Overton Park - 12/30/2010

I met up with my caching buddy jbgreer at 8am. Our plans were to have breakfast and then hunt a few caches, mostly in Overton Park. Puzzle caches were pretty much the order of the day. I had one to find in Overton Park and jbgreer had two with another one in another park. Overton Park has a lot of great trails winding through old-growth forest and is a lot of fun to explore.

[ these woods look a lot creepier in the wintertime ]

Our first cache to hunt was Colors by cgeek (GCY9RB). I had found the cache a little over four years ago, so I was certain we would be able to find it on this day. I stood off to the side and watched jbgreer search around for the cache. After a while, I decided to sidle over to where I had found the cache earlier and could not find it. After some more futile searching, we decided to move on.

The second cache we went after was Flip Dizzy - Monkey Comes In by Abiectio (GC1AVN2). We had both been working on the puzzle for this cache for a long time. For my part, I had discovered all of the pieces to solve the puzzle along time ago, but couldn't get a verifiable solution. I ended up having to use another tool to get correct coordinates. My original solution had me 50 feet off of what proved to be the actual coordinates. The cache area, itself, was fairly easy to get to. It was hidden well, though, so once at ground zero, we searched every possible spot before jbgreer made the find.

Confidence restored, we returned to the spot where "Colors" was supposed to be. Even though it was logged as found the day before, we found no trace of it. Time to move on...

[ interesting debris ]

While in the park, we also checked on Overton Park Mystery Cache by Spencersb (GCPKGJ). I adopted this excellent cache a few years ago and had done some much-needed maintenance on it two days earlier. It had been found between the time I cleaned it up and this day and was still in good shape even after rain the day before.

Next cache on the list for jbgreer was No Ducks Here by lkvids (GCTPK4). I was FTF on this cache back in March of 2006 and it hadn't had many visitors since. I stood off and waited for jbgreer to make the find.

It was about noon and since jbgreer had some more time, we went after two more caches in north Raleigh. I had found these before (crownjewel classic's #3 (GC2392E) and crownjewel classic's #4 by crownjewel (GC2392Q)), so I waited in the car while jbgreer hunted them.

I enjoyed the hunt, even though I only logged one find.

Downtown Memphis - 12/26/2010

It was a bitterly cold day today. That made it a perfect time to go down to the Riverfront to do some maintenance on a cache I have at Martyr's Park. It was about a 30 minute hike from where I work to downtown and there were few people out today. I figured I'd also take the opportunity to scout out the Pyramid area for an upcoming visit.

Once at the Pyramid, I saw some construction equipment parked at the south end of the parking lot near Memphis's Great Pyramid of Cheops by kingmedic (GC20ZHX). I walked over and quickly found the cache and took a quick picture of the Pyramid.


It was also a perfect time to check out the condition of another nearby puzzle cache: Ramesses' Tomb by Sprout (GCTN3Y) that had been recently archived because of a missing graphic on the cache page - a hieroglyphic description of the coordinates. The cache container is still in its spot, undisturbed since its last visitor in October. While in the area, I also scouted out some good spots to photograph the Egyptian Explorer travel bug I should be receiving soon.

After leaving Pyramid Plaza, I headed south along the riverwalk towards Martyr's Park. On the way, I hunted Last Call by Rizzlefoshizzle (GC2BHC3). I finally arrived at the park and was pleased to find no one around. I replaced the log in my cache - Memphis Martyrs by Tuck Sackett (adopted by Mackheath) (GCN59Y) and spent a little time looking for an alternate hide spot. I will be coming back here soon with a better container.

With all of my geocaching work done, I headed back into downtown to get a bite to eat before returning to work.

Secret Egypt

On December 8th, I was contacted by the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry, England and was invited to host a Travel Bug whose primary goal was to visit Egyptian-themed sites in Memphis before making its way back to Coventry. If possible, part of the wish for the TB is for it to make it back in time to be part of the Secret Egypt exhibit that will run from February to June 2011.

This particular Travel Bug is one of 40 released with the goal of visiting specific Egyptian-themed sites or museums in different parts of the world. I have been monitoring the logs of the others, and some are doing better than others in accomplishing their goals.

I am expecting the Travel Bug to arrive any day now and will post details on its journey while with me as well as links to allow tracking it as it moves on. While it is unlikely that I will run across any geocachers while I am in possession of the TB, any I do come across are more than welcome to "discover" it.

