How I love this Spring time weather!

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

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

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

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

A non geocaching weekend

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


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

Grabbing some new caches

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

Guiding Light
Trinity
Park Here Too
Walkway
Walleyed
Power to Walk

13 Minute Mile

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

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

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

9 Minute Mile

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

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

A couple more

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

Industry
A_CORNy Cache #2

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

Cachin' with the Beav and the Peanut

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

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

un-productive

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

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

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

Difficulty and Terrain

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

Oregon has such a challege

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

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

Just short of a dozen

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

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

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

These were the finds for the day

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

Bike Riding

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

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

A few more

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

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

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

Start of the weekend

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

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

Here were my finds for the day:

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

2 more

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

Submerge
ROCK'N'CACHE!

Cache day

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

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

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

First caches of '08

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

Sweet Tooth
Another Creeky Cache
Check It!
Thanks

2008

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

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

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

Last Day of 2007

So today is the last day of 2007 and that means its time to look back on the year. It has been a pretty slow year for me since SallyC moved to Salem. I had many months with only single digit finds, but on the other end of the spectrum October and May were my #2 and 3 all time months for the number of finds I had. Several cache excursions with Daveydude, Iseek, Duck and Biggieet_al kept me in the numbers.

Highlights for the year include:

• Hid a measly 2 caches and 1 event (will have to make up for this in '08)
• Reached the 1100, 1200, and 1300 find milestones
• Adopted more than 30 SallyC caches
• Found Caches in 5 States

Some of my favorite caches of the year include:

• Wildfires are for the birds!
• Valley Floor
• Miller Lake Ridgeline Cache
• Dead Ends! It's Miller time!
• Sorry, Try Again
• Bolan Creek Cache
• Bobby's Booty
• Tempus Fidget
• Babe
• Beginning or Ending of Albany Ave. ?
• Cemetery Ridge
• Welcome to Utah
• Hangin' Out At The Country Store
• Tombstone
• TREED

So a big thank you to all the geocachers who hid these caches and others I have found this year. Hope to see you all on the trail in 2008. Have a Happy New Year!

More caches and plumbing

Well Early this morning I got my plumbing issue taken care of... only cost me $350... ouch. The pipes behind the hot water heater were clogged.

After that I found 2 caches and I might fit in a couple more as its a nice day.

VERTICAL BANJO
Leaping Legume

Tomorrow I'll write up my year end summary. Where did 2007 go to?... seems like it just started.

Caches and plumbing

Well I walked and got a cache today

Grace

After that I ran the washing machine and the hot water went out. The tank isn't filling with water. I think there is an air lock in the pipes. I tried hooking the cold water to the hot water behind the washer, but it doesn't seem to have enough pressure to push all the air out.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of my loyal blog readers. Now that I'm all moved into my house I should have time for geocaching again. As is traditions I picked up a couple of Christmas caches today

TREE WITH 17 TRUNKS
TREED

I have all sorts of caches saved up to find so I should be able to survive the winter. As usual I'll soon be compiling a list of my favorite caches of 2007 one of todays might have made the list and I still have one more weekend to find more.

Getting back on track

I have been pretty busy moving into the new house. Moving stuff and unpacking has been a slow process. I still have a long way to go as I have a lot of junk.

Hopefully I'll be able to find a handful of caches before the end of the year. I've got one within walking distance of my house so maybe I'll pick it up soon.

Home updates

Thought it was time for a few more pictures of my house.

Here is the hall bathroom



The Master Bathroom



And the master bedroom all but complete with my new furniture.

Event and caches

I'm a few days late, but on Sunday was the latest cache event.

Pizza With Beavers & Ducks

Also found a couple other caches

PIZZA PLACE
GIVE ME A SIGN

Several new cachers and out of town visitors in attendance. It was a pretty good time. Here is a picture of a cache find just before we all went in to eat.

A Find?

After a bit of cleaning at my house today I went to lunch with some of my family. My uncle Duck and cousin Oldendorf were there and had done a bit of caching beforehand. I decided not to be left out too bad so I went and found one cache

A_CORNy Cache

Painting and renovation

Well I have tried to work on my house as much as I can. Thanks to my uncle the painting is mostly done. And my dad tore out most of the kitchen floor that needed removed. All of this while I had to work overtime moving our Cave Junction branch to a new location... the timing of which couldn't be worse for me to get much done on my place. Oh well I can use the extra money.

