Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Geocaching Adventures Part 9

Man what a fantastic day!!

A group of friends and I spent this past Saturday, Nov 22nd, on the trails of the Caledon Natural Area. And boy was it time well spent. We met up around 8:30 or so and just went from trail to trail seeking the various geocaches within the park. This was my second trip to Caledon. A friend and I had come a little while back and found the then three caches there. Now a very gracious Virginia cacher had placed 12 more that we could spend the morning finding. After about 5 hours or so, we were headed to the last cache in the park. Poplar Hollow ended up being our 12th in the park and my and one friend's 15th of the day. IT also ended up being my #1,600! And what a way to celebrate a "milestone" - in a great park, on a fantastic day with good friends.


But if that wasn't enough - after leaving the park my good geo-friend Mrs SeeKPeeKRs and I headed a little further west to find a few more. And boy did we? We ended up picking up 33 caches on the day with NOT a SINGLE DNF. In fact we even clear up a previous DNF in the earlier evening. Fun times, Fun times. What is next??

Friday, November 14, 2008

Geocaching and How I get there?

Earlier this week I was listening to the Geocaching Podcast and the topic was "Geo-vehicles" and started me thinking about the various ways I have gotten to geocaches. Personally my favorite way is a nice walk/hike in a secluded area, or maybe around a town I want to get to know better. But I have used several other means of "transportation" to get from one cache to another. Below are a few pictures as well as a list of ways I have gotten to caches.

First and foremost there is my car, a 2000 Durango. Nothing to special about that one because most people use their cars to get from one cache to another. I have also used my wife's car, a 1997 two-door RAV4, my parents' car (a Mercury I believe) as well as a friend's mini-van while I was caching in Georgia on vacation. I have ridden in several other people's cars as well, each of them having their own flavor if you get my meaning.

Second - BICYCLE - a couple of friends and I took some time about two months ago and did a cache called "Circle BWI." It was a puzzle cache along the walking/bicycling trail that goes around the airport. About a week later I got the chance to do the second cache in the series called "Circle BWI Again." Biking to a cache was a lot of fun. It also was a good exercise that I haven't had for quite a while.

Third - KAYAK - my wife and I purchased a couple of Malibu Two ocean kayaks for paddling around on the bay. As soon as I got them I was looking forward to going after a cache not to far from home called Spice Creek small boat. That cache took a friend and I along a tributary of the Patuxent River to a wonderful spot to see lots of water fowl. I even took the opportunity to hide a cache using my kayak which was a lot of fun as well. This photo was from a webcam cache located just off shore of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

Fourth - MOTOR SCOOTER - while I have only done one cache using the scooter, it was a lot of fun on a fantastic fall day riding down to Solomons Island, MD to pick a new cache that had been placed in the county.

I have used a a skateboard to retrieve information for a cache before. A part of "Psycho Urban Cache #7 - A Good Day to Die" must be gotten while inside of a very narrow drain tube. The easiest way to retrieve it is to use a skateboard and roll your way to the cache location. While this photo is not of me, it is a friend, it is my son's skateboard and my rope that are being used. (I guess the others in the group that day didn't trust me when I read the coordinates to them.)

I have even used my sons' Razor Scooter for a set of caches in Virginia Beach one evening. That evening was a BLAST! I started at our hotel and made my way around Virginia Beach, kicking with one leg. If I remember correctly I found 6 different caches that evening and about 6 more the next evening. All totaled I think I covered about 6 miles or so. Man did I sleep well both nights.

While this video is not of me, I did the cache previous to filming it. AND yes that is a paddle boat you need to get to the cache.

But my favorite is of course WALKING! I remember one day last December when a good geo-friend and I headed up to the nation's capital for a virtual tour. We used the Metro to get into Washington, DC but after getting off we spent about 8 hours walking around The National Mall as well as other areas gathering information for each of the cache. All totaled that day I believe we covered 12.5 miles BY FOOT. I hit a milestone that day. But best of all I got out to have some fun exploring. Again like in a previous post to this site - GET OUT THERE! You never know what is around the corner and no matter how you get there you will enjoy it!!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Geocaching Adventures Part 8

November 8, 2008

About two weeks ago, some good geo-friends hosted a geocaching event called the "A Spooktacular Event." Unfortunately I was unable to attend it that day. Partially due the weather, not the best day to be outside, but mostly due to the fact that my sons and wife were attending a small festival at their elementary school. Either way I was NOT there that day. Today I got the chance to go and find the new caches placed in the park and it really made me wish I could have been there that day. I understand that the series was laid out so that people who attended the event could "race around" finding the caches and that a winner was declared. I think that would have been a really fun thing to try. But alas I could not make it.

The caches placed for the event were in a Halloween theme, of course. With titles such as "The Cemetery" and "Bats, Rats and Snakes" and "hiders" such as Mortica and Gomez" it was a great series. The small "props" that a couple of the hiders used made it very entertaining to see what was around the next bend in the trail. Here is a couple of examples of what I mean:



In my honest opinion, this is one of the best series of caches out there in our area AND more caches and more people should treat caching this way.