Slow Going in MuddyBottoms Land.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

It has been pretty slow around here when it comes to caching.  We have just plain been too busy to get out like we want to.  We did go last weekend and grab a few, but no pictures were taken.  It was nice, we were able to grab 17 caches without going to far from home.  That shows for sure that it has been a while since we have been out.  New cachers are placing caches in the area quicker than we are able to find them

I also have some long overdue maintenance to complete.  I have a cache that I adopted a few months ago and has not been found since because I made it unavailable since it is missing.  I still have yet to get that one going.  I really need to, not good!

We do not have too much planned for this weekend, maybe we can plan a run to get our 600th knocked out.  We really want to head south to the New Glarus area to grab a cache on our watch list.  It would make a perfect cache for a milestone.  Check this one out. Tunnel of Terror!!!  Hopefully we can make this happen soon.

New Poll Question.....also, we are actually going caching!!!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Check back tomorrow night, as we are actually going caching tomorrow.  Ruth and I will be going on a small 22 cache run with my parents.  It has been so long since we have been out, that there are actually quite a few new caches in the area.  There have been some new cachers that have popped up in the area, and it has introduced some great new caches, and great new cache ideas. 

So, hopefully we will have some stories to tell, and some pictures to share!

Don't forget to vote on the poll question for July.

Where has the time gone.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

I would like to apologize to everyone for not making any posts recently!!  I have been so busy with work, working in the woodshop, and our new membership at the local gun-gun club, that we have not had any time to go caching lately.  We plan on going out a little of the fourth of July weekend.  Please don't give up on us!!! LOL.  I will have a new poll question up and hopefully a post with some usefull content soon!

Keep on Caching!!!

Happy Memorial Day!!

Monday, May 31, 2010

I would like to wish all of you out in BlogLand a happy Memorial Day.  Do not forget the reason for the day, and be sure to think of the ones that have given us our freedom.  Without the sacrifices made by our veterans we would not be able to enjoy the life we live every day. 

Thank you to all who have given so much! 

To everyone, have a safe, and enjoyable day!!

Caching weekend up nort

Sunday, May 16, 2010

We had an excellent time caching on our trip to the Hazelhurst/Minocqua area this weekend.  We managed to find 18 caches during the day on Saturday, and a few on the way home today.  Not only did we find a few great caches, we also dropped of 3 travel bugs, and one geocoin. 

The main goal of the weekend was not really to find a bunch of caches, but mostly just to get away and relax a little bit.  We stayed at a resort we have stayed at many times in the past.  Blacks Cliff Resort is a perfect resort for rest and relaxation.  As always we enjoyed the cabin, the lake and the general relaxing atmosphere that only northern Wisconsin can offer.  Thanks to the owners Jenny and Troy...who are also cachers(The Gibbers).  They may not know it, but they are responsible for getting us started in geocaching.  Since our first trip to the resort, I have been following their Birch Bark Blog.  In the blog about a year ago they posted about one of their caching excursions and it prompted me to check out caching.  The rest is history!

Check out some of the pictures captured throughout the weekend.

This was the first picture taken of the weekend.  Ruth and I decided to get up early Saturday a.m. to go have a cup of coffee down by the lake.  The loons were talking(insert sound) and the fog was slowly moving to the center of the lake.  My favorite time of the day...god I love it up here.

Our favorite cache of the weekend was called "Arthur Stevenson's Homestead".  The history of the old house is so neat, and the area was a blast to explore.  If you are in the Boulder Junction area, do yourself a favor and find this cache(premium member cache).  

When we were exploring the homestead cache we also happened upon our very first Letterbox...we were looking for the cache.  We thought we found the cache, but quickly learned that we in fact had our first letterbox in hand.  We obviously did not have a stamp made, or with us, so we just made our mark in the log book, and put it back.  SWEET!

Here is the whole crew at another cache located on Lost Canoe Lake.  The water up north is so low, that this root system would normally be underwater.  

Team MuddyBottoms...such posers.

Here we are this morning before we left for home.  We are holding the two travel bugs we picked up during our journeys.  Thanks to Jenny at the resort for taking this picture and posting it on her blog as well.  Our mansion for the weekend was behind us...it was so hard to leave.  We will most likely make our fall caching trip back up to the cliff.  We better dedicate that trip to finding the rest of the Gibbers caches!!

T.F.T.C.(cabin)

Stay Tuned

Friday, May 14, 2010

I will not be posting again until Sunday night.  Ruth, my parents, and I are heading up to Minocqua, WI for an all weekend caching excursion.  We are heading up after I am done with work tonight.  We have a nice cozy cabin in the woods, and we are going up just to cache.  The truck is full of gas, the Lowrance, Nuvi, and I-pod are packed full of caches, and we are packed full of enthusiasm.  Stay tuned, as I most likely will have a few stories, and pictures to share!

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Caching...and Cache-Bag Additions

Monday, May 10, 2010

 Weekend Caching

We were able to do a small amount of geocaching this weekend, not much, but it was kind of nice to take it easy.  Its not always about doing as many as possible.

A new series was just published in our area before the weekend, and we decided to give that one a go.  It sure was nice to find some caches close to home once again, as a few new cachers have popped up, and are placing some nice new caches.  SWEET!!!  The name of the Series is "Town of Nepeuskun Series".  Nepeuskun is a local township just a few miles to the north of our town of Ripon.  This series was made to highlight a few of the historical areas around the area.  The series was very well done, and the cache pages include a great amount of history for each area.  If anyone is in the area make sure to hit this series...right after you hit our Mascoutin Valley Trail series of course.   Well done Skunk & Tarz!!!

