COINTEST: See Post 54! The Geocacher's Road Atlas

November 27, 2008

These turned out great.

Keep up the nice work and lets see some more from you.

November 28, 2008

Rockin Roddy, YOU ROCK!!! These coins are awesome. They will be a hit -- I will be ordering one in each color!!

BTW here is the link to where they are: http://www.geoswag.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/pre34.html

Heidi

Wow! I really want a couple of these. I can't locate where to get them. Help please!

Edit to add...Hi there, you coinkidnapper you! Thank You for taking good care of my GeoToken, and giving it such a great tour!!

Ah, I only moved it about 50 times. LOL Glad your GeoToken is moving on. Not quite 10,000 miles but close.

New GC was not at presale when I found this thread. I guess I missed out this time. Darn!

November 29, 2008

got mine today! awesome!

8.9k · November 29, 2008

New GC was not at presale when I found this thread. I guess I missed out this time. Darn!

I heard there were some still available, but have not been able to locate them. I'd email them and ask...or email me and I might be able to set you up with one!

Oh, to heck with it. I can't force myself to sell these on ebay, just not interested in giving them money needlessly...SOOO, here's a chance to win one!!

COINTEST COINTEST COINTEST COINTEST

This one is simple, just post a nice little story about your favorite cache trip! The story I like best will win, NO RANDOM DRAW for this one! Story can be funny, exciting or whatever, but the one I enjoy most will be rewarded with a SILVER Atlas coin!! Let's let this run for a week or so so everyone has a chance to enter!!

RULES:

Same as usual...NO whining, NO bribing (at least not publically lol) ONLY 2 POSTS per cacher please, so give it some thought before using your entries!! You can edit as long as you're not adding a new trip! Most of all, HAVE FUN!!!

I'll start it off:

My favorite trip was when Tod and I went to Vegas and cached on top of Turtlehead!! Here's how it came about:

Tod's boss (and a very good friend of mine) owns a house in Vegas, I've used it as home base for the last 11 years now...nice house. Well, a cedar ttree in the back yard grew bigger than he'd wanted and it was now covering his chimney and dwarfing the house, so he wanted it cut down. I of course volunteered Tod and I to go out and do the job! Well, there's a group of workers out there (if you've ever been in the region, you'll know what I mean when I say mexican workers...not putting anyone down here at all) who had already bid on it, but we really wanted to go and Dan wanted company when he went out, so we got the job!!

I packed all our caching gear and such and we were ready to fly out! Dan being a great person, rented us a car, flew us out, fed us and even gave us some spending money...WOW! We were there for 10 days of fun and caching...oh, and cutting down a tree lol. Dan's not the type to put things off, but we weren't in any hurry and we found excuses after excuses to wait another day! FINALLY, the neighbors asked us to get it cut down as they were having a party the next day, so we rented the chainsaw, borrowed the ladder and made the plans...long story short...we cut one large section of the tree out before Dan stopped us (the job was much bigger than any of us had thought and well out of our league for equipment we had).

This gave us plenty of time to cache and explore, we climbed Turtlehead and found the cache, we hit several others in the Red Rock Canyon and surrounding areas...my last time climbing with Tod! I know there's pics out there on other threads, but my computer died and I cannot add any here sadly. I'll try to get the one where Tod's climbing a difficut section soon!!

The trip was just awesome, and one of the few times I flew out since I like to drive. Dan, Tod and I had an awesome time, we hit the local casinos nightly (not to gamble though, I like to watch the ladies and such lol) and Tod and I really had a great time exploring! Tod and I had been out there several times since I don't like to travel alone and Tod always made time to join me, but this was the most memorable for me as it was the last time we could get there!!

The funny thing...the mexican workers offered to cut that whole tree out for a mere $400...whole trip must have cost Dan well over $2000 and the tree is STILL standing right now! I think what scared him was when Tod cut into the section hanging over the neighbor's fence (a cinderblock wall really)...and it bounced off the wall. We had calculated it to hit the palm tree and bounce into our yard...the wall still stood, but it was scary!! I still get a smile on my face thinking about it!

8.9k · November 29, 2008

Also...I have a very few of these for trades, so get those offers in, I will be getting the trades out soon!!! As I said, only a very few to offer up for trade, so I'll have to pick and choose carefully!!

5.8k · November 30, 2008

Well, I have a lot of experience cutting firewood from fallen trees, and a few times I have been asked to take my chainsaw and cut a tree down. I've always been willing to look at the job, but many people don't understand the difference between cutting UP a tree, and cutting DOWN a tree. Now you know!! I'm glad no one was hurt or anything destroyed. I'll add a story soon but not on this computer

8.9k · November 30, 2008

Well guys, I can't sleep and I need to keep my mind active to not dfwell on any one thing, so you'll all just have to suffer through another of my stories. Brace yourself, this is a long one:

Vegas again, before caching though....for us at least. I had been out to Red Rock Canyon several times and had bought a season pass every year, climbing was sooo fun out there! I'd done it enough alone to realize I could get myself into serious trouble without companions, so I decided to ask Tod and another friend named Jade to join me in some REAL climbing! Jade had been out with me previously and knew what I meant, Tod was "in the blind"

I joined a site called hikinglasvegas (I think) and printed off some "routes" for various mountains out there, including the two tallest peaks, Mt Wilson and Bridge Mountain. The plan we finally arrived at was we'd go up to the 5000' mark and set up camp for our "base". Rocky Gap road led right where we needed to start, so we planned to leave the truck at the parking lot and each carry roughly 80lb packs with all we'd need for 3 days on the mountains.

We get out there and rest the first day before heading to Rocky Gap road and the parking lot. Long story short, we left the truck about a third of the way up and had to hike the nearly 2 miles of switchbacks before even starting the real hiking. We get to where we can set up camp and it's probably 11am, so we set up camp and rest for all of 10 minutes before we got the urge to explore. On the trails we go, heading off to take a look at what we've got planned to conquer the next day!!

Up the well worn trail, we soo see the second highest peak, Bridge Mountain...it's right there and it's only like noon or so. We were full of energy, so we decided to shoot on up that one without waiting for morning, so off we went. Well, the trail soon turned into nothing more than a few markings and cairn stones to guide us over this wild landscape. At one point, we were right over the land bridge the mountain was named for, and straight across from the mountain itself, so we rested there and broke out the lunch supplies. While sitting there, we spotted climbers on the other side, right a cross from us, They were on a sheer face from what we could tell, so we "knew" that wasn't the route we were taking (we don't use ropes and this was surely a section needing ropes). We met the guys in the middle of the land bridge (whch was about 1000' straight down on both sides, the section was about 30' wide).

They asked us where we were going, "UP" we explained...then these three guys about freaked out. They were giving us water and batteries and food, they sounded genuinely worried about us, but we told them we were gonna go for it (they didn't think we had enough time to make the top). Off we went for the harder climbing!

Tod sat out the climb up the sheer wall, I nearly did myself, but Jade's a billygoat and he was not hearing it! Jade and I went on up while Tod took a nap lol. It was some unbelievable stuff, we got momentarily lost, but eventually found our way! At the top, we celebrate briefly before hurrying back down it was getting near dark!! We woke Tod and started back, but opted for a shortcut since there were a few "chutes" I wasn't sure Tod could make back up. Some rough bushwacking got us to the trail just as darkness hit.

The walk back was much slower since our flashlights lasted for all of 20 minutes or so! Where were those guys now that we need them?? We knew there were big cats in the area, we saw m any signs on the way up, so we were nervous walking in the dark, thankful for the trail!! Another problem...the temperature QUICKLY dropped much lower than our sweatshirts could help, we were getting darned cold rapidly! When we finally made it back to camp area, we threw our packs down and went for the truk, too cold for camping that night!! Another hour or so of trudging in the dark on this really rough two-track of a road and we made the truck, I shot that bad boy straight up past a section which afforded only 3" of roadway under us and keeping us from going over a 200' cliff.

Back to the top, we try to find our tents using the new GPS I bought just for this trip...JUNK! Half an hour before locating the tents, we just each grabbed a corner of our tents and chucked them into the back of the truck, it was really cold by now! We enjoyed the stars all the way back down the rugged road, one mountain down!!

I'll tell you part two later, it gets much better...

2.5k · November 30, 2008

I think my favorite caching trip was this past summer when we went to the Quebec Rendez Vous event in Quebec City. Quebec City is about 4 hours from where we live (just west of Montreal). It was Canada's first mega event and it celebrated Quebec City's 400th anniversary. This was our first mega event and first time bringing our new PengoPup Spade with us. We found a hotel in the area that was dog friendly. We had so much fun meeting others cachers that we have traded geocoins with. And meeting up with cachers we already new. I made some trades there myself and helped out Landsharkz at their booth. It was also the first time our PengoPup went geocaching. He wasn't very good at finding the caches but he had a lot of fun sniffing everything in the woods. We had a great time!