Update: 12/27/2010: It looks like bad weather may have delayed the travel bug's arrival. I didn't receive it today, and tomorrow is the last sunny day we are forecasted to have until Saturday or Sunday. The good news is that I took lots of good test pictures at the Pyramid (yesterday) and the Memphis Zoo (today).

Update: 1/5/2011: Will today be the day I receive the TB? I hope so, because we have a string of good weather days coming up.

Update: 1/7/2011: Sigh. No travel bug this week.

Update: 1/22/2011: Nothing yet...

Update: 2/7/2011: Finally, the TB arrives after being somewhere in transit for seven weeks. I will create a future blog entry tracking its progress with me and beyond.

Groundspeak Souvenirs are Rolling Out

I'm still trying to figure out what these souvenirs are all about. I received my first one earlier in the year. I "earned" it by logging a cache find on 10-10-10 and it was in honor of the 10th anniversary of geocaching. There was an attempt to set a record for the most cachers logging a find in a single day.

In recent weeks, Groundspeak has been rolling out souvenirs for each of the 50 U.S. states as well as a few international ones, and ones for special events. The state ones are being awarded retroactively, and I have been "awarded" souvenirs for caches found in Kentucky and Tennessee. Based on my caching history, I should be getting about 20 more state souvenirs soon.

Wolf River Wildlife Corridor - 11/27/2010

For the 6th anniversary of jbgreer and I discovering the joys of geocaching, we naturally celebrated by hunting more caches. Because of the cool temperatures and relative dry weather, I suggested that we hunt a few caches in the Wolf River Wildlife Corridor in Collierville, TN. We met up at jbgreer's house around 8:15am.

We have hunted caches in this area at least three different times and under varying seasons and conditions, and knew that this could be a tough area to traverse. Most of the caches were way off of the main trail, and depending on the time of year, many caches could involve wading in swamps.

As we were approaching our destination, I noticed a cache that must be fairly new, because I didn't know it was in the area. We stopped and hunted The Life and History of Toys and Games by ItchyScratchyBumpy (GC2AKGP). It was a nicely-stocked cache and easy to find. I like starting the day with at least one easy cache.

[ nice place for the first cache of the day ]

After a minor routing error caused by old mapping data, we made it to the parking area on the northwest end of the Wildlife Corridor. Hopefully the county will make a better parking area there, but it was fine for our purposes. We had both brought tall rubber boots, but decided at the last moment to no use them. All of the caches we went after in this area were created by peanutpapa.

The first cache we went after was Beaver Falls Cache (GC1WGTW). During our previous trips to the area, this one always got left off of our list. Mostly because we were exhausted from hunting other caches. We took an interesting path to this cache, and at times couldn't see our feet. We found the cache and then spent some time observing the handiwork of the beavers.

[ no beavers in sight today ]

Next on the list was Slough Cache West (GC24H48). It was a short distance to the southeast and we encountered no difficulties reaching it. After finding it, we used a provided waypoint to lead us south to the main trail.

[ the dry sloughs made hiking from cache to cache very easy ]

From the main trail, we used another provided waypoint to lead us to the entry point for Old Logging Road Cache by peanutpapa (GC24CVR). We saw were the logging road started, but it was easy to lose track of where it went on the way to the cache. It was the lowest rated of the caches we found, but on this day it seemed no easier than any of the others. Once back on the main trail, we hiked east until we found an entry point to go for Slough Cache (GC1PP10). This was one we hunted on two other occasions only to be stopped by high water. On this day, it was a simple walk in the park. This cache was maybe 20 feet north of its posted coordinates, which might have been another reason we didn't find it before, but on this day it was easy to spot.

Our final cache of the morning was Cotton Farm Cache (GC1W34K). This area gets deep during the rainy time of the year. This day was definitely a good day to hunt it.

[ most of the caches in this area are obviously subject to flooding ]

After finding the cache, we headed north to the cotton fields and took the trail back to were we had started.

[ north of the cotton fields and an easy hike back to the truck ]

We got back to the truck around 11:30am and since we were going to move the truck to a different area for our next group of caches, we decided to grab lunch in Collierville first. We had many delicious options and finally settled on a fast lunch at Lenny's Sub Shop.

[ In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday - a big turkey sandwich ]

After lunch, we decided we had just enough time to tackle three caches in W.C. Johnson Park. This park is just to the south of the area we hunted in the morning and on the other side of the Wolf River. These were the only three caches we had left in this park to find, and they were deep in the wetlands.

[ W.C. Johnson Park wetlands feature nice boardwalks ]

We took the boardwalk from the parking area all the way north to the Wolf River before cutting west and paralleling the river. All of the caches we went after here were created by peanutpapa.

