Pathtags

Hi all!

It’s been a busy time around here. I’ve been working on this course outline for the classes I’ll be teaching at the local college here as well as the real work with baseball season and all of the Hall of Fame ceremonies going on. With that being said, I found some time for a little caching, but the big thing is that we held our second Hall of Fame Picnic on July 25. This time we moved to Glimmerglass State Park in Cooperstown, which was a great location.

So far, 27 people have logged the event and I’m quite sure there are 3-5 that haven’t logged yet. Hopefully they will. Add in all the people who were there as friends, team members or family and we had more than 50 people there. I was so stoked.

The group:

The event was a blast, too. Peter of the Devil Duckies set up a scavenger hunt and that seemed to go over well. Between myself, Peter and Beth (monet37), we placed 19 new caches in the park as well, so that was pretty wild.

Also, being we were in Cooperstown and it was the Hall of Fame Picnic, I did a little something different for the log this year:

The food was outstanding and it seemed as though everyone had a good time. We also had a great set of giveaways donated by some great geocaching stores as well as individual people. Everyone walked away with something, which is always nice to see.

In the end, I thought it was a success. We had great weather and a lot of caching. After the event, I joined Brent and Mark — two other cachers — to do the 2-mile loop to pick up the caches I hadn’t placed. That was one heck of a hike after being on my feet all day!

One other thing about the event — everyone in attendance received a pathtag. Otsego County Tourism and The Friends of Glimmerglass helped fund the tag and everyone seemed excited to get one. A special thanks to those sponsors!

Here are some more photos from the day:

I also want to point out one other game — the micro toss — that Beth put together. Here are some images from that event:

Road Trips and Vacations

Is it just me or do vacations always feel like they will be more work than vacation?

I have an extended vacation starting this week — extended because I’ll be taking one of my “furlough” days at the beginning of it. So, when all said and done, I’ll have had 10 days in a row off. The final day — a Saturday — holds two wedding (my brother and also a friend). Until then, I’m hopefully going to do a little easy traveling and geocaching. The breakdown is like this:

Thursday (6th): First day off — so packing up.

Friday (7th): Leaving around 6 a.m. for Montreal. The goal is to hit about 8-10 caches on the way, crossing off several squares on the New York DeLorme challenge as well as getting my first caches in Quebec.

Saturday (8th): Montreal (hopefully I can grab a few caches).

Sunday (9th): Leave Montreal and do a few more caches on the way home, coloring in a couple more squares.

Monday-Tuesday (10th-11th): TBD. I’d like to actually road trip it back to the Northern part of the state and cross out more DeLorme squares. Why not, you may ask, just try and zig-zag home to get them coming back from Montreal. Well, I would except I am traveling with a group who won’t mind a few caches, but a 12-15 hour day might not be in the cards. As it stands now, I plotted this “DeLorme Run” and it would be about 680 miles round trip. So, this one might have to wait a few weeks. But if I can wax the Northeastern part of the state, that would get me closer to finishing.

Wednesday (12th): Mid-day, I’ll get picked up by Darren and we’ll be off to New York City for a few days of caching. This will include caching down, at night and hopefully a stop at the original Nathan’s on Coney Island. This trip will color in all the squares I need for the city and Long Island as well as finish off all the counties needed for the NY State County Challenge.

Thursday (13th): We’re supposed to meet up with the Ferreteers to tackle the Central Park Bridges and Arches cache. This one will be a doozy and with grabbing a ton of caches in the park and on the edges, will likely take us the better part of 6-7 hours. In the end, we’ll probably walk about 10-13 miles, but it will also end with us each getting a coin, which is wild. The plan is then to eat and head to cache into the night. There are a few other challenges we are going to try and do, considering it should still be easily daylight if we get an early enough start on the Central Park challenge.

Friday (14th): Get up early and go to the tip of Long Island, getting the counties and DeLorme squares all filled in. Then head home and prepare for wedding items.

