CACHE KRAWLER

I am in Criminal, just as long as I am CONUS. (You know how it goes) Obviously I am in VA for the next three weeks, but once I get back to WA and resettled I'll be dying to get back in the woods. The woods out here are not so much fun and full of Chiggers and ticks. I'll keep my eyes open. Thanks, -CK

Okay all, I know that Uncle Sam sometimes has a pretty big hand in deciding when and where I will be at certain times of the year, but I want you all to know that I am 110% interested in making these hikes with you when I'm CONUS. I will keep my eyes open for a physical date, time and place and hope to give a thumbs up when the next HOTM is set in stone. Thanks, -CK

SONOFABIATCH!!!!!!!! That looks bad bro! Mine definately did not look like that. FTS!

Actually now that I look closer at my leg, there is still a slight discolorization and a slight bump still remaining. But it looked exactly like yours does. Oh man, if you don't reply here I'll be sending you a personal e-mail really soon. Man this sucks LOL!

Was it painful to the touch? The reason I ask, is that before my posting on here about the flea/chigger incident, I got nailed by something on my lower right leg a couple days after I showed up in Virgina right after my first caching expedition that just showed up for a couple days and was painful as heck. It went away within 4 or 5 days and no marks remain, but like I said it was very painful to touch. What do you think your bite was from? You've got me worried that I should have had it checked out now. Look forward to a reply. Thanks.

As for the OP's home area, you haven't searched for a cache in "undergrowth" until you've cached the wet side of Washington and Oregon. And if you think those eroded, rounded Appalachian bumps in the ground are "mountains," climb to a cache in the Cascades to see Mother Nature when she's serious about reaching towards the sky. I love caching everywhere, but out of the 42 states where I've logged a find, I think Oregon and Washington are the most challenging overall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well I will agree with you on that. I just didn't want to get into a match of mine is bigger than yours. if you look at my Bookmark CK's Favorites you will see that I have favorites from a few different states. I do enjoy caching in the Pacific NorthWET the most, but I also enjoy getting around and "seeing" where this next cache is going to take me here in Virginia. The old history doesn't compare to the West coast as far as age but I sure enjoy seeing these places I've read about since I was a kid. In Oregon and Washington I really enjoy driving the old mountain "roads" going to caches at old mining sites, Ghost Towns or mountain summit Fire Lookout Towers. The views are uncomparible to many other states, but each state is diferent in their own ways as well as the cachers themselves. So if any of you ever get the chance to head out West to Oregon or Washington, jump on it for there will be views that will blow your mind and at the same time completely take your breath away. When I wrap up my time here in VA I will post another thread about my caching tours here with all the highs and lows I encountered. Take care

Sounds like the Dr's are about the same. Yah, he was about to go down the Motrin road with me and I wasn't about to go for a ride with him. On a sader note, Little SOB passed away today around 1300. He's been swimming circles in that Dixie cup of water for the last two days and I think he just paddled himself all the way to a little Flea heart attack. Little SOB, RIP you were of great entertainment to me for the last couple of days you will be missed greatly.

If they were in a motel, they could be bed bugs. Well thanks for the lovely pic, but no it wasn't bed bugs. I actually just happenned to watch a show about them the night before on Animal Planet. I went to the Doc today and was able to talk him into giving me a steroid shot to help the healing process along. At first he told me there was nothing he could do and that if he gave steroid shots to everybody coming in for bug bites he would bankrupt the Army and that I would just have to deal with it and that it would go away in time. That pissed me off to no end so I dropped my pants and skivies without warning to him and that got his attention really quick. He said, "Whoa! That looks really bad!" I said,"Yah, tell me about it Doc." I then got my shot and am now hoping this clears up sooner than later. Thanks for the advice all on what to get as far as repellents and sprays.

Well I say Fleas, because I was able to catch one this morning in my sheets. I've still got him here in a dixie cup of water. He's been in there swimming around for the last 12 hours or so and I've named him Little SOB. Little SOB is doing great and getting alot of exercise in there doing not so much laps per say, but more like circles. I've had chiggers before when I use to live in Tennessee, they tore me up really good on my ankles and shins and yes it took a few weeks for them to go away. What I have now doesn't seem to be what I had back then. These SOBs got my feet, ankles, shins, groin area, a couple on my lower back and a couple on my upper inside right arm and arm pit area also the sides of my torso. Also, when I pulled up pics online of flea bites they match exactly to what I currently have. We'll see how it goes I guess. Not much else I can really do for now. Can anyone tell me what the best bug spray/deterrent there is for preventing these bastards and where I can find it at? I don't plan to stop Geocaching while I am here so I need the best stuff out there to prevent this from getting carried away. Thanks all, Travis

