Pizza and such

Saturday was the 5th. Annual Pizza By The Creekside. This event has become very popular and is always a great time. Geocachers from all over attend each year. Eyeseek2 makes several custom cache containers to give away. And they always seem to pick a weekend with perfect weather.

Before the event I got an email from drdan52000 about maybe hitting a few caches before the event. While I waited on him I got a second call from rain_man_rich and I told him he might as well join us. We only had time for a handful of caches but it was a fun. Here were our finds for the day

Saundering
Belly High
Fruity Crick
Beware The Bear
GPFD 3
AIR BALL
It Happens
What Street # 2

RIP Mr. Duckworth

Sad news today as former Trail Blazer Kevin Duckworth has passed away at the age of 44. Duck was one of my favorite players as a kid. He was money from 16 to 18 feet and other centers had to respect his shot this would pull shot blockers like Hakeem, Manute Bol, and Mark Eaton away from the basket. He was a two time All-Star and named the league's Most Improved Player in 1988. Besides being a good player he also seemed like a good person and I wish I would have gotten a chance to meet him.

Not clowning around

On Saturday DrDan and I went for the only 5/5 cache in the area Just Clowning Around . We were able to drive within .68 miles of the cache. That few tenths of a mile though were more or less straight down the hill. Going down was hard as we had to push our way through the underbrush while we slid down the steep slope. Anyone who has gone caching with me knows that I am not much for going downhill... I'm very cautious and slow, but I got there. We got down to the river and climbed the rock the cache was on. We didn't find much evidence of a cache, after confirming the old location with Tom Fuller I'm sure its gone. We replaced the cache with what we had and started the climb out. This is where the trip got worse for me as my legs were shot and started cramping up. I briefly considered the idea I might have to spend the night on the hill. With a lot of rest and water (thankfully I packed a lot) I was able to slowly work my way up the hill. It took me over twice as long to climb out as it did to come down. I forgot my camera on this trip, but Dan took this really nice picture upstream from the cache.

Events and stuff

My latest event blazerfan's Summer Geo-Bash went over pretty well. We had a good turnout of new and old cachers and even visitors from California. Got to test out the deck and my ability to grill. Overall it was a pretty good time. Maybe I'll think about it again next year.

Coming up next month is probably the most popular local event of the year the 5th. Annual Pizza By The Creekside. Iseek and Eyeseek2 always put out a bunch of new geocaches and the pizza in Wilderville is pretty good. For those coming from out of town this is by far the best event to attend.

1500 Plus

Last week Biggieet_al (aka Kelly) asked if I'd be interested in caching this weekend. Of course I was in for it so we headed to Jacksonville today and I had what I believe to be my second best day of caching ever with 37 finds including my 1500th. It was a fun day and despite having some well overgrown caches we ended up with just one no find. Here were the finds for the day

Twisty
The Way to Missouri
Great Joy
Swimm’n Hole
PROVOLT COMMUNITY CHURCH
Historic Bridge
WHERE'S JOSEPHINE COUNTY?
DEAD MAN'S CURVE
Applegate
BAH HUMBUG!!
RAT Office
SARAH ZIGLER TRAIL 2
MADRONE IS HOME
PARK here
NUNAN SQUARE
SOPHIA
WALNUT
KEEP THOSE PEARS OUTTA HERE !
4090
a TISKET ? a TASKET ? nope, a CAMMO BASKET !
CENTENNIAL
TRIBUTE TO DA DUDE
CORKED
BEEKMAN CANYON
PSEUDOTSUGA MANZIESH
WOODEN CAMMO
MEET ME AT THE TREE
THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM!
WILLARD
In Memory of Marc!
The Old Shell Game
Beary Sweet Junk
Wheezers Cache
LOGS AND MANURE
Roadside Ambiance
Piggies in a blanket
Wide Spot

Something you don't want to find geocaching

In case you haven't heard this story already this happened at the Thomas Creek Bridge cache in Curry County. This is actually a cache that I've looked at attempting because of its high terrain rating.

BODY IDENTIFIED AS MISSING CRESCENT CITY WOMAN
Published: July 24, 2008
By Nicholas Grube
WesCom News Service

Two hikers found Michelle Ashlee Dickson's body Wednesday while they were geocaching near the Thomas Creek Bridge between Brookings and Gold Beach.

Dickson, 23, has been missing since last week and authorities had suspected foul play was involved with her disappearance.

