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Where did geocaching take you this weekend?


Rock Chalk

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Since moving to Seattle a few weeks ago, I've tried to take at least one day each weekend to find somewhere new to explore. First to Mount Margaret (for GCD, among others). Next to Mailbox Peak. Yesterday, it was a trip to Mount Si. Enjoyed a wonderful 4-mile hike to the summit, finding six caches in the process. The view of Mount Rainier was spectacular! Fog covered Seattle and the surrounding area, but we were above it at the summit.

 

One of the things I love most about Geocaching is that it serves as a bit of a TripAdvisor for me. In the case of Mount Si, I was able to plot out my trip to the summit with the cache waypoints, starting with the trailhead cache and finishing at the summit area.

 

Where did geocaching take you this weekend?

 

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This weekend, unfortunately, nowhere. I was playing in a bridge match. I had to do a bit of maintenance on my own caches. That was it.

 

Last weekend, however, I fulfilled an ambition to climb Pigeon House Mountain to claim Pigeon's Loft, the cache on top. It's not a major hike - 2.5 -3.5 hours return for most folk - but I'm in my mid 60's with a medical condition which makes me breathless when walking up hill, so it took a bit over 6 hours. It was my 600th cache and I'm quite chuffed that I managed it. I don't know how to add pics or links here, but you can see some pics via my profile.

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This weekend, unfortunately, nowhere. I was playing in a bridge match. I had to do a bit of maintenance on my own caches. That was it.

 

Last weekend, however, I fulfilled an ambition to climb Pigeon House Mountain to claim Pigeon's Loft, the cache on top. It's not a major hike - 2.5 -3.5 hours return for most folk - but I'm in my mid 60's with a medical condition which makes me breathless when walking up hill, so it took a bit over 6 hours. It was my 600th cache and I'm quite chuffed that I managed it. I don't know how to add pics or links here, but you can see some pics via my profile.

 

When you have a picture in your profile, right-click on it and select Copy Image URL then paste it into an image tag like this:

 

[img=http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/large/28d5e2a5-73a7-41e0-91a3-c90d68ae2ba8.jpg]

 

And you get this:

 

28d5e2a5-73a7-41e0-91a3-c90d68ae2ba8.jpg

 

Or this, which is awesome:

 

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A tiny six state run>

 

Left Sac-Ra-Tomatoes, California for Denver, Colo. to begin the fun.

 

Denver to Boulder to Wray, Colo. to Nebraska and on toward Arikaree caches in Kansas, to Mingo in Kansas, to Hooker, Oklahoma to Amarillo, Texas and the Cadillac Ranch caches, to Capulin Volcano near Capulin, N.M. to Raton, New Mexico, to Pikes Peak, to Tarryall cache for completion of the "Double Jasmer Challenge to Colorado Springs and back to Denver

 

Six states, very focused on old caches, Caches above 10,000 feet, and Virtuals plus a few Web Cams

 

A paltry number of caches but lots of sights to ooooohh and aaaaahh over

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Some awesome adventures here.

 

Very jealous of Z Statman's CITO paddle! I'm still waiting for the moving truck to arrive with my kayak, so I can hit a few of these Seattle-area waterways.

 

Hydnsek- I only noticed the Boundary Bay Cache Machine event late Friday night. I thought seriously about going, but figured it might be best to be better prepared. Maybe next year. It sounds like a ton of fun.

 

humboldt flier- "tiny" run, huh? :D

 

Very cool to read of CanadianRockies, Gill & Tony, Corfman Clan and gpsblake's adventures, too. Makes me want to hop on a plane!

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Hydnsek- I only noticed the Boundary Bay Cache Machine event late Friday night. I thought seriously about going, but figured it might be best to be better prepared. Maybe next year. It sounds like a ton of fun.

No worries - we have a Cache Machine each quarter in locations around the Pacific Northwet. You can see the upcoming schedule on Travis's profile page.

