Leapin' Lizards - 2/29/2012

I'm not really working to have a cache find for every day of the calendar, but because February 29 only comes once every four years, I figured I'd make an effort in case I do decide to try someday. That is why I was happy to see an event pop up for that day.

[ Interesting log for the event. I didn't notice the trackable coin at the bottom left until later. ]

For February 29th, there was supposed to be rain. It made me a little apprehensive about driving acros the county through busy rush hour traffic for an event. The rain had ended by the time I got off of work, so on to the event it was. I decided to hunt T.D.D. #7 by dragon9981 (GC2MJPH) (at a Walgreen's) along the way in order to make sure I had at least one cache find for the day. After that, I headed straight to the event location.

I actually arrived at Booya's in Collierville around 6pm, an hour early. I decided to walk east and pick up T.D.D. #11 by dragon9981 (GC2RA30) (again at a Walgreen's). I also walked over to the nearby Collierville Towne Center 16 movie theater to see what was playing, in case I wanted to catch a late movie before going home. It turns out that their last showings of the day were around 7pm.

Around 6:30pm, I returned a missed call from jbgreer, who it turned out would not be able to make the event. As I was getting off of the phone, I saw abiectio walk up, so I ended up following him into the restaurant. Team hdrider55 came in right behind us. I got to discover some cool coins while I was in line - of course, I forgot to bring mine.

As I got to the front of the line and paid for my meal, I saw one of the hosts, tiger130, heading for the room where the event was being held. I went into the room and found an empty table off to the side because I don't really like eating close to other people. Soon I was joined by bevofan. I was pleased to meet AmiteMaid, who told me that she reads my blog. I'm always surprised when I meet someone who reads it.

After I saw someone drop off a travel bug, I remembered that I had one in my pocket that was in a race - 2012 Great TB Race - CedarPointSpaz. When I had marked it as dropped off on the cache page earlier, the owner of the bug also left a message on the page asking people to help it out. The hosts of the event, bitbrain and tiger130 had read the note and very graciously took the TB around the room for people to discover - which was one of the ways it earned points in its race. They also arranged for another cacher to take it move it on. I thought that was pretty cool!

The rest of the event was spent mostly mingling with others, talking about caching and caching adventures. I had a lot of fun, and it didn't seem that long before it was over. I enjoyed the traffic-light drive back to Memphis.

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For the curious, here is a link to the race that the travel bug I dropped is in: The Annual Great TB Race and the 2012 Race Rankings.

Purple Heart (GC38YDJ) - 1/28/2012

It was Friday evening and I was making plans to hunt caches along a "power trail" on Saturday, when I was contacted by geocacher shandrum. He was planning to try out some new equipment for the new 5/5 cache Purple Heart by Tiger130 (GC38YDJ). Not only was he FTF on the cache by scaling roughly 60 feet up a tree, but he had been helping others make the climb and was constantly trying to come up with easier ways of doing it.

I was apprehensive about going, because I had promised to do it on the same day as my pal jbgreer did it. Having tried it once before and failed, I knew that I needed more practice climbing and didn't want to go with jbgreer and then fail to do it. I decided to accept and invitation and agreed to meet shandrum at the parking area at Herb Parsons Lake at 10am on Saturday.

I got to the park a little early and met up with shandrum. He told me that nelms3 would be going with us, and he arrived as we were heading out. It was a cool and sunny morning. We arrived at the now familiar location and shandrum began to setup the climbing gear. He introduced us to his new method of getting the rope up into the tree. It was a pneumatic bean bag launcher.

[ Packing the bean bag before using a pump to compress the air. ]

It took two tries to get the starter rope placed properly. Pretty good considering it was shandrum's first time to use it. After the climbing rope was set up, I was rigged up in the harness and instructed on what I need to do to go up and down the rope. It was an easier system than I had used before and things started out fine. I made it up higher than I had the previous time with much less effort. As I got higher, I began to have trouble staying upright. As I leaned back to rest a minute I suddenly got a really bad headache. I knew I couldn't continue to climb, so I lowered myself to the ground. Once I got to the ground, walked around a little bit and had something to drink, I felt better. I'm pretty sure that my clothing and my position in the harness had somehow managed to interfere with the blood flow to my head.

I didn't want to waste everyone's time (including mine) by not making it up the rope, so I asked the guys to haul me up the way many of the previous cache finders had done. All I basically had to do was hold the rope to keep myself semi-upright and the guys on the ground would do the rest. It was still tough, as my weak and tired hands had difficulty holding onto the rope. Inch by inch they pulled me up. Just over half way up there was a large branch that I had to maneuver around. When I got above it, I got a chance to stand on it and take a short rest break.

[ Looking down from the rest point. ]

[ It feels good to rest. ]

I felt better after the brief break and the guys hauled me up the rest of the way to the cache. I should have approached opening it from a little higher vantage point, but I wanted to get a picture facing the container.

[ Purple ammo can surprisingly well in focus. ]

Finally, it was time to sign the log. I had to be careful to not drop anything including the ammo can lid, the logbook, the cache contents, or my pen. Oh - and my camera.

[ Signing the log with numb hands. ]

Before I came down, I wanted to get a picture of the ground from above. I couldn't move around in the harness, so I held out the camera, pointed it down and took a shot.

[ I couldn't actually see this view until I downloaded the picture. ]

[ Shot from the ground. ]

I made sure the container was closed and my pen and camera were in my pocket and proceeded to come down slowly. I had forgotten to put my gloves back on so the rope was a little warm. After I came down to earth, shandrum tested out a new harness that he had bought. He used a slightly different climbing technique than he had shown me previously.

After all of that, shandrum packed up his gear and nelms3 offered to carry it out. While we were hanging out in the parking area, another geocacher giardia_boy came up the trail. He had been after another cache that wasn't far from where we had been. While we were talking, shandrum demonstrated his new bean bag launcher.

[ The pneumatic bean bag launcher. ]

After nelms3 and giardia_boy left, I planned to stay a bit longer to let my headache subside and ended up accompanying shandrum to hunt a nearby cache. My drive home was uneventful, but I ended up taking a longer way than the way I had come.

On a final note: I want to thank shandrum for his help and patience, and I thank nelms3 for taking pictures. Hopefully at some point, I'll be able to make the climb successfully without being pulled up.

Bobcat (Lynx rufus) - 1/13/2012

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

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

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

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

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.