Uncle Mack's Geocaching Blog

Bobcat (Lynx rufus) - 1/13/2012

2012-01-14T18:16:00.009-06:00

Everyone needs to hunt a cache on Friday the 13th. If you fail to find it, you can simply blame the day for your bad luck. On this Friday the 13th, jbgreer and I chose a night cache - Bobcat (Lynx rufus) by bitbrain (GC38KQ5) to hunt.

Since night caches are best done in groups, jbgreer took to the GOWT facebook group to find people who might be interested in accompanying us. I would have asked myself, but I appear to have been blocked by the group admin, a geocacher named Titansfan, after I caught him making disparaging and homophobic remarks about me on facebook. What a pathetic skunk. Anyways, back to the cache hunt...

We arrived at the parking area for the cache, which is in the Wolf River Wildlife Area around 6:30pm. Waiting for us were two geocachers that we met at an event two weeks ago - Balls2thefloorgeocacher and ProudMother06. There was another car there with kids apparently engaged in pot smoking.

[ Three excited members of the team. ]

It was a cold night, roughly 30 degrees. Perfect weather for hiking. We checked to make sure that we had everything we intended to take with us, marked a waypoint to the parking area and headed west down a dark gravel road. Eventually, we made it to a point where we needed to cut into the woods and make our way to the first tree with two retro-reflective tacks on it.

[ Can you say retro-reflective? ]

It was fairly easy to spot tacks on the trees along the path, even though it looked like (to me) that I was the only one with a good flashlight, and I was leading from behind. It didn't take long before we discovered that a lot of the ground was wet. I was wearing running shoes, because they were less painful than my waterproof boots. Once I got used to the fact that my feet were going to get wet, I relaxed and enjoyed the hunt. According the the cache page there were 46 single reflectors between the pairs that start and end this cache. It was too easy to lose count, so we hoped that we didn't miss any along the way.

[ There were lots of small streams along the way. ]

[ It was very dark. ]

[ Success! ]

We arrived at the cache exactly one hour after leaving the parking area. After signing the log, the real fun began. I was aware of our position relative to where we parked and believed that I knew the correct direction to head in order to get back onto the gravel road the soonest. However, navigating in the dark using electronic compasses, we somehow managed to head in a direction 180 degrees away from the correct way.

[ This is how you know you are going the wrong way. ]

After enjoying some sights that we normally would have missed going the right way, we decided to simply aim for the waypoint of the parking area and essentially go back the same way we came in. There were a few differences, though, in the path we followed. Going to the cache, we crossed three small creeks. On the way back we crossed a lot more. At one point after crossing the same creek multiple times, I shouted "WTF?" in frustration. We eventually made it back to the road and a short while later back to our vehicles and parted ways.

I'm glad that we had others with us, if only to share the misery of walking through ice-cold streams again and again!

One Two One -Two Brown Bag Lunch - 1/2/2012

2012-01-02T21:41:00.006-06:00

The plan for today was to meet up with jbgreer and attend One Two One Two - Brown Bag Lunch by Abiectio (GC39CA4) at Shelby Farms Park. It started at 12 pm, so jbgreer came over and got me and we picked up some sandwiches to eat before the event started. We had no plans to pick up caches along the way, so we got there a bit early. Just before noon, other geocachers showed up. I was amazed at the number of people who showed up on what turned out to be a sunny, but extremely cold day.

[ Good sized crowd met at the north pavilion. ]

Lots of stories were swapped along with the meeting of cachers old and new. Most of the cachers were local, but there was at least one person from Jackson, TN and a couple of people from Arkansas.

As the event came to a close, a group of us made plans to go over to Herb Parsons Lake and try getting Purple Heart by Tiger130 (GC38YDJ), a 5/5 cache that requires climbing around 60 feet up a tree. Fellow geocacher shandrum had all of the necessary equipment and expertise to help us attempt to reach the cache and we appreciated the opportunity to hunt it.

[ The lake also looks beautiful. ]

[ shandrum sets up the climbing ropes ]

After a short walk to the cache location, shandrum set about rigging up the lines and harness. We then got a quick tutorial on how to use the ropes to ascend the tree. Abiectio was the first volunteer to attempt the climb. He didn't have much luck starting out, so he gave up to let the next person go. I was next to volunteer. I got myself setup with the harness easily enough and started out fine, but within 15-20 feet got myself into a situation where I couldn't climb any higher. I think I simply needed more practice with the climbing technique, but on this day time was short so I descended to let someone else try it.

As a consolation, Abiectio, jbgreer and I went to find the nearby cache Purple Heart by Tiger130 (GC38YDJ) , just a short distance away. Even with this being mine and jbgreer's second time here, it still was a tough find. When we met back up with the group, we learned that Sfearnow had successfully made the climb and had descended. Looking back, it would have been a good idea to have stayed and watch him use the ropes. After jbgreer and I left, aschrack also made the long climb.

After reading the online cache logs, I saw that many of the previous finders were hauled up the tree instead of doing the work themselves. While even that experience would have been interesting, I hope that I am able at some point to ascend the tree using my own power.

356 Cubic Inches

2011-12-31T17:25:00.007-06:00

Still exhausted after a long day of hiking and caching with jbgreer, I was surprised to get a call from him Friday night asking if I wanted to hunt 346 Cubic Inches by bitbrain (GC2Q6HD) on Saturday morning.

We met up at 9 am Saturday morning and decided to forgo our usual breakfast in order to get out to the Wolf River Wildlife Area. We parked at the Bethany Road entrance on the northwest side of the wildlife area and began the hike towards the Wolf River. The trail was wet from recent rains and it was often easier to walk along side of it. It was also wind-y and caused us at one point to take a shortcut across a gully or two.

[ One of many views we had of the Wolf River ]

[ A bamboo thicket ]

Not far from the 1st stage, we ran across geocachers peanutpapa and shandrum who were also hunting this cache. They had just finished the second stage and were heading to the final. They decided to tag along with us a bit to watch us tackle the first two stages. Since this is a mystery cache, I have to leave out a lot of interesting details and pictures. While hiking around, we discussed the trials and tribulations of tackling the 5/5 cache - Purple Heart by Tiger130 (GC38YDJ) at Herb Parsons Lake.

[ heading into the unknown ]

[ Thorns were a theme at the final stage. ]

After everyone had the pleasure of locating the final stage, we took turns signing the log. We then all hiked back to the parking area where we parted ways.

[ Mission Accomplished ]

Queen of the Confederacy - 12/30/2011

2011-12-31T17:24:00.005-06:00

This weekend, jbgreer and I were looking for a couple of good caches to hunt as he quickly approaches his 1000th logged cache find. I had a few already selected when I sorted my pocket query by difficulty and spotted Queen of the Confederacy by kailuasquid (GC1W51Q) a multistage cache in La Grange, TN. At our breakfast meeting on Saturday morning, we decided that this would be a great cache to go after.

It was a long drive that was mostly on two-lane highway to La Grange. Speed traps abound, so we were careful not to speed.

The first stage was near the house former residence of Lucy Holcombe Pickens AKA "The Queen of the Confederacy." The stages had not been found in a long time, and the first stage was largely hidden by mud. We did find it, though, and cleaned it off to get the information needed to get to the second stage.

The second stage was tricky and there were a few people in the area that noticed us poking about. We did finally find the stage and used the coordinates to take us to the final location.

[ La Grange General Store ]

When we got to the appropriate parking area, we ran into three hunters about to enter the area. They had killed a deer earlier, and had returned to collect it. We all walked together for a ways, with jbgreer explaining what we were doing out there. We split up about 500 feet from the cache and after they got out of sight, went into the woods and found the final ammo can. We left the woods the way we came in and left town.

[ We forgot our orange vests. ]

On our way back to Memphis, we decided stop in Collierville to try and finish FTF All Star #5: Along The Creek by rungeek (GC121CJ). This was a three stage multicache with a puzzle at each stage. We had attempted the first stage earlier with no luck. It turned out, however, that it was just well-hidden, so we were able to continue on this day with stage two. Stage two required some terrain crossing and we were lucky in that it hadn't rained in a while. We found the container with a big hole in the side and filled with a watery sludge. Inside was a laminated slip of paper with information needed to help get to the third stage. It was almost unreadable, but what we needed, we got.

[ Nonconnah Greenbelt ]

The third stage required solving a puzzle to get information to go with what we got from the second stage. The puzzle looked daunting, so we started to drive off. As we were leaving, I had an insight that allowed me to solve the puzzle and derive the final coordinates needed. After another terrain obstacle, we found the final stage - intact. We breathed a sigh of relief, signed the log and moved on.

We only found two caches on this day, but they were both memorable.

A Christmas Flash Mob - 12/25/2011

2011-12-25T17:12:00.002-06:00

Normally, Christmas Day would be a bit too busy too do anything geocaching-related, but Holiday Flash..err...Twinkle Mob by Abiectio (GC393JE) was only 4 miles from where I live, so I decided to head over there before going off to visit family. The event started at 11am, so I got to Tom Lee Park in downtown Memphis about 45 minutes early, so that I could relax and watch the barges on the Mississippi River.

[ My vantage point while waiting for the event to start. ]

At around 10:58, I realized that I would be late to the 11am start, but headed over anyways, and was 3 minutes late. There were five people there, which was a fair amount considering the day and how far some of them drove to be there. We all enjoyed some cupcakes that the host, Abiectio brought along before going our separate ways.

It turned out to be a better day than I had expected, but I didn't hunt anymore caches during the day. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

It Started With Some Puzzles - 11/26/2011

2011-11-27T19:28:00.006-06:00

Saturday didn't look like it would be a good day for caching because of rain, but when my buddy jbgreer asked if I was interested, I immediately put together a list of caches to hunt.

We met up as usual for a nice breakfast and discussion of the day's plans. I picked out a couple of puzzle caches to start with - ones that we had both solved months ago. Depending on how much time we had, I selected a few in Shelby Farms to finish out the morning. The first two caches turned out to be in different locations in the same park. Since these were puzzle caches, I'll leave it to the curious reader to deduce which park that might be. After finding suitable parking, we flipped a coin and decided to go after Phillip Duffy Tolerates A Crazy Transient adopted by Tinksdad ( GC19QK3) first. The hike started out easy and before too long, we were fighting our way through some interesting terrain that included some brush and thorny vines. The hide spot was perfect and didn't take long to find once we were in the area. We were surprised to find two cache containers in the same spot, both with logbooks. We signed the one that everyone else signed and packed everything back up.

[ An early test of coordination ]

[ The fields are beautiful this time of year. ]

Next up was Say What? by mndvs737 (GC1RJ9). It was in an area more likely to be damp, so we were very fortunate not to run into much water on the route we chose. It wasn't until we got to the cache itself, that the ground was damp. The container, however, was a nice, dry ammo can. After signing the log, we made our way back to where we parked with little difficulty.

[ A break from bushwhacking ]

With two good puzzle caches off of our list, we decided to drive to Shelby Farms to pick up a few easier caches to end the morning. Shelby Farms has a lot of activity going on around this time of the years with their Starry Nights exhibit and a Thanksgiving Day 4 mile race. We decided to park near the Woodland Discovery Center to start our hunt.

First on the list was Water and Electricity Don't Mix! by BrunoFam3 (GC2ZNV1). This area could at times be very popular with park visitors, but this morning, we swooped in and jbgreer made the find quickly. After we both had signed the log, a gust of wind came up and jbgreer got a little exercise chasing down the log.

Next was Yeti's Path by thefamilybush (GC2WWQ2). I had done this one during the heat of the summer, but thought it would be a fun one for jbgreer to find. The trails in this area are really nice, and I hadn't known about them until I hunted the caches in the area.

He found the cache quickly enough, and I kept an eye out for people while he signed the log. The area is popular with bikers.

The next two caches we wanted to hunt were I'd rather be fishing! by Balls2thefloorgeocacher ( GC37YEN) and Quit Horsing Around by ProudMother06 (GC37YEM). Both caches were near a lake and the first spot (near a pier) had two people standing around so we decided to get the other one (GC37YEM) first. As we were walking towards the area, we saw a man in front of us wearing camo clothes. When he stopped at the area we wanted to search, jbgreer started to ask him if he was a geocacher. I recognized at that point that we had run into jaybirder. We decided to search together and after some effort, found the cache.

[ jbgreer and jaybirder ]

We decided to hunt (GC37YEN) together and by the time we got to the pier, we people had left. It was a pretty good hide with lots of potential spots, but eventually I spotted it. We all signed the log and were lucky that wind the wind that we didn't lose anything in the water.

At this point, we parted ways with jaybirder to hunt a few more caches. On the way back to the truck, we stopped at a pavilion to get rid of some trash and found a log smoldering in a concrete firepit. It could have easily gotten more serious, but fortunately, someone had left a water bottle nearby with enough left in it to put out the log.

[ a little tough to see the top end of the log is still burning ]

We headed to the east end of the park to hunt Kidz Kache by polikkronos (GC2MENF). I had hunted this one before without reading the note that said it was moved away from the place described in the hint. Since I had later realized where it was moved to, it was an easy find today. It was in a cool container that was covered with small ants. Nice!

After leaving Shelby Farms, we picked up two more caches to end the day. Lapizero
by thefamilybush (GC2VAFX) was a good find marred only by the fact I lost (or realized I lost) my reading glasses. I've lost a total of four pairs of reading glasses over the years, but had had this pair for a while. Oh, well.

The final cache we found was Sotobosque by thefamilybush (GC2VWDD). It was in an interesting area complete with honey locust thorns. I got poked reaching in a hole for the cache. I signed the log and left a little blood mark on the page. All-in-all, it was a pretty good morning with 8 caches found and no DNFs.

Blytheville, AR - 11/24/2011

2011-11-25T19:12:00.007-06:00

I had a 4-day weekend to do whatever I wanted, so I planned out a few possible geocaching trips. I was invited to have Thanksgiving dinner of Thursday and when I found out it wasn't until 3pm. I selected from my list a trip up I-55 to Blytheville, AR. I figured that if I got up early enough (a hard thing to do these days), I could hit Blytheville, AR and head north into Missouri before coming back down into Tennessee and to my family's house via Hwy 51.

I've been through Blytheville at least twice before, so there were only about a dozen caches for me to go after.

By a miracle, my alarm got me out of bed on time Thursday morning. The weather was cool and a little damp, but I wasn't expecting any rain so all was good. I was on the road by 7 am and traffic was very light. I had a few caches on my list to pick up on the way north to Blytheville but made a last minute decision to skip them for times sake.

My first find of the morning was Ring....Ring....Ring by Lancent | GC266F5 at the southern end of Blytheville near the point that I got off of the interstate. This place was the former site of a convenience store and I really wished it had been open as I needed some gas.

[ Ring...Ring... ]

Gas would have to wait until I got into town. I found Champion Trees of AR: MS County: Willow Oak by zcoach (GC2MPVR) without paying any attention to the tree (I think it was across the road). The cache was near a car lot that was thankfully closed on this day.

One cache I found near the center of town was Fountain in the park by flame897 (GC2FMJQ). The little park had some interesting monuments including one to the founder of Blytheville. This park was also near the town's Greyhound bus terminal.

[ Rev Henry Thomas Blythe ]

[ Go Greyhound! ]

Just good clean fun! by flame897 (GC2FNRV) was an interesting cache at an appropriate place. I had figured it would be at a car wash, but instead it was outside of a community center for young people called "Clean Fun Club". I made one more stop before heading west out of town. P&G Special by flame897 (GC2FNT6) was outside of a church. I stayed in the lot for a bit updating my paper map with my finds so far.

Next, I picked up four caches at the old Eaker AFB. I had been here before and am pretty sure that the first cache I found was near a spot I had found another cache two visits ago. It is an interesting area as some of it has been repurposed and still has activity.

Cold War Relic-The Terminal by zcoach (GC2HNWE) was an interesting spot with a hide that suprised me given what I had been finding most of the morning.

