Caching at Arkabutla Lake - September 20, 2008

My good buddy jbgreer had contacted me earlier in the week to ask if I'd like to go geocaching on Saturday. When I asked if he had an area in mind, he said he would be busy all week and would call me on Friday. I was busy as well so I only spent a little time trying to find an area to cache in that would meet his goal of hunting high difficulty/terrain caches and my goal of hunting as many caches as possible.


I picked the Arkabutla Lake area knowing that if we had time, we could eat lunch and cache in nearby Hernando, MS as well. We had both cached in the area before and the familiarity would help us on this day.

We met at the casa de jbgreer at 8:30am on Saturday and after fueling up the cachemobile, began our day's adventure.

Heading south on I-55, we passed several new caches in Southaven in order to have sufficient caching time further south. We decided to approach Arkbutla Lake from the south via Coldwater, MS and our first cache was The Arkabutla Walk by Team140 (GC1FHBC). We had hiked these trails before, and on this occasion, noticed a sign that made us both laugh.


It had rained a bit on Friday and that made the terrain a bit tougher everywhere we went. Spiderwebs were also a nuisance. After finding the first cache and returning the way we came in, we headed for Blue Hole #1 by mrjlsmith (GC1FHA8). When we got to the area of the cache, we noticed that the area was off-limits. We failed at a quick search and when we got back to the truck, we found a ranger driving around. We decided to skip the nearby Blue Hole #2 and move on.

We headed northwest and hunted Coyote Hill by Duckman63 (GC1AYTC). It was a nice hike and even though the coords were off, we were rewarded by find a nice ammo can. The ratings seemed a little high for this cache, but no big deal.


Going up the road (Hwy 304) a little further, we made a quick find of Wolf Creek by Duckman63 (GC1F767). We then headed east to a cluster of three caches in a recreational area. Hiking along muddy trails, we found Baldwin Rd. Dead End by Duckman63 (GC1AY5G), Baldwin Rd. Dead End #2 by duckman63 (GC1F75X), and JBSB#1 by mrjlsmith (GC1FFC7). These were all great caches and we enjoyed the hikes to find them. At one point, we heard people riding ATVs and the occasional rifle shot, but we managed to get in and out of there without being noticed or shot.


Our final cache in the area was Old 304 Access Area by bomb280 (GC11Z4J). After a brief hunt for the access road, we were rewarded by finding the cache. I took a few pictures of the area while there.


We were happy with the caches found so far. Most were by new cachers and recently placed. Most were in excellent containers and well-stocked.

At this point, we were hungry so we headed into the nearby town of Hernando.

[to be continued]

In the Neighborhood

Last night I ran in the Cooper-Young 4 mile race that kicks off the yearly festival in this neighborhood. The start of the race was near a cache I found over three years ago. On May 2, 2005, I was the FTF on Neighborhood by Mr Lost adopted by Andy/Memphis (GCNNZ3).

Standing at the start of the race, I was reminded of the enthusiasm I once had whenever I saw a new cache pop up. As I raced down the streets in the zigzag course, I noted several places that would be great places to hide caches. When the weather cools off, I will head back over to check these places out.

The race itself went pretty well. It had around 600 participants and I finished in 278th place with a time of just under 36 and a half minutes. It was blistering hot and I was appreciative of the people standing in their yards spraying runners with water as they passed by.

Puzzle Caches Revisited

Here is a link to a Groundspeak thread regarding the sharing of coordinates for puzzle caches.

A wide variety of opinions are expressed (some even on-topic). Some I agree with (or understand), others not so much. My own position on this has evolved over the years. In my experience, too much help diminishes the feelings of accomplishment in finding a "high-difficulty" cache. It is my belief that if you need help with finding a cache or solving a puzzle related to a cache, you should contact the cache owner.

Titansfan and pcsenn, two of the "leaders" of GOWT, obviously have no problem with using coordinates that someone else gave them. Others in the GOWT leadership cadre have no problem handing them out to anyone who asks. I guess it is naive to expect "leaders" to be held to a higher standard of behavior.

[Pcsenn later edited his log for "Blackjack" to obfuscate who on the "team" actually solved the puzzle. His earlier log mentioned that someone else provided the coordinates. Nice work, dude.]

On a side note: After reading this blog entry from Titansfan, I posted a comment asking who provided his team with the coordinates to Blackjack by Mr Lost (GCZ84G). Since his blog is moderated, he appears to have chosen not to post my comment. I recommended Titansfan for the GOWT Reorganization Committee many months ago and supported his selection to the Leadership Committee. In recent months, I realize that I made a big mistake - one of many regarding GOWT.

---

I see Titansfan just joined the JAG forums. That's good! Now he won't have to use his wife's account to spy on them for GOWT.

Caching on Labor Day 2008

I hadn't done any caching on Saturday or Sunday so I was surprised when jbgreer called me up around 7:30am on Monday morning wanting to know if I was up to hunting some caches. He was particularly interested in hunting some of the "Flip Dizzy" caches that we had coordinates solved for. I had kinda hoped we would save those for much cooler weather, but... ok, I'm up for it.

