Wolf River Greenway - December 13, 2008

I met up with jbgreer at his place at 7:30am and we headed to Collierville, TN. Our main goal was to hunt caches along the Wolf River Greenway Trail and if we had time, head north to Herb Parson's Lake and hunt a few there. First, though, we had a mission to accomplish in W.C Johnson Park.

The plan upon arriving at W.C Johnson Park was to pick up National Treasure key #2 at Stinky's Litter Box by TNBOYS (GC12PVW), take the boardwalk to Walk the Planks! by TNBOYS (GC11P79) to pick up National Treasure key #1, and then hike the short distance to Leonarda One by LeonardaDaArtsi (GC1JGBV). We would then go across the Wolf River and drop off the keys in two other caches.

This was a rare opportunity to get both keys in the same park and since we had been tho the caches where the keys where supposed to be, it should have turned out great. However, the individual who took key #1, while mentioning in his log, failed to log the key as retrieved. This screwed us and several others looking for the key in recent weeks. Sigh. At least the rest of the plan worked out. I retrieved key #1 from Walk the Planks and then met up with jbgreer at Leonarda One. After finding the cache, we hiked the boardwalk back to where we parked.

We intended to enter the Wolf River Greenway Trail from the eastern end, but the area that I though contained the entrance and parking was flooded. We then decided to enter via the Bethany Road trailhead. Finding the traihead took some work. Autorouting took us in circles and our paper maps were missing a few roads. I finally used Garmin's POI to locate a church on Bethany Road. After finding the church, it was a short drive to the trailhead.

Interestingly, the trailhead has no signs marking it as such. There is one sign on a gate that basically says "No motorized vehicles allowed". It turned out, though, we were in the right spot.

Before making our way to the trailhead, we took our pictures holding the National Treasure key #1. This was one of the requirements for logging the find and since we were getting rid of the key on this hike, I wanted to make sure we got the pictures.


There are five caches on this trail to date, and we planned to hunt them in order. Since we were both focusing on the walk, we absent-mindedly walked past the first cache. We started to go back, but decided it would we wiser to get it on the hike out.

This made out first find on the trail Rooty Toot Toot by TNBOYS (GC1GKHX). It was an unusual hide technique these days, but jbgreer found it pretty quickly.

Our second find was High Water by Cache Station (GC1JEBC). Easy find and close to the trail.

Our third find was Bottomland Hardwoods by jackthebear (GC1GPH0). It was a neat cache with lots of goodies, but I was just glad to find a cacher container large enough to hold the National Treasure key.

On the way to the next cache, we crossed this neat recycled bridge.


A little more hiking and we came to bamboozled by oak grove 5 (GC1G3QN). This was our only ammo can find of the day. We tried to take a different route back to the main trail, but ran into some flooding. We ended up backtracking a little and simply headed back the way we came in. The trail was roughly three miles long and it would have been easy for us to forget about the cache we missed on the way in, but fortunately we kept our eyes on the prize and found Big Bend by jackthebear (GC1GVKB) before leaving the trail.

We decided to get lunch, rather than go the Herb Parson's Lake, but we did manage to find one more cache before arriving back in Collierville. Saunderville by TNBOYS (GC18E9D) was a nice little hide in a spot with many potential hide spots. On our way into town, we spotted the actual trail parking on the eastern end along with the name of the trail: "Wolf River Environmental Restoration Greenway Trail".

After a nice lunch at Chick-Fil-A, we headed back to Memphis. No DNF's on this day and our only disappointment was the missing Natinal Treasure key (#2).

Greater Memphis Greenline

I have added a link to the Greater Memphis Greenline to allow interested parties (such as myself) to keep track of this project to turn roughly 13 miles of abandoned railroad into a walking/biking trail. I am especially interested in this since I live near the west end of the proposed trail and can use it to run or bike eastward to Shelby Farms (and beyond).

On the site are pictures of the project and links for those who wish to get involved in the volunteer efforts to clean up and maintain the greenline.

Virtual Walking in Memphis

I just found out today that Street View within Google Maps is now available for Memphis, TN. Now I can virtually visit some of the remaining areas in the city where I still have unfound caches. I can also chart out new places to run.

Somewhere in this blurry image is a cache I need to find. I visited this place recently and it would have helped to know it was a church with a security guard stationed in the parking lot on Sunday mornings...

Here is a second location I visited recently looking for a cache. No luck here, although it was recently found by someone who had the cache owner with them. Using Street View would have shown me where I could park nearby.

Not all of the images are as blurry as the two I posted. Here is where I lived during the early 1970's.



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Hmmm, it doesn't let me go down some of the streets...

Taking the Easy Way

I walk by this location usually on the weekends. This weekend I was surprised to see this image revealed when contractors removed the existing storefront during remodeling. Most of the remaining businesses in this small shopping center have been around for longer than the twenty years I have lived in the area. I will have to ask around and see how long ago this place was an Easy Way store.

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It was exactly one year ago today that I last saw Hoot Owl and spencersb. My pal jbgreer and I had joined up with them for a brief cache hunt in Collierville, TN. I had planned to meet them again at a caching event in Olive Branch, MS the next day, but decided at the last minute to stay home.

JAG Nation Falls Short... Again

Well, this event - JAG Turkey Fryin' Day II by JAG Nation (GC1HJ8W) came and went and like many of JAG's more recent events, had a sparse attendance. A number of their attendees were actually from GOWT, an organization that JAG doesn't even refer to on its list of linked geocaching organizations.

Hmmm... In spaceteacher's log for the event she notes that she got some help getting a cache approved and posted a picture of herself and yogi in front of a computer. Her cache - Alphabetz Soup for Tennessee by spaceteacher (GC1J5WR) was approved on that day by.... tn cacher.


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I noticed today that the Bluff Boys geocaching blog has disappeared. How sad is that?

Sun Studio

I haven't been geocaching much lately because I have been training and running in our local running club's Road Race series. The last of the 10 races in this series is tomorrow, so today my plans for this day were just to kick back and relax. I got on the computer and was surprised to see a new cache in my area. I didn't have a GPSr on me so I had to rely on satellite imagery to find Sun Studio by Berlan Eligab (GC1J3XF).

The imagery for this part of Memphis needs to be updated as a major new building in the area doesn't show up on the images. The cache was a simple park and grab but the name is a little misleading. Although, technically the cache is in the general location - you can hunt it without realizing that Sun Studio is even in the area. In fact, it would have been more accurate to name the cache "UT-Memphis parking lot cache". Knowing that it was in a UT campus parking lot might alert the cache hunter to the fact that UT campus security patrols this and other campus lots and is probably unaware this cache is here. There is another lot closer to Sun Studio that belongs to Southwest Tennessee Community College that would have perhaps been a better spot since it is right next to Sun Studios, but I imagine it would be tougher to hide from muggles.