Here is a picture of the remains of the kitchen floor

This is a picture of the master bedroom in a darker green. Not a good picture, it looks much better in person and after the second coat.

This is the second bedroom in progress.

The living room painted a nice beige color with the half wall removed.

My uncle convinced me to paint one bathroom chocolate brown. I think it looks pretty good.

Kitchen demo

No geocaching lately for me. Today was demolition day at my house. Removed a few kitchen cabinets to open it up. and took stuff off the walls to prepare for paint. Have a look





Also rain_man_rich came by and gave me this cool house warming gift

New Home

Well it is official. I closed on my House yesterday and I got the keys. Its pretty exciting. I won't be moving in right away as I am going to rip out the carpet, paint, and have new hardwood floors installed.

I never got the last 5 caches needed to make October my biggest month of finds. With a new house, winter weather, and a whole bunch of work stuff I might not have much time for caching the rest of the year. I'll try to get a few were I can.

Record setting month???

Well I tried to find 7 caches today to beat my all time record for caches found in a month. Currently my record is 80 caches set in March of 2004. That included my record of 53 in a single day.

I got my first 2 finds with a little luck

Double Mystery
Golf Course

The next 5 caches I was thwarted by muggles or just plain no finds. I gave up after that. Guess with all those extra eyes searching yesterday I just forgot how it was done. So for right now I have 76 finds for the month.

Here is a picture of one of our many finds from yesterday.

Big caching day

At the last event I was invited to go along with Biggieet_al and Duck the next Saturday for a caching trip to Medford. So today joined by Oldendorf we made the trip and found a lot of new caches. I found 30 to be exact... just enough to reach 1300.

Most of todays caches were easy drive up micros so there were none really exciting. A few of them were too urban for me... but we found them all the same. These were the finds for the day.

Travelers Bug Hangout
Wild And Scenic Rogue
FARMING ARTIFACTS
Phone Tree ??
SLEEPING BEAUTY
Little oak
OLD MILT
OLD STAGE ROAD VISTA
Dahlia
Willow Creek Bush
LEWIS and PARK
FOUR FINE FIR TREES
NO BAKERS DOZEN HERE!
yield!
Fiddlers Three
JUST BECAUSE
POLE VERMIN
the bolted rock award!
MEAN MAG MICRO
Ellendale 35
CLOCKOVER
Rockit
ANOTHER CREEKSIDE CACHE
Little Cedar?
Cedar? 2
WILDISH TREES
YAPIDNA 2
Cut Grass
That's da crunk
BOES 12 GA.

Country caching

Today was the Walk in the Country Folks event. I found a few caches beforehand and showed up for the event at 1pm... guess I misread as the event was at 1:30. So I sat by myself for a while. After the event my new neighbor rain_man_rich and I found a few caches. We had a couple no finds and hard searches which kept us from finding too many. These were the finds for the day.

Lonesome Cedar
Redwood Wetlands
ducks by the creekside # 5
ducks by the creekside # 4
ducks by the creekside #2
Just in case
ducks by the creekside #3

GeoWoodstock VI: the website

The website for Geowoodstock 6 is up and running. You can now register for the event. It is totally free with free food and activities, but you have to register to get a food ticket.

I'm all registered and have a room reserved and everything... even if its 7 months away.

A year gone by

It was one year ago yesterday that SallyC and I finished the Oregon DeLorme Challenge. It has only been done by one other cacher since (though 2 more are ready to complete it.)

In the 2 years since the cache was hidden it only has 8 finds and 3 of those were out of state geocachers. It does take a good bit of time, money and dedication to complete, but it is worth it just for bragging rights.

FTF feaver

Last night I noticed a new cache near my house that had yet to be found. So I took off after dinner and got a FTF.

Ladeana

The weather is suppose to improve this weekend so I might try and find a few more caches. I have a lot just in the Grants Pass area... in Medford I have hundreds. I'll have to decide if I want to hike a bit or just do a bunch of cache-n-dashes.

