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.
I thought I would throw this out. Many cachers listen to Podcacher, the weekly podcast that is over 300 episodes online.
This week they highlighted a Travel bug from Utah that made it to the Superbowl. It was started by KC Bradey and the Travel bug Ben Roethlisberger 2005. There is also an add in the paper in Beaver County News.
It was a neat idea, and I it is a great story. Cachers worked to get the trackable on its way to the Superbowl.
This was a busy week in many ways. I think there were five or six events in the area, pretty much every day this week seemed to have one. I dont know how many I actually made it to. Three or four I think.
I had some scout activities, I worked late a few times. Went to a few events. I have started to try a streak. I did it some time ago and hit one hundred days, before it became a chore. This time I just want to grab one every day.
I am starting to grab a few here and there, the events have helped a lot. I have had to scramble two days, but I did make it. I started on February 1st, and the reason was simple. when i was looking at 
my stats I was missing a few. I was missing caches on a number of days, how to fill them in, well grab them of course. Well, then I was not sure what days, without a list with me, so I grabbed one every day. Some at lunch, some on the way home.
I am impressed with a few cachers that have reached a few years of getting one every day. Hats off to DrJay that is at 4 years (if I remember right), with over 1600 FTF's. An impressive feat.
This afternoon I went for a drive up to where my scouts are going camping this week. I though i would take a moment to check things out at the campsite, and of course to grab a few caches.
My daughter and I grabbed one while we were going around.
I stopped at thistle where I was told one of my caches had been missing. So I braved the horrible hop, skip and jump over to Tetanus shot. Only to see it right where I had left it hanging last summer.
I replaced my corner view up in Orem on Saturday, and grabbed another.
I plan on going through many of my caches this year and making sure they are ok. It has been a few years since some of them were put out. A few have been replaced, but I need to get out and look at many others.
This last weekend my family and I headed up to Midway Utah. 
We went up for a drive and had a good afternoon. We drove past Bridal Veil Falls. In the winter time it really looks cool.
The ice seeps through the rocks in many places and in the wintertime this looks fantastic.
One of the guys that I work with goes up here a few times a year or more to go ice climbing. It is in the shade (it faces north) and so when the temperature drops it is ideal for climbing.
I have never gone myself. The crippling fear of falling and killing myself tends to be a negative when it comes to actually climbing.
I had hopes of looking for some geocaches. I have found many of them through the canyon so I really did not intend to do much looking. But heading up the canyon I quickly realized that I was in trouble.
The snow was deeper and deeper. So unless something was going to be hanging in a tree there was not much of a chance that I would be able to find any of it.
When we got to midway we went to see the ice. someone had made an ice sculpture at the city hall. It took up a portion of the city block. It was really impressive, and there was a lot of ice.. I mean a lot of ice. We spent the better part of an hour walking around and seeing things.
No caches.. but a cool experience.
Today was the date of some new updates for those that were interested.
You can see below some of the filter options:
There are plenty of map options. I really like the topo option.
The two shots show some of the difference if you sit down and use the filters that are available.
The upper map is everything on. I then turned off the caches that I had found and that I own... then shut off puzzles and events. That leaves me with a good list of what I can go after, tonight on the way home.
You can also now click on the blue favorites ribbon in a search or on the cache page. It will tell you what percentage of premium members that have found the cache have listed it as a favorite. I would personally like that a sortable column, but this is an improvement.
