NorthWes

Gee - I wondered when folks would 'out' the bear question... Groups are the best defence against bear interactions in the wild (short of staying home). Noisy groups are even better (not wheezing noises made by us old guys trying to go vertical for 2000' in one mile after a cache, but noise like the kind of chatter this forum had during the selection phase ) I don't want to sound like a familiar George Thorogood song, but... 'I cache alone...' most of the time - often with a dog along - and I carry a handgun (as much for moose, dogs & other folks as for bears). I also shoot competitively from time to time, and am very familiar with my limitations and the foolishness of using a short-barreled pistol under duress. Bears... more folks were killed by dogs in the last decade in Alaska than were killed by bears in the last hundred years up here. Sobering thought, but have you ever read the bottom line of Daddy Ladybug's forum posts? He's referring to his stable of dogs... and he's right! Dogs are more dangerous to the uninformed person than the bear that quietly fades into the brush upon hearing humans approaching. Remember that if you cache in dog parks! Dogs are simply far more often encountered in Alaska than bears. We'll be darn lucky if you guys get to see a bear - but I encountered a black bear at about 50' in Kincaid Park in March, and a black bear at under 30' at Tarzania Cache on the east side a month or so later. Both of them were getting closer to me to see what I was - and I was by myself both times. My wife nearly hit a black bear and two cubs crossing the road while driving in to Kincaid Park to pick my middle daughter up from crosscountry running practice two years ago. The bears are there... trust me! I'll tell ya all the bear stories you never wanted to hear at the evening cache event. Best thing for all to do is read & reflect on these two fine articles posted on the Alaska Dept of Fish & Game's website. Moose are a more likely wildlife challenge - I've been charged by them several times while caching here in town. The highest density of moose per square mile in Alaska is reportedly found right here in Anchorage - like smaller deer, they enjoy suburban living! Here's those links: Bears - http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=bears.bearfax Moose - http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?a...ildlife.agmoose By the way, moose will be entering the rut during your visit... see the comment about that in the linked article...

I see you're online, Roy; I've got two jeeps to send your way. Anything special I have to do to packages? Anything special you want sent along with? Let me know... By the way, it's 60 and raining here in Anchorage AK... wish we could send some your way!

I started on a GPS12, acquired a GPS45 with a boat, and now use a Vista C. The GPS45 has horrid acquisition time (5 minutes is typical); the Vista C often 'reverses' north on me (but I hunt/hike/boat/cache with a good compass hanging from a shoulder strap anyway); the GPS12 still has my vote as the most intuitive and easy to use control panel, and it initializes quickly. Good reception (yes - I agree with everyone regarding speed etc on tracks, but by golly it keeps the satellites locked in better than the Vista C). It is devoid of a map, but I 'grew up' on it so I'm used to it & I carry a paper map ALWAYS anyway (besides - I'm in Alaska - they build new roads overnite here!). It is heavy, and when it says the batteries are low it really means 'good-bye'! For a low price it's a great unit. Mine gets used by my teenage daughter/caching partner, and is occasionally loaned out. It also rides in her Personal Floatation Device when we're out boating Prince William Sound etc as a back-up to the GPS45 on the boat's dash & the Vista C in my PFD pocket. Reliable, quick, and absolutely more accurate in 'hasty' search mode with the arrow (me'n'my Vista against daughter'n'GPS12). I like all the bells & whistles on the Vista & I'll use it first, but the 12's not going away unless I lose it!

...forgot to mention - there's a slew of benchmarks out there just waiting to be had! I boated Lake Mead this past May for the first time and wished I had time to hunt the benchmarks. Many are in view from the water (if you know what to look for...) and just need a little vertical hike to get them. I like benchmarking - kind of a sense of geo-history - a place where surveyors went before they had GPSrs to help them find where they left their truck parked!