Even if I don’t do the secondary road trip to Northern New York, I’ll have put a pretty good dent in the remaining squares and counties I need to get for those challenges. If I did the secondary trip, that would leave six DeLorme squares and a few counties out in the Northwestern part of the state (Buffalo area).

Either way, I’m sure Sunday the 16th, I’ll be sleeping about as late as I can before having to get up and get ready for work!

More later!

Just a week after heading to the Allegany State Park GeoBash, a few of us ventured up across the border to cache and attend an event in Brockville, Ontario. Heck, if we couldn’t make the super-long roadtrip to Bell Buckle, Tennessee for GeoWoodstock 7, we needed to hit some sort of an event, right?

Also, this was toward the end of the no passport needed for getting in and out of Canada, so it was good timing. As of June 1, the passports are needed. Thankfully I have mine, but I also think I’ll be getting the smaller passport card as well. Easier to use and carry.

But, I digress.

The plan was to basically drive straight up into Canada and then do some caching en route to the event. We stopped in one spot — in the Syracuse area — to hit one cache where one of the others picked up one of my travel bugs that was in a cache and moved it to Canada. Outside of that, it was to the border and across with pretty much no problems.

You’ll remember last time we did the Canada thing for geocaching, we got brought into customs to be checked over. No problems, of course. This time, straight sailing. Though the GPS that was our navigator didn’t have maps loaded, so we were going old school. Follow the aarow and do your best!

What was nice is the first one in Canada was one that we had DNFd in January — and it was found fast this time. With all that snow, I can see how we missed this one!

We soon came upon an interesting location for a cache where you had to go over this old wood bridge. It was a very gool bridge to check out. I took some photos after we found and signed for the cache.

One of the areas we stopped soon after was at a very nice garden area. That followed with this one spot where we found duck eggs, so we quickly got out of there. The owner soon disabled that cache for a bit so the ducks won’t get disturbed. Very good move!

From the garden:

The duck eggs:

One of the caches we hit soon after that was in an area where there was an old beat-down car. Guess where the cache was? Interesting little hike and end point!

We soon were on our way again and made our way to a series of cemetery caches. These were quite interesting for sure. It was almost a mix of old and new cemeteries. What was really interesting about these was how they were all attached, named differently, and yet basically in the same spot (though a few were across the street from one another).

Here are some images from these areas:

After these caches, we stopped at a store to grab a few things to bring to the event for the potluck part of the dinner. I will say this — when Canadians put on a potluck event, they come packing some awesome food. Everything from chicken, to hot dogs, to all the trimmings and some amazing deserts (the maple sugar pie was incredible).

The people I had the chance to meet and talk to at the event were incredibly welcoming. I also had the chance to place second in the GeoGolf game and got a geocoin out of it. Pretty cool stuff. Everyone there also won something in the raffle, which was pretty impressive with everything they had there. I don’t know if I have seen this many raffle items at a major event, let alone a smaller one. Well done!

The event was here:

During the raffle:

After the event, we cached for quite a bit longer. In all that day, I got 40 and I was exhausted at the end. Slept well in the hotel and we started back the next day.

The way home included going a different way from Canada — crossing in Ogdensburg. The goal here was to cross off several DeLorme squares (which we succeeded in doing).

Before leaving Canada, however, we hit caches along the way to the crossing bridge. Some of the images at caches we stopped at:

There were no problems in crossing the border, which was nice. One of the coolest Earthcaches I’ve ever been to was in Alexandria Bay, which made that day so much better.  The cache — called the Frontenac Arch. This spot gave some incredible views of the area and was a wonderful stop on the trip home.

One of the final caches of the day was at a waterfall below Watertown. Makes me wish I had the tripod and main camera. Good falls for sure.

In the end, the weekend netted 66 finds in two countries. I had the chance to meet and chat with several great people and it was an interesting trip overall.

