How I Spent My Weekend...

[+terratin]

I can't offer such beautiful views (not that Denmark is so beautiful anyway). I spent the weekend on a very short, very surprising business trip to Qatar. There was not much time for caching, but I managed to find one cache some 1.7km away from my hotel. I walked to the cache in roughly half an hour, dodging workers along the road and cars doing crazy things. The weather was a hot 30 degrees C, very dusty air and despite that a surprisingly blue sky. Finally there, I noticed a park on the other side of the road. Estimating the crossing time at about 10 minutes, and another 10 minutes back into the shadow I decided to skip the park and walk back to my hotel.

 

The nice part: a local cacher noticed my log and invited me for some tea and talks about caching in the evening

 

Here's an image of the park

 

Mrs. terratin

[+redsox_mark]

The nice part: a local cacher noticed my log and invited me for some tea and talks about caching in the evening

 

 

Was it "Mr Bunny"?

[+terratin]

No, the bunnies seem to have left. But another old-timer

[+JesandTodd]

 

The ring-necked snake I found after finding the unknown cache:

 

Now THAT is one adorable snake!!!

[Jayme H]

The nice part: a local cacher noticed my log and invited me for some tea and talks about caching in the evening

Wow...how cool is that? Love this community.

 

Thanks for the updates, everyone. It's so fun to see and hear what you guys are up to.

[+NeverSummer]

Homer, AK has 2 active cachers. (We're working on that...) I spent a good portion of the remaining sunlight AK today placing some cache temptation for my local cacher buddy.

 

Next, there's those who venture to the end of the road from other places in AK, and the stream of tourists who are headed this way in another 6 months.

 

Here's the end of the trail where you'll find the next two caches in Homer, AK. Enjoy the view...and come for a visit! This is how I spent my weekend:

 

[+Don_J]

Today, I took a hike deep in the Angeles National Forest along a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, in Northern Los Angeles County and came upon this about 90' away from a cache.

 

 

 

The 8X11 log/register on the chair explains that this is maintained by The Andersons in Green Valley, (about 3 miles off the trail), and any through hiker is welcome to stop by where they have "taco salad every evening and pancakes every morning and you are welcome stay for both". They'll even drive you back to the trail after you've had a hot shower.

 

The "logs" in the book would put even the logs in the old 2001 ammo can caches to shame. If I wasn't fighting the sun, I could have sat there and read the entire book.

[+briansnat]

Though this happened a few weekends ago, I thought it would be appropriate here.

 

Skigirl (who also happens tobe my wife) and I were camping at Round Valley Reservoir in NJ. My goal was to do a lot of fishing, Skigirl's goal was relaxing and our mutual goal was to finally find "Do It the Danish Way", a cache that has eluded us for two years and numerous attempts. I fashioned a cache retrieval tool on my workbench so I was pretty confident that we could finally add this one to the "found it column"

 

The campsites at Round Valley are a 3 to 6 mile hike or a 2 1/2 to 3 mile boat ride (no automotive access). Round Valley, due to its shape and the way it funnels wind. is famous for its sometimes dangerous winds. There is usually a drowning or two a year when someone gets caught out in the wind in a boat that can't handle it.

 

Because I planned on doing some serious fishing we bought our 14 ft aluminum boat with a 9.9 HP outboard instead of the canoe. We camp there several times a year and sometimes we paddle, sometimes take the motorboat. It mainly depends on our goals for the weekend. The campsites are well spaced, so you generally can't see your neighbor and the only campsite improvements are metal fire rings. The lack of amenities gives the place a semi wilderness feel which we like.

 

Forecast was for a breezy Saturday with winds 15 - 20 mph and a fairly calm Sunday with winds 5-10 MPH. Our ride to our campsite on Saturday was a wet one and we finally reached camp and dried out. Considering the windy conditions and whitecaps I decided to skip fishing and the cache hunt that day and just hang out in camp.

 

The next morning the wind had shifted, picked up a lot and was blowing directly from across the lake, meaning that anybody trying to make it back to the boat launch would be going head first into it, not so bad for us because we had the motor. It would be a hairy, and wet ride for us but I was pretty confident we'd make it back OK.

