Prestige - 2/27/2010

The latter half of my week was spent providing A/V support to a conference in Memphis, so I was pretty tired when I returned to my office Friday night. Just as I arrived, my good friend jbgreer called to ask if I still wanted to hunt PRESTIGE by magicrock (GC10M85). Well, of course I did! We planned to meet up Saturday morning at 9 am to begin the hunt.

PRESTIGE is a 4/5 rated geocache with a puzzle to solve in order to get the coordinates. The cache page gives a better description of the puzzle, but basically you are to identify 11 distinct piles of candy within the picture and count different colors of candy to get the coordinates.

The above picture - a stereogram - is beyond my eyes ability to properly view, so I used software to identify the 11 piles of candy. I figured that the rest of the puzzle would be a snap, but I still had problems discerning colors among other things. I spent days trying different solutions with no success. I gave up. Moved on.

While at the 6th annual GOWT gathering last week, jbgreer met magicrock and talked to him about the problems we were having. Magicrock willingly gave jbgreer the information needed to solve the puzzle, so when he later asked me if I wanted to hunt it, I agreed to.

We drove to the coordinates and remarkably made quick work of the find. Since we liked the hide and I liked magicrock's hides in general, we decided to hunt a few more magicrock caches.

Our initial plan was to hunt CEDAR GROVE CACHE by magicrock (GC18Q3Y) - a 6 stage multicache. On the way there we stopped at FTF Pirate #9: TREASURE CHEST by MagicRock (GC1CWZT).

[ Scenery along the way ]

[ Themed cache container ]

Next we hit FTF Pirate # 7: Boltn' Loose by magicrock (GC1344H). I had already found this cache, but hoped that jbgreer would like it as much as I did. It had been moved a good distance since I hunted it, but it was still in a good area and after finding it, jbgreer remarked that this cache "renewed his enjoyment of geocaching".

Next, we drove to the recommended parking area for CEDAR GROVE CACHE by magicrock (GC18Q3Y). While parking, we met the owner of the land we were on and after telling him what we were up to, he told us he had no problem with us parking there. After a rough start, we made our way to the first stage. We easily found it, but after a long search for the second stage and reading the previous logs, we decided to give up.

We decided to get lunch in Cordova and hunt two more caches in Shelby Farms to round out the day.

We planned to eat at Chik-fil-A, but after seeing the crowds, we opted for the Taco Bell just down the road. Good food in one of the nicest Taco Bells I had eaten in. Now off to the caches...

Upon arriving at Shelby Farms, we found a place to park that was convenient to both caches we were going after. Since Ode to Spencersb by Abiectio (GC21Z06) was only a short distance away, we went after it first. After a bit, we seemed to be getting further away so we backtracked a short distance to a little used trail I had noticed. It turned out to be the right way in. We quickly found the cache and signed the log. I picked up a geocoin to move on. We left the area the same way we came in.

[ Through, around, or what ? ]

We returned to the truck to get me some fresh batteries, when jbgreer thought he saw prontopup park nearby. We stood still for a moment to let him get out to verify that is who it was, but he wouldn't leave his car. I changed the batteries in my GPSr and turned around and he was still sitting motionless in his car. We started to walk on to the next cache and after getting about 100 feet away, I turned around and sure enough, it was prontopup finally leaving his car to hunt the cache we had just found.

Off we went to hunt Heart of "Lucius Burch" by Hoot Owl (GC23084). This part of the park has many trails leading in many different directions, so it was providence that we found the correct trails to take. Jbgreer was somewhat amazed that I didn't insist on bushwhacking my way through. After hiking around 1 mile, we got to within 100 feet of the cache and headed in to make the find.

[ Necklace says - FTF PIRATE NUMBER NINE TREASURE CHEST GC1CWZT (the cache we found earlier in the day) ]

This would be our last cache of the day. We hiked back to the truck and headed off in search of gasoline before parting ways.

After I returned home and logged my finds, I was curious as to where I went wrong on the PRESTIGE puzzle. I took the known coordinates and used them to discern the numbers of candy of different colors that were a part of the puzzle and still couldn't properly reconcile where I went wrong.

6th Annual GOWT Gathering - 2/20/2010

I had made plans to attend 6th Annual GOWT Gathering by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC2327K) earlier in the month, but waited until the week off to invite my caching buddy jbgreer to come along with me. He agreed to go and we met at his house at 9am to start our day with a few caches before the event. I picked the day's caches less than a day earlier, because the weather forecast was in flux. I picked out two spots with a total of 5 caches - all with good difficulty/terrain ratings.