Today's History Lesson

In the history of West Tennessee geocaching, November 10, 2008 will be recognized by a few as the 1st anniversary of the shutdown of GOWT for a reorganization.

The date picked for the site shutdown, November 10, was chosen in deference to a few cowardly members of the committee who were afraid of a big backlash from the site shutting down. On this particular date, many members were out attending regional WWFM events. The reorganization effort itself, began in secret in May.

The shutdown was also timed to be just before nominations for the next year's GOWT officers took place. There were suspicions, which I shared, that members affiliated with JAG might sweep the elections because of the general apathy of the GOWT membership.

As it so happens, there was no backlash. Most of GOWT's members didn't care what was going on. Most of the people who were associated with JAG simply went about their business on their own site.

We had set up an e-mail address for members to ask questions of the committee (or just provide input) and as far as I know only 2 or 3 people had any questions.

JoGPS asked repeatedly who the members of the reorganization committee were. He also took this opportunity as a Groundspeak moderator to remove GOWT from the list of Tennessee geocaching organizations maintained on the Groundspeak forums. For the record, this was the second time he had done that. The first time being when he was temporarily banned from the GOWT forums for violating conduct rules. How this fool was ever chosen to be a representative of Groundspeak remains a mystery.

The reorganization process was long, mainly because most of the committee members provided no useful input. Some, like Chibongo, wanted to focus discussions on who to blame for GOWT's problems. Others, like prontopup, would take off from the forums for weeks at a time.

I resigned from the reorganization committee on November 22 after essentially being told that I wasn't of good enough character to serve on the new leadership committee or as a moderator. At the time, I had volunteered mainly because no one else would step forward (other than Hoot Owl).

I found it ironic (moronic) that the 5 people who provided ZERO input to the reorganization effort eventually became the leadership committee. One of those 5 - "Benedict" Titansfan, had actually whined about quitting geocaching after he lost in the previous year's elections to the Bluff Boys. He is also now a proud member of JAG.

In another month or so, the makeup of the leadership committee should change. Many of the committee members believed that no one should serve longer than a year and it will be interesting to see if they follow through on that belief now that they are in charge. Since the members of the leadership committee are supposed to come from the functionally useless advisory committee, it will be curious to see how GOWT changes (if it does). One of the things I learned before resigning was that he or she who controls the website, controls GOWT.

Memories...

I was reading the MTGC forums (Middle Tennessee Geocaching Club), when I spotted this gem of a post:

A race in W. TN..........?

Post by TurndAround on Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:08 pm
Greetings from the other end of the state! Myself and some others are tossing around the possibility of a littel race over here, Nascarjunk is thinking of putting it together and here is his orginal post on our forums:


"I have thought about hosting another georace in Jackson. It will be between 15 and 18 hides that will be logable when the race is over. I have brought this up to the Bluff boys and they said they would be there. I will need 2 people to help me out the day of the event. Sometime in the middle of April. Would anyone show up???? I do not want to go through all the trouble if I can not get aleat 10 teams.

Also if you are a member of another geo forum could you please post this there also. I would like a big turnout."

Just wanted to post it here and see if anyone was interested, if so, feel free to come on over to our fourms and let us know. WWW.jacksonareageocachers.com or e-mail me @ [e-mail redacted].

Thanks

TurndAround

Nascarjunk (of JAG) hosting a race, huh? Hmmmmm...... I wonder if anybody out there remembers this.


Nascarjunk tried to host a travel bug race from Tennessee to Oregon and back. Information was hosted by jimmylogan on this website.

Anyways, as I recall, he got upset that not enough people signed up for the race, so he dropped it. This being after people purchased travel bugs and tags for the race.

At least for this geo-race, nobody is out any money or effort if (or when) the proposed event is cancelled.

Race for the Cure - October 25, 2008

This was my 4th year participating in Race for the Cure. The race was a 5k where the start and finish is located near the Saddle Creek shopping center in Germantown, TN. Race organizers estimate they had around 15,000 entrants this year (same as most years) and I was one of about 500 timed racers. The weather was cold, but sunny, and other than the crowds during the first mile, I had a great race.

Afterwards, I enjoyed some pizza and a banana and lots of water before running back to the Agricenter (roughly 2 miles north) where I parked my car.

After getting back to my car, I decided that I would hunt a couple of park and grab caches nearby. I don't normally like caching in my running clothes because I figure I'm more likely to lock my keys in the car, but this time I risked it.

Germantown Parkway is a very busy street on most days, and this day (morning) was no exception. The first cache I went after was Where A Kid Can Be A Kid by Pixiemama (GC1EMZX). I had to outwait a carload of muggles parked next to the cache, and after they left I felt a bit exposed, but I made the find. Had I been here on any other day, I might have gone inside for pizza. Anyways, I got back on the road and headed less than a mile south for the second and final cache of the morning: Preggo #1 by Pixiemama (GC1FA46). There was an open door near the cache, and I could have easily been spotted if someone had stepped outside. I got lucky, though, and got in and out of the area undetected.

There were a few more caches I could have gone after, but I needed to go home and get cleaned up before eating lunch.

Caching at Glen Springs Lake - October 18, 2008

I met up with my caching buddy, jbgreer at his place around 8am. I was a little late because I was taking advantage of the lower gas prices to fill up. Gas had gone down 80 cents a gallon since I had last filled up.

I was in charge of coming up with the caches to hunt, and chose the area around Glen Springs Lake in Tipton County in order to meet jbgreer's goal of hunting high difficulty/terrain caches and my goal of hunting at least ten caches, hard or easy. The weather was cooperative being both dry and cool.

After arriving at the lake and circling the parking lot looking for the optimal parking spot, we headed off on foot in search of West TN Mega Multi series - No Way1 by Riskit323 (GC13WVN). We decided to approach it from the north after scouting a suitable entry point into the woods. The lake has a number of "fingers" in this area so we tried to avoid extra hiking by staying away from the lake, itself. This area is nice and hilly, but the hike to the cache was short and we found it in good shape and signed the log. There were two other caches in the immediate area, so next we went after Burhs by prontopup (GC11XNB). We stumbled upon the trail leading us most of the way to the cache - actually to within 200 feet before cutting off and heading toward the coordinates. After some searching of the area, I read the previous logs that mentioned the coordinates being off by around 30 feet. Sure enough, I found it to be about 30 feet (east?) of the coordinates. I liked the camo on this one, it really blended in well. While we were standing around the cache, we noticed some guys on a boat coming within sight of us. We backed off to avoid compromising the hide.

