Too Many things for one title

Monday, March 1, 2010

2010 WGA Winter Bonfire & Chili Feed

On Saturday we did a little caching on our way to our first Wisconsin Geocaching Association event.  The Bonfire and Chili Feed was a huge success, and we had a blast.  We met many new cachers, and talked to many more familiar faces.  The chili was excellent, and so were the many many dishes brought by fellow members.  It was nice to swap a few stories around the fire, and check out some cool coins and bugs around the table inside the field house.  Click HERE to go to the WGA picture page for this event.  I will definitely be going again next year, maybe it will even be closer to home.   We ended up grabbing ten caches before the event, making it a total of 11 for the day, a good winter caching day.

Sunday Cache Run

Saturdays ten caches and an event were not enough, on the way home we were already planning our full day of caching for sunday.  We figured we would invite our friends who are new to caching along with us, so we sent them a text on our way home from the event.  After some talking they decided it would be easier for one of them to cache, and the other to stay home with the kids.  It was decided that Jackie, 1/2 of the TrollPatrol team would be joining us.  

We headed out at 8 a.m. and headed once again to the Wild Rose area.  We had 35 caches on our to-do-list and ended up finding 19 of them.  We started the day with a series of pretty tough winter hikes, so that slowed our day down quite a bit right off the bat.  Who cares though?  I love the great caches that we did, the numbers will always be there, it is hard to pass up so many quality caches.  We completed another 3 of the Walk on the Wild Series by labrat wr, who placed this great series.  We only have one of those left to find which contains the last code needed to find the series final "Ryan's Rebus".  We look forward to finishing this very well done cache series!

We also did a couple of terrain five caches on islands, but we must admit, we cheated a little and drove the truck right on the ice, right out to the islands.  They were still some very fun caches.

Here I am signing a log on an island, you can see the truck in the background.  

 

One of the caches we found was called Graffiti Bridge, I wonder why?

Here is Jackie of "TrollPatrol" in the green taking their first trackable.

 Here we are at one of the Walk on the Wild Side caches, camera perched in a tree to get a group shot.

Monday Cache Run

Today, Scrappy Scout, a Milwaukee area cacher, and I decided to meet up half way and do some caching in the Slinger, Mayville area.  We managed to find eleven pretty easy caches on a nice relaxed easy going day of caching.  I had a really great time with Kevin(scout) today, and I am sure he will have something to say about it on his blog as well, which is in my list of watched blogs.  

One of my favorite pieces of history are old mills, either sawmills or grain mills.  This was the site of an old grain mill in Mayville Wi.  I love these sights.  This one was just the old race(waterway), but it was still fun to explore.  

New Poll, Weekly Caching Video, and What Not.

The March Caching poll is now up, so please cast your vote on your perfect day of caching....don't worry, you can be honest, nobody will know it was you!!

 
Here is the video of the week!! This video is so stupid and cheesy that it is absolutely hilarious....enjoy!!

If you get a minute, hop in the LIVE CHAT...ANYONE is welcome, and we would love to talk with some of you cachers that are from outside the Wisconsin border as well...we don't bite, honestly.  Take a minute, pop in and see what the topic of discussion may be.   

A few funny caching videos...Enjoy

Thursday, February 25, 2010

I love their celebrations when they find it!!!




Wisconsin cachers...if you are, or know these guys, I want to meet them...hilarious!!!




The good ole FTF race!

I plan on having a weekly caching video every Monday from here on out...but I had to post these three right away.  Check back, hopefully I can find some good ones for the future!

Travel Bug Saved

This morning we pulled the travel bug from the current owners inventory. Now that we are currently the owners of the travel bug, we fixed it up and gave it a new dollar bill to share its journey with.  It feels good to save a travel bug that has been out of circulation for 3 1/2 years.  We hear all of the stories about long lost bugs and coins, it is nice to resurrect one and keep it going.

Here is the bug page where you can read the log I posted for getting it back in circulation.

This Saturday it will make its re-debut at the 2010 WGA Winter Bonfire & Chili Feed .  I am hoping someone will snatch it up and move it along, or at least discover it.

I plan on doing some major caching soon, so it will get some mileage no matter what!

 

Here is the bug all ready to go, I figured the tag would be safer by just taping it right to the bill.  I hope it has another log journey, and I am considering myself the new owner!!! LOL, it will be going on my watch list for sure!!