Cold War Relic-The Memorial by zcoach | (GC2HNW4) was near a memorial to the crew of a B-52 shot down over Hanoi in 1972.

Heading northeast towards the interstate I decided to skip Grandpa's Challenge by Doug&Di (GC1ARRA) and hit Leonarda 3 by LeonardaDaArtsi (GC2EAZQ) before leaving town. I had to cross a muddy area to get to the cache, but the mud was just dry enough that I didn't sink in it.

After leaving town, I headed north into Missouri for more caching fun!

Night Caching in Nesbit Park - 11/14/2011

2011-11-15T11:53:00.009-06:00

I don't get many opportunities to go night caching with a group, so when I heard about a plan to hunt Night Time Squirrel Hunt by Tuck Sackett, Hoot Owl, Gibbenator (GCR91D) organized by jeffbouldin, I immediately signed on to go. Even though I've been on this hunt twice before, I figured it would be a fun way to spend an evening. After signing up, I checked the weather forecast for Monday - 70% chance of rain.

I checked the weather forecast at several points on Monday and each time I checked, the rain had been pushed off until later in the evening. By the end of the work day, I knew we'd be clear of rain chances, so I went home and packed my gear and relaxed before heading out to Nesbit Park.

I arrived at the parking area around 8pm, about 30 minutes early. I paced around in the dark until nelms3 pulled up. The others (jeffbouldin, giardia_boy, and shandrum) all arrrived just before 8:30pm. My understanding for our late start was that we were waiting for bitbrain to get off of work, but it turned out that he couldn't make it, so just after 8:30pm, we set off into the woods.

[ heading into the unknown ]

I figured that since I have found the cache before, I'd hang out in the back and watch the others spot the tacks. I was prepared though, with Gatorade, a hand-held flashlight, a headlamp, and a small LED flashlight. It had been a few years since my last visit and it seemed like there were a few more ditches and gulleys than I remembered. The temperature was moderate - around 68 degrees, and there were few bugs out (other than spiders).

[ nelms3 lights up one of the many spiders we came across ]

Since there had been no rain, the terrain challenges were minimized. Still, stumbling around in the dark has its risks. I had no memory of how many sets of tacks we passed or how many trails we crossed - only a rough time estimate of how long it should take.

[ some of the gulleys were deep ]

Finally after about 50 minutes of hiking, I heard the sound of an ammo can being opened. I looked over and saw the jeffbouldin had discovered the cache. He signed the log, replaced it, and stood back to let the others eventually find it. It took some a bit longer, but eventually everyone found the cache and signed the log.

[ nelms3, jeffbouldin, giardia_boy, and shandrum find the cache ]

Invigorated by success, the group decided to hunt a few other caches before leaving the park. We found CWL003 - Bartlett Stash by CWL (GCG409), Just Off The Yellow Trail
by cgeek (GC1AJ9F), Tango Base Three by ttowery (GCN5R8), and Stanky Creek
by itsmebigd (GC16NMB) - not in that order. It was a good selection of caches, and two of the four caches were among the oldest in the park.

Because it was getting late, we deviated from the Yellow Trail when we got fairly close to the parking area and ended up leaving the park just after 11pm.

Hdrider55 Rides Their Way to 1K - 11/12/2011

2011-11-13T15:26:00.005-06:00

When I arrived home from a morning of caching with my friend jbgreer, I noted that I had just enough time to make it to the hdrider55 Rides Their Way to 1K event by nelms3 (GC34GFP) at 2pm. It was about a 30 mile drive to Oakland, TN and I had to be careful not to speed since the area around Oakland enforces the speed laws pretty vigilantly.

[ An object found earlier that reminded me that I had an event to go to. ]

I arrived at the designated place around 1:55pm, right behind brunofam3. There was already a good-sized crowd checking out the various travel bugs and coins that people brought along. I wrote down the tracking number of all of the coins that I could read. One of these days, I will learn to bring a magnifying glass.

[ Some early discussions before mealtime ]

I decided to hurry up and get a seat and let others fill in around me. We seemed to have just enough room for everyone to get a good seat. I had Chicken Parmesan to eat and enjoyed swapping stories with the geocachers around me. There were a lot of newer geocachers around me and I enjoyed their enthusiasm about geocaching.

There was a door prize drawing that had enough items that everyone ended up winning something. I actually ended up winning two items, because they had extra items. I won some reflective tacks (for night caches) and a small geocoin along with a nano cache. I will have a place a cache soon, since over the years I have won just about every size cache container there is.

After the event, I decided to hunt three relatively easy caches in Oakland. I actually ended up following brunofam3 around - which was great, because they did a better job of finding the caches than I did. Caches found, I decided to head back into Memphis and catch a movie before going home.

Horn Lake, MS - 11/12/2011

2011-11-13T15:25:00.006-06:00

I met up with my caching buddy, jbgreer at our usual time and had breakfast while discussing the plans for the day's cache hunt. I had chosen Horn Lake, MS as our destination because it looked like there were some interesting caches to find. I also wanted to log a cache for my "Mississippi Blues Trail Challenge" list.

We took Hwy 51 south and made a couple of finds in South Memphis (Whitehaven). The first was The Long Pink Caddies by supersally76 (GC31384) just outside of a restaurant near Graceland. The cache was secured to a sign in the landscaping with a lock. The combination for the lock was near the big pig's nose.

[ The pig van at Marlowe's ]

It was obvious after opening the cache, that it was placed with the owner's approval and was a great cache for our first find of the day. As we were leaving, we saw a pink cadillac parked nearby.

The second cache of the morning was near an interesting sign just north of the stateline. Rock-N-Roll Ghost Town by Scooby-Doo Crew (GC2TVNP) should have been a quick find, but we were led off by possibly faulty coordinates to a wooded area nearby.

[ An odd place to run into other cachers ]

While poking around in the bushes, I looked up and suddenly saw two vehicles parked nearby. It was a virtual horde of cachers. The geocachers among them, I later found out were gfors and vanlaanfamily. While I eventually looked where the cache was hidden, jbgreer actually made the find.

[ Everyone looking where the cache is not located ]

We met up with these cachers at one of the first caches we found once we got into Mississippi: Rent A Constitution Class Starship by Scooby-Doo Crew (GC2V57M). We found Mississippi Blues Trail: Big Walter Horton by dameetro (GC34KQ3) which I added to my qualifying list for the Mississippi Blues Trail Challenge.

We then headed to a nice park for another cache (and a restroom). Python Loose at the Park
by wilbur8869 (GC2RRF8) was in a nice patch of woods with a disc golf course nearby. The hide spot was definitely worthy of the name.

[ no bushwhacking required ]

The next cache Soccer Ball by DavidandAbby (GC2PV8E) was nearby, but we actually had to leave the park and enter a schools athetic fields. Appropriately, there was a soccer game in progress. I wanted to leave, but jbgreer convinced me that we could just walk around everyone and make to the cache. Turns out he was right and the cache was in an area hidden from the spectators.

The final cache we found in Mississippi was The Zombie Wasteland by wilbur8869 (GC36F9R). I had selected this cache because of the cool picture I had seen of the container. It was in a wooded area near an apartment complex that used to have a paved walking trail.

[ Nice! ]

The last cache of the morning was Pyradoptics by dameetro (GC2Z9G7) at the northbound I-55 rest stop in Memphis. I had seen this structure many times in passing. It's name is "Pyradoptics" and apparently lights up at night. The cache, itself, was located not far from the "artwork". All-in-all, it was a successful day. 13 caches found, with no DNFs. Several were interesting hides. It was fun to meet cachers from other states as well.

[ "Pyradoptics" ]

Diabetic Series Mini-Power Trail - 10/30/2011

2011-10-30T14:55:00.004-05:00

The Diabetic Series (DS) is a 20 cache Mini-Power Trail by EverywhereActs1:8 that is located a few miles west of Jackson, TN and just north of I-40. The series was created to honor of all those who have diabetes, who had diabetes, and in memory of those who have passed on due to complications from diabetes. All of the cache containers in this series are test strip canisters.

I had been wanting to do this series since it came out, but I was waiting for a nice, cool day. Today was that day. I left Memphis around 8am and made good time getting to the area of the cache trail. My first find was actually a challenge cache located at the point I got off of the interstate: States that Border West TN - CHALLENGE by lookingUPward ( GC2Y5QT). It was one of three challenge caches in the area that I hunted.

This area is cotton country, so I saw a lot of empty cotton fields and other farmland. It was a nice change of pace.

[ The cotton has been harvested. ]

The DSC series started off well. On Diabetic Series Cache (DSC - 2) (GC2QTNH), a nearby property owner came by and asked if I was lost. I explained what I was doing while trying not to look guilty, and they drove off. Not having found this cache, I drove off, planning to hit this spot on my return.

[ Not far from DSC - 2 ]

I didn't run across any other people on the rest of the trail. Most of the caches were along a road running parallel to the interstate.

[ The interstate is off to the right. Love the fall colors. ]

I did cache maintenance on two of the caches. Both were missing their ziplock bags for the logs. There were two caches that I couldn't find on the drive in (DSC -2 and DSC - 10). I found both on the trip out making it 20 for 20 on the power trail. I was done by 10:30am. On the way home, I made a quick stop at a rest area where I found TN I-40 WB 14 Caches IN-A-DAY CHALLENGE* by lookingUPward (GC2YXA5). I found two more caches on the way back to Memphis. I will try to make a trip back this way later in the season to hunt many of the other excellent caches in the area.

It occurred to me as I logged these caches, that this was my biggest caching day of 2011 (25 finds).

Lakeland, TN - 10/23/2011

2011-10-23T22:10:00.003-05:00

I had planned a bigger trip for this day, but the weather and other things changed my plans, so I thought I would tackle the six new caches along the new Canada Road Bike/Walking Trail in Lakeland just south of I-40. There was light rain along the drive out there, but by the time I arrived at the recommended parking area, the rain had stopped. The segment of trail I would be walking along was less than a mile long and was along both sides of Canada Road. All of the caches were placed by dneedham & GeoBender25.

[ Very quiet geese along the edge of a trailer park. ]

The first cache I hunted was Canada Trail - Evergreen (GC3632Q). It was a bison tube and was a great example of one of the hide types I would find.

Canada Trail - Rest (GC362YY) was my next find. It was (as its name suggests) at one of the four benches along the trail (2 on each side of the road). It required a little stealth since the trail runs alongside a road that sees a bit of traffic.

[ No time for resting. Besides, the benches were wet. ]

Canada Trail - Water (GC362ZF) reminded me of a number of Arkansas caches I have found over the past couple of years. It was a quick find that could have taken much longer.

[ Armadillo remains near the edge of the road about 300 feet from the cache. ]

Canada Trail - Sit (GC3630F) was an identical hide to the "Rest" hide.

Canada Trail - Woody (GC36325) proved to be tricky on my old eyes. It involved stepping into the woods. It would have been pretty easy, though, in the winter.

Canada Trail - Troll (GC3631C) was my last find of the day and the last on the trail. It proved to be the hardest to find and the earlier rainfall made the search a little tougher.

Four of the six caches were nanos. Having read this information ahead of time, I was prepared. I had clipped a paper clip on my shirt pocket and it helped me out a lot. I didn't have any background information on the trail, itself, so I am assuming that it was designed to be used by the adjacent neighborhood for relatively short walks.

Geocaching FUNdamentals Class and Trivia Contest - 10/15/2011

2011-10-15T20:20:00.003-05:00

I have been making it a point lately to attend as many local geocaching events as I can. Prontopup of GOWT holds introductory geocaching events several times a year, so when I noticed Geocaching FUNdamentals Class and Trivia Contest by Prontopup (GC3488A) pop up on the event calendar, I signed up. I'm not new to geocaching, so I go to these events to socialize more than anything. I was intrigued by the "trivia" aspect of the event and hoped I could answer some of the questions.

The event was in Germantown, TN at 10am. As usual these days, I slept in until the last possible moment and had to race across town to make it to the event on time. There weren't a lot of people at the pavilion when I arrived. A lot of the "regulars" had other things going on, I guess. There were attendees from Forrest City, AR with books of geocoins to show. We even had an attendee from Germany make it to the event.

The information about the fundamentals of geocaching was interesting and informative and interspersed with trivia questions. I was a little slow on the draw, but one of the questions was tailored so that I would know the answer.

After the event, several of us hunted a cache put out for the event on the western end of the park. I got to the site first, but had a tough hunt before being second to spot the cache. It was a fun morning. I thought about caching some more before heading home, but decided to eat lunch nearby and then go home.

Olive Branch, MS - 9/10/2011

2011-09-10T21:14:00.006-05:00

I met up with jbgreer at the usual time on Saturday morning and we had an excellent breakfast before heading out for a morning of caching.

Our first destination was South Ridge Community Park where there were three caches waiting for us. Because of poor routing on my part, we approached the park from the wrong direction and had to backtrack around until we found the entrance. If not for one of the online cache logs, I wouldn't have known that we were looking for the park itself.

[ South Ridge Community Park ]

The park has a paved trail that runs nearly the entire length, so there was little bushwhacking to be done. Our first cache (and primary goal of the morning because of its rating) was Day of fire by fzxfazer & littlebiker (GC1N46R). I had hunted this cache before, approaching from the wrong direction and searched fruitlessly. It turned out that not only were the coordinates roughly 30 feet off, but the correct approach was from the park to the north. Using the updated coordinates found in the online logs, we made a fairly quick find of the cache. Of course, the terrain could have been much worse had it rained recently.

Back in the park, we headed east to the next cache on our list - South Ridge
by Fairchase (GC1GK0K). What made this one an easy find was the fact that it was laying opened on the trail with its contents scattered around it. After signing the log and putting the contents back in the can, we replaced it a good looking spot at the coordinates.

The third cache was just a bit to the east and possibly outside of the bounds of the park. Did you take your medicine? by BEAVERSHARK (GC32XP8) was a micro that was placed in a surprising spot. After signing the log, we walked back to the car. We had no problems with muggles here, even though I'm sure this park is well-used.

Our next destination was Olive Branch City Park where we hoped to find City Park Travel Bug Hotel by jbgrissom (GC2KGB4) because of its unusally high terrain rating (4). We found the approximate spot, but no cache. We then hunted two other caches nearby and only found one - Take a Walk, But Not On The Track by mimi1967 (GC271ZV). This park was teeming with visitors, so I can understand how a cache might get discovered by kids.

[ Some serious erosion took place here... ]

Next up was Lan Do-Do You by Gooberploch (GC1Q6JV). It was just off of an industrial complex south of the park and across the highway. We got lucky on choosing the right roads to get there and the hike itself was short. Lots of growth to fight through at the entry point, but once in the woods, we got to the coordinates pretty easily. The cache was well camoed and may not have been in its original spot. I found it, though. Exiting the woods was easier than entering.

Our last cache of the day was OH FRAP!!!! by fzxfazer (GC1MW92). I was originally of the opinion that the cache was accesible from outside of the City Park, but after a few failed attempts to get close, we found that the park had the best access. This was an interesting hunt. We found the right trail to start on, then shortly afterwards ran into a 30-foot stretch of chain-link fence that did little more than block the trail. After walking around that, we discovered a zipline overhead with a couple of platforms for accessing it. A few hundred feet from the cache, we came across an elevated climbing wall with a rope ladder. The rest of the journey was bushwhacking as we saw no discernible trail. I walked right up to the cache, which was a cool hide. The log however, was soaking wet. After leaving the cache, I climbed the rope ladder (harder than it looks), but decided against climbing the wall.

[ Don't fence me in... ]

[ Hmmmm... ]

We had a nice uneventful walk back to the car. No more caches were on my list, so we headed back to Memphis.

