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.

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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.

How to skirt the rules

Whenever possible, I enjoy "educating" my fellow geocachers on some of the do's and dont's of creating event caches.

Today's example of a "don't" is : cache hunting on da Cumberland by JoGPS (GC1E2PN)

Here is an excerpt from the guidelines in regards to event caches:

In addition, an event cache should not be set up for the sole purpose of drawing together cachers for an organized hunt of another cache or caches. Such group hunts are best organized using the forums or an email distribution list.

JoGPS tries to skirt this part of the guideline by beginning his event description with a run-on sentence:

We will meet up at Shoney's for a little eat and greet at 8:00 AM 110 Interstate Dr, Nashville, TN then go to da boat dock in Shelby Park at 9:00 AM for a fun day of hunting caches by water, this is not a regular event but an adventure

The first part of the description implies an "eat and greet" - which is what a lot of geocaching events are. Where he bumbles it is in the name of the event "cache hunting on da Cumberland". This implies that the event is centered around a cache hunt, which violates the above quoted section of the guidelines.

Caching After Work - July 16, 2008

I had been looking for a place to drop off a geocoin that I had picked up on my last day of my vacation in Oregon. Since I had no geocaching trips planned, I figured that I would drop off this coin in one of the Mud Island caches. It turned out, though, that both caches that I was thinking about had been affected by the river flooding and had been archived.

I saw that their were two nearby new caches that I hadn't found. They were both close enough to where I work that I figured I would head out around 6pm and try them out. Since they were close, I decided to walk.

The first cache I went after, Hunt Phelan by Amie (GC1D54K), was under a mile away from where I work. After looking at the GPSr autorouting, I thought I'd try another way that kept me off Union Avenue. I took Beale Street over from the east end near Shelby State Community College. It is a fairly deserted street from that end. I had never visited the Hunt-Phelan home before and was a little surprised at the surrounding area. As is usual when I am geocaching, I only explored the area between where I entered the grounds and where the geocache was. Like others, I was taken aback by the rat poison container near the cache coordinates. Being so close to the cache, itself, I could imagine people looking it over to see if it is the cache. Bad idea, by the way. When I finally found the container, I was impressed by the labelling and the swag inside. After leaving, I realized it would have been a great place to drop off the geocoin. Oh well, I'll try to get back there soon to drop it off. This cache is part of a series called the "National Great River Road 70th Anniversary Geocaching Event."

I walked into downtown and then headed north to the Marriott area where the next cache was - Phirst Line of Defense/Fort Harris by cavecom (GC1DT79). I had stayed at this hotel before but had never been around to the little park on the northeast side. I read the two historical markers before searching for the cache. I had a little trouble finding this one and was glad that no one was around to see me wander aimlessly. After finally finding the cache and signing the log, I hiked back to work and logged my finds.

States I've Cached In

This is a neat looking map, even if it doesn't show exactly where in each of these states that I've actually cached. Of course itsnotaboutthenumbers.com has other maps for that. One thing about my recent trip by train across the country that was a bummer was that I passed through three states where I have not cached before (North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). I did, however, get some insights as where to go caching if I go back up that way.

Road Trip to Oregon 2008 - Part I: Memphis to Chicago

It was time for my annual trip to visit family in Oregon. Normally I would drive, hunting geocaches along the way, but this time I wanted to try something different.

I have been interested for awhile in traveling to Chicago via Amtrak and caching while there. For a day trip from Memphis it would be fun, because the northbound train arrives in downtown Chicago at around 9am and the southbound train leaves Chicago at 8pm. For this trip, though, I planned to take a train north to Chicago, enjoy a short layover, and take another train west to Pasco, WA where my family would meet me and drive me the the rest of the way to their home in Eastern Oregon.

I learned a few things while getting my reservations made. Train travel is pricey at this time of the year, because of the summer travel season. Traveling at the end of the week: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, is more expensive than the other days of the week. Still, it was cheaper than driving, and leaving the day I did allowed me to get to Oregon in time to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad.

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Thursday, June 12

I left directly from work and traveled by trolley to the Amtrak station downtown.

Because of a sinkhole behind the station and near the tracks, the train does not actually stop here at this time. A chartered bus takes you to an area the ticket refers to as "Memphis Junction". For the geocachers out there, this spot is roughly one mile southeast of Super Lame Cache by Chance Encounter (adopted by Abiectio) (GCTP6T). How appropriate.

Rather than heading north and enjoying a scenic view of the Mississippi River, we were treated to a 5-10 mph tour of the crappiest parts of Orange Mound and the Hyde Park area. I thought I had been through the worst areas in Memphis while geocaching. I was wrong. Not even close.

Oh well, by the time we got north of Memphis it was too dark to see anything. The part of the route between Memphis and Chicago (called "City of New Orleans") is done at night, both the northbound trip and the southbound trip. If I had been heading south from Memphis to New Orleans, the trip would have been done during daylight hours.

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Friday, June 13

I arrived in Chicago shortly after 9am. The south side of Chicago, from what I saw along the tracks, is much the same as what I saw coming out of Memphis.

Amtrak doesn't own the tracks it runs on, it leases them from the freight lines. That pretty much explains the lack of appealing scenery for some of the trip.

Chicago is BIG! Union Station in Chicago is BIG. After scouting around the station and checking out things like costs for storage lockers and options at the food court, I decided to step outside and do some caching. I had maps of local caches I thought I could get to during my 5 hour layover. However, when I stepped outside, I was completely blown away by the size of the buildings and the amount of people and traffic. My GPSr was having troubles with the signal and I was unusually disoriented direction-wise.

The first cache I went after was Chicago's Historic Places: Union Station by madamemoutard (GCW2W2). After dodging parking lot security, I retrieved the cache and signed the log. My next stop was Chicago's Historic Places: St. Patrick's Church by madamemoutard (GCTWXA). I DNF'ed on that one after spending way too much time looking for it.

I wanted to go after So many So many Storeys, So Little Time by bspeng (GC47A4), a virtual cache located in the Sears Tower, but I hadn't locked up my backpack and wasn't sure I could get in the Sears Tower with it, so I just stared at the huge building for a moment.

By this time, I was getting quite warm and a little sweaty so I decided to head back inside the station. After all, I still had two full days of train travel ahead and I had brought no spare changes of clothes. For those of you keeping track, yes, I logged a grand total of ONE cache while in Chicago.

Back in the station, I found a big fan in one of the waiting lounges to stand in front of. After cooling down, I had lunch at Kelly's Cajun Grille in the Food Court.

I went back to the lounge near the departure gate to wait for the train I would be traveling west on. It had not occurred to me that there was severe flooding in Wisconsin. We found out at the last moment that train service was interrupted between Chicago and Minneapolis.

To be continued...

Cleaning Up

I have been using itsnotaboutthenumbers.com for awhile now to keep track of my "important" caching statistics and finally got tired of seeing the note about having multiple finds on a cache. When Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny (GCCFED) was adopted by yogi and dolphin back in 2006, the owner gave permission to log it again. I had gone back and signed the log again, but after some time realized that since I believe that logging a cache more than once (even with permission) is wrong, I needed to delete my second log. Ahhh, I feel much better now.

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I just got back from a three-week trip to Oregon and still have a few caches to log. Afterwards, I will try to document some of my more interesting excursions.