Geocaching Reflections

I decided to take a moment thinking about my caching experiences.  I was thinking of the times I have spent, the places that I had seen.

New GPS

When I first go my gps I sat down and looked at my GPS and tried to figure out what to do.  I loaded a few things in and began my quest across the street. I remember wandering around the baseball diamonds lost.  I could not figure it out. I did not have any idea what I was doing.  I wandered over to another and found it on a guardrail near the river, Generic Cache

I was not hooked yet.  Though I wanted to find another. I went out to find  a Country Road caches placed by peanuts parents.   I was hooked at that point. It was amazing and fun.  I looked at the map and wanted to find another one.  There was this thing called a letterbox and a few weeks later I went to grab it. Stargate cache.  It was on someones porch and I drove past it a few days before I saw that no one was there and I went up to look.  It was my first ammo can.

Of my first twenty only six or seven are still active. And they were all good and enjoyable. 

Placing caches

I had only found those three at that point. It went outside my work and hid my first cache.   It was DrJays note that cheered me up, and made me want to place more.

FTF this morning at 8:20. Fell sleep early last night so I didn't see the listing until I got up this morning. I thought for sure someone would have found it by the time I got there, but I was happy to find an empty log. When I pulled up I thought, "Great, there are dozens of places a micro could be here." But if you use the hint and name literally you can narrow it down. Finally came up with it after several minutes of searching. Neat little container. TFTFTF

I had expected some time before it was found.  The concept of within a day was not in my mind.  The other I placed the same day had these reponses

By Baldin Eagle

Ouch. Stopped by while dropping my daughter off at school. Searched, got poked, but couldn't find anything. I guess I'll bring some gloves next time.

Then DrJay

FTF this afternoon at 2:50. If you pay attention to the hint, this is a pretty straightforward hide. It's a good hide, but fortunately, I've found a few like this one before. Coords are pretty good too. TFTFTF

Then followed by Baldin Eagle Again.  I did not

Aaarrgghh. I had my hand on it this morning, but didn't think anyone would have a hide like that. Now I know differently. I just took the hint wrong. Good hide. TFTC

It made me chuckle I have rosebushes in front of my house by the road and had hidden it in a fake sprinkler.  The hit was to stay away from the thorns.

The first few months

The first few months were a rush of scrambling for caches.  I dragged my friend out with me a few times. He was helping me in our scout troop.  I did not realize that Cold1 would go overboard as well.  As much as I thought that about him, he showed his dad, Superhooper55.  So now I stand at over 2300, cold one is at 3300, and superhooper is over 6000.   I have hidden 200 though, and cold1 is still a looser that has not hidden any. 

I visited Maple Canyon for the first time, and many other smaller parks and canyons that I had never seen.  I found quiet places in the middle of a city, that lets me find little corners to relax. I spent many lunch times going out in to the fields, on dirt roads, and driving around the city.  I relish those places.

Events

I headed to Whiting campground that fall for my first event. I wandered in and still remember some of the people that were there.  I met Jac0b and Dorkteam6 for the first time, I remember Fire Elemental as well, but not anyone else from my time there.

I ran across the idea of a flash mob, and decided to read up on it.  Though I did not listen at that point, but I found Podcachers site and decided to host a World Wide flash mob.  They picked the date, and I picked the park.  I hoped for 15-20 people to show up.  Little did I realize it was a BYU game that day and many people would show up.  About fifty.

But it was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. 

I havce enjoyed events since then, even though I have not taken a lot of time to put them on. I have many ideas for contests, dutch oven events, or other events, I never get around to them.  There are so many that I just do not get there. 

That was what made up most of my first year. It was all fun.  As winter rolled around I did less and less. There was not much desire for me to crawl through the snow.

Thanks

I remember all the people that I met and the things I had seen from that first year.  As spring came that first year, I was enjoying what was going on.  I was starting to search for caches again.  I think I had about 1000 after that first year.  I never went with others, that was a side note, and I did not go to many events because I did not know many people.  However I was having fun.  My Lord of the Ring series had been put out and I had received many great logs and great notes from them.

Logs

I love logs.  I love logs that show the adventure that others take.  Here are a few that I have loved from that first year.