 

About 9:30 am I notice a lone canoe out on the lake among the whitecaps and think what the heck? Those guys are nuts. I grab my binoculars and can see several other canoes all having great difficulty paddling into the wind. A few of the boats were tandem canoes with a single paddler sitting in the back. I watched one guy desperately try to keep his canoe bow forward, but eventually he wound up paddling stern first into the wind. Some of the boats had kids in them. I called to my wife and asked her to call the state park police because with 55 degree water I thought this might not end well. At this point we decided to forget about fishing, forget about the geocache, we just needed to pack up and get safely back to the launch.

 

The guy who was trying to paddle backwards had given up and blown back to shore not far from our campsite. I went over to see how I could help. He said they were a Boy Scout troop with seven canoes. He said to lighten the boats they had sent most of the younger kids back with some of the gear via the hiking trail and tried to get the canoes and rest of the camping gear back using the adults and older kids. I offered to tow him across once we packed our camp up. While he was waiting for us to pack up he hailed another motorboat that had room and he climbed in and they took him back, towing the empty canoe.

 

Meanwhile I could see four rescue boats out there searching the lake for the paddlers who were now widely scattered. Packed and ready to go we started across the lake. I entertained my wife by loudly singing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as the bow plunged in to the waves and the spray soaked us (she was not amused).

 

About 1/3 of the way across we encountered an exhausted solo canoer just sitting there being tossed by the waves. I asked him if he wanted a tow and he enthusiastically accepted. I briefly though about bringing him into our boat, but we were packed to the gunnels with camping equipment and transferring between boats in those conditions was not a good idea in my opinion. I tied some parachute cord I found to his bow and started towing. He explained that he had called the park police and asked for a tow, but they told him that towing canoes in those conditions was too dangerous and they would not do it. We soon found out why. We couldn't go more than about 2 mph or the canoe was seriously in danger of flipping so we sloooowly made our way across the lake. Chatting with the guy over the wind I found out that he was there with his buddies for a camping bachelor party, so there were at least two groups of paddlers on the reservoir.

 

After about an hour we had made some headway but were still over a mile from the launch. A rescue boat happened by and we flagged it down. They pulled the canoer aboard along with his equipment and his boat and whisked him to safety.

 

We eventually arrived back at the boat ramp and it was a beehive of activity. Ambulance, police, SAR personnel. While I went to get the car my wife was talking to one of the SAR guys. He said several canoes did flip and they had to rescue the paddlers, but now every was accounted for and safe. I'd like to take credit for initiating the rescue, but when my wife called she was told they were aware of the situation help was on the way. Just glad everyone was OK and they had stories to tell when they got home, but I wonder about the wisdom of trying to paddle back under those conditions, especially with kids.

 

Another DNF for GC2ZJKC. Actually a Did Not Search. We've put a lot of hours into this cache so far. The boat is packed away for the winter so maybe next spring.

 

Here we are searching for it a few weeks earlier in nicer weather. Our 10 lb fishing line test proved to be not up to the task.

 

 

On this trip we awoke to this on Sunday morning.

Edited November 18, 2013 by briansnat

[Jayme H]

Wow! Neat stories and pictures guys. Thanks for sharing your adventures with everyone.

 

I took a fun mini-vacation with my muggle-mom (would that make her my momgle?) this past weekend. We had a great time playing in the sunshine at the "Happiest Place on Earth."

 

Tentative itinerary for this next weekend: hiking and caching with my sweetie and some good friends....aka the other "Happiest Place on Earth."

 

Have a great rest of your week, gang!

[Jayme H]

Happy Wednesday, party people!

 

We had a wonderful hike to grab a few new Dr. Who themed Geo-Art puzzles with a few friends last Saturday.

 

 

It ended up being about 11.6 miles on an absolutely gorgeous day. The morning started out downright chilly, but the outer layers came off as we switched our legs into 4WD and added some elevation.

 

 

Awesome friends, fantastic hike, 17 smileys, and a well-deserved burger & beer to celebrate....love playing this game.

