Geocaching Maker Madness Event - 3/30/2014

I decided to take some time off from doing nothing to attend an event in Germantown, TN's Cameron Brown Park.  This event, which awarded a souvenir, was designed to honor the people who take the time and effort to place great geocaches.  The host was wrath557 and the guest speakers were magicrock and abiectio.  We learned about camo caches and puzzle caches.  A good time was had by all.

Afterwards, I teamed up with Ham-R-Hed, bitbrain, and bevofan to tackle At The End Of My Rope by tinksdad01 | GC4QA8T.  I almost found the cache by myself, but ended up missing the mark.  This cache earned one of my "coveted" favorite points amd I wish I could describe the experience without spoiling it for others who haven't found it.  As we were about to leave the cache site, another cacher came along so we entertained ourselves by watching here struggle to find it.

On the way out of the park, I got one more find - Where Young Folks Play by ProntoPup | GC4VVQY to end my day.  There was another event nearby, but I'd had enough fun for one day.

W. C. Johnson Park - 12/28/2013

It's hard to believe we are at the end of another year. It's even harder to believe that it has been an entire month since I hunted a geocache.  On this day, I was fortunate to be able to get together with my geocaching buddy jbgreer for a nice hunt in a nice Collierville park.  Almost all of the caches we hunted on this trip were placed this year and I had been waiting for cold weather to hunt them.

After enjoying a nice breakfast, we headed to Collierville, TN and made it to W. C. Johnson Park by 10:30am.  We headed out on the boardwalk into the woods and it started to sprinkle almost immediately.  We had also made the decision not to wear waterproof boots, which on this day turned out to be an excellent decision.

We found ten caches in the woods - nine were by peanutpapa and one was by tiger130.  All were great caches and easily findable.  After leaving the woods we decided to tackle one more cache - Johnson Park Pavilion by rebeldawg | GC47KDY.  This one had evaded me over the summer and on this day as well.  Fortunately, jbgreer did a better job of searching the hiding spot than I did.  We were done by 2pm or so and headed back to Memphis.

[I'll flesh this out a little more - maybe tomorrow.]

9 Years of Geocaching - 11/26/2013

This week was not only Thanksgiving week, but it marked the end of my ninth year of gecaoching.  I 'celebrated" by hunting a couple of caches on my way to Thanksgiving dinner, becuase I mistakenly thought the anniversary date was 11/28.  My bad. 

I had plans to get 4 caches. including a puzzle cache I had solved earlier.  I managed to leave home without my GPSr so my phone had to do for navigation.  I missed the first two caches on my list because I missed a turn and I was running a little behind schedule.  The two caches I did manage to get to were worth the hunt event though I found both fairly quickly.

THE WRATH OF ROCK by magicrock | GC4NYQJ - The puzzle was based on Start Trek II: The Wrath of Khan trivia.  Some answers I knew, others were found on the internet.  Since I didn't have my GPS, I couldn't enter new coordinates on my phona app (as far as I know), so I have to guide myself with the tiny numbers on the app that show current location.  Excellent cache - as anyone who has hunted magicrock caches can attest to.

Rocky Branch by sailemstable | GC2582B  - I used Google Street View to look at the cache area and a spolier pic to identify the cache.  Still, it was a cool cache!  The dog mentioned on the cache page didn't come out, I imagine because he was too busy begging for turkey scraps.

I'm sure I have mentioned this somewhere before, but my first cache find was on 11/26/2004 and was Overton Park Magnetic Wood!? by Spencersb | GCKAX7.  I found it with my caching buddy jbgreer and without the benefit of my own GPS unit.

Caching in Union City, TN - 9/15/2013

Most of my recent excursions have been to Arkansas to the west or Mississippi to the south.  It has been a while since I visited northwest Tennessee.  The first thing I had to do was adjust my pocket query for that area because it has a lot more caches to pick from since my last visit.  The second thing to do was target a specific area.  I have cached in Union City once before along with the surrounding towns and enjoyed my visit.  This time I wanted to focus on Union City itself because it had close to 40 caches in a relatively small area.

{ Beautiful day for geocaching ]

I set out early Sunday morning, just before sunrise.  The weather was nice and cool.  The one thing I did not expect, though, was fog.  It slowed me down a bit and I had to be really careful until after the sun rose and the fog burned off. 

I made a few stops along the way.  Because I took Hwy 51, there is only one rest stop near Henning that I used to organize my maps for the day.  I found ROOTS' --easy micro by lookingUPward | GC4099P in Henning shortly after.  A police car parked by me as I was about to leave the cache site, but he didn't stop me for anything.

I stopped to get an easy cache at a Confederate memorial site in Trimble that had some of the nicest scenery on the trip.  After I signed the log, some dude in a pickup parked near me and sat there while I walked around the area taking pictures.  Creeped me out a bit.

Continuing north, I picked up two caches in Troy before arriving in Union City around 9am - at least an hour later than I had planned.