However, there's some awesome hiking caches on the north side of the Lake Mead NRA. My personal favorite is the Lake Mead Cache #1: Anniversary Mine (Use waypoint: GCCA5F). My wife & I (silly Alaskans that we are ) love to go to the desert in the shoulder season (aka mud months up here). We did this cache last October for the hike through the narrows - fantastic scenery. The cache itself is just outside NRA boundaries.

Allanon, would it be possible to have your Excel setup emailed to me? I'm going to discuss this with the Ladybug Kids (Daddy Ladybug) regarding an Alaska Geocoin Collectors group. As Daddy Ladybug said in his post - sure makes sense! Would be a nice adjunct to an Alaska geocaching group... Thanks!

Hey - we worked really hard to fit that Jeep through the Stargate P61149 Cache! No way we're sending it back! It's travelled from Anchorage to Talkeetna to Homer to Anchorage to Fairbanks to Anchorage to Fairbanks to Valdez to Anchorage... and now it's on its way to Whittier - Alaska's Gateway to Prince William Sound! Wright the White Jeep was a major logging hit at our recent Alaska Geocoin Distribution cache events in (you guessed it) Fairbanks, Valdez, and Anchorage. We Alaskans are resourceful... and if Jeep hasn't noticed how many of us drive Jeeps that's too bad - for this year! Willys, Flatfenders, FCs, CJs, TJs, YJs, XJs - there's at least one each of the older and more than two dozen of the newer rigs within 4 blocks of my home here - including 2 in my own stable. We'll just have to persuade a few of the 5,001 2005 critters to come North to the Last Frontier... maybe folks heading up for a visit can pack a Jeep or two along! Failing that, perhaps I'll zip-tie a TB tag to some of my friends' Jeeps - and see how many Outsiders get to log those! All joking aside, Jeep's contest helps underwrite the cost of maintaining this website, adds a bit of zip to the hunt, and I really appreciate their corporate support and their products. Sure I'd like to see the White Jeeps up here, but who knows why they didn't allow it?!? Oh well - there's a trail waiting out there, and it's for nonmotorized use only... see you on it!

Chris, I'll stir up the local crew regarding some bookmark lists for your friend's trip. A cache event was just held up near the south side of Denali National Park, and those participants will have some fresh perspectives on the area. Watch for more here very soon.

Yup, I'd buy WyoGeoCoin too - if you mint them!

Shooter206, have you tried contacting Neoprene Rose (the cache owner)? She appears to be based in Sitka, which is a long way from Hoonah but 'way closer than most of the Alaskan caching community. She probably visits Hoonah on a semi-regular basis providing health care. Failing that, research which cruise line docks in Hoonah & post a query aimed at folks travelling their ships. Hoonah's a nice place to visit, but it's definitely on the back side of nowhere for most Alaskans... unfortunate but true - accessible only by float plane, ship, or ferry out of Juneau. Good blacktail deer hunting there, and the fishing's out of this world... but it costs over $700 to access from Anchorage.

You make the big picture so easy! The rest is just details... how early at Gwennies , and how many spaces to reserve at the Moose's Tooth - maybe the whole tent? How many of those good brews before you can't see in the dark to find the night caches??? ??? I'm sure the game allows use of designated GPSr holders! We can put polish on the details so the 'dashers' just have to eat & cache... sounds like it's going to be fun!

Told ya he knew how to take snow shots, didn't I?