[ A nice stretch of greenbelt ]

[ Herb Parsons Lake ]

[ A nice little hike around the lake ]

After finding the last cache and making our way back to the parking area, we set off for the event in Mason.

We arrived at the event site five minutes after the start time and the parking lot was already packed. Upon entering the restaurant we found an empty table away from the main group and ordered lunch.

At first I sensed a sewage backup near the restrooms, but it turned out to be a table of folks from JAG. I knew dalls would probably be there because some JAG caches were nominated for awards, and could tell by early poll numbers that JAG folks had been voting. I did not expect to see some of the others which included, as far as I can tell, TurndAround, bashful and jimmylogan, and RiverNWick.

[ members of JAG seek attention by sitting under the GOWT banner ]

Prontopup was the MC for the event with tiger130 by his side as usual. Because I was focused on eating my lunch, my memories of the event itself may be a little spotty.

A couple of future events were mentioned, including a CITO at one of the cleanest parks in Germantown. I look forward to seeing TurndAround at an event where work is involved.

"Best cache" winners were announced. I don't remember many of the results, but was pleasantly surprised that THE 385 CACHE by MagicRock (GC1918C) won out over Yogi & Taz by Bashful & JimmyLogan (GC1P8RH) as best micro. Last time I had checked the poll, Yogi and Taz was leading, undoubtedly due to JAG voters.

People who achieved significant caching milestones were announced. I wasn't surprised when my 3K milestone was overlooked while recognizing lesser milestones by JAG members Nascarjunk, bashful and jimmylogan.

The 2010 Leadership Committee was announced. I was not surprised to hear that the same people who ran the group on auto-pilot last year would be doing the job again.

There were some changes on the Advisory Committee. I don't know if these were replacements or additions, though. I heard GC4EVR and 76Stinger were now members and I thought I heard that dalls was now a member of the Advisory Committee. Somebody must have read my earlier blog entry where I suggested that dalls be appointed to the Leadership Committee. I would have preferred it if they had instead followed my recommendation that they get a new webmaster.

I actually thought 76Stinger was a good choice and I laugh at the prospect of him and others having to work with dalls in any capacity.

It was Bashful from JAG's birthday so Prontopup led (most of) the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday".

I know that by now you are wondering if I have anything positive to say regarding the event. I enjoyed talking with Hoot Owl and pcsenn, both when we arrived and before we left. I enjoyed talking with 76Stinger and Road King and several other people I met while there. I enjoyed the food and the good weather of the day. Tada!

On the way back to Memphis from the event, jbgreer and I found two more nearby caches to end the day.

Update 7:57pm

dalls responds to this post via his log for the event. Here is the original text in the event that someone asks him to change it:

"The bluff boys and the danger ranger on the road again trying to find our way to the GOWT event in Mason, TN. With the gas tank full, check engine light on, and bluff boys all buckle in with our new hans devices around our necks we were ready to go. We took every back road going all over Haywood, Fayette ,and Shelby county at one point I thought turndaround was routing with his magellan again but he had his gps upside down. Anyways I had a great day caching it doesn't matter if we did see that Welcome to Mississippi and Kentucky sign.

We finally made it. I had a blast meeting new cachers and catching up with my old JAG and GOWT friends. Two thumbs up for Pup doing an awesome job with the mic, Hoot for running everything behind the scenes. Thanks for the Best Earthcache and Best Event awards and the opportunity to serve GOWT again. I will do my best to make what everyone wants to happen. And finally I enjoyed everyone there but one person who is big and bad behind a computer and behind the plants with one eye looking this way and the other that way. Talking about sewer it did start sinking when he started making his way over there but he saw no one wanted him around so it was time for him to go which was the best thing to happen. Maybe one day he will get the hint. Thanks for a great event."

Your new Advisory Committee member, dalls....

Update: 2/22/2010:

Dalls, ever the voice of reason edits his event log to add the following:

For Mackheath. If you are so smart and can see straight you would notice that the only thing i edit was adding Tiger to the original post. No one made me edit anything mr brown nose, get a life and move on. Being over 60 people there and only 2 talked to you it should tell you something, if you can't get a hint we don't want you around. Stop complaining go hide a few caches you the only one I know that has 3000 finds with 2 hides, thats a shame.

[This entry was edited by dalls on Monday, February 22, 2010 at 10:04:31 AM.]

Some my readers may wonder why I post stuff like this on my blog.

