Geocaching, geocoins and the many roads of life.
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.
Soon you will see a new reviewer pop up in Utah.
Happily there will be another person to help with the load and share some of the fun. I will let that person introduce themselves and surprise you when they are ready. I gave a hint at the event today.. I will share with everyone now. They have an E in their caching name or their reviewer name. No it is not much, but I promised a hint, so there you go.
Geocaching had a surprise last week, when in the middle of the week Garmin announced the chirp.
Chirp is a tiny electronic beacon that would broadcast about 50 characters onto your Oregon, Dakota, or GPSmaps62.
Designed for use with geocaching, Groundspeak found out two days before it was released and was trying to find out more information about the product, and what they were to do with the new product. Friday when Garmin made its announcement we were discussing in the forums how to deal with this obviously commercial product.
We were asked to treat as a commercial product early on, to allow it but it could not be the only way to find the cache.
By the time they got back in the office Monday morning they posted a plan.
By the afternoon a new attribute appeared for caches that have a broadcast. 
There is still a bit of trying to figure out what to do and how to deal with it but there is a bit of a plan in place and groundspeak is still working to anchor how to deal with the different caches that may appear. It is not every day that a new interesting cache product appears. Many of us are still surprised that they had not discussed the matter with groundspeak, it seems surprising.
Some argued that it is open source. Apparently in response Garmin told another it is only to be worked with Garmin units and the chirp. So there will be no third party apps, at least for the foreseeable future on the product.
We will see what the future holds.
I have had so much to do in the last few week that I have not had a chance to do anything. Despite having the plan to sit down and pound out a few notes, thoughts, and ideas, I never had (took) the time to sit down.
I have had a few really good caching trips this last week. It includes a run through the new Sienfield road about 200 caches that run from Payson to Mona and back up over the mountain to link with the 
Shakespeare/McGyver road caches. I think that makes a string of nearly 400 caches in length. Peanuts Parents is the cacher that spent a lot of time getting it all put together. It took me about a week to get them all done, working them in with others so as not to delay them all.
I went with family and was going to place a few caches in the Richfield area, but never got around to it. But never really had time. I wanted to place one on the peak, but did not make it.
I came back from a break to find well over 100 caches for me to go through. Lots of new people with problems. So I do not know how many will actually be listed.
If you sent me an email I have not really gotten to it, likewise if you had problems with your cache it may be a little bit before I get back to it. I will work throught the new ones before I stop and really go through my email much until that point. So hold on and I should get through it today or tomorrow, and start dealing with my emails. I know if you have an issue that can be annoying, but bear with me.
There has been a bit of news this week, and a bit of fun.
I was busy most of the week. Scouts, church activities, and family took up most of my free evenings that I had. Things were going pretty well, even though they were very hectic.
Then Thursday night my family was off playing when I got off work.
Jacob and I decided to head out. With no particular place in mind, and with no specific goal. We headed up spanish fork canyon. Jacob wanted to look for a benchmark that someone had supposedly found and yet no one else could.
We were digging through the grass looking for a benchmark that was on the front steps of an old building that was torn down. (Yes we pretty much guessed it was not there and the person logged it anyway, but we wanted to check.)
We dug through the bushes when we heard a voice call out. Dorkteam6 was on his way back from central Utah and just happened to see Jacobs jeep on the side of the road.
Well we decided to head up Diamond Fork Canyon. Jacob had a cache that he wanted to place. We did get to that location and decided to follow the road up. So up we went. Higher and higher up the hill. I was impressed with how high it actually went. I have not been on many roads that gain that much altitude that fast.
Well all the way up we knew we were going to hide a cache or two. So much of the discussion was where, and what to name them.
Dorkteam6 at his finest. He does look better with a mask.We decided to place thee. I wanted to have a clue in each one that leads to a final, but they wanted to part of it. That was just as well we did not have many containers of size. And hiding a micro in the woods seems counterproductive.
We ended up with a name. Damn Barking Spiders. It was tricky and there was a lot of discussion on route. But that was the only thing that we could agree on. And only because we were hearing them in our travels. So it seemed to fit .
Fridat was the events. I got off a little early and headed over the the hot dog event. There were a few that were still there hanging around and talking. I talked for a while before heading off home to gather things for the campout. I had decided not to campout but I had decided to cook while I was there.
The group on the hike.. at least the start.
I grabbed everything too make a few cobblers (Peach and a Raspberry). Everyone asks for peach, but after I make the raspberry no one finishes the peach (it happened again here). We had a pretty good crowd that wandered in and out of the event most of the evening. From the new cacher and his mom (he was 9 if i remember right) to the older of us that still make it out.
The Route up.I stayed for quite a while. A number of people had scheduled campsites and were staying over. Slowly they filtered off as we discussed cacheing and the different people, caches, and things that everyone had seen or done.
They made fun of me. I am getting used to it. More than I used to. Slowly developing a thicker skin about it all. I had another reviewer state that he though some gave up because they could not develop a thick skin and toss aside all the garbage that is tossed at them, or not able to filter out the attacks from the honest critique. Hopefully I am gbetting better.
The next morning was the hike to Maple Mountain. I knew that I was not going to make it all the way. It was a given already. I knew time wise that I was not going to get that far before I had to be home.
In order to claim the hike you had to go 1/4 mile up the trail and get to the trailhead. Well we had a group of about 12 that made it to the trailhead. We talked for a bit and six of us started the hike up the mountain. LV2WV, the new cacher (9 years old) and his mother, and DrJay and I.
We worked our way up the mountain, going slow helping everyone find caches that needed them, and I placed one in a stretch that seemed very empty. Eventually Mr lv2wv stopped. They had been told it was a easy hike, (it was not). Though it was not very long it is rocky, uneven and really steep in a number of spots.An our new cacher and his mom stopped as well.
So then there were three.
Dr Jay in all his glory.We continued up the trail working our way through the heavy undergrowth. It gets to about four feet high and fills the trail. so we had to wade, and snake our way through.
We grabbed a few caches and a challenge cache and Mrs. LV2WV headed back down to get her husband, and head down the mountain.
DrJay and I continued on. Braving the heavy growth, flies, steep hills, rocks, stinging nettle, and any other number of hardships until we found his cache half way to the peak.
At that point we turned and headed back down the mountain. I would have gone up a little higher, but another steep spot chased me back.
On the way down we met goblincamper2004. We had not realized that he was heading up as well, and he was working up to a few of the caches that were on the way up. We pointed out that the next 1-2 were not very tricky to get to and he continued up while we headed down.
I have been up here a few times, and ruined a pair of boots, and a pair of sneakers. Well add another pair of sneakers to this trail. The holes finally got big enough, and a stitching blew that I had to go get another pair.
This has always been a fun hike, wether I had scouts, JedimasterAshlie, or DrJay and others this year.
Thanks everyone for helping me enjoy myself. I felt really good upon getting home. I did go to bed early, and now my legs are stiff, but I still feel good and had a good time.
For those of you who are stats Junkies I added the stats for Utah, and for myself. They are under the Title Navigation on the column to the left. These will give you an idea of how things are changing for me and the state. Or just be a great bunch of stats to pass the time staring at.
A few notes from the Utah Stats Section
A few notes from my stats
August and September were my heaviest months last year. Perhaps in July people were busy but not placing.
The archived # includes unpublished as well.