Columbus Day caching

Yesterday was Columbus Day, and that means a day off for me. Some people don't think Columbus should be honored with a holiday, but I disagree. I'm an equal opportunity holiday taker... I'll take a day off paid in the name of just about anyone.

With the day off I called up my uncle Duck to see if he was interested in picking up some new caches. Mainly I wanted to get a new cache called Tombstone. This cache is in and old tombstone quarry recently discovered in Josephine County. It is an interesting place with several stones in different stages of completion. A tombstone quarry also makes for a perfect October cache.

Also found 10 other caches that I had been saving up in the area

You're Benched
Deceptive
Defence
TINY PARK,BIG TREES
POLEMIC
ODS Snoogan's 5 - GP
Camping Out in Joy
Three at Sixty-One
Would You Marry Harris?
Salute

Weekend of caches

Yesterday Daveydude and I went out to Cave Junction to find some of the new caches in the area and pick up a few older ones. These were my finds for the day.

Mother Hubbard
GOATHEAD
1 + 7 =8 cache
2 + 6 =8 cache
2 x 4=8 cache
8 cache
1 dollar cache
4 dollar cache
7 dollar cache
8 dollar cache
View #1
Those Flyboys Gotta Love Em
Barbwire
You turn me right & left
“The Secret Cache Stage 1”
“The Secret Cache Stage 2”
“The Secret Cache Stage 3”

We ran out of time to complete the secret cache series. So those must wait for another day.

Today I decided to pick up a few and ended with 7. I was thwarted by muggles all day... including a concert and sidewalk chalk artists. These were my finds

Tower Power
It's Done 2
Over the bridge
cornered -- no longer Centered
Hello Gilbert
Mycorrhizal
R and R

House hunting at an end?

Well my house hunting days may be over. I found a nice little 2 bed 2 bath house and put in an offer on it... and it was accepted. As long as nothing comes up in the inspection it should be just a matter of days before I'm moving in.

Mmmmm more pizza

Today was another geocaching event put on by Sparrowhawk on her way down to Las Vegas. While I missed the bulk of the event due to a lapse of memory and sleepiness I got there just in time to enjoy some of the conversation and pass on a travel bug. It was a good time and I wish her the best of luck.

Pink Ribbon Journey/TBs to Las Vegas (Grants Pass)

Mmmmm creek side pizza

Today was the "premier" Southern Oregon geocaching event.

4th. Annual Pizza By The Creekside

This annual event is always fun. Pretty good pizza and good friends. There were some 75 caches hidden in preparation for this event and I found one... the closest to the event.

Hangin' Out At The Country Store

Sitting at the airport

Well here I am sitting at the Las Vegas airport and I have a lot of time to waste. Lucky for me there is free internet.

I didn't get as many caches as I was hoping but I did manage to drive to St George, Utah through Arizona and pick up finds in 3 states. That means this month I've found caches in 5 states Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. I only wish I had more time.

Here is a picture of the Hotel I stayed at

Here is a picture of a graveyard in Arizona near the cache I found

And here is the sign at the rest area in Utah

My cache finds for the whole weekend were

Beginning or Ending of Albany Ave. ?

Pump-It-Up!

Cemetery Ridge

Welcome to Utah

Driving Diversion

I also had a couple of no finds. I'll try to post more pictures when I get home.

Viva Las Vegas

Well I made it to Las Vegas. Its pretty late so no caching tonight. Tomorrow I'll get a few.

Jason goes skydiving

Here is the video

Color change, again

I decided too many blogs had the same color scheme... so I changed mine a bit. I'm too lazy to create my own theme anymore so I stuck with what I had, I just changed to the "green" color scheme which I think is better for a geocaching blog anyway.

I'm still looking forward to Sunday when I fly out to Vegas... I have a lot to think about. But before that on Saturday is my best friends wedding. I'm the best man so I have to make a toast... I have to come up with something to say, don't want to look like too much of an idiot.

A trip to the Redwoods

Took a trip to Crescent City yesterday and found a few caches. We stopped by the Trees of Mystery walked though the trail and rode on the Skytrail tram. That was a lot of fun. Took a few pictures and drove home.