After walking back uphill to the trail, we headed for Nature's Redundancy by prontopup (GC11XNH). It was an easy walk to this cache (just a few hundred feet), but the hide area was surrounded by falling trees and thick brush - plenty of places to hide a cache. Reading netinator's log gave me sufficient insight to spot the cache without too much work. It was a good hide technique that nature was beginning to encroach upon.

The last cache we had to hunt in the area was Dogwood Dead by prontopup (GC11XN7). The hide area was between us and where we parked, so we tried taking the trail back out of the woods. Unfortunately, it didn't do that - it ended up behind somebody's backyard. We managed to skirt around that area without being spotted by the residents or crossing onto their yard, but it probably wasn't the best way to go. Anyways, we made it out the road, followed it for a bit and then cut back into the woods. After a lot of searching, we came up empty-handed. We did find a chewed up plastic bowl near the coordinates, but it didn't look like a cache container. I was disappointed to leave one cache unfound, but jbgreer reminded me that at least it was easy to get back to, being just a short distance from good parking. We walked back to the truck and I snapped a few pictures of the lake area, and we left.

Our next destination was Valentine Park in Munford, TN. Even though we had both been to this park before, for some reason our autorouting had us going around in circles. Finally, I used my paper map to guide us in. We parked in an area, where I had parked the last time I was here - not realizing that the road would have taken us much closer to where we needed to be. It was a nice day for a walk, though, and we eventually made it to the Boy Scout Trail after first visiting a small cemetery.

There were muggles picnicking near the trailhead, but none were in the woods. We followed one trail to need a light by djpoochie (GC1AJY0) and the followed another section of the trail to Wolves, Tigers & Bears?? by bevofan (GCZ39Q). The latter hide had been there awhile and was originally stocked with some neat stuff. By the time we hunted it, all it had was the logbook and some junk. Both of these caches were good hides, though, and we enjoyed finding them. By the time we got back to the truck, we decided to get something to eat. Not being familiar with any of the eating establishments, I picked Sparky's BBQ in nearby Atoka, TN. I should have called my sister-in-law, who lives in Atoka for some advice... Maybe next time. Anyways, after lunch we heaaded for Atoka Ball Park to hunt O, IC ! by minismiths (GCW3E9). The coords led us to a caboose, that had had two previous caches (we had found at least one of them), so we were quite surprise by the creativity in this hide.

Time was running out for us, so we headed south to Orgill Park where we found Squirel's Revenge by SirFrog (GCYBGD) in short order. There were a surprising number of excellent potential hiding spots with a few yards of the coords. Our last hunt of the day was What is my ID? by cgeek (GC10QM3) it was in a nearby park that was familiar to both of us. It had a simple puzzle component that I had solved a long time ago, and jbgreer solved the day before. The theme of the cache was dedicated to the 2007 GOWT Executive Committee, so I paid my respects in what I felt was an appropriate manner. ;-) Easy hike in and out. We did see a sinkhole off of a trail that was impressive in its size. The opening was relatively small, but it was cavernous underneath.

We got back to the truck and made the drive back to jbgreer's house, where we parted ways until the next adventure. It was a good day and we both met our caching goals for the trip.

After getting home, I decided I still had time to hike over to Joe's by Berlan Eligab (GC1H83J). It was a short walk from my place to the cache location. I was a little hesitant to grab the cache after seeing a sticker on the object on which the cache was placed that basically said that all calls were being monitored by the police. Apparently some unsavory folks spend time here... None on this day, though, so after signing the log I headed off in search of dinner.

Upcoming Events

I haven't made it out caching in a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to mention a few upcoming events in the area:

2nd Annual Old Liberty Hill Haunted Adventure by lacey38655 and sniperchicken (GC1AC2A)
This event on October 18th is being held just east of Oxford, MS and should be a lot of fun for those fortunate enough to make it. I enjoyed it last year, but I don't think I'll make it this year. I'm pretty sure that this event (last year) was the last geocaching event I attended.

The Great Pumpkin Geocaching Party! by Team Sprout (GC1G888)
This Halloween event will be held in Olive Branch, MS. I would never go to an event that required wearing a costume in order to log the event, but it would be cool if there was a contest for the best Halloween-themed cache container.

Geocaching Introduction by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC1GD8C)
This event on November 1st will be hosted by prontopup at Cameron Brown Park in Germantown, TN. This will be the perfect opportunity for the host to pose for pictures with fellow GOWT member tiger130. All most folks will get out of this "introduction" is who you can call when you can't find the cache.

Caching in Olive Branch, MS - September 24, 2008

I planned to take my car to a repair shop in Olive Branch that I have used before. Knowing that there were eight new caches in the area since my last visit, I decided to take my GPSr with me in case I had time to cache a little after the repairs were done. I had done very little research on the caches I wanted to hunt, but knew most would be simple park and grabs.

After I left the repair place, I went after two caches a short distance away. Zoned out by fzxfazer (GC1FZT5) was a skirtlifter at a nearby AutoZone and was a quick find. Headache Fix #1 by fzxfazer (GC1FCPT) was at a nearby Walgreens. Another skirtlifter on the edge of a parking lot that had just been repaved. I'm not sure if you can be observed from the drive-thru pharmacy window, but took a chance in going after this one.

Next, I headed after three near Olive Branch City Park. First, I hunted Home Run at Maples by Fairchase (GC1G0F3). I parked at Maples Memorial Methodist Church (which was busy on a Wednesday morning) and was surprised to see the small ballfield below the parking area. The approach I took deserved a high-terrain rating, but at least the location of the field was out of sight of any muggles at the church. The cache was in an interesting container and nicely tucked away. Coming out of the area, I noticed a much safer way back to the parking lot, but I went back up the way I had come.

I detoured back to the area of Heartbreak Hotel and Cache by tinksdad01 (GC185HX) and checked out the area. I knew the cache was hidden in the owner's yard, but wasn't interested in being spotted by the neighbors or anyone else, so I moved on.