"The General" - 8/30/2011

2011-08-31T16:23:00.008-05:00

The General by ace61502, badcooky81 (GC33209) is the third geocache placed in Forrest Park near Downtown Memphis over the years. The first cache - Forrest Park by ArkansasBugman (GCEAF2) - was the first cache I found by myself back in 2004. I found that cache by using a map and the cache hint to figure out where it was. That cache was archived.

The second cache -That Devil Forrest by Chasseur (GCWJAW) -was hidden in one of the small trees that surrounded the monument. Those trees were later cut down, I believe to discourage the people who liked to sleep next to the monument.

The newest cache was approved only a few days ago and has had a couple of visitors. Since it is located not far from where I work, I decided to go after it after work.

[ Run Forrest, run... ]

As with the previous caches here, I used satellite imagery to gauge where I should look. When I got near the statue, I saw a gentleman planted on the bench near the search area, as well as three visitors to the statue itself. I decided to go have dinner and then come back.

After dinner, the park was empty. It was about 90 minutes before the park's closing time and the sun was still up. The cache wasn't tough to find, but I did find several objects before finding the cache container. I found two empty vodka bottles and a pair of rusty vice grips. The cache was bigger than any in the area before and held several trade items.

[ This bench near "The General" frequently hosts "day residents" of the park ]

International Geocaching Day - 8/20/2011

2011-08-20T14:05:00.011-05:00

I had discovered only a few days beforehand that Saturday, August 20 was being declared the first International Geocaching Day. I read that people who attended an event or found a geocache on this day would get a "special" souvenir on their geocaching.com profile. Since my local geocaching organization chose not the host an event on this auspicious occasion, I figured I'd step out and hunt a single cache. When jbgreer called me and said he wanted to hunt a few caches, I made plans to hunt three or four caches with him, and then go with him to Millington where he could hunt a couple of neat caches I had found the weekend before.

When Saturday came, we met for a delicious breakfast before beginning the hunt.

Our first find of the day was Rueda Vieja by thefamilybush (GC2N34E). It had a nice wet log for us to sign. Camino y Árbol by thefamilybush (GC2VA3Q) was nearby and we found it in good order. Since it was so hot out, and I wanted to make sure we had time to head up to Millington, TN, we skipped over some caches, stopping only for ones I thought would be out of sight of muggles.

Plantation Park by aschrack (GC2WDMR) was on our way and was in a nice new park in the Davies Plantation area. After finding the cache near the parking area. I climbed a small hill to survey the rest of the park.

[ There was a winding walking trail around the lake ]

She hates nature by kasitay (GC2TB9M) was in I. H. Managerial Park in Lakeland, TN. I have been after this cache twice before. New coordinates made this trip out there a success. The cache was 30 feet or so west of the area I searched before. It made a big difference.

[ Only two people out fishing today... ]

Wisteria Gift Attic & Tea Room by magicrock (GC22539) was our next goal. Both jbgreer and I always enjoy magicrock's caches and this one was no exception. The coordinates were a little rough, but I finally found the unique camo on this nanocache.

After finding the last cache, I was ready to head to Millington and Edmund Orgill Park. I was certain the jbgreer would find the two caches there as interesting as I did. It was getting very cloudy as we approached Edmund Orgill Park - George Washington was here??? by poetintenn and Alex Layne (GC2THX2). This was a tough hide, but jbgreer walked right up to it. As he signed the log, I noticed nearby fishermen gathering up their stuff. The wind was starting to pick up and rain was on the way. We decided to go ahead and try the last cache on the list - Edmund Orgill Park Working Out the Numbers. by poetintenn and Alex Layne (GC2VXHK). This cache had been moved by the owner due to muggles and someone (probably the owner) had written additional clues on the container that made it too easy to get into. Still, jbgreer had trouble with the container just as jackthebear, peanutpapa and I had the week before. The rain didn't help. Fortunately, he got to the log, signed it and then we got back to the car as quick as we could. We had lots of rain and even some small hail as we were leaving the area.

The rain cleared out by the time we got back to Memphis. I had a great time as always and a few days later saw an "International Geocaching Day" souvenir show up on my geocaching profile.

Mid-South Fairgrounds - 8/14/2011

2011-08-14T16:37:00.004-05:00

It was a beautiful Sunday and I had some time to kill before having to be somewhere. I knew there were four new caches on the property of the old Mid-South Fairgrounds I could get. Since that area is not far from where I run in the evenings, I had originally planned to hunt them one afternoon after work. One of the caches, though, was at the Children's Museum of Memphis. I knew they closed at 5pm, so I decided that if I went today, I could get all four caches.

I entered the Fairgrounds from the north entrance. I drove to the site of the new Kroc Center, where Mid-South Fair Grounds: Future by Nvisible (GC30PQK) was hidden, but the presence of a parked car near the hide spot forced me to move on.

The first cache I would end up getting was Mid-South Fair Grounds: Present by Nvisible (GC30PBZ). It was near a new fountain that is part of that area's transformation into "Tiger Lane". The area was mostly empty on this day, but it seemed like wherever I went, there was one car parked within sight of me. I hadn't seen "Tiger Lane" before, so I took a few pictures. It is basically a tailgating area for University of Memphis football games.

[ Nice clean fountain ]

Next, I went after Mid-South Fair Grounds: Past by Nvisible (GC30J50). It was in an area that once was home to Libertyland, a theme park at the southwest end of the fairgrounds. I drove around the area looking for close parking, but ended up having to walk a few hundred feet. The cache, itself, was easily found. I thought the camouflage was exceptional, though.

[ The Mid-South Coliseum as seen from where I parked ]

[ This area once held a big roller coaster called the "Revolution"]

I headed back north to Mid-South Fair Grounds: Future by Nvisible (GC30PQK) and saw that the guy parked in the lot was still there, although he had moved a bit. He was parked about 50 yards north of the cache. I got out of my car and took a few pictures of the Kroc Center construction site across from the cache and noticed that I could grab the cache without being spotted.

[ Is this what they mean by building "green"? ]

As I left the fairgrounds, I decided to check and see if the nearby Children's Museum of Memphis was open. There was a fairly new cache on the grounds and I figured I'd make a sweep. It turns out that it was open and while busy, the crowds were sparse enough so that I had no problem getting to SPARK an imagination by LMuseW (GC30HQ6) and singing the log. 4 for 4, I called it a day and headed home.

[ Interesting music playing outside of the building ]

Edmund Orgill Park - 8/7/2011

2011-08-07T20:51:00.006-05:00

With the temperature being so hot this summer, I've pretty much been in hibernation from geocaching. That being said, when I saw The SBC goes to Tennessee by The SBC (GC30CK), an event cache in Millington, TN come up, I figured I'd go to the event, eat breakfast and talk to a few folks, and then come straight home.

The event was at 9am on Sunday and by a miracle, I made it to the restaurant on time. I met up with jackthebear in the parking lot and we went in together. I was surprised to find that everybody else was already there.

[ Not a bad group for a Sunday morning ]

As the event came to a close, jackthebear and peanutpapa suggested hunting Edmund Orgill Park Working Out the Numbers. by poetintenn and Alex Layne (GC2VXHK). I thought it would be fun to hunt a cache or two with these guys, so I invited myself along. Since the park was only a few miles away from the restaurant, jackthebear offered to drive us over in his car. Peanutpapa ended up taking his own vehicle, because he had to run a quick errand before meeting up with us at the park.

When jackthebear and I got to the park, we first stopped at Edmund Orgill Park - George Washington was here??? by poetintenn and Alex Layne (GC2THX2). Both he and peanutpapa had found the cache before, so I hunted it alone while we waited for peanutpapa to meet us. The immediate area around the cache was teeming with gnats, making it very tough to search. During a pause in the search, I read the cache description more closely and made a guess about the cache which turned out to be correct.

Right after I found the cache, peanutpapa met up with us and we headed as a group to the next cache - Edmund Orgill Park Working Out the Numbers. We parked in a lot about 400 feet away from the cache and headed for the coordinates. The cache page states that the cache has a combination lock and that there are at least two ways to come up with the combination.

One way (listed in the hint) involved finding a nearby water tower and measuring 3 distances from a set point (described in the hint). The other way involved some creative thinking. Since it was hot, we just decided to try to come up with the combination ourselves. After a few failed efforts, I observed something that gave me a clue what needed to be done. Peanutpapa followed up on it and came up with the combination. Jackthebear opened the lock. I'm not sure how long it took us to get it open, but it was before we could break a sweat.

Having no other caches on our list, we parted ways, with jackthebear taking me back to the restaurant so I could get my car and drive home. I gave some thought to picking up an additional cache or two on the way home, but decided to wait for cooler weather.

The Desoto Trail - 7/23/2011

2011-07-24T18:27:00.005-05:00

I was reading the Mississippi Geocachers Association forums (before their last site crash) and stumbled upon mention of a short series of geocaches that were put out by the Desoto County Tourism Board, in Northwest Mississippi, as a way of bringing geocachers to Desoto County. There are seven caches in this series that are located in small towns throughout the county. I mentioned this series to my caching buddy, jgreer, and he agreed to hunt them with me at some point.

I don't enjoy geocaching in the summer, but since this series looked pretty easy, I made arrangements with jbgreer to hunt them on this particular Saturday. We met up at my place just before 8am, and after having a nice breakfast in Midtown Memphis, set off south for Mississippi.

Our first stop was just across the state line in Southaven, MS. DeSoto Trail #6 - Southaven
by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W36H) was at a cemetery we found a cache at once before. It was an easy find and we discovered a really cool logbook and a strip of paper we were supposed to take from each cache the the Desoto County Visitor's Center at the final.

[ A familiar cemetery in Southaven ]

The next stop on our list was DeSoto Trail #2 - Horn Lake by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W36B ) in Latimer Park. The cache was a short distance from both parking and a skate park. The cache was easily found and had possibly been muggled as the information strips for this location were no longer in the cache. There were two other caches nearby in the park, but it was so hot that we decided to stay focused on our goal of find all of the Desoto Trail series.

Cache number three took us west to Walls, MS. DeSoto Trail #5 - Walls by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W33Q) was at a small cemetery next to a church that was outside of town. This particular cemetery was where Blues artist Memphis Minnie was buried. A roadside plaque nearby told a little about her history and is part of the Mississippi Blues Trail.

[ The cemetery where Memphis Minnie is buried ]

Next, we headed south to Hernando, MS for two more caches in the series. The first of the two we hunted was DeSoto Trail #3 by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W33H). It was located in the Town Square just outside of the courthouse. There was some sort of farmer's market going on here on this day, so we tried to be stealthy in getting and replacing the cache. After that was done, we went inside to get a drink of water and check out the famous murals that cover the walls inside.

[ One of the half a dozen murals in the Hernando Courthouse ]

After leaving, we drove about a quarter-mile to DeSoto Trail #4 - Hernando by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W33N). This cache was in an old building next to the Desoto County Museum. I wished that we had been able to visit the museum itself, but we are usually single-minded when geocaching.

[ A building spanning several eras next to the museum ]

Next, was a trip to Olive Branch, MS for DeSoto Trail #1 - Olive Branch by SoDeSotoMS (C2W337). I have cached in Olive Branch a number of times, but had never been to this particular area. Again, Olive Branch had some caches nearby that I would have like to have hunted, but will wait for the weather to cool off.

[ The Visitor's Center off in the distance ]

Finally it was off to the Desoto County Visitor's Center and DeSoto Trail #7 - Final Stop
by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W36K). When we arrived, the first thing we noticed is that the Visitor's Center was closed. It turns out that they are only open Monday through Friday. The cache was a short distance away along a paved trail. After signing the final log, we decided to call it a day. It took around 4 hours to hunt all seven caches and we had a great time. I look forward to my next expedition into Mississippi sometime in the Fall.

Caching in Virtue Flats - 6/30/2011

2011-07-11T19:54:00.013-05:00

Today, my Dad and I decided to hunt a few caches in the Virtue Flats OHV that is located a few miles to the east of Baker City, OR. I can't stop in Baker City without having breakfast at the Baker Truck Corral. I always enjoy their corned beef hash and eggs and today was no exception.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Baker Interpretive Center to hunt Rest Stop on the Oregon Trail by DocDTA (GC2W8BE) . This cache was not too far from the parking lot area, but required hiking down a windy trail called the "Ascent Trail". Since my Dad doesn't care for hiking, I made the hike alone.

[ Exhibit near the parking area ]

[ Nice scenery along the Ascent Trail ]

[ A covered wagon awaits at the end of the trail ]

The entire length of the trail is only 0.8 miles, and there is an old covered wagon to visit for those who make the entire hike. Unfortunately, I only had time to hunt the cache, and since my Dad was waiting for me at the top of the hill. I made it a quick hunt. The Baker Interpretive Center is a cool place to visit. I've been inside the museum once, many years ago, and hunted a cache on the grounds two years ago.

--

I cached in Virtue Flats last year around this same time, so I knew what to expect in terms of terrain. It was at least twenty degrees cooler than the last time I was here. That made a big difference in this desert-like terrain. I didn't have a good map of the area, so I didn't know how close to the main road any of these caches would be. We found a parking area near Broken Valve Stem by rebel502 (GC2FG1B) and I hiked along an ATV trail about a third of a mile to that cache. After that, we drove the main road through the area and would stop as close as we could get to a cache. I would then drink some Gatorade, then set off for the cache. Most were within 1/3 of a mile from the road, and all involved some hill-climbing.

[ It seems to go on forever... ]

[ My dad prefers to wait by the main road ]

[ This would be so much fun on an ATV! ]

I ended up finding 3 of the 4 caches that are available, including An eagles nest view of the Eagle Caps by pete-n-repete (GC1BPQX) and Above the boulders by rebel502 (GC2TYF9). I didn't get the fourth cache in the area, mainly because of the hiking distance. Next time, I am in the area, I'll try to bring an ATV along.

[ more to come including my hunt for the Sawtooth Ridge volcano cache ]

Nelms3 Grand Time At The Roost - 6/11/2011

2011-06-11T17:28:00.006-05:00

It had been awhile since I attended a 1K event for a geocacher in my area. Because I had a lot of work to do, I had initially decided to skip Nelms3 Grand Time At The Roost by 76Stinger (GC2WECC). Sometimes, though, it doesn't really matter how much work is on your plate, and you have to get out and do something else. I figured I'd also pick up three caches in Shelby Farms that I failed to go after during my visit there last weekend.

Saturday came and it was another really hot day. I slept in late and pretty much skipped everything I had planned to do in the morning. I left home around 11:30am, which gave me almost two hours to cache before heading to the event.

I parked at the new Woodland Dicsovery Playground which was a little over 1/10 of a mile from the first of the three caches. My GPSr arrow pointed towards an area where a lot of people were having a picnic. As I got closer, I discovered a trail leading into the woods that would take me out of sight of the picnickers.

[ I was excited to find this trail. ]

I had no recollection of this well-used trail being here, so was pleased that it took me close to Banjo Muzak by thefamilybush (GC2VEAV). a fellow geocacher, GC4EVR, had said something to me about this cache at the "Meet The Reviewer" event last weekend, and I'm glad it turned out to be an easier find than I had thought. The same trail that led me by this cache also led me to Yeti's Path by thefamilybush (GC2WWQ2). The coords were really good and coming from the right angle led me to discover the cache fairly quickly. It did, however, take some time to get my hands on the container. I had to be careful not to be seen by bikers using the trail. I left a Signal FTF geocoin in this cache that I had originally intended to take on an upcoming trip to Oregon later this summer.

[ well-maintained bridge ]

The third cache, Meadowlark by thefamilybush (GC2X251) posed an interesting dilemma. It wasn't terribly far from the other two caches, but I couldn't find a trail that took me close to the cache. I didn't want to risk getting dirty cutting across the woods, but that is what I ended up doing. I saw at least one interesting sight just before getting to the cache.