These were the caches for the day

Nothing special
Messy Kraut
Wave to Smokey
Tempus Fidget
TONS OF FUN ONE
Goobercache IV
Goobercache VII
Goobercache VIII
Goobercache XI
Yurok Loop Cache
Babe

Next Stop... Las Vegas

I should be able to find a few caches this weekend and perhaps a few the weekend after when I'm in Albany. But what I am really looking forward to is the 9th through the 12th when I'll be in Las Vegas. Most people probably focus on the casinos and nightclubs... but I've been focused on the geocaching. There will be plenty of time for gambling after dark. Oh sure I have to attend a conference for a good portion of the day but I should be able to get a few caches in. I'm even trying to plan a bit of a road trip.

skydiving

I did it... I went skydiving. Yes me, the guy that doesn't even like to climb ladders or walk down steep hills. I've never even flown in an airplane before.

So this was all my friend Dave's idea. For some reason he got this idea in his head that before he got married he was going skydiving... and for some reason I agreed to go.

The process was easy enough. We drove up to Molalla and signed a bunch of waivers... then we paid our money and went through about 15 minutes of training. After that we waited forever and finally got the call to go suit up. I told my guy I was not a big fan of heights and could never jump on my own... he said not to worry he'd jump and I'd go with him. Soon we loaded on the plane like a bunch of sardines... we climbed to 13000 feet and they opened the doors. The experienced people jumped first and I scooted down the bench. My instructor told me to walk toward the door turn toward the cockpit and that he would step left and I'd follow... and thats what we did. After tumbling a bit we steadied out and it was amazing. After a few seconds of freefall (120 MPH) he pulled the shoot and we floated softly back to the earth.

Pictures

Here is a picture of Bobby lake from an area near the cache.



And a picture of a small island on Waldo Lake... would be a great place for a cache but is too often full of muggles.

Camping

I went camping to Waldo Lake over the weekend. Found a few caches while I was out

Crestview St.
CHARLATAN
Bobby's Booty
Diamond View
Up From The Ashes

I loaded the nearest 300 caches to the lake in my GPS but didn't have any real plan's except for hiking to Bobby Lake for the new Bobby's Booty cache. I was a day late for the first find on that one. Stopped at the store in Oakridge and decided to check the GPS... sure enough there was a cache just a couple hundred feet away on Crestview St. On the way back we stopped by the Diamond Peak viewpoint and ran into a couple of geocachers... one of whom happens to be the sister of Beaver Lover. I'll post some pictures later.

Adventures in the sky

I've been a lot of place in Oregon and to several states but I have never flown in an airplane. Not even a short trip. Some people find that amazing. I don't really... all my family lives close and I've always been too poor to travel far. However, a conference in Las Vegas is coming up and I have scheduled my first airplane flight for September. Well that was the plan until today... today I got booked on a much different flight.

Skydive Oregon

My friend wanted to do this before his wedding... so I agreed. On August 25th I get the rare distinction of jumping out of the first airplane I ever rode in.

30?... dang

Well today is my 30th birthday. I don't really feel 30... well except my left arm has been pretty sore lately and I can't see a thing without my glasses anymore.

I saved a nearby cache just to have one to find on the occasion

Elk Lane Park

oh my

I actually found a cache yesterday

Nebraska Canal Trail

I haven't had much time for anything, but with the bank conversion done and the newest branch open I should have my weekends back.

Today is also my nieces first birthday.

Happy 4th of July

I have been so busy lately that I never thought I'd find my 1200th cache, but since I had today off I went out and got the 7 I needed.

What’s in a Name?
BUSted
2nd try
Park Here
SPARCY
Mow and Stow
The plane truth

All but # 1200 were hidden by Turner and Stitch. If it weren't for a couple of no finds I would have ended up with on of their caches for the milestone, but I couldn't find cornered -- Centered and ODS Snoogan's 5 - GP. The first one I think is missing, the second was a tough hide and I had to give up due to the heat which was in the mid 90's by that point.

Now I'm just relaxing on my day off before I have to go back to work. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July and a happy 231rst birthday to the good ol' U.S.A.