There were two caches to find in Olive Branch City Park. I had been there at least three times before and had hunted other caches in different areas if the park. The first cache I went after was The Air Force's Best Kept Secret by Sprout (GC1FKP7). Had I read the cache description, I would have known about the nice hiking trail that leads you to within 100 feet or so of the cache. Instead, I cut across the woods and stumbled upon the trail just a little bit before having to go back off trail to find the cache. After signing the log, I took the trail south towards the next cache on my list: Home Run at The Park by Fairchase (GC1G0F5). When I got to be roughly 400 feet from the cache location, I discovered I had two obstacles. The first was a woman and her kids picnicing just off of the paved path I was standing on. The other obstacle was a groundskeeper on a tractor less than 50 feet from the cache location. I waited out the groundskeeper and made the find without the picnicing muggles watching me. I had a bit of a hike getting back to my car and observing a police car patrolling the area.

My next cache was Mmmm Mmmm Good! by Fairchase (GC1G0EW), located near an ice cream parlor. The parking lot was empty except for a car parked at the cache spot. Good thing it was a park and grab. No time for ice cream, though, I had one more cache on my list. I drove to the area of A Sticky Entrance to The Meadows by Fairchase (GC1G0ER) and decided it would be too easy to be spotted by the neighbors so I drove off. It was another cache where it turned out that the neighbors knew about it, but I really don't care to be observed while caching.

Having found 6 caches in roughly 45 minutes, my work was done and since it was lunchtime, I drove over to Chik-Fil-A for a quick lunch before heading back to Memphis.

All in all, it was a good morning. My car problems were fixed (hopefully) and I found six caches before lunch. My one regret is that I didn't have my camera with me on this trip.

Caching in Hernando, MS - September 20, 2008

[continued from previous entry]

Our primary goals for Hernando on this trip were:
1) Get some lunch
2) Get some batteries
3) Attempt Elite Cachers # 1 (Strength) by bomb280 (GC14129) - a 1.5/5 cache

Passing by the location of the cache, we saw that a football game was going on and there were muggles aplenty. I figured that we could pick a place to eat from one of the "Hungry in Hernando" series. Stopping at Hungry in Hernando #3 by htowngs153 (GC1EAHY), we made a quick find of the cache near stage 1 of a previously hunted cache. I wasn't really sure of the eating establishment related to this cache, so we just went down the road to a Wendy's.

After lunch we headed off to Hungry in Hernando #1 by htowngs153 (GC1EAHP), making a quick stop at a nearby Walgreens for batteries on the way. The cache was another quick find thanks to the lack of muggles. Next was the last for the series, Hungry in Hernando #2 by htowngs153 (GC1EAHT).

We made a quick pass by gshome by htowngs153 (GC18M7G) and the groundskeeper was watching us so we left.

We made another pass by Elite Cachers # 1 (Strength) by bomb280 (GC14129). Still busy.

We avenged a DNF at Urban Shell Shock #1 by Pyxis Centauri (GCY3DA). Looks like the coords are off by at least 30 feet and the log is mush.

The next cache, and the only multicache we hunted, was Sons of the South by tinksdad01 (GC1D9HP). The cache took us through Hernando Memorial Cemetery which had a number of Confederate soldiers buried within.


Thanks to jbgreer knowing what a "filial" is and my visual surmising of a projected waypoint, we made quick work of finding the cache.

The last cache we intended to hunt was 55 South by CamoHunter297 (GC16QVW). This cache was located on the grounds of a really neat rest stop. I spent some time after the find exploring the "Hospitality House" where I ended up buying a soda.

Heading south, we missed our exit for turning around so I suggested we hunt Ranger Futbol by chimps8mybaby (GC1DVT1), which was just off of the next exit. We had a few delays finding the proper entrance to the area, but managed to arrive where we needed to be. While I stood roughly 10 feet from the cache location, jbgreer did a masterful job of not telling the security officer what we were really doing. After the officer left, we retrieved the cache and signed the log. All in all, a successful day of caching and just having fun. We got back on I-55 and headed back to Memphis.

Caching at Arkabutla Lake - September 20, 2008

My good buddy jbgreer had contacted me earlier in the week to ask if I'd like to go geocaching on Saturday. When I asked if he had an area in mind, he said he would be busy all week and would call me on Friday. I was busy as well so I only spent a little time trying to find an area to cache in that would meet his goal of hunting high difficulty/terrain caches and my goal of hunting as many caches as possible.


I picked the Arkabutla Lake area knowing that if we had time, we could eat lunch and cache in nearby Hernando, MS as well. We had both cached in the area before and the familiarity would help us on this day.

We met at the casa de jbgreer at 8:30am on Saturday and after fueling up the cachemobile, began our day's adventure.

Heading south on I-55, we passed several new caches in Southaven in order to have sufficient caching time further south. We decided to approach Arkbutla Lake from the south via Coldwater, MS and our first cache was The Arkabutla Walk by Team140 (GC1FHBC). We had hiked these trails before, and on this occasion, noticed a sign that made us both laugh.


It had rained a bit on Friday and that made the terrain a bit tougher everywhere we went. Spiderwebs were also a nuisance. After finding the first cache and returning the way we came in, we headed for Blue Hole #1 by mrjlsmith (GC1FHA8). When we got to the area of the cache, we noticed that the area was off-limits. We failed at a quick search and when we got back to the truck, we found a ranger driving around. We decided to skip the nearby Blue Hole #2 and move on.

We headed northwest and hunted Coyote Hill by Duckman63 (GC1AYTC). It was a nice hike and even though the coords were off, we were rewarded by find a nice ammo can. The ratings seemed a little high for this cache, but no big deal.


Going up the road (Hwy 304) a little further, we made a quick find of Wolf Creek by Duckman63 (GC1F767). We then headed east to a cluster of three caches in a recreational area. Hiking along muddy trails, we found Baldwin Rd. Dead End by Duckman63 (GC1AY5G), Baldwin Rd. Dead End #2 by duckman63 (GC1F75X), and JBSB#1 by mrjlsmith (GC1FFC7). These were all great caches and we enjoyed the hikes to find them. At one point, we heard people riding ATVs and the occasional rifle shot, but we managed to get in and out of there without being noticed or shot.


Our final cache in the area was Old 304 Access Area by bomb280 (GC11Z4J). After a brief hunt for the access road, we were rewarded by finding the cache. I took a few pictures of the area while there.


We were happy with the caches found so far. Most were by new cachers and recently placed. Most were in excellent containers and well-stocked.

At this point, we were hungry so we headed into the nearby town of Hernando.

[to be continued]

In the Neighborhood

Last night I ran in the Cooper-Young 4 mile race that kicks off the yearly festival in this neighborhood. The start of the race was near a cache I found over three years ago. On May 2, 2005, I was the FTF on Neighborhood by Mr Lost adopted by Andy/Memphis (GCNNZ3).

