters are Mt. Ashland Outcropping which is a cache Sally and I hid. I adopted it from her, but the outcropping was a place I picked out to hide a cache. Tied with it is Roxy the oldest cache in Southern Oregon which I also adopted. Roxy had a dificulty and terrain of 1-1.5 when I went to find it. I thought that was a little low so I adopted it and changed it.

Look for my final 2010 write up on Friday.

Christmas Caching Video

2010-12-26T11:02:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

Every year since I started geocaching I have made an effort to find a cache or 2 on Christmas. Its a nice time to go out because things are pretty quiet. Today I lined up 4 caches and found them all. The last was # 2100 for me.

Look but Don't Leap
big trouble IN river city
Fed Up with Power & Phone
Remembering the past

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Soon I'll be wrapping up 2010 with my list of favorite caches and other bits of useless info.

Geocache Ratings

2010-12-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

Geocaching.com has introduced a new ratings system. I'm not sure if only premium members can see it. But the idea is that you have so many votes (1 for every 10 cache finds) and you marke caches as your favorite. The more votes they have the better the cache (in theory anyway) so far the top caches in this area:

Rainie Falls
Oregon DeLorme Challenge
Chief Sam's bluff
Safe House
BIGFOOTS LAIR
Bigfoot Cache Revisited
Waldo Cemetery Cache
Steps of Stone
Pyramid Rock

While I haven't found the last 2 on the list I think its safe to say that all of these caches are good ones. Now those are on my "to do" list and I otherwise might not have known. I encourage you all to rate some of your favorites. I've gone through and put in votes for about 40 caches and will probably do a few more. I think this could be especially useful when you want a "special" cache to mark a milestone.

Oregon loses

2010-11-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

A tide of change... and Oregon sticks with the same old people. So sad that a governor can win a majority in just 7 of 36 counties and win the election. Perhaps the national change will be enough to see benefit for Oregon, but I doubt it. I think we have lost today.

Maybe we needed those marijuana distribution centers after all. I need something for the pain... and its really fun to run across booby trapped pot fields while you are geocaching.

RIP Maurice Lucas

2010-10-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

Trail Blazer great Maurice Lucas died today at age 58. The "Enforcer" was a big part of the 1977 championship team. I stood just a few feet from him in Las Vegas once and he was still intimidating... I couldn't say a word. He'll be missed. Hope the team can win tomorrow for big Luke.

update

2010-10-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

I actually found 2 caches today.

Irrigated Two
HOMERUN!!!

I tried a couple of others but one had smoking muggles and the other had a lady sitting in her car right next to the cache. Not sure what she was doing as she wasn't on her cell phone, or reading, or eating or anything else I could see. I could probably still go after those, but I'm being lazy again.

The next couple of weeks I'll be dog/house sitting for my former boss.

Since my last blog I also found 29 of 30 numbered caches on the bear creek greenway. Starting with Number One I won't link to then all but it was a fun ride. I went with my uncle John making him the latest family member I have drug geocaching. Our only DNF was Number Six.

Back in August I found some caches as well. Including a couple on Eagle Peak that you can take the Willamette Pass ski resort gondola up to. That was fun. Maybe I will create a back-blog for those.

I also have an event planned for the 23rd Super Science Saturday - The After Party. Before the event the Southern Oregon Geocachers will have a booth at a local science event for grade school and middle school kids. We'll teach kids about GPS technology and give them some temporary caches to find. I'll write more about this soon as well.

What happens when the FDIC comes to town

2010-08-31T21:27:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time between blogs. I've had like 9 finds though so it hasn't been all bad geocaching wise.

As many of you know I worked for Home Valley Bank the last 8 years and it was taken over by the FDIC on July 23. I didn't lose my job so to say, but I definitely have a much different one. I lost a fair amount of money in the process both in 401k and personal stock I had. Needless to say the last 90 days haven't been fun. The month of June hoping that nothing happens. The Month of July preparing for takeover. And the month of August spent digging through the ashes. Dreams, money and hard work all gone.

