Exploring Life

Geocaching, geocoins and the many roads of life.

Springville, utah, 84663

This is made up of stories from my caching and my reviewing.  It is a collection of those along with comments and thoughts.  Photos, and maps of some adventures and lists of some of the oldest caches.

Filtering by Category: Caching

Welcome Back Challenge Caches

May 25, 2016  /  Dick Nielson

Well they are back.  I have really liked challenge caches.  I know some of you do not, but I enjoy setting goals and working towards them.  They are something that I do not dive into a ton, but I do like to have something to work towards other than the next number.  I would rather go find 7-8 caches that are interesting, than grab 200 for the next milestone.

Changes

Must qualify

Now you actually have to meet the challenge before placing.  I am not a big fan of this, but it helps the reviewer know if it is just a crazy challenge or not.  Meh, I can live with it.

Checker

You have to have a checker from project-gc.com I am not a huge fan of project gc, but I don't hate it.  I wish they had allowed GSAK as well.  However I understand that they do not want people to have to download anything.  Hopefully new online checkers will arise. 

No more Alphabet Soup

One of the most notable changes is caches based on titles and GC codes will go away.  These made up a lot in my area.  They are easily changed, manipulated, caches are placed to foil them, owners try to not include caches placed after.  It just became an appeals mess, and a logistical nightmare if you were following many. I will miss them, but apparently many will not.

No more puzzles to find them.

They need to be at the coordinates, or have a visible waypoint.  Not a huge change, but new.  I hated the hidden ones, or the ones that you have to contact the owner.  They seem to never respond.

One Year Streak Limit

I did this locally anyway, but I know there is one for a three year streak out there somewhere.

No More Blackout Challenges

No more caches based on you getting every cache in an area.  Another one I hated.  One hard or missing cache and you were stuck.  It encouraged people to try and get those archived.

Find Dates

You cant start a challenge at a specific date. Every find must count.  That may leave out those that have found a lot. They may have found all the caches needed.

Summary

Well, thats it for how. I will see about more later after I get questions and think some more.

1 Comment
categories / Caching
tags / challenges

Meercat Caching

May 13, 2015  /  Dick Nielson

So I went caching with Meercat.  No not some long hariy weasel looking think from the Lion King.  But with the app.

Basically it is a streaming service.  Using it took a little planning to take caching.  Basically the app lets you stream a video from your phone.  People can send you messages and ask questions.  I decided I wanted to go caching.

Well the first thing was that I was not going to be able to use my phone to find caches.  Yep.  I was going to need to actually have another device. Problem solved, I have a tablet.  I loaded the local caches in offline mode, and off I went.

The tricks?  You need to stay in 4g coverage area.  I lost signal when I went into a little more remote of a location in the valley, so I had to head back.  However traveling around town was not bad.  I have a gps mount in my car.  It will also hold phones.  The camera on my phone is high enough I can stick it there and it shows a view out of my front window.  So I can see what is up, plus the people following me.

Another problem? Holding the phone.  As you are streaming you want to make sure that you show what you are doing.  Show the area you are hunting, under the trees, in the bushes.  Flashing around right to left, and showing the ground as you walk would most likely turn people off.  I had to hold my phone up. So I am sure I looked goofy.

Plus I was narrarating what I was doing. When I started to get watchers things got better.  They were asking questions.  Typical muggle stuff. "what are you doing?" "What are you looking for?" What is the best stuff you have found?"

I avoided questionable spots.  Though someone thought it was cool that there was a LPC. Most of what I found were micros in bushes.  However they were in the rural area and people were commenting that they thought utah looked like deserts, and Bryce canyon, not green fields.

I had three guys, one from Dallas, and another from somewhere in California that were going to run out and try it.  I pointed them to apps, and they were going to give it a shot.

Note: It is really tricky to hold a phone, open a cache container, take out the roll of paper, and sign it with one hand.  A friend might come in handy.  However the entire reason I did this is because I cache alone.  This gave me friends to talk with.

I think the others got more out of it than I did. It drained my battery pretty fast, about 45 minutes and it was done.  I was not charging it in any way.

It was fun. I will try it again sometime. I made a few new friends.  Right now it is just available on Android, it was pretty buggy, but it is getting much more stable.  It has been out a while on Iphones, so if you have one of those you are in luck.  A similar one is Periscope, but it is only on Iphone for a while.