8.8k · November 30, 2008

Title change at OP's request.

November 30, 2008

Well I don't have a ton of finds yet - but I do have quite an interesting story to relate. The person who I cache with whenever I go out now is from NY and drives a toyota prius.

We decided one day that we would go out to the mojave desert before an event in order to do a really neat geocache (GCF441 - Burro Schmidt) for my friend's milestone number. We had at our disposal the use of either his prius or my old '90 firebird to go out into the desert with. We decided on the prius without too much thought and headed out late into the night - I'd say around 3 or 4 in the morning or so, so that we could see the sun rising up while out in the mojave desert.

We eventually made it there, and despite some misgivings about what we were about to do - headed onto a dirt trail out into the mojave. The dirt road wasn't *too* bad for awhile - and we passed what seemed to be some sort of camp or RV or somesuch with lights. We thought it was kind of odd to see people up and about in this little camped area at three or four in the morning, but figured maybe they were night owls like us. :unsure:

So we're out on the dirt trail and the dirt is getting progressively softer and deeper - and we notice what seems to be a set of headlights behind us. We started to take various trails - but this set of headlights basically followed us regardless of which path we took. It started to take on a really odd 'The Hills Have Eyes' sensation when all of a sudden our little prius gets stuck in a really deep soft sandy area on the dirt path. I mean - literally stuck to the point that trying to go forward or reverse does not even turn the wheels. Right about then these two 4x4 trucks go zooming around our stuck car (to our left) and further down the trail. Whew! I guess they weren't out for us after all.

I took a moment at this point to get out and reflect on how the sky was so pretty - lots of stars to be seen in the desert considering I've been born and raised in the valley near Los Angeles. It always blows me away just to be able to see lots of stars in the sky.

We managed to get the little prius unstuck through a combination of one person behind the wheel and the other actually pushing on the prius from the front - I guess a little car like that can be pushed out of a deep spot of soft sand if there's enough adrenaline going!

That wasn't enough to stop us I guess! We continues on further into the mojave and started to go down what was probably paths better left for jeeps or humvees. Some kind of 'gold rush' trail that had quite a few big rocks all throughout it. Trails you probably would not want to take a horse through. I've never had the unique experience of listening to large sharp rocks scraping underneath a car's underbody up until then - and boy, were they scary sounds! I'd cringe and shiver while my pilot friend did his best to maneuver the prius over and around these tiny super rocky paths. Eventually we got to a point where the path pretty much dropped off to a point that it'd be an adventure even if you had an elevated jeep. We turned back and ended up doing a different cache that was out in the mojave that required a bit of a climb - near some really amazing talc mines that seemed to be abandoned. My friend managed to get a really beautiful milestone cache up on a desert hill and we somehow managed to get back out of the Mojave, our little prius still in one piece, thankfully. We also made it in time to the geocaching event later in the day, despite all the crazy mishaps.

Edit: Here's a beautiful picture we took while out in the middle of the desert when the sun was coming up.

-Jen

Edited November 30, 2008 by Cyclosarin

2.2k · December 1, 2008

Okay. Now you have to understand, I am a city person. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where all the streets are paved and the city itself has, perhaps, something approximating a gentle valley, but for the most part is as flat as a pancake -- not a pancake that I would cook, mind you, but that a competent person would cook, okay? And it was a paved pancake.

My husband grew up in a small town in California, has spent a lot of time in a small town in Iowa, to which his parents retired. Plus, he was in the Navy for 24 years and spent a lot of time in strange places. In other words, he's used to the countryside in a way that I am not. When we were married, we spent part of the honeymoon in Keflavik, Iceland, where he was stationed. He had a Ford Explorer and we spent a lot of time driving around. At one point, we looked at a large hill and I pointed out the absolutely suicidal dirt road going up the side of the hill at what looked (to me) like an eighty-degree angle. He smiled and said, "Oh, I'd love to go up that road in this car."

He's a very rational, calm, thoughtful, considered man. Until you put him in an SUV. I swear, there is another man in him, or in the SUV, that only comes out when he's behind the wheel.

Earlier this year, we took our (then 7-month-old) daugher to visit family and, as part of the trip, spent quite a time in the small town in Iowa. I saw that a new cache had been posted close by (Mt. Pisgah - Mormon Pioneer Way Station) and I wanted to be first to find. So we hopped in his trusty Ford Explorer, loaded up the baby, and off we went.

Now, Iowa is not flat, at least, not southwestern Iowa, where we were. It has gently rolling hills. It was currently raining, and I mean raining - later in the week, I would retreat twice to the basement with the baby because of approaching tornadoes while Patrick, of course, stood on the front page and watched the flooded streets and the spectacular lightning show*. Anyway, I was in the car, studying the Garmin and a regional map and trying to figure out where to go, and we came across a road labelled "Mt. Pigsah Road". Well, that's got to be the one, right? How much more obvious could it be?

We turned onto it. Rural Iowa has a lot of dirt roads. Or perhaps I should say "clay roads". No, they're "dirt-approaching-clay roads". This was one of them, and it was thoroughly wet, with water- and partial-clay-filled ruts. Did I mention it was gently rolling? Actually, the cache is on something of a rise, so this road was mostly UP. A slick, slippery, almost-clay UP. I was, gritting my teeth and clutching the arm rest and my husband was having an absolute ball. He especially loved it when the car slipped, which it did, frequently, and would just about stop my heart on the occasional decline because he would speed up and try to get it to slip. I was at the mercy of a crazy man!

The baby? Asleep the whole time. Apparently, the sound of my tooth enamel grinding away didn't bother her at all.

We arrived and saw (of course) that in the other direction the road was paved. I always do this. It's like I have some kind of weird, twisted sense of direction: I innately find the worst, most difficult way to get to the cache. It is a gift.

Anyway, I found the cache. It was really cool. And then, to my husband's vast disappointment, I made him take the paved road back home. He was quite put out about it, grumbling about "boring roads" all the way back. I felt a little bad about taking away his fun but all I could think of was what were we going to do if we got stuck in a rut with the baby?

Awesome cache.

*Okay, so he's not only crazy when he's in the SUV. He's mostly normal, okay?

Mt. Pigsah - Pioneer Memorial

Edited December 1, 2008 by Jackalgirl

8.8k · December 1, 2008

OK!!!!! A cointest!!!

And it is for a great coin!!!!! :rolleyes:

I will post my favorite story about a caching day with me, my sister and my brother in law! I have posted it again! It is a quite funny story, and completely true!!!!! It was the funniest geocaching day we had till now!!! Why??? Welll.....

....

We wanted to find some caches at that day, so we wanted to be quick! There are not many caches in Rhodes, but they have some distance between them!

Anyway... We were going to Archangelos village, were it was a cahce at a place called Profitis Ilias! Well, we knew that this place had a small church, and all the churches with that name are in mountains!

Unfortunatelly we didn't know where it was! We had never visited that place! I searched in books, and in the net, and found that there was a big festival and celebrations once a year when it was the name of the saint and it was quite famous for the villagers of all nearby villages and Archangelos of course!

So...it was going to be an easy find!!!! HA!!! Only in our dreams!!!

When we arrived, we entered in the village and started searching for a sign or something, to help us find the way! Nothing!!! GPS was not helping us, we were very new with the GPS, so...

We took all roads in the village, we were making rounds...rounds... nothing!!!! We had to ask a local to help us!

To the first man we saw sitting, we stoped to ask him about this church! He was looking us strangely! Then he said...."sorry I am from Albania, I do not speak good greek and I do not know"!!!!

Well...ok! Many foreigners are working in Rhodes!

we left from there and some minutes later, we saw 2 women sitting! We stoped to ask them but.... one was from Bulgaria and the other was from Russia!!!

Were are the Greeks?? We are in an island how we passed the borders??

Then we saw a guy! we asked him but he was mute!!!! Can you believe that???? Someone was joking with us!!!

We desided to go in an other area of the village! There, we found a young girl (hmm..pretty too! ), we asked were the "profitis Ilias" small church was, but she was sending us to Profitis Ilias in Salakos, an other village far away from Archangelos!!!

No, no! we said to her! there is a church here in Archangelos with that name! there is a big festival in his name day!!! Don't you know it???

- No! I never heard that before! She told us!

- Are you from here? we asked her! Well, we had already seen enough so...

She was from the village!!!

We were driving in the village trying to find a way for more than an hour! Maybe even more than 1:30 hours, so we were about to forget this cache! Then we saw 2 old women comming from the cemetary!!

Hey!!! they are old, they are from the village and they know about churches for sure!!!