I took a couple of weekends off to escape, but sadly always came back to the same reality.

I didn't have a lot of time to look after my caches and had a couple of them archived on me. I almost pulled a LazyBoy and archive them all, but in reality even that would have taken more time then I had to dedicate. The only one I cared about though was my A Cool Stop cache. One of my favorite places. Now it has a new cache dedicated to a "crummy little trickle of water"... I guess at least its not a micro.

I have a few caches in need of repair, but if I do get out to them it will be to pull and archive. Perhaps I should wait until I'm in a better mood for some of them.

4th of July

2010-07-05T21:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Daveydude and I went north to Roseburg to find a few caches. Little did the founding fathers know that 234 years later the British and Americans would get along and use Military satellites to find Tupperware hidden in the woods.

We started with Galesville Reservoir finding the newest caches there and deciding not to put my little inflatable raft in the water. Then on up the freeway. I found 32 caches, but had 11 DNFs. One cache we left a replacement so that was really a DNF as well. We had so many DNFs early that I almost said lets call it quits. Then we started finding caches and having fun again.

A while back I wrote the Southern Oregon Geocacher's Creed. 7 guidelines that I like to follow. Guideline #6 providing a useful hint might have made the day a little more enjoyable. Many caches had no hints, and unlike locals who might try 2 or 3 times I don't enjoy driving that far for nothing. Many of them may have been missing but with a useful hint we might have decided that a bit faster. I'll write more about this creed later.

These were the finds for the day

Guarding the Road to the Reservoir
Long Fibre
That Dam Cache
View From the Top
Kinkle Hendrickson Reunion 2009
Safe House (this one will make my best of 2010 list)
JUST BECAUSE I WANTED ONE HERE - THAT'S WHY
I Love You Too
Douglas County Numbers Blitz # 2
Jo has to work some
Whats Your Grind?
Cinco De Mayo
Tres De Mayo
Take the Safe Way Home
I needed some CACHE
Tractors R us
NOT A ROUND ONE
Quatro De Mayo
Can Freddy do an Ollie?
Troost Treasure!
Don't Pull Me Over
TYLER'S EAGLE PROJECT
MY FIRST CACHE IS SO LIGHT
I AM SO LONELY
I Love School and Good News #2
Trevor's Watching
Going Green
Physicians Parking Monday through Friday
I Love School and Good News #3
Hobbit Hole
I-5 stroll
Everyday Heroes

House Painted

2010-06-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

I got my house painted this last week check it out

Before

After

Backlog of stuff

2010-05-15T17:48:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I blogged. I have a small backlog of cache, event and video

Last weekend was the A Salute to State of Jefferson Cachers event. Rock and Crystal put this one on for the second year in a row. I was able to attend this year, but last year it was on the day of my March of Dimes walk. It was a lot of fun to see everyone.

At the event Turner asked if I had found the cache outside my window yet. It seems someone hid one in the park behind the bank and I didn't even realize. So one day this week when it looked a bit sunny I went out and grabbed it Walk don't Run. This park can be pretty muggle heavy at times. I got lucky on the timing.

Last month I found my 2000th cache. I made a video of it, but never got around to putting the parts together until today. Enjoy

Reno

2010-05-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

I got back from Reno yesterday. I didn't find a single cache. The only one I searched for was either missing or very well hidden

Souvenir Penny Cache

This cache was on or near the old Reno arch. It had another DNF the same day.

Besides that I had a lot of fun. Had a good weekend gambling. I entered a Omaha Poker tournament at the Peppermill. 18 players and they paid the top 3. It wasn't a no limit game, but none the less I was so short stacked when it got down to the last 6 players I ended up having to go all in several times. Somehow I managed to not only make it into the top 3 but to take the overall chip lead. After pushing chips back and forth we decided to split the money.

A new look

2010-04-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I changed my blog template again. I was still happy with the old one, but had to change it so that youtube HD videos would not be chopped off. Future geocaching videos will probably all be in HD so it had to change. I was not happy with the choices available, I finally settled on one of the most simple and changed the colors to something more geocaching appropriate then the default black and white.