Our first find was South Beach Cache (GC1PY9F). It wasn't too far off of the boardwalk and was an easy and dry hike.

[ This possum seemed oblivious to our presence ]

Slough Cache South by peanutpapa (GC1Q1VB) was next and was another great cache and hike. The most difficult cache of the afternoon was Weir #3 Cache by peanutpapa (GC1PYBM). The terrain was tough in spots and could have been a nightmare if there had been any water around. From here, it was a 0.83 mile hike back to the boardwalk. Just before reaching the boardwalk, we spotted a trail that we didn't notice on the way into the woods.

[ spotted on the way out of the woods ]

Before leaving the park, I took one more picture from the boardwalk. This picture is more representative of what the area normally looks like.

[ near the entrance of the wetlands - the most water we saw today ]

We were very impressed by the quality of the wetland caches we found on this day. All were in water-tight containers and were tethered to their locations to prevent them from floating away during the times the area is flooded. There were a few that were exposed due to lack of available natural covering. Some could be spotted from a good distance away at this time of the year. I don't know if hunting game is allowed in the area, so I imagine that not too many people wander this far off of the main trail system.

Lucius C. Burch Natural Area - 11/20/2010

[ this web was created by a spider who was afraid of heights ]

I got together with my caching buddy, jbgreer, around 8am to go geocaching in the Lucius C. Birch Natural Area. Most of the caches we went after on this day were to the south and southwest of the Agricenter. We started the morning with two easy caches by drew274. Both were near the newly paved parking area at the southeast corner of the Natural Area. Something Fun, Something Dark (GC2D6TG) , a nice magnetic keyholder was our first find. Something is Rotten in Denmark (GC2D6TW) was our second find. This one was in a little rougher terrain and was nicely stocked and well-hidden.

Our next cache ACME-3025 by giardia_boy (GC2473T), was close by, but we decided to move the truck and come at it and the others from a different location. I had looked for this one once before, and it took some work to find it. The hint was technically inaccurate unless you are a giant. The next cache was an interesting one - The horse eats no cucumber-salad by Abiectio (GC2DV8E). The accompanying puzzle wasn't that difficult, but neither jbgreer nor myself could get evince to confirm our coordinates. We ended up using the coordinates I had come up with - which put us right on it.

We only had one more cache on the list: ACME-Oh Brother Not Another by giardia_boy (GC2DX2E). Since we knew it had a lot of stages, we decided to take a break and get some breakfast at the nearby Chick-Fil-A. Once back at the starting point for the cache, we hunted stage after stage. Most stages were quickly found and all stages used interesting hide techniques. The final had a special surprise! This cache may have been my favorite multicache of the year (for those anxiously awaiting my picks for cache of the year). I met giarda_boy and an event in Collierville last May and have enjoyed the many caches of his I have found.

With this cache done and no more on my list for the area, jbgreer and I drove back to his house and parted ways. Since it was still early in the afternoon, I decided to hunt three more nearby caches that were basically park and grabs before going home.

Bye, Bye, Boneyards???

I noticed the other day that FTF Pirate #1: Boneyards by Chance Encounter (GCYX0Z) has been disabled as mostly likely a prelude to archival. This 3-stage multicache is set in three of Memphis' grittiest cemeteries and hasn't been found in almost three years.

[ from Chance Encounter's geocaching.com profile ]

It would be simple to say that this cache was disabled because some noob filed a "Needs Maintenance" log on a cache he had never visited, but the truth is that this cache along with many others was abandoned by its owner years ago. I, myself, tackled this cache back in March only to get to the final stage and not be able to find it. The coords placed it near a stream of sorts. Maybe it washed away, or maybe it is simply buried under a ton of brush in the area. It would be nice if the cache could be saved, if only because it represents a time before we were flooded by pointless Park and Grabs.

If this cache ends up archived, I will post the pictures I took at the various stages.

Tunica RiverPark - 11/7/2010

It was a beautiful and cool Sunday morning and thanks to Daylight Savings Time, I woke up bright and early. My plan for the morning was to head south into Mississippi and visit Tunica RiverPark to hike and hunt caches. This park was where GOWT hosted a geocaching event last month, so I knew that there were 11 new geocaches there.

As a warm-up, I picked up three caches in Whitehaven before leaving Memphis. Read between the signs by jamey1 (GC2BQP0) was across the street from what used to be the Whitehaven Public Library.

[ Whitehaven Public Library ]

Since I was at the Whitehaven Plaza shopping center, I decided to drive around and see if any of the stores I remembered were still there. It turned out to be mostly empty and boarded up.