 We ended up running into another group of cachers while finding one of the caches for the series.  Pictured here is: Sweech(Lower Left) Blondie BloodHound(Lower Right), and your authors standing behind them.  Not pictured is the talented photographer- Sparse Grey Hackle.  Thanks for taking the picture, it was nice running into you guys!

Here I am right after breaking the brand new cache!!  We were the second to find the series final, and I already broke it.....oh wait, you cant really break an ammo box.  See what I mean about the non-photogenic comment made earlier! 

Wee-ner mobile travel bug taken, and ready to move up-north this coming weekend.

Above the series we were able to throw another 6 caches in the mix while we were between the series caches.

Cache-Bag Additions

Ruth and I have always enjoyed trying to identify different plants, trees, and birds while out caching and hiking.  We will always make bets on what we think a particular plant or animal might be, but would have to wait to get home to settle the score.  We finally found a great set of small, color pictured books to take along with us.  Now when we have a bet placed we can settle the score immediately.  These books are great to have along, and we have pulled them out a few times already.  I would recommend anybody get a set like this for their local area, and you would be surprised how much you open them up.

The color pictures are great for quick identification.   Also the way they are listed-Trees By leaf type & Birds and flowers by color makes it very easy to find exactly what you are looking for. 

Here are the three books we have purchased so far, next we will be getting..Mammals, Insects, and Mushrooms.

I know a little about most trees from my woodworking experience, but there is so much more to know.

The birds I know the least about, this one gets allot of use!

Just a little piece of info I thought you fellow cachers would like! 

Please, please post a comment if you have any tips like this to make the caching experience even richer than it already is!!   Or, you could even post to the blog directly if you would like, I am always open to more authors than just myself!

Happy Mothers Day!!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

We would like to extend a HAPPY MOTHERS DAY shout out to all of you caching moms out there!  We hope you have a wonderful day, filled with family, and the things you love the most.  We will be spending the day with Kevin's parents, hanging out and cooking Mom(team OldyWeds) a great dinner.

Enjoy your special day, you have earned it!

Here is a picture of me with my Mom...this was taken while caching on our Mother/Son weekend.  Every year, my brother and I each dedicate a seperate weekend to just hang out with Mom.  Last year we went on an all caching weekend to up-north Wisconsin.  The year before that we went to the Lakewood/Mountain area with the ATV's to ride the trails all weekend!

Love ya Mom!!!

One Cache

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Last night we did go out and snag one cache to celebrate our one year caching anniversary.  Nice and close to home, and an easy walk, thankfully because there was a big storm on the horizon.  The storm happened to drop a few small tornadoes near the fox valley, nothing that hit the ground though.

 Here I am with the goods, right before dark, sky even darker because of the storm.

Barrel O' Monkeys Travel bug was picked up to be moved along.

The happy couple, she always has a great smile, and I...well don't.  I am not photogenic.  

We look forward to our next year of caching fun.

One Year Anniversary

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Today marks our one year anniversary of finding our first geocache.  It all started because one of our favorite up-north resorts mentioned geocaching in its photo blog, The BirchBark Blog.  We had read this blog for years, and always had seen their occasional posts about caching, so finally one night I decided to create an account, and the very next day we were on our first hunts.  The account was under the name "Stobber", we only had 7 finds under that name until we realized we needed a more plural name to represent us as a team.   That was when MuddyBottoms was born. 

I am hoping to go out and get an anniversary cache when Ruth gets home from work.

Here are a few pictures from our first cache, and some memorable ones we found along the way.

Our very first cache was a lengthy multi-cache called Rush Lake View.  Here I am plugging in the coordinates for the final at WP1.

Here is our first cache...a lock-n-lock hiding in its place!  Success! We were hooked.

Here we are after finding Fox Proposal Point.  This was our last cache as Stobber, and the one that inspired the name MuddyBottoms.  As we stood up from taking this exact picture the name popped into our heads, well because we had muddy bottoms.  This cache still resides on our top 5 list, an awesome cache that helped fuel our addiction.

Here I am standing next to our 100th milestone cache!  Kind of a spoiler, so I will not list the cache name.  But it was concealed underground, about 300' into a culvert, directly above us is home plate for the local little league field.  As we stood there wondering where a large container could be hidden on a baseball field, I instantly knew it was below us, and the adventure began.  Thank god we had the mag-lite along...the camera flash makes it seem comfy, but you literally could see nothing.  Awesome!

Here we are with our 200th cache, called Old School | Playin Hooky in a HOLE!

Here Ruth is signing our 300th log, this one was called Seldom Entered|Often Seen

Here we stand with our 400th cache.  This was called Walk On The Wild Side #4.  This was part of a series with 6 Walk on the wild side caches.  The final happens to be our next milestone.

As mentioned above this cache was a final location for a series, this was called Ryan's Rebus, and it happened to be our 500th cache.

So, there you have it, one year down, and hopefully many more to come.  We have really enjoyed caching, and have gotten so much more out of it than just signing logs and counting our caches.  We cannot say enough how appreciative we are to our fellow cachers for placing caches in such wonderful places we would have never seen if it were not for caching!