At the tail end of my service on the GOWT Reorganization Committee (November 2007), we were looking for volunteers to serve as the original Leadership Committee, Advisory Committee, and moderating team. Most of the members of the Reorganization Committee were pretty stressed out so there weren't many volunteers. I volunteered to serve in the event that we couldn't get enough committee members. I was told by several folks that I couldn't serve because they felt that we needed leaders who were "beyond reproach". As a result, I monitor the behaviors of the people picked to serve on these committees so that I may learn with constitutes "beyond reproach". Every time dalls or anyone else on the committees makes a public misstep [ like insulting a geocacher on a public forum like geocaching.com's cache/event logs] , I will document it and dissect it on this blog. People like dalls make this task highly entertaining.

Nice. Dalls logged a DNF for me on MH Cache:

"Mackheath didn't log a DNF so I will log it for him. I know its hard for him to see straight so he probably left out the middle bush with one eye looking at the bush on the right and the other looking at the tree. Hey mr brown nose it's there."

Reading the rules regarding membership in the GOWT Advisory Committee I read the following sentence:

New Members of the Advisory Committee shall be chosen by simple majority of the then serving Advisory Committee.

What seven members (simple majority) of the 2009 GOWT Advisory Committee don't understand the simple tenet that: "Raccoons don't make good pets."?

Caching in Jackson, TN - 2/13/2010

With the weather being somewhat unpredictable, it was tough trying to pick a spot for the next great geocaching adventure. On this cold Saturday I chose Jackson, TN - the land of JAG.

I rolled out of bed and got out of the house about an hour later than I had planned. After getting my morning caffeine fix, I hit the road.

My first stop was the rest stop on I-40 just east of Jackson. I usually have to make a pit stop here and on this day found two caches as well.

I-40 E Rest Stop - TB MOTEL by nJOYgctoo (GC23M5B) was the first find of the morning. I followed tracks in the snow leading away from the parking area. It was designed to be (and was) and easy find.

Before leaving, I found I-40 E ANOTHER CACHE HERE #1 by nJOYgctoo (GC23M5K). There were trucks parked nearby, but I think the drivers were sleeping. Nice quick find. I left tracks for the next geocachers (which turned out to be prontopup and tiger130) to find.

I think I have found more caches at this rest stop than any other. I left here about 9 am and headed into Jackson.

Most of my targets for this day were south in Bemis, but first I made a stop at MH Cache by dalls (GC235B8) where I wasted 30 minutes searching for the cache. I started by looking at the two holly bushes closest to the coordinates that had been damaged by previous hunters. Oh well.

Next I hunted Mimosa Tree by TurndAround (GC145RD) and Oh What Fun! by cedarbear (GC18892) - two caches I DNF'ed on before. Mimosa trees lose their leaves in the wintertime, so that cache took all of two minutes to find. "Oh What Fun" had two previous DNFs by me. I finally found it, though.

My next stop was the Jackson Train Museum. From here I hunted MYSTERY MURAL by nJOYgctoo (GC237N0).

Afterwards, I walked a short distance to the Jackson Artesian Well Earthcache. While attempting to take my own picture, I met two cachers - Team KC - from Union City. They were actually there to hunt a letterbox - Jackson Back in the Day by dalls (GC236QG) a few feet from the well. Since I didn't have the coordinates for it, they let me sign the log after they did. Then they took my picture at the earthcache.

After parting ways, I headed south to Bemis where I found a bunch of caches. I also had a few DNFs.

Coming back north I stopped at Kate Campbell Park, where I had bad luck before. This time I found Kate's @ Camp Bell by TurndAround (GCX65A). I'm picking off these caches about one a trip it seems.

I headed north and found a few more caches including Take Off by jndmac & robbie1467 "Team Laf UR Cache Off" (GC1B31T).

As I was leaving a father and son came up to hunt the cache.

I stopped at the Old Medina Winery to hunt Wine Anyone? by nascarjunk (GC1Z4BP). The hunt was easy because all of the cover was gone, but unfortunately so was the bottom part of the cache.

[ Old Medina Winery ]

I hunted Another Dead End In J-Town by nascarjunk (GC14EE4) which was in pretty bad shape too.

My day was about over and it was time to eat. After striking out at the Cracker Barrel, I figured I'd hunt two more caches before ending my day.

Liberty Gardens by dalls (GC235BN) and Stubby Cache by dalls (GC235BT) were in the same park - Liberty Gardens, and I hiked from one end of the park to the other. I saw that prontopup and tiger130 had been there just before me. I later saw in one of the online logs, a picture of tiger130 wearing a JAG cap. How disgusting!