Thursday I will be leaving for Reno. I am going with non-geocachers so I don't know if I will be able to get any caches, but I'll try my best to pick up a couple.

March for Babies

2010-04-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is what its like

Silver Lake

2010-04-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

Kind of late on bloging my trip to Silver Lake. We went to have dinner at the Cowboy Dinner Tree for my dad's upcoming b-day. On the way over we found a few caches. Maybe later I'll post some pictures of the place.

These were the finds for the day:

TURNABOUT
ROCKPILE
SOL-MANS DASH2
A Brief Respite
Sand Creek Guard
Silver Creek
The "Desert Rose"
No guards today
What DO cattle guard?

The 2k pillow

2010-04-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the Catch Duck-N-Deedy before they leave!!! event. Obviously Duck was there before they go to the coast later this month. It was a pretty good turnout and we had the cafe to ourselves. DrDan also handed me the beloved 2000 Find Pillow. I'm not sure how the pillow got started but it has been around a while. It has the names of all the Southern Oregon cachers to reach 2000 finds. I hope to pass it on soon.

After the event I ran into Beaver Lover, Peanuthead, and Iseek. So I tagged along with them for these finds.

The Deal
Wrapped IV
"Ivy" League Soccer
SPLIT
Wrapped III

#2000

2010-04-04T14:24:00.001-07:00

I found my 2000th cache today.

Hellooo !!

It was a nice hike in the Elk Trails system. Nice views all around and a good size cache. What more can you ask for. I hope more of my next 1000 can be like this.

Hope to have the video up soon.

Gearing up for 2000

2010-03-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I gave my uncle Duck a call hoping that he could help me get 20 caches to put me at 1999. It didn't take us too long to collect the caches needed. I had planned to find a good cache for number 2k and go for it today, but I had a lot of problems with gc.com this morning so I decided to hope for sunny weather next weekend and go out then. That give me a week to find a good cache. Anyone have sugestions?

These were my finds for Saturday.

Scenic Bayou?
ALF
Cee-Dar River
You've got mail
Venus Fly Trap
I.V.
4 some
Hand Made
No Fire in the Mountains
Read my meter
PWV
Another Door Open
One Shoe
Bundled
WALL*E
Western Express
Bo Peep
Steelhead?
Shari's
U hauled

7 Years

2010-03-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

I found my first cache 7 years ago today. Doesn't seem like its been that long....

Albany, Roseburg and an old Highway

2010-03-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday I got a call from my uncle Duck. He wonders if I'd like to join him on a trip to the "Got Cache!" event in Roseburg. And while we're at it why don't we drive up to Albany so he can get the ABC Challenge final. So of course I said "ok"

The drive to Albany included a brief stop for some cache maintainence and a few finds for me including

Just Past Heaven
Deedy Said So
Boat Ramp ?
Pipe Dream
Road Narrows 2

These are all great caches right along Quines Creek just off I-5 at the Heaven on Earth exit. Very nice series of easy caches on a good road.

On we went to Albany where after a bit of walking around we found the ABC final. Then back down the road to Sutherlin where we worked our way down Hwy 99 to Roseburg for the event. Good event... it did seem like out of town cachers outnumbered the locals. After the event we found a couple of caches and called it a day. These were our finds

Winter Ware
Which Way
Where is the whitevette?
BLAYZ BROILED
Desert Thunder
Memories of Old Highway 99 #7
Memories of Old Highway 99 #6
Memories of Old Highway 99 #8
Memories of Old Highway 99 #4
Memories of Old Highway 99 #3
The Slab
A Dutch View

A better Dog

2010-03-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the A Better Dog -- 03/07/10 -- 2:00 event in Cave Junction. It was held at Taylor's Sausage Country Store one of the best places to eat in the whole world.