One more

The last cache I found on the weekend is now active so I could log it

Those who came before us #3

That leaves me with 7 finds for the 1200 milestone. I'll be pretty busy with work the next 2 weeks so it might have to wait, but I do have a lot of local caches saved. We'll see how it goes.

A few more

Yesterday was the Oasis In The Country event. It was a fun one with a pretty good turnout for the short notice. Depending on if anyone else wants to host I might put on the July event myself.

After the event I went with Iseek & Eyeseek2 for a few new caches

Where's John? #1
Where's John? #2
Davey come back 2

In between a couple of those we also teamed with IVHS76 and son to find a few of his new caches. We were happy to have him guiding us.

French Peak Multi
Those who came before us #1
Those who came before us #2
Those who came before us #3 (as yet unapproved, but the coords are in #1 and #2)
Bolan Creek Cache

The French Peak cache was a 11 part multi... probably the longest I have completed for just one smiley face, but I think it was meant to tease a couple of evil cachers in the area so I think maybe its fitting. Also while logging caches in the area I discovered one I forgot to log on our last cache outing.

FOR JOHN & CHRIS,LUCKY 300!

I was hoping the the Firehouse Tour cache would be fixed in time for us to find it this weekend, but it was not to be I guess. I'm hoping the owner will give us the coords to the new final cache if it changes any.

It was a fun weekend. If the #3 cache above gets approved one of these days I'll be just 7 caches from 1200.

Sunday of Geocaching

On Sunday I got away from work for a bit of geocaching with Iseek and Daveydude. We headed toward Cave Junction with a few caches in mind and we found all but one, Firehouse Tour. You needed 6 caches to find this one... each contained a part of the coords, but someone had replaced the logbook of the second cache and not written in the coords needed. We attempted to guess and finally asked for help from Uncle Duck... the area he mentioned fit the rest of the coords perfectly (and was later confirmed correct) but we never found the cache. Didn't log a DNF as of yet because we were unsure of the coords. Beyond that I ended with 21 finds on the day and had a good time caching with friends. These were the finds for the day

21 GUN SALUTE
Impowered
S.O.S , VECTOR
Butterknife
Barracks 146
Cave Junction History Lesson #1
Where'd J'rome?
Rocky View
Not the Dump #1
Not the Dump #2
Not the Dump #3
Not the Dump #4
Not the Dump #5
Not the Dump #6
Not the Dump #7
Not the Dump #8
Firehouse Station Two
Firehouse Station Three
Firehouse Station Four
Firehouse Station Five
Firehouse Station Six

GeoWoodstock VI

GeoWoodstock VI is coming to Sacramento May 25, 2008

While we have a year to wait for it I find this pretty exciting news. Over 700 geocachers have logged GeoWoodstock 5 so far. That is a lot of geocachers to meet. So as of right now I'm planning to attend, but we'll see what is happening in a year.

Bike riding

Saturday when daveydude and I went caching I showed him my PDA. He has an effective but time consuming method of writting down everything he needs. So yesterday he bought his own PDA so in exchange for some help getting started with it he took me around to a few caches... 22 to be exact

Larry made me do it!
reflector stick
BOWLING IS FUN!
ATTRACTIVE!
WICKED BITS
GOLFING?
TREELINE
The Road to Home
DUCK DOO DOO
TRICERATOPS
TAKE A SEAT,REST YER FEET!
I Hate I-5 / Lucky Dog
ROCK SCENE
EROSION!
HIGHWAY 99 PIT STOP,REVISITED
CONCRETE MONOLITH
BABY CROC
FORKED TREES AND BIRDHOUSES
SPOTTY
ROCKY CORNER
BCT 13 - Phoenix-Talent - Orchard Path
Which?

Many of them were along the bikepath and we rode bikes down. I'm not use to such physical activity... I'm lucky I survived.

Caching in Glide

Yesterday I went caching up by Glide with daveydude... we managed 13 with a couple of no finds. I got a 14th at the end of the day as we came back. These were the finds for the day

Quick Change
The Eighth Sign of the Zodiac
Bank On It!
Lone Rock
Red Barn Ruins
Boat Slide
Dead End Valley
WHISTLERS
Cache a Frisbee
Where's Ben?
Whistler's Cache
Collision Course
Sorry, Try Again

The last one on my list is a famously frustrating cache... it is a micro in the woods, but it has not been maitained and what was left was wet. ***SPOILER highlight the paragraph below only if you want to reveal secrets of the cache. ***

The cache was a micro hanging from a tree, but there were 30 of them and only one has a log... each other has a hint. We searched them all... most were wet and soggy. We replaced the log in one.