We arranged to meet at 9am and head out in some direction. We decided to begin our hunt in Riverside Park (AKA MLK Park). There were a handful of caches left for us to find in that park and it had been a while since we had been there.

Upon arriving at the park, I declared that we should go after GS - MLK Park by Abiectio (GC18A5W). Nothing like starting the day with an easy guardrail cache, right? Hmmmmm... The road we need to be on doesn't seem to exist.

We decided to go ahead and hunt Flip Dizzy by Abiectio (GC18M8X). I had known it was in this park even before attempting the puzzle. Earlier finders (from GOWT) had left enough clues in their logs to tell me and anyone else who reads logs what park it was in. Thanks guys!

Anyways, we hunted and found it in short order and moved on to find more caches.

We had managed to figure out what happened to the missing road that the guardrail cache was on. It seems that the parks dept closed both ends and simply removed just enough of the road to make it difficult to find. After finding an entrance on the south side, we drove the cachemobile in far enough to be out of sight of any muggles. It turns out that you can't drive too far on it anyways. We were able to walk a good distance on the road, a few spots were covered with vegetation we had to navigate around. After a bit, we found the guardrail. Wow - this was a cool hiding spot! I hadn't paid attention to the terrain level (a 3) and it definitely fit the ratings, in fact they might be low for this time of year.


Walking back to the truck, we detoured slightly to pick up Cherrybark Oak by Chance Encounter (adopted by Abiectio) (GCTP6W). We tried this one before and couldn't figure out how to get to it - not knowing about the hidden road. It was a welcome easy find.


Afterwards, we hiked back to the truck and drank some water before moving to another area.

We decided next to go after Ohm's Law by Chance Encounter (adopted by Abiectio) (GCTK4G). We had solved this puzzle a long time ago, but couldn't find the cache. Today, we had better luck. After a lot of wandering around, jbgreer spotted the container.

We drove a short distance north and quickly found The Troll of MLK park by Abiectio (GC18A6R). I think the troll has been replaced by spiderwebs...

That was our last find in the park. Since it was still early in the day, we decided to hunt a few more of the Flip Dizzy series.

We plotted the coordinates for Flip Dizzy - Turning gold into lead since 1973 by Abiectio (GC1B6FJ) and headed across town. We were able to park within a few hundred feet of the cache, but had some obstacles in our path. We stumbled out onto a trail and found the cache a short distance away. Rather than go back the way we came, we decided to see where the trail led. It led us eventually to a nature area we had been to once before. Neat! I took a few pictures, but my camera messed up...

After getting back to the truck, we headed to Flip Dizzy - Bad Juju by Abiectio (GC1CJJ1). This was the easiest of the puzzles to solve and for some reason, I thought it would be tougher to find. It was an interesting area that will probably be built over at some point.

Finally, we headed over to Bartlett Park for two more caches. The first, Flip Dizzy "It's the colors man" by Abiectio (GC1A8WG), was partially spoiled by the online logs (thanks, GOWT) but was not disappointing. On this day the ditches/gulleys were muddy and slippery. We tried to avoid mulitple crossings and ended up going in circles before finally finding our way back to a trail. It was way to hot and humid for wandering in circles. Our last cache of the day was FTF All Star #7: Bartlett Park by Abiectio and itcomagic (GC1D76T). It was mercifully easy and took us to probably the one area of the park we had not seen before. Jbgreer nearly broke his arm at one point, but the hike out was nice and uneventful.

I was glad to make it back to the truck where I drank most of my third quart of water. I had just enough as it turned out. I was also pretty glad to get home afterwards and clean up. I slept very well that night.

Caching in Huntington, OR - June 29, 2008

My brother decided to take the week before the July 4th weekend to do some camping and fishing along the Snake River with some friends of his. Since I don't fish and my Dad doesn't really like to camp, we made plans to drive down and hang out. Of course, once I found out where exactly my brother was going, I mapped out all of the nearby caches.

We left early on the 29th and headed south towards Huntington. On the way we stopped at the Baker Truck Corral in Baker City and had my favorite breakfast - corned beef hash and scrambled eggs.

A short while later, we made a quick stop in Durkee, OR to hunt outside looking in by maint/man (GCT4GJ). This was a nice cemetery cache.

The first cache we hunted upon arriving in Huntington was THE LAST SPIKE by Jeron (GC12AMZ). It was one of those magnetic keyholders on a caboose, that I normally dread. This one wasn't hard, but there were lots of muggles in the area. If I had been by myself, I probably would have spent more time reading about the history of the spot.

After finding the cache, we drove to a place nearby where my brother and his friends were camped out. After learning that my brother was off somewhere, we decided to go ahead and hunt a few more caches.

HUNTING IN HUNTINGTON (Geo that is!) by Jeron (GC12AMH) was about 1/2 mile away. This was in an area that looks like you could camp nearby. It is also in an area convenient for fishing. The coordinates took me to an area with some big rocks, and since the hint mentioned rocks, I got to turn each one over. It turned out that the cache location was under a rock in a pile a little further away and covered with vegetation and mosquitoes.

