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.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
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]
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]
Saturday, September 13, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
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.
---
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.
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.
---
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.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)