KKTH3

As folks in the Wyoming area should be aware, there is an event coming up in Casper next weekend... Nancy English Park Geo-Meet The Lady K portion of KKTH3 has made some preliminary designs of a Wyoming state geocaching coin and the other 2/3 of KKTH3 has agreed to be at the event next weekend. Sadly, due to prior commitments we will not be able to stay long but the best guarantee if you want to have input into a WY geocoin design would to be at the picnic shelter between 12 and 1 on the 23rd. After the event we should have a decent direction in how to make this dream become a reality.

race to a WJTB! The only geocachers we ever met on the trail were a couple that found a cache just before we got to it - mere hours after a person logged the first WJTB to hit our little part of the world.

We are not yet to the paperless caching stage so we print out each cache we think we might go for when out on a trip. We print them out with the hint already decrypted. However, I rarely read the hint until after I am at the site looking for it. It is more of a safety net just in case I am clueless once we get to the site.

You do realize that a Brown bear and a Grizzly Bear are the same thing? I know and understand the point of the joke, but having lived in bear country near all my life I tend to get a bit picky on how bears are defined. In reality, Brown/Kodiak/Grizzly bears are just not that common in human population areas. There are a few exceptions to this - mostly in Alaska, BC, Wyoming, and Montana - but those aren't areas known for high human populations either. Black bears however - very common throughout nearly the entire US. Luckily, like most "dangerous" wildlife, bears are more likely to avoid humans rather than confront them - so long as they are not FED by humans directly or indirectly. Making noise while hiking in the woods is a good idea as it alerts wildlife ahead of you that you are on the way - and that it is time for them to leave and clear a path for you. Just to share, I wish to recount a story from a hike my wife and I did a decade ago in Yosemite. We were in the park for Memorial Day weekend (like everyone else it seemed) and wanted to do our annual trek to the top of Half Dome. Well - we were recently married and hoped it would be annual but it was only my second time up the trail and my wife's first time. We started early to get a parking spot at the trailhead and some sunrise pictures over the Merced River - then headed up the Vernal/Nevada Falls trail. Not even a half mile into the hike - before we even left the dirt roads along the valley floor a white Ford Bronco with NPS logos on the side came ROARING up and skidslided to a stop along side us. A guy hopped out with a bulky backpack and a huge wand thing in his hand and ran right past us without even glancing at us and waved the wand back and forth. It was at that time my wife looked closely at the logos on the SUV and saw he was part of the Bear Tracking Unit. So she asked the guy what he was doing - and he replied in a nonchelant manner that he was tracking a bear that had been into the campgrounds lately. She dropped her backpack - took out the granola bars we had packed for lunch and handed then to the guy and told him good luck with his project. Sadly, we only made it a short ways past the top of Nevada Falls that day as hunger told us it was better to go down rather than to finish the trek to the top. We still got some good photo ops on that trip - especially along the Mist trail that was quite vibrant due to a very wet spring runoff that year. It still crackes me up thinking about how quickly her actions changed upon catching wind that a bear she never even saw might be close.

HA! This topic switched over to the difficulty rating side of things. Well, that IS a lot more subjective as already mentioned due to knowing what types of hides there can be. The last find we had I really would not need to use a GPS for - I saw where it was located on the map and upon reaching the general area could tell exactly how I expected it to be hidden. I had a few options of course and it wasn't the first one I tried, but rather the second. I try to hide unique hides for my area myself, but I have to admit that every hide I have done I saw a similar hide elsewhere before. I do base some of my more "difficult" ones based upon how out of the box it is where I live, but if the right person with the right experience comes by - I don't think any of my caches would rate higher than a 1.0 difficulty. The point is, it is not only a function of cleverness that you hide with, but also a function of what your typical audience would be. Other cachers from outside the area can almost certainly disregard the difficulty factor since it may be a hard one that is really disguised in a way they would expect or it is an "easy" one hid in a way they would never expect - due to their prior caching experiences.

She already has made up a handful of prototype designs for everyone to look over at the Geo-meet in Casper next weekend. I certainly think we can come up with a nice coin based off of at least some of the ideas she ahs already put into play. I'll be there at Nancy English Park and will bring the designs with me so all those attending can decide what would work best.

