Considering the fact that this is a 3-day weekend for me and the weather has been great, I had no big caching plans. Saturday I had made plans to go see the movie "Cloverfield" with my buddy jbgreer. I thought I'd do a little caching prior to meeting up with him but only did one good cache and a couple of easy park and grabs.
One of the finds I had was Germantown Station by Chance Encounter (GCVB59) that I had made a tentative search for last weekend. This time I arrived in the daylight, parked much closer, and made the find quickly some ten feet away from where I looked before. I'm pretty sure muggles are responsible for the vandalized logbook and I'm surprised they left the container there.
The GOWT forums have been busy lately. Some polls were created in the members-only section that were interesting. A poll regarding members' opinions on "power trails" got a few comments besides the votes. JoGPS contributed a rambling diatribe that concluded with how he will "...play the game the way I want to, but will defend your right to play it the way you want, and have". Several members began a butt-kissing initiative to settle the old man down. I'm glad to see polls about geocaching issues but still believe that rational discourse on "controversial" geocaching topics is impossible given the "intellectual diversity" of our membership.
Not sure if I'll do anything on Monday...
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
DeltaGeo Website To Close Down
I saw this announcement on deltageo.org today:
DeltaGeo Website To Close Down
This DeltaGeo (deltageo.org) website was started to fulfill a particular purpose and that purpose has been met. The website and the forums will be closing down shortly and we wanted to thank everyone for their involvement during the past year. Please continue to support your local geocaching organizations and their websites. See you on the trails!
What This Really Means
We (prontopup, chibongo, and cgeek) started this site in order to run away from the problems GOWT had over the past year; problems we were partly responsible for. Now that the "bad people" have been chased off of GOWT and the remaining members are friendly to us we no longer feel it is necessary to run this sham site. Please continue to support GOWT (us). See you on the trails!
DeltaGeo Website To Close Down
This DeltaGeo (deltageo.org) website was started to fulfill a particular purpose and that purpose has been met. The website and the forums will be closing down shortly and we wanted to thank everyone for their involvement during the past year. Please continue to support your local geocaching organizations and their websites. See you on the trails!
What This Really Means
We (prontopup, chibongo, and cgeek) started this site in order to run away from the problems GOWT had over the past year; problems we were partly responsible for. Now that the "bad people" have been chased off of GOWT and the remaining members are friendly to us we no longer feel it is necessary to run this sham site. Please continue to support GOWT (us). See you on the trails!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Scouting Caches - January 12, 2008
The only plans I had for this day were to attend an annual party that the Memphis Runners' Track Club was hosting in Cordova. I wasn't excited about going, but needed to pick up a trophy I won. The trophy wasn't for winning any races, but rather for surviving the entire 10 race series. I figured I'd kill some time caching before the party started. I woke up late Saturday morning and ended up having lunch with a buddy of mine. I wasn't in a good mood and was going to scrap my plans and just go to work, but my friend convinced me that I shouldn't waste such a nice day indoors so I ended up heading out after lunch.
I decided I'd head to Collierville since it is a beautiful area with plenty of caches I hadn't found. The reason I called this entry "Scouting Caches" was because I intended to drive by several areas with parks that I might not have time to stay long at but might have time to at least get the lay of the land.
The first cache I stopped at was NB #8: The Nonconnah-Bahn v.2 by cgeek (GC15N6B). It was a quick park-and-grab with a wet and moldy log. I had planned to hit AATN by cgeek (GCY1H9) next, but unfortunately had misplaced my sheet of puzzle cache solutions. My next find was A Cup of Joe by cgeek (GC14RKV) at roughly 2:30. There was a long line at the drive-through, however the cache was adequately shielded from muggles. MY next goal was Silo Mentality by Chance Encounter (adopted by itcomagic) (GCZ17W).
When I got to the location, there was a LOT of construction activity going on around the cache area. I can't imagine that this structure will be standing here much longer. Unfortunately all I could do on this trip was take some pictures and use some nearby bushes to take care of some other urgent business. Sunday might be a better day to hunt this cache.
I then decided to hit a couple of outlying caches southeast of Collierville. Ice Cold by searchingforit (GC11H76) and 5141 by geocachingtagalong (GC11HQ9) were quick finds nicely out in the country along Hwy 72.