[ This suggests there may have been a trail or road here at one time. ]

When I found the cache, its holder was sitting on the ground and the lock of the lock-n-lock container was underneath the cache. The contents were in good shape, though, and after I signed the log, the lid went back on with no problems. I noticed in the log book that it appeared that muggles signed the logbook. That was strange, given the apparent lack of a trail nearby. Speaking of the trail, my biggest problem of the hunt was finding my way back out onto the trail. That helped keep me out in the heat longer than I should have been.

[ Nice and shady ]

Once I got back to the original trail I started on, I hiked back to my car, shaded by the tree canopy. At one point, I discovered a offshoot of the trail that may be the one needed to find "Meadowlark". Anyways, I made it back to my car, drank some Gatorade, and used the restroom at the Woodland Discovery playground to clean myself up. I was hoping to stop at a nearby Wal-Mart to help me cool off and clean up before heading the the event, but I was running out of time. I ended up just heading straight for the restaurant where the event was being held.

I got to the event about 10 minutes before start time (2pm) and met up with 76Stinger (the host) and the Nelms family (the guests of honor) while waiting for our reserved section of the restaurant to open up. The event was well-attended. I knew most of the people there and should have made a better effort to meet the ones I didn't know. I always enjoy listening to new cachers describe with enthusiasm the caches they have hunted. Since the event was hosted by the Geocachers of West Tennessee (GOWT), I was pleased to see not one, but both banners displayed at the event.

[ I didn't take any pictures at the event, so I may borrow some from the cache page. ]

There were neat door prizes handed out and the food was good. I was feeling kind of rough because I was awfully sweaty and the restaurant had their A/C on high making me a bit chilly.

The event ended around 4pm, and I headed straight home to take a shower and relax.

Meet The Reviewers - 6/5/2011

2011-06-05T16:10:00.008-05:00

It was a third day of record-setting heat for early June and under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't have set foot outside of my air-conditioned comfort. This day, however, I made an exception to attend Meet the Reviewers! by The Disorganization of MidSouth Geocachers (GC2WJCK). This event was designed to allow geocachers in West Tennessee the opportunity to meet and ask questions of Tennessee's two volunteer reviewers.

I had planned to arrive early and hunt three caches that were clustered less than a mile from the event. As usual, though, I left later than I had planned and arrived at Shelby Farms Park around 10:15am. That was too late to hunt the other caches and too early for the event, which started at 11am. It was already pretty hot, so I decided to hang out in the shade at the pavilion where the event was to be held.

My old friend 76Stinger was the first to arrive. We talked for a bit before the others showed up. It turned out that only one reviewer, "The Seanachai" , was able to make it. He and his family along with two other geocachers from Middle Tennessee spent the weekend touring West Tennessee before the event on Sunday.

After asking everyone to introduce themselves, The Seanachai (pronounced "shawn-a-key") spent nearly three and a half hours answering questions about guideline-related issues. He also told a few stories about working with Groundspeak, other reviewers, and geocachers in general. After the event, there were some interesting travel bugs to discover.

When I got back in my car, I was amazed at how hot it was inside. I burned myself on just about anything I touched. At this point, I knew I was done geocaching for the day.

The temperature on this day turned out to be 99 degrees which tied the record set in 1977.

Lichterman Nature Center - 5/21/2011

2011-05-21T13:26:00.007-05:00

About two weeks ago, I saw six new caches pop up in Lichterman Nature Center in East Memphis. Prontopup has been maintaining about a half dozen caches in this park for years. Every so often he archives them and puts out new caches in different locations throughout the park. I am assuming that this is (in part) to minimize the creation of geo-trails in the park. In October of 2009, jbgreer and I hunted the last batch of caches that were in this park and had a great time. It was my first visit to the 65 acre nature center and I had wanted to return in the Spring. These new caches provided a great opportunity.

It was another one of those weeks where the weekdays are sunny and the weekend was forecasted to be rainy. On Tuesday, I emailed jbgreer about the caches and he was willing to go with me to hunt them on Saturday. On Friday night, the rain began. We had agreed earlier that if it was raining Saturday morning, we'd save the caches for another time. I set my alarm to wake me at 7:15 am Saturday morning. When I woke up, it had just stopped raining. I figured that it would start up again, so I didn't get out of bed. My phone rang at 8am and it was jbgreer waiting for me to come down so we could leave. I quickly got dressed and headed outside.

The first order of the morning was breakfast. We had plenty of time to eat because the Nature Center didn't open until 9. We made it over to the Nature Center by about 9:30. There were few cars in the lot, which meant that few people would be out on the trails.

[ Lichterman Nature Center Visitor's Center ]

We paid for admission and picked up a sheet with the coordinates for the six caches. After spending some time putting the coordinates into our GPS units, we began the hunt for the caches. The sky had cleared up nicely even with there still being a 40% chance of rain.

Our first cache of the morning was Seasons In The Forest (GC2VW80). This involved passing through the Backyard Wildlife Center and out onto an elevated boardwalk. The cache was an easy find as it was designed to be.

[ The boardwalk provides an excellent view of the forest below. ]

The caches were distributed in a circular fashion, so we were a little confused where to go next. We decided to hunt Stair Steps (GC2VW6N). After we did a cursory search of the area, I pulled up the cache description to read the hint. Unfortunately, I pulled up the wrong page, so we were even more confused. The coordinates were good, though, and jbgreer made the find.

[ Stair steps that we passed on the way to another cache. ]

Our third cache was Big Root (GC2VVKH). I knew from looking at the cache page earlier, that this one had a suggested a trail waypoint as where to start. This was due to a bridge being out on one of the trails. "Big Root" might have been the toughest find of the day. This cache was also not far from where a previous cache had been.

[ Spotted shortly after leaving "Big Root". ]

The other three caches were across the park from where we were, so we took what we thought was the shortest way over.

[ I think we go this way... ]

The fourth cache we hunted was Trail Junction (GC2VW61). It wasn't where I imagined it to be, but the hint, and the fact it was visible from a few feet away meant it was eventually found.

[ One of many trail junctions. ]

[ Spotted near the boardwalk that crosses the lake. ]

[ Ahhh... sunlight! ]

[ The droplets looked cool on the lilypads. ]

[ There were lots of lilypads. ]

[ Beautiful habitat for birds and turtles. ]

The fifth cache we found (after taking lots of pictures off of the boardwalk) was Fence Post
by ProntoPup (GC2VW30). The name pretty much describes the landmark we were looking for and the cache was a quick find. At this point we say three men carrying camera equipment down the trail. They were the only people we came across all morning.

[ A nice view from one of the last caches of the day. ]

The final cache of the day was Split (GC2VW50). It was a nice easy to get to cache to end the morning on. We decided to head back to the Visitor's Center using a different path than the way we came so we could see a little more of the park before leaving.

Rambling Around NE Shelby County, TN - 5/15/2011

2011-05-15T21:04:00.002-05:00

On this particular weekend, I found it difficult to get out and hunt geocaches. There were lots of dark clouds on Saturday and I had to be at a birthday party on Sunday. I decided to hunt a few easy caches on the way to the party. I had some problems with the maps on geocaching.com Saturday so for Sunday I picked a starting cache and then let my GPSr decide what was next on the list.

I left the house late on Sunday only giving myself a little over 2 hours to cache and get where I was going to in Rosemark, TN. The first cache of the day was It's "S" "O" .. "G" "double O" "D" .. "GOOD" .. by Dragon9981 (GC2MND7). I knew it was behind a restaurant, but I was surprised by which one. I didn't until later match the cache name with the jingle for KFC. The only problem I had with this cache was its proximity to the drive-through window. I waited until a van pulled up to the window before making the grab.

The second cache I found was LBC's Movie Night by jbgrissom (GC2P4VY). This was not far from the entrance to the Malco Summer Drive-In theater. Afternoon is a good time to hunt caches like this. I parked at the adjacent shopping center before quickly finding the cache.

[ Retro-looking lighting at the entrance ]

After signing the log, I continued northeast to takin out the trash by jamey1 ( GC2BF95). This cache was in a nicer area than the name implies. It was also out of the way for any possible passersby.

I was running out of time, but I wanted at least one woodsy cache that wasn't a park and grab. Madera de Azucar by thefamilybush (GC2VA3J) fit the bill. It was very green in these woods and I regretted my lack of bug spray. The coords were very good, though, and I found the cache and got out before I could get too eaten up. I liked the creativity in the naming of this cache and several others by the same cacher.

I had time for one more quick one before I had to finish for the day. Achtung! by thefamilybush (GC2VAG0) was a short distance away and like the description says, is right where you would expect it to be. The cache used a BIC stick pen as a container, which could work well enough until the log gets wets and swells up.

I had to be satisfied with five finds for this day. I was my own fault for leaving the house so late. At least this time, I made it to the party on time!

Arlington, TN Redux - 4/30/2011

2011-04-30T15:43:00.005-05:00

I had big plans for this weekend. I had planned to drive to Oxford, MS and participate in Thacker Mountain Trails CITO Event by SniperChicken (GC2N387). I signed up for this event on April 6 and was thinking I'd CITO and cache on Saturday and stick around Sunday and cache some more. As the days passed, I kept watching to see if anyone else would be attending the CITO. I watched the Mississippi forums for talk and saw little. The week of the event, we had terrible storms with tornadoes and flooding. Oxford appeared to get worse weather than we had in Memphis, but as far as I knew, the event was still on. The night before the event (Friday), I checked the logs and saw that I was still the only one who had signed up. I decided at that point to cancel my plans and go some other time. The event went on as scheduled with only a few people showing up.

[ calm after the storm ]

In the meantime, my buddy jbgreer called me up Friday night and asked if I wanted to get together for breakfast and some caching. This worked for me, but I had to scramble to get together a list of caches to hunt. It didn't help that a lot of the good caches were underwater due to flooding.

Saturday, we got together for breakfast and I pulled out my map of caches. We decided to hunt a few on a line between Bartlett, TN and Arlington, TN. Most of these caches were simple park and grabs, but sometimes you just have to get out of the house and do something.

The first find of the morning was MMEW #7 Deathly Hollows Part 1 by sskaysee (GC2KGJB). It was part of a series based on the Harry Potter books and placed at theaters where the HP movies were shown.

We had a lot of DNFs. Some were due to the presence of muggles, others because... well you know. One of our DNFs was at The Hidden Park Treasure by SniperGuy (GC1C42X). This was a cache that I hadn't gone after before because, I suspected I'd have trouble finding the park. On this day, we found the park, but not the cache.

A lot of the caches we found on this day were placed by new cachers. Some were really nicely done, like most of the caches put out by kasitay. Others were not so well done. Altoids tins do NOT make good outdoor cache containers.

[ the coordinates were also waaaay off ]

We had to replace two logs with new paper and ziplock bags. I had the bags, but I had to resort to tearing up some pages that I had printed out puzzle solutions on. Fortunately, I was able to make logs without the parts that had coordinates on them.

Since jbgreer had in his possession a TB that needed to be put out, and we were hunting park and grabs, we made a quick stop at I.H. Managerial Park in Lakeland, TN and placed it in an ammo can cache that I had logged last weekend.

We went back to the Arlington Sportsplex and picked up The Heart of the South Loves Juliette Low by kasitay (GC2TQYY) . I was at this park last week, just before this cache was published. It was a tribute to Juliette Low, who was the founder of the Girl Scouts. Our last cache of the day was a few miles away - still in Arlington - called Honoring Arlington by dneedham (GC2KPXT). This park looked kind of creepy in the aftermath of the storm, but the cache was nice and in great shape. The next tree over, however, was not in great shape.

This was enough caching for us on this day. It was starting to get a little cloudy, in preparation for the next round of storms. We saved plenty of park and grabs for another day.

Lakeland-Arlington, TN - 4/24/2011

2011-04-24T19:07:00.004-05:00

Easter weekend looked good weather-wise for geocaching, but I hadn't gotten around to taking my car to the mechanic and didn't really want to do much driving until I did. Saturday, I got an invitation to have Easter dinner with my family in Rosemark, so I picked two nice parks along the route (roughly) to hunt a few caches before dinner.

On Sunday, I ended up leaving home later than I had planned. To complicate matters, I didn't have an up-to-date pocket query loaded on my GPS, so I had to print a couple of the cache pages to take with me. At least the weather was nice - and my car started.

My first stop was I. H. Managerial Park in Lakeland, TN. There were three recently placed caches in this park. My first find was fairly close to where I entered the trail system - CWL012.2 Lakeland Stash by CWL (GC2RF3R). I had found a number of CWL caches back when I first started geocaching (late 2004). He hadn't been out caching much in recent years, so I was surprised to see this cache come out. Nice first find of the day, though.

[ The entry to the trail system - at least it was one entry...]

The second cache I went after was She hates nature by kasitay (GC2TB9M). Getting to the area was a little tricky. My GPS needed recalibrating and it took a while to find an open spot in the woods. The trail system is also very strange. I crossed a number of trails, looking for the right one. When I got to the right area, I struck out. Lots of poison ivy kept me from getting too close to some of the possible hiding spots. I decided to catch a breather at the nearby lake before moving on to the next cache.

[ The lake was a pretty shade of blue. ]

[ One of many trails... ]

The last cache I went after here was Fairies Treehouse by GoreJess (GC2EN1J). It was designed to be easily spotted, but getting to the area was tough. I was tempted to cross a big ravine using a convenient fallen tree, but my experience told me to keep looking for a better way. I found the better way and the cache.

Afterwards, I wanted to avenge my one DNF, but I was running out of time. Fortunately, I did not get lost (unlike my previous visit) and managed to find the quick way back to my car.

After leaving the park, I headed east to Arlington to pick up two caches at the Arlington Sports Complex. It was quiet here as well. I was running behind on time, but managed to find both No squirrel's home. . . by 5sunds (GC2R9PR) and Girl Scouts Forever by 5sunds (GC2RPJK). The latter cache was a nice lock-n-lock with plenty of goodies to trade.

[ I only got to explore the southeast part of the trail. ]

Whew! Now it was onward to Rosemark, TN where I was supposed to be at 4pm for Easter dinner. I was only 5 minutes late!

Howard McVay Park - 4/10/2011

2011-04-10T17:13:00.007-05:00

I was in the middle of making plans to hunt some caches on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, MS when I received a note that Howard-McVay Park by Canadian Bear (GCM4TG) had been found and that it had no logbook. I adopted this cache from Canadian Bear in 2005 and aside from replacing the container and changing the hide slightly, have had no maintenance issues since March of 2006. Recently the logbook had been reported as wet and finally missing, so it was definitely time to revisit this cache.

[ previous hide spot ]

I had considered archiving it. 6+ years is a pretty good run for a cache. Before making any decisions, though, I wanted to see what kind of shape the container was in and how much the landscape had changed since my last visit - 5 years ago. I made plans to hunt a few caches in the Cordova/Germantown, TN area and then fix up my cache in Howard McVay Park (in Germantown).

---

I woke up early on Sunday, but it was tough getting out of bed. None of the caches on my list for this day seemed particularly interesting on paper, and I knew that half of them would be simple lightpole caches. Still, one was at a Wal-Mart and since I needed a few things from there, I managed to hit the road by 9am.

My first group of caches were clustered by the Wal-Mart. I started off with Tracks by aschrack & cwiggs (GC26PXH). This was along a grassy area that will eventually become part of the eastern end of the Memphis Greenline. It was nice to get to see the area before it gets paved.

[ The east end of the Memphis Greenline is about a mile away. ]

I followed this up by T.D.D. #8 by dragon9981 (GC2QF6H) at a nearby CVS pharmacy. The T.D.D series are lightpole caches in the parking lots of CVS/Walgreens/Rite Aid stores. No problem, except most of these are within eyesight of each store's drive-thru pharmacy.

