Mule Ears

Partly camera angle, but it's also a 29er, a mountain bike with road-diameter wheels, so it looks a bit stretched compared to standard MTB geometry.

Just returned from riding up Mount Lemmon in Tucson, AZ. It was primarily a ride, but I took the coords of a few caches in order to use one as my end-of-ride marker. Made it to the fork in the road between Summerhaven and Ski Valley before deciding I'd had enough fun for the day. Regarding the side discussion of cyclocross bikes, I may have to add one to my stable someday. I've been doing my road riding on my commuter (mountain bike with 42t chainring, eight speeds, gullwing bars, and slick 47x700 tires), but it's heavier than a crate of cannonballs.

I won't claim it's the funniest ever, but we couldn't resist naming our latest Cache for Clunkers.

Right on, OKH. I'm a <falseModesty>fairly intrepid guy,</falseModesty> but I have no need or desire to enter homeless encampments, wildcat garbage dumps, toxic waste sites, etc. All that's required in cases like this is to post a note/DNF to inform other cachers and move on. You'll make no headway with the cache owner; he thinks this is fun(ny).

Those sand spurs are likely tribulus terrestris, the wicked seeds of the puncture vine. They're everywhere. Here's the innocent-looking culprit: Interesting trivia about T terrestris is that it's a medicinal herb purported to increase testosterone production. I'll let others formulate the punchline.

Saw the subject line and was sure that this would be about me. Hmmph! Ingrates!

When we started out caching and popped those first ammo cans, we weren't sure what to expect. There was some weird stuff in those boxes--feathers, a polished rock, a Barbie head, bleached animal bones, a dashboard saint, dog-eared playing cards, various antenna balls, some loose metal Jacks, whole squads of green Army men, snapshots of strangers, a whittled stick, lurid religious tracts, empty mini-liquor bottles, a busted naked-lady hood ornament... Inexperienced idiot that I was, I thought this was the coolest thing I'd ever seen--a three-dee collage of oddities. Took a long time to learn that this was trash and I wasn't supposed to find it so amusing. Dang. Now I don't look at the swag much anymore, though I do leave the occasional hand-knotted gear/knife lanyard.

I log FTFs quickly, even posting short logs from my cellphone via the WAP site when I have decent signal. I do this for two reasons, both selfish: (1) I like to be the sole finder on the FTF date, and (2) I like the reaction of other would-be FTFers who peel off once they see that the race is done. That said, the whole FTF thing is pretty silly. I got drawn into it for awhile when a real FTF-fiend started operating in my area. I had enough of his endzone-dancing-in-your-face-suckers logs and decided to break his streak. I'm in recovery now.

The CO is being heavy-handed in trying to enforce the liar theme. That's unfortunate, and you have a right to get your back up about it. But if the cache has any merit at all, consider going along with the 'liar' requirement/request/suggestion and chewing out the CO in a private email. Liar caches are fragile things, and if you break the chain of tall-tales, you've killed the cache. If it's a lousy cache, feel free. Otherwise, consider going along for the sake of future finders.

Good footwear is crucial. Here's mine from a recent hike:

Ha! Excellent. Subtle dig.

Ha! I love the Gary Larson images. I guess by now folks have filled you in that a cattle tank or stock tank is the water-storage reservoir served by a windmill pumping water up from a well. Out here, tank also refers to a pond, usually manmade, that serves the same purpose. Pond-tanks are considered significant geographical features here and are often shown on topographic maps, even named. (There's a series of named tanks up in Tucson: Vodka Tank, Gin Tank, Tequila Tank, Jack Daniels Tank...finally AA Tank.) Some of the pond-tanks are kinda pretty, and all of them attract wildlife other than just cows. Not that there's anything wrong with cows--they're delicious. Lost Dog Tank, Tumacacori Mountains

Open range is common here in the southwestern US as well. Much prime caching territory is criss-crossed with barbed wire and dotted with windmills and cattle tanks. We have lots of encounters with cattle, but the big critters are usually more obstinate than menacing. Still a good idea to avoid the Eau du Heifer line of fragrances in your soap and deodorant.

Right now, without a rating system, we cache owners are like the kids of Lake Woebegon--we're all above average. Ratings would spoil that pleasant delusion.

Excellent. It's not a major problem yet, but as time goes on I think we're going to need some means of ensuring that abandoned caches get removed.

I wonder whether this serial-archiver removes the remnants of his defunct caches? You'd be doing a real public service by checking when you go to install your replacement cache.

I'd send you to Fang-tastic Roadside Attraction. It's a funky roadside museum outside of Tombstone, Arizona, and it is hands-down the people's choice among our caches. Check out the gallery--the place is a couple acres of weird Western Americana.

Placed this one Friday: Miller Peak Cache container View from the top

Just returned from biking to the FTF on this cache, located at a mountain campground at about 7200' elevation. Coming down the steep switchbacks I realized that I need new brake pads. Or a parachute. Roundtrip stats: 28 miles with 3700' of climbing. My steed:

Cienega Creek Narrows Elephant Head Peak Dan Saddle Sheepdip

Old-fashioned paper grocery bags. Fill 'em no more than a quarter full, then roll up and toss into your standard plastic CITO bag. Keeps the sharp stuff from cutting its way out.

One of the jellyfish, their leader or at least elder judging from the whiskers, said something very similar. But he was quoting a lot from Hunter Thompson and Jefferson Airplane and I kind of lost the thread of it. Good info for next time, though.

Only briefly.

Is this a morel? We found it on the way back from our DNF of a cache high in the Pinaleño Mountains. We know, of course, that toadstools are poisonous, but there being no toads nearby, we figured it was safe. Delicious! A really memorable day with the DNF, the mushrooms, and the flocks of migrating jellyfish filling the skies with their purple glow.