I hit all of the caches from west to east along Reelfoot Avenue early, which was good because later the traffic was crazy.  I then found most of the caches in the center of town before going after the caches in the Veteran's park at the north end of town.

[ I turned my phone back on for a moment to take this one picture of the Veterans Park. ]

I started running into one technical problem after another as the day progressed.  Because my GPSr maps chip is damaged, I was using my phone for autorouting.  Before I covered a third of the caches, my battery was down to 11 percent and I ended up turning it off.  This also cost me the ability to read cache descriptions and logs.  My GPSr, a Garmin 60csx had no maps, so I had to rely on the compass - like I did as a beginner.  I had paper maps to help me a little, but I didn't have many notes written because I was becoming more reliant on my phone.  I didn't have my camera along because I had started to rely more on my phone to take pictures.  Lessons learned for sure on this trip.  These things slowed me down a little, but I still had a lot of fun.  Most all of the caches were low difficulty/terrain so I didn't get too frustrated.  I also got talk to a woman about geocaching.  She had seen many people visit a particular spot looking for something, and she picked this day to finally ask somebody what was going on.  I dislike encounters like that normally, but we had a nice talk before I had to move on.

I had a late lunch at a Subway before heading back south the same way I came in.  I picked up a few more caches in Dyersburg before ending my day.

Caching in Holly Springs, MS - 9/1/2013

I've been waiting for cooler weather to make a cache run on Oxford, MS.  Holly Springs is a small town that is on the way to Oxford rom Memphis.  It had seven caches that looked like park and grabs, so I made plans to go early Sunday morning before it go too hot and clear out these caches, so I wouldn't need to hunt them on my Oxford trip.

I arrived in Holly Springs around 7am and hit the southern most cache first and worked my way north.

Sounds Of Thunder   by Hammer Down | GC24TP7 - was just outside of a race track.  I resisted a sign's invitation to race around the track and just hunted the cache.

Next up - the town Wal Mart cache.


Wally Micro  by Riverwolf | GC1FQ2V - a guardrail cache that I found on the ground after almost giving up the search.  Its hide spot had a holder for the cache, but it wasn't effective.

Starving To Death V2 by lacey38655 | GC27268 - Easy Park and Grab that was just out of the way enough to not have to worry about watchers.

A cemetery cache was next.


Hillcrest Cemetry of Holly Springs, MS   by Scooby-Doo Crew | GC2RGXR - This was a beautiful cemetery with a cache near an entrance.  The hint confused me at first but the container was actually big enough to spot once I interpreted the hint correctly.

The South Reporter by moondg | GC1FM75  - Simply awesome and the best part of the trip!  The cache page has spoiler pictures, but seeing the cache itself was cool.

Mississippi Blues Trail : Hill Country Blues  by MS Blues Trail Geocache Committee | GC2TD3K - The cache was missing so I attempted to replace it because I am trying to log at least 25 Blues trail caches around the state.

Marshall County Historical Museum   by Scooby-Doo Crew | GC2T03Z - Nice easy hide to end the morning on. 

I wasted no time after getting back to my car and made it home well before lunch time.  I hardly broke a sweat for a change.

31 Days of Geocaching: Days 29 - 31

It's almost over.  I think I'll do something else in Septermber.

Day 29

I went to Shelby Farms after work to get a cache at a spot I had been to before.  The traffic getting there was terrible and it took almost twice as long as it would had I visited in the morning.  I had to go home by a different route and got a chance to see the area around the Delta Fair that starts soon.

ACME-Geocaching Can Be Fun by Giardia_Boy | GC45AGA - I knew what to expect here, but it was still a fun cache.

Day 30

It was an easy choice and fairly close to home, so I set out early in the morning to hunt my last streak challenge cache.

The CCC 30 by Wrath557 | GC3XY0G- Easy find.  The challenge, of course, was to have a 30-day geocaching streak.

Day 31

 I got up early and tackled some caches around Tunica, MS.  There were several Mississippi Blues Trail caches and since I am working on that series, it was a good opportuinty.  I found several excellent caches with dry logs to finish out my 31 day streak.


Bullseye   by jht1212 | GC4KQYA - Appropriate get get the day's first cache at a Target, since I hit my target of a 31 day geocaching streak.  At this point, I seriously considered turning around and going home.


Hurricane Creek #2 by DUCKMAN63 | GC1JZAD - Quick find, foggy in the area.

Hurricane Creek #1 by DUCKMAN63 | GC1HAXP  - Quick find on Fogg Rd.

Mississippi Blues Trail: Highway 61 Blues   by dameetro | GC3PYCQ  - I loved everything about this cache.  I also relished in the fact I got here so early I had no people to worry about.

Mississippi Blues Trail: Son House by dameetro | GC3PYC5  - Another interesting out of the way spot.

Mississippi Blues Trail: Abbay & Leatherman by dameetro | GC39F66  -Nicely done guard rail cache.

