More NoDak caches bite the dust!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Now that I have my lovely bride all moved in with me here in Williston, we decided to grab a few of her first North Dakota caches yesterday.  We managed to find 8 more local caches, and had to DNF two that we were unable to locate.  There seems to be very few active cachers up here, as many of the caches we have found were not previously found since last October.  

There are still about 30 caches just within a twenty minute drive from us.  We also plan on hiding a few of our own now that we are permanent residents.  We are also going to be sending a few travel bugs out into the world, we are tossing a few ideas around for a theme, and a goal.  

Stay tuned, now that our lives have seemed to settle down a bit, we should be a little more active in the caching world again.  

 Log signed, after sitting six months under the snow since its last find...it was in great shape!

Cache replaced, another one that lasted well through the long winter....Little Muddy River in the background.

Back Home Caching

Monday, March 28, 2011

I have been home since Thursday morning, and have really enjoyed being home for a little break.  I have been eating way to much.  But it has been great hanging out at my normal places, and seeing some regular faces.  

Ruth and I finally headed out for some caching this morning...it has been so long since we have done some serious caching.  We found all 17 caches we set after, so it was a very successful, very beautiful spring caching day.

Here are a few pictures taken on our journeys today.

 This was a great cache in an area that recently became public property, it had a nice boardwalk, and a great view.

 Heading in!

 Are there boards on the boardwalk?

 The view of Big Green Lake in the background, you can see Sugarloaf behind us at the southern edge of Norwegian Bay.  Perfect Day!!

 Yup, there are boards.

 Another view of the bay

 Closeup taken with the Ipod...awesome caching tool!!!

 This is a picture of a log in a cache that we were unable to sign due to us stupidly forgetting the pen in the truck.  Will be sent to the owner, hoping they do not delete our log.

Now that the weather is getting better in North Dakota, and the snow is melting, I hope to finally get some caching done over there.  Keep posted!

Finally, my first ND Cache!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Yesterday I finally got my first cache while out here in ND...instead of typing the story over, I said it pretty well in my log...here it is.

----This is my first ND cache!! I am living here in Williston temporarily from work, I am from Wisconsin. I have been in town a little over a month, and have been wanting to cache since day one. While at work today I started to talk about caching with my boss, and he said "lets go find one" he downloaded the app for his IPhone and off we went. This was the closest cache to work. I quickly started using the title as the hint like was stated in the description. With my boss's help we were able to make the find pretty quickly. He would have had no idea how to find it, but I have found this style before, and it caught my eye right away. I just looked at him and said "I see it" he was blown away and said where. I snagged it and he was amazed. Great cache, and great container...thanks for my first ND cache....many more to come.

He will be setting up an account and going back to sign and log this cache! Another member of the caching community!----

Now that he is hooked on caching already, he said we need to go out today again after we get a little work done at the shop.  So maybe I will get a few more caches today, but not sure. 

It felt good to get a find after such a long dry steak.

Still No Caching

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Well, I have been here in ND for over a month now, and I still have not gotten a cache.  I have been working allot of hours, and for being so far from my routine, have stayed pretty busy.  I will be flying to Kansas in a few weeks for some training.  I will definitely be sure to get at least one cache near the hotel so I can add Kansas to my list of states. 

As for now, I have basically come to the conclusion that I will just wait until spring before I do any caching around here. 

Keep in touch everybody, I miss WI and the abundance of caches there.  There are caches over here, but the area is so un-populated with caches, and cachers.  Many of the caches up here have not been found for months.

New Life Out West

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Just to let all of you in blog land know, I have recently moved to North Dakota for work.  I will be here at least 4-6 months, with the possibility of moving out here permanently.  My company is paying all of my living expenses, including housing, food cable, internet, everything!  It really is a great deal, I also got a huge raise, monthly bonuses, and they pay for me to fly home every four weeks.



Now that I am here, and settled in, I am hoping to do a little caching.  There is a allot of snow on the ground here in Williston ND, but I think I can find a few caches if I try.



Here are a few pictures of my house, the area, and things I have seen out here in my first week.

 Me and my new truck, about 5 minutes before I pulled out of the driveway.

 My view for most of the trip.

 My home away from home, its older, but the price is right, and its warm and cozy.

 This is the reason I am here...ND Oil Fields.

 The bridge over Lake Sakakawea...beautiful area!

On day one, the boss hands us the company credit card and says, "go get whatever you need for your house", so we did.  Notice the flat screen!  He will also be getting us an xbox if we want it.  Really nice to be taken care of!

Stay tuned, hopefully I will find some time for caching this next weekend.

Happy New Year.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

I have not faded away into cyberspace, I am still alive. 

We would like to wish everybody a happy, safe, and successful new year. May 2011 be better than 2010 in every way.