[ Whitehaven Plaza - this building was last a Dillard's and before that Shainberg's ]

Im loving it by jamey1 (GC2BQP5) was behind a nearby McDonald's.

My third find was the social network by F Tom (itcomagic) (GC2DHVK). I had solved the puzzle for this one the day before. It was in a nice area and I relaxed a bit here. Afterwards, I thought about exploring the neighborhood (where my grandparents had lived, and I had covered extensively by bike as a kid), but I was kind of depressed by how much it had changed. Maybe next time.

The trip to the RiverPark was uneventful. Traffic was light and the day was great. I got to the park entrance around 9:30am and found my first cache: Welcome to Tunica RiverPark! by Tunica RiverPark (GC2FC3P). As I was about to leave, a man pulled up in a truck, got out and waked over to the sign and asked if I was a geocacher. He then asked if I had found the cache. I said, "Yes", took a picture at the sign and moved on.


I continued on into the park and parked in a nearly-empty lot and set out on the hunt. I found all of the caches along the ecotrail (to the south) and came back to hunt the ones around the parking area. The eco-trail was 1.9 miles long and parts were paved, parts were boardwalk, and parts were dirt. I spent some time watching boats out on the river and spotted deer in the woods. The last cache I found near the museum was on the dock for the Tunica Queen - a paddle boat.

[ heading south to the ecotrail ]

[ turning east and into the woods ]

[ the boardwalk ]

[ the other side (east) of the boardwalk ]

[ one of the three deer I saw ]

[ the Tunica Queen ]

I think I was in the park for maybe 2.5 hours. Sunday mornings are a great time to visit this park if you enjoy peace and quiet. I didn't attempt to go in the museum itself because - there were no caches in there!

Once I had left the park, my main goal was to find a place to eat lunch. I stopped at a tiny KFC and had some chicken before hitting the road again. I wished I had done some research on restaurants, so I could have picked a better place.

After lunch, I continued north on Hwy 61 into Southaven where I found The Dollar Jar by krosnit (GC27X86) in back of a Dollar General store on the western end of town. Normally, I would have cut over to I-55 at this point and headed back into Memphis, but today was such a nice day, I decided on another course of action.

Coming north on Hwy 61 into Memphis, I made a last minute decision to go after Weaver Park by dguyusnavy (GC2A0PJ). Weaver Park is in a neighborhood I lived in 40 years ago. In fact, I passed within 1000 feet or so of my old house while on my way to the park. Of course, the area is so different now, there is no way I could have recognized my neighborhood. I found the park just to the west of Mitchell High School (which appears to be fairly new). Since it was early afternoon, I figured I'd have to deal with muggles. The only kids around were practicing with band equipment and I'm pretty sure they weren't paying much attention to me.

With 16 caches found, I decided to head on in to work. It ended up a pretty good day with no DNFs and few muggles.

Caching for the Cure - 10/30/2010

It was tough getting up Saturday morning, even for an event as much fun as Race for the Cure. I had signed up as part of a team from work and was looking forward to it. That morning was tough to get started. It was cold and I was exhausted, but I made it to the race location by 7:15am. It took a while for our team to get assembled, so we just stood around in the cold. Even in a crowd that large, I didn't see anyone I knew, so I was surprised when tinksdad01, a geocacher from GOWT, came over. We talked for a little bit about the race before he moved on. He was wearing a kilt, an odd choice for running attire, especially in 40-degree weather.

Race for the Cure is a tough race to try and finish well in. There were roughly 19,300 people signed up and most were walkers. If you start in a bad spot, like I did, the first mile of the race uses up a lot of energy getting around people anyway you can. The race ended soon enough and after hanging out with my team for a bit, I made the long walk back to where I parked my car.

I didn't know if I would feel about doing anything after the race, but I had brought along my geocaching equipment and some maps just in case. I decided to tackle four relatively easy caches that were on my way home and were along the western end of the Germantown Greenway. That part of the greenway is in the process of being expanded and will eventually connect to the Shelby Farms Greenline (which is about a mile north).

The amazing thing about three of the four caches I did, was the beauty of the area, which is adjacent to a busy area of town.

The first cache I hunted, Swamp Thing by giardia_boy (GC2EJK5), was retrieved while standing in a parking lot behind some medical buildings. I managed to spot the cache and then had to figure out how to retrieve it. Putting it back was tough as well. This was definitely not your average "park and grab" and if not for the cache hints, I would have never found it. The picture below was taken from roughly where I signed the log. If you look hard, you can spot the greenway (roughly mid-height of the picture).