Mississippi Blues Trail: James Cotton by ADS1 (adopted by Lacey38655) | GC3137D - I almost gave up on this one, but it was there and should have been easier for me.

 H'way #1 Power Trail: 1 at 49   by ButchCardfamily | GC34HXZ - Wow!  A power trail where you actually have to search to find the caches.  Better come back in weather that is much cooler.

Delta Bridges#44 Ms. River Helena by ButchCardfamily | GC4FAC8 - Easy and cool.

I-69's First Cache Updated by DUCKMAN63 | GC1JZA7 - Great cache in poor condition.  The only wet log I signed today.  I tried to clean it up a bit, but without a new box...

At some point. I will summarize what geocaching for 31 days straight meant for me.  I don't want to think about how much it cost in time and gas...

31 Days of Geocaching: Days 22 - 28

We are coming into the home stretch now.  Just a few more days and I can start sleeping in again - or at least not wasting as much money on gasoline driving  as much as 50 miles roundtrip for one or two caches a day.

Day 22

I found a cache here at this Veterans Memorial site years ago.  There was a puzzle involved for this newer one and I had solved it a long time ago.  On this trip, I actually brought the coordinates with me for a change.

Fallen but NOT Forgotten  by bnctich575 | GC4320P - New container that is in good shape considering where it is.

Day 23

I made a quick trip to Shelby Farms for a rare Park and Grab cache.  I did have a short hike to make but its relatively peaceful in the mornings. 

Andy's Fishing Hole  by fshacktn | GC4F5XC - Nice view of a fishing lake.

 Day 24

I drove to Brinkley, AR to tackle the easternmost portion of the Americana Hwy 70 Series.  I arrived in town just as the sun rose and found a cache in a park to start out the morning.

Best Park Ever! by AR Cachers | GC1XC5F  - magenetic key holder - goo no swear cache to start with.

I found 20 of 21 of the series caches that are located just east of Brinkley.  Afterwards, I got back on I-40 West to tackle more of these caches from the west.  I found a bunch (22), but also had an overly high DNF count for what were supposed to be simple hides.  Compounding this problem were caches that were practically buried and soggy logs in almost half of the caches. I ended up coming home around noon. 

Day 25

I left after lunch to hunt a few caches on east east end of Collierville that I knew I couldn't do during the week.  The first cache turned out to be at a church in Piperton.  I picked up an ammo can cache in a Collierville park and as a bonus I picked up an extra on the way home in Germantown.


Cedrus Libani   by SegmacGraham | GC3G9W3 - Park and grab in front of a church.  I like the name, though.

Out of the Ball Park by Little Peanut | GC3NQZK  - An ammo can barely in the woods near a park in Collierville.

Clay's way or no way by fshacktn | GC4F5W5 - My favorite cache of the day!  Nice camo that I can't secribe here, but its well worth the hunt.

Day 26

I had to wait until after dinner to hunt this day's caches.  I decided to go after a cache in Raleigh that I skipped on a trip many months earlier because of no off-road parking on what can be a busy street.  I got to the spot before dark and set a land speed record for grabbing the cache, signing the log and returning it well before the gentlemen on foot approaching from the south got near me. 


platinum 45 by crownjewel | GC29Y60- pill bottle with fresh dry log.  I've never moved so fast when grabbing a cache.

Flush with success, I decided to head to Germantown to see if I could find another cache that I had earlier today solved the puzzle for.  When I got to the area,  I managed to overlook the cache and wandered around aimlessly for a bit when bevofan showed up and found it for me.


Welcome to Initech - Michael Bolton's Revenge by steph&herboys, adamorobertson | GC4KJKA - I need a month long rest.  August is too hot for an old man like me to be wandering outside.  Nice cache, though.

I picked out 6 more caches to hunt between Tuesday (27) and Friday (30) that should be easier for me to get.  I should probably stick to one a day until Saturday, though. 

Day 27

Once again, I had to wait until after dinner to hunt the day's cache, so I wanted a good one that was quick.  I picked out two in Germantown with close parking and away from muggle traffic.

GPS Confidence by TNLarry4 | GC3RBMN  - I've never been disappointed by a TNLarry cache.  I liked this one, and started to go after his two-stage multi in the same area, but there were people sitting at a table near the first stage.

Bear Left  by MorWoods | GC4614W - Less than a half mile from the last cache, I couldn't pass it up.  Easy find in an easy spot.

It was hard to believe that I found both caches without breaking a sweat in the 90+ heat.

Day 28

I got up early and took a nice long drive on the interstate to Arlington to hunt a  newTB hotel.  When I got to the spot, I found the coolest TB hotel I think I have ever seen.  It was stocked with really neat TBs as well.

Arlington TB Rest stop by dneedham, TNSteeler, GeoBender25 | GC4K40M - If I ever have bugs going east, I will definitely use this hotel.