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categories / Caching

Updated Oldest 100 caches in Utah

November 03, 2014  /  Dick Nielson

I updated my list of the 100 oldest caches in Utah.  These cover a time frame from August 15, 2000 to July 10 2001.  they are pretty scattered around the state.  The entire list can be found here. No noteworthy changes in the last year.  It seems to be time for me to update the Oldest active geocaches page as well.


View Oldest Caches in Utah in a larger map
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categories / Caching
tags / Oldest

Geysers, Goblins, and Bones

November 01, 2014  /  Dick Nielson

This was my favorite day of the trip.  Because we were going to see something new, something a little different and off the beaten path.  We dragged our way out of bed and started the day.  We were sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Green River and eating breakfast when I saw a guy in a ratty beard and wearing second hand clothes eating breakfast.  I kind of watched him out of the corner of my eye. 

Runoff from Crystal Geyser

Then I saw another guy come up to him and ask  "Didn't I see you on X"  (I actually do not remember the show).  Turns out this odd guy was some multi millionaire that just decided to head to Moab for the weekend.  He did not make it that far and was here for the night.   I guess I should not judge people quite so fast.

Virtual Morning

I had to scramble as we headed out of town.  I had forgotten to grab Green River Utah 1st Virtual
Utah is the home of Virtual Caches.  Utah has 255 virtual caches right now.  There are only two states that have more; Texas with 340, and California with 525.  With Califoria at twice our area, and Texas at four times, we have quite a few.  It is easier since about 2/3rds of our virtuals fall along a few roads. Highway 6, Highway 89, and Interstate 15.  I would bet about 75% of all the virtuals fall in those areas. 

Well we swung back into town to grab this one before heading our way south.  I had almost forgot, at the last moment.  Ok well, it was not the last moment, we would come back into town.  We headed south toward Crystal Geyser.

Crystal Geyser Traditional and EarthCache

We found our way out to Crystal Geyser.  This was on my list for a long time.  I love Geysers, so I made sure I looked for the road.  We headed out of town on a rough old road, and turned with the car down a dirt road. It was pretty nice for my car.  Just a ten mile drive.  

The geyser is actually not a hot water geyser like those that are in Yellowstone.  This geyser was actually made by a drilling company.  They drilled into a pocket of carbonated water.  So every so often, usually once per day, it erupts into a smallish eruption, and a number of smaller eruptions that just bubble up.

While we were there walking around, taking pictures, a group of people visiting from Germany actually stopped and visited the area.  I wondered if they were geocachers.  I talked to them a bit, but no luck, just tourists looking at the out of the way spots.  The bubbles started boiling and a small eruption took place.  Nothing dramatic, just a lot of foam, and gas coming out of the top.

Fossil Point

Eventually I walked up the nearby cache.  Crystal Geyser was actually published back in 2004.  So for 10 years the cache was there and it needed finding by me.  It was a little walk up the canyon.  I grabbed the cache and found some trash nearby.  Later when I was logging the cache I noticed that there was another container someone had found, and thought they had found the real cache.  So happily I cleaned up the fake cache. and we packed up the family and headed off.

Fossil Point

We headed around to another cache.  The cache was only 4 miles away, but it was over the Green River.  So it meant a long slow drive to the north, then over the river, then down to the south. The road actually got pretty hairy for the caching mobile.

Dinosaur ribs

The road had a few washouts, a few spots that I had to be pretty careful to get around in the car.  Eventually I made it to the other side.  The little two track road got pretty bad for the car.  Any other vehicle and it would have been nice and easy.

The view at the cache site was awesome.  The different banding in the rock layers there were just amazing. 

There was no cache here, I actually asked about putting an Earthcache at the site.  However the BLM was concerned.  I mentioned that people had been pilfering the fosssils there.  Sadly that is true. Many of the fossils have been chipped out of the rock, or broken up.  When I grabbed them I noticed that the stone is actually softer than the rock around it.  So people trying to steal the fossils would have ended up with a bunch of little pieces.

My kids and I looked around and found a ton of fossils there.   There were some nice backbone vertebrae.  They were about a foot across, and six inches high, and some ribs that would have ran three feet long. There were a large number of other fossils that seemed to be in cross section, so I could not actually tell what they were.

We spent a few hours here.   I thought of placing a cache, but I really do not know if I will ever be here again.  I took a bunch of photos, and we climbed over boulders that are as big as small rooms. It was a great afternoon, and a great time looking about.  This is one of those sites that I think is completely amazing.  We rarely get to see things like this outside of a museum so it was a treat.

Purple Pond

Purple Pond view

The nearest cache was on the route back. Purple Pond by UtahJean.  This was a great location out in the desert.  The view with the little pond was spectacular.   There were a few purple layers, sadly the photo does not do it justice. When it was placed she mentioned a muskrat nest, and it is still there after all these years.

