The waning of the season...

[+VentureForth]

As our Australian and New Zealand neighbors hail in the coming of longer, warmer days, North of 0 N the days gradually get shorter and shorter and the excursions get cooler and cooler.

 

I, for one, have Tuesdays after work set aside for my caching ventures. Jump in the car after work at 4:30, and it's 45 minutes to the closest cache. I spend an hour and a half cursing the urban wildlands (on a 1/1), find the cache, perform the obligatory exchanging of gifts and treasure and logbook rituals, then set off to find my next cache.

 

Only, it's 6:30 PM now and it's too dark to find #2.

 

And, in just two more weeks, another hour gets cut from my caching affairs.

 

As my Saturday chores lessen (from the lack of having to mow 2 acres), perhaps I will get the opportunity to hunt once or twice a month. Alas, the housework will never go away, and so even twice a month will be a treat.

 

But, yea, with shorter days come shorter thorns and less foliage. Obstructive leaves fade away and caching becomes less painful. Perhaps more can be found in less time! Pray that be so...

 

---------------

Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

[+Criminal]

While the Pacific Northwest is the BEST location for geocaching , sadly it gets dark at 4:30 in the winter........

 

But that's what flashlights are for right?

 

If your house catches afire, and there aint no water around,

If your house catches afire, and there aint no water around,

Throw your jelly out the window; let the dog-gone shack burn down.

**Huddie Ledbetter**

[+Sissy-n-CR]

We've cached by small beams of light before.

 

I look forward to the end of the heat. No more days dripping of DEET, swatting the flies and mosquitoes that bite before the DEET has any effect, being ever watchful for snakes, or having to carry a stick out in front of you to knock down the webs with the massive spiders.

 

Some people say, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity." Well, I'll tell you, it's the heat AND the humidity.

 

I'm glad for the cooling AND the much needed rains around here.

 

Just gotta do that housework on the weekdays to leave your weekends for cachin'!

 

CR

[Team Bohica]

quote:

---

Originally posted by VentureForth:

 

But, yea, with shorter days come shorter thorns and less foliage. Obstructive leaves fade away and caching becomes less painful. Perhaps more can be found in less time! Pray that be so...

 

---

 

This is just the start of caching season here in Texas. Between May and October it's usually too warm to do any extensive caching unless you like skeeters and sweat. Now we get 6-8 months of beautiful weather with the occasional 'Blue Norther' to slow us down every couple weeks.

 

The Bohican

 

--

Welcome to nowhere.nu. Now go home!

[+Cachier]

Fwash fwoods are fwocasted fwor this awera thwu tonight.

 

I used to envy a friend and his family who went to Argentina during our summer season to Ski. The concept of our Winter, concurrent to their Summer is something we don't thing much about. But, I guess we don't have to go far to find moderate temperatures in our own country during the cold northern winter months. So, internationally,where is it Spring/Summer right now?

 

"When you find it, its always in the last place you look."

[+GatoRx]

I have to agree - the caching season is just getting started for me! I've been in a holding pattern since May, with the occasional find, just waiting for cooler weather to come. Sure there's less daylight, but its also not 95-100 degrees, with 100% humidity; there's fewer mosquitoes and ticks that laugh at DEET; dehydration doesn't set in as quickly...

 

Another good thing is that the foliage won't be quite so thick - some of the favorite hiding places for ticks won't be quite so close together, hanging over the trail, and I won't have to rely on interpreting the sensations from my hiking staff hitting stuff under bushes quite so much - I'll actually be able to see if the cache is under the leaves or not.

 

Get ready caches, here I come!

[+The Leprechauns]

We're looking forward to doing some night caching now that the days are growing shorter! Little Leprechaun is begging for one of the strap-on headlamps. Hand-held flashlights get in the way of her cache search technique, she tells me. We've also saved the caches in the mountains east of Pittsburgh, to do during the fall color season. For winter caching, we're shopping for an SUV. (And we thought geocaching would be a fun, inexpensive summer hobby when we started this in June...)

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all about?