"We confirmed that it is her," Del Norte County Sheriff's Office Commander Bill Steven said. "We are treating it as a homicide."

Oregon State Police is taking the lead on the investigation of the crime scene with assistance from the Curry County Sheriff's Office, Steven said. "They're listing it as a suspicious death investigation."

Steven said the two hikers stumbled upon Dickson's body while geocaching—which is a recreational GPS treasure hunting activity—in the ravine that the Thomas Creek Bridge spans on Wednesday. The Thomas Creek Bridge is the highest bridge in Oregon—345 feet tall—and is located north of Brookings.

Local Search and Rescue crews stayed with the body last night, and are now working with Oregon authorities to help them access the crime scene and recover Dickson's body.

The Del Norte County Sheriff's Office named 27-year-old Josiah M. Miller a suspect earlier in the week, when blood was found inside of his vehicle. Miller, who is originally from Del Norte County and now lives in Arcata, is a friend of Dickson's. He is also the last known person to see her.

He has not been arrested.

A Department of Justice crime lab in Eureka is still processing the blood evidence found inside Miller's truck to see if it belongs to Dickson.

I also found this portion of another story

Authorities found Dickson's car burning at the beach where she had reportedly met Miller. But they were stumped as to her whereabouts. A week later in Oregon, a grandfather, his grandson and a foreign exchange student from France were geo-caching - using a GPS device to hunt for a "treasure" someone else hid, - in the woods under the Thomas Creek Bridge when they found Dickson's body, Steven said.

A good day for caching

Today I went out and found 5 caches

Squirrel Egg
Again and again
Lifes A Beach
Shepherd's tool
Combo Cache

That puts me at 1471 finds. One more then Lazyboy. For those of you who are fairly new or out of state Lazyboy was an old time geocacher in Oregon. He was somewhat legendary for speaking his mind about gc.com and what he didn't like about it. It even got him banned from the gc.com forums for a long time. In September 2005 he archived all of his caches and hasn't had a find since July 06. Its only a tribute to my slowness that it took me so long to pass him. Now I guess I'll have to look forward to reaching the 1588 finds of Rooster-.

My new event

blazerfan's Summer Geo-Bash

A new cache

I hid my first new cache in a long time last night

Oregon Trailbreakers

When I first heard of geocaching I immediatly thought of two places that needed caches. Haines Apple Tree and Croxton Memorial Park and both had caches at the time. I'm proud to keep these areas active with caches today.

I haven't been very active at all lately and it shows. I have several containers stored up however and as the summer turns to fall I hope to hide a few more caches.

No one has proposed a cache event lately... I wonder how a BBQ event at my house would go over?

Another Vegas weekend

I spent this last weekend again in Las Vegas. As always I lost a bunch of money, but had a good time. I had only one geocache find for the weekend.

LV Money-makers

This weekend was also the last days of the NBA summer league. I was able to watch the Trail Blazers summer league squad win their last two games. I also got to meet blazers GM Kevin Pritchard and radio announcer Brian Wheeler. There were a number of NBA couches and players around that I saw at different times. Here are the pictures I got with KP and Wheels.

Sunday picnic

I went to a picnic yesterday and followed it up with about 11 caches. Could have found a few more but I went and bought a new patio table and chairs instead. These were the finds for the day.

Right in Front of You
Not out in the Woods
Right Arrow
Rusty
Serenity
No Sir-ee
Cross over
Hooked
Ride on in
Knight's Banjo
Turner Call Home

Post GeoWoodstock Pizza

Today was my Post GeoWoodstock Pizza (LIV) event. We had geocachers from all over but the turnout was actually pretty low. It's a fun group though and I had fun chatting with everyone. Along with the event I was able to grab a handful of caches.

GPFD 1
Piped
GEOCACHERS PRIZE
ACT #1
ACT #2
Standing at the Corner

I did have a no find at ACT #3 but it was probably just my own blindness. I haven't been caching much and I might be out of practice. With gas over $4 a gallon I might not be finding a whole lot this summer.

New Deck

I've been sick as a dog the last few days so no geocaching for me. This weekend with the event maybe I'll get out for a few.

The only good part of the weekend is that after a lot of waiting and even more money my deck is finally finished. It just needs some deck furniture and the grill connected.

This is my old deck like thing.