The next cache - Brownlee View by GeoTechnician & OliviaRed (GCN3BH) was a little further down the road (River Road). There was no place really close to park, so my Dad dropped me off and drove down the road a ways. Because this was a fairly steep hike, I used a zigzag approach to make it a little easier. My GPSr arrow was acting goofy, but I eventually found where the cache was neatly tucked away. I had an excellent view of the Snake River from the cache spot, so I rested for a moment before heading back down.


After getting back to the truck we doubled back into Huntington and headed south for more caches.

I was looking forward to the next cache - Birch Creek Rest Area by newlifelawn (GC126T0) because I assumed it would be at a rest area. We drove down a few windy gravel roads and my Dad and I thought we might be in the wrong area. It turned out the be an access area for the Oregon Trail. This is a pretty barren area for the most part, so I paused to imagine what it would be like for the pioneers traveling this way.


The next cache was Catfish Connection by n2life (GC13M2M). It was basically a small container hidden on the grounds of a bait shop/RV park. It was a quick find. At this point we headed back north for one more cache.

The last cache we hunted was Indianhead View by Shebear & Storminn (GCQWXR). After parking, I headed down into a small ravine and got to spend a bit of time searching through some rough brush and find the cache. It was getting to be pretty warm by this time, and we were both ready to head back to the fishing camp.

One Reviewer in Texas

I don't really like to read the Groundspeak geocaching forums much, but every once in a while I will look for topics that interest me.

Here is a topic that really makes me shake my head:

One Reviewer in Texas?

In it, the original poster wonders about the timeframe for getting caches approved. After finding out that the state of Texas only has one reviewer, he wonders out loud why this is - how it is possible for one person to review caches for such a big state in a timely manner.

I thought this was a fair question.

The first response is from my old pal Max Cacher, who doesn't answer the question but simply states "Volunteer Reviewers also have lives outside of caching, sometimes that does get in the way, but she is doing a great job for Texas".

Most of the rest of the posters, defend only having one reviewer by basically saying: "Look - your caches were approved, why are you complaining?"

Max Cacher attempts to moderate by prematurely posting: "Forum courtesy: Please treat Groundspeak, its employees, volunteers, fellow community members, and guests on these boards with courtesy and respect. Whether a community member has one post or 5,000 posts, they should be treated fairly."

What he means (based on the context of this and other threads) is: "Don't question Groundspeak or its volunteer reviewers."

My understanding about becoming a volunteer reviewer is that Groundspeak uses the "don't call us, we will call you" approach. I guess it works for them. I'm not so sure it works for everyone else.

The OP mentions (in the 15th post) that "...I know how pointless it can be to get into an argument with someone in a position of "authority" on boards such as these, especially since I have been informed by people who have dealt with Groundspeak that it's better not to question their volunteers for risk of retribution." He is not the only one who feels that way. Searching the forums, one can find this same sentiment expressed by a few others. Most of them ended up being belittled by other posters. These belittlers didn't attempt to rationally discuss the issue, they simply took the opportunity to kiss up to Groundspeak for reasons that escape me.

Maybe someday somebody who works for Groundspeak will address the rationale for picking reviewers using the method they do.

Caching in Memphis, TN - August 3, 2008

I don't normally do much on Sunday, but I had plans on this day to go see the movie "Hellboy II" with my pal jbgreer and his wife. Even though it was warmer than I like, I decided to spend a couple of hours before the movie picking up a few park-and-grab caches located a few miles from the theater. My main goal was to get the 3 remaining caches in the "Whatsa MATA" series by itcomagic and a few others.

I started by going to the one the furthest away from me - Whatsa MATA on Stage? by Abiectio (GC1DV8N). It was a good hide and I found it quickly only because I was very familiar with the hide technique. The most interesting part of the hunt, though, was the path I drove to get there. It was through a part of town I can't recall having been through before.

The second cache was Whatsa MATA with White Station? by itcomagic (GC1DRM4). Another quick find. The only thing that confused me about the hide technique was that it would most likely be destroyed the next time landscaping was done on the area. Why hide it there? Oh, well - on to the next cache.

Not far away was DEAD SPACE by ~Mindless-Focus~ (GC1DZMG). I made an incorrect assumption about the hide location, but found it quick enough, anyways. I would not recommend hiding anything inside of anything electrical.

It was getting close to movie time, so I headed over to Whatsa MATA with Challenges? by itcomagic (with cgeek, Abiectio, and Nvisible) (GC1DRM8) since it was near my destination. Once I (finally) found a place to park, I headed over to the coords. When I got to where I believed the cache to be and saw my GPSr pointing off into the woods about 30 feet, I knew the coords were off. Still, I gave the wooded area a shot and went back to search where I wanted to search in the first place. I didn't have time to find it, so I ended up leaving. This cache had not been found by the time I arrived, and my experience with itcomagic caches has been to wait for someone else to find the cache (pointing out puzzle or coordinate errors )and put a spoiler in the log. ( In this case, netinator later found the cache and posted enough of a spoiler to help me out should I make it back over there.)

I made it to the theater with about 10 minutes to spare. The movie was pretty good.