Geocaching Adventures Part 12

March 2, 2009 - SNOW DAY!

First let me say that I didn't even know it was supposed to snow. My wife mentioned over the weekend that we might get a little rain, maybe even a little bit of freezing rain and a flurry or two. But by the time came around for the Sunday forecast, our area, here in southern Maryland, was expecting to get hammered! It has been quite some time since we have had even a couple of inches of snow but to get close to 8 or 9 inches was such a surprise! I spent the morning watching the snow still come down. And while checking the email I received notice that a new cache had been published about 14 miles from the house. Should I try it? Our road hadn't be plowed really so why chance it? I went outside with the family and enjoyed sledding and throwing snowballs. Then we headed in for lunch. While eating the snowplow went by. I could see the road surface... Was it time?

I called a good geo-friend and asked if she wanted to head south and try for the new cache. It always seems when I ask - she says "Yes" no matter the conditions. I picked her up and we made our way down to St. Mary's State Park. The area was gorgeous! The snow on the pine trees was sparkling like diamonds. We got out of the car a little discouraged since there was another car in the lot and many people had been here before us today. Had we missed the First To Find? The trail was magnificent even though we followed tracks for most of the two-tenths of a mile. But as the needle on the Magellan began to turn we saw NO tracks. We made our way to a likely hiding spot about 150 ft away and began scratching around. Again there was 9 inches of snow on the ground. But we finally came up with the cache. Upon opening it we found the log book and knew that we were indeed the FIRST TO FIND! We signed the log happily and rehid the container as best we could. We then walked around a little to try and cover our tracks and not give away the true location of the cache. And then we headed back to the car. After warming up a little we decided to hit one more cache that we hadn't done yet. That one entailed a quarter mile walk across a field and then into the woods again through thick snow. We found it and signed the log and headed back to the car, exhausted!!

To be completely honest about the day I don't think that my joy came from being the "First to Find" at the first cache of the day. But I think it came from being able to enjoy our world in a way that I don't get to very often. Yeah sometimes snow can be slippery and dangerous. But you have to admit that it can really make the world a beautiful place!

Geocaching Adventures Part 11

For those who might not know what those four letters mean, well you probably didn't read the last post. But anyway - CITO stands for "Cache In Trash Out!" With the hobby of geocaching I get to enjoy the outdoors a lot more. But walking in a park and seeing bottles, cans and other trash on the ground bothers me. So as I mentioned in the previous post I have a renewed desire to pick up as much as I can each time that I am out. The first part of today's adventure was specifically designed to do that. Go out and pick up litter. The place I picked was one of my own cache sites. I could definitely tell from the area that people have used it as a dumping grounds and today I took part of it back. It is going to take another trip, too much for one load. But I can't say that I was alone. I had some great help today. A good geo-friend spent some time with me doing what I wanted in picking up the stuff. Thanks you very much to her. All totaled we picked up close to three recycling bins full of things today as well as other plastic bags and trash. As mentioned elsewhere - every little bit helps!

Geocaching Adventures Part 10

I decided last evening that I was going to take the day off and get some rest for my ailing throat. It was kind of scratchy the day before and I thought that I could use the not having to talk. So I took the opportunity to go out and grab a few caches today. I, along with some friends and a whole lot of other cachers, have begun work on the Maryland Municipal League Geotrail. 11 districts across the state, try and find at least two caches in each district and use your passport to prove that you were there. If you are successful - you could be awarded with a geocoin. While I am interested in the geocoin, I have to say that it has been fun visiting the various locations around the state that I have visited so far. With having today off I decided to head back up to Prince George's County and grab the last two in that area. Neat locations, espeically the one at Bladensburg along the Anacostia River.

But with all of the being said - that isn't what has prompted me to write this evening. While out today visiting the various locations I picked up a couple of recyclables, bottles, cans etc. And while I visited other caches as well I noticed several other things that I could pick up. In fact while walking back to the car from one cache I spotted a hallow in a tree when contained quite a bit of trash. Thankfully I was only about one hundred yards from the car and I could run back to it and grab a bin for all that I pulled out of it. All totaled today I filled three-quarters of a recycling bin with things that people had thrown out. So now I have decided on my New Year's resolution for geocaching - a renewed effort towards CITO - Cache In Trash Out! I want to make sure that I pick up as much stuff while out this year each time I am out just to clean up the playing field. Anyone want to come along??

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??

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!!

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.

Geocaching Adventures Part 7

October 12, 2008 - International Earthcache Day!

International Earthcache Day is held at the beginning of Earth Sciences' Week, sponsored by the Geological Society of America. They encourage people, not just geocachers, to get out and learn about the earth. In 2007, a couple of friends and I spent "Earthcache Day" together. We headed to Virginia to specifically visit GC105P8 "Wetlands: A Natural Treasure. That day we wandered around Huntley Meadows Park gathering the information. We then spent another great couple of hours in another portion of the park finding the other traditional caches there. This year we wanted to go bigger and better. So we ventured off to Great Falls National Park. Located on each side of the falls are two earthcaches. We visited an old gold mine, for the "Gold in Maryland" earthcache.. The hike to that one was fantastic. We then headed over to the Virginia side of the falls to visit the GCZDA0 Great Falls Earthcache. For this one we had to visited various lookouts along the river for some amazing scenery. We then had another terrific hike out to GCZP3V Mather Gorge. This one took us from the top of the falls down about 9/10 of a mile down to a terrific spot to look back up the gorge itself. After making our way back to the car we realized that we had missed one of the earthcaches on the Maryland side, since it looked like on the map and GPSr that it was in Virginia. But it could only be accessed from the Maryland side. Once back we visited GCZCGF Great Falls Olmstead Island along with about 200 of our closest muggle friends. But they were more concerned with looking at the falls and the kayakers enjoying them.

The entire day was a blast! Great hikes, with terrific scenery accompanied by good friends. Can't wait to see where we go next year!

I realize that this may not be the best or most descriptive posting of a such a great day. But sometimes words escape me. If you are interested in seeing a few pictures of the day check out the "other pics" link on the right side. Then look at the "12 of Twelve for October." More geocaching news later...