Standing at the start of the race, I was reminded of the enthusiasm I once had whenever I saw a new cache pop up. As I raced down the streets in the zigzag course, I noted several places that would be great places to hide caches. When the weather cools off, I will head back over to check these places out.

The race itself went pretty well. It had around 600 participants and I finished in 278th place with a time of just under 36 and a half minutes. It was blistering hot and I was appreciative of the people standing in their yards spraying runners with water as they passed by.

Puzzle Caches Revisited

Here is a link to a Groundspeak thread regarding the sharing of coordinates for puzzle caches.

A wide variety of opinions are expressed (some even on-topic). Some I agree with (or understand), others not so much. My own position on this has evolved over the years. In my experience, too much help diminishes the feelings of accomplishment in finding a "high-difficulty" cache. It is my belief that if you need help with finding a cache or solving a puzzle related to a cache, you should contact the cache owner.

Titansfan and pcsenn, two of the "leaders" of GOWT, obviously have no problem with using coordinates that someone else gave them. Others in the GOWT leadership cadre have no problem handing them out to anyone who asks. I guess it is naive to expect "leaders" to be held to a higher standard of behavior.

[Pcsenn later edited his log for "Blackjack" to obfuscate who on the "team" actually solved the puzzle. His earlier log mentioned that someone else provided the coordinates. Nice work, dude.]

On a side note: After reading this blog entry from Titansfan, I posted a comment asking who provided his team with the coordinates to Blackjack by Mr Lost (GCZ84G). Since his blog is moderated, he appears to have chosen not to post my comment. I recommended Titansfan for the GOWT Reorganization Committee many months ago and supported his selection to the Leadership Committee. In recent months, I realize that I made a big mistake - one of many regarding GOWT.

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I see Titansfan just joined the JAG forums. That's good! Now he won't have to use his wife's account to spy on them for GOWT.

Caching on Labor Day 2008

I hadn't done any caching on Saturday or Sunday so I was surprised when jbgreer called me up around 7:30am on Monday morning wanting to know if I was up to hunting some caches. He was particularly interested in hunting some of the "Flip Dizzy" caches that we had coordinates solved for. I had kinda hoped we would save those for much cooler weather, but... ok, I'm up for it.

We arranged to meet at 9am and head out in some direction. We decided to begin our hunt in Riverside Park (AKA MLK Park). There were a handful of caches left for us to find in that park and it had been a while since we had been there.

Upon arriving at the park, I declared that we should go after GS - MLK Park by Abiectio (GC18A5W). Nothing like starting the day with an easy guardrail cache, right? Hmmmmm... The road we need to be on doesn't seem to exist.

We decided to go ahead and hunt Flip Dizzy by Abiectio (GC18M8X). I had known it was in this park even before attempting the puzzle. Earlier finders (from GOWT) had left enough clues in their logs to tell me and anyone else who reads logs what park it was in. Thanks guys!

Anyways, we hunted and found it in short order and moved on to find more caches.

We had managed to figure out what happened to the missing road that the guardrail cache was on. It seems that the parks dept closed both ends and simply removed just enough of the road to make it difficult to find. After finding an entrance on the south side, we drove the cachemobile in far enough to be out of sight of any muggles. It turns out that you can't drive too far on it anyways. We were able to walk a good distance on the road, a few spots were covered with vegetation we had to navigate around. After a bit, we found the guardrail. Wow - this was a cool hiding spot! I hadn't paid attention to the terrain level (a 3) and it definitely fit the ratings, in fact they might be low for this time of year.


Walking back to the truck, we detoured slightly to pick up Cherrybark Oak by Chance Encounter (adopted by Abiectio) (GCTP6W). We tried this one before and couldn't figure out how to get to it - not knowing about the hidden road. It was a welcome easy find.


Afterwards, we hiked back to the truck and drank some water before moving to another area.

We decided next to go after Ohm's Law by Chance Encounter (adopted by Abiectio) (GCTK4G). We had solved this puzzle a long time ago, but couldn't find the cache. Today, we had better luck. After a lot of wandering around, jbgreer spotted the container.

We drove a short distance north and quickly found The Troll of MLK park by Abiectio (GC18A6R). I think the troll has been replaced by spiderwebs...

That was our last find in the park. Since it was still early in the day, we decided to hunt a few more of the Flip Dizzy series.

We plotted the coordinates for Flip Dizzy - Turning gold into lead since 1973 by Abiectio (GC1B6FJ) and headed across town. We were able to park within a few hundred feet of the cache, but had some obstacles in our path. We stumbled out onto a trail and found the cache a short distance away. Rather than go back the way we came, we decided to see where the trail led. It led us eventually to a nature area we had been to once before. Neat! I took a few pictures, but my camera messed up...

After getting back to the truck, we headed to Flip Dizzy - Bad Juju by Abiectio (GC1CJJ1). This was the easiest of the puzzles to solve and for some reason, I thought it would be tougher to find. It was an interesting area that will probably be built over at some point.

Finally, we headed over to Bartlett Park for two more caches. The first, Flip Dizzy "It's the colors man" by Abiectio (GC1A8WG), was partially spoiled by the online logs (thanks, GOWT) but was not disappointing. On this day the ditches/gulleys were muddy and slippery. We tried to avoid mulitple crossings and ended up going in circles before finally finding our way back to a trail. It was way to hot and humid for wandering in circles. Our last cache of the day was FTF All Star #7: Bartlett Park by Abiectio and itcomagic (GC1D76T). It was mercifully easy and took us to probably the one area of the park we had not seen before. Jbgreer nearly broke his arm at one point, but the hike out was nice and uneventful.

I was glad to make it back to the truck where I drank most of my third quart of water. I had just enough as it turned out. I was also pretty glad to get home afterwards and clean up. I slept very well that night.

Caching in Huntington, OR - June 29, 2008

My brother decided to take the week before the July 4th weekend to do some camping and fishing along the Snake River with some friends of his. Since I don't fish and my Dad doesn't really like to camp, we made plans to drive down and hang out. Of course, once I found out where exactly my brother was going, I mapped out all of the nearby caches.

We left early on the 29th and headed south towards Huntington. On the way we stopped at the Baker Truck Corral in Baker City and had my favorite breakfast - corned beef hash and scrambled eggs.

A short while later, we made a quick stop in Durkee, OR to hunt outside looking in by maint/man (GCT4GJ). This was a nice cemetery cache.