A special thanks to Geogranny and Binrat, who we visited with Sunday after the event for a bit. We left with several ammo cans and carabiner buckets — and have a cache in the works in honor of all of our new friends in Brockville. Thanks again for the hospitality Sunday morning!

Final count: 2 countries; 66 caches (1 event, 1 multi, 2 letterbox hybrids, 4 earthcaches).

More later!

OK, back from Canada. Good times above the border. A lot of cache finds, an excellent event and a lot of great people met. Look for that story sometime this week or weekend after I get done with all the Bash stories!

So we’re back talking about the Allegany State Park Geobash and Day 2 — a day we had planned to use as a major cache day AND get ourselves two coins along the Allegheny GeoTrail in Pennsylvania (note the spelling difference of Allegany and Allegheny between the two states).

The day started early — about 8:30 a.m. and we had two vehicles and five people on this trip. The idea was to go from Bradford, Pa. (where our hotel was) and head west in Pennsylvania, then North into New York, grab a few DeLorme squares for the New York challenge, then head to the ASP Geobash.

Simple, right?

There’s always wrinkles in the day, however. Like there’s no way we’ll ever get all the caches on the list and then looking back, it’s almost a slap to the head when you realize you missed planning a few other caches that could have been easily had or caches that could have made the trip a little easier (ie: one of the county spots that was close!).

For those who don’t know, the Allegheny GeoTrail is a series of caches in 10 counties in Pennsylvania. A cacher receives a passport and when they visit a special cache, they need to get a stamp from that spot to prove they were there. If you get six stamps in each county, you get a trackable geocoin. Should you happen to get all 10 counties, you will get a special 11th trackable geocoin.

Our plan was to get two coins — McKean County and Warren County. Our hotel was in McKean County and there were several of these caches within 15 minutes. Of course, that meant traveling all over the place.

We ended up with 38 caches for the day. But I wanted to take the time to talk about a few of the things that happened during this day.

Like how our day almost ended early.

It was our fifth cache of the day and second McKean County cache. The cache description was misread and we thought it said we could drive up the road if the gate was open.

Or not.

See, it actually said NOT to drive up there even if it is open. On our way out, we saw others walking up and I had known them from other caching adventures. They said we were locked in. The best way to finish this story is to show my log:

Well, this cache is a good lesson in reading the cache listing (correctly) and then being careful. First, when I read and I think others in the group, too, we read it that you can go up if it’s open. Doh! So, when we came back down, guess what? Gate close. Oh no!

Thankfully, one of the others went to someone nearby, who said it was his land, and he had a key and he let us out. He also noted that if we had asked, he would have let us park at his house!

This is a great area though. Beautiful and well worth the trip up, even with almost losing a full afternoon of caching. We were soon out and on our way! Thanks for the (challenging) smiley!

Let’s just say that was a saving grace. If not, we could have been in BIG trouble.

From there, we took some great walks and such to continue our quest for more caches and coins.

One of my favorite caches for the day was Golf, One of the Muggle Maggies pups, returns. This cache, located across the street from a golf course, is an interesting hide. While we were signing the log, two golf carts came to the edge of the course and shouted across the street to us — “You guys OK?”

Of course we are!

They soon went away and we continued on. Rather funny though. Nice that they were worried enough to check.

Two more McKean County caches later, we had the six stamps we were required to get the coin and we were on our way to another county.

On our way, we stopped to get another micro cache in a nice little area. When we got there, it took a few moments to find the cache as it had fallen from its spot. We all signed and as leaving, some other cachers showed up. As we were leaving, we stopped to exchange a few words. It wasn’t shocking seeing cachers — there were more than 800 at the Geobash for the weekend — but these guys didn’t even know about it. In fact, they were just camping elsewhere. Why were they caching that day?

“We’re taking a break from drinkin’.”

Oh boy.

We then went up and did several caches on a mountain — one an Earthcache called Jake’s Rocks. This area provided some great views and images. Take a peek.