 

 

What about you guys? Anyone do anything fun and adventurous last weekend? Anyone have some fun plans for a post-turkey trot this weekend? I'll look forward to checking out your adventure reports.

 

Until then, have a wonderful weekend! Whether it involves eating large amounts of delicious food or not.

[+Ambrosia]

 

 

 

Oh, that's one of Annie's better selfies. Great picture! Looks like you guys had a good hike.

[+NeverSummer]

Happy Wednesday, party people!

 

We had a wonderful hike to grab a few new Dr. Who themed Geo-Art puzzles with a few friends last Saturday.

 

 

It ended up being about 11.6 miles on an absolutely gorgeous day. The morning started out downright chilly, but the outer layers came off as we switched our legs into 4WD and added some elevation.

 

 

Awesome friends, fantastic hike, 17 smileys, and a well-deserved burger & beer to celebrate....love playing this game.

 

 

What about you guys? Anyone do anything fun and adventurous last weekend? Anyone have some fun plans for a post-turkey trot this weekend? I'll look forward to checking out your adventure reports.

 

Until then, have a wonderful weekend! Whether it involves eating large amounts of delicious food or not.

I wanna have coworkers who geocache...and want to do a hike to find 17 caches, then grab a beer and burger! Play where you work, work where you play? Seems like a pretty sweet deal! Now I need to find a job that pays me to downhill ski, geocache, fly fish, bird watch, and travel...hmmm...

[+6NoisyHikers]

A beautiful November day spent caching with the Mini-Hikers. They are still trying to grasp the concept of placing the container back in its hiding spot

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Since today is Thanksgiving I think it qualifies as a long weekend. Today is may last day in Hamburg, Germany (here on business) before flying home tomorrow. I found 10 caches while I've been here but saved the best for last. I took this picture from ground zero. The cache is located in a vehicle/pedestrian tunnel under the Elba river.

 

 

[+terratin]

Last weekend we rented a car with some caching friends to pick up a few special caches mainly on the baltic sea coast. Even the sun was playing along, giving us just a bit more daylight than we have on average (means cloudy) days.

 

Red leaves and the baltic sea in the background

 

Well, the beach is a bit covered in algae at the moment, but who would go swimming there anyway?

 

Really pretty

 

Cache of the day (and the one that completed our D/T grid). The car is parked upstairs

 

Happy photo

[+terratin]

Since today is Thanksgiving I think it qualifies as a long weekend. Today is may last day in Hamburg, Germany (here on business) before flying home tomorrow. I found 10 caches while I've been here but saved the best for last. I took this picture from ground zero. The cache is located in a vehicle/pedestrian tunnel under the Elba river.

 

 

Whoa! I know that tunnel and drove through it so many times. It's such a pretty tunnel, and great buildings! Now I feel like visiting Hamburg again.

[+JesandTodd]

 

 

 

Aww....Poo Poo Point!

IIRC, there's a pretty sweet ammo can near there

[+mdplayers]

I spent last weekend as a volunteer teacher at a Girl Scout Camp in Delaware teaching 19 Girl Scout Juniors about Geocaching.

 

This particular camp features a LEED certified building/Technology Lab.

 

What an incredible weekend! I returned home feeling elated, both from spending the time outdoors and from working with two troops of girls ready to learn.

 

Sorry no pictures, I was too wrapped up in the hunt!

[+Ringrat]

No caches in the place I was playing last weekend. But I have found the 2 on Crowsnest Mtn, which is the mountain on the right.

 

[+cheech gang]

Had a geocaching day with my 9 year old granddaughter. One of the highlights was at a firefighters memorial centered around a piece of the Twin Towers. I have visited several, but this one was special as it was a great teaching opportunity between me and her.

 

Edited November 28, 2013 by cheech gang

[+sasqwatches]

the hand wheel open and closes a passage for water to pass thru either as a flood precaution or irrigation to or from a farmers field

Anyone know what this is? It's in the Fredericksburg, VA canal. I'm assuming some type of water level measuring device. It has a plumb weight, pulley, and floater on the end of a metal cable. The floater drops into a pipe in the canal. To the left is a wheel for something... I have no idea what.

 

It was an interesting find this weekend on our near home adventure.