The first cache we hunted upon arriving in Huntington was THE LAST SPIKE by Jeron (GC12AMZ). It was one of those magnetic keyholders on a caboose, that I normally dread. This one wasn't hard, but there were lots of muggles in the area. If I had been by myself, I probably would have spent more time reading about the history of the spot.

After finding the cache, we drove to a place nearby where my brother and his friends were camped out. After learning that my brother was off somewhere, we decided to go ahead and hunt a few more caches.

HUNTING IN HUNTINGTON (Geo that is!) by Jeron (GC12AMH) was about 1/2 mile away. This was in an area that looks like you could camp nearby. It is also in an area convenient for fishing. The coordinates took me to an area with some big rocks, and since the hint mentioned rocks, I got to turn each one over. It turned out that the cache location was under a rock in a pile a little further away and covered with vegetation and mosquitoes.

The next cache - Brownlee View by GeoTechnician & OliviaRed (GCN3BH) was a little further down the road (River Road). There was no place really close to park, so my Dad dropped me off and drove down the road a ways. Because this was a fairly steep hike, I used a zigzag approach to make it a little easier. My GPSr arrow was acting goofy, but I eventually found where the cache was neatly tucked away. I had an excellent view of the Snake River from the cache spot, so I rested for a moment before heading back down.


After getting back to the truck we doubled back into Huntington and headed south for more caches.

I was looking forward to the next cache - Birch Creek Rest Area by newlifelawn (GC126T0) because I assumed it would be at a rest area. We drove down a few windy gravel roads and my Dad and I thought we might be in the wrong area. It turned out the be an access area for the Oregon Trail. This is a pretty barren area for the most part, so I paused to imagine what it would be like for the pioneers traveling this way.


The next cache was Catfish Connection by n2life (GC13M2M). It was basically a small container hidden on the grounds of a bait shop/RV park. It was a quick find. At this point we headed back north for one more cache.

The last cache we hunted was Indianhead View by Shebear & Storminn (GCQWXR). After parking, I headed down into a small ravine and got to spend a bit of time searching through some rough brush and find the cache. It was getting to be pretty warm by this time, and we were both ready to head back to the fishing camp.

One Reviewer in Texas

I don't really like to read the Groundspeak geocaching forums much, but every once in a while I will look for topics that interest me.

Here is a topic that really makes me shake my head:

One Reviewer in Texas?

In it, the original poster wonders about the timeframe for getting caches approved. After finding out that the state of Texas only has one reviewer, he wonders out loud why this is - how it is possible for one person to review caches for such a big state in a timely manner.

I thought this was a fair question.

The first response is from my old pal Max Cacher, who doesn't answer the question but simply states "Volunteer Reviewers also have lives outside of caching, sometimes that does get in the way, but she is doing a great job for Texas".

Most of the rest of the posters, defend only having one reviewer by basically saying: "Look - your caches were approved, why are you complaining?"

Max Cacher attempts to moderate by prematurely posting: "Forum courtesy: Please treat Groundspeak, its employees, volunteers, fellow community members, and guests on these boards with courtesy and respect. Whether a community member has one post or 5,000 posts, they should be treated fairly."

What he means (based on the context of this and other threads) is: "Don't question Groundspeak or its volunteer reviewers."

My understanding about becoming a volunteer reviewer is that Groundspeak uses the "don't call us, we will call you" approach. I guess it works for them. I'm not so sure it works for everyone else.

The OP mentions (in the 15th post) that "...I know how pointless it can be to get into an argument with someone in a position of "authority" on boards such as these, especially since I have been informed by people who have dealt with Groundspeak that it's better not to question their volunteers for risk of retribution." He is not the only one who feels that way. Searching the forums, one can find this same sentiment expressed by a few others. Most of them ended up being belittled by other posters. These belittlers didn't attempt to rationally discuss the issue, they simply took the opportunity to kiss up to Groundspeak for reasons that escape me.

Maybe someday somebody who works for Groundspeak will address the rationale for picking reviewers using the method they do.

Caching in Memphis, TN - August 3, 2008

I don't normally do much on Sunday, but I had plans on this day to go see the movie "Hellboy II" with my pal jbgreer and his wife. Even though it was warmer than I like, I decided to spend a couple of hours before the movie picking up a few park-and-grab caches located a few miles from the theater. My main goal was to get the 3 remaining caches in the "Whatsa MATA" series by itcomagic and a few others.

I started by going to the one the furthest away from me - Whatsa MATA on Stage? by Abiectio (GC1DV8N). It was a good hide and I found it quickly only because I was very familiar with the hide technique. The most interesting part of the hunt, though, was the path I drove to get there. It was through a part of town I can't recall having been through before.

The second cache was Whatsa MATA with White Station? by itcomagic (GC1DRM4). Another quick find. The only thing that confused me about the hide technique was that it would most likely be destroyed the next time landscaping was done on the area. Why hide it there? Oh, well - on to the next cache.

Not far away was DEAD SPACE by ~Mindless-Focus~ (GC1DZMG). I made an incorrect assumption about the hide location, but found it quick enough, anyways. I would not recommend hiding anything inside of anything electrical.

It was getting close to movie time, so I headed over to Whatsa MATA with Challenges? by itcomagic (with cgeek, Abiectio, and Nvisible) (GC1DRM8) since it was near my destination. Once I (finally) found a place to park, I headed over to the coords. When I got to where I believed the cache to be and saw my GPSr pointing off into the woods about 30 feet, I knew the coords were off. Still, I gave the wooded area a shot and went back to search where I wanted to search in the first place. I didn't have time to find it, so I ended up leaving. This cache had not been found by the time I arrived, and my experience with itcomagic caches has been to wait for someone else to find the cache (pointing out puzzle or coordinate errors )and put a spoiler in the log. ( In this case, netinator later found the cache and posted enough of a spoiler to help me out should I make it back over there.)

I made it to the theater with about 10 minutes to spare. The movie was pretty good.

Collierville, TN - July 26, 2008

When I got an e-mail from jbgreer asking me if I had caching plans for Saturday, I said no. It's way too hot for me to be caching! We agreed to limit the day's caching to the morning and selected some caches in W. C. Johnson Park as our primary goal. These particular caches are in areas that might very well be under water during many times of the year, so when I read the recent cache logs and saw that the area was dry, I was happy. This was also fortuitous as I forgot to bring my waterproof boots.