Wall-E # 2322 by dragon9981 (GC2QF6V) was at the Wal-Mart in the area. After signing the cache log, I went in to buy two pairs of blue jeans. I entered the store at 10am and didn't get out until 10:30am. My holdup was the check-out line. I got in the "20 items or less express line" with my two items. There were two women in front of me. The first one had all of her items rung up and then realized she couldn't pay for all of that stuff. It had to be unrung up one item at a time until the lady could pay her bill. For some reason the cashier had to shut down the register and look for a manager in order to do this. Meanwhile, I noticed the the other woman in line in front of me had at least 40 items in her cart. I ended up having to change lines - not an easy task. Why am I telling you all of this? Because it took more time standing in line then it did to hunt all of the lightpole caches I did on this day (four). Plus, it was more interesting.

Anyways, my next two cache hunts were at the eastern corner of Shelby Farms. Ahhh, the woods! I found NIPPON POKEMON by NavyBryants (GC2QF3K) easily after a short hike. The other cache Kidz Kache by polikkronos (GC2MENF) was a no find, in part because the hint told me an obvious spot to search, but the cache description (that I failed to read) said that they had changed the location of the cache. I had looked at the spot where the cache was actually hidden and said "Naaah, it couldn't be under that big trash bag."

[ Ahhhh.... the woods. ]

[ No bikers today. ]

[ Not far from the "dog park" section of Shelby Farms. ]

After two more T.D.D. caches, I made my way to Howard McVay Park and parked in the lot near a kids playground. Surprisingly there were no muggles as I made my way to the cache in a wooded area 300 feet away from the playground.

The cache was clearly visible, with little available greenery to hide it. I had read a few logs pointing out how easy it was to spot, especially in the winter time, so it was a miracle it lasted as long as it did. I added a new logbook and then had second thoughts about leaving the cache in the spot it was in. I ended up taking it down and moving it 20 feet (or so) south where the vegetation was a little thicker. If it survives the summer, I plan to go back and improve the camo on it.

Once I exited the woods, I decided to take a walk around the nearby man-made lake. This is a cool spot, with two fountains and assorted geese and turtles in the area. It seems to be a popular fishing spot as well.

[ The "Lake" at Howard McVay Park ]

After getting back in my car, I figured I'd hunt a few more caches. I had problems getting my car to start, though, and took that as a sign to just go home and log my finds.

Geocaching FUNdamentals - 3/19/2011

2011-03-20T12:35:00.009-05:00

My caching partner jbgreer called and asked if I wanted to go caching on Saturday. In particular, he was interested in hunting 346 Cubic Inches by bitbrain (GC2Q6HD), a new cache in the Wolf River Wildlife Corridor. I instead convinced him to go with me to Geocaching FUNdamentals by Prontopup and Tiger130 (GC2MNCR) and as a bonus, I e-mailed him the GC numbers of three decent puzzle caches in the area of the event. I figured we could go after those before or after the event and have an enjoyable day.

By Thursday evening, we had both solved the requisite puzzles for Saturday's hunt. As I looked around for an additional cache to hunt, I spotted ANGLES AND DIMENSIONS by magicrock (GC2P9YF). This mystery cache was released earlier in the week and as of Thursday, had no finders. There were parts of it that I knew the answers to right away, so I forwarded jbgreer the link to the cache page and went to bed.

While at work on Friday, I got a call from jbgreer. He had the day off and was out hunting down answers to the puzzle. I couldn't leave work, but I was able to do my share of the puzzle using my computer during lunch. At some point during the day, I noticed that the cache had been found. I read over the logs and viewed some pictures that turned out to be spoilers for the cache location. I posted a note about the pictures on the cache page and the cache owner had the pictures removed. Since the location was only part of the puzzle, I focused my energies on solving the "Opening Secret". By early evening, we had all of the information necessary to hunt the cache on Saturday.

---

Saturday morning jbgreer and I got together at 8am to begin the day's hunt. I got very little sleep the night before, because I was anxious to hunt ANGLES AND DIMENSIONS (GC2P9YF). We skipped breakfast in order to hunt the original three puzzle caches on our list before heading to the geocaching event at 10am.

First on the list was The Truth is Rarely Pure and Never Simple by Dr. Eckman & The Lightman Group (GC2JE9C). I really enjoyed the puzzle on this one. The cache itself was a quick find in an area where jbgreer had once worked.

Second on the list was Little Fib by GC4EVR (GC2KBMH). Having a background in Math, the puzzle wasn't hard for me. I liked it, though. The terrain on this cache was fairly high and earlier logs suggested water in the area. We encountered no problems, though, and enjoyed the placement of the hide. There was a "Celebrate Summer" geocoin in the cache. I wrote down the tracking number for discovery, but later learned that the coin hadn't been activated, yet. [ I waited nearly a month and then activated the coin, myself. I then logged it as dropped within this cache. ]

[ The first and last obstacle ]

[ Dry today, wet tomorrow ? ]

[ My camera was focused on the ground, apparently, instead of the coin. ]

Next up, was The Ghost In The Machine by giardia_boy (GC2PH7Q). The puzzle was of a type that I had encountered before and jbgreer and I ended up using two different techniques to solve it. The cache had both an easy approach and a more difficult one and we tried both before eventually finding the cache.

[ A view that I have seen many times in the last year. ]

We were pretty pleased with ourselves by now, and we managed to find our way to the event with about 10 minutes to spare.

The event was interesting even though I'd heard the material before. I went mainly to socialize a little with other geocachers. I was a little uncomfortable because I was hungry, but the two hours passed quickly enough. I met a few of the newer cachers and talked to a few of the veteran cachers.

[ The host - prontopup talking about cache containers]

We didn't hang around too long after the event because we had a cache to find. After a quick lunch, the first thing we did was visually verify that I had solved the "Opening Secret" correctly. I would have been extremely upset if we had found the cache and made a mistake on the "Opening Secret".

Once at the location of the cache, we located the container and took it aside to sign the log and perform another task described in the cache description. I took a number of pictures for my personal records before we left. This was an excellent cache and I am highly recommending it to my fellow geocachers whenever possible. That was the end of our caching day. I went home and took a nap before taking another trip to visit family.

Return to the Delta Heritage Trail - 3/11/2011

2011-03-13T12:47:00.006-05:00

I had Friday off for "Spring Break" and because the temperatures were cool and the forecast was sunny, I made an almost last minute decision to revisit Delta Heritage State Park and the 13 mile rails-to-trail project that happens to be lined with geocaches. There are 114 caches along this trail and on two visits last May, I managed to find 77 of them. Here is a link to the blog entry from my first trip.

Thursday night, I reviewed my pocket query for the area and printed out a list of the 37 caches I had left, as well as the hints for them. I didn't know how many I'd be able to actually find, since these were all caches that I had looked for on my last trip. Factors on my side this trip would be 1) cooler weather, 2) no bugs!, and 3) better GPSr reception with few leaves on the trees.

Friday morning, I left around 7:30am - not as early as I would have liked, but an old man needs his rest. I skipped breakfast and just took a cold fountain soda with me for a caffeine boost. I headed west to Forrest City where I took advantage of the rest stop before heading south on Hwy 1 towards Marianna.

[ Forrest City, AR - rest stop gardens ]

Once on the highway heading south, I had to be more careful about not speeding. At one point, I was going a little fast when I saw a police car parked off in front of me. I slowed down fast before passing him, and he ended up pulling over the car behind me. That was about the most excitement I had that morning. There was very little traffic in this mostly rural area.

I arrived at Delta Heritage State Park around 9am. There was a truck parked at the office, but other than that, I started the day alone. Because it was cool outside, I decided against renting a bike. I had also read while skimming the cache pages, that there had been reports of dogs chasing cyclists around the halfway point of the trail The Park is located 2 miles south of the beginning of the trail. I began the hunt by heading north. There were five caches on this section that I couldn't find on my first trip. As fortune would have it, I couldn't find them on this trip either. A couple had been reported in need of maintenance, but I was disappointed in not finding any. I got back to my car at the Park around 10am and loaded up with the Gatorade I had brought for the trip. I wished I had brought a snack or two as well.

Heading south now, I managed to find the next three consecutive caches that were on my list. On this day, they seemed easy, but I was invigorated nonetheless and hoped to find more. There are many different hides along this trail, but most can be summed up as on the ground or hanging from a tree. I had pretty good luck on this day and the previous trips with the ones on the ground. The hanging ones were a different story. Since I had found a few on my last trip, I had some idea what I was looking for. Since the trees were bare this time of year, I expected to have an easier time. I ended up finding three or four different examples of the hanging ones. They were all great hides, and I am glad I came here when I did.

[ Pretty sure this is south of the state park and facing south. ]

[ A view to the east of the trail. ]

[ Not sure which direction I was facing here. Looks like south.]

[ A view to the west of the trail ]

I found my last cache around mile 8 of the trail. It also happened to be the only non-micro of the trip. I think I'd found 2 or 3 similar-sized caches on my last visits to the trail. About this time, my friend jbgreer called me up to confirm we would be caching together that Saturday.

After I found my last cache, I sat down on a nearby bench to think about my long hike back to the car. I heard a rustling in front of me and when I looked up, I saw a small deer wearing an orange collar. It was in the fenced-in field that was east of the trail. It followed me for a bit as I started heading north. I tried to get a good picture of it, but the deer was a little camera-shy.

[ This deer may be someone's pet. ]

Moving on, I had a small number of caches that I wanted to make a second try to find so even though I spent a lot of time admiring the beauty of the area, I still had to be mindful of the beep from the GPSr letting me know it was time to hunt.

[ One of the many bridges that spanned small streams. ]

The 6 miles back to the car was pretty tiring. I managed to find two caches that I had missed before. I think approaching them from a different angle helped a lot. I finished the last of my Gatorade early on the return trip, but wasn't overly thirsty (unlike the last time). I got back to the car around 4pm and had hiked a rough total of 15 miles on this day.

My first find was Delta Trail SP#19 by BackpacknJack (GC2746P) and my last was Delta Trail SP#64B by BackpacknJack (GC27A12). I had found a total of 12 caches. I didn't see another person the entire time I was on the trail. After I got home, I realized that I should have worn sunscreen.

I thought about making a return trip on Sunday to hunt the caches at the south end of the trail, but my legs were still a little sore. Maybe next weekend.

GPS Adventures Arkansas - ASU Museum - 3/5/2011

2011-03-06T15:00:00.004-06:00

The GPS Adventures Arkansas Maze Exhibit is a smaller, regional version of the nationally touring GPS Adventures Maze Exhibit and prominently features Arkansas State Parks and geocachers. The exhibit will travel to 7 Arkansas museums over the next 3 1/2 years.

[ Arkansas State University - Jonesboro ]

I found out last Fall that the Arkansas State University Museum in Jonesboro, AR would be hosting this exhibit from October 9, 2010 through March 6, 2011 and was hoping to make a trip out to see it. Time flies and before I knew it, it was March 4th! The weather forecast for March 5 was bad, but even though the exhibit lasted through the 6th, I knew that I had to go Saturday. Friday night, I made plans that included hunting additional caches in Jonesboro and packed my gear - including my umbrella.

On Saturday morning, it was tough to get started. It was raining pretty hard in Memphis and I could have used more sleep. I ended up waiting until just after 8:30am to leave, and by then the weather had calmed down a bit. There wasn't much traffic out, and the trip went pretty quickly. I had made a decision to not make any cache stops before I got to the museum, and I kept to that decision. It was also nice that the rain stopped before I got to Jonesboro.

I arrived at the Museum around 10am. After looking at Dinosaur exhibits on the first floor, I went up to the second floor where all of the other exhibits are. I was given directions to the GPS exhibit, which was in the back of the museum, and headed straight there. It was set up as a maze with educational displays in different spots. There were also profiles of some Arkansas geocachers (including some that I have met) and information about geocaching in the State Parks. My favorite part of the exhibit was the display of cache containers and assorted TB's and geocoins. I wrote down lots of tracking codes to "discover" these items on geocaching.com. Maybe it was because it was the next to last day of the exhibit, or maybe it was because I was early, but I had the exhibit all to myself the entire time I was there.

[ entrance to the maze ]

[ display of geocoins ,TBs and cache containers ]

[ Magellan Explorists ]

After leaving the exhibit, I toured some of the other exhibits which included Native American displays as well as some history of Arkansas. There were also some cool wildlife displays.

By the time I had finished touring the museum, it was beginning to fill up with kids - so I knew it was time to leave. Before leaving the museum, I stopped in at the Gift Shop and bought two geocoins that were related to the GPS exhibit.

--

There were four caches on the university campus and I found all of them while doing a walking tour. Most of the campus was empty, but there were busloads of students from Lonoke that were touring the campus. The first cache I found was Rocky by ASUMuseum (GC2FJH8) and was right next to the museum. The other three were part of a series by tkfuller and were For the Love of Science: Research it (GC2CEY7), For the Love of Science: Apply it (GC2CEYC), and For the Love of Science: Calculate it (GC2CEY9).

[ the former entrance to the administration building ]

After leaving the University, I drove around Jonesboro hunting about a dozen caches. Because of the weather, most of the logs were wet and I tramped around on a lot of wet ground. It didn't take long before I had wet socks. It was a good time, though as most days spent caching are.

By 2:30pm, I had finished up all of the caching I planned to do while in Jonesboro. There are still a lot of caches to find, but I decided to save them for a drier day. I had a quick lunch at KFC and began the drive home. I made three stops, each for a single cache, in Turrell, Marked Tree, and West Memphis and got back home by 5pm.

[ memorial in Marked Tree ]

Secret Egypt - Part II

2011-02-28T18:48:00.004-06:00

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 was for it to make it back in time to be part of the Secret Egypt exhibit that will run from February to June 2011.

I contacted Vilbert via e-mail and she sent me details about the project. I eagerly agreed to participate, so on December 15th, Vilbert mailed me the Eqyptian Explorer 01 TB. We figured that it would take a week or so to arrive in Memphis, so in the meantime, I visited two of the goal sites for the TB - the Pyramid and the Memphis Zoo and took test pictures to get a good idea of the views the TB would get.

Around Christmas time there were serious weather problems, so I wasn't too concerned when the first week passed with no TB arrival. Then came the second week, and the third, and the fourth... I was beginning to think that the TB was lost. On Monday, February 7th as I was leaving for work, I found a package on my doorstep. It was the Travel Bug! I took it to work, logged it as "grabbed", and contacted Vilbert to let her know that Egyptian Explorer 01 would be undertaking its mission. Of course, Mother Nature chose that week to unleash snowmageddon on Memphis, but by Saturday things had cleared up enough to begin the mission.

Saturday morning (February 12), I hiked to Overton Park to take pictures of the TB in front of the gates of the Memphis Zoo. While at the park, I took pictures with the TB at the Brooks Museum of Art, the Memphis College of Art, and the Levitt Shell. I also visited Overton Park Mystery Cache by Spencersb (GCPKGJ) and dropped off a couple of geocoins and "dipped" the TB. I ended up "dipping" the TB at a cache near each of the Egyptian-themed sites I visited, so there would be a visual representation of the TB's log of where it went. After leaving the park, I had to drive up north to a birthday party and hunted caches along the way including Nelms3's First Find Cache by nelms3 (GC2KRPN) and The Valley by dguyusnavy (GC29W7D).

[ gates of the Memphis Zoo ]

On Sunday morning (February 13), after a hearty breakfast, I hiked downtown to the Pyramid. I took lots of pictures of the Pyramid and the Ramesses II statue in front. I also "dipped" the TB in the nearest cache - Memphis's Great Pyramid of Cheops by kingmedic (GC20ZHX). I also visited the site of a now archived cache - Ramesses' Tomb by Sprout (GCTN3Y), the container of which is still in place.

[ Pyramid Arena and statue of Ramesses the Great ]

Afterwards, I decided to hike down to the south end of the Riverwalk, taking pictures along the way. Once I arrived at Martyr's Park at the end of the Riverwalk, I put a new log in Memphis Martyrs by Tuck Sackett (GCN59Y) and relaxed on a bench overlooking the river. As I was leaving the Riverwalk to head back into downtown, I ran into Team sskaysee. We talked for a bit and I showed them Egyptian Explorer 01 before we parted ways. I had a late afternoon dinner at Huey's before heading home.