Goblin Valley

It took us a year or more to get to goblin valley.  I have been down a lot of roads in central Utah, more than many people.  I grew up down here, however I have never been on this side of the swell, on this road.  This was completely breathtaking.  At the site were a few caches. The Goblin Valley EarthCache.  This took a little bit of work to find the few signs with the information.

State Park Cache in goblin Valley

Following that I headed out into the rocks by myself. I had a quest.  An ammo can placed out in the south end of the valley by the state park.  I had a few in the park that I wanted to grab, but this really was going to be one of my crowning caches from the weekend.

The hike was pretty easy.  In the few days before there had been some rain, and there were a number of gullies down in the bottom of the valley in the sand.  It was a great walk.  I also was following the footprints of a few other cachers that had headed out the day before.  So the hunt took me to the area, and the find under one of the goblins in a hole in the mud was great.

Goblin Valley

I did go look for another.  However this time being in the hills by myself was not a great idea.  I finally broke off the hunt when i decided that I might end up breaking my leg or something worse if I kept hunting.

Kids in the mud

There was one hill, pretty high.  On the top of it were two ladies painting.  Seemed kind of a ways away to drag your painting supplies.  Then I realized I was walking a mile through the desert looking for a metal box with a paper inside.  So not being one to throw stones I headed back.  The kids were playing in the mud and we headed to the car.

You know going on a trip through southern  Utah at this time of year was genius.  The temperature is usually over a 100 degree F in the summer.  So going at this time of year is the best time.  It had rained a few days before and I assumed that everything would be dry, but 70 degree temperatures made it a great trip and at great temps.

Drive Home

The drop from the Swell into the desert.

We took the drive straight home.  Well, kinda.  Kind of like DrJay drove from Utah to Minnesota by way of Texas. We headed up through the desert, then through I-70.  Then to Price and home.  Ok, so it was a good day. 

The rest of the way home was seven Earthcaches and two Virtuals.   It was a great day.  The view up Highway 70 is magnificent.  Many overlooks, looking over many sights that are impossible to find anywhere else in the USA. Oh, I should mention that I did get a FTF on the route.  Butte or mesa?  I made sure I stopped at this when I was in the neighborhood.

I am so lucky to live here, in this place.  Utah is amazing.  I hope everyone has a chance to see this place, this great country that we live in,



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categories / Caching
tags / Utag, Earthcaches, Virtuals

Wherigo to the Cito?

October 27, 2014  /  Dick Nielson

Friday night was the night.  I was actually running about town all day, and doing work around the yard.  I was looking at the event tonight and thought that I was going to be too busy.  The event was a Cito event at the park the Wherigo Halloween Party  When I was within about an hour of the event I finally determined that I was going to have the time and packed it up and headed out.

The event - introduction

I got there and and it was the typical event.  People were gathering, and some were in costumes (not me I had forgotten).  We sat around and talked, then passed out some bags to get trash and head out.  The event was hosted by Joephaw and Rannthaw.  They explained about the process of a wherigo, and stepped people through a wherigo they made to introduce the cache type.   On the way through the park we picked up trash (the Cito part of the event)  PeanutsParents arrived and he and I chatted and talked together while we did the cache. 

It was a simple cache with a few steps, and was to show people how they could be made.  They talked about some of the players and some of the builders you can use to build them.  It was pretty interesting.   I have made a half dozen, but I it is cool to learn something more.

The big Wherigo

Then it began.  After a few snacks and a few chats, we were heading off for the main event.  There were a few caches that were part of the Wherigo that we were working on.

There was four caches in the one wherigo cartridge.  PeanutsParents and I hung around for a while waiting for everyone.  We finally drove up to the starting point, and began the adventure.  The park is a few hundred yards wide, and a half mile long.   

Zone after Zone

This was a long cartridge, and big.  There are about 25 zones that you can travel to (and that is just a guess).  We ran into a large number of creatures, and people that you run into.  They give you items that will help you on your quest.  We started about 6 or 6:30 and we went for about three hours.  I think my kids would think it was great, and in the dark it added another dimention to the game. 

This was not something you would just casually try.  The cache needs to be done in the dark.  There are a number of questions that you will only find the answer in the dark.  It was fun, and if I have the chance it will have to bring my daughter and a friend or two so they can try it out. 

If you want to try something like this, try. It can be a lot of fun

1 Comment
categories / Caching
tags / Wherigo, Events

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