I'LL TAKE ONE OF EACH, IF YOU PLEASE

A couple of posts down, I launched into something of a diatribe against guard rail caches (GRC's). They're nice, but... On Saturday BatikFreak10 (my dear sister) and I got out again, and that is what concerns todays story. Read on:

If the last trip was mostly GRC's, this trip was anything but, although we had a couple of those thrown into the mix just for fun.

Check out the types we found:
* An old virtual cache. Virtuals are no longer being developed, but the oldies but goodies remain active.
* A couple of caches that required a short hike to reach.
* An earthcache--a site that deals with some natural scene or event and you must answer questions via email in order to receive credit for the find.
* A couple of GRC's just for leavening in the mix.
* A cache at an historical site.
* Caches in containers ranging in size from a bison tube (think a hollow tube about the diameter of a pencil and an inch or so long) to a full sized ammo box.
* And just to keep us humble, a couple of DNF'S (did not finds).

BF10 and I hiked into this cache and found it had been refreshed with a complete make-over. New container, log, swag, the whole deal. The old cache had been left as a remembrance of things past.

The new cache in place.

Me with one of the few GRC's this trip, and I got a FTF (first time find) too!!

The Humpback Bridge wayside in VA. We took one of our two DNF's here. Oh well.

The Falling Springs Falls near Covington VA. Thomas Jefferson viewed these falls. This was our earthcache. Earthcaches are nice because they make you stop at those places you always wanted to stop at but never got around to.

You sometimes have to send in a photo of yourself and your GPS as additional proof that you actually visited the spot.

A cache was located near the entrance to this cave.

Finally, our old virtual cache. The larger than life creatures are the cache and you again need to answer a question or two in order to receive credit as having actually visited the site.

Pay no attention to that man in red. He definitely is not larger than life.






We had a good day. Lots of different cache types, lots of finds, a couple of DNF's, and warm weather. Time to go again.

MOTHERLESS CHILD

There's nothing much sadder than being an orphan and having no one to care for you, and so too, with an orphan geocache. I had visited this cache last fall and found it to be abandoned and left to fend for itself in the wilds. For whatever reason, the cache and its location quickly became a favorite of mine. And this winter I decided to do something about it.

First I checked in at Groundspeak, the world geocaching HQ and found that there are steps that can be taken in order to "adopt" a geocache, and yes, I was adjudged to be a fit and responsible member of society and one who would be eligible as an adopter.

Then things hit a snag, I could only adopt a cache by being granted permission from the original owner. And at this point Groundspeaks bureaucratic rules broke down. Check it out: The cache is abandoned and needs a protector. The owner has become unwilling, unable, deceased, moved, yaddaX3 and does not, for whatever reason, answer my emails in order to grant permission to adopt the cache.

So here's where things stood two days ago: There's this cache that needs a protector, there's this kind geocacher (me) who wants to take the cache under his wing and offer protection and guidance into the future, as well as keeping the cache clean and healthy (think new logs, stocking new swag, etc). Once again, I am met with bureaucratic crap in my life. Think bureaucrap and outrage on my part.

So what you see here is: Dan and Sally breaking the law!!

The two pictures show the evil lawbreakers holding the old and new caches. Sort of a before and after mug shot. All we lack are the pistols an Tommy guns and we'd be a reincarnation of Bonny and Clyde.

And no, I'm not listing any details of the cache am I?


I did it and I'm glad. I don't know about "machine gun" Sal.

THE THING ABOUT GUARDRAIL CACHES...

BatikFreak10 and I finally got to go GC'ing (Geocaching) yesterday for the first time this year. The weather was...ok, and that's about it. But it was time to make a start for the year.

The thing was all our caches, with two exceptions, were all guardrail caches. And therein lies something of a problem. While we all inevitably end up finding a lot of guardrail caches (hereafter GRC's), they are, to me at least, not very rewarding. Yeah yeah, yeah, you can really jack up your number of successful finds in a hurry but is what you are doing the best level of GC'ing you can do? Think about it, it doesn't take a whole lot of creativity to put a GRC in place, although I have seen a few that are really first rate--including one that was clever enough that it took me three visits to the site to find it (BF10 found it in less than 5 minutes, which says something I guess). Usually the cache is placed in the end braces and requires only a reach into a dark space possibly housing a swarm of angry wasps to find. More courage than creativity is required here.

Obviously, there are a lot more hide possibilities in the average guardrail than just the end braces when you consider all the nooks, angles, and crannies of the average guardrail, but most GC'ers seem to gravitate to using only the end braces to such an extent that it seems to have become a matter of jumping out of the car, running over to the curved end, reaching in and grabbing the cache. What fun is that?

Having said all that, when you consider the fact that there was still a surprising amount of snow on the ground, the GRC's provide us with a way to get out and do a little geocaching when it might not be able to search for more creative, and more difficult to find, caches.

Guardrail caches, love 'em or hate 'em or (in my case) tolerate 'em, they're still a part of the geocaching experience.

Here's BF10 modeling the latest in midwinter GC'ing fashion. She says this is her best Vanna White pose. And yes, she's standing at the end of yet another guardrail.

One of the better happenings during our outing was being able to present BatikFreak10 with her "Certificate of Achievement and Letter of Introduction" upon the finding of her 100th geocache.

During the presentation ceremonies, the backup orchestra (not shown) played Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March Number 3.

THEY'RE HERE!! THEY'RE HERE!!

My Pathtags, I mean.

Pathtags are yet another way to spend your money when Geocaching. Actually they are little iron disks about the size of a quarter, maybe a little smaller, and are a handy way of saying "I was here" by simply leaving one at the desired location or cache. They are one of those items you never heard of before and then find out there is an entire subculture of Pathtag enthusiasts busy designing, buying and trading them around the world. The little round white circle represents a hole in the Pathtag so that they can be hung on a display of some sort.