It was a good turnout, but it didn't seem like anyone stuck around for very long. After the event I went with Duck and Biggieet_al and we found these caches

Meander thru CJ 5 Junction Ave
Meander thru CJ 6 Sherwood
Meander thru CJ 4 Lindilu
Meander thru CJ 2 Burgundy Lane
Meander thru CJ 1 Cottage Park Rd
CJ North
IVFD Station Four
My Daddys worst fears realized

Las Vegas

2010-03-05T23:24:00.000-08:00

Just got back from Las Vegas. This trip was with friends and was more about shows then gambling (although I did my fair share)

We drove out to the Hoover Dam and saw Jubilee!, Penn & Teller, and 'O'. Also rode the roller coaster at New York, New York. I didn't attempt the indoor skydiving, but I watched as another in my group did. Plus I found time for two caches.

Welcom e to Las Vegas
Welcome To This Fabulous Cache

Backlog - February 14

2010-02-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

In my next backlog it is the day after the event. Daveydude and I decided to spend most of the day geocaching in Coos Bay. We found a lot of geocaches in town and revisited a few old ones. A few old Berliner caches were archived, but then revived in their exact same hiding spots as new caches. It was kind of fun to revisit old hiding spots. Another cache on the way home was very near the location of a long archived cache. So it was a day of revisiting old locations. These were our finds for the day:

You can't get there from here!
BERLINERS FERRY PARK # 4
BERLINERS FERRY PARK # 2
BERLINERS FERRY PARK # 1
End of the Road (AKA Village Idiot)
CACHE A MOVIE
Roosevelt Elk
Connecticut Cache
Oregon Coast responds to Pearl Harbor
Home Run? or Foul Ball?
Express Yourself
Who's in charge here?
The King Lies In Slumber #1
Gargamel's Hut
Totem Pole Or Stump?
Muggle-iscious! Round 2
Brussels.........but not sprouts !
Drive-in Theater Motor-Vu
"Can you hear me now?"
RDRCK
Socket it me ??
Smurf Village
Kinney Kache
BERLINER'S MINGUS PARK # 2
BERLINER'S MINGUS PARK # 1
Dr. Bern #5
Bandon Crossings
Rock Me Gently, Rock Me Slowly
Old # 104
At the Cross
Canyon Creek TB Bed & Breakfast

We also looked for City Limits which is about .12 of a mile from my house. Yesterday Dave dropped by for a minute and we found it. I now sit at 1950 finds. Perhaps I'll be able to find a few in Las Vegas next week.

Backlog - February 13

2010-02-19T09:03:00.000-08:00

As usually I am a bit behind on my blog. This last weekend Daveydude and I headed to Coos Bay for the "10 Years of Geocaching", Wintertime Fun-1 #4 event. This is the second year I have attended and for many it is a must do event. There were nearly 200 people in attendance. We found a lot of caches on the way over and the weather was great. I found my 1900th cache on this trip. Besides the event these were our finds:

Eat first then you end up with gas
Umpqua Winery & Vineyard Series #15
Suicidal Tendencies
Last of this Dorsey of Gnomes
Kumbaya
Middle Fork View
PARK N PLAY
ENDANGERED BEAR
!!T.G.I.F!!
Supply Stop
Roadkill Cache
Oregon Keychain Exchange
It's A Boat Time
Captanrdr's Big Bank
Winter Lake
Cold hard cache!
Just A Lil' In-Spire-d
IPS on the Pacific
Urban Camo #3 on the Pacific
Seek & you shall find...
Ode To Freddy's Deck REVISITED
Turn around here!
Drive-in Theater Bay
Only you can prevent Forest Fires
March Madness
Pit Stop!
BERLINER'S ANCHORS AWAY!
Blackberry Pie
Metric Eyeopener

Weekend caches

2010-02-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

Well the Blazer game might not have been all that great, but I did get a few caches

Treasure by the Loo!
One Degree: N I-5 Rest
Rip City Rhapsody
GD Series #6 : Fire On The Mountain
Blue Star Memorial Highway

The puzzle on Rip City Rhapsody was a fun one, but you'll need the hint to get the right coords.

Next weekend Daveydude has some 60 caches lined up. Hope the weather is nice.