 

 

Some other great sights from this weekend:

 

[Jayme H]

Wow! Those are some fantastic adventures you guys were on this weekend...along with equally awesome pictures. What an inspiring community we have!

 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a family dinner on Friday, but since we were off for the holiday (on Thursday) we decided to head outside, hit the trail, and grab a few caches. The weather was gorgeous and the forest was nice and quiet...except for that geocaching family that we ran into. What?!? We were pretty surprised to run into anyone else on the trail on Thanksgiving. I guess we weren't the only ones wanting a little exercise to balance out all the calories we would be eating soon. LOL!

 

It was great fun to match faces to the usernames of some local, long-time cachers that we hadn't yet met. We had a lovely time chatting/moseying along the trail with them and their geopup. After a few caches they headed back home to rescue their turkey from the oven...not before they invited us to come along for some holiday sangria though. Next time, for sure!

 

Meeting other cachers while out and about always makes the world feel a tad bit smaller. I am grateful for that.

[+sparklefingers]

The only caching I got done this weekend was an event in a pub….

[+terratin]

Well.. our weekend caching was far from inspiring... we had a couple of high-difficulty completed challenges and a few more solved mysteries, which all happened to be around the same two places, mainly in an industrial area between both. The cold wind didn't make it more pleasant Either we rent a car again next time or hope for better weather and make a forest cycling trip, but not one of those 'film canister on company fence' trips again. Unless we find a reason for still doing it

[+Harry Dolphin]

Mostly local caching (though we did get to visit Bridgeport Connecticut on Thanksgiving. Our friends who drove us allowed us to search for a few caches. Their first real geocaching experience. Okay, so they were two parking lot micros...)

But, we did visit Cedar Brook Park in South Plainfield:

 

And some caches in Elmwood Park:

[+Fugads]

While much of the US was getting frigid snowy weather, we had great hiking weather in Southern NM. I visited a very remote area of the New Mexico Bootheel that I've been wanting to check out for some time, and made a long hike up a lonely mountain. An amazing area, that aside from the vigilant Border Patrol and some smugglers, sees very little human passage. There were two 6 year old caches on this peak that were begging for a visit, and another one on the approach that went unfound for almost a year (the FTF was scooped a week earlier though, drats!)

 

 

As expected, we got stopped by Border Patrol on our drive out. We told them we were hiking Big Hatchet mountain, and they asked for our IDs. 15 minutes later they gave us our IDs back and apologized for the inconvenience. To be honest, I would have been disappointed if they hadn't stopped us, what with all the emphasis on border security these days. I plan to make some more trips to this area this winter, some really fantastic remote hiking. While I certainly miss winter hiking in the snow, it sure is nice to have hiking weather like this down in Southern NM.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Fugads

[+redsox_mark]

After hiking around a wood collecting clues and some special equipment, we went underground (quite a long way underground).

Lots of bats and beautiful formations.

 

 

 

[Jayme H]

Nice updates and some very cool pictures, gang!

 

We had a caching friend fly up from Southern California to spend some time with us this past weekend. We had a lovely hike with him planned, but then felt bad exposing him to our crazily frigid "modified arctic" air. We instead opted for some super fun urban caching...the kind where you can get out and freeze your fingers off while signing the log, then hop back in the car to thaw out...before you get to the next cache.

 

First stop on the tour was a place we lovingly refer to as Goblindustland (aka Bainbridge Island and surrounding area). We have a wonderfully creative hider named Goblindust who does some pretty unique hides in this neck of the woods. We always enjoy taking our caching buddies on the ferry over from Seattle to find these fun hides. I heartily recommend them if you ever find yourself in the Seattle area with a free day.

 

The next day we bumbled around Seattle proper. Yes, that is a palm tree in the background. You don't see too many of those in the Pacific Northwest, but apparently there are a few in West Seattle. LOL!

 

Word on the street is that it is supposed to be warming up...and raining. Not sure what I prefer, being cold or being wet. Hmmmm...thank goodness for rain pants!

[+JesandTodd]

Last weekend was barrel tasting in Walla Walla. So we headed out to support our local wine community!

Woot!