Lost Travel Bug Found!!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

In June of 09, when my caching career was only one month old I went on a caching trip up to the Minocqua WI area.  On one of the finds I noticed a travel bug dog tag in the cache, nothing but the tag.  I was a total newbie, but I knew that I should not be finding just a tag in a cache that supposedly has no inventory.  As soon as we got back to the hotel I looked up the travel bug, and it was not found..so I thought, I must have typed in the number wrong or something.  

So yesterday when cleaning out the truck and looking through some caching memorabilia we have I came across this tag again.  Once again I went online to look it up, sure enough, I must have typed in the correct number, becuase this time I successfully found the travel bug page.  This particular bug has not been logged since August of 2006, and is still supposedly in the possession of a WI cacher.  This cacher had never visited the cache I found it in, but did find a cache a few miles away around the same time that it went missing.  I am sure it was an honest mistake, I am hoping we can reverse it and fix it up again.

I have sent an e-mail to the T.B. owner, and the cacher with this bug in their inventory.  I am hoping to get in contact with both people and resurrect this long lost bug.  

Here is the travel bug page!

It sure would be nice to get it fixed up and back in circulation.

Check back to see how I end up with this situation, I hope it works out. 

Group Caching and a Milestone

Sunday, February 21, 2010

A few days ago we got an invite from a local caching friend to join him and some other cachers on a run for some harder caches.  BakRdz sent out an e-mail inviting Jstajlr(Cocoa), Stubbs13, CodeJunkie and ourselves on this little power run.  We set out on our first cache at about noon.  The day included a few adventures and more than a few laughs.  We ended up finding six caches with the group before we had to break away and head for home.  Thanks BakRdz for inviting us on the adventure.  If you are interested in reading about our journeys a little more, I will attach a list of the caches we did, just click and read the logs placed by all of us.

Walk on the Wild Side #4
Walk on the Wild Side #5
WSQ 967 Visitor (Wild Rose)
Take a Hike!!
The Lake That Rushed Away
WSQ Grandma and Grandpa G*Force


Below are some pictures taken throughout they day., and even a video of Jstajlr making the river crossing after grabbing Walk on the Wild Side 5 cache. Does he get wet???


Does he make it??

 

          The boat Landing that leads to                                Our 400th Find!!

                     "NO LAKE"                                          Walk on the Wild Side #4

 

                    The Bridge to #5                            Attack of the Labrat!!!  The cache owner
                                                                          labrat wr, knew we were attempting this cache
                                                                          so he made this on the truck while waiting for us
                                                                          to return.

A great Friday!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Last night I decided I would make another run today to try to get as close to 399 as possible.  This weekend we are attempting a few higher D/T rated caches that we would like to make our 400th milestone.  So, I thought it would be fun to try and get as many of the 27 needed knocked off today.  I put 27 on the list knowing I would not go 100%, I figured that I should still be able to get a few.  Well I ended up with 17 finds, 4 DNF's and there were 6 that I did not even attempt because there was just too much snow, and too much distance to travel.  Those missed caches can always wait until spring.  I feel pretty good about that many finds, but I feel stupid because I forgot the camera today, and many were picture worthy caches. 

When I was setting up the run last night, I came across one cache that was just published.  I never thought I would have a chance at being the first to find, because it was one of my last caches of the day.  But much to my surprise I climbed the tree out over open, swift moving, very cold water and found a nice clean log to sign.  I only have a few FTF's so, it was nice to get this one even though I was not even trying.  I can now add "Mecan River Beauty-Cumberland Rd" to my F.T.F. list....oh wait, I don't track my stats anywhere...oh well!

Stay tuned...we are hoping to get #400 this weekend, and there is no way I will forget the camera this time.

Leprechauns Outing

Monday, February 15, 2010

Saturday was the day that our group of local cachers came out to find the "Green Lake Leprechauns".  We had 13 people including myself looking for the cache.  It was a perfect day, temps near 30, absolutely no wind, and not a cloud in the sky.  It did not take long to do at all, it was a four part multi, but all of the stages were very close to each other.  I think we spent more time talking afterward than we did seeking the cache.  Click HERE to be sent to the picture gallery.  Thanks to Jim from "JimandLinda" for taking the pictures, I hoped to have the pictures to put right on the blog, but technical difficulties have prevented the pictures from getting from Jim's computer to mine.  Thanks go to: BakRdz, JimandLinda, sloughfoot, amita17, marc 54140, benny7210, 2boyz, jstajlr, Digital Dan, and wywrdsn for joining in on the fun. 