Oh yes! they told us were to go!!!!!!!!

When we told them what we had been through they laughed!

- Are you from here or you are from an other place of Greece? They asked us!

Oups! that question sounds familiar!!!

- We are from Rhodes! We do not know this church and we were told that it is in a nice place..... (oh boy!!!)

The road didn't have a sign! we took it and saw that at the half of it was the place they used to throw their garbages!! A lovely place and ... At least they stopped...I think!

We continued our way up, to find the church at the top of the montain! Jesus! The road was full of goat sh..t!!! Ok there were many goats there but the road was almost black!!!

We went to the top and the view was excellent!!! the church was very old!

There were some locals there eating in the yard of the church! We continued to find the cache and we were carefull not to be seen! they didn't see us because they were busy with their food!

The cache was an easy find! we loged quickly, we enjoyed the view and then we went to the church to light a candle!

There was an old woman in there! we spoke to her, and she started talking to us! she talked, talked...

then she asked us why we were there! We told her that we didn't know the place, and we accidently found it!

- Oh! a lot of tourists are coming like that! She told us! They like goind there! And showed us the area with the hiden cache!

We said nothing except that the view is fantastic there, so..

We thanked her and we were leaving but she wanted to give us food to eat! We didn't want and we politely told her that we were going to a taverna but she insisted!!!

She took a plate that was dirty, she cleaned (?) it with a dirty piece of cloth and put something inside!!!!

It was spagetti with warmed goat milk and goat cheece in pieces (she cut the cheese with her hand). It was smelling really bad! A sour thing was comming from the plate!

She was forcing us to eat!

I was looking me sister, she was looking my brother in law, He was looking at me!!!Then were started looking at the plate!!! Who was going to be the hero????

Then we told her that we really had to leave, and she took the plate which was full in that kind of food, and put it in a used plactic bag, to take it with us!! We politely refused but...without any suscess! We told her...what about the plate?

- It is yours!

Ok! I admit she was extremelly polite, but...

We put the plate in the car and left! Oh my.... The terrible smell was in the car now! I still remember that smell! It was winter time, it was cold, but.... the smell was terrible, so we had to leave the windows open, otherwise we were going to faint from the smell!!!!!

Some kilometers away, we stoped and throw the food to some stray cats! at least the food was not wasted!There is only one thing that I did not understand! Why the cats ran away when they smell the food??!!?? No Joking!

My brother in law went to clean the plate to return it in a later visit, but while he was cleaning it, the plate fell from his hand and broke! the left overs of the food went on him and he was.....

We laughed so much!!!

What a day!!!

2.2k · December 1, 2008

ROFL, Gatoulis -- what a great story!

December 1, 2008

Last March we took a road trip to Hershey, PA. The trip got expanded to include New Jersey, New York, Niagra Falls and a quick trip through Canada.

From central Wisonsin we headed south to Chicago, grabbing a few caches along the way. We drove straight through to a motel that we had reservations at in a little place called Holiday City, Ohio. It just sounded like such a nice place! It wasn't the worse place we've ever stayed at, but it certainly didn't live up to our expectations.

Since we had plenty of daylight left, my daughter and I decided to attempt a 4.5/4.5 cache that really intrigued us. We found the cache and it is one we will never forget, but that's a whole different story.

The next morning we found a few more caches around the area before heading towards Pennsylvania. I had a few caches picked out along the route, but unfortunatly my wife had picked a different (much better) route. It was a very long drive to Hershey.

The first night there, I used the Motel wireless to download some local caches. One that really caught my eye was a brand new puzzle cache by CCCooper Agency. The whole family drove the 20 miles to the posted coords to see if it anything there would shed a light on the puzzle. Nothing did. After getting back to the motel, I got an idea that resulted in coordinates, but not being familiar with the area I was very unsure if I was right. My daughter and I got up bright and early the next morning and got our first out of state FTF.

We actually got two FTFs that day. The second one allowed my daughter and I to climb down a 100 foot high rock bluff. We could have rode in the car to the bottom with the rest of the family, but this just seemed like more fun. Half way down I had visions of being arrested for child endangerment, but it was too late to turn back.

My wife and I took a nighttime drive to Harrisberg and were blown away by the sights. That is one beautiful city. We wandered around reading the plaques and snapping pictures like a couple of... tourists.

One of our daughter's best friends had recently moved to Albany, NY. It looked so close on the map. We took one of the most scenic drives I've ever been on and let her stay over night with her friend.

The next day we did a few touristy things on the way to Buffalo. After settling in at the motel, we decided to drive to Niagra Falls to see the falls at night. We drove back the next morning, did some more touristy stuff on both sides of the Rainbow Bridge and then made the very long drive back home with only one cache stop in Canada, and a few stops for gas.

With both kids in high school, there won't be many more chances for trips like this with the whole family. This one certainly stands out as one of my favorites. Nothing really, really worth a long story, but we certainly packed a lot of fun into a few days.

Thanks RR for another great cointest. I love reading the stories so far and I'm looking forward to more.

Edited December 1, 2008 by Team Black-Cat

8.9k · December 2, 2008

I've had fun reading these stories and hope to see more come in soon!! Remember, we're playing for a GEOCACHER"S ATLAS coin, I will be sending the winner this coin soon!!

I'll be sharing "the rest of the story" about Tod and my adventures in Vegas soon, I'll let you know when so you can get all comfy and have a good beverage to sip!! :huh:

8.8k · December 2, 2008

ROFL, Gatoulis -- what a great story!

LOL! Thank you my friend! Oh

1 I forgot to mention in my story that when the left overs went on my brother in law clothes (I am talking about the end of my story..), can you guess how he smelled??? :huh:

All the day he was smelling like..... :huh:

2.2k · December 3, 2008

ROFL, Gatoulis -- what a great story!

LOL! Thank you my friend! Oh

1 I forgot to mention in my story that when the left overs went on my brother in law clothes (I am talking about the end of my story..), can you guess how he smelled???

All the day he was smelling like.....

...like rotten goat cheese! PeeeeeYEW!

Did he keep the clothes, or just throw them away?

(Your poor brother-in-law. But what a great, great story - tee hee hee!)

8.9k · December 3, 2008

Ok....and now, the rest of the story: (better get your bathroom break and something to keep you cozy)

We ended up at my friends' (and later, Tod's boss) house for the night (we were already staying there, but had planned the campout which didn't work), 3 fairly stiff and sore old fat men (well Tod and I were fat old men, Jade was a younger and in shape participant). The next morning, we opted to drive out tothe Grand Canyon (wow, that's another story all it's own lol) and relax the tired muscles a bit!

The next day though, we were chomping at the bit for the big climb, the Mt Wilson assault! I am the "responsible" one of the group (I know, hard to believe), so I set the rules: up before dawn and ready to get on the mountain! We stopped at McDonald's before heading on to the parking area about 15 miles from where Dan lives (my friend)...our packs were filled with apples, peanuts, sandwiches, water and of course all necessary equipment relating to first aid and safety, probably about 35lb packs each for this trip! Oh, and my cameras!

Parking, we couldn't see the mountains yet because it was still fairly dark (probably around 5:30am by now), but we readied all our equipment and headed out along the sany path leading to the base of the mountain! about an hour in, we could finally see the mountain we were about to challenge, it was looming much closer and bigger than we'd experienced on our drives through Red Rock Canyon, we had our first real look at what was ahead of us! Now, imagine this, we're walking through across the dsesert floor for almost an hour and a half befoer we come to...an oasis! Seriously! In the middle of this desert was a growth of trees and grass with a stream running through it! We rested here for a few minutes before starting on, this marked the beginning of the "bouldering"!

With the downloaded "route" to follow, we moved much slower while looking for the landmarks described...a tree with a crook here, a boulder with a certain feature there. It proved slow, but it put us on the right track and seemed like an adventure all throughout the simple part of this climb! All along the way, we kept coming across the "disappearing stream" which had made up the oasis we had rested at. This stream would bubble up out of the sand and flow for a ways before disappearing back into the sand again, we saw it often!

At one point, we needed to climb a "chimney" made up of huge boulders (bigger than my house in many cases). The opening looked like a cave, but it had another opening at the top which, when climbed up, you could get over an exceptionally large boulder cluster and continue on! I let Tod and Jade lead on while I caught my breath since I have a bad back and was already feeling the strain...and we were not even a 1/3 of the way into the climb! The chimney proved a bit harder than I expected, but I finally made it to the top to find I was now alone?? The other two must have grown tired of waiting for me and had started on! Well, after a little walk, I found them sitting on some boulders and looking like they were bored from the wait...I gave them a bit of guff about leaving a poor old man to die out there all alone and we stopped and ate some peanuts and an apple!

