A Geocaching Photo Day.

Far too often we never look at the photos that people place on your caches.  You really never see them, you are not notified of them, and often they are kind of dumb.  I have a ton of Earthcaches with dozens upon dozens of photos of someone holding their GPS.  I don't ask them to take a photo of their GPS, or their forhead, or whatever, but I get them.  

Once and a while you get some cool photos.  Something that says.  "thanks for bringing me here"  Today I thought I would share some.  I was going through them today.  I wish there was a quick and nice button to hunt for photos on my caches alone.  I tried to stick to no more than one per cache. 

GC1CNE6 by Scipio43This is a little bit away from the cache, but a cool pictures

GC1CNEA by billdevCows out eating in the marsh

GC1EF22 by snownomiI loved this stamp he used.  He passed away a year or more ago.  I miss his smiling gace and logs.

GC1FQ25 by fam2goa picture from one of my Wherigo tours.

GC1TKKNSilverheelsA shot from an Earthcache. at Castle rock campground.  I will be honest, I edited the photos rotation a bit.

GC1XPWP drgw3128Another shot from a Wherigo, of one of my Pirate containers for a geocachie.  He was crazy enough to go hunt in the snow for it.

GC1XPYD Sierrawildflower & GeoHikerAnother ending to a Wherigo.  You have to have treasure at the end of a pirates treasure hunt.

GC1XWTR zacknmomI placed a cache at a simple walk to overlook.  It was when I took DK Titan out for a caching run.  You walk over the hill top, some 30 yards from the road, and this is what you see.

GC2BV56 toja7A nice wade to get to the other side.  They did not want to walk around.

GC2CPRQ cold1He always complains that I am out to kill him by placing caches.  This was possibly the closest I came to doing it.  Maybe next time.

GC2DG6M JacobBarlowAnother small hike.  I think it was only a few hundred yards.  See that point way over there.  I place a cache on that point as well.

Hope you enjoyed them.  I have another two groups of 10 with my favorite caching photos, on my caches to come.

Geocaching Reflections

I decided to take a moment thinking about my caching experiences.  I was thinking of the times I have spent, the places that I had seen.

New GPS

When I first go my gps I sat down and looked at my GPS and tried to figure out what to do.  I loaded a few things in and began my quest across the street. I remember wandering around the baseball diamonds lost.  I could not figure it out. I did not have any idea what I was doing.  I wandered over to another and found it on a guardrail near the river, Generic Cache

I was not hooked yet.  Though I wanted to find another. I went out to find  a Country Road caches placed by peanuts parents.   I was hooked at that point. It was amazing and fun.  I looked at the map and wanted to find another one.  There was this thing called a letterbox and a few weeks later I went to grab it. Stargate cache.  It was on someones porch and I drove past it a few days before I saw that no one was there and I went up to look.  It was my first ammo can.

Of my first twenty only six or seven are still active. And they were all good and enjoyable. 

Placing caches

I had only found those three at that point. It went outside my work and hid my first cache.   It was DrJays note that cheered me up, and made me want to place more.

FTF this morning at 8:20. Fell sleep early last night so I didn't see the listing until I got up this morning. I thought for sure someone would have found it by the time I got there, but I was happy to find an empty log. When I pulled up I thought, "Great, there are dozens of places a micro could be here." But if you use the hint and name literally you can narrow it down. Finally came up with it after several minutes of searching. Neat little container. TFTFTF

I had expected some time before it was found.  The concept of within a day was not in my mind.  The other I placed the same day had these reponses

By Baldin Eagle

Ouch. Stopped by while dropping my daughter off at school. Searched, got poked, but couldn't find anything. I guess I'll bring some gloves next time.

Then DrJay

FTF this afternoon at 2:50. If you pay attention to the hint, this is a pretty straightforward hide. It's a good hide, but fortunately, I've found a few like this one before. Coords are pretty good too. TFTFTF

Then followed by Baldin Eagle Again.  I did not

Aaarrgghh. I had my hand on it this morning, but didn't think anyone would have a hide like that. Now I know differently. I just took the hint wrong. Good hide. TFTC

It made me chuckle I have rosebushes in front of my house by the road and had hidden it in a fake sprinkler.  The hit was to stay away from the thorns.

The first few months

The first few months were a rush of scrambling for caches.  I dragged my friend out with me a few times. He was helping me in our scout troop.  I did not realize that Cold1 would go overboard as well.  As much as I thought that about him, he showed his dad, Superhooper55.  So now I stand at over 2300, cold one is at 3300, and superhooper is over 6000.   I have hidden 200 though, and cold1 is still a looser that has not hidden any. 

I visited Maple Canyon for the first time, and many other smaller parks and canyons that I had never seen.  I found quiet places in the middle of a city, that lets me find little corners to relax. I spent many lunch times going out in to the fields, on dirt roads, and driving around the city.  I relish those places.