These are some of Jake’s Rocks.

One of the views.

There are several lookouts on the way down the mountain which are beautiful spots to stop and look. Some of the rock walls near these lookouts have some interesting looking graffiti.

One of the Earthcaches we went to included the Kinzua Dam — an amazing structure that I would highly encourage people to see if they ever get the chance. It’s way better in person than in photos, but here’s one for me to share.

Soon after this one, we hit up a really interesting cache called the 99 bottles of beer on the wall cache. I don’t usually share photos of unique containers, but I have to do this one as it’s that good. We all got a laugh when this was found and even better was that it was in an area where you would probably only suspect seeing this if it was trash.

Take a peek:

Following this and a stop for lunch, we did a webcam cache. The webcam is on the porch of another cacher and we had hoped to be able to meet him. Alas, he wasn’t there that day. We got the photo taken (though apparently there’s problems with the webcam when using a certain browser etc., so it didn’t come out but the owner gave us the OK. The fun started after, however.

One of the members of the caching crew went and chatted with a neighbor. The neighbor was asked about if he knew what was going on over at the house etc.

“They got a webcam.”

As for if they were still around that day?

“I done saw them leave ’bout an hour ago.”

Interesting, I’d say.

One of the final Warren County caches we came across was off a small trail near a rail bed. I knew what it was as soon as we got to the spot — and most seasoned cachers would know right away, too.

(NOTE: The ammo can was chained in there, so someone can’t steal it. Very smart!)

The best part:

Overall, it was one fantastic day. We got back to the Geobash at night, missing part of the early festivities. Some dinner was had, however. Also, I signed in, mapped my location, traded a few more group coins and discovered a few people roaming the grounds that had trackable nametags.

We then went and did the night caches and I luckily grabbed a pathtag out of one of them. After that, it was back to the hotel and a nice night of sleep, which was needed. Thankfully the day worked out well, the weather was perfect and it was a great day of caching in preperation of a full day of the event.

Coming next: The event and the day after.

More later!

And so it goes, that I’ve reached 1,000 finds in this game of geocaching. It took a little more than a year to accomplish this feat, which is pretty cool. I’ve been lucky to meet several awesome people to be able to cache with and between them, it always seems to match up with my schedule so in my off time, I can cache.

I thought, before I got into the story of the day where my 1,000th was found, I’d do a quick reflect on the past year and what geocaching has meant to me, done for me etc. Then, the story.

First, a year in review. It was late February when Darren came by and mentioned geocaching. He somewhat explained it and said we should do it at some point.

That seems like so long ago.

March 1, 2008. That’s the day we went out for our first caching outing. We started in Delhi with the Fitches Bridge cache, which was an excellent way to start as I’m a huge fan of covered bridges.

My first log:

Two of us ventured out today — my first day of geocaching! Found this one. GREAT spot. This was the first of, I think, five we hit. Really cool spot and wild how you set it up. And being I’m a fan of covered bridges, this was awesome for my first time. Well done! TNLNSL.

We found five that day and I was hooked.

Several days later, we went again and we found six. It moved on and on from there.

Find No. 100 came in May at this cache.

Darren and I attended an event earlier in May and we met a lot of interesting people. Events, I’ve decided, are some of the best things with geocaching. You get to meet people, cache, mingle and everything else. This was a fun event, met a bunch of great people and learned a lot.

Since, I’ve attended 11 events (in three different states) and will be at one this weekend.

I’ve also met people I never would have met had it not been for caching. I cache regularly with some of them (Beth, Brent, Ray), and have had caching outings with others (Tom, Jane) and meet up with others often at events (Mark, from Team Ferret, and if he’s not mentioned, I’m sure he’ll flip. Of course, if he makes it down this far… kudos!)

This game has been good to me. It’s got me out and hiking more often, it’s put me into social settings to hang out and meet different people, it’s helped me travel some and it’s been a lot of fun to bring my friends along at times, too.

