Thanks to Prime Reviewer

I have not written in some time. I keep thinking of getting back into it.  I felt this was the time.

A few months ago Prime Reviewer stepped away from reviewing suddenly.  He was a private individual and he did not share a lot of info about his private life with the caching community, and other reviewers.  I had reviewed Earthcacches in Texas for six years, so I had some communication with him.

He ran a number of websites that suddenly went dark (Evince and a few others). Many of us worried, I did not hear from him, and assumed that he was burned out and just wanted to get away.  Then the word came that he had passed away.  I was saddened, as many were, in his passing, then I wanted to take a moment to think of his contributions.

I don't know who took this photo, but it was being shared around facebook, and I wanted something here for him.

Primes Impact

I think most do not realize what this man accomplished. He did not toot his own horn, or stand on a hill and pronounce it to the world.  However, in my opinion, the work that he has done on behalf of caching is more prominent than anyone outside of Geocaching HQ.

Prime published a lot of caches.  A lot, lots, tons, way more than tons.  As far as I understand he published more as a reviewer in Texas than any other reviewer.  I can't give numbers, but 10-12 times the numbers of most reviewers.  He published more in some busy years than most reviewers ever publish.

He was also very active for 13 years in the reviewers forum.  As far as I am aware of no one posted more of his opinions, helps, guides, advice, criticisms, and ideas.  On the same scale as above.  Most lurk and do not voice opinions, yet he was always in the thick of it.

Then were the little programs, helps, macros, and guides he published to help the reviewers (and players) help in the game.  I do not know of more than one or two reviewers that do not use his programs.  When I came on board in 2009 there was a list of a bunch for me to choose from, the reviewer that trained me spent hours helping get them set up and running correctly. 

Conclusion

He worked tirelessly in Texas. His love for the game was seen by many.  However I think few will ever see how much advice and help he gave the caching community.   I will easily state that no one outside of Geocaching HQ did as much for caching as he did, but most will not see that.  Your caches for the last decade or more, in England, Austrailia, Germany, USA, and especially in Texas were touched by this man.

I salute you Prime.  Thank you for all you have given.  See you on the other side.

From Fires to Squaw Peak Road

We headed out today for an afternoon drive with the two girls.  I had decided that I wanted to go somewhere else, rather than a normal drive.  As I was driving up Hobble Creek Canyon we passed a small fire burning on a hill.  I was tempted to stop, but it a few guys were staring at it, so I assumed they were burning the weeds off the hillside.

A little further up the canyon I came to the catch basin.  There was a fire burning on the hill, and people were rushing up to put it out.  I jumped out of my truck and grabbed a shovel that I had in the back and began to put the fire out with the group.  It took about 15 minutes and the fire department started to show up.  At that point the fire was contained.  The fire under the trees was the hardest to put out.  The oak tree bark had burned, and they were full of hot coals.  If you backed into them, or brushed them you were scorched.  I limb with a red hot spot on it stabbed me in the back of the head, the bright side was that the coal cauterized the wound.

We had to wait until the police and the fire department cleared things up and we were able to start heading up the canyon. I wanted to take squaw peak road.  I had seen it on maps for many months and never taken the time.

We were there about 30-40 minutes in all.  Everything is so dry, it could all go up pretty easily. 

The road was pretty good until we hit our first cache. GC1X3TK Our First Cache

I dug around a bit for that one without much luck. A regular one near a tree or a post.  I was sure that I should find it quickly.  Well I did finally discover it, but it was not a regular but a micro. That made me look far harder than I normally would.

We continued up the canyon. and was having a pretty good ride except for one thing.  This road was rougher than crap.  It was not impassable, just rough.  The road gravel was entirely gone and the stones that made up the mountain were poking through.  That threw us all over.

GC1H24P The Hollow was our next stop. It is always nice to find a nice ammo can.  It was kind of steep to get to.  I was not having any luck at all getting my daughter down to it.  She had worn flip flops (note as a parent to check kids before leaving house).  So stumbling down a steep and rocky hillside for a can hiding in bushes was not one of my best ideas. Thanks Baldin' Eagle for getting it our for me.

One other one was found while on the trip.  GC1E6VJ  Utah Valley View.  It was near the road by Caverspencer.  As we headed up up up.

The road around the mountain finally came to a spot where I thought we could take a break.  We had bounced a few thousand times and we needed a break. 

There I hiked up into the trees with my daughter and placed a cache.  I would have gone farther but one of them got caught by a tree limb and wanted to head down.   So there I placed GC2B6NH Kolob Basin Overlook It was a nice spot and took a while for us to climb up to.  It is at the high point of our trip, at 8700 feet.  I hope to go up and follow this trail to the peak.  Maybe in a month or so I can trick Jac0b or Balding into coming up with me.

After a great little break, a snack and our walk, we headed on down the other side.  Not nearly as steep and a lot longer it was a nice ride.  The girls where upset that we did not find a place with trees.  So I waited until I found a place. And pulled off.

I walked out to a point there.  I was looking for the name of this little ridge and did not have any luck finding it.  It is  one a topo map somewhere, but I did not feel like digging for it.  So way up in the hills is now GC2B6NV What a Knob.  It is a nice overlook of a canyon.  I think it is little rock canyon.  But without the map I will never know.

It was a really sharp edge ridge.  One side protect the aspens on the East side.  The other side is steep. and full of a lot of loose rocks.  I gathered some and made a small pile of stones to put it under.  The places up here need the extra weight to hold the containers down.  I can picture the snow pushing it down the mountain unless I have the stones in place. 

It was a good ride.  Rough and it took more effort than I planned, but it was enjoyable.  the road got better and better as I headed north. Until soon there were cars driving past me the other way.

Well.  Thats it for today.  Enjoy the caching.

This weeks Podcacher, friends.

I really liked this weeks Podcacher Show 275.0: A Puzzling Day. It was one of the better podcasts that I have heard in the last few weeks.  I think it appealed to my evil streak.  Anytime you can come up with new puzzles it is a good thing.  Podcacher is one of my insperations.  I have a few that I took ideas from them.

In all it was a great show.  The pet GPS tracker would be good.  I really love the reverse geocache you can check it out here.   It is an idea where you need to get a box to a particular spot.  Then it will open. You need to take the cache container to the coordinates, then it will unlock.  I looked at the design at one point.  I should delve into it a little more.  i have a few hardwood boxes that I made some time ago that I would like to try it on.

I am still working through some of the caches in my list.  I am down to about 140 caches to go through.. i have a lot on hold that I am working on as well.  If I have not looked at your cache, or if you are wondering what is going on.  I have forgotten them before.  I have had as many as 300+ caches in my queue and on hold when I got back from scout camp.  So feel free to pipe up if you are wondering what is going on with yours.  That is what email is for. 

Friends

I wanted to toss in a bit about my friends.  I was reading the latitude 47.  The blog of groundspeak.  they just had an article A Journey of 1001 Days of Geocaching.  It made me think of some of the great friends and local cachers there are.  I will try and write a bit about them when I get the chance.  This guy has done 1000+ days of caching.  Yet Dr Jay passed 1200 in the past few weeks, and he has 700+ ftf's.  Jac0b passed 1800 caches.  I remember early on wondering who these two were. I am happy to have met them and count them among my friends.  

We have so many fantastic people here in Utah.  I have a hard time listing and naming them all.  Many I have met, and many more I have yet to meet. So until we do meet.  Good luck and good caching.