Baldin Eagle

They have been very fun and exciting to search for. I have explored more of Utah Valley because of you. This cache was an adventure. I called Art when I saw Lord Stirling posting caches and gave him a heads up. He called me shortly after this one was posted and we quickly figured out the coordinates. He came over and we loaded up in my truck (for once) and headed up the canyon. We parked pretty close (within .15 miles) and looked around. All we could see was uphill, so up we went. Within the first 50 yards my shirt was covered in stickers. I don't know if I'll ever get them all off. Now they are stuck on my seat covers. Well, up and up and through scrub oak, then down some, then up some and finally there was the cache. I quickly opened the box, well, maybe not quickly and it was hard to open, but got it open and was happy to see that we were the first ones there. But then I realized that in the rush to find the cache first, I had forgotten to bring the log paper. So back down to the truck, taking the easy way this time and then back up to the cache, signed the log, left a travel bug and then Art and I had to fight for the geocoin. I have a bloody nose, fat lip and black eye now. Not really. Art flipped the coin and I guessed tails. And it was tails, so he graciously let me keep the coin. I told him that he could have the FTF coin. Great adventures and fun. I think my wife will be happy that I am not staying up all night waiting for caches to be posted now.

from the Magpies

At 3 in the morning my wife noticed this cache had been published (don't ask why she was up). There was no way I was going to go out in the middle of the night for it -- hats off to Art and Baldin' Eagle for their committment!
Still, we wanted to try to find it next - so I took a long lunch (a REALLY long lunch - hope my boss doesn't find out ) and off we went.
We tried to learn from the previous logs, but we didn't do a very good job because we went up and then down. LOL. Then we found the easier path too. I can't imagine doing this in the dark!
Carrying 2 kids up to the cache made it feel like a terrain of 5! We were pretty well out of breath when we found it - but it was worth it to be the second ones to find the cache!

Blowstuffup

One Ring to Rule Them All. One Ring to Find Them. One Ring to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them."

Like Frodo and Sam, we climbed our own Mount Doom - except we did it with three little kids - only to see on the way out that we could have just gone around the mountain and found it a lot easier. But where's the fun in that!?! The view from the top of the mountain was beautiful and made the hike up the steep hill totally worth it. Even the kids enjoyed it too. After I got them to stop whinning.

A weekend of geocaching, my family, and LOTR - throw in an Oreo and I have found heaven. ..... Each one was placed so well and I loved reading the extra info that was put on the log page. Such a genius - or maybe just a big nerd like me! Thank you so much for a great series and for adding a bit more intrigue to geocaching. It has been so much fun for all of us!

(logs edited)

It is the logs like this that make it all worth it.  Many times a drive by may not have an interesting log, and I do not expect it.   I never expect a great log, but I love to get them, and I love to see these pop up.  These logs made me want to keep finding and keep placing.   I have to clean them up this spring, so that is my new project.  I am going throught hem now.  It has been a few years. 

Thanks again for all those who encouraged me in the first year.

Update on 2011-04-03 20:56 by firennice

My Geocaching Getaway

This weekend was a fun one for my wife, we elected to take Friday off and head to Southern Utah.  Down to St. George to the event was the goal on Saturday, but I had no other plans. 

Great group of geocaching jeeps.. sorry about that chevy thing that made it in the picture.

I did have a few that I will throw lists on tomorrow night.  I made a list of all the virtuals and earthcaches on the way down and back, we made a trip down to Richfield to stay Thursday night, then over to Cove Fort, and south to St George on Friday.  Then Saturday was the event, and through Zions, and north up highway 89 until we hit Richfield to see family.  Then we came back on Sunday.

The even in St. George was great.  It had a ton of people in attendance at there breakfast.  I counted about eighty people in the photos.  It was a big crowd and I am sure the Golden Corral was happy for all the money that geocachers brought in for them.

I actually took some of the UNPC coins down to sell.  We had to scramble to get up and get over there.  So I forgot about them completely. 

There were so many that I wanted to visit with that I missed most of them. 

I should have grabbed a t-shirt that Tico Jeffrey had made and sold to many of the people that were attending.  I did not think of it until it was too late, maybe another time.

I want to give thanks to everyone that was involved.  It was one of the best events that I have ever been to.

There are a few events that are larger, one or two of the UTAG events have been near this size, and the Potters Ponds event calls out a group of people that is larger.  Some of the events up north in Logan tend to be near this size as well. 

However after a long winter and people dying to get outside and actually do something, the timing of this event, the nice weather, hosts, and people who attend make this the best getaway in Utah. 

I recomend it to all, and hope that schedules allow me to come down every year.

In the next few days I will post some of my other experiences on the trip south, It was more than I could list in one big pile, so if you want to see what else happened, stay tuned.

Update on 2011-03-09 17:03 by firennice

Heading South

Well tonight I am heading on a road trip.  Officially it is time away with my wife. We don't know when we are stopping or where, but we are heading south.  The only know stop is the event in St George Saturday morning.  I do have my big list of Virtuals and Earthcaches to grab, and explore.

I hope to see many of you there. I will post a follow up with pictures when I get a chance.