 

Here are the next three:

 

Gig Harbor II, January 3, 2015

Spokane Valley, March 21, 2015

Everett II, June 20, 2015

 

And here's a list of all the previous CMs - Travis started them in 2002!

Edited by hydnsek
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Very good to know. Thanks!

 

Hydnsek- I only noticed the Boundary Bay Cache Machine event late Friday night. I thought seriously about going, but figured it might be best to be better prepared. Maybe next year. It sounds like a ton of fun.

No worries - we have a Cache Machine each quarter in locations around the Pacific Northwet. You can see the upcoming schedule on Travis's profile page.

 

Here are the next three:

 

Gig Harbor II, January 3, 2015

Spokane Valley, March 21, 2015

Everett II, June 20, 2015

 

And here's a list of all the previous CMs - Travis started them in 2002!

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Last weekend I was looking at the map of States I have cached in and noticed I found every State west of the Mississippi except Nebraska and North Dakota so a road trip was in order but my wife couldn't go and 2/3 of my kids couldn't either, one daughter had 3 days free, that was enough.

 

Thursday night after she got off work we set off from Vancouver to the nearest Nebraska cache. from there we drove to Keystone, SD for the night. Took about 25 hours.

 

Saturday morning we had breakfast in Keystone then shopped a bit before going to mount Rushmore. Check out the unfinished alien head that is next to Lincoln.

 

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From Rushmore we went to Deadwood for lunch and happened to catch the local wiener dog Olympics.

 

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From there we drove to North Dakota and started heading home, the plan was to stay on Roundup, Montana but we just kept driving.

 

My weekend by the numbers:

 

2 countries

7 States

63 hours

63 caches

4,700 kilometers

 

I also tied my record for 6 States in one day and broke my record by finding caches in 17 counties in one day which is not bad for the west coast but not a big deal for the east coast where their States are smaller than the counties out west.

 

All, in all not a bad weekend.

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Geocaching took me to the Geocoinfest in Ulm. It was a great day, I met many old friends and a lot of new friends. Went caching with Ben and Jayme, got awesome geocoins, all in all a perfect Saturday. Another highlight was that I visited the "Löwenmensch" in the museum of Ulm. I took many pictures of it, but it was forbidden what I got told by the museum staff while I was taking pictures. So I can't post a picture of this breathtaking sculpture. You can watch the Lion Man on wikipedia .

 

"A lion-headed figure, first called the lion man (German: Löwenmensch, literally "lion human"), then the lion lady (German: Löwenfrau), is an ivory sculpture that is both the oldest known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in the world, and the oldest known uncontested example of figurative art yet discovered. The sculpture has also been interpreted as anthropomorphic, giving human characteristics to an animal, although it may have represented a deity. The figurine was determined to be about 40,000 years old by carbon dating material from the same layer in which the sculpture was found. It is associated with the archaeological Aurignacian culture. The sculpture is 29.6 cm (11.7 inches) in height, 5.6 cm wide, and 5.9 cm thick. It was carved out of mammoth ivory using a flint stone knife. There are seven parallel, transverse, carved gouges on the left arm. It is now in the museum in Ulm, Germany." Wikipedia

 

Some pictures:

 

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Cool T5 geocache.

 

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Geocoinfest Logbook

 

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Having a beer with friends

 

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Wonderful astronomical clock

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Had nice swamp day of seeking and finding two 10 year old caches, each with the last log as DNF, and a couple of years since the last find - very satisfying - but no great pics. Took a lot of pics, none of them very good

 

In any case I think lumbricus kinda won the thread with "beer with friends" ;-)

 

not that it's a contest, but hey, BEER with FRIENDS !!! :D

Edited by Isonzo Karst
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I went to Prague for a weekend as part of my "I moved to Europe so I can travel to other countries for a weekend trip easily" plan. I was actually in Prague once, as a little girl when it was still Czechoslovakia, so high time to return!

 

Grabbed 6 caches, three physical and three virtual, but it could have been a lot more, no question, just that wasn't the emphasis of this trip. Prague is an amazing city for geocaching!

