More Park and Grabs...

I went to visit my brother on Sunday, so I took the opportunity to grab a few caches almong the way.

I headed east to Cordova and picked up Cordova Pony Express by Berlan Eligab (GC1J4F5) and The Train has left the Station by Berlan Eligab (GC1J4EZ). Both places have had caches near before so it was pretty much revisiting familiar sights...

The toughest PnG of the day was MMEW #6 Half Blood Prince by sskaysee (GC149RZ) only because it is in an area that appears to be quite popular with Bartlett teenagers.


My final stop was Blue Star Memorial by Kicker (GC1T71Z). Quick find, nice little bridge near the memorial plaque.

The best thing about the day was the weather...

Oregon Forest Fire Lookout Challenge

I ran across this link via the Groundspeak forums: Oregon Forest Fire Lookout Challenge by WR7X (GC15CVW). After looking at my Oregon finds, I saw that I had a few of the caches involved in the challenge.

Basically, Oregon is divided up into 8 regions. You have to find a minimum of four lookout tower caches in each region and a minimum of 50 lookout tower caches to be able to go after the final.

On this map, circles represent former lookout sites.

I have met the requirements for region 8 and am halfway there for region 7. Since I don't usually travel to the other regions, it could be a long while before I complete the challenge. As for the extra 18 caches (above the 32 required in 8 regions), I will probably be able to get most of those in regions 7 and 8. It also looks like if I stayed in Bend, OR for a couple of days, I could knock out most of the caches/regions I need.

GeoRacing

August 29 looks like a good day to stay out of the Jackson area. The Bluff Boys have created another georace, which by definition, encourages individuals to violate traffic laws in order to be the first to find a bunch of caches. Speaking of which... the geocaching.com guidelines still have this phrase in it's description/definition of events:

"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."

This text from the cache event page technically fulfills one definition of organized:

"Each stop will contain a cache (regular size or micro) with info for the next stop."

The fact that the teams are partially formed on the event log page fulfills another definition of organized.

Of course, I already know that the volunteer reviewers pick and choose what portions of the "guidelines" to enforce.

Update: 8/30/2009 - I see that Titansfan showed up to add another "5/5 where he didn't have to do anything but show up" to his list. Bravo.

Caching around Osceola, AR - 8/2/2009

Being the hottest time of the summer (or thereabout), I don't like to go on long geocaching expeditions. However, I still had a geocoin from my Oregon trip to deposit somewhere and after hanging onto it for three weeks decided to put it back out. But where did I want to put it?


I don't like to move coins because I am always worried that they will get muggled after I place them. I didn't want to put it out in Memphis because too many of the recent converts to GOWT don't seem to have the necessary caching ethics instilled to ensure the coin keeps moving. I also wasn't looking forward to a JAG cacher picking it up. For these reasons, I decided to pick a spot in Arkansas to leave it.

I got up early Sunday morning, but ended up leaving late on my trip up towards Blytheville, AR. Most of the caches on my target list were in small towns around Osceola, but since I had a secondary goal of finding cache number 2700, I included Blytheville on my list of hunt spots.

My first stop was Gizmo's Birthday hide by Bulldog Duo (GC1R0TX). This was in a nice out-of-the-way cemetery that also had a nice memorial to war veterans. Since the cache was big enough to hold trackables, I left the coin here.

My next stop was Hampson State Park. This park has three caches in it that are all a short walk from the parking lot. Here is where the fun started... I failed on my initial attempt at Hampson Archeological Museum ParkCache by Arkansas State Parks (GC1CFDK) - the mosquitoes here were killers! I then went over to give Hampson State Park by LuckyoneinAR and Gabby01 (GCWW16) a shot and somehow managed to cut my finger on some glass. At first, I thought it was minor, but then it began to bleed a lot. I went back to my car to get my first aid kit and discovered I left it at home. I also left my paper towels at home, so there was little I could do to stop the bleeding and clean up the cut. I left blood everywhere - on the side of my car, in the parking lot, on my backpack, it even dripped on and soaked through my shoe.

No worries, though - I eventually got the bleeding stopped and did manage to find History Dwells Inside by kjw0169 (GC1AKYE) before heading off in search of medical supplies.

I found a few other caches - meeting my secondary goal of 2700 finds -before heading into Blytheville to the Wal-Mart pharmacy.

Once I got cleaned up, I hunted a few more caches in Blytheville before heading home.

Update: 8/11/2009 - It looks like it only took six days for someone from JAG to swoop in and take the coin. How did they know it was there? Hmmmm... ;-)

Southern Kudzu

I had planned a short caching trip today; intending to drop off a neat geocoin I picked up in Nebraska. With a 50% chance of rain, though, I bet on the rain and decided to try again Sunday.

I went in to work, and after goofing around a bit, decided to hunt Southern Kudzu by Smart Alice (GC1TFEQ). It was less than a half of a mile away so I walked over. I had plotted the coordinates earlier and saw they led to a parking lot next to Kudzu's Restaurant. Reading the cache logs and the inevitable spoilers made this a quick find and within 10 minutes, I was back at work. Interestingly, I had taken my new blue eTrex Legend with me and it spent most of the trip trying to lock on to satellites.