The next cache I found was It's All Greek to Me - Apollo by ArtemisInTheWoods and TNmonkey (GC2AWN6). For this one, I was glad I had looked at satellite imagery before going after it. It was in an area across the road from the greenway - more of an urban find.

The last two caches of the morning were by GC4EVR and were WEST Lake (GC28JD2) and Lake or Pond? (GC28JDH). They were both around the northern perimeter of West Lake and would have been a lot harder to reach before the greenway was expanded. Because I was wearing running shorts, I was careful to stay out of the vegetation as best as I could. They were both excellent caches, with the first being a little tougher to spot than the second.

While I was in the area, I spent a little bit of time running along the adjacent parts of the greenway. I look forward to running out here in the spring!

[ Approaching the greenway after finding my last cache of the morning. ]

[ This will look better after some rain washes away the dirt ]

[ The small bridge on the right of the trail leads north to Shelby Farms. ]

Raleigh, TN - 10/10/2010

It was another in a long string of rain-free weekends. I had no plans for caching, but when my sister-in-law called me Saturday night and invited me over for dinner the next day, I figured I'd pick up a few caches on the way.

I spent Sunday morning messing around with my GPSr. I updated the software on it for the first time since I bought it 4 years ago. I loaded a pocket query on it for the first time since July and made sure my batteries were in good shape. I picked out three caches near the Raleigh WalMart. This was convenient for me, since I needed some stuff from there. My Palm Pilot was still dead, so I had to spend some time reading cache descriptions before leaving. When I finally left, all was good - except I forgot to make sure I had a pen. No worries, though. I was going to WalMart, so if I had no pen, it would be no big deal.

It also turned out that Groundspeak was trying to set a record for the most cachers logging a find for a single day. Cachers who posted a log were rewarded with a "souvenir", which in this case was a graphic showing 10-10-10 and the words - 10 years of geocaching and 10 years of Groundspeak (or something like that).

The three caches I found were all "park and grabs" by three different cachers:
put out the fire by jamey1 (GC2BCXB) was just south of the Raleigh Springs Mall behind a building.

Goodwill Hunting by dguyusnavy (GC2A0QH) and wal mart has platinum by crownjewel (GC29Y5R) were located a short distance apart in the shopping center that had the WalMart in it. All-in-all, I spent about 15 minutes caching - a warm up for the days to come.

Fundamentals of Geocaching Event

I spotted this event a week or so ago and thought it might be of interest to some people in the area.

Tunica RiverPark is hosting Fundamentals of Geocaching Event by Tunica RiverPark (GC2FCA8) on October 16, 2010. The description states that the event instructor is a member of the Geocachers of West Tennessee, which is most likely Prontopup. He does a good job hosting these kinds of events, so I'm sure the experience will be worth the trip for those interested. The Tunica RiverPark and Museum is a cool place to visit. If they add more caches in the area, I might make a return visit.

---

Update 10/18/2010: After finding out that 13 caches were placed in the park just prior to the event, I thought about attending. I'm glad I didn't. The park was quite crowded, in part due to the success of the event. I'll make a trip over there one peaceful weekend this fall.

10-10-10

Not much going on in the area as far as events go. 10-10-10 In and Around Shelby County by The Disorganization of MidSouth Geocachers (GC2E9DX) looks like it might be an interesting event. It doesn't have many RSVPs yet, but that may be because they offer one smiley for basically driving around all day and taking pictures.

Would I go to such an event? Perhaps. I like driving around and taking pictures. In this case, however, the question I would ask myself before going is: Do I wish to socialize with people who permanently banned a founding member of GOWT from the GOWT discussion forums for pointing out (correctly) that someone else in the group hosted a 10-year Groundspeak anniversary event and didn't meet the qualifications that Groundspeak had for such events?

I think not.

Midtown Memphis - 9/3/2010

Nice weather on this Labor Day weekend could mean lots of fun caching trips. Unfortunately, I won't be doing much caching this weekend. My last cache hunt was back in early July and since then I seem to have misplaced my GPSr data cable. My Palm Pilot, which stores my cache data, also is dead as a doornail.

On the good side, there have been a number of caches (6) placed recently within walking distance of where I live. I decided to go after 4 of these after work on Friday. I printed out the coordinates and a map and headed home to pick up my GPSr and a small flashlight.