Blazers game

2010-02-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

Going up tonight to see the Blazers play the Lakers. Should be a good game. I've loaded up a handful of caches to find on the drive... to break it up a little.

Its been nice weather lately. Too bad I have been stuck at work with no time for geocaching. Next weekend however I am going with Daveydude to Coos Bay for the "10 Years of Geocaching", Wintertime Fun-1 #4 event. That should be a fun time.

March of Dimes time

2010-01-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

Time to raise money for 2010. A lot of you donated last year and my team raised over $6000.

You might be asking what the money goes towards. A good portion goes into research. Some of it goes into programs to educate new mothers in ways to improve their odds of having full term pregnacies. And some is used to help support families whose newborns are in intensive care. When my cousin had her son someone from the March of Dimes visited every day.

Normally I don't bring politics into my blog, but I think this is an oppropriate time. There is a growing trend to "let the government deal with it." Letting politicians handle more and more issues with our tax dollars is not a good solution. I believe there are some things that the government just should not have a hand in. If we step up when we can and take care of our own we eliminate the need for the government, and their inefficiency, to step in.

I'm tired

2010-01-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't had much time for geocaching or blogging. Last Wednesday I had a major router issue so I spent a whole night at that. Then the weekend was full of moving into our remodeled space. The new brach is all open... very few problems so that is good. If you have ever been in before you should stop back by just to have a look.

End of the run

2010-01-04T22:12:00.001-08:00

I had a find everyday of 2010 going, but in the end I knew it would be hard to manage. I didn't get out of work until it was dark and had no desire to find a cache at that point. Oh well.

I probably won't have any finds this weekend as I have a major project to accomplish at work. Our newly remodeled branch should open this next Monday and I get to move all the PC's and get them hooked up this weekend. Should be a nice looking paycheck this month if nothing else.

Walk around the Rose Garden

2010-01-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

After last nights game we stayed the night in Portland. This morning we took a walk around the Rose garden to find the cache Blazers Rock. It was an easy find without many people around. I made a short video to test an editing program I might purchase... its a total spoiler of the cache, but have a look if you like.

Blazers Win!

2010-01-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

Took a trip to Portland tonight to watch the Portland Trail Blazers take on the Golden State Warriors. After a poor first quarter the blazers won ever other and won the game 105-89.

Even saw fellow Southern Oregon geocacher Beaver Lover at the game. In fact we sat in the same section... small world.

Found two caches on the way up and will probably look for a couple on the way back tomorrow. Finds for the day included

Back in the Woods
Saginaw Inn

Welcome 2010

2010-01-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

I found my first cache of the new year today as the sun came through the clouds

Power Up Baby

Too close to home and too nice of a opportunity to pass up. If I were to decide to try the Days of the Year Challenge I would need to keep finding caches for a few days. I don't think I could keep it up, but I might try it through January. It gets easier after that.

Tomorrow I am going up to Portland for a Blazers game. Hope to find a couple on the way up and back.

Last Day of 2009

2009-12-31T13:18:00.000-08:00

Another year has come and gone. Time flies when you are having fun... and even when you aren't. Its been an up and down year for geocaching, but a fun one none the less.

Highlights for the year include:

Hid just one cache
Reached the 1700 and 1800 find milestones
Tied my all time high of 53 finds 01/19/09
Had 43 finds 04/04/09
had 38 finds 10/24/09

Some of my favorite caches of 2009 include:

Thank you to all of you who have hidden the caches found this year. Happy New Year and I hope to see you all out on the trail in 2010!

Is the year over?

2009-12-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

It is just about time to do my end of the year write up. My geocaching this year has been spotty at best. Despite setting a lot of all time lows including Zero finds in July my total for the year was better then 2006 or 2007. That was mainly because of a handful of really big days including a tie for my all time high of 53 in a day.

I hope 2010 will bring a return of enthusiasm for the game. I have been itching to get out and find a few caches, but the winter weather and work have kept me in. As I stated before except for group find days when we are after numbers I plan to be picky and only seek out better caches... that should mean putting in a few extra driving miles and doing a lot more hiking.