 

I was able to grab just a few caches as it was 12° and snowing! This is coco and I at GZ with the cache. I was grateful for the pencil in the cache as my pen was too cold to work!

 

[Jayme H]

Happy Monday, geofolk!

 

Anyone do anything fun and geocachey this weekend?

 

We found one after a holiday party on Friday night, but that was it for us this weekend. Looking forward to our epic road trip to Elko, NV next weekend. Looks like this trip is going to seal the deal on our Oregon DeLorme pages and Counties. WooHoo!

 

Alright. Roll call...whatcha all been up to?

 

P.S. Lurkers: Feel free to join in with sharing your adventures too. The more the merrier.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Happy Monday, geofolk!

 

Anyone do anything fun and geocachey this weekend?

 

We found one after a holiday party on Friday night, but that was it for us this weekend. Looking forward to our epic road trip to Elko, NV next weekend.

 

 

You've never actually been to Elko, NV before, have you?

 

 

Alright. Roll call...whatcha all been up to?

 

P.S. Lurkers: Feel free to join in with sharing your adventures too. The more the merrier.

 

You might not get much this week. Much of the U.S. got hit with snow and ice storms last week and over the weekend. I spent a good portion of the weekend shoveling snow. It's coming down pretty good now so it looks like I have more shoveling to look forward to tonight after work.

 

 

[Jayme H]

You've never actually been to Elko, NV before, have you?

LOL!! I know, I know. Most people drive through Elko, not to Elko. Actually, I enjoy our little trips back there. My sweetie is from there (We actually met there. I know, crazy!?!?) and we have had some fun adventures in the beautiful Ruby Mountains nearby - there's nothing like the smell of the sagebrush after a rainstorm. We throw a holiday geocaching event every year that we go. Looking forward to seeing our friends in that community again.

 

Stay warm and safe out there! I believe the Snow Shovelers Union requires mandatory "warm up"/"delicious refreshment" breaks every 30 minutes. Big penalties if not adhered to.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

You've never actually been to Elko, NV before, have you?

LOL!! I know, I know. Most people drive through Elko, not to Elko. Actually, I enjoy our little trips back there. My sweetie is from there (We actually met there. I know, crazy!?!?) and we have had some fun adventures in the beautiful Ruby Mountains nearby - there's nothing like the smell of the sagebrush after a rainstorm. We throw a holiday geocaching event every year that we go. Looking forward to seeing our friends in that community again.

 

About 35 years, while driving from the SF Bay area to Summit County, Colorado we had some car trouble near Elko, NV and spent most of the day doing nothing while an alternator was replaced. It looks like there is a decent amount of caches near Elko but not enough to get people from all over the country (world) to travel to Elko for some geocaching. So far my only find in Nevada was on a cache that was within 5 feet of the California border.

 

 

 

[7rxc]

You've never actually been to Elko, NV before, have you?

LOL!! I know, I know. Most people drive through Elko, not to Elko. Actually, I enjoy our little trips back there. My sweetie is from there (We actually met there. I know, crazy!?!?) and we have had some fun adventures in the beautiful Ruby Mountains nearby - there's nothing like the smell of the sagebrush after a rainstorm. We throw a holiday geocaching event every year that we go. Looking forward to seeing our friends in that community again.

 

Stay warm and safe out there! I believe the Snow Shovelers Union requires mandatory "warm up"/"delicious refreshment" breaks every 30 minutes. Big penalties if not adhered to.

 

That Elko (NV) is a lot more developed than Elko (BC) near here... suspect it's a lot more lively as well.

That said, nothing wrong with ours either... it's in the middle of some popular caching zones.

 

As for shoveling rules... local conditions demand time to drive to Tim Horton's and back (an hour or more depending on where you are.) That's about 65 km for me, but there will be a new one closer soon. Mostly we just take the time and brew our own.

 

Doug 7rxc

[+Ringrat]

 

That Elko (NV) is a lot more developed than Elko (BC) near here... suspect it's a lot more lively as well.

That said, nothing wrong with ours either... it's in the middle of some popular caching zones.