Diamonds, Events, and Caches

Caching run

There has been a bit of news this week, and a bit of fun.

I was busy most of the week.  Scouts, church activities, and family took up most of my free evenings that I had.  Things were going pretty well, even though they were very hectic.

Then Thursday night my family was off playing when I got off work.

Jacob and I decided to head out.  With no particular place in mind, and with no specific goal.  We headed up spanish fork canyon.  Jacob wanted to look for a benchmark that someone had supposedly found and yet no one else could. 

We were digging through the grass looking for a benchmark that was on the front steps of an old building that was torn down.  (Yes we pretty much guessed it was not there and the person logged it anyway, but we wanted to check.)

We dug through the bushes when we heard a voice call out.  Dorkteam6 was on his way back from central Utah and just happened to see Jacobs jeep on the side of the road. 

Well we decided to head up Diamond Fork Canyon. Jacob had a cache that he wanted to place.  We did get to that location and decided to follow the road up.    So up we went.  Higher and higher up the hill.  I was impressed with how high it actually went.  I have not been on  many roads that gain that much altitude that fast.

Well all the way up we knew we were going to hide a cache or two.  So much of the discussion was where, and what to name them.

Dorkteam6 at his finest. He does look better with a mask.We decided to place thee. I wanted to have a clue in each one that leads to a final, but they wanted to part of it.  That was just as well we did not have many containers of size.  And hiding a micro in the woods seems counterproductive.

We ended up with a name.  Damn Barking Spiders.  It was tricky and there was a lot of discussion on route.  But that was the only thing that we could agree on.  And only because we were hearing them in our travels.  So it seemed to fit .

Events

Fridat was the events.  I got off a little early and headed over the the hot dog event.  There were a few that were still there hanging around and talking.  I talked for a while before heading off home to gather things for the campout.  I had decided not to campout but I had decided to cook while I was there.

The group on the hike.. at least the start.

I grabbed everything too make a few cobblers (Peach and a Raspberry).  Everyone asks for peach, but after I make the raspberry no one finishes the peach (it happened again here).  We had a pretty good crowd that wandered in and out of the event most of the evening.  From the new cacher and his mom (he was 9 if i remember right) to the older of us that still make it out.

The Route up.I stayed for quite a while.  A number of people had scheduled campsites and were staying over.  Slowly they filtered off as we discussed cacheing and the different people, caches, and things that everyone had seen or done.

They made fun of me. I am getting used to it.  More than I used to. Slowly developing a thicker skin about it all.  I had another reviewer state that he though some gave up because they could not develop a thick skin and toss aside all the garbage that is tossed at them, or not able to filter out the attacks from the honest critique. Hopefully I am gbetting better.

The next morning was the hike to Maple Mountain.  I knew that I was not going to make it all the way.  It was a given already.  I knew time wise that I was not going to get that far before I had to be home.

In order to claim the hike you had to go 1/4 mile up the trail and get to the trailhead.  Well we had a group of about 12 that made it to the trailhead.  We talked for a bit and six of us started the hike up the mountain. LV2WV, the new cacher (9 years old) and his mother, and DrJay and I. 

We worked our way up the mountain, going slow helping everyone find caches that needed them, and I placed one in a stretch that seemed very empty.  Eventually Mr lv2wv stopped.  They had been told it was a easy hike, (it was not).  Though it was not very long it is rocky, uneven and really steep in a number of spots.An our new cacher and his mom stopped as well.

So then there were three.

Dr Jay in all his glory.We continued up the trail working our way through the heavy undergrowth.  It gets to about four feet high and fills the trail. so we had to wade, and snake our way through.

We grabbed a few caches and a challenge cache and Mrs. LV2WV headed back down to get her husband, and head down the mountain.

DrJay and I continued on. Braving the heavy growth, flies, steep hills, rocks, stinging nettle, and any other number of hardships until we found his cache half way to the peak.

At that point we turned and headed back down the mountain.  I would have gone up a little higher, but another steep spot chased me back.

On the way down we met goblincamper2004.  We had not realized that he was heading up as well, and he was working up to a few of the caches that were on the way up.  We pointed out that the next 1-2 were not very tricky to get to and he continued up while we headed down.

I have been up here a few times, and ruined a pair of boots, and a pair of sneakers.  Well add another pair of sneakers to this trail.  The holes finally got big enough, and a stitching blew that I had to go get another pair.

This has always been a fun hike, wether I had scouts, JedimasterAshlie, or DrJay and others this year. 

Thanks everyone for helping me enjoy myself.  I felt really good upon getting home.  I did go to bed early, and now my legs are stiff, but I still feel good and had a good time.