I hope to hold many more events like this over the years, it really is fun to casually cache with other people.  There are so many stories to be shared, and allot of knowledge to be gained. 

Numbers Run Canceled

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Last night I got everything loaded up and ready for todays run to reach 399.  Well, when I woke up I was not feeling to well.  I figured if I was going to be able to attend my own little cache event on Saturday, I should probably  not spend the day out in the cold and wind.  So I decided that the milestone will have to wait for another day, and I am sure we can find another great and deserving cache for our 400th find.   So today will be spent inside preparing my tax stuff so I can give it to Mr. Taxman. 

Numbers Run Planned

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

As previously posted, I am hosting a mini-event this weekend to find a local cache that is on and island(sort of, it is landlocked) and needs to be accessed by water.  I really want to make this cache our next milestone of 400.  To do this we need to find 28 more caches to be poised at 399.  I have a list of 35 caches all planned out for tomorrow, hopefully that will be enough.  I say this because we just received 6 more inches of snow last night, so I may have a few DNF's. 

Be sure to check back tomorrow to see if I was able to do it, if not, I have Friday as a make-up day.   I will be sure to post some pictures of my journey tomorrow.

Introducing new cachers to the hobby.

Monday, February 8, 2010

This last Sunday we took our friends out geocaching, it was their first time going after hearing us talk about it so many times.  They always said they wanted to join us, and finally this weekend the stars aligned and we were able to make it happen.   With all of the hype we gave the hobby, I knew we would have to really do a great job introducing the hobby to them, and I think we did exactly that.  This was going to be a challenge for a couple of reasons.  First off, it is winter in Wisconsin, and there is a pretty good amount of snow on the ground.  Second off, they were bringing their one year old daughter and their three year old son. 
The best part of the whole equation is… all you have to tell a three year old boy(Bob) to get him motivated is that he is going to find treasure!  He was on-board, and we could not leave fast enough.   As for the one year old daughter(Kristin)…well that’s easy too, just make sure she is warm and not hungry and she is good to go as well.  The age of the children is not the issue, it is the burden they put on mom and dad.   The burden comes from having to carry Kristen wherever we needed to go,  and making sure Bob did not lose his focus, as 3 year olds have very short attention spans. 

The challenge for us was choosing caches that were not too much of a hike, not too much of a challenge, or in an area too public where we would draw allot of attention to our activities.  What sounds like the perfect cache type to you????? You guessed it…WSQ caches!!! That’s right, cemetery hides. 
It worked perfectly…we picked out ten caches,  six of which were cemeteries and the other four were ones we had also had done, and knew would work perfectly.    We even threw in a few puzzles just to expose them to as many aspects of the hobby as we could.  We even picked up a T.B. so they could see how that works as well. 

The real enjoyment of the day was watching Bob run around ground zero looking for the “treasure”.  We told him that if he took something he had to leave some treasure for the next person, he was surprisingly willing to trade items, instead of keeping it all for himself.   A great life lesson learned, and he had a smile on his face the whole time. 

All in all, the whole family really had a good time, and I know we will definitely have partners to come along on many of our caching excursions.  I do know for a fact that they will enjoy it more in the warmer months  when they can take the kids along without bundling them up and needing a sled to go anywhere of any distance.     The fact that they enjoyed themselves so much on the few cemetery caches that we did, it shows how much potential this hobby offers them as a family.  They can only go up from here, and we look forward to joining them. 

To sum it up, we were very happy to have introduced a family to a new pastime that they can all enjoy as a family.  A hobby that brings the whole family together, while at the same time introduces them to some great areas that they normally would have never seen…that’s what it’s all about.  Glad we were able to bring it to them.

This was our first time exposing complete rookies to geocaching, and we hope to be able to do it many, many times.  I am not sure who had more fun, us, or them!  Who cares, we all had a great day, and hopefully many more to come.  Stay tuned, and watch out for logs by the “TrollPatrol”, I love their caching name, which was inspired by Bob on their very first cache.  As he was crossing a small footbridge, I told him to watch out for the troll, and that’s when they became the TrollPatrol.