The only real hike to a cache I did this year was to Nugget Butte with DaveyDude. The hike almost killed me, but I had forgotten how much I enjoy having to put effort into a cache. I'm not talking effort in finding it... I'm talking effort in getting there. Finding a well camoed micro in town might be a challenge, but its the physical challenge that I crave. Again this is not to an extreme... I won't be buying any climbing gear or risking my life... I'll stick to the trails.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T15:24:00.001-08:00

As is tradition I went out for a few Christmas Caches today. These were today's finds

Reserved for Doogie Howser, M.D.
ATM Tree
Alternate Entrance

I also tested out my new video cam. Here is a short and badly executed video of one of our finds.

December thoughts

2009-12-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

It has been a slow time geocaching for me. I've been at it for almost 7 years now and I have always gone at my own speed. I think it would be easy to get burned out. Once upon a time very few caches bothered me... today I have more and more of a dislike for certain caches. Caches that are hard to find... in residential places... micros in the woods.

This next year I plan to be much more selective. I might go out for numbers with a group, but any caches I do on my own will be those that I think will be better then average. I purchased a new video camera and I plan to document these better caches on this site. I also plan to archive some of my old caches and really focus on hiding a few new quality caches. I've talked about it before... somehow I feel that this time it either happens or I join Lazyboy on the old retired cachers list.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

Happy turkey day everyone

Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

2009-11-02T12:45:00.000-08:00

Found my first cache of November

ABC Challenge

This challenge required you to find a cache starting with each letter of the alphabet. It took me a while to collect all 26. Q, X, and Z are not super popular. Eventually all of them popped up in the local area for me to find. The final is in Albany. I was up there visiting my friend Dave and going to the Oregon State game. Made for a good excuse to stop for the cache.

All the way to Butte Falls

2009-10-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the Come On Up To Butte Falls!! event.

Butte Falls is a small community in Jackson County known for having a lot of geocaches because it is the home of Lazyboy & Mitey Mite. Of course he was too lazy to show up.

Great turnout for an event so far up in the hills. Met a few new people and a bunch of old ones.

Found a handful of caches on the day

NO OVERNIGHT CAMPING!
ROCKY SIENNA
"I used to climb these!"
"1 HOT TREE"
Lady Of The River
IOOF Cemetery
...and crackers
Little Pine
lazyboy guardrail
WILD FLOWERS
Shampoo
Discover Butte Falls
Glad You Visited Butte Falls, Now Go Home
landing
Hey Another Guard Rail
Look It's a Guard Rail
SKELETON CACHE
Garlic?
Charbroiled & Singed
OK There's a Bus Barn In Butte Falls OK?
The Flume
Welcome To Butte Falls Flatlanders
Lazyboy's Backyard
Roots in the air
THE MAN CACHE
LADY CACHE (2)
lady cache (1)
Graveyard Goodies
Looking for the elk
Gold Ray
Lonely Fire Hydrant
Gold Hill Fun In The Sun
GH Cache N Dash
Cache Fishing
Madrone Forest
Already Logged
Old Stumpy 2

The ODC

2009-10-14T10:22:00.001-07:00

On this day 3 years ago SallyC and I completed the Oregon DeLorme Challenge.

My how time flies. That was a lot of fun. Perhaps I need to find a new challenge cache to make things interesting again.

Finds by date

2009-10-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

I was reading popop's blog today and say his post for a new challenge cache.

Days of the Year Challenge

Mike had nearly 90% I only have 64%... at least I do have a February 29 so I won't have to wait till 2012, but with the way I do things it will probably take even longer then that. I do have enough local caches saved up that I could potentially complete this, but the soonest would be October 2, 2010. Here is my chart.

