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.