The first cache we went after was Stinky's Litter Box by TNBOYS (GC12PVW). On a previous trip here, the area around the cache was flooded from a recent rain. This time the area was bone dry and we made our way to the cache quickly. I spotted it relatively uncovered and we signed the logbook. I had a goal to drop my traveling geocoin I picked up in Oregon at the first decent cache I found, so I dropped it here. I covered the cache better than I found it.

On the way to hunt Walk the Planks! by TNBOYS (GC11P79), we scouted possible entrances to hunt Ode to Soup's DVD Cache by Hoot Owl, JrByrdman162, & Spencersb (GCZX6F) afterwards. I wanted to save the highest terrain cache for last.

On the way to the boardwalk and roughly where we planned to enter the woods for GCZX6F, I spotted a young deer who stuck around long enough for me to get out my camera and snap a picture.


After taking the picture, we made our way to the boardwalk and hiked north to where GC11P79 was. This cache was a short walk off of the boardwalk and after waiting for some muggles to pass by, made our way over to the cache. I'd never been on this section of the boardwalk so I didn't know what to expect. After signing the log, we hiked back to the boardwalk and walked the rest of the way on it, ending up back where we started.

We hiked back to the spot where we planned to enter the woods for GCZX6F. The terrain was very rough, but we saw no trace of water going to and from the cache. On the way back from the cache, I managed to trip and fall face first into a thick patch of grass.

We made our way back to jbgreer's truck where he was pleased to see I had remembered to bring drinks. Also at this point, we noticed a few raindrops.

After leaving the park, we headed south to get Nut House by Lobodad (GC18917). We found the paved walking trail, but did not see a convenient place to park. Not really a problem, though, and we hiked around to an entry point and over to the cache.

After getting back to the truck, we decided to find a convenience store since I finished my drink and was still thirsty. At this point, it started pouring rain.


On the way back into Memphis, I suggested we hunt Silo Mentality by Chance Encounter (adopted by itcomagic) (GCZ17W). Because of construction in the area, I figured we should find it before the silos were taken down. When we got to the site, it didn't look like anything was going on there. Since I had tried to find this cache a couple of times before, jbgreer got climbing duties and made the find. Afterwards, we drove back to his house where we parted ways.

Mt. Fanny / Moss Springs Campground - July 6, 2008

On the last full day of my vacation, my brother asked if I wanted to hunt the two remaining caches on my list for Mt. Fanny. I had wanted to go after these two caches since my arrival (technically they were the closest caches to the house), but my brother and Dad believed that there was still too much snow on the ground to travel up there.

We headed up Forest Service Road 6220 to a specified turn-off point for hunting It is a tree of secrets by Class A foam (GCYMAF). This was a two-stage multicache that involved a hike down an old ATV trail. The coords were good for both stages and the hike was nice.

After finding the cache, we made our way back to FS 6220 and continued east to Moss Springs Campground to hunt This ain't no cache and dash! by cache-n-dash (GC1CTP5). FS 6220 is a good gravel road with a lot of switchbacks.

We parked near the coordinates of the Moss Springs Trailhead and began the roughly 1.4 mile hike to the cache area. This was an extremely difficult hike for me as we started off at an altitude of 5500 feet and headed for a cache that was at roughly 6800 feet. There were times where I could only hike a couple of hundred feet before needing a break. The weather was nice, though, and there were only a few patches of snow after we reached about 6500 feet. We eventually made it to the cache site which was described on the cache page as "Vinny Viewpoint" and had a few remnants of what appeared to be an old Forest Service lookout tower.


My brother actually found the cache while I, as usual, was admiring the view of the valley. Normally I don't trade items anymore, but I took a book on Forest Service Lookout Towers and left my small swiss army knife with a small pill fob attached. I also accidently pocketed a geocoin that wants to travel across North America. That coin will get it's wish as it traveled 2500 miles across the country with me and will hopefully soon be placed in a local cache.


I was actually FTF on this cache even though it had been there a month. Last year, I was the FTF on a nearby (relatively) cache - Point Prominence Lookout by WR7X (GC13N7R). To this date, I am the only visitor that cache has seen.

Anyways, after taking some pictures and drinking some Gatorade, we hiked back down to the truck (off-trail).

This ain't no cache and dash! by cache-n-dash (GC1CTP5) ended up being the last cache I found while on vacation.

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The book on Forest Service Lookout Towers is actually quite interesting. It details the history of the fire lookout towers that were in wide use a few decades ago.

Baker City, OR - June 25, 2008

My Dad and I decided to head back to Baker City to pick up some caches we missed as well as some caches in more the more rugged terrain to the south. Our first stop was just off I-84: Clover Creek Geocoin TB and Trackables by lovin-mustang (GC1D8ZC). When we arrived at the exit, we noticed ODOT trucks parked in a couple of spots nearby. One truck (unoccupied) was parked a few yards from the cache so I knew I needed to get in and out fast. This was a new cache, so it had lots of swag and a couple of geocoins. I wrote down the tracking numbers of the coins and signed the log. I found out later that my brother (who works for ODOT) was working at that spot, but had not arrived yet.

Our second find of the day was Trecking with the Dinosaur by RattlerClan (GC1D0G5). It was near the Interpretative Center we were at two days ago, but had not been part of my pocket query. This cache involved a little bit of a walk, and the animal bones all over the place were a little disconcerting. I had read the hint earlier and had forgotten about it until I saw the cache location.

Soon we were in Baker City and made quick work of three micros that we missed on our last trip. Since it was still early, we headed over to the Baker Truck Corral for breakfast. It is a long-standing tradition of mine to stop there while in town and order corned beef hash and scrambled eggs. The hash is the best I've ever eaten.

Our next destination was Phillips Lake Reservoir. This is a popular boating and fishing area located aobut 16 miles southwest of Baker City along the southern part of the Elkhorn Scenic Byway. The first cache on the list was I'm All Washed Up! by cache-n-dash (GC18WGN). This was an interesting puzzle cache I had worked out the day before. The container was different than I expected (it was recently replaced). After finding the cache, I asked my Dad if he thought we would see any bears out here.

The next cache was My First Moun10bike Geocoin #19 by cache-n-dash (GC13ZTW). This involved a solitary hike up the side of a mountain while my Dad waited in the truck. There was supposedly a trail, but I didn't see it.


It took the good part of an hour to get up there and back, and since I had no cell signal, my Dad worried that I'd get lost. No such luck, though. I used the GPSr track log to find my way back to the truck. Our third stop was interesting, in part, because my Dad had never seen a cache hide like it. The Dump Station by rednil (GC15PGD) was out in the middle of a field to the southwest of the reservoir. We both got a good laugh out of the hiding place. Think porcelain. There was another cache on the east side of the lake, but once again, I didn't have the coords for it.

