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.

A few finds

Well I went out and found a few caches today ending a long dry spell.

Get a Start on Cathedral Hills
Heart Felt
Deedy's Sleepy Hollow

I've been pretty lazy lately and I need to get out and find some. I'll consider today a small step in the right direction.

A FTF?

Well yesterday I noticed another new Daveydude cache on waters creek trail. He had hidden one earlier and BDC of all people got there first. With 2 caches to find and a First to be had I decided to quit sitting around the house and go caching. These were the finds for the day

CROSS THAT BRIDGE
FORKED TREE

My new GPS kept a good signal under the tree cover. I'll have to go test it out a bit more.

new event

Biggie posted a new cache event for April

THE DUCKS FLYING WEST!

Should be fun

30 caches

Well today I adopted 30 of SallyC's caches. I was with her when she hid most of them so it shouldn't be too much trouble.

For those who don't know, Sally is taking a new job in Salem. It is sad to see her have to go, but without a solution to the county payments problem there would be few opportunites for work in Southern Oregon. I know without her hides there wouldn't have been a lot going on in the valley for a while there... and when I met her I was in quite a slump, but her enthusiasm kept me active in the game and together we accomplished the Oregon DeLorme Challenge. And obviously I'll miss her beyond caching as well since we were often up to no good... :P

Here is a picture of one of our many stops on the DeLorme Challenge

Geocaching... whats that?

Well I haven't been geocaching since I found my one with my new GPS. That may soon change as there are a few new caches around and I'll be house sitting for my uncle this week. That use to mean a week of dial up internet but now he has cable and I can bring over my laptop and have wireless even.

Yesterday I went to Portland for the Trail Blazers game. Another poor performance... I had such high hopes for them in these games I picked out. I have one more set of tickets this season so they have one more chance to give a good performance. I left my GPS at home for the trip... maybe next time I could find a cache or two on the way up.

Pizza Party

Today was the latest pizza event

Spring is Coming Pizza Party

Was fun to see everyone. I didn't spend any time geocaching this weekend despite the great weather and my new GPS. I've just been too lazy. Even BDC found a couple of caches this weekend. Maybe next weekend I'll find a couple.

One cache

Well with my new GPS in hand I managed one whole cache and that was on Friday.

Snagged by Wire

I did load caches onto it and read a bit of the manual. Well I skimmed the manual... and looked at the pictures.

A New GPS!

Well my good old trusty Garmin Legend still works fine for finding caches, but the last few caches I hid with it have had some coord issues. So I bought a new Garmin GPSMap 60csx. I'll have to break it in this weekend.

1100 and counting

Well I finally got cache 1100 this weekend. I had 3 finds

Firehouse Station One
ducks by the creekside #1
EEK's Half Brother

I've been playing around with a program called "Cache Stats" which uses a pocket query of your finds to calculate stats. It is pretty interesting. One interesting fact is that there were exactly 100 days between my first find and my 100th. There was 180 days between 1000 and 1100 but that wasn't my worst... I had a 199 day gap between caches 400 and 500. My best was 59 days between #300 and 400.

A travel bug's journey

Well I have had the TB For ZAFARA since September when Sally and I picked it up around John Day, OR. Since Zafara is local I didn't think it would take long to get it to him. Finaly dropped it off Monday in a cache near his work

Wildfires are for the birds!

Also had a few other finds on a very nice President's Day

Central Point rest home
Dardanelles
The Seat of Knowledge
Silica Hole
A Classick Park
One More, For This Rest Stop
Call you on the telephone
EVIRD YRTSUDNI EN
GREENFIELD
Steelhead Crossing, Part 3
Another Try

Also over the weekend was the event Pizza XLIII (Company is coming). It was a lot of fun, but I wasn't feeling so well for most of the weekend.