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Once again, jealous of all the great adventures I'm reading about. And jealous because I'm guessing Ben and Jayme were on the clock when those pictures were taken!

 

Trying to get my head wrapped around the fact that Roman! drove from Vancouver to Nebraska.

 

Bah, that's nothing, last year I drove to Alaska for lunch.

Edited by Roman!
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It took me on an 11.1 mile paddle around Guist Creek Lake in Shelbyville, KY in my relatively new kayak.

 

 

I was just at Guist Creek Lake with my then-new kayak earlier this summer! The wife and and I drove out to that area from Kansas City (several weeks before moving to Seattle) and visited GCL, Laughery Creek, South and North Hogan Creeks, Lake Jericho, AJ Jolly Lake, Liking River, and a few paddle caches near the Ohio River. I think my arms are still a bit sore from that trip! So much fun.

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It took me on an 11.1 mile paddle around Guist Creek Lake in Shelbyville, KY in my relatively new kayak.

 

 

I was just at Guist Creek Lake with my then-new kayak earlier this summer! The wife and and I drove out to that area from Kansas City (several weeks before moving to Seattle) and visited GCL, Laughery Creek, South and North Hogan Creeks, Lake Jericho, AJ Jolly Lake, Liking River, and a few paddle caches near the Ohio River. I think my arms are still a bit sore from that trip! So much fun.

Saw your names on the logs as well as possibly a few of the challenges in the area. Here's a shot at my parents' lake house where we spend most of our summer weekends.

 

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I tipped it on my maiden voyage with her shortly after this picture was taken and it's been smooth sailing since. Can't wait to take her on bigger water. I'd love to hit Power Island and paddle the 3 miles out and 3 miles back next summer.

 

Is that a Wilderness Systems "Tempest"? If so, I've paddled one and it handles nicely on bigger water. friend of mine has a glass version and has taken it in some really rough conditions.

 

We have a fair amount of paddle caches in my area but unfortunately almost all of them are along smaller creeks where a 17' fiberglass boat isn't the best choice.

 

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I tipped it on my maiden voyage with her shortly after this picture was taken and it's been smooth sailing since. Can't wait to take her on bigger water. I'd love to hit Power Island and paddle the 3 miles out and 3 miles back next summer.

 

Is that a Wilderness Systems "Tempest"? If so, I've paddled one and it handles nicely on bigger water. friend of mine has a glass version and has taken it in some really rough conditions.

 

Current Designs Sirocco. I've had it on both rivers, lakes, and a feeder creek into a lake already in the two months I've owned her and have had only one cache that I couldn't manage to reach. There was one point at Guist that I felt like Austin Powers since the feeder creek was pretty narrow and I was stretched out across the whole length trying to turn around. One stroke back, one stroke forward, one stroke back, ....I'm sure it looked pretty funny!

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I went to Picturesque (GC5BTYK) , an event that involved a photo scavenger hunt. I wasn't able to participate in the hunt, but there was a potluck afterward, and I had a good time talking about geocaching.

 

Looks like a very fun event. I attended something similar in St. Joseph, MO earlier this year. It was fun to see how creative people got with finding photo opportunities that met the various challenges. (From your event, I liked the "Children Holding Hands" picture that showed a school crossing sign!)

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I tipped it on my maiden voyage with her shortly after this picture was taken and it's been smooth sailing since. Can't wait to take her on bigger water. I'd love to hit Power Island and paddle the 3 miles out and 3 miles back next summer.

 

Is that a Wilderness Systems "Tempest"? If so, I've paddled one and it handles nicely on bigger water. friend of mine has a glass version and has taken it in some really rough conditions.

 

Current Designs Sirocco. I've had it on both rivers, lakes, and a feeder creek into a lake already in the two months I've owned her and have had only one cache that I couldn't manage to reach. There was one point at Guist that I felt like Austin Powers since the feeder creek was pretty narrow and I was stretched out across the whole length trying to turn around. One stroke back, one stroke forward, one stroke back, ....I'm sure it looked pretty funny!