In the two weeks that I have been here in Virginia and out caching, I have dealt with Spiders and more importantly walking into and eating they're webs, Ticks that are like David Copperfield and show up hours after the excursion, even after having changed into a completely different set of clothing, I found one the other day, a big one, crawling up my shirt and also Fleas, them little SOBs. Yesterday after grabbing a few caches in the Williamsburg area I was headed back down toward Ft. Eustis and all of a sudden I feel something crawling up my leg. It was this grasshopper looking thing with HUGE antenna. I darn near wrecked my car when I saw that bug. I was able to get ahold of his feelers and toss him out the window, but my god people. This morning about 3 or so, I wake up to uncontrollable itching on my feet, ankles and "groin" area, yes, even there, absolutely uncontrollable. So I get up and turn on the lights and my feet and boys are covered in these bumps, and then I see a Flea jump onto my foot. Son-of-a-gun I say. Really, honestly, fleas? Have I not had enough freakin' bug issues yet. SO now I have to cover my feet and errr yah, in Alcohol, drive to the store, get some Benadryl and Hydrocortisone cream, at about 4 in the morning now!! BY 6 the Benadryl knocked me out, right here at my computer. Houskeeping just came by and changed my sheets for me and are having a fumigator swing in tomorrow to bomb this place. SO to wrap this up, I'm an Oregon native, born and raised on the same 600 acre tree farm chunk of woods my whole life and have NEVER had to deal with bug issues ever. Not once. So I have to give it up to you all for braving the wild bugs and heat and humidity out here. I'm really not sure why or how you all do it, but this is me shaking your hand and bowing at your feet, for you are tougher than I. Good day, Travis

What kind of time frame will you be looking at?

Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to put this list together for me. I created a bookmark and added them to it. I will attempt to make finds on all of them while I am here. Thanks again, -CK

Hi all! I am in town from Washington (not the D.C. type), for the next five weeks or so and am wanting to know what the must-do caches are in Newport News, Yorktown and Williamsburg areas are. I'm looking forward to getting out on the weekends and hitting up the caches, I just want to make sure that my time here is well spent and that I look for the ones that are most liked in the area. Thanks in advance for any assistance! Travis

Okay, totally just a joke, but I can see where it could go bad. If I was retired and had the tim eto roam, I's never be home. There's so much out there to see and explore, which is what I get out of caching.

Oh my, I'm seeing what everybody else saw in me when I got hooked. I will tell you that I have been dadgum close to being served with divorce papers over Geocaching. Infact I'm not even allowed to say the "G" word around her...or the kids!! One time she told me that it was either her or Geocaching...after some thought I told her that I loved her...and that i'd miss her. Life has been great ever since!

As a child I helped my father remove a tree from a car or vice versa, that had gown to about 4 feet around and was growing from up through the gear shifter. It was a PITA but eventually thay both lost and the field was void of any obstacles. I wish I had a pic to show it. I have pics that would fit this post, just not with me. Maybe when I return to the states

I would contact Groundspeak and run this by them. Maybe they are familiar wih this issue. contact@Groundspeak.com Good Luck and thank you for becoming a Premium member, Travis

Okay, so I started a post in the Geocaching.com Related thread about cachers posting pics of their caching buds (early on pics and current pics) along with a short story to explain. Well my bud JC, (Super10commander), was more than happy to fulfill my wish. I completely underestimated him on the early on pictures. Please enjoy and feel free to laugh at my expense. Take care all. Here's the LINK.

I was wondering what the heck was going on and why nobody was finding my caches. I haven't recieved a single log from a find in two months! So what do we do to fix this??

Wow J, how did I know that you would pull out the Kindergarden shots? LOL!!! Thank god for 7 years of braces huh? My gosh, alright, well that pretty much sums up our lives in a few words and pics. Thanks, I think.

SOFA KING WE TODD DID The screeen name isn't Vagina is it? Somebody actually has that as a screen name. I sure don't find it to be offensive, but I'm just your typical white, blue collar, heterosexual, 2nd Amendment supporting, christian male with a wife and 2.5 kids. Anyhow, so what's the screen name???

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Has anybody heard any information about the tunnel to the APE cache being shut down in the near future? Super10commander has been wanting to go up there for awhile now and he just asked me yesterday if I had heard anything about it. So if you have any info regarding this please reply. Thanks in advance!

So I was just commenting on my friends (Super10commander) post and got to thinking that he and I have known each other ever since Kindergarden in1982 and we are caching buds as well. With plenty of stories washed down by even more beers, we go way back and now get together "as often as possible", thank you Uncle Sam, to go caching and famly get togethers. We have been through it all and more and shared many, many good times togather as well. So heres to long lasting friendships and great Geocaching adventures shared! So here's the deal: 1. Share your story here about your caching buddy (wether human or K9), how you met and how long ago. 2. If possible, post one pic from the past and one from the present. I hope this thread is a hit as I am really interested in reading the stories and sharing the pics. side note- I would start this off by posting pics, but as I am deployed in Iraqistan right now, I don't have any pics to add. I will take care of this when I get back stateside. Maybe I can get him to do it for me. Thanks!

Dang, that guy looks just like this guy I've known and gone to school with since Kindergarden in '82! LOL!! Nice pic J. We should have gotten one of us together at the top of the falls there.