Next I decided to head north and scout out W.C. Johnson Park. There are 4 caches unfounded by me in this park. I picked up Stop in the Name of Love by GolfGirl21 (GC186XJ) and Fountain View by Lobodad (GC18BNG) on the way. I'm not a real fan of caches placed in neighborhoods because of the observant neighbors and would have normally skipped these, but they ended up being quick finds.
W.C. Johnson Park is a great park and on this day was very busy. I need some boots to do the caches so I had to skip them on this trip. Next on my list was Johnson Road Park where there were 3 caches that were inter-related. My GPSr wanted to take me everywhere but the entrance to this park - fortunately a visual inspection of the map told me the right way to enter. I went after Frisbee Flyway by prontopup (GCZZVY) which is the first of the three you have to find. There was a muggle at the spot playing frisbee golf. Since it was late, I had to abandon the subtle approach and simply stared at him until he got creeped out and left. After finding the cache and writing down information from it, I tried to make sense of what I needed to do next. My brain wasn't processing the information and it was getting dark so I decided to come back another day. I ran into a family of cachers on the way out who turned out to be MaximusWilliam and PixieMama. I only talked with them briefly as I'm not really the sociable type. It was getting dark so I went after a couple of easy ones I could do in the dark. I picked up The Skirtlifter Series - T & B by SarahAFSAllstar (GCW22H) and then went to Germantown Station by Chance Encounter (GCVB59).
While I was looking for the second cache a young girl walked up and asked what I was doing. I talked to her for a bit and left without finding the cache. I was surprised that a girl that young would walk up to a strange man in a park that late and start talking. I wanted to leave before somebody called the cops on me.
It was around 5:40pm and I still had an hour to kill before the party so I located a grocery store and did a little shopping.
I got to the party around 6:45pm after traversing some windy roads in the dark and the place (Woodland Hills Country Club) was packed. I went inside and picked up my trophy and a finisher's garment and then looked around a bit. I didn't see anyone I knew and headed to the bar to drink a beer or two in the hopes that I would relax enough to feel comfortable. The drink line was long though, and I ended up just going home.
While I only ended up with 8 cache finds, I did get to explore two really nice parks and look forward to revisiting the area.
I decided I'd head to Collierville since it is a beautiful area with plenty of caches I hadn't found. The reason I called this entry "Scouting Caches" was because I intended to drive by several areas with parks that I might not have time to stay long at but might have time to at least get the lay of the land.
The first cache I stopped at was NB #8: The Nonconnah-Bahn v.2 by cgeek (GC15N6B). It was a quick park-and-grab with a wet and moldy log. I had planned to hit AATN by cgeek (GCY1H9) next, but unfortunately had misplaced my sheet of puzzle cache solutions. My next find was A Cup of Joe by cgeek (GC14RKV) at roughly 2:30. There was a long line at the drive-through, however the cache was adequately shielded from muggles. MY next goal was Silo Mentality by Chance Encounter (adopted by itcomagic) (GCZ17W).
When I got to the location, there was a LOT of construction activity going on around the cache area. I can't imagine that this structure will be standing here much longer. Unfortunately all I could do on this trip was take some pictures and use some nearby bushes to take care of some other urgent business. Sunday might be a better day to hunt this cache.
I then decided to hit a couple of outlying caches southeast of Collierville. Ice Cold by searchingforit (GC11H76) and 5141 by geocachingtagalong (GC11HQ9) were quick finds nicely out in the country along Hwy 72.
Next I decided to head north and scout out W.C. Johnson Park. There are 4 caches unfounded by me in this park. I picked up Stop in the Name of Love by GolfGirl21 (GC186XJ) and Fountain View by Lobodad (GC18BNG) on the way. I'm not a real fan of caches placed in neighborhoods because of the observant neighbors and would have normally skipped these, but they ended up being quick finds.
W.C. Johnson Park is a great park and on this day was very busy. I need some boots to do the caches so I had to skip them on this trip. Next on my list was Johnson Road Park where there were 3 caches that were inter-related. My GPSr wanted to take me everywhere but the entrance to this park - fortunately a visual inspection of the map told me the right way to enter. I went after Frisbee Flyway by prontopup (GCZZVY) which is the first of the three you have to find. There was a muggle at the spot playing frisbee golf. Since it was late, I had to abandon the subtle approach and simply stared at him until he got creeped out and left. After finding the cache and writing down information from it, I tried to make sense of what I needed to do next. My brain wasn't processing the information and it was getting dark so I decided to come back another day. I ran into a family of cachers on the way out who turned out to be MaximusWilliam and PixieMama. I only talked with them briefly as I'm not really the sociable type. It was getting dark so I went after a couple of easy ones I could do in the dark. I picked up The Skirtlifter Series - T & B by SarahAFSAllstar (GCW22H) and then went to Germantown Station by Chance Encounter (GCVB59).