FINALLY we were into the real climbing, not just the bouldering or scurrying, this was the big league. Keep in mind we don't use rope! The next section took us to the midway point and a beautiful waterfall comprised of the stream we'd seen so often! Well, here's where I almost died the first time! To get to the ledge over the waterfall, we had to traverse a narrow ledge which had much loose and barely attached shale. One step on the shale could lead to trouble since the cliff we were on was a 100' drop to the stream below, and you couldn't tell if the shale was firmly attached, or just waitning to break off under your weight! I found some shale which broke off, this sent me sliding toward the edge!!! I dropped quickly to a laying position and clawed for a handgrip, catching myself only feet from a fall!!!

We relaxed a short bit at the waterfall before heading on, here's where we saw the ice falls as well! Keep in mind it's early spring, but the icy falls was in an area which got little sunlight! This also marked the start of the sliding shale climb! I hated this part the most, it's bad enough to have to climb with a sore back, but to take 3 steps up and slide 2 steps back each time was murder! This went on for about an hour before we finally hit the start to the "summit" attempt! I should tell you though, the description we had detailed the 7 false peaks leading to the final peak, we knew there was a lot of work ahead of us! Problem being, we were about 3/4 of the way now and time was already becoming a factor!

By this time, Tod was feeling the strain (Tod's a bit bigger than Jade and I, so he was really wore out by now), so we had to coax him on often!! Knowing he'd stopped just short of the peak on Bridge, we really wanted him to make this peak, so we encouraged him as much as possible while also trying to get him to pick up the pace!! Well after the 4th false peak, Tod was about ready to quit, but we forced him on with bribes and threats lol!!

The 6th false peak led us to a beautiful oasis area with trees and what looked like a bench made of boulders (it wasn't of course, but it worked out great) We rested here again and ate our sandwiches and some peanuts, our food was dwindling now, as was our water...and time! Jade, the mountain goat, scared me badly when he nearly fell from the side of the mountain while looking over a rock jetting out over the 1000' drop, I then told him I wasn't going home to explain to his mom I led him to his death on that mountain, and on we went! FINALLY, the last false peak AND, a view of the true peak!!!!!

Tod quit right there, on the last false peak and only about 1000' from the true peak. We had to climb down about 100', cross the 1000' between us and then climb about 110' back up to the true peak, Tod waited behind. Jade, being faster than a rabbit was already down the 100' and crossing to the peak before I could even get started down, but I was following behind! By the time I reached the last assault, Jade had already made the top and found the register at the top! I was now pushed on by adrenaline and wasn't being as cautious as I should, leading me to make a nearly fatal mistake, the second time I nearly died on this mountain! I was climbing up without looking about and soon found myself wondering where to reach next, so I yelled to Jade asking for direction. He looked back at where I was (he had been busy reading the logs in the registery) and, with a look of fear, yelled for me to look out! I was pretty much dangling over the edge of the mountain with a 3000' drop beneath me and nothing but handholds stopping my fall!! I found super-human strength at that point and climbed the last bit putting me beside Jade on the roughly 50'x50' perch we'd been seeking all day, THE PEAK!! We had little time to celebrate though, we knew we were really constrained by the time now!! We signed the log and read the few entries...since the registry placing in 1972, there were only about 200 names and many were repeat climbers! We figured it out to around 3 people finding the top per year...we were that year's 3!!

Down proved just as hard and we were in a hurry! Made a mistake just before leading to the sliding shale section and had to backtrack costing us about 20 precious minutes, but we could slide rapidly down the shale! Made the waterfall and ate the rest of our food before heading on. Here's where I made almost fatal mistake #3! I told them there was NO way I'd do that shale ledge again, so we found a smaller ledge which was nothing more than about 4' wide! At one point, we had to go around a "corner" and my arms didn't quite find handholds, my pack and gravity kicked in and I was about to go over the cliff to my death, I was even already falling backwards (think the "Lipton plunge" type thing), but Tod, being right in front of me, saw me going over and, with one hand, grabbed my pack and pulled me back to the ledge...WHEW!!! Tod saved my life there and I have never forgotten!

We're now to the bouldering and it's becoming twilight! About 1/3 of the way to go and about an hour of daylight left, we knew we were in trouble! We HAD to make the sandy trail before dark or we were dead! We'd been pushing a big cat the whole way up the mountain, we knew this because we saw freshh scratchings where we'd scared it and we came upon a still wet body print from where the cat had been swimming in the stream, so we knew a cat was about! We started hopping the boulders, some jumps being as much as 20' down! The light was bad, so judging the landing was tricky and sometimes hazardous! BUT, we made the trail right at darkness!!!

Being completely drained by now and in much pain from the strain of jumping those boulders, I was bringing up the rear, but we were in a close group as we walked the sandy trail in total darkness...no one had the energy to bother dragging out our lights! After rounding a group of boulders, we heard (and felt) the sound which scared us the most...a LOUD and vibrating growl! It was only about 40' away or so, we knew we were in trouble now!! We stopped and listened (still without lights mind you in total darkness), the started walking forward only to be met with an even loder and more menacing growl...it had gotten closer! Now I am tired, but I'm also scared, so I picked up a rock about the size of a muskmellon and heaved it as far as I could (which wasn't far lol)...Tod yelled at me for almost hitting him! Our lights were then brought out very fast and just in time to see this massive cat staring at us from about 30', it was sitting on a rock and it's tail was flickering quickly (a sure sign it was agitated). It realized there were 3 of us, so it moved away, we started on before seeing several more sets of eyes on the other side of us, we had come between the cat and it's intended prey!

Jade left Tod and I behind as I just couldn't move very fast since my back was now almost fully seized up. Abiout 2 more hours brought us to the truck and back to civilization!! WOW, what a day. It was now a bit past midnight, we had spent almost 20 hours on that mountain!! Went to the Red Rock Canyon visitor's center to boast of our exploits and to warn of a cat out there, the rangers scoffed at our accomplishment...until we described the benchmark which was at the very top of the mountain. These guys then told us they'd never climbed one of the two m ountains we'd made (in 3 days mind you), nor seen a cat...and they had lived there for years and years!!

I always wanted to return and made many plans with Tod and Jade, but we never did. I think you can walk a trail from Bridge along several peaks and be able to climb Wilson from the other direction, we had made plans to try this and maybe even camp this time, but Tod's death sure ended that! I wouldn't ever go the way we did, but another route might be tried, I hope one day to still make it, maybe with Jade or some cachers since there's now a cache on both Bridge and Wilson!!

Oh...and Tod never did make a peak! I have many pictures which I had blown up on my computer, one shows Tod on the last false peak waving at us while we sat on the final! I also have a poster sized print I had made from a picture of Bridge Mountain...it shows the three guys climbing down on the opposite side of where we had stopped just over land the bridge. I also have one of Tod and Jade posing at the opening of the lower chimney entrance!! That Tod, he'd always be making bunny ears behind Jade's back lolol. Jade never caught on until I showed him the pics!

Edited December 3, 2008 by Rockin Roddy

1.2k · December 4, 2008

I posted this story in it's own thread a couple of months ago but for a great cointest like this I had to repost. :unsure:

A while back mom and I were going after a cache and realized it was too wet for us to manage the climb up the incredibly steep hill. We decided to save that cache for a nicer day.

The follwoing weekend was sunny and dry and we had a little time to kill so my hubby and I went back to it. We parked where we thought we should and managed to crawl on all fours to the top of the hill. Once there, we couldn't get the GPS to lock due to trees and a rock wall behind us. There was a little clear area off to our left so I walked over there and stood at the top of a 20' rock cliff that gradually worked it's way down to a large, moss covered ledge that was just above the ground where it met up with the hillside. I admired how pretty it was and then turned to look at the GPS.

I hadn't been turned around more than a few seconds when I heard a noise on the ledge behind me. I turned back around just in time to see a black bear stepping onto the ledge 20' directly below me! I was raised in this country and in most situations a black bear wouldn't bother me, I'd stop to take pictures (and have many times!) but confronted with one that close, especially when it's just about dusk and when it's just about time for them to go into hibernation, my fight or flight instinct kicked in and my brain reacted with FLIGHT! I knew he would have to go around the cliff, he couldn't climb straight up it, but the distance around wasn't huge and I wasn't sticking around to see what his choice was. I turned and told my hubby (who incidentally refuses to hike with me because of the risk of running across a bear!) to get back to the car because there was a black bear and we took off!

Fortunately, while looking for the cache we had found a trail down that wasn't quite as treacherous as the one we came up on. Unfortunately, it was a little longer trail. When we got to the top of the steep one my hubby asked "Fast or easy?" and I told him easy since the bear would have a hard time making it up the cliff. We still kept a close watch over our shoulders though and made it to the car in record time! By the time we got to the car I was shaking so bad I could barely hold anything and the hysterical laughter had set in but we still had to back the car up a little bit to see if we could see the bear from the parking area. We couldn't even though we knew he was probably still less than 15-20 yards from our car.

