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Great Alaska Cache And Dash


CENT5

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If the flight is full, we will probably want to limit the size of our carry-on stuff anyway, and check most gear.  I agree, 10:05 PM arrival sounds much better!

 

Don't forget your photo ID!

 

CENT5, do you happen to know Alaska Airlines' policy on GPS usage during flights?  (But if we are in the center of the row it won't matter much anyway since you can't pick up the sats from that position.)

 

The clock is ticking.........

I've never used a GPS in flight. Company policy is no use though Engineering has no problem with it. It's a Flight Op's thing.

 

The flight to ANC is wide open. 63 out of 132 seats open. We should be able to move around pretty much at will with a general migration to the righthand window seats for the last hour. If it's clear, the ice fields are awesome. Unfortunately I cannot lock in seats with my passes until flight time.

 

I plan on carrying on my Geo daypack as carry-on is all. After removing all offending tools like my Leatherman, walking staff, and knife.

Edited by CENT5
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After I drop off the Mouse Kids for school (8:25 a.m.) I will be able to go and play with the group.

 

Don't worry too much about clothing, I was out today caching in the woods with my sandals and a dress on. Okay I did have socks on ... and they did get a bit damp, but no big deal! All is good.

:laughing:

 

Look forward to seeing you all!

 

MamaMouse -

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If the flight is full, we will probably want to limit the size of our carry-on stuff anyway, and check most gear. I agree, 10:05 PM arrival sounds much better!

 

Don't forget your photo ID!

 

CENT5, do you happen to know Alaska Airlines' policy on GPS usage during flights? (But if we are in the center of the row it won't matter much anyway since you can't pick up the sats from that position.)

 

The clock is ticking.........

FYI,

I flew up to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines two days ago and they announced over the intercom that cell phones and GPS's were not allowed to be used during the flight. The previous time I flew to anchorage, they didn't say anything and so I used mine the whole way - pretty cool to see your GPS clocking a speed of 500 MPH and an altitude of 30,000+ feet.

peace, fishiam

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This from AOL News:

"Scientists say the magnetic flare-ups from Sunspot 798 will last at least through Friday.

 

"It is a fairly large geomagnetic storm that we've had over the past 24 hours, and it should continue a little while longer," said aurora researcher Dirk Lummerzheim, at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

 

Skywide northern lights have awed Alaskans since last week and produced red displays as far south as Arizona."

 

Unfortunately the forcast has changed to showers Tuesday day, partly cloudy Tuesday night and cloudy Wed and Thur.

 

We may finish our night caching at Cache with a view on the chance it has cleared enough to see the Northern lights.

 

48 hours 18 minutes to touchdown in ANC. Tick-Tick-Tick

Edited by CENT5
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So, here's another question: should I bother to bring my laptop? I have GSAK and various utilities installed on it, but I figure that I could get by without it for the few days we'll be gone. Plus, if I take it, it guarantees that I'll have to check baggage.

I just loaded a PQ for 500 caches within 200 miles of ANC on my GPS. (Came up with 445 active.) That oughta cover it :) . I'm Separating out bookmark lists in my PDA. I think the laptop, while nice and handy we can probably do without. Since I can't fit a sleeping bag and pad in my daypack I'm loading a bag. :D Seems we have quite a crowd coming Tue. Night. Should be fun.

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Well I just finished a test run on packing and...

 

I got it all into my regular ol' black geocaching rucksack plus a (well o.k. largish) leather purse. And mind you - this includes 5 presents for my grandkids. Course my sleeping bag is a bitty "Thermolite Extreme" that I used to backpack for 6 weeks across Africa a year and a half ago. Truly a marvel - not much more'n the size of a rolled up towel and it's good down to 30 degrees! Ironically enough - I just noticed that it's called "Denali". Now how kewl is that?

 

Heck, most the bulk is in... sig globes, TBs, batteries and... evil hide paraphenalia! :lol:

 

 

 

27 hours 2 minutes and 6, 5, 4, 3 seconds til pull up and park at Chez Cinco Centavo...