Events

I headed to Whiting campground that fall for my first event. I wandered in and still remember some of the people that were there.  I met Jac0b and Dorkteam6 for the first time, I remember Fire Elemental as well, but not anyone else from my time there.

I ran across the idea of a flash mob, and decided to read up on it.  Though I did not listen at that point, but I found Podcachers site and decided to host a World Wide flash mob.  They picked the date, and I picked the park.  I hoped for 15-20 people to show up.  Little did I realize it was a BYU game that day and many people would show up.  About fifty.

But it was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. 

I havce enjoyed events since then, even though I have not taken a lot of time to put them on. I have many ideas for contests, dutch oven events, or other events, I never get around to them.  There are so many that I just do not get there. 

That was what made up most of my first year. It was all fun.  As winter rolled around I did less and less. There was not much desire for me to crawl through the snow.

Thanks

I remember all the people that I met and the things I had seen from that first year.  As spring came that first year, I was enjoying what was going on.  I was starting to search for caches again.  I think I had about 1000 after that first year.  I never went with others, that was a side note, and I did not go to many events because I did not know many people.  However I was having fun.  My Lord of the Ring series had been put out and I had received many great logs and great notes from them.

Logs

I love logs.  I love logs that show the adventure that others take.  Here are a few that I have loved from that first year.

Baldin Eagle

They have been very fun and exciting to search for. I have explored more of Utah Valley because of you. This cache was an adventure. I called Art when I saw Lord Stirling posting caches and gave him a heads up. He called me shortly after this one was posted and we quickly figured out the coordinates. He came over and we loaded up in my truck (for once) and headed up the canyon. We parked pretty close (within .15 miles) and looked around. All we could see was uphill, so up we went. Within the first 50 yards my shirt was covered in stickers. I don't know if I'll ever get them all off. Now they are stuck on my seat covers. Well, up and up and through scrub oak, then down some, then up some and finally there was the cache. I quickly opened the box, well, maybe not quickly and it was hard to open, but got it open and was happy to see that we were the first ones there. But then I realized that in the rush to find the cache first, I had forgotten to bring the log paper. So back down to the truck, taking the easy way this time and then back up to the cache, signed the log, left a travel bug and then Art and I had to fight for the geocoin. I have a bloody nose, fat lip and black eye now. Not really. Art flipped the coin and I guessed tails. And it was tails, so he graciously let me keep the coin. I told him that he could have the FTF coin. Great adventures and fun. I think my wife will be happy that I am not staying up all night waiting for caches to be posted now.

from the Magpies

At 3 in the morning my wife noticed this cache had been published (don't ask why she was up). There was no way I was going to go out in the middle of the night for it -- hats off to Art and Baldin' Eagle for their committment!
Still, we wanted to try to find it next - so I took a long lunch (a REALLY long lunch - hope my boss doesn't find out ) and off we went.
We tried to learn from the previous logs, but we didn't do a very good job because we went up and then down. LOL. Then we found the easier path too. I can't imagine doing this in the dark!
Carrying 2 kids up to the cache made it feel like a terrain of 5! We were pretty well out of breath when we found it - but it was worth it to be the second ones to find the cache!

Blowstuffup

One Ring to Rule Them All. One Ring to Find Them. One Ring to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them."

Like Frodo and Sam, we climbed our own Mount Doom - except we did it with three little kids - only to see on the way out that we could have just gone around the mountain and found it a lot easier. But where's the fun in that!?! The view from the top of the mountain was beautiful and made the hike up the steep hill totally worth it. Even the kids enjoyed it too. After I got them to stop whinning.

A weekend of geocaching, my family, and LOTR - throw in an Oreo and I have found heaven. ..... Each one was placed so well and I loved reading the extra info that was put on the log page. Such a genius - or maybe just a big nerd like me! Thank you so much for a great series and for adding a bit more intrigue to geocaching. It has been so much fun for all of us!

(logs edited)

It is the logs like this that make it all worth it.  Many times a drive by may not have an interesting log, and I do not expect it.   I never expect a great log, but I love to get them, and I love to see these pop up.  These logs made me want to keep finding and keep placing.   I have to clean them up this spring, so that is my new project.  I am going throught hem now.  It has been a few years. 

Thanks again for all those who encouraged me in the first year.

Update on 2011-04-03 20:56 by firennice

More on the way.

After a weekend of many many caches (over 200 Saturday) I am logging. 

I hate (actually despise) cut and paste, so I am trying to go through and leave notes.  I also forgot to take the 200 caches off my watch list.  I started doing that this afternoon.  Then I had to delete about 800-1000 emails from the cache list without loosing the important ones.

I will find a way to screw it all up.

So I am running slow, and getting around to fixing all these really slow.  But i am up to 1714 logging with lots lots more to go.  So more will be on the way about the trip, but not right now.