 

As for shoveling rules... local conditions demand time to drive to Tim Horton's and back (an hour or more depending on where you are.) That's about 65 km for me, but there will be a new one closer soon. Mostly we just take the time and brew our own.

 

Doug 7rxc

 

I've driven through Elko NV and Elko BC, and by my memory they're about equally exciting. Except of course that the one in Nevada has casinos...

[+redwoodkestrel]

Haven't posted here for a bit so I'll do a few weekend updates.

 

Caching in Jack London State Park about a month ago... yes, there's a nano hidden on that old rusted trailer:

 

 

[+redwoodkestrel]

Hiking in the San Francisco East Bay hills after Thanksgiving, including a very fun & creative multi:

 

 

[+redwoodkestrel]

Caching in the marshland in the north part of San Francisco Bay:

 

 

[+sgtzara]

 

After hitting 99 FTF's, we sat back and waited for something special for our 100th FTF. This was it - a newly published geocache situated inside Ireland's highest cave. Drove 138 miles to get it. Worth it? Most definitely!

 

My link

[+Harry Dolphin]

Finished Christmas shopping, so we did some geocaching in Garfield, NJ.

 

New World Sculpture in Dahnerts Park.

 

Seagulls perched on an NGS tube across the Passaic River.

[7rxc]

That image of the seagulls brought back an old memory... advice from an old fisherman to a young kid about how to avoid water to shallow to take a boat through... Avoid anywhere you can see a seagulls knees!

 

Thanks for that!

Doug

[Jayme H]

Hey there!

 

How did another Monday fly right by so quickly? Time flies when you are having fun, huh?

 

We arrived in Elko on Saturday night (close to Sunday morning) via our last County and DeLorme pages in Oregon. WooHoo! We have been having some fun grabbing the caches that have been placed since our last visit. A town can rack up a lot of new hides in a year and a half...especially when the geocaching community continues to grow. We were remembering the first event we threw in Elko a few years back - about 7 or 8 people attended. Last night's event was close to 30 people! There are some fantastic folks here who love the game and continue to introduce it to their friends. We had a great time seeing our old friends and meeting a few new ones who are just getting started.

Alright, time to wrap a few presents with a delicious hot beverage and change our home coords to Elko (we were informed by a friend at the event that a new series is coming out this week)! We always love a good FTF party.

 

Have an absolutely wonderful week, friends.

[+hzoi]

Spent the weekend exploring around Oklahoma. When I wasn't caching or almost getting bogged down on slick clay roads, I managed to get a photo or two.

 

 

Icy day...

 

 

...and muddy ride!

 

 

Even the barbed wire froze.

 

 

Frosty buffalo

 

 

Ready for my closeup!

[+Ambrosia]

Super cool ice pictures!

[+hzoi]

Super cool ice pictures!

Thanks!

[+fuzzybelly]

Love the photos hzoi.

 

Frosty Buffalo is my favorite.

 

Got family in Nash.

[+6NoisyHikers]

I just realized it's been over a month since we went caching Gotta escape for a day and get back in a hide and seek frame of mind!

[+terratin]

I spare you the photos this time. Went out to a forest for a whole row of mysteries with special hides. About 5 minutes after getting out of the car I stumbled on a pile of rocks and rolled down. This was mostly ok until my lower leg hit a particularly unfluffy rock Wearing rather tight trousers the rest of the hike, all the way from the beginning to he end a few hours later wasn't quite so funny, but mostly ok. Anyway.. my achievement for today: lots of colours on my leg

 

Mrs. Terratin

[+redwoodkestrel]

Today I walked out through the marsh to a nearby "ghost town" that most people around here don't even know exists, despite it once being a major steamboat stop from San Francisco, plus a former railroad depot!

 

Hoping to remedy that situation and bring more appreciative folks out to such a cool spot, I placed a couple caches...

 

 

 

[+Don_J]

Today I walked out through the marsh to a nearby "ghost town" that most people around here don't even know exists, despite it once being a major steamboat stop from San Francisco, plus a former railroad depot!

 

Hoping to remedy that situation and bring more appreciative folks out to such a cool spot, I placed a couple caches...

 

 

 

 

Right up my alley. Perhaps you can share a GC# on us?