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I'll root around through my electronics gear and see where my two old ones are tonight... and fresh batteries too!

 

Got to love the Tuesday forecast for Whittier - 'Partly cloudy. Patchy morning fog. Highs in the 50s. North and west wind 10 to 20 mph' - brisk and lovely fall weather (windbreakers recommended). Marine forecast says 'Tue and Tue night...W wind 15 kt. Seas 2 ft. Patchy morning fog' - this is excellent for Whittier at this time of year!

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Got to love the Tuesday forecast for Whittier - 'Partly cloudy. Patchy morning fog. Highs in the 50s. North and west wind 10 to 20 mph' - brisk and lovely fall weather (windbreakers recommended). Marine forecast says 'Tue and Tue night...W wind 15 kt. Seas 2 ft. Patchy morning fog' - this is excellent for Whittier at this time of year!

Gotta like that forecast. Whittier here we come. :rolleyes:

 

On another note. I'm bringing a set of compact binoculars. The are pretty cheesy but they get the job done. Never know what you might see.

 

I do believe the coords for Gwennies are:

 

N61 10.912 W149 55.972

Edited by CENT5
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Well shucks, sometimes the forecast just gets even better...

 

Whittier for Tuesday (forecast updated as of 4pm Mon): Mostly sunny. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the upper 50s to lower 60s. Northwest wind 15 to 20 mph.

 

Anchorage for Tuesday (forecast updated as of 4pm Mon):

Tuesday - Mostly cloudy in the morning then clearing. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the 50s. Light winds except west 15 mph along Turnagain Arm and higher elevations.

 

Tuesday Night - Mostly clear. Patchy fog after midnight. Lows in the upper 30s to mid 40s. Light winds.

 

Can you say 'see the Northern Lights?' Sounds like we should visit 'Cache with a View' after Sourdough's (& a few other caches inbetween). Say, perhaps, 10-11pm?

 

Of course, we also say here the standard line 'if you don't like the weather right now just wait five minutes - it'll get worse!' :rolleyes:

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Well I think I'll start packing now.....tis going to be a late night and even earlier morning. Since I just moved i'm finding it a little more difficult finding the items I need.......sigh.....maybe I should just let someone else go in my place :) 5 hours or so till I head out.

S'ok I don't think I got more'n a hour or 2 sleep though I did rest for a couple more. This is as bad as opening day for duck season.

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I had the privilege of tagging along with the Team as they cached their way through Whittier and back up Turnagain Arm on Tuesday (arrival day). When they're able to access the web they'll have some spectacular photos of sunshine, mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and the Turnagain Arm Tidal Bore (an earthcache - GCN6YV.) I logged one of the Whittier caches yesterday and posted some photos... you can see the log here.

 

What a terrifically fun bunch of folks to hang out with! The event cache was a record-setter for attendance in Alaska... we enjoyed the Great Alaska Cache'N'Dash team - they're up north of town in Palmer today, with a return to Anchorage and the airport tomorrow.

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Here's a brief update since I got in from Anchorage after spending the past two days with the ACD team. It's late (early, depending on one's perspective), and the ACD team's boundless energy and enthusiasm left me so jazzed about how much fun we had I need to unwind a bit before even thinking about sleeping.

 

Today the team was joined by Momma Mouse, Trove Rover, and Wiezguyz (globalgirl's dd) and hit a couple of caches in Anchorage and then drove to Talkeetna with hopes of seeing the elusive Denali (Mt. McKinley). Unfortunately, the clouds stayed down, so we didn't get to see "The High One," but we had fun doing the three caches in the area. Then, back down the Parks Highway to Willow and turned east to cross Hatcher Pass. Prying Pandora did a most excellent job navigating the suspensionless rental van over 30 miles of rough dirt road and the team logged it's only DNF to date for the trip at Moose Pond.

 

On up over the pass to Independence Mine where the team hoofed it up gold mine tailings pile to Goldmine cache and logged what will be the highest elevation cache of the trip. By now, the weather was beginning to show attitude and a steady drizzle was falling, but the clouds stayed up so the team could see the peaks towering all around us.