It does make a bit of a difference The top ten and their %
| 48 - 8% |
 Bryce Canyon National Park- Inspiration Point by Team Family Affair (GCHQMX) |
| 45 | - 10% |
|
| 34 - 17% |
Angel's Landing by Iskander De Toquerville, Pipeline & Percible (GCG2ZP) |
| 32 - 12% |
 Delicate Arch by Lord Mot, Baby Girl and Littlefoot (GC177KB) |
| 31 - 4% |
Arches National Park- Balanced Rock by Team Family Affair (GCHQFJ) |
| 25 - 12% |
Zion Narrows by Coach Steve (GCZ5YD) |
| 24 - 9% |
Avalanche on Wall Street- Bryce Canyon NPS by LuvWahoo (GCZCME) |
| 23 - 9% |
Arches National Park - Delicate Arch by GunniGirl (GCJG49) |
| 22 - 10% |
|
| 21 | - 8% |
Temple Square Virtual Cache Tour by Scout Master (GCHZZ1) |
In fact.. the highest % with those over 10 votes
22%a three way tie
Galileo 400 by lesdubois and son (GC1TYC9)
EYE'S OF A UTAH GEOCACHER by MomtheCook,cashnhubby & Rubberpaws, ArticScarab (GC1FAM4)
Fat Man's Misery by Heidi, Jared, Autin (GCFE7E)
The most popular % wise (with those 7 votes or higher) In fact this was the only one over 30% with over seven votes.
78% - 7 votes
Pining for Evergreens by MOCKBA (GCJVJY)
You can list out your milestones. You can have the website generate them, or you can correct them yourself.
I think this is new. Now when you do a search, or go to someones profile there is an info column. In the past that column mentioned if it had geocoins, or travel bugs in it. Now it will also show the premium member icon, and an Icon for Needs Maintenance. So you will be able to see before you go if it needs maintenance. If I look for one that needs maintenance, I may take a few things (logs, container), or not go at all.
Enjoy
After being very busy for a while, I am taking the slow down to take a break. I have been taking a few pictures and spending some time trying to get a few things fixed. Time to put the grill back on the truck after a transmission line broke and I replaced it. So much fun, so busy, but I know next week is the end of the month and I will be busy again, so if I do not do anything now I won't do it for a while.
Above you see a picture I took the other night while leaving Harbor Freight. I was in the right place at the right time to see a blazing orange sunset reflecting off the mountain. I have had a few great experiences with them right now.
I decided to take the challenge on podcacher and I am doing a 365ish photo challenge. Try and take a photo every day of the year and post them on flickr. Some are nice, some are stupid, but I am trying. I also posted 12 photos that I took on Jan 12th.
I have thought about hosting a group that does something similar. I may pick a Saturday and do a 12 hours 24 photos. Take a picture every half hour for 12 hours. A photo journal.. it is just a thought.
This is another photo that I was in the right place. I actually was racing to the right place. I wanted to get all the power poles, buildings, and stuff like that out of the way.
I was sure the light was going to fail, or the color would go away before I found that perfect shot. It did face a lot, but it still turned out great.
Listings have been slow. RedHiker and I have published 50 listings in a week. With two of us: 25 each, and that works to about 3-4 each per day. As I thought about that more.. That is a lot of caches for the middle of winter.
I have caught a few pod casts this week, nothing great to mention, but I liked podcacher a lot, as usual. they have the best quality of all them. I even broke down and sent them money $3, but I am sure it adds up. I should do that, hmmmmm help offset the costs of my camera, and the website. That is too much though.
I am toying with the idea of making a geocoin this year, of my own. So we will see, maybe. If someone would buy it, I may consider it.
I have placed a few, and I am working on more that two dozen. With it being cold I am breaking down and doing some that are appropriate in the snow. That means that I can put together, plan and enjoy from the warmth of my home.
Please don't post the answer to these if you figure them out....
One was a spur of the moment at lunch. Poorjack's 230 day streak of fun & festive things GC2M1KC. Was an afterthought. I read on facebook that he woke up and realized that he had not gotten a cache the day before. So his caching streak was ended. I decided that I would list this to acknowledge his feat. It is no where near DrJays, but it is far better than myself. I hit one hundred and was so glad to reach it, that I stopped.
Mungos that Mussinate GC2M14G was tossed together a while ago. I finally got it together and listed it. It only took me months to make sure that it was right. A word of warning, you need to wait for spring thaw before you go after it. Though many people are looking at it, there are not many actually guessing. So we will see as spring goes on.
You can do Ether Cache GC2MB2E was finished last week. I have heard nothing on that one either, but with the snow I do not blame anyone. This was an interesting concept, and a trial. So we will see how it goes.