[+briansnat]

From past experience, the fall seems to be a time of heavy Geocaching activity around here. The stifling heat of summer keeps many indoors. So I wouldn't say things are waning. In fact, they may just be starting. Last winter was quite mild and the activity level remained high all winter. The only thing that will cut down on Geocaching activity would be a heavy blanket of snow.

 

The early nightfall doesn't hurt much. Most of the activity around here is on weekends anyway. There are only a handful of local Geocachers who are consistently active during the week.

 

"Life is a daring adventure, or it is nothing" - Helen Keller

[+T-storm]

Sorry, VF, I have to say it's just getting started for us too! We don't go caching very often on weeknights anyway, and when we do, we are, of course, closer to unfound caches than you are. And given the choice between freezing my butt off and wilting with heat exhaustion while being consumed by thousands more mosquitos than during cooler months, I'll freeze, thanks! For mostly other reasons than heat (school, family illnesses and deaths, other obligations) we didn't cache at all for 4 months. I can't believe it even now that I'm saying it! But last weekend we found 6 in one day and it was glorious! Caching season is OPEN in our household!

 

T-storm

 

http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

[+VentureForth]

Last May, I really thought that I was going to slow down my caching with the foliage growing, opressive heat, etc. In fact, I think people up North were GLAD to get the Summer coming so that they could hunt without the snow.

 

Gee, now that I look at my stats, looks like more than half of my finds were pre-May.

 

I guess I get into a groove, the caching seems less spontaneous but rather a weekly ritual. On the otherhand, maybe I can clean house during the week and go caching on the weekends after all. I can certainly find more all day on a Saturday than in a couple hours after work.

 

For some reason, I really enjoyed night caching, but I haven't attempted it lately. Don't know why I've been so chicken. Hmmm...

 

Also, my bestest caching buddy moved out of state. My family seems to be losing interest, and I have a harder time seeming selfless when I choose to spend so many hours away from home.

 

pity party>

 

Alright. The waning season is no longer. Dadgummit, I'm smart enough. I'm powerful enough, and by golly I NEED the exercise!!

 

Thanks for your words of encouragement. Nice to get back to perspective.

 

---------------

Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

[+bigredmed]

quote:

---

Alright. The waning season is no longer. Dadgummit, I'm smart enough. I'm powerful enough, and by golly I NEED the exercise!!

 

---

 

Glad to hear that the Pity Party is over.

 

I figure it like this. My lowly Magellan 310 cost 89 bucks on Ebay. The membership costs 30 bucks. If I add the cost of ammo cans and supplies for the caches I have set up and the trade items I have bought, it comes to about 75 bucks. My total investment in this sport is still way less than what I would pay to join a gym, and the exercise is more fun. Another way to think about it is this, your deductible on a day in the ICU is $2000, so you can go get some exercise, or get fat, have angina, and have to go to the ICU.

 

Bottomline: You aren't being selfish, you are just thinking of your family's financial best interest. (Feel free to remind yourself and your spouse of that as often as needed.)

 

By appointment to the Court of HRM Queen Mikki I.

[Salvo]

I'd noted in my logs over in Nashville about a month ago that it seemed like mother nature had flipped a switch over a weeks period.

 

On a previous cache run, I had to forage through very thick foliage to achieve my goals. Then suddenly by the following weekend, it seemed that the ground cover had drastically thinned, and spiderwebs with huge monster spiders were out.

 

Leaves on the ground now area hiding EVERYTHING.

 

I've gotten where I HATE caching by flashlight. I didn't realize before how much I used my peripheral vision in locating caches before I started doing it in the dark. On several occasions I had 'just seen something peculiar out of the corner of my eye'. It takes SO long at night, regardless of the mega-candle power you may be toting.

[+Marky]

quote:

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I, for one, have Tuesdays after work set aside for my caching ventures. Jump in the car after work at 4:30, and it's 45 minutes to the closest cache.

---

 

There's your whole problem. You're wasting way too much daylight. Just start geocaching at dawn and you'll have plenty of time. You need to reprioritize...

 

--Marky

[+FIREDOGPOTTER]

Im ready for the cooler weather, down hear in the south the summer humidity can be as thick as butter.

 

Firedog Potter