 

Then down to the infamous Boulderdash cache where at least one Anchorage-based cacher has unintentionally gone swimming, but the team (well, actually Moun10bike) prevailed and found the cache with no one going into the drink. Glowing with that success, we headed to Riversong in the rapidly falling dusk (it was around 8:30 by this point) and after a false start on the wrong side of the river, the cache was located so Geozuk could log his 200th find.

 

Other notable milestones during the past two days are LindaLu (700) at Horsetail Falls in Whittier, and El Santo (200), CENT5 (200), and Globalgirl (500) at Talkeetna Treasure. CONGRATS to all!!!

 

84537286-e94c-4936-8e6d-dae8ce9efa17.jpg

 

We capped off the day with burgers, beer, and pizza at a brew pup in Wasilla and I had to race off to the airport 50 miles away before the party broke up.

 

So far, the team has covered 300 miles, found one virtual cache, one puzzle cache, one earth cache, and something more than 25 regular caches. They'll cover at least 50 more miles and hit several more caches before wrapping up at the airport Thursday evening. The found caches in sunshine, rain, and in the dark. No northern lights, but lots of city lights Tuesday night. They've seen some of coastal Alaska (Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet), Alaska's biggest city, miles and miles of birch, aspens, cottonswoods, and willows turning fall colors, alpine tundra, several mountain ranges, two dormant volcanoes, rivers, streams, beaver dams and lodges, dall sheep, bald eagles, high and low bush blueberries, high and low bush cranberries, a gold mine, the country's longest active railroad tunnel, and much much more.

 

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Edited by Ladybug Kids
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Thought folks might want to see some photos of the team in action...

 

Here's Reino at "The Gold Mine," (GCH03Z), avoiding a dip in the drink...

20408464-d2d2-4091-934a-e562810cf215.jpg

...and Prying Pandora, Reino, Wiezguyz, Trove Rover, Moun10bike, and CENT5 crossing the Middle Fork of Montana Creek at "Three Forks of the Montana" (GCMYC8). Anyone know how to calculate the load limit for a fallen tree?

833d7071-d9a7-42f4-a1c6-9a8541c91351.jpg

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Nice of those Alaskans to provide a hand rail on the fallen log. We don't get too many of those in Washington.

 

I'm with andrewrj. I am so jealous. :huh:

 

Note: it is so hard to find an emoticon for jealousy. That one comes the closest, I think.

 

Have fun you guys.

You don't need handrails in Washington because the trees are bigger :cry: .

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The photo at 'Three Forks of the Montana' shows the cottonwood with a handrail... the next stream crossing has no handrail at all, and is higher/faster water. Hilariously, the handrail CENT5 is grasping in the photo isn't attached to the tree at all - the tree has shrunk away from the bands, and the handrail will rotate you right into the drink if you lean against it. Sort of a local joke... besides, most of the time we locals visit we're wading while casting for trophy-sized trout or running a snowmachine over 8 feet of snow and frozen stream (as when the cache was placed!). We've had so much fun with the ACD team - we hate to see them leave us...

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56 hours

41 caches

8 milestones

1 incredible event

150+ coins

1 moose

3 bear

Multiple Dall Sheep

453 miles

1 dance with devil's club at night

3745 feet highest cache

0 feet elev. lowest cache

1 tidal bore

0 mosquitoes

2 awesome overnight hosts (Weizguyz and NorthWes)

Thousands of photos

A lifetime of memories

The tale will be told over the coming days...

 

Trove Rover, Daddy Ladybug, North Wes, Mama Mouse...

 

 

You Guys ROCK!!!!!!!!

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I was very, very happy to be able to tag along with the Great Alaksan Cache and Dash Team for three days. I have decided to log the whole three days as my milestone event. It is hard to imagine that something else would be able to top GeoCaching with Cent5, El Santo, Globalgirl, GeoZuk, LindaLu, Lowrider71, Moun10Bike, Prying Pandora, and Reino for three days!

