Night Caching in Nesbit Park - 11/14/2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.