I had my tag professionally designed, yes there are even professional designers for these things--who knew. The design price was not at all expensive ($25.00) and the results much more pleasing than I could ever have done.

My trailname for Geocaching and a lot of other activities is "woodhick803", a name that harks back to the early days of logging & logging railroads in WV. A woodhick was a common, ordinary, everyday lumberjack. The 803 is used because many woodhicks came from countries like Poland, Russia, and Italy and therefore bore names largely unpronounceable to the average West Virginian. These foreign workers were simply issued numbered brass tags in order for the company time and record keepers to be able to record the work hours and days of each individual. Thus "woodhick803" to honor both the lumberjacks from an earlier day and my Russian grandfather, who, while not a woodhick but rather a coal miner, was probably issued more than one brass check tag during his life.

Pathtags, another way to enrich Geocaching, who knew.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING--SOMETIMES

Our neighbor, Pat R____ had entered the Geocaching world in late November 2010. She placed a cache (her first) at about the same time but because of various bureaucratic red tape (thou shalt place no cache without this sticker) the cache was not available until mid-December. Then it snowed...and, like some relatives I've had, it stayed, and stayed, and... you get the idea. Long story short, the cache was not accessible until the first of January.

Pat had asked that she accompany me on my hunt for her cache so that she could witness my antics, uhhh hunting methodology.

Finally, yesterday afternoon we set out for the big find. This would be one of those FTF's (first time finds) that Geocachers in general seem to enjoy--and truthfully I do too. Pat was excited, I was happy to be out, the dogs (Pat brought two) were excited because Pat was excited. Everybody was having a good time.

We followed the trail of breadcrumbs (the magic magenta line in my GPS) to the area where I began my search. I sent Pat and dogs away so that she would not betray the location and I began my usual careful and scientific examination of the suspected hide area. Pat said I looked like a bear digging for grubs.

Finally, after much overturning of frozen leaves and a prod or two by Pat I found the cache!! I was having trouble with the GPS updating properly so needed the very general hints Pat provided. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. You can't prove anything else.

But that's not the main point of my story. This is: On the way back to the car we passed a couple and small child heading down the trail. Like GC'ers everywhere Pat remarked that they were probably Geocachers too. We laughed and went home.

Imagine my laugh when a few hours later Pat forwarded a cache log report from Geocaching Central that her cache had been located just a very short time after I had found it. And then the kicker occurred, and Pat doesn't know this yet. I received a cache log report about the same time as Pat had received hers, from the same finder, reporting finding one of my caches. And the finder reported that he and wife were out with their daughter hoping to get the FTF on Pat's cache.

Sometimes timing really is everything.

GOING FOR A DRIVE ON A SNOWY DAY

I had been wanting to check on conditions on (or near) the Scenic Highway ever since we placed the multi-stage cache a few weeks ago (see post below). We have been having some frequent snow and the cache is located more than 2000 ft higher than here at home. I knew that the Scenic Highway can really get snowed in and this seemed like the time to go see what was what.

So off we went, over Droop Mountain and up into Pocahontas County and nary a snow plow to be seen. Droop was pretty much what we had expected, about 10-12 inches of snow on the ground as compared with the measly 4-6 here. A lot (well some actually) drifting over the road but nothing to cause concern unless you were a skier from North Carolina or some other point further south. Snowshoe Resort is open and things are going full blast there--but I digress.

When we turned west on Rt 39 things began to change in a hurry, and not for the better. By the time we were at the first cache (again, see below) change was clearly evident. Look at the Mon Forest sign in the below posting. Notice the base of the sign and the sprinkling of snow on the ground. Today the snow was level with the upper edge of the base-at least 12 or more inches deep. The little parking area was unusable!! And we still had a lot of altitude to gain before we reached the turn off to the Scenic Highway, and after that, even more altitude to gain.

Soon enough it was clear that we would not be driving out on the Scenic Highway at all. We reached the turn off to find at least 18 inches of snow on the ground and the highway impassible to all but the most dedicated high wheel 4X4 driver.

Our--my--goal had been reached though. With yet another 800ft or so of altitude to gain before reaching the hike to the cache, the cache was well and truly totally cut off from the rest of the world, and safely asleep until spring.

PLACING THE MULTI

I'd been working on a multi-stage cache the past couple of weeks and yesterday we got to finally put it in place, and it was probably our last chance to do so until next spring.

If you will scroll down to the previous post you will be able to see a couple of photos taken only a week ago and a very few miles from the cache location. Note that although it might be a little cool (35* or so) there is no snow cover. By yesterday things had changed.

First some clarification. A multi-stage cache is one that requires more than one find to complete. In it's simplest form, you need to find the first stage in order to be given the location coordinates of the final find. This is one of those. Multis can go on for several stages.

Yeah, the first stage is right over there. It's hidden just...well you know. Right here we're at about 3500ft, and we have more than another 500ft of climbing to go in order to reach the final cache resting spot.

On the way to the main hide. We're at 4100ft or so, there's 2" of snow on the ground and it's snowing lightly. Oh yes, it's 18*.

The main cache just minutes prior to being hidden. It will rest over there, you know where. The formidable container shown is a genuine military surplus ammo can, and it's the container of choice for those "serious" caches. It's really tough--heavy steel--probably totally bear proof and if not 100% water proof, it's highly water resistant--there's a heavy rubber gasket the top seals against. It's interesting too that this container is no more expensive than most Tupperware containers.


We (Joyce was there too) placed the container and got out of the forest. This weekend it will probably put down some serious snow in the area of the cache. I don't expect the first find until sometime next spring.