 

Thank you everyone for a great three day adventure! May you live long enough to top it! :rolleyes:

 

efb1d8fa-e4f7-40db-9bdd-8a048b48fd92.jpg

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WOW!!!!!

I don't think I've ever had so much fun in my life! :rolleyes::huh::huh:

 

We're back and it's late, but I can't go to bed without thanking the wonderful Alaska caching community for their warm welcome, companionship, guidance and enthusiasm. Special thanks to NorthWes, Daddy Ladybug, Mama Mouse, Trove Rover and Weizguyz, who really rolled out the welcome wagon and were great fun to cache with as well!

 

Thanks also to the rest of the ACD team, you guys were terrific! And most of all,

Thank you, Cent5, you are awesome!!!!!!!!!

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Just a quick pop-in the morning-after to say...

(Even) the globalgirl is (momentarily) verily at a loss for words to describe this odyssey, thus...

 

THESAURUS.COM:

Main Entry: fabulous

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: wonderful

Synonyms: aces, amazing, astonishing, astounding, bang-up, best, breathtaking, cool, dilly, doozie,, fab, fantastic, fictitious, first class, gone, greatest, groovy, immense, in spades, inconceivable, incredible, legendary, marvelous, mind-blowing, out-of-this-world, outrageous, peachy, phenomenal, primo, prodigious, rad, remarkable, spectacular, striking, stupendous, super, superb, terrific, top drawer, tops, unbelievable, unreal, wicked, wondrous

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

Personally I favor the latter:

 

Wicked WONDROUS!!! to describe this geolife altering experience.

 

Stay tuned - more later...

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I am certainly at a loss for words! What an incredible adventure! I will have more to say later; I just wanted to sneak in a quick post to say that I have uploaded my photos:

 

Great Alaska Cache 'n' Dash Photo Gallery

 

I have also uploaded my video of the Turnagain Arm Tidal Bore. What an awesome phenomenon! I made it a streaming video so that you don't have to download all 4 megs of it:

 

Turnagain Arm Tidal Bore

 

Has anyone mentioned that CENT5 rocks? :rolleyes:

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Besides PPPP this was my first time Caching with all but one of the ACD Team members. I've enjoyed getting to know you all a little better and hope to cache more frequently with any of you in the future.

 

To our hosts/tour guides....NorthWes, Daddy Ladybug, Mama Mouse, Trove Rover and Weizguyz, you all were so wonderful!!! I was also provided the opportunity to do a "ride along" with Trove Rover & Mama Mouse which I am so greatfull for. All of the Alaska cachers that knew we were coming (and 2 that we ran into on the trails that didn't have a clue about us) were just so nice and open. 110% of this experience was positive and a blast! I will never forget the people that reranged there schedules and bent over backwards to accomodate us lower 48'ers. I really can't express how touched I am over this whole experience.

 

Now to figure out my thoughts and start the long cache logging process. :rolleyes:

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Just a short note while I try to put the trip in perspective. The ACD team:

 

El Santo You had me in stitches with the radio banter between you and M10B. (You had to be there.) What a marvelously huge heart you have and I am glad you shared it freely. I'll not forget the moment at 5CENT Twins: AK-WA

 

GeoZuk Your 200th Milestone at River Song was, hands down, THE most insane thing I've ever seen 12 grown adults do. Dancing with the Devil's Club, in the dark, in the rain, soaking wet, and having an absolute out of this world blast.

 

globalgirl My geopal of the first order. Sharing mine and El Santo's 200th with your 500th milestone at Talkeetna Treasure was especially sweet with your daughter (weizguyz joining us on our romp in the shadows (Albiet cloudy ones.) of Denali.

 

LindaLu You, girl, are a HOOT. The trip up Hatcher Pass to The Gold Mine was positively a GAS. The van was a rollicking good time with your timely riposts and inimitable wit. AND your navigation skills on the trip were perhaps rivaled only by M10B himself, though it would be a close call.