While I was looking for the second cache a young girl walked up and asked what I was doing. I talked to her for a bit and left without finding the cache. I was surprised that a girl that young would walk up to a strange man in a park that late and start talking. I wanted to leave before somebody called the cops on me.
It was around 5:40pm and I still had an hour to kill before the party so I located a grocery store and did a little shopping.
I got to the party around 6:45pm after traversing some windy roads in the dark and the place (Woodland Hills Country Club) was packed. I went inside and picked up my trophy and a finisher's garment and then looked around a bit. I didn't see anyone I knew and headed to the bar to drink a beer or two in the hopes that I would relax enough to feel comfortable. The drink line was long though, and I ended up just going home.
While I only ended up with 8 cache finds, I did get to explore two really nice parks and look forward to revisiting the area.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Today's Rant
I've been reading the GOWT regional forums and am a bit disheartened by the lack of generally useful information currently there.
Information on a person's experiences at a cache may make for interesting reading, but in no way guarantees a reader that they might have a similar experience. At best, it merely gives an ego boost to the cache placer, which in turn may promote further placing of new caches.
An example of what I would like to see is:
If I want to go caching at Shelby Farms park (or any big park), I would like to know if there are any activities scheduled at the park that could interfere with my plans. Most big parks, like Shelby Farms, have webpages that list activities and events at the park that I may or may not be interested in. Bigger state parks also usually have webpages that describe scheduled events. Some of these pages also have maps of hiking trails. Links to the websites for major city and state parks would be a tremendous asset to the regional forums.
One good source of information for Tennesse State parks is:
http://www.stateparks.com/tn.html
The source I use most frequently is:
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/
Of course there are many other links to city and state parks out there that can provide useful information to cachers whether they are planning a caching trip or just a fun time outdoors.
---
Outside of the forums...
Meanwhile, GOWT's resident philosopher in a recent blog entry tries to wrap her coffee can shaped head around the question: "Why are some people so mean?"
Unlike JAG's philosopher, who is just plain nuts - and now thankfully silent on public forums, GOWT's philosopher continuously and deliberately tries to bait people into confrontations in order to feed her need for "drama". She should focus instead on more introspective questions like: "Why can't I accept personal responsibility for the damage I did to GOWT over the last two years?"
Update: 8:14pm: The GOWT webmaster posted my parks links under "Important Information". I would have added links to the bigger parks under the "Regional Forums" so that people don't have go to looking all over for the information, but hey, whatever. The members will find the information useful, I think.
Information on a person's experiences at a cache may make for interesting reading, but in no way guarantees a reader that they might have a similar experience. At best, it merely gives an ego boost to the cache placer, which in turn may promote further placing of new caches.
An example of what I would like to see is:
If I want to go caching at Shelby Farms park (or any big park), I would like to know if there are any activities scheduled at the park that could interfere with my plans. Most big parks, like Shelby Farms, have webpages that list activities and events at the park that I may or may not be interested in. Bigger state parks also usually have webpages that describe scheduled events. Some of these pages also have maps of hiking trails. Links to the websites for major city and state parks would be a tremendous asset to the regional forums.
One good source of information for Tennesse State parks is:
http://www.stateparks.com/tn.html
The source I use most frequently is:
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/
Of course there are many other links to city and state parks out there that can provide useful information to cachers whether they are planning a caching trip or just a fun time outdoors.
---
Outside of the forums...
Meanwhile, GOWT's resident philosopher in a recent blog entry tries to wrap her coffee can shaped head around the question: "Why are some people so mean?"
Unlike JAG's philosopher, who is just plain nuts - and now thankfully silent on public forums, GOWT's philosopher continuously and deliberately tries to bait people into confrontations in order to feed her need for "drama". She should focus instead on more introspective questions like: "Why can't I accept personal responsibility for the damage I did to GOWT over the last two years?"
