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.