This was by far my scariest geocaching moment and probably close to one of the scariest moments of my whole life. From now on it's the GPS in one hand and bear spray in the other!

In the end that particular cache took us 3 trips, a major hint from the owner, and several hours of hunting but it provided us with lots of laughs and even more gray hairs!

4k · December 5, 2008

One of my most precious memory in caching is a day trip I took with my geodog Wyatt Earp. I have often climbed Mt-Washington in the White Mountains of New-Hampshire in the past but this time we were also geocaching. We wanted to reach the summit and get our picture taken by the observatory webcam to claim our find.

On a beautiful sunny morning September 3rd, we left the base at 8:30 and started our climb on a very nice trail that took us in a very quiet forest. Let's just say that the trail can be quite steep from times to times, up hill almost all the way. Once you reach a certain altitude, only dwarf trees surround you. After that, you have to look for cairns to stay on the trail because all you see are boulders everywhere. It was the perfect day to climb the mountain, we met a few hikers which were always happy to pet Wyatt and have a little chat.

During our ascent, I stopped regularly to enjoy the view, it seems as you can see forever once you're out of the forest. Wyatt was always eager to continue his hike. It was his first trip on this mountain and he was a real trooper. He had his own packsack with his water, bowl and some cookies. He was always in front of me on the trail but kept looking back to see if I was still following. Let's just say that being only 2 years old, he is in better shape than I am <_<

It took us 4 hours and a half to reach the 6,288 ft summit. We had our picture taken by the webcam saved by our daughter back home. Mission accomplished! For those who wonder if the trip going down was tough, don't worry, my husband was waiting for us on the summit. He took the auto road

There are things in life that you remember forever, this is one of them <_<

Picture taken at the summit with Wyatt Erap my faithful companion, my big furry friend :laughing:

4k · December 5, 2008

Thanks Rockin Roddy for holding this cointest and letting us share some of our geocaching adventures :laughing:

Edited December 5, 2008 by Laval K-9

8.9k · December 5, 2008

Last chances to enter this cointest, please take a second or two and post a story of your fun!!

I'll choose a wiiner Sunday night or so.

THANKS for all the stories so far, and for the pics!!

3.4k · December 6, 2008

there might be some confusion on the finish.

team olsson says, "If you search on geoswag there is AG that means Antique Gold and i have one here.

I can not see any Antique Bronze. "

i can't find the coin at all on geoswag, so i don't know what are the official finishes.

could it be, it was AG and not AB? heck, i can never tell the difference. folks who were lucky enough to get an order in, what do the receipts say?

rsg - checking names twice before they go up on geocoincollection

2.8k · December 6, 2008

I would have to say that my most memorable caching trip was last winter (I briefly mentioned what happened before, but will share a little more of the fun). Our family headed north to Erie with Pghlooking (Jim) and family. The plan was to spend the night at an indoor waterpark, and then head toMeadville to earn our first AGT coin. It started out pretty uneventful, until 60 miles from home. That was when Jim's vehicle broke down. A few quick phone calls and Jim had arranged a tow truck to pick up his vehicle, and a rental car to be delivered. We took the Little Lookings in our car and continued to the waterpark. We arrived safely at the hotel, and Jim and Kara met up with us. We had an afternoon and waterpark fun. Somehow, we ended up with a missing coat (locker rooms are so much fun with kids)...that minor crisis was averted when they were able to find it again.

Early the next morning, we hit the oldest cache in PA (GC184). The snow was up to my knees in some places. It made for interesting walking...LOL! After we found the cache we headed back to the waterpark for the morning. Afterwards, we packed up and headed south to Meadville. The plan was to spend the night there, and get up early to earn the Crawford County AGT coin. We actually arrived before it was too dark, so we managed to hit 3 caches that evening. It was a good thing that we did that, because we awoke to a blanket of snow. Kara decided to take their kids to the outlet mall down the road, so Jim joined us in the S.S. Dragon-mobile. Off to cache number 1. Well, it was at this time that call number 2 to AAA was made. While attempting to either turn around, or park (I am not sure which), my hubby managed to get the car stuck in the snow. We were stuck there for over an hour (seems there were a lot of people stuck that morning). While we waited, we found the cache (but it did not take long). Eventually, the tow truck arrived, and the car was ready for action again.

Off to the next cache...it was a pretty uneventful drive to this one (thank goodness). It was not long until we were heading off to the last cache...Old Swampy (GC165V8). Heather was not really feeling up to it, so she and Brian waited in the car while Brenda, Jim and I headed to the cache. It was a nice walk through the snow. We reached ground zero, and Brenda scored the find. We had one heck of a time extracting the cache, because it had frozen in place. I moved closer to the cache, to help her, and it was during this time that the ice, hiding under the fresh snow, gave way. Brenda and I went straight down into "Old Swampy"...up to our ankles. I ended up with one soaked foot, Brenda with 2. It was a rather uncomfortable walk back to the car. Thankfully, we had extra shoes and socks in the trunk!

We ended our trip dropping Jim off at the outlet mall to meet up with his wife and kids, and we enjoyed an uneventful drive home. Definately a memorable weekend...not really in the way that we expected, though!

1 vehicle towed 60 miles (Pghlooking's Jeep) - $200

3 day car rental - $100

1 lost coat - $40

Trip to an overcrowded waterpark for 2 families - $500

1 vehicle towed out of the snow (DD mobile) - $75

1 car wash - $10

2 pairs of socks (from feet breaking thru the ice while caching) - $5

Earning our first AGT geocoin with Pghlooking (and family) - PRICELESS

8.9k · December 6, 2008

there might be some confusion on the finish.

team olsson says, "If you search on geoswag there is AG that means Antique Gold and i have one here.

I can not see any Antique Bronze. "

i can't find the coin at all on geoswag, so i don't know what are the official finishes.

could it be, it was AG and not AB? heck, i can never tell the difference. folks who were lucky enough to get an order in, what do the receipts say?

rsg - checking names twice before they go up on geocoincollection

Unless Sara told me wrong...here's the email excerpt with the finishes I was told were made:

Rod,

Nope, there's nothing unique about the coins we sent you - we made half of the coins antique bronze and half antique silver, so we just gave you some of each. You are welcome to sell some on eBay. We will be announcing ours as soon as possible since we want to get them out before the end of the year, but you can announce and promote them yourself as much as you like.

I even wrote her with the mistaken thought they were AG, she sent me back that reply.

Edited December 6, 2008 by Rockin Roddy

8.9k · December 6, 2008

Great story DD!!! THANKS for sharing!!

LAST DAYS PEOPLE, get your stories in NOW! Remember, you are allowed 2 stories, so enter again if you so desire!!

Edited December 6, 2008 by Rockin Roddy

8.9k · December 6, 2008

Also, three packages being mailed today, so if you bought or traded me for any of mine, they're on their way!!

THANKS!!

AND, I still have a few left if anyone is interested!! Both metals!

1.1k · December 6, 2008

Here is a story for the contest entry!

This entire story is posted on three logs on the cache Sunset Travelers in the country of Belize

This cache proves to be one of the most adventurous caches that I have ever attempted in my 3 years caching sofar. I have been through some serious stuff while finding caches that made memories, but this expedition will account for one of the most unusual and notable of all time in the history of Super_Nate.

First of all I will say that this cache is my first find outside of the United States. I was here with my senior class from Nashville, Tennessee while on our senior class trip in Belize. This cache was the closest one to where we were staying for the first week of our trip, and I started to put my feelers out to the class sponsors to see who was remotely interested to get a “quickie” 4.5 miles down the Western Highway. On Friday night, while a bunch of us guys were sitting on the porch of our “house,” the Geocaching topic arised and I talked 6 people into tackling “Sunset Travelers” sometime before our departure to the islands.

It was agreed that we were going to attempt this cache on Sunday after breakfast since we had nothing to do but rest from the workweek until lunch. We figured that we were going to have an hour-long absence from the place we were staying due to the fact that it should be an easy find. I was optimistic, but I did give a disclaimer to the departing group that since it was indeed a foreign country to us and due to the fact that I was unsure how caches were hidden in Belize, we had potential for mysteries and surprises.

There were a total of 6 of us that went. It was myself as the leader of the cache group. The principal of our school and his wife went. One of the gymnastics coaches from our school and his wife went. And one of my classmates went because he said there was nothing better to do on a dull Sunday. So we set off in the hospital van in search of the described resort in the cache listing. I will say that I was a little nervous on how far off Western Hwy. the cache was according to my GPS map of the area. So that meant we were going to have to gamble on which 2 mile long resort driveway off of Western was the right place to contain a cache.