Wow - what a volume of thought! I'm a sales guy for Warning Lites of Alaska - mostly signs, but I sell 'wonders' like ANSI 2 vests as well to Alaska's roadbuilders. That's what I do now when I'm not benchmarking or geocaching... I'm 100% with Evenfall's comments - no name vest keeps it simple and leave no trace of your visit! As for quality, well - survey vests are stout and can carry all the gear we usually end up carting around on these hunts. The ones on the Groundspeak sale page are the bottom of what we sell where I work - they are barely reflective, and have no carrying capacity, and are not up to Federal specs for worker safety and protection. In Alaska, if there's state or federal money involved on the job, it's likely the contractor has a thousand-dollar fine in the work contract for employees who show up on site without their Personal Protective Equipment, including their safety vests. I like to wear lime green - the orange stuff blends in on a job site with all the cones, barrels, delineators... you become one more orange target. An added plus to a quality vest like these - it's stupendously mundane everyday appearance makes you actually LOOK like you belong out there along roadsides... great cover for those 'naked' caches! I carry an orange highway cleanup trash bag, and look just like a guy sentenced to road cleanup labor because of a misdeamenor offense... when I really want to look official, I just add my white hardhat festooned with safety stickers and reflective tape, and carry one of those clipboards that looks like it holds a phone book and your lunch too. Great for organizing maps, printouts, and spare batteries, and you don't need to drag the 'cache bag' along with kids toys hanging out of it! I carry my work business cards, and an intro to geocaching flier. Hasn't failed me yet... along highways, on public areas of the big airport, on the public portions of the military bases, and in neighborhood parks. Great for safety, and great cammo too. Never miss the primary point - be visible to drivers when you're in the road right of way - you're gambling with your life if you ignore dressing for safety success!

Your work has inspired me to get busy on the benchmarks between Anchorage and Talkeetna, Alaska. I drive that route at least twice a month (for the past twenty years) and I've never looked for the benchmarks until Fathers Day 2005. I spotted a few during the drive; now I have to stop and do final search and photo logs. I'l be using your geocache guide to the Alaska Highway in several years, I hope! Keep up the diligent work!!!

Other thoughts: You're starting in Anchorage, then heading to Homer to catch the ferry to Valdez? or are you heading to Seward to catch the ferry to Valdez? If you go to Homer, you must change ferries in Kodiak, I believe. Let me know... it will affect my suggestions for caches to hunt. Good grief - I haven't gotten to Kodiak in ages - and certainly not since I started geocaching! In any case, you should 'bug' Daddy Ladybug for info on the Valdez caches too - he visits there on a regular basis as part of his work... There's a couple of folks in Valdez that pop out caches on a near-weekly basis! I haven't got over there yet to hunt those; I'm hoping to do a combined silver salmon fishing trip coupled with a Valdez cache run this August.

Hmmm - 3rd week of September BETTER show some reductions in bug count! Maybe we'll have an early killer frost - that would be sweet - knock down vegetation too. I was serious about the sleeping/shower space offer; could even supply bedrolls for most of you (but does Moun10bike sleep, or just balance on his wheels??? ). We do it often for other traveling wolf packs... Sounds like a chance to place another cache into the Talkeetna Spur Highway zone - there's a couple of nifty little backroad spots that could be relatively easy to access that offer stunning views and chances to see wildlife. OK, Daddy Ladybug - we gotta plan an arrival event cache for these guys - that's good 'cause you'll need a new challenge after the Alaska Geocoins hit the post office in Fairbanks!

