Mule Ears

There's a term for the sort of relative remoteness you're trying to identify: "pole of inaccessibility."

I take along an inexpensive "Ultrapod II" like this one: It weighs 4 oz and folds down to a 7" bundle. There's a long Velcro strap that can be wrapped around a tree branch, fence post or other 'found' support to get some height. Places I go, there's usually a convenient boulder to get the 'pod up off the ground, though I sometimes like the worm's-eye view perspective:

That explains why my soul's been feeling a little run down lately.

As a solo hiker, I don't have the problem of anyone tapping their toe while I'm taking pictures. What I do have is the problem of staying on schedule. I do some pretty ambitious single-day hikes that require setting a very fast pace. So I end up goading myself to stop lallygagging and get a move on. Worse yet, if I want a landscape with a person in it, I have to be the person. (Added example pic. Note the multitasking: Picture-taking, modeling, drinking )

For a while there, I was driving 400 miles roundtrip on my weekly caching trip, having exhausted most of the interesting, long-hike caches in my area. The gas prices may have had something to do with it, but I mostly just burned out on 0330 rollouts and long drives. Lately I've been knocking off easier caches closer to home by biking to them. Today I rode the bike from home to a couple of caches in the nearby Huachuca Mountains, 15 miles away and 3000 feet higher. Had a great morning and got home in time for lunch. Only downside was that I had time in the afternoon to do yard work I'm planning longer rides to eliminate that downside...

Yeah, a hard-to-find summit register would be pointless, and would probably be reckoned lost by other hikers, who would place a new one. The fact that the summit register tradition evolved before the 'net means that in order to ascertain whether somebody's been there, you have to go there yourself and check the log. You can't sit in front of your computer and gloat over "DNFs," so there's no incentive to hide a register, except to protect it from the elements.

Summit registers predate GPS, so they are generally sheltered by a conspicuous cairn of rocks, often marked with a stick jutting up like a flagpole. They are meant to found easily by hikers/climbers using no special navigational aids--just keep going up until you reach the point at which you can't gain any more elevation, and you're standing at or on the summit register.

I just experienced the heartbreak of geo-related camera destruction. I slipped and fell hiking the 150 yards from "Sanctuary" to my bike, and my beloved little Lumix LX1, snug in its waist pack, got crushed beneath the Mule. Screen busted, frame bent. This camera's been with me on hikes, climbs and mountain bike adventures, but a fluke fall did it in. (Moment of silence.) Looking for the silver lining, maybe death-by-misadventure beats old age and obsolescence. For the camera, too I've pre-ordered a Lumix LX3.

Heh. We have a number of self-appointed cache critics whose own caches are mediocre or sub-par. Not a surprise. Those who can, do. Those who can't, kvetch.

The amount of effort I'll put into cache repair depends on the cache. For remote backcountry caches, I've gone as far as replacing the container with an ammo can (usually with the owner's permission). I've also adopted and refurbished quite a few, primarily on mountaintops. Lesser caches, I'll do simple repairs (drying them out, repackaging or replacing the logbook, repairing the container). For neglected, poorly thought-out and unmaintained caches in undistinguished locations, I say let 'em sink. Archive. Lately, I've run into several relatively new caches in great locations with lousy containers, mostly placed by the same couple of cachers. These folks seem to be counting on others to upgrade their caches. I'm feeling a little used on this account. If they fall into disrepair and get archived it'll free up some great spots... Ditto HH on hitchhikers. It's a shame.

For heavy bushwhacking, 5.11 tactical pants in nylon canvas are unbeatable. Lighter and faster-drying than cotton and extremely thorn-resistant.

Your previous GPS was not waterproof?

Right you are! I have fond memories of getting molested by bluecrab-sized ticks out by the San P--might as well troll for chiggers.

Turns out we do have chiggers here in AZ. Last weekend I ventured into an overgrown corner of my 5-acre yard with the weedwhacker to battle a crazy-high patch of pigweed. A few hours later I had the chigger-pox real bad. I like to think myself a stoic, but those bumps are miserable. I got by with cool showers, 1% cortisone cream applied topically, and preparations of varying percentages of ethanol taken internally. Read up on chigger prevention and opted for spraying maximum-DEET "OFF" on points of entry--pants cuffs, socks, waistband, shirt sleeves and do-rag. With my chemical defenses in place, I waded back into the fray today. Followed up with a thorough decontamination-style shower, and I'm chigger-free.

My two cents: I used to carry a Garmin Etrex Vista, which was state of the art at the time, with on-screen maps, mag compass, baro altimeter, etc. I also carried, as a backup, a magnetic compass and printouts of the topo maps for the area in which I was navigating. I found myself consulting the paper maps more often than the screen maps; they're larger and easier to read, and there's no scrolling and zooming to see what's beyond the next ridge. When the Vista gave up (used it so much that the rubber armor wore through in places), I reexamined my style of navigation and got a wrist-mounted Foretrex 201. Since I was carrying a compass and maps anyway, the fact that the Foretrex lacked these features was no hardship. The convenience of having your hands free and being able to consult the GPS as easily as checking your watch is wonderful. I'm no Luddite; I like feature-laden gadgets as well or better than the next guy, but in this case I've decided that less is more. One other advantage of the Foretrex: I broke mine, and Garmin's flat-rate repair service replaced it for $69.

Ah, good point.

Anything with fragrance is a problem. I found this ammo-box cache completely destroyed. The scented item the bear was after? Lip balm. Goes to show that everybody in Arizona hates chapped lips. Just thinking out loud--the perfume samples might be OK in a more urban cache.

That's a *great* idea! I would never, ever, ever dig with my knife - it's a prized posession. That U-Dig-It looks pretty cool, too ... it only weighs five ounces. The U-Dig-It does look nice, and folks who do a lot of serious backpacking probably cherish it. I do fast daytrips, so sanitation labor is minimal and infrequent. The place I buy my sneakers always throws a half-dozen shoehorns in the bag. That's more than a lifetime supply for their intended purpose, so I've made a game of inventing other uses for them. Hence the shoehorn-shovel bit. I'm not in much danger of digging with a knife anyhow. The one I carry most is a tiny Leatherman Squirt P4 that lives in the watch pocket of my jeans or attached to the utility strap of my 5.11s.

You could always use the random cache log generator found here. I got: That'd do the trick.

For that purpose, I carry a plastic shoehorn gotten gratis from the shoe store. Weighs less than a trowel, and costs nothing to replace. In a bad pinch, I guess I'd dig with a knife, but the soil would be softened by bitter tears. Can't stand to abuse good gear.

The first-finder of my cache "Namesake" found this cache and several others on a tough, three-day backpack trip in the Catalina mountains just outside Tucson, Arizona. Check out his log for some great pictures. As for me, I'm too domesticated to sleep on the ground. I placed the cache on a whirlwind, 8-hour dayhike/trailrun.

How many DNFs do you need to DNF it? There are no DNFs on GC1AZYM. Perhaps this is a loophole: If you're short of the hundred DNFs, log the balance on GC1AZYM. (The description allows multiple DNFs on a single cache.) Kidding! Put out the torches and put down the pitchforks!

They would indeed. Good eye. Not standard mtn biking gear, but they've served me well.

It's like Hunter Thompson went caching and let ee cummings type up the logs...

Thank-you notes are an excellent way to reward behavior you like. I've been on the sending and receiving end for creative logs, photos, volunteer maintenance, etc. and found 'em to be very effective. Good point. TNLNDSL, TFN!