About 2 miles from the cache location we saw a great big sign that pointed off from the main road that signified a resort. The cache listing said their was food nearby, and the big sign said “food and drink” along with a bunch of other things that would make this be a place that “a family would fall in love with immediately.” So we went for it. The road into this resort was no different from a typical Belize road full of ruts and bumps that digest food faster than you can say, “I’m full.” It was about a half a mile long and ended up at a modest resort. It was a nice place out in the middle of nowhere, but not dreamy like we were picturing. Upon looking at the GPS, we were still well over a mile away from treasure. So our first order of business was to find Ben. Looking around we found a reception place that was locked. Music was playing nearby and we saw someone down a little ways away so we went off to do some asking. She was a nice person, but she was positive that there was no Ben that worked there. She called up to the owner of the place (which was not a Ben) and thought he might have some insight as to what we were here for. I was alright with this as the cache has been active for well over a year on the internet. Since nobody has ever found it, (according to the GC logs online) the former Ben might have left, and let the new owner know about the cache existence. After a few minutes, the resort owner showed up and soon gave me a wave of assurance that we were at the right place and that he knew exactly where the cache was located. He said that it was down a 3 mile loop trail which he pointed the trailhead out to. We thanked him for his kindness and we were off.

At this point, I was feeling great because the owner of the establishment assured me of the correct location…and a mile on a trail through the jungle can go by fast if you have a direct line. We entered the jungle on a very clear trail. About a tenth of a mile into it, the trail forked. The needle was pointing for us to go right so we did. It took us up a very steep hill. As we were ascending, the trail was getting more and more narrow. At the top, the trail disappeared and there was no way for us to want to bushwack. So we went back down and took the left approach at the fork, which was going away from the cache. The next time that the trail turned enough to cause us to gain on the cache location we had already backtracked .5 mile for a grand total of 1.5 miles left to walk. Anxious to find a Belize cache we trekked onward. For the next full mile of walking we went from full, perfectly maintained trail down to a full case of bushwhacking on a so-called path that was probably better classified as a leaf-cutter ant trail. We had fork after fork, and multiple tree-hopping experiences that contributed to misery. The question was asked several times that we hoped we would find our way back, but I had the track-log feature turned on my GPS so we could follow it if needed after finding the cache.

About .85 miles from the cache we suddenly saw a very clear opening in the woods. It was a welcome sight to see light, so we went toward it. It turned out to be a 20-foot wide grass trail that was boarded by jungle on the left, and barbed wire fence on the right. It led as far as the eye could see directly in the direction that the cache was located. We walked on it, and we were very happy to note that by the time the next turn came it had cut off .3 miles to the cache and we were down to .5! Soon we came upon a pasture and a trail that led around it. Since we didn’t want to go through private property to continue the bulls-eye streak, we took the trail around the pasture. This trek added .15 walking in a parallel fashion of the intended target. Once we were finally on the other side of the trail and back on track we re-evaluated which direction the cache was, and found another trail that followed the directional logic. About 100 feet into the trail that we chose to take, it did a 180-degree turn in the opposite direction of the cache for about 300 feet. That was hard for us to see the arrow pointing behind us, but we were going to trust the trail that it would right itself eventually. It finally did when we came upon yet ANOTHER connecting trail that took a rather sharp turn to the left that righted quite beautifully for us. This trail was about 200 feet straight down a very sharp hill ending at a road with some people. We had a ray of hope as we found our first bit of civilization to come across since starting at the first resort.

At the bottom of the hill we came across two people. One looked to be a guard, and the other was driving a truck. The biggest disappointment of the entire day came when these people were from a different resort than when we started out from. We told them the story thus far and their eyes got wide. They were in awe that we had just hiked from such a long ways away. They said that we had well over 4 miles under our belt and that it was a 7-mile drive back to where we started. At this point we had major discouragement from every single person in our group…myself included. I knew we had worked hard for the past three hours bushwhacking through the thick jungle, but we had gotten way off the beaten path and everything that we had just hiked we would have to do again after finding the now worthless treasure.

We grimly thanked them for the information and stood staring at the GPS. We were .20 miles from the cache, but I was already giving up. It was 90+ degrees outside and I just wanted for it to be over. Becoming an international cacher was not appealing to me anymore. Two people in my group were dead-set on finding the cache whether it meant dying first. “C’mon Nate, it is only .2 away!!! We CAN’T QUIT.” So we started shuffling down the road. With every step that we were taking, we were getting more and more discouraged! It didn’t take long though before we were seeing a major thing happening on the GPS screen. It was counting down by feet before we got to the cache, which meant that we were less than 528 feet away. What’s more, the road we were on turned to a nice gravel path pointed directly toward where we were supposed to go.

About 300 feet from the cache, the gravel trail opened up to one of the most beautiful jungle resorts that I think I have ever seen. It was one of the most welcome sights for some very weary eyes and tired legs that our group had. We were a little disoriented due to the fact that this was a different resort then when we first started and that we were going to have to hike all the distance all over again to get back. To see civilization though was well worth the push to get the cache before turning and walking back.

So, what the heck…lets see if this is the place where Ben works! We walked to the closest building and found a guy sitting at a desk and we asked him if there was a Ben that worked there. It turns out that he was Ben, and we had indeed found the correct spot. What a relief! We spilled out our story and he was amazed that we had gone through all that work to find this cache. As if we were at near death, he brought forth some of the best lemonade that I have ever drank in my entire life for everyone in our group. He was also kind enough to show us down to the cache. Laying my eyes on that cache container was the most beautiful sights that I had ever seen. All the work paid off, and we had come in for the prize. Of course we had to take pictures….I will post them on this log when I get them. To put the icing on the cake, after we were all done with the logbook signing and the story telling and the trading and the picture taking, Ben went out of his way to drive us back to our van at the other resort 6 miles driving distance away. WHAT AN ADVENTURE!

So it would seem like the story would end there…..well, it doesn’t! We found this cache on a Sunday. Our class went to Caye Caulker on Monday through Thursday. On Thursday we boarded the plane in Belize City bound for the states to conclude our senior class trip. Lo and behold if I don’t hear a familiar voice while waiting in the ticket counter line in Belize City saying “Hello Super_Nate….” as I turned, I was shocked to see none other than Ben himself. To make it even more unusual, Ben was on the same airplane that we were on to go to Miami! All I can say is, this cache was worth 100 smilieys. It will go down as one of my all-time favorites. I met a really good friend, and you can bet that the next time I am in the Belize area I will visit and trade more things in the cache.

The moral of the story: This cache is located less than 250 feet from parking! If you feel like you have to hike at all you are in the wrong place….keep looking!

I placed three trackables from the United States into this cache. To the next people who come upon this cache….please take the trackables and move them to another cache soon!

Had a lot of fun…thanks for the adventure and the outstanding cache and hospitality.

~Super_Nate

(Chattanooga, Tennessee … United States)

THE END

1.1k · December 6, 2008

I saw that we could post two stories for the cointest, so here is my second story! It takes place at the Copper Mt American Flyer cache in Colorado!

This was a very amazing cache because I am not used to caching in the snow. I was visiting this area with a school group of 60+ people who was enjoying their spring break on the slopes. I looked up some select caches on the slopes to go get and voil-la, I grabbed three of them.

I was with an 8th grader who was excited about the caching idea when I told him about it, so he agreed to go down the blue slope with me to get it. We were at Union Creek at the time and needed to go over to the Center Village to hit the American Flyer lift to get up to this cache. So instead of taking shuttles, we decided to ski! I turned the GPS on at the High Point lift and was amazed at how much mountain there really was here. The cache was well over 2 miles away from Union Creek. Once at the top of High Point we skied over to Center Village and found the "Lights and Music" cache before getting on American Flyer to find this cache. Got to withen 200 feet of the cache from the lift and got an idea of where it was going to be located. We went down the mountain really slow taking great care not to miss the cache by accident which would mean having to bring the lift back up and doing it all over again. We found the right trail in the trees on the first shot and found the cache almost right away.

For anyone who happens upon this cache in the future...check out the new wedding proposal in the log book!!! She said YES!!! I came back the next day with my "girlfriend" to show her the cache in the snow!

Good news and bad news...

Good news: I was showing her the log book with all the entrys and she came upon the "Will you Marry Me" in the log book. I was down on one knee and she was very surprised. She said yes and we are now engaged!

Bad news: We are seniors in high school and the engagement was required for our LifeSkills class. We have a due date to have the engagements complete, and then the senior "wedding" is next month. So this whole thing is fake! I just used this spot and idea for my engagement proposal.