Oh you're gonna love the K2 flight around Denali; some flights land on the glacier too. Watch the weather & be flexible around that day, so you can reschedule because of weather if you have to (doesn't happen often at all). Funny thing about Denali - it makes its own weather, so the closer you get the less you see of the mountain sometimes! Plan stops around Talkeetna to see the mountain; great cache spot at Talkeetna Alaska Lodge (Talkeetna Treasure Cache), with a stunning view of Denali, and K2 takes off at the airport just 2 miles away! Practice taking photos through windows (like, K2 Aviation's airplane window - close to the lens - will your camera go to fixed manual focus so it doesn't keep focusing on a dirt spot on the plane's window & ruin your shot?), practice water and snow photos if you can; the light gets kind of wierd sometimes for the camera - shifts to blue (doh - it's ice!). Daddy Ladybug's a 'shutterbug' too and gets good winter/snow photos - he can give you tips if you need them (see his photo gallery at his profile - he's a king at winter caching photography!). Definitely get the memory card, a second set of rechargeable batteries, and a spare spare spare backup set of throwaway batteries from your local discount store before you come... they can be expensive or even unavailable outside of the big towns here, or inconvenient to your schedule. I travel the state with a minimum of one spare set of rechargeable and a dozen throwaways... minimum... for a day's drive. The airplane ride is NOISY - you'll have headsets to wear - gals should ditch the earrings on this ride! Take motion sickness remedies in advance and don't tank up on fluids before you fly! Chewing gum will help your ears pop (they're not pressurized aircraft, despite how high they fly!). A video cam with internal stabilizer is terrific for the flight, and if you can dub over the sound you'll enjoy watching it later a lot more. THE classic bush plane photo is usually a shot of a K2 light plane against Denali - for good reason. I make all the graphics for the K2 folks & their airplanes - top of line in their work. By the way, our highway system doesn't have great toilets at pullouts and waysides... my wife brings wet wipes and those sanitary purifier hand cleaners. Ugly side of Alaska - great views, nasty waysides - my four gals have waypoints on our drive routes for 'good' bathrooms (like the gas station at Girdwood, the gas stations in Seward, any Carrs or Safeway store in a town). Enough rambling... except... are you planning to fish too? Naw... you wouldn't miss caching time, would you?

I'd be in for at least five! I love Vancouver Island... Nanaimo - the West Coast... I'm ready to spend a week just caching based out of Nanaimo!

Arrrgh! Why is it my best email messages from Daddy Ladybug are always found just after the third hour I've promised myself I'm heading to bed! I'd be DELIGHTED to host a local cache event that gives you late July visitors a chance to swap TBs and stories... let's talk more - tomorrow! I live near the airport, and near Kincaid Park (arguably one of Anchorage's best caching venues!!). Meeting folks like you all is one of the best things I've gained in geocaching - prequalified bonafide nice people who enjoy seeing the real America... Seriously - bombard me with questions and I'll do my best to answer them for you! I've lived here 30+ years, and my wife's folks are still living on their homestead up by Talkeetna (see the cache at 'The Three Forks of the Montana' near Talkeetna AK). I love to give folks tips on enjoying their visits here!

Well, this has been fun to follow! We're a little naive up here about this kind of rollicking good time group geocache thing - we tend a bit more towards the loner types (except maybe those gregarious friendly Fairbanks guys...!) It'd just be fun to meet the gang for a cup of coffee at some point, and if you're game we might make a local cache event out of welcoming you into Anchorage. OR, we could stay out of your way and espy your progress from a safe distance (tourist-watching's a great summer sport here - 'Look honey, them tourists just joined the food chain at the participatory level!') Daddy Ladybug's right about our statewide low cache density and he's got an excellent list of recommended caches too - but there's towns like Valdez that have scores more caches than cachers as well! In the end, you'll want to see some of Anchorage, and then get out of town to hit the long haul north to Fairbanks and its supply of nifty hides & hospitable folks. There's several caches on the Talkeetna Spur Highway (the Three Forks of the Montana's fairly easy but a bit wild - saw a bear there yesterday, and Talkeetna Treasure's short access trail starts at arguably the best view of Denali you can drive up to and enjoy while partaking of fine dining). There's a string of caches in Anchorage's Kincaid Park itself that offer excellent vistas, great opportunities to see moose close-up (read the logs on the 'Swords into Plowshares' cache!) and they're in a relatively compact and accessible zone. You're good planners, you're experienced cachers - and the group sounds like a good time together - you're gonna have fun! Just bring the 100% DEET bug dope and $2 head nets... we're having the worst mosquito season ever in thirty years! Let me know if I can be of assistance - I've got a four bedroom three bathroom house just a five minute drive south of the airport in Anchorage - and two of those bedrooms are vacant most of the time, with 100 gallons of hot water heaters for showers! Could be a great basecamp for you... I can sleep lots on the floor/beds here.