As the year went on, we did many number runs — including a four-state, 50-find run that covered 22 hours. I’ve also gone days where I’ll go on one good hike, find one cache and enjoy the spot where people have brought me. It’s been a fun trip and one I hope continues to grow.

Over the year I’ve gotten into collecting geocoins a little, pathtags recently, and I have several travel bugs out there, which are always fun to watch.

I wish I could thank or mention everyone I’ve met, but that would be impossible — so for all I’ve met, talked to, e-mailed with etc., thanks and hopefully we’ll have the chance to meet up again!

But as I approached the milestone, I wanted to make it memorable. I wasn’t concerned about too many other milestones, but the big one I wanted to be really special.

So, when I couldn’t get to see The Spot when I was in the Rochester area this past fall, I decided to make it my 1,000th.  This cache is the fifth-oldest active cache in the world. It was placed May 26, 2000 — and still has the original log book! (Though I think it’s missing a few of the early pages…)
I plotted and planned and worked on a weekend. I also had it set so I was at 997 as we headed up to the Finger Lakes area. We grabbed one at a parking area and one at a nice little pond — next up? The Spot!

We parked at a spot where some previous finders had parked. From the spot, it was about .40 of a mile, so not too bad. We were looking at just under a mile roundtrip (maybe a mile, pending on which way we walk!) The stroll wasn’t bad, though a bit slippery at times and we went down quite a bit. Eventually we’d have to come up that, too!

Part of the trail:

Once we got to the area, Beth and Brent were going to let me find it. After all, it was my 1,000th, right? Turns out Brent saw it right away and Beth saw it soon after. Even though I pretty much knew what I was looking for, I was clueless.

Brent actually thought it would be fun to video this. I guess I can share it… it only took me like 5 minutes to find the cache, but this is shortened.

OK, back to the story. So, I find it, uncover it and we find a spot above it to sit, read the log, look through the swag etc. Then we hear voices. And no, they weren’t in our heads. Turns out two others were coming down the trail. One was a cacher (though with few finds) and the other was his friend on his first find.

We quickly hid the cache (but kept the log as I continued reading). They soon made the find, too, and we started looting the cache.

Beth ended up finding a pathtag. I knew it was in there, too, as I had seen it in the logs. I somehow overlooked it. But, with the kindness of her heart, she allowed me to keep it, which I am grateful for.

I used my Gorilla Pod for the first time, too, and took a group shot of us and the two others we met near The Spot. I’m going to have to use the Gorilla Pod a lot more for caching outings. It can be a beneficial thing!

Some other images from The Spot:

The original log book.

First page (that is there) of the log book.

The cache.

Testing out the Gorilla Pod.

We all signed the log, swapped out some travel bugs and I left one of my signature wood coins. After placing everything back where it belonged, we split from the other two (they were going down, we were going back up) and then it was the trip back to the vehicle. Yikes!

But first, my 1,000th:

The hike back showed where the 4-star terrain comes from. A lot of it is uphill and was quite the aerobic workout. I like a good cardio afternoon, but this one was pretty hardcore. In the end, it was worth it, no matter the work.

Although, I won’t lie, seeing the vehicle once we hit the open field was a very welcomed sight!

The whole trip for The Spot was about an hour and a half as we spent time looking at the log, area and all the hiking. It was well worth it. I’d encourage anyone who lives in that area to check it out for sure if you haven’t already. And if you are going to that area (or Rochester), plan this one.

One of the other caches we hit — Viewtiful — had an awesome view of Canandaigua Lake.

We found some other great caches, too. A couple of cool virtuals, a really wild multi and a lot of great caches. In all, I landed 27 for the day and most of them were really good — which made the day good.
The day also included two other milestones — Beth reached 900 and Brent hit 600. Congrats guys!

OK, I had been putting this one off for a while, but hopefully I’ll get back into more regular posting — with this blog and my photo blog.

More later!