Thanks for the cache to serve as the memorial for Super_Nate's first engagement! There will only be one more in my lifetime and that will be the real thing.

Edit - I wanted to include a picture of our group, and I forgot when I pushed the submit button! So here it is:

Edited December 6, 2008 by Super_Nate

3.4k · December 6, 2008

there might be some confusion on the finish.

team olsson says, "If you search on geoswag there is AG that means Antique Gold and i have one here.

I can not see any Antique Bronze. "

i can't find the coin at all on geoswag, so i don't know what are the official finishes.

could it be, it was AG and not AB? heck, i can never tell the difference. folks who were lucky enough to get an order in, what do the receipts say?

rsg - checking names twice before they go up on geocoincollection

Unless Sara told me wrong...here's the email excerpt with the finishes I was told were made:

Rod,

Nope, there's nothing unique about the coins we sent you - we made half of the coins antique bronze and half antique silver, so we just gave you some of each. You are welcome to sell some on eBay. We will be announcing ours as soon as possible since we want to get them out before the end of the year, but you can announce and promote them yourself as much as you like.

I even wrote her with the mistaken thought they were AG, she sent me back that reply.

awesome! you're da man roddy! does that mean there will be more for sale or all they all gone.

rsg

8.9k · December 6, 2008

there might be some confusion on the finish.

team olsson says, "If you search on geoswag there is AG that means Antique Gold and i have one here.

I can not see any Antique Bronze. "

i can't find the coin at all on geoswag, so i don't know what are the official finishes.

could it be, it was AG and not AB? heck, i can never tell the difference. folks who were lucky enough to get an order in, what do the receipts say?

rsg - checking names twice before they go up on geocoincollection

Unless Sara told me wrong...here's the email excerpt with the finishes I was told were made:

Rod,

Nope, there's nothing unique about the coins we sent you - we made half of the coins antique bronze and half antique silver, so we just gave you some of each. You are welcome to sell some on eBay. We will be announcing ours as soon as possible since we want to get them out before the end of the year, but you can announce and promote them yourself as much as you like.

I even wrote her with the mistaken thought they were AG, she sent me back that reply.

awesome! you're da man roddy! does that mean there will be more for sale or all they all gone.

rsg

I have a very few of each metal, I don't think there'll be more made...not sure what you meant with the question!

3.4k · December 6, 2008

there might be some confusion on the finish.

team olsson says, "If you search on geoswag there is AG that means Antique Gold and i have one here.

I can not see any Antique Bronze. "

i can't find the coin at all on geoswag, so i don't know what are the official finishes.

could it be, it was AG and not AB? heck, i can never tell the difference. folks who were lucky enough to get an order in, what do the receipts say?

rsg - checking names twice before they go up on geocoincollection

Unless Sara told me wrong...here's the email excerpt with the finishes I was told were made:

Rod,

Nope, there's nothing unique about the coins we sent you - we made half of the coins antique bronze and half antique silver, so we just gave you some of each. You are welcome to sell some on eBay. We will be announcing ours as soon as possible since we want to get them out before the end of the year, but you can announce and promote them yourself as much as you like.

I even wrote her with the mistaken thought they were AG, she sent me back that reply.

awesome! you're da man roddy! does that mean there will be more for sale or all they all gone.

rsg

I have a very few of each metal, I don't think there'll be more made...not sure what you meant with the question!

oh, from her email — and being not sure when it was sent — "We will be announcing ours as soon as possible since we want to get them out before the end of the year" i thought maybe they hadn't announced officially yet.

i think i am a few weeks behind in my thinking and reacting. i mean, christmas is almost here and i am sitting here wondering when i should buy stuff.

DUH lara~!!!

8.9k · December 7, 2008

Last day everyone!!! Tonight is the ending of this cointest, so please get your entries in!!

2k · December 7, 2008

rod i have a busy day and would like to enter--ive came to post a few quick posts and relax this morn,, and get to the big 300 post make...lol i will only hope i can enter tonight after i congure up enuff energy after a big day. see you all tonight..

2k · December 8, 2008

Sweet, you never closed it,,thanks,,,

the fisrt one that comes to mind

2 weeks ago ,,my daughter and I, were out for our day of caching togeather, We used to go everyday after work, but now its dark a soon as Im off work and shes a bit afrade of the dark so it makes caching a lil hard, as she grabbs at my leg as we inch towards the cache.(remember the kid at your friends wedding that would hold onto your leg while you danced,,,,yeah thats her holding on my leg with both feet on one shoe of mine as we step,,drag,,step,,,drag,,) Im working a list of drive ups so we can continue to go everyday and in snow too,,,anyway,,so now we go on Sundays so

2 Sundays ago, we were out doing our thing it was getting late and she was hungry,and a bit tired so we got some food in a bag togo ,,and went for 2 more that were not far from each other. we arived at the location to see it was quite the hike,,not sure if we would make it,,I made the call to go for it.

The caches was on a ridge type trail that winded around some hills and some pretty steep trails ahead as I could see where the bikes that were passing us were going and how long it took to get to the other side of the valley, on a bike. I thought ,no not today..ok lets go to the first one and see.

so I unpacked the wagon scrunched in the car,because the car is too small,, straighted out the back rest because it was bent from cramming it in the car, un packed the pumpkin, grabbed the food and gear and off we went.

after a short hike around a bend we came to the first ,,it was a good ol ammo can nicely stocked,, something we hadent saw all day,, this was a booster to get to the other one neer this location,it was about a 3rd of a mile away on a windy trail,, but after a cache like that you gotta get the other one...

so we went,, around the bend and around the other bend,,and finally down the hill ,as my arm was killing me from pulling a 35 lb lil one in a wagon on a rocky dirt path and holding a soda ,the caching and the bag of food ,,as we got to the bottom, I looked up at the hill ahead and then back at the hill behind us,,and thought wheeeeew. now what,, Im tired! I looked at Zariah and she just smiled with the pacifier tucked in her bottom lip and pointed ahead. so I smiled back at her and up the hill we went. The whole time your surrounded with hills and not much view except for the foothill vally in between the path. but when we reached the top of that hill, we were awarded another view,,we were over looking Laffette,Co. and just was in wow, but this was not the kicker for the trip as it was very rewarding, and would have usually been the highlight,nope not this time,the kicker has yet to come.

so...

off in the weeds we went looking out into the view. we got the cache and I sat on the front part of the wagon with Zariah behind me, and we ate a late lunch and watched the sunset, at this moment, Zariah says"dada",, I turned and looked at her and she gave me a big hug!!!...ok gotta wipe my eyes the screen is blurry..lol

I think between her, the view,and a good lunch, I realized Im the lucky'st man alive to have a lil girl at 15 months old to know she loves her daddy and be able to express that at just the right moment, its a feeling and a picture in my mind ill never forget.

now if you excuse me I need a tissue,,,lol

8.9k · December 8, 2008

Well I don't have a ton of finds yet - but I do have quite an interesting story to relate. The person who I cache with whenever I go out now is from NY and drives a toyota prius.

We decided one day that we would go out to the mojave desert before an event in order to do a really neat geocache (GCF441 - Burro Schmidt) for my friend's milestone number. We had at our disposal the use of either his prius or my old '90 firebird to go out into the desert with. We decided on the prius without too much thought and headed out late into the night - I'd say around 3 or 4 in the morning or so, so that we could see the sun rising up while out in the mojave desert.

We eventually made it there, and despite some misgivings about what we were about to do - headed onto a dirt trail out into the mojave. The dirt road wasn't *too* bad for awhile - and we passed what seemed to be some sort of camp or RV or somesuch with lights. We thought it was kind of odd to see people up and about in this little camped area at three or four in the morning, but figured maybe they were night owls like us.

So we're out on the dirt trail and the dirt is getting progressively softer and deeper - and we notice what seems to be a set of headlights behind us. We started to take various trails - but this set of headlights basically followed us regardless of which path we took. It started to take on a really odd 'The Hills Have Eyes' sensation when all of a sudden our little prius gets stuck in a really deep soft sandy area on the dirt path. I mean - literally stuck to the point that trying to go forward or reverse does not even turn the wheels. Right about then these two 4x4 trucks go zooming around our stuck car (to our left) and further down the trail. Whew! I guess they weren't out for us after all.

I took a moment at this point to get out and reflect on how the sky was so pretty - lots of stars to be seen in the desert considering I've been born and raised in the valley near Los Angeles. It always blows me away just to be able to see lots of stars in the sky.

We managed to get the little prius unstuck through a combination of one person behind the wheel and the other actually pushing on the prius from the front - I guess a little car like that can be pushed out of a deep spot of soft sand if there's enough adrenaline going!