When looking for that last cache we stumbled on this covered bridge



My last cache of the day was R.V.CACHE which was hidden by daveydude... so he pointed me in the right direction. It was a fun day... good way to start a 3 day weekend.

More on the NBA Draft

Yesterday, I was so happy when the Trail Blazers got the #1 pick that I almost cried.


I've been a blazerfan since around 1989-90... I was in the 6th grade and that season I started watching and they went to the NBA Finals. It was easy to be a fan then. Unlike other people I never quit being a fan... I've pretty much watched every game I could for the last 18 seasons. Even in the mid 90's when they were constantly out of the first round of the playoffs... and those great teams of 99 and 2000... and the "jail blazer" years that followed. For the last couple of seasons we've had a nice change of personel and now we have a great core of young guys... the future looked bright and then with this Draft Lottery the future just got a whole lot better. Other years the #1 pick might not mater so much, but this season has two potential superstars... and we get our choice. It can't get much better then that.

Go Blazers!!!

My Blazers just got the #1 pick in the NBA Draft. This is a great day... I am still stunned...

Off the list

Well I crossed the nearest active unfound cache off my list today

GP Trees - California Black Oak

I had looked before with no luck but spotted it today. It was a super micro container and hidden in such a way that I couldn't get it. I have tweesers but still couldn't get it. I finally reached into my first aide kit, got some tape and put it at the end of a stick... worked like a charm.

While I like urban micros of this kind (the type that aren't in residential areas) it is a big change from the adventures of Miller Lake yesterday. Funny to think that they are both part of the same game. It just goes to show that there are caches for everyone if you bother to look.

I'll attach one more picture of my adventures of yesterday.

A Trip to Miller Lake

Last June SallyC and I drove up to visit Miller Lake and found the last bridge gone making it a hike we were unprepared for. Months later my dad and I drove through the creek on the quad and got to the trail head. We ended up with two caches.

Dead Ends! It's Miller time!
Miller Lake Ridgeline Cache

We were FTF on the ridgeline cache which was hidden in October. It was a hard hike the way we took... you'll have to read my log to get the full story.

Neat

I discovered this website http://www.itsnotaboutthenumbers.com/. You can upload a pocket query of your finds and it will give you all sorts of interesting stats and it will create maps for you like this map of Oregon Counties color coded for how many caches I've found in each.

So I've found at least 1 in every county and I've found many in surounding counties. It might not be good for anything but it is interesting to see everything in detail.

GeoBreakfast

Today was the Breakfast with Bears GeoEvent. It was a good event with a pretty good turnout. After the event I found a few caches with rock&crystal after they mentioned Peanuthead's Valley Floor cache, and I offered to tag along. It is one of the oldest caches in Oregon and for some reason I had never found it. So with their help I crossed these 4 off my list before taking off for some mother's day shopping.

Valley Floor
BITTERROOTS
DEAD WALKMAN HIDDING
DEEP,DARK,CACHE.

After picking out a gift I decided I'd had enough for the day.

Another caching Sunday

Well today was a nice sunny day and I got out and found a few caches that had accumulated in the area. I did these 7 caches before lunch

Cup O' Joe
Vicky's Cache
Healing Waters
RAPPED 1
RAPPED 2
CHB
Watch It

All of these were of the urban variety, and a couple of unique hides. I tried for GP Trees - California Black Oak but I was stummped so I stopped for a while. A few hours later I decided I wanted 10 for the day... so I found these

GP Trees - Palms in Grants Pass?
GP Trees - Adolescent Giant Sequoia
BIG FLY

I returned to try the black oak again, but there were too many muggles in the area. So I had to drive out a bit and find a big fly to complete my 10. Next weekend is the Breakfast with Bears GeoEvent so it should be a good opportunity to find some of the many Medford caches I don't have. Daveydude has been busy and I haven't found many of his 200 plus hides.