I left my place around 5:45pm, which meant I had about 2 hours of daylight left to cache. It was a 2 mile walk to the first find: Buc Lap Series - #3 by dguyusnavy (GC2A0TK). It was in a grassy median on the west side of Christian Brothers University and was meant to be an easy find. My next find was: Buc Lap Series - #1 by dguyusnavy (GC2A0T4). This one was not far from the Children's Museum of Memphis. The area was busy, though. There was a football game going on across the street from the cache.

[ West entrance of CBU ]

[ Football played in the shadow of the Liberty Bowl ]

Next, I went after HOME RUN! by dguyusnavy (GC2A0RA). This cache hadn't been found since June and had many DNFs, so I didn't have much hope of finding it. I did get to see four young women in bikinis playing volleyball, so it was worth the time to walk by it. This cache is also fairly near the new dog park at the north end of Tobey Park. It was amazing to see how many people were willing to drive there just to let their dogs play in a fenced in area.

It was starting to get dark, so I headed back towards home and the final cache of the day: Whopper of a cache by jamey1 (GC2C541). It doesn't take much imagination to guess where this cache was - or why I saved it for last.

After finding the last cache, I walked home. I had a decent time. It took about 3 hours to cover about 6 miles of walking and caching.

Huntington, OR - 7/4/2010

My Dad and I decided to drive down to Huntington, OR to spend the day with my brother and family. They had a rented a small house with some friends for a three-day fishing weekend along the Snake River.

I planned to pick up a few caches along the way, but found out while on the road that I didn't have any caches for the area around Huntington loaded. My only find of the day was BUB # 1 Durkee and Greenbean Casserail by Team Storm_Runner (GC1E1N4). It was a guard rail cache near the Durkee exit.

It was a beautiful weekend and the extra time spent with family was definitely worth skipping Geowoodstock for.

Union, OR - 6/24/2010

Most of this day's caches were in or around the town of Union, OR. Union is roughly 9 miles south of Cove and is a pretty neat little town.

Our first find was at Union City Park - Creek side park cache by Buck Snort-Clearwater Explorers-Globaltreckers (GC1NA0B). This was nicely tucked away near a rushing creek. Before leaving the park, I decided to take a few pictures. We were spotted by a teenage girl who figured we must be tourists since she has never seen anyone taking pictures there before. She tried to talk our ears off, and it was tough getting away.

Water Works by Jabez Gang (GC1YKBD) was in an area I had cached in before. It was one of those deals where you have a choice to walk along one side of a creek or the other. As usual, I initially chose the wrong side and walked nearly a quarter of a mile before realizing I needed to be on the other side.

Craig Mountain Junction by Person named after the mountain placed this cache. (GC1PEKV) was along the road to Hot Lake Springs. The cache was in a cookie tin and was wet on the inside. At some point I cut my right wrist on something - probably barbed wire.

After finding three caches, I told my Dad that we were done for the day. I think he was disappointed. I was too - it was a great day for caching, but I had no more caches mapped for the area.

On the way back to Cove, we decided to try A Little Bit of Heaven by wallowadave (GC1QT4R). My Mom and I hunted it a couple of days before with no luck. Many previous logs showed that the coordinates were off and I thought I had gone over the area pretty thoroughly before. On this day, I had climbed down a small embankment and when I turned around to tell my Dad something, I spotted the cache.

History Repeats

Seen on a local geocaching forum:

"GOWT is one big, happy clique!"
- tinksdad01, GOWT Advisory Committee 7/19/2010

History repeats itself. This same group was referred to as a clique (actually "click") in a derogatory fashion by a mouthbreather named dalls (now on the GOWT Advisory Committee) three years ago in this same forum.

--

For my liberal readers out there - a gift: Yogi's Gun Blog. Written by a West Tennessee geocacher and volunteer cache reviewer and grade-A nutjob. You're welcome.

Pasco, WA - 6/18/2010

After 2 days and 3 nights on the train, I finally arrived in Pasco, WA. I got off of the train at 5:35am ready to do some caching! My dad was going to meet me at the station and since I didn't know if I would be late, I figured I'd have at least an hour to cache before he showed up. After looking around the station to see if anyone was waiting for me, I set out for the first cache of the morning - The Wrong Side Of The Tracks Cache by ISPYU168 (GC112PW). Nice cache in a little park about a half a mile from the station. After finding the cache, I got a call from my Dad saying that he and my brother were at the station. I gave them directions to where I was and they picked me up.