[ Martyr's Park memorial ]

The final goal for the TB while in Memphis was to visit the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis. I had a meeting at the U of M on February 16, so I took the TB along and we made a quick visit to the Egyptian collection at the museum. I was disappointed that I could take pictures inside, but before I left, I read about an upcoming "Ancient Egypt Family Day" coming up the next weekend and figured that surely they would have things at that event that I could photograph with the TB.

On Saturday (February 26), I took the TB to "Ancient Egypt Family Day" at the U of M. I got there just as the event started and before it was full of kids (the target audience). Besides taking lots of pictures, I learned how to write my name in hieroglyphics, and learned about numbers and the Egyptian measurement system. It was actually a pretty fun experience!

[ replicas including an Amarna Princess ]

[ replicas including the "Rosetta Stone" ]

After the event, I decided to hunt the five new caches to the north of the University along the Shelby Farms Greenline. I met other cachers on the hunt and shared the story of Egyptian Explorer 01 with them.

On Sunday morning (February 27), I got up early to take the TB to the TB motel where I would be dropping it off - Aerotropolis TB Hotel by GC4EVR (GC1Y1KC). I have visited that site before, and read the logs to see how often it was visited and how often items "disappeared" from it. I felt comfortable leaving it there and hope that it makes it way to England without too many hitches.

For more text and pictures of the Egyptian Explorer 01's journey, check out its page on geocaching.com.

Caching on the Greenline - 2/26/2011

2011-02-27T12:56:00.008-06:00

My main goal for the morning was to get over to the University of Memphis for Ancient Egypt Family Day. I needed some more pictures to cap off the Egyptian Explorer 01 TB's goal while it was in Memphis. It was really tough to get out of bed. I had been working at a conference in East Memphis for the previous three days and was exhausted from a lack of sleep plus a lot of stress.

[ U of M's Art Museum houses among other things, an Egyptian collection. ]

I wasn't sure I needed to load up my GPSr with fresh coordinates, but I had noticed five new caches on the greenline near the university, so I went ahead and packed up my gear in the event I decided to hunt caches. I arrived at the U of M Art Museum just as the exhibit was starting up. I took a few pictures and learned a few things about Egypt. I practiced writing my name in "hieroglyphics", and learned about numbers and Egyptian measurements. I had a great time, and got the pictures I needed.

Feeling pretty good, I decided to check out the five new caches along the west end of the Shelby Farms Greenline. I decided to park somewhere around the middle of the five and hiked a bit south to meet up with the trail. Heading west, I realized that I left my cache notes back in the car. My first find of the morning was Midtown Greenway #2 by mgrommet (GC2P4XH). It turned out to be easy - in fact, it turned out to be the easiest of the five.

As I approached Midtown Greenway #1 by mgrommet (GC2P4XF), I noticed two people in the vicinity of the cache. They both had walking sticks and one had a GPSr, so I was certain they were geocachers. I usually shy away from meeting other cachers while on the trail, but I'm glad I didn't this day. I met TNLarry4 and his wife Queenie just moments before Queenie found the cache. We spent awhile talking and before we left, shandrum and stumpcacher came up to hunt the cache. We talked for a bit about various caches before TNLarry4 and Queenie headed east to hunt the others on the trail. I decided it would be fun to continue with them to hunt the remaining caches on this trail.

[ stumpcacher, shandrum, Queenie, and TNLarry4 ]

Since I had already found #2, I waited while TNLarry4 and Queenie made the find.

Midtown Greenway #3 by mgrommet (GC2P4XK) was a tough find, even with a landmark fairly close. Queenie made the find.

I believe that Midtown Greenway #4 by mgrommet (GC2P4XM) is where we encountered two barking dogs behind the fence as we approached the cache. This was also the only one I found with the group and I found it while trying to avoid the dogs.

[ unique among the caches we found this day ]

[ TNLarry4 and Queenie walking ahead while I snapped pictures of the path. ]

The last cache we found together was Midtown Greenway #5 by mgrommet (GC2P4XP). TNLarry4 made the find while Queenie and I struggled with thorns. After signing the log, we headed back west. We parted ways about halfway back to the first cache on the trail. It was great meeting TNLarry4, Queenie, shandrum, and stumpcacher and I hope to run into them again some day.

I decided to eat lunch somewhere as I was heading home and ended up at Poplar Plaza, where I found one more cache (across the street). When I arrived at T.D.D. #6 by dragon9981 (GC2MJNZ), there was a car parked next to the cache. I went into the nearby Walgreens and bought some stuff and when I came out, the coast was clear and I retrieved the cache and signing the log. I ended up eating lunch at the Taco Bell across the street before heading back home.

Where the Wind Takes Me - 2/20/2011

2011-02-26T20:27:00.005-06:00

I had planned for this to be a lazy Sunday. Because I had to go to a conference later in the week, I decided to make a trip to the Target just east of the University of Memphis to pick up a few things. I knew that there were a few park and grab caches on the route I planned to take, so I packed up my GPSr and took off. Most of these caches were along Poplar Avenue, which is usually a busy street even on a Sunday. I started off with Need Gas? 100pts for 10 cents off !! by dragon9981 (GC2MJPE) at Poplar Plaza and worked my way east and ended at T.D.D. #4 by dragon9981 (GC2MJNQ) - a short distance from the Target.

[ A familiar path ]

I bought a few things at Target and when I got back to my car and was around 12:30pm. Since it was a beautiful day and I wanted more than just a few lightpole caches, I decided to head to Shelby Farms. Traffic was backed up at the entrance and I could see that the main parking lot was full. I almost drove off, but decided to take a chance. It took driving around the entire park to find a spot that I was willing to leave my car. It wasn't a big deal, though, because it gave me an excuse to hike around in the park rather than just to a single cache.

I hiked over to the Visitor's Center and cut east along the edge of Patriot Lake. The goal cache of all of this walking was Triffid Terror by Mindless-Focus (GC1MH0R). It was nicely tucked away in an area where people ride horses.

[ Somewhere in there... ]

Having found the cache, I headed back almost the same way I came in. I made a quick stop at the boathouse near Patriot Lake to buy a Powerade. The owner told me that he was trying to get people not to rent boats that day because it was too windy, but several people disregarded his advice.

[ Lots of caches around this part of Shelby Farms are in terrain like this. ]

I hung out near one of the northern lakes for a bit before leaving the park. I looked at some of the new playground equipment being set up nearby as well.

[ Standing on a short pier overlooking the lake. ]

After picking up a few more park and grabs to the east of Shelby Farms and running north and south along Germantown Parkway, I made my way to a section of the Germantown Greenway near Houston High School to hunt Greenway Too by Prontopup (GC25ZR2). This section of the greenway runs along a utility easement. I've cached in the area before, but until I saw a map of the greenway, didn't realize that this section came out at another nice park to the south.

Just a little further south, and just off of the greenway was Ain't Holdin' Up Nothin' by TNLarry4 (GC2HXXC). This was in a park behind the school, and could have been a busy spot later on in the Spring with at least two baseball fields in the vicinity of the cache. The cache had a great camo job and would have been tough for a newer cacher to find. Incidentally, I actually met TNLarry4 a week after I found this cache.

[ An interesting trail at the edge of the park. ]

My last stop of the day before heading home was Dairy Queen. I enjoyed an Oreo Blizzard before going around back and taking a picture of the field behind it. There was also a cache behind the DQ, but I had found it a while back.

I ended up with 11 cache finds. The only DNFs of the day were park and grabs with too many muggles around.

Germantown Greenway - 2/19/2011

2011-02-20T19:09:00.005-06:00

I was kind of hesitant to go caching this weekend, because I had a lot of errands to do that I had been putting off until the last minute - this weekend being the last minute. But my caching buddy, jbgreer, wanted to hunt a few caches and drop off a geocoin somewhere. We met at my place around 8am and headed out to breakfast. In the "old days", I was so eager to hunt geocaches that I didn't think about food until after it became too dark to cache. Now, as a "seasoned veteran", I try to enjoy a hearty breakfast or lunch while out on the road.

Our goal for the morning was to hunt four caches along the part of the Germantown Greenway that borders the southern part of the Lucius Burch Natural Area. On the way there we took a shot at getting more reconnaissance on INVISIBLE by MagicRock (GC24K70). We checked out the area again looking for more "clues", but coming up empty.

Now heading south to the target, the first cache we tackled was The Mother Load by hattrick364, omggal123 (GC2KPXN). An ammo can shouldn't be that hard to find, right? Fortunately we made the find, but I had checked plenty of spots that I thought would be more obvious. I would have liked to explore the nearby trail, but didn't have time on this day.

Next, we drove around to one of the southern lots for the greenway and set out forACME-Lord Of The Flies by giardia_boy (GC2K27R). It was only a few hundred feet from where we parked, but we ended up crossing two barbed-wire fences before we got the the cache area. It was a nano, but hidden in such a way that it was easily found. We always enjoy the creativity of giardia_boy's hides.

[ near the parking area ]

[ not slippery today ]

We made our way back to the greenway and proceeded east to ACME-Question and Answer by giardia_boy (GC2M6K0). The hike gave me another visual perspective to a giarda_boy hide I found last October. This ended up being one of those hides that at first glance could be in a million places, but fortunately the container was a decent size and the camo, while visually good, was of a material that wasn't hard to get our hands on.

[ I can't tell you what I wished for. ]

[ A nice view of the Wolf River taken from a new bridge ]

Our final cache of the morning was Now For Something Completely Different by giardia_boy (GC2KE6W). Now I had believed (like some others) that the greenway trail ran alongside the cache area. We ended up approaching the area from the east part of the greenway to fall short, and the west part of the greenway to again fall short. It turns out that the shortest route we could find involved parking across the boulevard from the park and hiking around a lake on the other side of the road. It had a bit of a path, so the hike wasn't too bad.

[ Nice path, but of no use today. ]

[ the end ]

After getting back to the car, my day was done. I had to get home and take a shower so that I could get my hair cut before the barber shop I use closed for the weekend.

Jbgreer, on the other hand, decided to follow up on some insights he had regarding INVISIBLE by MagicRock (GC24K70) and ended up making the find. I guess it will be while before I find it. Interestingly, later that day some geocachers ended up finding it with assistance after the GOWT anniversary event held that day.

Collierville, TN - 1/29/2011

2011-02-01T17:14:00.003-06:00

The weather warmed up nicely for Saturday, so I was excited to do some caching with my buddy jbgreer. We met up around 8am and had a nice breakfast at my favorite restaurant to discuss the day's agenda. While at the restaurant, jbgreer presented me with a 3000 finds geo-achievement geocoin. That was so cool! I was meaning to get myself one but never got around to it.

The plan for the day was to hunt two of Bitbrain's puzzle caches in Collierville, TN, and then drive north to W.C. Johnson Park, where we would hunt 5 relatively new peanutpapa caches in the southern part of the Wolf River Wildlife Corridor.

The first cache we hunted was By Request by bitbrain (GC1XHPH). This turned out to be a two-stage cache. The first stage was tricky and fairly unique in my experience. After mapping the coordinates for stage 2, we decided to hunt Uncle Albert by bitbrain (GC25VCP) first. This cache had an interesting puzzle that was a variation of one I had solved in Oregon one summer. I had mapped the spot beforehand and so it should have been an easy find. The spot turned out to be busier than I had anticipated, but during a lull, we retrieved the cache and signed the log. Having made our first find of the day, we went to find stage 2 of By Request.

[ non-spoiler picture for "By Request" ]

I really enjoyed these two caches, and made a point to "favorite" them when I logged them on-line. I can't really say anymore about them, in order not to spoil the caches for any future cachers.

We arrived at parking in W.C. Johnson Park sometime around 10:30am. We took the boardwalk north to the point where we needed to head out into the woods. Our last trip to this park was during the previous November. In fact, these five caches were placed right after we found the last ones in the area. This experience would prove to be different largely due to the swampy area these caches were in. I was prepared with my rubber boots. They were needed. The trails were muddy and the swamps were beginning to fill up with water.

The five caches formed a circle, and we hunted them in clockwise order. The first cache we found was Slough Cache East by peanutpapa (GC2KHYH). When we signed the log, we noticed that at least two other cachers had found it (and the others nearby) that day. We never ran into them, but later I learned that they had been there just an hour or so before us.

All of the caches were easy finds, once you got to the general area. None were hidden, I think in part because of their isolation in this part of the woods. It would be hard to say if any non-geocacher ever hikes around in this area.

The last of the five caches in the area was A Field in the Woods by peanutpapa (GC2KHY9). Upon our arrival at the area of the cache, I spotted a possum in a tree. I took a lot of pictures trying to make sure I got at least one good one. The possum was very patient. ;-)

After signing the log, it was only a short hike back to the boardwalk.

We got back to the truck around 12:40, and jbgreer was interested in going after one more cache. He suggested Phillip Duffy Tolerates A Crazy Transient by Phillip Duffy and itcomagic (adopted by Tinksdad) (GC19QK3), which would have been roughly on the road back to Memphis, but I wanted to hunt Cotton Farm Truck Cache by peanutpapa (GC26MN4). I was interested in this cache because I liked the park, but I also knew that the Diff/Terrain combination would fill a spot on jbgreer's D/T matrix.

We drove to what I thought would be the best parking area and started out on a hike. At on point, we got to within .23 miles of the cache by following the main trail. Instead of cutting through the woods, we continued along the main trail looking for a trail/road that would take us north and then east. We eventually found this route, but it turned out to involve much more walking than I had anticipated - nearly a mile more. Once we arrived in the vicinity of the cache, I found the one spot where the water was higher than my boots. Jbgreer saw the truck mentioned on the cache page and instinctively went toward it. I followed my GPSr in another direction and found the cache. This was the neatest cache spot we found on this day. The cool water felt good on my sore feet.

[ A long muddy walk ]

[ Anyone home? ]

[ How convenient...]

[ deep water ]

[ I almost forgot to take a picture of the truck ]

At this point, we were both pretty tired, so we took the most direct route back to the truck, which turned out not to be bad at all. In fact, at one point we saw the trail we should have taken in. Getting back to the truck, it was all I could do to get my boots off and into a clean change of socks and shoes. That was the end of our day. My feet always hurt after wearing those boots.

Shelby Farms - 1/15/2011

2011-01-18T18:54:00.008-06:00

I got a call from jbgreer asking me if I wanted to geocache on Saturday. Our primary goal would be to hunt Flip Dizzy - Flip Out by Abiectio (GC1CW22). This cache is the final of a seven cache adventure series that involves a lot of puzzle-solving and hiking in really cool areas within Memphis and Shelby County, TN. We had started this series in September of 2008 with Flip Dizzy by Abiectio (GC18M8X). Because we were trying to complete this series with little to no assistance from others, it took us a while. Both of us had to solve the individual puzzles before we would go after the respective caches.

After having a delicious breakfast at one of my favorite eating spots, we made the drive to Shelby Farms.

Once we entered the woods, we began our quest. Even though you can get some spoiler information about this hunt by reading others' online logs, I will try to minimize my contribution to the spoilers. I will say that we hiked - a lot. We spent a lot of time on nice trails. There was still a little snow out, and some spots were slippery. We saw lots of runners and bikers while on our journey. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of things. We found the cache itself in good shape.

[ a beautiful spot ]

[ the trails were relatively snow-free ]

[ one of two armadillos we spotted ]

[ remnants of an old railroad bridge ? ]

The Greenline Experience

One of the caches we went after while in the area was Greenline - #1 by giardia_boy (GC2EQ10). It was in the vicinity of the old railroad bridge that crosses the Wolf River.