And this is my new deck

The Caches and People of GeoWoodstock

Well unlike some at GeoWoodstock I only found a handful of caches each day. 10 on Friday, 9 on Saturday, and 6 on Sunday including the events. The whole event was well organized... they had booths, drawings, seminars, travel bugs organized, and the food was good (they even had fortune cookies with geo-fortunes). My only suggestion would have been to have an area for trading geocoins and signature items. I packed my geocoins a long way just to end up trading 1 and coming back with 4 others... so instead of shrinking my collection it grew.

Thanks to IceCreamMan (the author of Serial Finder), Mauison, LoriDarlin, and Allanon my geocoin trading friends of old for the new coins.

It was also fun to meet YahotsWalker, RetiredProf, and 2Dee2Dee who are all finders of the Oregon DeLorme Challenge.

I met several Oregon cachers for the first time at this event. Sad to have to drive that for South to meet people from the North. Of course I saw a lot of cachers I knew as well. When reading through the logs its also amazing how many I missed seeing... I was literally there for 9 hours walking around so how did I miss so many people?

These were the finds for the weekend

Friday:
Last Chance to hate I-5
Barrier to Nowhere
You Call, We Haul !
T.B. HOTEL
Seven Iron
Hollar Fore
Hottest place on Earth
Lotsa-H2O
Friday Night Meet & Greet
Yuba City Park Cache #13 Clark Ave Waypoint

Saturday:
GeoWoodstock VI
Official GeoWoodstock VI Cache
My Little Pumpkin Cache
Pumpkin Head
Guido's Cactus Patch Cache
Guido's 1st & E Pole cache
Eye Level and Shiney
Angels in the Outfield
Mr. Electric Goes to Wheatland

Sunday:
DON'T JUMP
SHADY REST
colusa memorial park
All Geared Up
Sofa Dads
Tauhindauli

One more person to mention. It was especially nice of Cosmiccowgirl of the Hardings to stop and say hi and admit that she reads my blog... I knew I had readers I just knew it :)

GeoWoodstock VI

This was a great event. I met a lot of cachers... I specifically sought out a few and was able to find most of them. Geocoin trading partners of old, Oregon DeLorme challenge finders, and even blog readers. Was great to see everyone and put faces to names I often only saw in forums.

Wouldn't Lazyboy be jealous?

Look who I met... Jeremy is a pretty nice guy

Off to GeoWoodstock

I have not found a cache since my trip to Las Vegas so hopefully my trip to GeoWoodstock will light a spark under me to find a few. I should be in Yuba City tonight and might even make the Friday meet and greet event. Hope to see a few of my readers there.

Las Vegas

This last weekend I spent in Las Vegas. I had a nice time and lost a lot of money. My one good win was that I took 5th place out of 43 in a poker tournament. Other then that I was down on my luck most of the weekend.

Since it wasn't too hot I was able to find a few of the vituals on the strip. I left myself a few for next time. My finds for the weekend were

LAKE-VEGAS
Eiffel Tower
Toga Party
MM MM Good
IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

Un-published Geocaching Event

This Sunday the 27th at 2pm there will be an unpublished geocaching event at the Williams Hwy Abby's in Grants Pass (N 42° 25.274 W 123° 20.078)

Fresh_Meat and geniustara will be in attendance for the first time since 2005. A lot has changed since then including a rule that says we need 2 weeks notice to have an event.

I could go on a Lazyboy style rant about now, but I just don't have the passion or fire to put behind it like he would. Personally I think that with our history of small, local pizza events in the area the two week rule is excessive. Our largely informal get togethers really don't attract too many out of town visitors besides those who travel the state extensively. If you miss one event you simply wait till the next. Of course I don't make the rules I just follow them, but sometimes I can see why Lazyboy and Rooster lost interest.

Trail Blazers

Yesterday I went to my first Trail Blazer game of the season. They took on the Dallas Mavericks and played very well leading pretty much the whole game. They let the Mavs come back at the end but hung on for the win.

I've been boycotting the Blazers this season because of their TV coverage in our area (ie "little of none") If I hadn't got these tickets for free it would have been the first season since 1996 that I didn't go to a game. I didn't buy any food at the Rose Garden... and no shirts, sweaters, hats or anything all season long. Obviously my impact has not been very significant. Sadly I now feel that my only hope for getting CSN (the new channel with the Blazer games) lies with the Oregon Ducks. If UofO decides to show football games on CSN maybe the Duck fans will be vocal enough to get Charter to pick up the station.

Here is a picture of me at the game



I also found three geocaches on a brief stop in Corvallis on my trip north.

Whimsical Academic Jail
GGG #1
The Cedars