Update: 8:14pm: The GOWT webmaster posted my parks links under "Important Information". I would have added links to the bigger parks under the "Regional Forums" so that people don't have go to looking all over for the information, but hey, whatever. The members will find the information useful, I think.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
New Challenges for a New Year
On October 7th, I ran in a 10 mile road race held in Shelby Forest. It was part of a series of 10 road races I have done for the last five years. Even though I hadn't trained enough, I had an excellent race and finished strong. The next day I noticed a sharp pain in my right foot. I continued to train and race for the next month. The pain continued to aggravate me and I had to reduce my mileage in order to keep training for my remaining races. On November 4th, I ran the first of two half-marathon races scheduled for that month. At just after the 5 mile mark I stepped on a big rock with my right foot and agonizing pain shot through my whole leg. I finished the race with a decent time, but had to stop training. Two weeks later, I ran the second half-marathon and was in great pain for the entire race, but I finished. That was the end of my race season. I couldn't participate in the St. Jude Half Marathon/Marathon December 1st as I had planned and it was the first one I had missed in 6 years. It was the biggest non geocaching-related disappointment of the year for me and I felt awful for quite a while.
Today I ran for the first time in 7 weeks. It was tough going since I've lost a lot of my conditioning as well as gained a few pounds. I have a lot of work to do since I plan to race a lot more this year than I have in the past. I plan to geocache on the run a lot more this year particularly in East Memphis and Collierville to pick up many of the remaining caches I have in those areas. As a bit of added incentive, I've decided not to cut my hair or shave my beard until I lose 15 pounds. I already look a bit shaggy so I need to get busy!
Today I ran for the first time in 7 weeks. It was tough going since I've lost a lot of my conditioning as well as gained a few pounds. I have a lot of work to do since I plan to race a lot more this year than I have in the past. I plan to geocache on the run a lot more this year particularly in East Memphis and Collierville to pick up many of the remaining caches I have in those areas. As a bit of added incentive, I've decided not to cut my hair or shave my beard until I lose 15 pounds. I already look a bit shaggy so I need to get busy!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Schedule Conflicts
It's almost time for the 4th annual GOWT anniversary event so I've been keeping an eye on the Groundspeak event calendar. To my surprise today, I saw a West Tennessee event scheduled for January 26 which is normally the day we host our annual event. It seems that the clowns of the "JAG Nation" picked that day to host Volnuts 1K Shindig by dalls (GC18B2T). I'm surprised this was not listed as a "subscriber-only" event so they could monitor who reads the event page. I know how they like to do that and post the names in their discussion forum.
A short time later, I looked at February's calendar and saw our event - 4th Annual GOWT Gathering by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC18AZX) was scheduled for February 16 - nearly three weeks after our traditional anniversary date. I found out later that was because somebody had a "schedule conflict" with our normal day. Since nobody polled the membership about alternate dates, I assume it was somebody on the leadership or advisory committees.
If I were a cynical person I would note that this schedule change gives a certain licentious member of the leadership committee an opportunity to spend a part of Valentine's Day weekend with his two favorite non-familial ladies. Hmmmmm.... Bring flowers, little playa and leave the wife at home! This event should be a lot of fun if the restaurant doesn't run out of pie!
A short time later, I looked at February's calendar and saw our event - 4th Annual GOWT Gathering by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC18AZX) was scheduled for February 16 - nearly three weeks after our traditional anniversary date. I found out later that was because somebody had a "schedule conflict" with our normal day. Since nobody polled the membership about alternate dates, I assume it was somebody on the leadership or advisory committees.
If I were a cynical person I would note that this schedule change gives a certain licentious member of the leadership committee an opportunity to spend a part of Valentine's Day weekend with his two favorite non-familial ladies. Hmmmmm.... Bring flowers, little playa and leave the wife at home! This event should be a lot of fun if the restaurant doesn't run out of pie!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Walking In Memphis - January 1, 2008
I was going to begin the first day of the New Year with a run, but had decided it was too cold. I decided to take a long walk instead. That way if I got too cold I could find a store to hole up in for a while. The morning wasn't too bad - warmer than I thought it would be and for a while I thought I had dressed too warmly.
It took me nearly two hours to get to the location of the first cache of the day - Life of the Party by itcomagic (GC130RR). I had read the hint so I knew what to do when I got to the 1st stage. After getting the coords to the second stage and plugging them in to my GPSr, I found the final stage was relatively close by in a spot I had visited once before. It took me a moment to find the cache, though, as I think the coords may have been off slightly.