WOW! I've fished and hunted out of Port William Lodge on Shuyak Island several times - you're in for a real treat! I've wanted to go back and paddle the Skiff Passage through the center of the island - rainforest bay to rocky exposed coast. Best fishing I've ever shared with my dad happened there during the year of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill... absolutely awesome silver salmon saltwater fishing in Main Bay, and fishing for halibut at only 65' deep in Shuyak Channel. Lots of Sitka Blacktail Deer on the island, and a few brown bears too. The rainforest is incredible - a primeval experience, as this is one Alaska island that's never ever been commercially logged for its spruce trees. I'd be delighted to be a resource for you; I live within 2 miles of the Coast Int'l Inn by the Anchorage Int'l Airport. Incidentally, Taiya's Cache (a great one for visitors) is back up with a new 30 cal ammo can container; it's just around the runway from your hotel. Unlike a couple of the caches in Connors Bog Dog Park which are closer to the hotel, Taiya's is very private yet very accessible with minimum effort. Oddly enough I'll be in Homer during July 4th weekend too; not sure of my schedule yet, but I know my family's driving down on Friday. I have to work that day, but I'm flying down via ERA Aviation some time later on Friday. Let me know if I can help resource Homer too - ya gotta do the Homer Spit View cache, as well as the one right out on the end of the Homer Spit as well. July 4th in Homer's a tradition for my wife and I - it's our honeymoon town and this is our 28th anniversary. Let me know if you have questions or if I can assist further! NorthWes

As you can imagine, we really like reflective signs up here in Alaska... as a sign guy, I've learned a neat trick using the 3M engineer-grade Black reflective material. It's black in normal light but reflects back a bright silvery-gray when hit with a headlamp or flashlight beam under low/no light conditions. I'm planning to build a night cache using the black material - once we see true night again (maybe around late September...). Check the material out at a local sign shop using quality vinyls such as 3M, Gerber, or Avery brands. The shops should be happy to sell you a square foot or two of material you can apply to tacks or slightly larger marker substrate materials.

FYI we had 24 folks turn out for the Kincaid Park CITO Event (GCN506) on April 16th here in Alaska. They came from across 400 miles of the state.. Pretty good turnout - we had about 16 pre-register and 50% MORE showed up! The posts won't reflect total numbers, as some folks had teams or families along. Unfortunately, our group photo didn't get all the attendees in it either, as some left early due to other commitments. Anchorage City Parks Dept loved it & has invited us back to host seminars for staff, and then workshops as part of their Summer in the Parks series.

Came across this thread doing initial planning for an Anchorage-area CITO event. I've found the members' club-brand variety of cold capsules 'smoked' under a highway bridge while caching with my daughter north of town here, and have encountered other kinds of haz-mat waste too. Perhaps a good speaker to invite to a local cachers' meeting or as the 'warning speaker' at the start of a CITO event would be a representative from the state or local agency responsible for 'first responder' calls on this kind of stuff. Here in Alaska, the Dept of Environmental Conservation has employees who are available for general information discussions, and the local Fire Dept is delighted to find people who want to know more about recognizing haz-mat waste. I agree with the individual who recommends using a stick and gloves to 'hunt' through the grass & leaves - that's good common sense, isn't it? As one of those asthma & allergy - impaired folks, I hate getting a lungfull of any kind of dust... that's not how I like to have my breath taken away! In any case, thanks to Salvelinus for starting the discussion.

First visit to the forum, and here I find someone else asking the same question I've asked myself... I've emailed other 'cachers directly to arrange a swap before. We don't have an formally-organized caching group here in Alaska to work through - it would be nice to 'post' a TB mission on a regional website, so others could participate in the mission. Having just returned from a trip to Lousiana & Florida where I acquired several TBs which I've subsequently discovered were on their way to places such as Germany or California, I was stumped as to how to advertise their presence & mission, beyond just placing them in a cache here in Anchorage Alaska near the airport and hope for random luck to move them on. Of course, I wish the bugs would have had mission tags attached to them as well! A 'TB Mission' log or site would be a nice added feature to this site... (as the site manager pulls his hair out!!!)