 

Lowrider71 DUDE!!! you hung in with a group of the best. The sprint through Kinkaid Park with Trove Rover carrying her daughter toward The Fun Guy Cache for your's and M10B's milestones was Team Geocaching at it's best. Everyone was working toward a common goal. Not to mention the view was fantastic.

 

Moun10Bike OH MAN!!! What a navigator. I had the pleasure of driving with M10B navigating. I tell ya what folks, it's a gas. Linda Lu could give you a run for your money tho M10B. It was just absolute pure pleasure that you joined us on the trip.

 

Prying Pandora This would be my Mentor. Following you, up Hatcher Pass with the suspension in the van probably sounding like hammers on an anvil, was a gas. I know reino was ready to blow your doors off. Sharing your 1500th milestone in the sprint on the last day. Too many memories to toss into one post. Girl--- you ROCK!!!!!

 

reino Holy ^&%#$%^ what fun we had. Dude, I can't wait to climb in your jeep with GeekGirl. Up on top of Horsetail Falls was just the start for us. And it just kept getting better.

 

When I started the ACD thing, I had 19 finds and an idea in my head. I had no idea where it was going to take me. People have NO idea the joy this whole process has given me. From Dead Doll Ditch, to Pocket Park Pool Parlor, to the mad dash for ACD TB#1 it has been pure pleasure for me

 

I could not have possibly hand picked a better group to share this experience. We worked well as a team and I am forever grateful to have shared it with you.

ACD TEAM-- YOU ROCK!!!!!

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OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :huh:

 

I can't even begin to describe what an incredible adventure this has been!

 

Like the others, I want to thank:

 

First of all, the one and only CENT5 (You really do rock!), thank you for your generous spirit, and for all the details that you took on to pull this off. I only wish there was some way I could even begin to pay you back.

 

To Team ACD: Hanging out with all of you was wonderful. We were a small picture of the variety of people involved in geocaching. Thank you for sharing this unique experience with me. (And thanks reino for not driving the van off the cliff...it's just a rental, but I'm not <_< )

 

To our Alaskan hosts, including NorthWes, Weizguyz, Ladybug Kids (Dad), MamaMouse, Trove Rover, BenGeo'n, and everyone else (I probably forgot someone, sorry), your warm welcome and hospitality is a shining example of opening your homes and hearts to others.

 

To everyone: WELL DONE!

Edited by LindaLu
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Wow

 

What a trip!!! Geocaching might not ever be the same. Couldn't have put a better group of people to travel with together if they were all hand picked. The weather, the scenery, our hosts, all wonderful.

 

40+ people came to the event in Anchorage to share our experience with us. 40+ people!!!! That's frickin nuts. Thank you all for your time, encouragement and stories.

 

Really enjoyed the car ride with LadyBug Kids (dad). It was like having a guided tour no matter which way went. Enjoyed the company and the information. Thank you so much.

 

To all our Alaska hosts LadyBug Kids, NorthWes, Weizguyz, MamaMouse, Trove Rover thank you for your cars, houses, time, expertise, stories, friendship, food, water, wifi (you know what I'm talkin bout Moun10Bike) you are all great hosts - thank you - thank you - thank you.

 

For the rest of the Great Alaska Cache and Dash Team - I hope we stay in touch and meet to cache and chat. You are all great people and I am thankful for being allowed to be part of such an excellent group.

 

Cent 5 - I can't say what there really aren't words for - very special - thanks.

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Some great pix are coming in from the group at the event in ANC.

 

Great Alaska Cache'N'Dash Meet'N'Greet Dinner

 

This was an incredible event. Though it was only my 2nd event it will live long in my memory and after the welcome the ACD Team recieved and the day we had down Turnagain Arm and Whittier, this was definitely a capstone for the day. Daddy LadyBugKids and Northwes REALLY know how to throw a PARTY. Thanks, to all the AK cachers who took time from thier busy schedules to share this evening with the ACD Team. It truely was something special. Thank-you all. :lol::D

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