That was all of the caches for the Phillips Lake Reservoir area, so we headed back north along Hwy. 7 to a side road that would take us off into the mountains. I kind of dreaded this part because some of these Forest Service roads would be in pretty bad shape and my street maps might not be good enough to get us around. The first cache in the area was simple enough - My First Moun10bike Geocoin #20 by jeron (GC1500K) was practically a park and grab. Next, I plotted a course for 6513 - Elk Creek Weather Station by cache-n-dash (GC1CP26). The road for this was not on my paper map, but surprisingly my GPSr gave us a route. Since it didn't show all of the FS roads, we had to backtrack a time or two. We saw a fast-moving coyote near the coords. There was no swag in this one, so I left a witch doll that I had taken form the previous cache (it was too full to close). We spent some time admiring the view of the valley before heading off.


I had one more cache on the list, but although we found the right route, the road was impassable with our truck, so we decided to call it a day. Even though I had a trackfile, we nearly got lost winding our way out of the woods. Once we found our way back to the highway, however, it was smooth sailing back home. We did make a side trip to La Grande, where I treated us to some Dairy Queen ice cream and we got the truck washed at a place where attractive young women do the washing.

---

Looking back at the area now (7/24), I see at least 7 new caches in Baker City and two near Phillips Lake Reservoir. Cool!

Baker City, OR - June 23, 2008

My Dad and I decided on this day to do mostly in-town caching. My brother had brought his boat to a mechanic in Baker City a few days before so we thought we'd check in it while we were there as well.

We left the town of Cove at just after 7am after first gassing up and getting something to drink. We hunted two caches around North Powder and one near Haines before getting to Baker City.

One cache we went a little out of the way to find after arriving in town was Forgotten Resting Place by lovin-mustang (GC1BD4T). This was located at Wingville Cemetery (1878-1962). The community of Wingville was settled in 1862. Many of the first settlers here were soldiers from Major General Sterling Price's (CSA) campaigns in Missouri and Arkansas and the Republicans called them "The left wing of Price's army." While the cache container was quite unique, I was more fascinated by the view of the snow-capped mountains to the west and some of the old tombstones. Before we left, we went over and read the entrance sign.


I thought about my old pal Titansfan, who is a Civil War/Confederate army buff who is also into waymarking and made a note of the coordinates of the sign.

Once back in Baker City, we hunted several more mostly easy caches. One cache that stood out was Archimedes' Constant by cache-n-dash (GC10T6W). This was a cache that required some research. It was also the only cache that stopped me from clearing out Baker City the last time I was here (a year ago). I was prepared on this day, however, and joyously found the cache after struggling to find an entry point.


After leaving Baker City to return home, we hunted a few more caches, the first of which was Panorama Point by cache-n-dash (GC12Y01). This cache was located near an observation platform located to the west of the Oregon Trail Interpretative Center. It was only a 1/2 mile hike to the cache as the crow flies, but the paved walking trail had numerous switchbacks to make the descents/ascents easier for hikers. I loved the hike and the views, but my favorite thing about this cache was getting my Dad to make the hike with me. He doesn't like long hikes, and I gave him the option of checking out the Interpretative Center (I have visited it before) while I hunted the cache.


The next cache we stopped at was Not Your Typical ? Cache by cache-n-dash (GC127R2). This was near a fishing lake not far from the Baker City airport. The cache was an easy find, but had an unexpected twist that took me some time to figure out. We found two more caches that day, that were easy finds with great views.

We found a total of 14 caches on this trip. Because my PQ was from June 10 and my printed map was from June 22, there were a few caches on my map that I didn't have the coordinates to. We saved these for another visit.

La Grande, OR - June 21, 2008

I had been in town about a week and had already been to the Cove library (my base of operations) to update some of my geocaching information. Now I was ready to do some caching.

I came into La Grande with my Mom and stepfather. They wanted to visit a chiropractic clinic that was giving free massages and adjustments on this day. We hunted three caches afterwards. The first was across the street at Eastern Oregon University - EOU #1 by jandsjacobson99 (GC180ZG). It was a short, two-stage multi. I led us to the area of the cache and let my Mom discover it. She always gets excited when she spots a cache first.

The second find was Birdie Lookout by lovin-mustang (GC1CQT9). This was at the Ladd Marsh Wildlife preserve. I had been here the year before hunting another nearby cache. We never see any wildlife here, but it is a neat place.

Finally, we hunted Watch your step by lovin-mustang (GC1BYER). This was in a new neighborhood under development. The curious thing about the area is that they paved the roads and put up street signs before starting any other construction.

Afterwards, we did some grocery shopping and headed home.

Road Trip to Oregon 2008 - Part II: Chicago to Cove, OR

Friday, June 13

As the time to leave Chicago approached, we found out that the train service was interrupted by flooding, most notably in Wisconsin. We were all boarded onto 5 buses for the roughly 8-hour drive to Minneapolis. We were one of the last buses to leave Chicago, but that turned out to be a good thing. Most of the other buses ran into water or heavy traffic on the roads and were stuck. We managed to edge around the water and get to the Minneapolis train station first around midnight. We were loaded onto the train right away and ended up waiting for more than four hours for the other buses. At least, I managed to sleep through most of the wait.

Saturday, June 14

The train ride across the top part of the country was very scenic...and long. I was lucky, though, and had my row of seats to myself. The train made a lot of quick stops along the way, picking up and dropping off people.

Sunday, June 15

I awoke somewhere near Sandpoint, ID around sunrise. I looked out the window of the train and was startled to see we were passing through a beautiful lake in the mountains. What startled me about that was the fact I couldn't see the track so it looked like we were floating across the lake. It was one of the most beautiful sights of the trip and I was glad I woke up for it. About the time we reached Spokane, WA, I called he Dad to see where he was. He and my brother were already on their way to Pasco. At this point, I turned on my GPSr for maps and ETA information. Sometime around 10am, the train arrived in Pasco, WA. We were roughly 4 hours late.

I had maps of the caches for the trip home, but since my brother was along and it was Father's Day, we didn't make too many stops. We stopped at a Home Depot in Kennewick, WA and I hunted a cache next door - FBC by tumbleweed2 (GC1A0DA). We stopped in Pendleton, OR for lunch at Burger King and I logged a cache that was 144 feet away from where we parked - Lame Micro, King's Sinkhole by WR7X (GCZHDC). Two hours later and we were in Cove, OR at my mother's house where I would be staying for the next month.