That wasn't enough to stop us I guess! We continues on further into the mojave and started to go down what was probably paths better left for jeeps or humvees. Some kind of 'gold rush' trail that had quite a few big rocks all throughout it. Trails you probably would not want to take a horse through. I've never had the unique experience of listening to large sharp rocks scraping underneath a car's underbody up until then - and boy, were they scary sounds! I'd cringe and shiver while my pilot friend did his best to maneuver the prius over and around these tiny super rocky paths. Eventually we got to a point where the path pretty much dropped off to a point that it'd be an adventure even if you had an elevated jeep. We turned back and ended up doing a different cache that was out in the mojave that required a bit of a climb - near some really amazing talc mines that seemed to be abandoned. My friend managed to get a really beautiful milestone cache up on a desert hill and we somehow managed to get back out of the Mojave, our little prius still in one piece, thankfully. We also made it in time to the geocaching event later in the day, despite all the crazy mishaps.

Edit: Here's a beautiful picture we took while out in the middle of the desert when the sun was coming up.

-Jen

Jen, we weren't chasing you, I promise! lol

The cointest proved very tough to judge, I had a long hard struggle to figure out the winner since YOU ALL are winners in my book! Alas, only a limited amount of coins (and money for postage lol), so I had to make the choice and THIS ONE IS MY FIRST!!!

I could almost picture the scene, could imagine how it unfolded! Being a night lover myself, I know what you mean about the stars, we're just fortunate to have dark enough nights here to not have light interference like you would out there!! So, WINNER WINNER WINNER!!!

Please shoot me your address and I'll send you out your AS Geocacher's Road Atlas coin ASAP!! THANKS for the story and for participation!!

8.9k · December 8, 2008

Sweet, you never closed it,,thanks,,,

the fisrt one that comes to mind

2 weeks ago ,,my daughter and I, were out for our day of caching togeather, We used to go everyday after work, but now its dark a soon as Im off work and shes a bit afrade of the dark so it makes caching a lil hard, as she grabbs at my leg as we inch towards the cache.(remember the kid at your friends wedding that would hold onto your leg while you danced,,,,yeah thats her holding on my leg with both feet on one shoe of mine as we step,,drag,,step,,,drag,,) Im working a list of drive ups so we can continue to go everyday and in snow too,,,anyway,,so now we go on Sundays so

2 Sundays ago, we were out doing our thing it was getting late and she was hungry,and a bit tired so we got some food in a bag togo ,,and went for 2 more that were not far from each other. we arived at the location to see it was quite the hike,,not sure if we would make it,,I made the call to go for it.

The caches was on a ridge type trail that winded around some hills and some pretty steep trails ahead as I could see where the bikes that were passing us were going and how long it took to get to the other side of the valley, on a bike. I thought ,no not today..ok lets go to the first one and see.

so I unpacked the wagon scrunched in the car,because the car is too small,, straighted out the back rest because it was bent from cramming it in the car, un packed the pumpkin, grabbed the food and gear and off we went.

after a short hike around a bend we came to the first ,,it was a good ol ammo can nicely stocked,, something we hadent saw all day,, this was a booster to get to the other one neer this location,it was about a 3rd of a mile away on a windy trail,, but after a cache like that you gotta get the other one...

so we went,, around the bend and around the other bend,,and finally down the hill ,as my arm was killing me from pulling a 35 lb lil one in a wagon on a rocky dirt path and holding a soda ,the caching and the bag of food ,,as we got to the bottom, I looked up at the hill ahead and then back at the hill behind us,,and thought wheeeeew. now what,, Im tired! I looked at Zariah and she just smiled with the pacifier tucked in her bottom lip and pointed ahead. so I smiled back at her and up the hill we went. The whole time your surrounded with hills and not much view except for the foothill vally in between the path. but when we reached the top of that hill, we were awarded another view,,we were over looking Laffette,Co. and just was in wow, but this was not the kicker for the trip as it was very rewarding, and would have usually been the highlight,nope not this time,the kicker has yet to come.

so...

off in the weeds we went looking out into the view. we got the cache and I sat on the front part of the wagon with Zariah behind me, and we ate a late lunch and watched the sunset, at this moment, Zariah says"dada",, I turned and looked at her and she gave me a big hug!!!...ok gotta wipe my eyes the screen is blurry..lol

I think between her, the view,and a good lunch, I realized Im the lucky'st man alive to have a lil girl at 15 months old to know she loves her daddy and be able to express that at just the right moment, its a feeling and a picture in my mind ill never forget.

now if you excuse me I need a tissue,,,lol

I don't know if you were playing on my weakened emotions here or not, but it worked my friend! I could just feel the love through your words, well done!

Sooo, I will award you too!! For being runner up, I will give you one of my Rockin Roddy's Cachestalkers coins, please shoot me your address and it'll be in the mail soon!! YES, one for you to KEEP!!!

Now, give that lil sweetheart a big hug for me!!! CONGRATS and THANKS for participation!!

Everyone, THANKS for the great stories and for giving me a beautiful distraction from life for awhile!

I'll leave this open for a bit longer to allow the winners time to respond before shutting this down!!

Edited December 8, 2008 by Rockin Roddy

1.2k · December 8, 2008

I was the other cacher who was with Cyclosarin during the whole night time desert caching in a Prius thing. What a trip that was! I'm glad to see something that's not about kids winning a contest for once, lol. :rolleyes: Thanks for putting it on.

8.9k · December 8, 2008

One of my most precious memory in caching is a day trip I took with my geodog Wyatt Earp. I have often climbed Mt-Washington in the White Mountains of New-Hampshire in the past but this time we were also geocaching. We wanted to reach the summit and get our picture taken by the observatory webcam to claim our find.

On a beautiful sunny morning September 3rd, we left the base at 8:30 and started our climb on a very nice trail that took us in a very quiet forest. Let's just say that the trail can be quite steep from times to times, up hill almost all the way. Once you reach a certain altitude, only dwarf trees surround you. After that, you have to look for cairns to stay on the trail because all you see are boulders everywhere. It was the perfect day to climb the mountain, we met a few hikers which were always happy to pet Wyatt and have a little chat.

During our ascent, I stopped regularly to enjoy the view, it seems as you can see forever once you're out of the forest. Wyatt was always eager to continue his hike. It was his first trip on this mountain and he was a real trooper. He had his own packsack with his water, bowl and some cookies. He was always in front of me on the trail but kept looking back to see if I was still following. Let's just say that being only 2 years old, he is in better shape than I am

It took us 4 hours and a half to reach the 6,288 ft summit. We had our picture taken by the webcam saved by our daughter back home. Mission accomplished! For those who wonder if the trip going down was tough, don't worry, my husband was waiting for us on the summit. He took the auto road

There are things in life that you remember forever, this is one of them

Picture taken at the summit with Wyatt Erap my faithful companion, my big furry friend

Also, I'm proud of you for the climb when a much easier way up was available!! CONGRATS on sticking to your guns and enjoying yourself!! You were definitely in the final running, my friend!

2k · December 8, 2008

Wow,,thank you ,thank you, I really did need a tissue,,lol, the point of the story was a happy sad thing you know. I love my lil girl and to know she loves me too,, is just prolific!!!<<is that even a word?? I think it is...ha ha,,any way ,,thats awsome Rod,,thank you for your generosity,,a cachestalkr for me to keep ,,,,,WOW never thought that would happen ,,was hoping one of the traveling ones would make it home,,,but no need now,,,thanks Rod,thats very nice of you to pick 2 winners- and congrats Cyclosarin and Laval K-9 loved the storys!! thank you all off to work I fly!!! or drive,,carefully ,,,looking twice,,he he

will send ya an e-mail from work Rod

December 8, 2008

Oh gosh - I'm really not quite sure how to respond.. :rolleyes:

I've been reading the stories that people have been posting here and I can say with certainty that I believed that there were a lot that could put mine in the back seat. If not for the hobby of caching - I don't think I'd really have anything thrilling to tell, story-wise. Geocaching gets me out into the world - and although being born and raised in Southern California my entire life - I had never up until now visited some of its areas like the Mojave desert. I can see a lot of other people are having really wild adventures thanks to geocaching, and it makes me really hopeful that I can have more crazy moments in the years to come.

Congratulations DJ.J.ROCK and Laval and thanks Rockin Roddy for hosting a really fun cointest and to everyone who posted some really neat stories - I had a lot of fun reading them in the evening, during study breaks.

-Jen

Edited December 8, 2008 by Cyclosarin

4k · December 8, 2008

Congratulations to Cyclosarin and DJ.J.Rock! Thanks to Rockin Roddy for having this nice cointest idea, I enjoyed reading all the stories :rolleyes:

8.8k · December 9, 2008

Cointest over, closed at the OP's request. Thanks for playing.

COINTEST: See Post 54! The Geocacher's Road Atlas

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