I knew that the trail we were on would lead us under the greenline and was not sure how we were going to get up on the bridge. There used to be a makeshift ladder formed from railroad spikes hammered into the bridge pilings, but I knew that these were gone.

After crossing under the bridge, we simply walked along the side trail a good distance until we found an entry point.

Once we got up to the paved trail, made our way back to where the cache was located. There were lots of people biking, walking, and running along the greenline. Fortunately there were occasional gaps of time where we could do what was needed to get our hands on the cache.

While in the general area of the greenline, we also hunted BLUE TRAIL??? by Hoot Owl (GC24VA8). The name of the cache also denotes the name of the trail we took to get to it. Amazingly, the last 200 feet of that hunt was the most difficult terrain we passed through all day. The container for this cache was an ammo can that was once part of spencersb's Dark Tower Series.

When we got back to the truck, we observed that we had hiked a total of 8.35 miles. We had a little bit of time left, so we took a shot at finding I Spy - Shelby Farms by giardia_boy (GC2C7Y1). This cache involved figuring out the coordinates of objects in two photographs taken amongst the 3500 acres of Shelby Farms, and using some distance information linked to each picture to compute a third location. This location was stage 1 of a 2 stage hunt. The sign at stage 1 had the coordinates on it for the final stage. I had done all of the calculations the night before and it turned out that I had correctly figured out where stage 1 was. After that, it was simply a matter of traveling to stage 2 and making the find. This was a creative design and if I hadn't known the relative locations of both objects, it would have been tough to work out the coordinates for stage 1.

We did some recon on a couple of other caches in the area before leaving for the day.

My Favorite Cache Finds of 2010

2011-01-09T16:08:00.005-06:00

Even though I found a relatively low number of geocaches this past year, it was still tough to pick favorites. I did, however, and here is my list.

Micro - Tucked Away Downtown by Jeff60523 (GC1NXXG)
This is just outside and across the street from Union Station in Chicago. Muggles aplenty and my GPSr was almost useless because of all of the tall buildings.

Regular - Caching is a Virtue by cache-n-dash (GC1BX3E)
After hunting a few caches in Baker City, OR, my Dad and I decided to hunt a cluster of caches in nearby Virtue Flats. This cache and the nearby ones required lots of hill-climbing in a desert-like environment. Rattlesnakes were a distinct possibility.

Multi - Jaybirder's Roost by Jaybirder (GC209W3)
First hunt of the New Year. A comfortable 27 degrees and sunshine provided near-perfect conditions for what would turn out to be the longest single-day cache hunt for me and my caching buddy, jbgreer. It also required hunting six additional caches to get start coordinates.

Event - Geocaching FUNdamentals by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC2440D)
I don't really require a fundamental course in geocaching, but I really enjoy the park that it was held in. Prontopup does a really good job at hosting these types of events, and it appears that he gets a lot of practice.

CITO Event - CITO in Germantown by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC253F5)
Held shortly after the Geocaching FUNDamentals event, this has to be the best-organized CITO of the 5 I have been to. It was spread across multiple Germantown Parks.

Mystery - The Original Buster Brown by Bulldog Duo (GC1P047)
After caching in Paragould, AR all day, I made a stop in Hornersville, MO on my way home. The history behind the man this cache honors was the most fascinating thing about the hunt.

Favorite Earthcache - Earthquake Lake by Paper_Doll and Girl Scout troops 1629 & 1632 (GC112BZ)
The only earthcache I did on my tour of Reelfoot Lake caches. I picked it because it only had 3 questions to answer.

Favorite Power Trail: Delta Trail SP#1GPT by BackpacknJack (GC2712K)
I spent 2 days hiking the length and back of this neat trail and found 75 of the 112 caches along it. I picked the wrong time of year and the heat and mosquitoes definitely affected my hunt - especially on the second day. I'm going to try to get back there early this Spring to finish up the caches.

Favorite Virtual: So many Storeys, So Little Time by bspeng (GC47A4)
- technically, I didn't hunt any virtual caches in 2010, but I revisited this one during a train trip to Oregon in June. On my previous visit, I saw the view from the 99th floor of the Sears Tower, because there was construction taking place on the 103rd floor. This June, I got to stand in one of the skydeck ledges on the 103rd floor. These ledges extend over four feet outside of the 103rd floor - 1353 feet over Wacker Drive and the Chicago River.

Favorite Cache of the Year - Treasure Hidden in a Field by Worldtraveler (GCF1D5)
This was an incredible cache hunt that I had been wanting to do since I started geocaching more than six years ago. Part of the fun was in remembering what geocaching was like when I began. It was sad to read about what has happened to it in the months after my visit.

This list is subject to change as my memory gets refreshed regarding the caches I enjoyed.

Final Finds of 2010 - 12/31/2010

2011-01-01T13:24:00.009-06:00

I had the entire week off, but spent the early part of the week doing cache maintenance. The latter part of the week had off-and-on rain, so I didn't plan on any big cache runs. On Thursday, jbgreer and I hunted Flip Dizzy - Monkey Comes In by Abiectio (GC1AVN2), one of two remaining caches in the Flip Dizzy series we needed to hunt before going after the penultimate cache in the series. If you are a cacher local to the Memphis area, you really should do the entire series. It's probably the best (that I know of) in the area.

On Friday, the rain held off long enough for jbgreer and I to hunt Flip Dizzy Loves Jelly Beans by Abiectio (GC194XF). This hunt turned out to be relatively easy compared to some we have done in the area, especially considering the terrain rating. I took a lot of pictures, but can't post many of them because they are spoilers. We got back to the car just before darkness set in, and headed back into Memphis where jbgreer dropped me off.

When I got back to my computer, I began work on the puzzle for Flip Dizzy - Flip Out by Abiectio (GC1CW22), taking only a short break for dinner. After many wrong turns, I finally hit upon the solution.

I was pretty excited about solving the puzzle, and because I knew only about a half-dozen finds had been made in the two years since the cache was published, I wanted to post a note on the cache page that basically said that I had solved the puzzle and that as soon as my caching partner solved it, we would be hunting it. When I went to post the note, I saw that on 12/20, a couple of "cache jackals" had posted notes saying that they had found the cache and would log it online after they "met the requirements".

[ Do you take the path less traveled? ]

I look forward to hunting Flip Dizzy - Flip Out by Abiectio (GC1CW22), which according to spoilers in the cache logs, is a multi-stage cache.

Anyways, it's a New Year and time for me to get to work creating my list of favorite finds of 2010.

Update 1/1: My caching partner, jbgreer called me this morning to let me know he has solved the puzzle for "Flip Out".

Overton Park - 12/30/2010

2010-12-30T19:29:00.005-06:00

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

2010-12-26T19:01:00.007-06:00

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

2010-12-23T15:08:00.008-06:00

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

2010-12-17T20:23:00.003-06:00

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

2010-11-27T19:16:00.015-06:00

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

2010-11-21T13:25:00.004-06:00

[ 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???

2010-11-19T20:15:00.004-06:00

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

2010-11-07T15:09:00.006-06:00

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

2010-10-31T13:17:00.005-05:00

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

2010-10-11T17:07:00.003-05:00

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

2010-10-06T10:15:00.003-05:00

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

2010-09-21T20:22:00.004-05:00

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

2010-09-04T12:38:00.005-05:00

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

2010-08-19T18:01:00.006-05:00

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

2010-08-16T18:02:00.001-05:00

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

2010-07-24T14:21:00.009-05:00

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

2010-07-20T19:29:00.007-05:00

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

2010-07-10T08:49:00.007-05:00

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.

---

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

2010-06-12T14:30:00.007-05:00

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

2010-06-02T13:28:00.003-05:00

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

2010-05-23T17:06:00.009-05:00

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.

Delta Heritage Trail - 5/19/2010

2010-05-21T16:55:00.018-05:00

I hadn't felt much like caching since the 10th anniversary of Geocaching event, but decided to check out my localized pocket query to see what was new in the area. I noticed a tight string of about 20 caches at the southwest edge of the bounds of my pocket query. When I investigated further, I found out that there was actually a string of 114 caches stretching from Lexa, AR to Lakeview, AR along the Delta Heritage Trail. I had actually found a cache on this trail during my earlier run to Helena, AR so I knew this was a well-maintained trail.

I read the general description of the cache trail and saw that it was fairly new with most caches only having a few finds. Rain forecasts kept me from going after them for at least one weekend. When I saw that Wednesday would be the last relatively cool day for awhile, I made plans to take the day off and head over there. My bike wasn't in good shape, so I considered renting a bike at Delta Heritage Trail State Park, which is 2 miles south of the first trailhead.

I got up early on Wednesday and drove to the Helena Junction Trailhead, near Lexa, AR. It was a nice clean parking lot and I felt comfortable leaving my car there for a while.

[ parking area at north end of trail ]

My new plan was to hike 2 miles south to Barton trailhead at the State Park. I would then hike back and move my car to the park and hike south. My goal was to make it to the 7 mile marker - the halfway point of the trail.

[ mile 0 - the north end of the trail ]

It was cool in the morning, and at first I jogged between caches. As it warmed up a little, I decided to save my energy and just walk. During that first two mile stretch, I had a 60% success rate. It doesn't sound good, but I couldn't take a lot of time to hunt individual caches. Particularly since most of them were camoflagued micros. I enjoyed the hike, though, and I guess that was really what was important.

[ plenty of shade along the 14 mile trail ]

About 9:30am, I moved my car south to the State Park. Being a workday, there were no other cars around except for the park folks. At this point, it would have been smart to rent a bike.

[ State Park located 2 miles south of 1st trailhead ]

I started south, and enjoyed the shade and the caches, and the time passed quickly. The big mistake I made on this day was leaving my Gatorade in the car. I had done no recon on this trail, and thought surely I would come across a business or store somewhere. The wisest thing I did was bring tweezers.

[ looking out to the west of the trail ]

At one point, I came across a church with a nice parking lot that was gated. I assumed that was to keep hikers like me from parking there. 1.6 miles south of the park was the Lick Creek trailhead/parking area. It was the last trailhead I saw that day.

[ looking to the east from the trail ]

[ just past cache #57 of 114 ]

I was very thirsty when I reached mile 7. Of course, I had a 5 mile hike back up the trail to my car. Thie hike back was uneventful. I found one cache that I had missed. I took a couple of rest breaks on nice benches. I made it back to the park around 2pm.

When I got back the the park, I noticed the mosquitoes had suddenly come out. I didn't hang around for long and got back on the road. I stopped in Marianna for a late lunch and Forrest City for a couple of cache finds to round me out at 40 for the day.

The Rules are There for a Reason

2010-05-07T16:04:00.001-05:00

[ My geocache! You blew it up! ]

Geocaching (like most aspects of life) has rules. Some rules are hard and fast, others are vague and subject to interpretation. Everyone who geocaches is bound by them. This includes geocache reviewers and soldiers. I point these two examples out because some ill-informed people seem to believe otherwise.

Why do I feel the need to point them out? Because I choose to. No further explanation or justification is required.

Update: 5/10/2010

Here is some interesting news: I have been banned from the GOWT forums. Not only that, but they removed my avatar along with the caption underneath that stated that I was a "GOWT Founding Member". They also blocked my IP address(es), to disallow me the "privilege" of even reading their forums.

10 Years! Collierville, TN - 5/2/2010

2010-05-03T16:52:00.000-05:00

10 Years! Collierville, Tennessee by The Disorganization of Midsouth Geocachers (GC25KBZ) was one of a number of events worldwide celebrating the 10th anniversary of Geocaching. At least three of these events were within easy driving distance of my residence.

On the weekend of the event, we were bombarded this weekend by rain, tornadoes, and floods. Some people will travel through any kind of weather to get to a cache or an event. I, however, was prepared to cancel my plans to attend if things got too bad. Sunday (the day of the event) was a beautiful day. Still, I waited until the last minute to hit the road. If you can believe it, I was concerned that not enough people would be able to make it to Collierville. The above picture shows I was wrong. I had no problems until I got the the park. It was largely underwater, including the event spot. After meeting up at a pavilion on dry land, I began to look at and catalog all of the neat coins and TBs on display.

I mingled a little bit and enjoyed some delicious chocolate chip cookies brought by a cacher - acookiegirl. At the end, we posed for the group picture required by the event. We took a second picture with a bunch of us standing in about a foot of water, a bit closer to the event coordinates.

After the event, I stopped by Zaxby's for a nice late lunch before heading back to Memphis.

Geocaching Fundamentals - 4/17/2010

2010-04-19T18:40:00.001-05:00

After attending the 6th Annual GOWT Gathering back in January, I promised myself that I would make an effort to attend more local events. When two events were published for this day in Cameron Brown Park in Germantown, TN, including a CITO, I signed up for both.

In spite of the great weather on this day, I didn't give myself much time to cache on the way to the event. Traveling east along Poplar Avenue, I did manage to find a few caches - certainly more than I had expected. My first stop was The Beaver Fever Cache by Bigcachedaddy (GC1QP9K). This was along a typically busy stretch of Poplar, so I parked about 500 feet away in an empty parking lot. I found the cache quickly and confirmed other cache logs that pointed out that the paper log was destroyed. Unfortunately, I left my spare logs back in the car. The container was cool and a picture would be a definite spoiler.

Next, I hunted Loblolly by Berlan Eligab (GC21WDW) at Sea Isle Park, just to the south. I had been here before and couldn't find the cache because I trusted my GPSr. This time, although the GPSr took me to the exact same location, I took a successful guess at what nearby location held the cache. This would have been a great place (and day) to relax, but I had a few more places to go.

[ Walking trail at Sea Isle Park]

ACME-2010 by giardia_boy (GC22GND) was my first cache find by this hider and was an excellent example of a cache blending in an urban environment.

My final cache of the morning was Wolf River Blvd. Extension by ProntoPup (GC25N3B) at Riverwoods State Natural Area. Prontopup had put out several new caches in the area for the event, but I generated my pocket query too early. This cache managed to be on my list, though, and was within a mile of the event.

This is a really nice area and I wished I had more time to thoroughly explore the trails. Alas, I'm not a warm weather cacher, so this might be my last trip into the woods for awhile.

I made it to Cameron Brown Park on time, but the parking lots were packed! Lots of baseball games were going on all over the park. I had to park a good ways away.

[ The event from a distance ]

Prontopup was the host for the Geocaching FUNdamentals by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC2440D), and does a pretty good job of explaining geocaching and demonstrating different cache containers. He had some of the experienced cachers tell about their favorite caches. I talked about Mingo - GC30, that I had found last summer.

When the event was over, I wrote down tracking numbers of several neat coins. I saw an Arkansas State Parks geocoin and wondered if this was the one that was missing from Robert & Casper's Vacation Travel Bug Hotel when I went to look for it (the coin) on Easter Sunday. I later found out that it was and that 76Stinger had taken it from his own cache without logging it as "retrieved" at the time. One of the things that 76Stinger hopefully learned at the event was the importance of logging coins properly and promptly.

During the hour gap between the two events, I spent some time walking around. I explored the short boardwalk and bought hot dogs from a concession stand while catching the last moments of a baseball game.

CITO in Germantown by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC253F5) was well organized with plenty of options for areas to pick up trash. I was sent along with Jaybirder to the north wooded side of the park. We both ended up with nearly full bags. I even found 8 or 9 baseballs. Some people were sent to some other nearby parks to pick up trash. It was interesting to learn that Germantown parks are cleaned largely by volunteers.

[ Dalls made it after all! ]

After returning to the pavilion with our trash, I hung around for awhile listening to stories before finally leaving. I had hoped to get an Oreo Blizzard at the Dairy Queen just to the north, but their ice cream machine was broken.

City Treasure - 4/16/2010

2010-04-18T15:49:00.001-05:00

CITY TREASURE by MagicRock (GC1YXMY) is another excellent cache by the author. I used instinct, rather than hard work, to figure out where the cache was and invited jbgreer to go along with me on the hunt. Another good friend went along as well. I took lots of great pictures - none of which I can post because they would be spoilers. I can't even say much about the journey.