I've been to at least 3 of your caches, Starbrand, and all 3 were stocked quite nicely. That last one was so well done that we added a fair bit more new items to it to be sure it stays stocked well. Our caches haven't been out very long - I think the first one we placed is less than 2 months old - so seeing as we live in a fairly remote area where caching isn't as popular as other areas there has not been much turnover. Tonight we are placing a few more caches (just got all of the next batch good to go last night) including a regular sized and large sized cache. They both have items that I consider to be pretty decent, so it'll be interesting to see how long they last in decent shape. I'm working hard to get a puzzle cache up that I intend to have a mix between true higher dollar items and outdated, but collector worthy items (think I even have a brand new in the box Apple ][c in my garage somewhere - not sure if that is collectable or just trash.) My biggest problem with that one isn't going to be cachers not trading well enough - I expect that to happen. I just don't want a hiker that stumbles off the trail to accidentily find it and plunder it. My other hang up on that cache is that it will be the final cache in a series and it won't make much sense to place it before I get the others done. I have the puzzle pretty much ready to go and it'll only take an hour to fill a container and not much time to get it placed, but I have a lot of work to do to get the other caches done since some are only in the early conceptual stages. Hmm... I seem to have strayed way off topic... oh well, back to the planning (war) room.

As someone who regularily caches with someone in a wheelchair - I can say that a 1 terrain is used far too often. I will never offer a 1 terrain on one of my caches that I know cannot be retrieved by a person in a wheelchair. I usually put 1.5 on a cache where ground zero can be reached by a wheelchair but the hide itself might need a more able body person to retrieve (in a tree or way low and under something) If I hide a cache that I would not want my own 9 year old son to retrieve on his own - it is automatically a terrain of at least 3. I would not offer a terrain 5 unless there is VERY special needs required to reach the cache. A long hike in the mountains isnt enough - might warrent a 4 or 4.5 but not a 5 unless equipment, training, or connections are required. Everything else terrain-wise I base on where the situation lies in between those guidelines. The hard part is the caches that might be easy for 95% of the trip but one particular obstical is much harder than the rest of the trip. If the cache was at the end of a 1/4 mile hike down a paved path but to retrieve the cache you needed to reach 10 feet down a 150 foot cliff along the beach - its not a 1.5 or 2 - the obstacle trumps all of that.

What is the thoughts on a large size cache that will contain higher dollar items for the first finders of a difficult puzzle cache? I have one in the works and would hate to hide things like a 21" flat screen monitor, brand new Pocket PC, surround sound audio system, special edition DVDs, and such in a container without a lock on it. I'd like to reward FTFs of a challenge but I think leaving the box hidden without a lock would be a little too trusting of a curious muggle that happens to stumble upon the cache.

FOUND IT! Took: Mastercraft boat. Left: golf ball. TFTC!

Well, THIS was our latest find. However, I wouldn't call it a very scary cache. Probably the eeiriest ones we have done were all in Louisiana. There are a number of interesting places out there where geocachers crawling around in the bushes would appear to be the more normal folk around.

I prolly shouldn't post this as it will inevitably jinx us, but it occured to me that so far this summer we have had no incidents in vehicle damage while out caching! Last summer was not so fortunate. We had both of our vehicles in the shop twice last summer and went almost 6 months without having both vehicles in running condition for 3 days straight. The last two instances happened from caching trips. First the radiator in our 4x4 exploded while caching in Douglas, resulting in an expensive tow home that night. Then the day after it was repaired we took the van down to Grand Junction, CO for a trip of caching and visiting friends over Labor Day weekend. On the way down we hit a deer and limped it along to GJ and back home. However, that didn't stop us from scoring a few caches in Colorado that weekend. Anyone else want to share their own vehicle casualty stories while on the caching trails?

Lady K does a lot of photowork, artwork, and digital designs. She is currently going through all the photos from our last caching trip to Scottsbluff, but might be up to designing a coin based on some of our state's beautiful scenery. I'll bring it up with her tonight though. I'm not sure if we can make the Nancy English event still - gotta solidify our vacation plans still and even if we are going to be in town - that happens to be a certain person's birthday and might require attendance at a party of some sort.

I lurk, therefore I am.

So, did you trade up?

Last weekend I had a DNF in a wildlife habitat area. I was pretty sure I was in the right place but there was a lot of bushes and the one I was zeroing in on had a dead deer behind it, so I herded my little boy away (before he saw it) and just said it couldn't be found. Maybe that was actually the cache?

I know TH&G from Rock Springs has a few that will likely be distributed around WY during his next motorcycle ride. Other than that, I haven't seen any show up around here yet. Yes, I check the most likely points of entry several times a day now