My brother wanted to do some shopping in nearby Kennewick, so we headed south across the river and to the shopping center where he had wanted to go. It was still early so we decided to have breakfast (I don't remember where - maybe IHOP). After a nice breakfast, it was still early so we hunted for nearby caches. Pasco and Kennewick are both cache-rich environments so it didn't take long to find 8 caches. By this time, the stores were opening, so we took care of the business we needed to do in town before heading back to Cove, Oregon. We didn't hunt anymore caches on that drive, in part because my family had to leave home at 3:30am to come and get me.

---

Since I didn't take any pictures in Pasco or Kennewick, here are two pictures (of many) I took the day before while passing by Glacier National Park in Montana.

[ Not a very nice day outside. ]

[ We got to hear about how the glaciers are disappearing due to global warming. ]

Chicago, IL - 6/16/2010

I went to visit family in Oregon in June and because of some uncertainties with my car, I decided to take the train. I had a layover in Chicago, so I had mapped out some nearby caches to go after. I did the same thing 2 years ago and was thwarted then by hot and muggy conditions which limited me to only one find near the train station. This trip proved to be much more successful. I arrived in Chicago around 9:30am. Because of my two previous visits, I was much better able to handle getting around. It is amazing how easy it is to get disoriented in downtown Chicago. My GPSr proved to be limited in accuracy, due to the many tall buildings (including the Sears Tower), so I relied largely on a detailed paper map and the cache hints. It was also relatively cool on this morning, which allowed me to get around an area of just over 1/2 sq miles.

My first three stops were southeast of the train station. After finding What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis? by ShazamMan (GC268AW) on my second attempt at it, I decided to cool off by going in the Willis (Sears) Tower. On my last visit, 15 months or so ago, there were short lines and we were only allowed to go to the 99th floor. This time it was packed and we got to go the the newly renovated 103rd floor with its new viewing platforms. I tried to take my own picture but had little luck getting the shot I wanted. Fortunately, one of the platforms has a camera set up where they will take a picture (for a price) of you.

I thought I'd be nervous, but from that height the ground looks fake. It actually looks scarier standing on the ground and looking up at the platforms. After my visit to the tower, I had lunch at Jimmy John's nearby and found one more cache before it got too warm.

For those wondering: The heat was an issue because I had to spend two more days on the train in the clothes I was wearing.

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On my trip back, I didn't think I'd get to find anything but I did manage to get Tucked Away Downtown by Jeff60523 (GC1NXXG) in a packed area just north of the station (across the street).

Midtown Memphis - 6/12/2010

It is getting to be the time of the year where I take a break from hunting area caches and do other things. I was surprised however, when I looked for local (to me) caches and found that a bunch have been published recently. Three of these new caches were within a mile or so of my residence.

I decided to tackle them after work on Friday and because they didn't get on my most recent PQ, I had to print out the cache pages. Around 5pm, I picked up my GPSr and cache information and set out on a little hike. It was blistering hot (like most of this weekend is supposed to be).

My first stop was The Golden Arches by dguyusnavy (GC29W6B). The immediate area of the cache was guarded by muggles parked in the two adjacent handicap spaces. Not to be too judgemental, but I think their primary handicap was eating at McDonald's. I had to skip this one for now and move on to Buc Lap Series - #2 by dguyusnavy (GC2A0TB)

I pass by this place all of the time when I am out on a run, so it was cool to find a cache there. I was also surprised to be the "FTF" on this cache. I'm not an FTF hound, so this was probably my first in three or four years.

Not far to the south was walk in the park by crownjewel (GC29Y59). I took Hollywood Street south to this one because there was less traffic. First, I passed by the local BSA building just to the north.

Approaching the park, I spotted where I thought the cache was and headed straight for it. It was where I expected, but nicely hidden. I also noticed my GPSr coords were off because I had entered an 8 where I should have had a 3. This is an interesting stretch of land to the west of Tobey Park. It is park-like, but it only apparent purpose is as "extra" parking for events.

["Tailgate" Park]

Many times, the more interesting spots are actually across the street from a cache. In this case, the more interesting spot is the Children's Museum of Memphis.

[ CMOM]

Now, back to The Golden Arches... It was an easy PnG that had personal relevance to the cache owner, but there are many more interesting cache-free spots nearby. Below is an example.

[ Barksdale Mounted Police Station ]

Barksdale Mounted Police Station has an interesting history associated with it. It was where George "Machine Gun" Kelly was temporarily housed after being captured by Memphis Police Officers on September 26, 1933. Kelly was actually born in Memphis.

When I first discovered this place, I wanted to create a "virtual" cache. I even had a detailed description of the history of the building. "Virtual" caches were disallowed before I could get around to it... I thought about submitting this place as a "Waymark", but decided to let someone else interested do it instead. If you were lame, you could do a lightpole cache at the Walgreens next door.