Another challenge complete

2009-10-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

So I went and found a few caches today

OLD STUMP
Zigzag
one more
Z Trail
Teel
Very Near By

The first 4 were all in Cathedral Hills. There are a ton more there for me to find, but I went with my sister and her little dog and didn't want to drag them over every trail. I'll probably make multiple trips to get the rest. Teel is near where my parents live and is actually in the exact spot my sister had a cache hidden before. I decided to grab Very Near By later in the day so that I could complete the ABC Challenge. To complete this challenge you need to have found a cache whose name begins with each letter of the alphabet. V was my last letter. There are lots of caches around and I could have completed it a long time ago, but I was taking my time. Now I just need to get up to Albany to log the final. I have tickets for an OSU game Oct 31 so I'll probably be able to grab it then, but I might make it up there sooner.

Speaking of challenge caches I need to get over to Bend and log CCIO someday. I probably hold some sort of record for the longest time between completion and logging of a challenge cache.

October cache

2009-10-02T09:02:00.001-07:00

Well it didn't take me long to get my first October cache. I made the short walk from my house to pick up

I Care & Eye Care 2

I might go and find a few caches this weekend. Cathedral Hills has a bunch that I haven't found. Maybe I'll get back into the groove of things faster then I expected... or maybe the rain will start sooner then expected and I won't find any... who knows.

Well...

2009-09-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

I only found 2 caches this month... one was an event... and the other I didn't have my GPS.

6th Annual Pizza by the Creekside
Under Cover

I briefly looked for another well hidden cache, but I didn't spend much time at it.

Work has kept me very busy, but I have had the time to go geocaching... just not the desire. I won't blame it on the hides in the area. While I don't particularly like some of what I am seeing there are still plenty of good caches to be found. Perhaps after a bit more time off I will come back more enthusiastic then ever.

Coastal Caches

2009-08-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I took off to the coast with my family. We stopped in Brookings for lunch after a short stop at the Lucky 7 Casino. I lost $20 but I got a cool water bottle. Anyway I also found a handful of caches. These were my finds for the day

Oversized
Do Bears......in the Woods?
YO ADRIENNE!
Holliday Inn Travel bug Hotel
Welcome to Brookings
Boat Launch

Football

2009-08-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

So DirecTV is pretty sneaky sometimes. They offer you free stuff and then if you don't cancel it they start charging you. Last year I got NFL ticket free. I didn't really watch it a lot and some of the games I did want to watch were blacked out... and the HD package cost more.

Well this year I am getting charged for it so I called to cancel. Instead they offered me a free upgrade to the HD pack and $10 off a month. Personally I'm not really sure it is worth it still, but now that I can get them in HD maybe I'll watch it more.

As for college football I am unsure if my Beavs will be any good. I have tickets to see them on Halloween (what a great day to wear orange) against UCLA.

A few caches

2009-08-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today was a caching event in Selma

Walk in the Country Folks

I was unsure if I would attend or not. Its a long way out there and I am lazy... but in the end I decided to take the opportunity to find a few caches. With the event I ended up with 10. These were the caches for the day.

Drone Whole
Josiah Smokeater
Happy 150th Oregon from the Troll
Haze or Hays
Happy 150th birthday Oregon
Fairly Good Sized Pine
Many trunks
Xing
Rock Over

Birthday caches

2009-08-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was my birthday. I haven't found a cache on my birthday every year since I started caching but sometimes I make the effort. Since I hadn't found a cache in so long I decided to take the opportunity. These where the finds for the day

SPARCY II
High and Dry
General Polycrates

The first two were pretty easy. The third one was sneaky, but the coords were good. Its a neighborhood cache which I don't usually like hunting for... but it wasn't just dropped in a random neighborhood to leave neighbors wondering just what the hell you are doing... and that makes a big difference. I probably looked for 3 minutes so that wasn't too bad.

What happened to July?

2009-08-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

Somehow I managed to go a whole month without finding a cache. The hot weather and working weekends contributed.

I went to Las Vegas on the 24th through the 27th. It was my first trip to Vegas without finding a cache. I still have a few virtuals to find (but none on the main part of the strip) and there are some micros along the strip (if I want to venture into dark parking garages). I did go downtown and was right on top of a virtual there, but didn't have my gps to figure out what I needed info from.

I'll find a cache today to end my no caching streak.

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.