We have been so busy in the shop working on Chistmas gifts for friends and family that we have not had any time to go caching, or even do any blogging.   Now that the holidays are over we might find a little time to get out into the woods again. 

We will be sure to post pictures and stories of our next adventure.

Still Alive

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Just letting everybody out there in blog land that I am still alive and kicking.  I have been super busy lately in the wood shop making gifts and other projects.  Its too bad, because this is my favorite time of year for caching.  I am hoping to be able to do some caching after this deer season is over.  I already have my two deer, but I still like to go out and help my group fill their tags as well.  Keep stopping back!

10-10-10 Caching Run.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

We decided at about 1:30 this afternoon that we should probably make a quick run to put our name on the list of cachers that logged at least one find on 10-10-10.  I am so glad that we did, because it was a perfect weather day, we found an awesome cache, and we picked up our first souvenir icon in the process.

We threw together a quick 5 cache run in Brandon, which is only about 10 miles from home.  There were some new caches that we figured would be great for a fast run.

One cache called "When Hemp Was King" was particularly great for many reasons.  First off, it involved a scenic hike on well defined trails.  Second, it was a fun offset cache.  Third, it was well hidden and a challenge to find.  And finally, it was in one of the coolest ruined building sites we have ever seen.  

 This cache was placed at the site of a former hemp mill.  Hemp was king of this area, and this mill started it all.

Check out some of the pictures below.

 Geo Beacon Ahead!

 The long and winding trail...beautiful hike.

 The base of the stack

 The cache in hand.

 Not sure..water retention area?

 The view up the smokestack.

 Roller for the hemp rope?

It was so fun to explore.  No matter where you looked, there was more to explore.  This cache has been added to our top-5 list.

Another Milestone Today!!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Today I went caching with my parents who were only a few finds away from reaching #200.  I recommended a cache for them which we had found over a year ago.  I offered absolutely no help, as I feel they needed to find the milestone on their own.  I walked behind them the whole way, and they did a great job.  "Fox Proposal Point" is an excellent cache that still remains on our top 5 list of all time caches.  It is a somewhat strenuous hike, and a little of a "which way do we go" type of cache.  The views are great, and it fit the bill for their milestone perfectly.

It was an absolutely perfect day for caching, sunny, cool and just enough breeze to make it comfy.

 Here they are with #200 in hand.  Well done team "OldyWeds"

 The view from the cache.  They main river heads to the right where there used to be a dam.  The dam was removed in 2003 as it was no longer needed, and blocked any fish from moving up-river.  The channel to the left was where the locks were.  No dam, no need for a lock system. 


With the milestone cache, which obviously was not logged by us, we ended the day with 7 finds which is good considering a few of them were longer hikes.  What a great day, I love caching in the fall.

Skeet and Caching Saturday.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Saturday was a perfect day, for a few reasons...one, the weather was beautiful, two, I shot some skeet, and three, we did some caching.

We started the morning off with some breakfast at our favorite local cafe, we go to Kristinas every weekend.  It is the place where everybody knows your name, and the cooks come out to say hi to us every time.  We love living in a small town.

After breakfast we headed to Oshkosh to shoot a few rounds of skeet at the gun club we are members at.  I am pretty new to skeet shooting, I shot my first round in June.  I have not shot a 25 yet, but I do have a 24, and shot 17,19 & a 23 on Saturday.  I absolutely love skeet shooting, it is such a challenge, and every shot poses a different challenge.

Here I am about to shoot the high house bird on station two.  The bird in the picture is moving away, and requires about a 2 foot lead.

In this picture I just shot high house station 8.  This bird literally passes right past the barrel, and you shoot it from about 10 feet away.  You have to be super super fast, and lead the bird by only a few inches.  I dusted this one pretty good, you can see the dust cloud, and most of the right side of the picture is filled with chips.  I love station 8.  If you have never shot skeet, or any clay target, do yourself a favor and give it a try.


After the skeet range we headed out to do some caching.  Our first few caches were DNF's, we are sure the caches were missing.  They were caches along a "rails to trails" abandoned railroad bed.  It seems the DNR did some major tree trimming because GZ for the first two caches was completely leveled, and the took down some pretty substantially large trees.

After the two missed caches we were able to find 7 caches.  A few nice walks, and few cemeteries, and a couple nice multi caches.

Here Ruth is looking for stage three on "Flat Jack Goes For a Nature Walk".

 Here is a view from the same cache.  It was a great walk.

 

The leaves are sure changing color, and actually starting to fall from the underbrush and smaller trees.  What a great day!

This is what a freshly trimmed ground zero looks like.  Not a friendly sight when looking for a cache!

We are hoping to get out again this weekend, and hopefully I will have more to post about, and more pictures of the changing fall scenery.