Shelby Farms Greenline

Here is one of the first pictures taken of the near-completed 7 mile stretch of the Shelby Farms Greenline that runs between Shelby Farms Park and Midtown Memphis.

This picture was taken from Waring and faces east towards Shelby Farms. They currently have paved a 1.8 mile strip. After visiting the Delta Heritage Trail, I'm not sure I like this trail being paved, but I imagine it is better for strollers and rollerblades.

The paved section goes from Waring (west) to Podesta Street (east). Podesta Street is where geocachers typically entered the trail/tracks to approach to wooded part of NW Shelby Farms.

Delta Heritage Trail - Part 2 - 5/22/2010

I knew this would be a tougher day than the previous Wednesday. The temperature was predicted to be at least 10 degrees warmer. I took a slightly different route this time. I took I-40 west to Forrest City, AR and turned south taking Hwy 1 most of the way to my destination in Lakeview.

[ Lakeview Trailhead ]

I parked at the Lakeview trailhead around 8am. My plan was to hike the remaining 2 miles south to the end of the trail, turn around, hike back to the car and pick up my Gatorade and misc supplies and hike 5 miles north to the 7 mile mark caching all along the way. Upon reaching the 7 mile mark, I would turn around and hike back to the car, hunting for anything I missed along the way.

The first thing I noticed (besides the heat) was that this part of the trail was much less shady than the northern half. The second thing I noticed (and the worst) was the abundance of mosquitoes. My bug spray was useless. I was fine as long as I kept moving. When I reached the end of the trail, I met two geocachers on bikes - Mark S. from AR. and 1/3 of Team Pink. I also saw a boy playing with two horses and an old man changing a tire on his truck. I caught up with the geocachers at the 13 mile mark, where they found a cache that had eluded me earlier. After passing them a cache or two later, I never saw them again. I made it back to the trailhead about 9:30am and drank lots of water, applied more bug spray, put on my Arkansas State Parks hat, and put on my fanny pack with Gatorade.

[ The end of the trail ]

[ Team Pink and Mark S. from AR. ]

I enjoyed the hike north for the most part. I found caches left and right with an occasional miss.
Somewhere between mile 8 and 9, I came across a trailhead/parking lot. I thought about moving my car here, but after looking around I decided not to. Besides, at this point I only had a 1.75 mile hike to my turnaround point. Across from the parking lot was the town of Oneida. What I saw consisted of a small rundown store with a rundown house on one side and the town post office on the other.

[ Turn around point - the backside of the sign I hiked to on my previous trip ]

By the time I reached the 7 mile sign, I had used up all of my Gatorade. I decided that I'd head back to the Lakeview trailhead without stopping to hunt for caches I'd missed. When I made it to Oneida, I decided to check out the store. The windows were boarded up and the door had no windows, so I had no idea what I would find inside.

Inside it was cramped and dimly-lit. An Asian woman was at the register and asked me what I wanted. I told her I wanted some Gatorade. She got up to get me some - asking me questions about what flavor and size I wanted. I got the feeling they didn't get too many strangers around and that she didn't want me touring the tiny store unattended. I paid for the Gatorade and left. There were three pitbulls playing out front. They didn't bother me, though, and I hiked back to the trail.

[ The store in Oneida, AR. ]

A note about the store: It was the only store I saw within walking distance of the entire 14-mile trail.

[ Why did the cacher cross the road? ]

[ a neat view ]

[ not as many bridges on the south half ]

The rest of the hike was uneventful, and the longer the walk, the more I appreciated that little store and its cold Gatorade.

Once I got back to my car and drank some water, I packed up my stuff for the trip home. I was about to leave when I discovered a geocaching pamphlet on my windshield. It was put there by my new friends Mark S. for AR and Team Pink. Team Pink had written a brief note on the bottom that gave me a good hint about #100 (one of my many DNFs). Since that was only 0.3 miles down the trail, I decided to go after it. That gave me an even 40 finds (40 out of 57). Going back over my list, for the two-days of caching I did, I found 77 out of the 114 caches along the entire trail.

37 caches left - sounds like a plan for a future trip. I'm definitely biking next time and hopefully I can talk a friend (or two) into going with me.

[ Where all of the people were ]

I drove home roughly the same way I did last trip. I stopped at Marianna for a late lunch and in Forrest City for two additional caches. This time I also stopped in West Memphis for an Oreo Blizzard.