Anyways, the day was done and I ended up eating at Chick-Fil-A. They had a V-Day promotion where if you bought one dessert you got a second one for free. I had two pieces of cheesecake. One with strawberry topping and the other with blueberry. Nice!

All in all, I enjoyed my day in Jackson. I seem to always have a high number of DNFs here for some reason, though. Most are caches from the JAG georace held last summer.

This will be my last trip to Jackson for probably a year or so. I have seen the same sights and dealt with the same traffic too many times. My next goal for Tennessee is to hit the northern part of west Tennessee.

Treasure Hidden in a Field - 2/7/2010

Treasure Hidden in a Field by Worldtraveler (GCF1D5) is a multicache that I had avoided for years. When I first started geocaching, I had within a year found all but 5 or 6 caches in Memphis/Shelby County. This cache was one of those. There were a number of reasons. My friend jbgreer had already hunted it, so he wouldn't be going with me. It was a 5 stage (at the time) cache surrounded by lots of simpler and easier caches. The area of the cache had muggles at any given time. There were terrain challenges mentioned in the cache description. I had all kinds of excuses.

Well, on this day I decided that I would go over to the first stage and scout out the area. I arrived at an empty church parking lot. No muggles today. I found the information needed for the first stage quick enough so I figured I'd see if I could find it. A short walk later, I was at the first stage. Excellent technique and by sheer luck, I found it immediately. With the coordinates (and other information) in hand, I set off for the second stage. This took me across easy terrain, back past my car, across a field and into an area where people obviously played paintball.

The trail was muddy and the surrounding grass was wet, so I wasn't sure I'd get much further. The second stage was nicely hidden, but again, easily found. I wrote down the next set of coordinates (and other information) and plotted the next stage. This would take me across a water-filled gully. I still had an hour or so of daylight left, so I decided to walk back to my car and put on my rubber boots. I also changed out my GPSr batteries. The gully, while it didn't appear deep, had deep mud and my boots were barely tall enough to keep me dry. No problems, though, and I made my way easily to the third stage. The container had dislodged itself from its hide spot, so I found it with little effort. Instead of coordinates to the final stage, I had to project a waypoint. I hadn't done that in a while, but on this day, luck was on my side. I projected the waypoint and hiked around thorny bushes and through muddy waters to where my coordinates led.

This final stage was the toughest one for me. I looked all over everything all around and no cache. I had about 30 minutes of good daylight left and I was starting to get frustrated. I looked at the hint and it said "Think sepulchre". I had no idea what a "sepulchre" was so I tried to call my good friend jbgreer and ask him. No answer. "Jesus", I said, "What in the heck is a sepulchre?!?" and then it hit me - Jesus was entombed in a sepulchre.

About that time I spotted the hide! I retrieved the ammo can, covered in mud and spiderwebs, and used the information I wrote down at each stage to get inside. It was packed full of swag - more than I'd seen in a long time. I took a Civil War geocoin to move on, signed the logbook and sealed the cache back up.

I hiked back to the parking area and sat down at a picnic table to change back into my shoes. I decided to relax for a few minutes looking out across the field and basking in the glory of a great cache hunt!

This had to rank up there as one of the most fun solo caching experiences I have had in a while. Maybe it was the creativity of the hides, or the cool swag in the final cache. Maybe it had more to do with the relative ease in which I found the stages - and the great weather. Anyways, this will probably make it on the list of my favorite finds of 2010.

[ The next morning's view from my window ]

Censorship Strikes Again

Nominations for GOWT's best caches of 2009 came to a close, and on this snowy day the GOWT webmaster posted the polls for voting. When I looked at the polls, I noticed that they had three caches listed in each category and that some of the caches I saw nominated on the forums did not make it into the voting polls.

After voting, I posted a couple of questions on the forums regarding the rules of the contest.

Within 5 minutes my post was deleted by the webmaster. Shortly afterwards, I received a PM from the webmaster attempting to answer the first of my two questions.

"Some of the caches nominated on this page did not make it into the polls. Is there a reason for that?"

There were more than three caches nominated in each category. The Leadership Committee members decided which ones to include in the polls and made decisions regarding geographic location.

I then asked her if the membership knew of this policy. She responded:

I suggest you address that question to someone on the Leadership Committee. I am not a member of the LC.