 

Actually a Current Designs boat would have been my first guess. I forgot about the Sirocco. They're one of the few manufactures that puts graphics on the bow like that. As you probably know that's a plastic version of the Gulfstream, a boat design by Derek Hutchinson (who some call the father of modern day sea kayaking). I took a 3 hour class with Derek at a symposium in Maine many years ago and even helped him carry his boat (a Gulfstream).

 

I almost bought a CD Squall for my first boat but the shop had a used fiberglass VCP Skerray. It was built in 1989 and still paddles as well as the day I bought it (around 1998). When turning it tight quarters, rather than a one stroke back, one forward, one back...I can edge it way over and do sort of a sculling/sweep on one side and spin it it's own length.

 

I took a look and most of those nearby paddle caches on local rivers have been archived.

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I walked to a local museum. It is some sort of "outdoor" museum, consisting of several small buildings, each presenting farming or crafts in the past. The area is not fenced so I could just walk in the yard although it is closed now. I was though a little worried that someone would think I am there to break something.

 

This was also a trip to my past because I used to live nearby. I actually walked down the street like I still lived there. If there was a cache then, I do not know but there used to be one when I finally registered. That one was archived before I had time for searching it. Unfortunate for me.

 

I do not have a car so I only visit nearby caches and definitely not for numbers. I am very happy that this summer some cachers have put up new ones. I should make one too but I have not decided how to hide it.

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I see my next weekend will be taken finding your new caches. Last weekend I did what you did, go to Vancouver Island. Went to Butchart Gardens and the Butterfly Gardens and of course cached around the area to some extent.

 

Hope you enjoy them! We didn't get to Butchart Gardens last weekend, but will definitely make it there someday. Mrs RJ is big into gardening and would love to see that place. We just didn't have time with traveling to/from the event in Duncan.

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Caching is rarely the reason I go someplace -- rather it is what I might do if I find myself in a place for other reasons - but last weekend might have been an exception. My daughter has been wanting me to see her while she is going to school in Massachusetts. Along the way, I found one traditional and many of the virtuals and earthcaches I had on my list -- so perhaps you could say that caching brought me to dinosaur tracks, firefighter memorials, armored mud balls, the world's largest glacier pothole, historical locations, and other places that I would not have otherwise visited. I thought it was too bad that there was no cache dedicated to the abandoned mill we explored or the petroglyphs in Vermont, but that is how it goes.

 

In any event, I woke up earlier than expected for the return trip when the smoke alarm in my hotel room began chirping before sunrise. Then I decided that as long as I was up, it was only a two hour drive to a virtual in Rhode Island. I had thought about doing a couple of letterboxes on my way back to the airport, but it was only a two hour drive to a virtual in Rhode Island. Not just any virtual. HP Lovecraft's grave. And not just any state. One that i had never visited as part of a game. And only a two hour drive - not much considering I drove farther than that for a similar reason when we were staying in Victoria, BC.

 

The prohibition on photos at the location almost discouraged me, but geocaching brought me somewhere that I never would have otherwise visited.

Edited by geodarts
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HP Lovecraft's grave. And not just any state. One that i had never visited as part of a game. And only a two hour drive - not much considering I drove farther than that for a similar reason when we were staying in Victoria, BC.

 

Not being a horror fiction aficionado, I'd not heard of this author before your post. Interesting to read about him.

 

BTW, really like what you've done with your profile page. Excellent use of the space!

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HP Lovecraft's grave. And not just any state. One that i had never visited as part of a game. And only a two hour drive - not much considering I drove farther than that for a similar reason when we were staying in Victoria, BC.

 

Not being a horror fiction aficionado, I'd not heard of this author before your post. Interesting to read about him.

 

BTW, really like what you've done with your profile page. Excellent use of the space!

 

Thanks. I have never read Lovecraft, but his name has popped up in connection with other work, So it is another way the game took me someplace!

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