[ the logbook ]

Upon opening the cache, we found the logbook and the TFTC geocoin I dropped off in a Collierville cache back in January. I added a Pirate geocoin, because I thought it was an appropriate place, as well as to entice future seekers to put in the work necessary (or perhaps unnecessary) to find this cache. Happy hunting!

Southaven - Olive Branch, MS - 4/4/2010

2010-04-18T15:14:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful day for a cache hunt, but because it was Easter, I had other plans for the afternoon. I decided to spend the early part of the day caching in Southaven, MS - which is not far from Whitehaven, where I lived as a college student.

I decided to take Hwy 51 south which meant I would have the opportunity to hunt two South Memphis caches before making my way to Mississippi.

My first find was at a gas station at the corner of Winchester and Elvis Presley Blvd. - BittenApple's Imaginary Lines #1 – Winchester Line by BittenApple (GC22101). I lived in several places near here as a child, and it was "interesting" to see how the area has changed. Not far away was Aerotropolis TB Hotel by GC4EVR (GC1Y1KC). The way to this cache was surprisingly difficult for the last 100 feet, I can only imagine what fun it will be in the summer. For a TB hotel, there is no reason that I can see for it not being closer to the parking area...

I drove south to Shelby Drive and west to Elvis Presley Blvd. and passed by the Southland Mall. I have many fond memories of this place as a child and didn't wish to spoil them by going inside.

Before reaching Southaven, I had one more stop to make. I wanted to see the house I lived in with my Dad and brother while going to college. It is still a relatively nice area, but its heyday appears to be long gone.

[ My home between 1982 and 1987 ]

Onward to Southaven. As I crossed the border into Mississippi, I saw a "Crips" tag on a sign. Nice.

My first stop here was Emerald of Vicksburg by Sea Scout Ship 349 of Southaven, MS (GC1YAHX). It was a nice cache in a children's park. nice, except for this sign...

[ Sorry, I left my dice at home ]

I skipped two caches - one at a busy little church and the other in soneone's yard, but found a few others in the area and pretty much cleaned out this part of North Mississippi.

It ain't easy being green(Wal) by Will&Amy (GC1QPG5) was at a nice Walgreens and even had an interesting view of an old farm.

[ next to Walgreens ]

I ventured south and found May I see your License? by mrjlsmith (GC1FB1B). A well hidden ammo can near a driver's testing station.

Heading back north, I avenged a DNF at Bridge to Terabithia by Jschway901 (GC1Z563)

[ Bridge to Terabitha ]

Back to the north, I found Rutland Place Muggle Compound V2 by accarp04 and the Monkeys (GC1WQGX) under the (possibly) watchful eyes of local law enforcement and Business in Southaven #3 v2 by accarp04 and the monkeys (GC22D5P).

I headed east to Olive Branch and avenged DNFs at Got Groceries? by accarp04 (GC22N88), Catch some zzzzzz by accarp04 (GC22N8B), and You can't see me from here by fzxfazer (GC1WWKH). That last one is at a Chick-Fil-A, so Sunday was definitely the best day to hunt it.

My last cache of the day was Mooney and the Mooniacs by Sprout (GC112EF) back to the north in Memphis. My GPS was still acting flaky, so I used instinct to point me in the right direction.

[ View of the park ]

After this find, I plotted my way north to celebrate Easter with my family. I had to be there at 2pm and made it with 10 minutes to spare.

Oakland, TN - 3/27/2010

2010-04-05T18:35:00.000-05:00

I didn't want to get up hunt caches before dawn like I did the previous week, so I made plans to go somewhere closer. Hard to believe, but I'd never cached in Oakland, TN before. I usually pass by it on my way to points east. On this day, I decided to hit Oakland around 8am. My first find of the day was Haunted Silos by kailuasquid (GC1H2NZ).

This cache was located on the far west side of Oakland, and was an eerie sight to behold. There was lots of potential for injury as well. I think I spent more time watching where I stepped, than looking for the cache. The acoustics inside the larger silo are quite interesting. After finally finding the first stage, the second was a breeze.

I hunted a hand full of park and grabs along Hwy 64 before a brief detour south to pick up a couiple of caches that sounded cool.

First on this list was The Leaning Tree of Pruitt by carterson2 (GC17M50). It turned out to be in the front of someone's yard on Pruitt Rd.

There were kids and a dog playing further back off of the road, so I parked to minimize being seen. The cache was an easy find and the tree looked like it had sustained some damage recently. The dog had to come out and say "goodbye" before I left.

On the way back to Oakland, I hunted Cypress Creek by Tiger130 (GC14TK3). It was in pretty good shape. It happened to be my 3300th cache find and the only Tiger130 multicache (out of 3) that I could find.

All-in-all, I enjoyed caching in Oakland. There were two nice parks that I struck out in, but I enjoyed their walking trails. I was disappointed that Oakland Trackables Depot #130 by Tiger130 (GC15K9H) had no coins, but that happens.

---

After leaving Oakland, I made some spur of the moment choices as where to cache next. I got gas in Somerville and hunted I.P. Yancey Park by kailuasquid (GC1H2MZ). I struck out at the nearby Frank's Windows by Somervillian (GC21E05), but there were lots of muggles around.

I headed south to Rossville and "The William B .Clark Conservation Area where I picked up The Nature Conservancy by kailuasquid (GC1QM8X) and the first stage of Six Sicks Icks by bitbrain (GCWD3A). Those were both along a nice boardwalk that traversed a cypress swamp. There were only a few people out here - one of whom recognized that I was geocaching. I took lots of pictures before heading into Collierville for more caching.

The caches I found in Collierville were somewhat interesting. What a "Pine" Library by TNLarry4 (GC24EYD) was at a familiar park (Halle Park) and cound have been tough if the camo had been a little better. It wasn't a park and grab, though. I found three caches by arcking, including Dead End: Nonconnah by Arcking (GC22YAF). That was a pleasant stroll along an abandoned road.

A Game of Cards by Arcking (GC22YB3) led me to a walking trail that I'd never noticed before on two previous caches to the area looking for other caches.

After hunting all of the remaining "easy" caches in Collierville, I decided to go north to the Dairy Queen near Scrumdillyishus by Berlan Eligab (GC1NMQ5). After striking out on this cache twice before, I expected to just enjoy an Oreo Blizzard and move on. I got lucky, though, and found the cache after dessert.

Back on the road, I headed west towards home. My last find of the day was Germantown Greenway Revisited by Prontopup (GC24J6X).

Brian Brown Memorial Greenway - 3/20/2010

2010-04-03T18:29:00.000-05:00

[ This is an excerpt from a trip where I cached in a triangle bounded by Humboldt, Dresden, and Martin, TN.]

I arrived in Martin, TN in the early afternoon and immediately starting hunting caches while looking around for a place to have lunch. I struck out on my first three caches, so I headed for the Brian Brown Memorial Greenway. I had read enough of the cache pages to know where to park, and there was plenty of parking available.

[ Just east of the entrance ]

It was sunny and around 70 degrees. Perfect weather for a long hike. I estimated the length of the greenway as about one mile. I went after Brian Brown Greenway Cache #1 (a 2-stage multi) first, and for some reason could not find it.

Brian Brown Greenway Cache #2 by PharmD93 and pcsenn (GC218N8) was an easy find, but could be tough after a rain. There were walkers on the path ahead of me, so I needed to be careful about going after the caches along the path.

Greenway Micro by pcsenn & PharmD93 (GC21922) was another easy find. I was worried because it was a micro, but the cache area made it easy to spot.

[ What used to be here? ]

Brian Brown Greenway #3 by pcsenn & PharmD93 (GC2192T) was next on the list. Another 2-stage multi, the first stage took me towards the east end of the greenway. Since I was near the end, I kept walking to see what was at the end. It was a basketball goal and some kids playing.

After reading the sign at the end of the trail, I hiked back to short distance to the first stage of BBG 3. The coords were dead on, but it was a tough hunt. When I got the container open, the stage two coordinates were blurred, but readable. They kindly led me back west to a nice spot where the cache was easily found.

As I headed back towards the greenway entrance, I decided to give Brian Brown Greenway Cache #1 by PharmD93 and pcsenn (GC218KM) one more chance. I found the first stage easily this time, but the second stage coords told me I'd be rehiking most of the greenway again! First, though, I walked back to my car for a drink.

It was a peaceful walk back along the greenway. I think about a lot of things when I'm hiking on trails like this. On this day, I was thinking about my nephew Jay. He was supposed to start school at the nearby UT-Martin last fall. He unexpectedly died one month before his 18th birthday and just a few short weeks before fall classes started.

Anyways, I found the second stage and was happy that I had managed to find all four caches along this pleasant greenway. I'd say "beautiful greenway", but I imagine it looks nicer when the trees have more leaves and the flowers bloom.

I left the greenway around 3:30. My immediate needs were food and gas. I got gas at the nearby Shell station, but I ended up putting off eating until sunset.

I found a few more neat caches in Martin, including John by Skyhawk13 (GC115MN) and Sally by Skyhawk13 (GC115MV). I also avenged two DNF's - Taylor's Treasure by PharmD93 (GCYHVX) and Goal Find by Sherlock121 (GC107QY) before heading south towards Jackson.

Memphis Riverwalk

2010-03-29T17:40:00.000-05:00

About a week ago, I went to replace the cache container for Memphis Martyrs by Tuck Sackett (GCN59Y), a cache I'd adopted a few years ago. It hasn't received many visitors in recent years so I had little motivation to check on it until recently. When it was originally placed, the Memphis Riverwalk ended about 1/4 mile before getting to Martyr' s Park. This meant that you had to drive to the park in order to visit it.

[ Near Union/Beale and Riverside Drive ]

[ Looking south along the river ]

Recently, I learned that the riverwalk had been extended to Martyr's Park. I was excited to hear this because I enjoy walking along the Riverwalk and now my cache was near the south end of it. At this point in time, there are six caches along the riverwalk. Starting from the Welcome Center at the north to Martyr's Park at the south. These caches are:

Welcome to Memphis - Downtown / Riverwalk by sskaysee (GCRVTQ)

Beale Street Landing by sskaysee (GCRVTJ)

Ups & Downs by Loosahatchie (GCY7C0)

Go See Tom Lee by sskaysee (GC111CJ)

River View by sskaysee (GCRVT3)

Memphis Martyrs by Tuck Sackett (adopted by Mackheath) (GCN59Y)

It takes me about an hour to walk the entire loop. I highly recommend it for people visiting Downtown Memphis. For those of you who aren't fans of long hikes, the Riverfront Trolley takes you close to all of the above caches, as well as two near the Pyramid.

[ Nice view from above ]

[ Looking to the north ]

Union City, TN - 3/14/2010

2010-03-23T14:52:00.001-05:00

Union City, TN is a town that has always gotten missed by me when caching in the area. The closest I had been before this day was Martin, TN to the southeast.

After visiting Reelfoot Lake and heading up to Hickman, KY for a few caches, I came back down into Tennessee and Union City. Most of the caches I found here were placed by Team KC whom I'd met back on my last trip to Jackson, TN.

[ Across from Union City Depot ]

Most all were simple park and grabs, which were enjoyable on this day. I think I spent 3 or so hours here and would have had lunch, but was drawn by the lure of one more cache to the south of town..

One of the last caches I found inside of Union City was Unknown Confederate Dead by Titansfan (GCRGRN). The below monument was nearby. It was interesting to say the least. It kind of reminded me of a big wedding cake.

[ This is on the National Historic Registry ]

After leaving Union City, I headed south for Memphis via Dyersburg and Blytheville, AR.

Reelfoot Lake - 3/14/2010

2010-03-17T19:03:00.000-05:00

Over the past 5 years, I have found caches in all of the counties of West Tennessee with the exception of Lake County - home of Reelfoot Lake. This was a 3-day weekend for me and I had planned to spend Saturday and Sunday in the area between Reelfoot Lake and Dresden, TN. The weather had rain off and on all three days, particularly in the northern part of West Tennessee, so my decision to press forward was made in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday.

My plan was to hunt two caches just to the north of Dyersburg and the head up to Reelfoot Lake and hunt the caches around the lake. Afterwards, I would head northeast to Hickman, KY and then southeast to Union City.

I arrived at Stinky Ditch by pcsenn (GC19PVJ) around 8am and found it and the nearby Hornridge Cemetery Cache by pcsenn (GC19T17) before heading further north. The roads leading to these two caches got my car a little muddy and I hoped the rest of the roads would be in better shape.

After finding one more cache, my next stop was Tiptonville, TN for gas. I decided at this point that I would skip the earthcaches on this trip unless they were easy. It was raining off and on all day and I didn't feel like spending a lot of time in the rain gathering data and pictures for earthcaches.

I decided to hunt the caches around the lake in a counter-clockwise direction. This made my next stop Reelfoot Lake State Park for What's Shaking? - Reelfoot Lake, TN by CUSEC (GC1XEAH).

[ Reelfoot Lake State Park Visitor Center ]

After finding the cache and buying a soda at the visitor's center, I decided to go check out the lake. The rain had stopped for a bit, so I spent quite a bit of time here.

[ Imprisoned symbol of freedom ]

Directly behind the Visitor's Center is a large pen with an eagle in it for viewing. The eagle actually followed me as I walked from one side of the pen to the other.

I decided to take a walk on the boardwalk towards the lake.

[ slippery when wet ]

[ just before arriving at the lake ]

[ ahhhhh.... the lake ]

There were a few people in boats off in the distance. It was really peaceful here and I wished I had brought a lunch.

[ more boardwalk ]

[ a view south after leaving the boardwalk ]

[ one more site before returning to the parking area ]

After leaving the park, I continued on a counter-clockwise trip around the lake. None of the caches I hunted in the area were difficult, but there were a lot of great views.

At Running (sometimes) Reelfoot Bayou by pcsenn (GC1FJFY), I found a 12-pack of Bud Light in a box sitting by the side of the road. I considered having a beer or two, but decided against it.

Pitcher This by pcsenn (GCD072) was a cache I had on my radar for years. It wasn't quite how I had pictured it, but it was there and in good shape! The coordinates were taking me towards the lake, so I was glad I looked up and around and spotted it.

Reelfoot Airpark Cache by pcsenn (GCN9TT) and Earthquake Lake by Paper_Doll and Girl Scout troops 1629 & 1632 (GC112BZ) were two near each other at the north end of the lake. The airpark was abandoned on this day. "Earthquake Lake" was the only earthcache I found on this trip. It only had three simple questions to answer.

Black Bayou (revisited) by pcsenn & wifey (GC1CYB3) was the last cache I found near the lake before heading north to Hickman, KY. I ended up finding 10 caches around the lake, leaving 5 earthcaches and a regular cache or two in the area for another trip. I was glad to have made the trip and glad the weather was cooperative enough to have a fun day.

Saint Andrew's Cross - 3/14/2010

2010-03-15T18:22:00.000-05:00

Coming back home from the Reelfoot Lake/Union City, TN area, I needed a small number of caches to reach 50 for the day. The last cache of the day for me turned out to be Saint Andrew's Cross by Titansfan (GC1PP9T).

I hadn't read about the cache in advance and hadn't seen the area on my previous trips to Trimble, TN. When I saw the giant Rebel flag waving in the distance, I knew that was where I'd be going. It was no surprise because I know that Titansfan is a big fan of Civil War history.

The cache itself was a quick find even though the coordinates were off a bit. After finding the cache and signing the log, I walked over to the cemetery itself to see the cross and read the various plaques. It was cold and very windy, making the flags stand out at times.

[ Confederate Memorial Plaza ]

[ Monument to Fallen Soldiers ]

[ The Big Cross ]

[ The Charge ]

This was an excellent example of geocaching taking you to interesting places that you might not have seen otherwise. It was a great cache to end the day with.