What she did not explain was why it was necessary to delete my post. There may be others who have more of a stake in the voting who have similar questions. Her answers also imply that the Leadership Commitee has the power to decide which caches "win".

Update: I followed up after the last PM I got from the webmaster and asked if the Leadership Committee asked her to delete my post. She responded:

An individual authorized to make the request did so.

Nice. My post was up for maybe 5 minutes and deleted by the webmaster while I was still logged on. I saw no others logged on. How do you get "authorized" to make a request to delete a post which does not violate the posting rules for the site? Is this why you don't see very many actual "discussions" on the GOWT forums?

Solving Puzzle Caches

I mentioned in my last entry about how an organization like GOWT that has been around 5 years should have a wealth of information available to its members about geocaching and puzzle solving, but doesn't.

Here are some links to puzzle solving tutorials that I found while reading the geocaching.com forums. They are courtesy of a blog called I’d Rather Be Caching.

Solving Puzzle Caches
Solving Puzzle Caches: Codes
Solving Puzzle Caches: Ciphers

Uncle Mack's Cache Awards 2009

GOWT is taking nominations for favorite caches for 2009. I won't be officially submitting my nominations, however, below is my tentative list of favorite caches found within the GOWT area (West Tennessee) during 2009. Over the next day or so, I will elaborate on my selections as well as post my list of favorite caches found across the country in 2009.

Uncle Mack's Favorite Caches of 2009

Traditional: Graduation by Jamie Z (GC1R3VE)

An ammo can hidden out in the open. I used to pass by this spot nearly every day 20+ years ago. I was amazed when I finally spotted it.

Micro: Whatever Floats Your Cache by Rd King (GC1YHDP)

It was hard to pick a favorite micro mainly because I've found hundreds this year (2009) alone. I'd even forgotten about this one until I reviewed my list. It was my last find on Thanksgiving Day and I didn't read about it beforehand. This turned out to be a good thing because the cache owner includes too many hints in the cache description. He probably does this to prevent people from destroying the hide spot as they retrieve the container. For me, though, it was a complete surprise what I needed to do!

Multi: tie: Jaybirder's Roost by Jaybirder (GC209W3) and National Treasure Cache by FamilyInFilm, CodeMission, GirlinFilm, & CoolZX11 (GC17VF6)

I hunted Jaybirder's Roost at the beginning of 2010 with my caching partner jbgreer. Although it had wayyyyy too many stages to it, the hike was enjoyable and the stage containers were easily spottable. We hunted it on a day that was 27 degrees and sunny and hiked just over 10 miles over a little over 5 hours. I look forward to hunting many more caches in this area.

I hunted National Treasure Cache at the beginning of 2009 with jbgreer and MaximusWilliam. If this cache had ended at the fourth stage, it would have been a perfect multicache. Early stages have a lot of creativity to them, but after the 4th stage, it just drags. Still ranks high on my list, though and I regret not blogging my experience while it was still fresh in my mind. Maybe the current owner will shorten it the length of it.

Both caches were made more enjoyable by having company. None of whom had found the cache before. No phone-a-friends were necessary either.

Mystery/Puzzle: Johnson Road Park Cache by prontopup (GCZZVV)

I enjoyed this cache because all parts of it were within the same nice park - Johnson Road Park in Germantown. The cache hunt included an interesting surprise that kept me busy (and entertained) for nearly an hour.

Night cache: Bats-R-Up by prontopup (GC1MGVK)

I enjoy caching in Germantown's Cameron Brown Park. This night cache was enjoyable because it was relatively short, had a nice twist to it, and was close to parking. I hunted this cache with a small group (jeffbouldin and jackthebear) and enjoyed meeting them.

Earthcache: Jackson Artesian Well Earthcache by dalls (GC17RPJ)

I only hunted one earthcache in West Tennessee this year and it was memorable because of the location. This is near a train museum that I visited on my first cache run in Jackson, TN in 2005. I didn't finish gathering the requirements to log this cache because I noticed after taking my picture that my head was bleeding form an earlier "incident".

Event: Techniques, Tools, and Tips by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC1XC3T)

I only attended one event in the GOWT area this year and it sucked. I enjoyed the display of cache containers, but the mini-course on puzzle solving was worthless. You would think that a geocaching organization that has been in existence for five years would have a wealth of knowledge about various aspects of geocaching. Also, this event seemed more like an advertisement for the Jackson Area Geocachers group. They couldn't even be bothered to put up the GOWT banner. Arrrgghhh, at least I got a smiley out of it.