I made my way over to the University of Memphis campus to check on the progress of the new University Center. It appears that progress has slowed a little because of the holidays. After taking advantage of a nearby port-a-potty, I headed east on Southern to the next cache on my list - Back to Nature - Back to Life by itcomagic (GC16AWF). This cache was located at a Cancer Survivors park newly established on the east end of Audubon Park. This cache was my easiest find of the day so I took a little extra time to walk around and read the plaques and take a few pictures.
My next stop was a bus stop near the Dillard's at the Oak Court Mall to look for Whatsa MATA with Oak Court? by itcomagic (GC14HZ5). I had passed by this on my way to Cancer Survivor's Park because I knew the hide here was tricky. I must have looked silly to people driving by. The mall was actually pretty busy and since the buses weren't running, I was a bit out of place. I looked all over and after security drove by me for the third time, I decided to take a break and have lunch at the Food Court.
After enjoying a delicious lunch at Steak Escape, I decided to head east to hunt SCS #1: Sanderlin Place by itcomagic (GC153KN). Unlike Oak Court Mall, this place was dead. This was great since I had to walk all over gathering information to plug into a formula to find the cache. I don't really like caches like this because of the number of opportunities to make mistakes. On this day, however, I made no mistakes and found the cache and signed the log. It was around 2pm at this point and I needed to head back towards home if I wanted to get there by dark. It was starting the get windier and colder as well. I passed back by Oak Court Mall where I used the restroom and made one more try at the cache outside. This time I found it quickly by correctly interpreting the previous finders' logs. That would be my fourth and last find of a long day of walking. It took another 2 1/2 hours to make it back to my neighborhood and the temperature had dropped quite a bit. I stopped at a Wendy's to pick up dinner and almost had to eat it there because my hands and wrists were so cold I was barely able to hold onto my food. I also had quite a bit of trouble unlocking the doors to my apartment because I couldn't hold my keys well. I don't know what the temperature was when I left home that morning, but when I got home it was 32 degrees with a windchill of 21. I had been outside for roughly 8 hours (minus my lunch break) so it took me quite a while to warm up, but at least the day was memorable and a lot of fun!
It took me nearly two hours to get to the location of the first cache of the day - Life of the Party by itcomagic (GC130RR). I had read the hint so I knew what to do when I got to the 1st stage. After getting the coords to the second stage and plugging them in to my GPSr, I found the final stage was relatively close by in a spot I had visited once before. It took me a moment to find the cache, though, as I think the coords may have been off slightly.
I made my way over to the University of Memphis campus to check on the progress of the new University Center. It appears that progress has slowed a little because of the holidays. After taking advantage of a nearby port-a-potty, I headed east on Southern to the next cache on my list - Back to Nature - Back to Life by itcomagic (GC16AWF). This cache was located at a Cancer Survivors park newly established on the east end of Audubon Park. This cache was my easiest find of the day so I took a little extra time to walk around and read the plaques and take a few pictures.
My next stop was a bus stop near the Dillard's at the Oak Court Mall to look for Whatsa MATA with Oak Court? by itcomagic (GC14HZ5). I had passed by this on my way to Cancer Survivor's Park because I knew the hide here was tricky. I must have looked silly to people driving by. The mall was actually pretty busy and since the buses weren't running, I was a bit out of place. I looked all over and after security drove by me for the third time, I decided to take a break and have lunch at the Food Court.
After enjoying a delicious lunch at Steak Escape, I decided to head east to hunt SCS #1: Sanderlin Place by itcomagic (GC153KN). Unlike Oak Court Mall, this place was dead. This was great since I had to walk all over gathering information to plug into a formula to find the cache. I don't really like caches like this because of the number of opportunities to make mistakes. On this day, however, I made no mistakes and found the cache and signed the log. It was around 2pm at this point and I needed to head back towards home if I wanted to get there by dark. It was starting the get windier and colder as well. I passed back by Oak Court Mall where I used the restroom and made one more try at the cache outside. This time I found it quickly by correctly interpreting the previous finders' logs. That would be my fourth and last find of a long day of walking. It took another 2 1/2 hours to make it back to my neighborhood and the temperature had dropped quite a bit. I stopped at a Wendy's to pick up dinner and almost had to eat it there because my hands and wrists were so cold I was barely able to hold onto my food. I also had quite a bit of trouble unlocking the doors to my apartment because I couldn't hold my keys well. I don't know what the temperature was when I left home that morning, but when I got home it was 32 degrees with a windchill of 21. I had been outside for roughly 8 hours (minus my lunch break) so it took me quite a while to warm up, but at least the day was memorable and a lot of fun!
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