Found my 3400th cache yesterday and it was a pretty cool one too! What About BOB? is a cache that has been around for a while (Hidden: 9/4/2006) but for whatever reason or non-reason I had never looked for it. *SPOILER* It is a lock'n'lock container magnetized and hidden under a stairway/walkway going over the train tracks to the Bank One Ballbark (now changed to Chase Field after the merger between Chase and Bank One). If you find yourself in the downtown Phoenix area I would recommend both finding this cache as well as checking out a Diamondback's game even if you are not a baseball fan. The stadium is pretty cool. I was there on opening day covering the festivities for the Tucson Citizen and took my girl scout troop to watch a game once as well. Both times I was very impressed with the stadium and experience.
Another cache I enjoyed finding yesterday in downtown Phoenix was LANmarked. Although it is 45' off, the area is interesting and there are many different levels the cache could be plus it is a fairly busy area. The container is amusing too! I rounded out the run in the area with some other fairly standard urban hides: MES, a micro in a parking lot; Max's Hood, a regular sized container outside an apartment complex; and Rio Salado #1, a nice version of the standard electical plate cover made by a new and seemingly enthusiastic cacher in our area Mac Hammer. Thanks!
Earlier in the day I went for a hike in the Papago Park area and got a DNF off my list. Rocky Top Continued has a checkered past but was actually a nice hide. Last time we were there I did some bouldering looking for the cache whileTrizumi! spotted but obviously this was not necessary to make the find! I walked around a bit and checked out the nearby reservior which was completely drained. Very odd but interesting to see it with no water. I had heard there was good fishing to be had here, but not today ;)
Oh! and on Friday I left work for a bit and got two other caches in the area, All For Naught and Go Fish. I rarely if ever do "lunchtime" caches but the weather is so nice this time of year I might do it more often!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
First Sunday
Welp, today was the first Sunday caching day and I went to an event (Not Applicable) with cute kitty but Trizumi! declined and went caching by himself. Hmmmm... not really sure if the transition to Sunday caching is going to work out.
On our way to the event I got a call from good friends AZgeckogirl and AZcachemeister that their JEEP had broken down. I was happy to swing by and pick them up and off we went!
Had a great time at the event and scored two illegal alien geocoins from the infamous TEAM 360 himself. (Thanks Jeff!) Afterward cute kitty and I had some quality mother/daughter caching time on the way home. She learned how to pull up the cache descriptions on my Blackberry using the fabulous app Cacheberry and was thrilled to read the page and logs to me while I drove. We didn't have a route planned, just kinda drove around and found a few here and there. The hides were all pretty standard for the area but we did enjoy the unique water features at the Gilbert Water Tower Park.
I'm 11 caches shy of 3400 today. Back to work tomorrow.
On our way to the event I got a call from good friends AZgeckogirl and AZcachemeister that their JEEP had broken down. I was happy to swing by and pick them up and off we went!
Had a great time at the event and scored two illegal alien geocoins from the infamous TEAM 360 himself. (Thanks Jeff!) Afterward cute kitty and I had some quality mother/daughter caching time on the way home. She learned how to pull up the cache descriptions on my Blackberry using the fabulous app Cacheberry and was thrilled to read the page and logs to me while I drove. We didn't have a route planned, just kinda drove around and found a few here and there. The hides were all pretty standard for the area but we did enjoy the unique water features at the Gilbert Water Tower Park.
I'm 11 caches shy of 3400 today. Back to work tomorrow.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Weekend Plans
Hooray 2009!
Since I started caching with Trizumi! or for most of 2008, we have spent our Saturdays caching leaving Sunday as the day for chores.
This is in direct opposition with my own personal preference of getting stuff done on Saturdays and caching on Sundays. I mean really... there is no better time to cache than on Sunday morning in my opinion. If it's urbans you are after everyone is in bed or at service. Hiking? Then you are well rested to wake up and get to the trailhead at dawn. So I am pleased to say the new year brings on the transition to caching on Sundays. Whoo-hoo!
This Sunday brings a breakfast event, Not Applicable, which is unfortunately being held at The Fieldhouse. The Fieldhouse is probably a good place to toss a few drinks back while watching sports on the big screen - but breakfast? Ahh... no.
So my hopes are to get out early, cache a couple of hours in the east valley area, go to the event, mingle and get back out on the road for more caching. No firm plans with Trizumi! yet, so we shall see.
Since I started caching with Trizumi! or for most of 2008, we have spent our Saturdays caching leaving Sunday as the day for chores.
This is in direct opposition with my own personal preference of getting stuff done on Saturdays and caching on Sundays. I mean really... there is no better time to cache than on Sunday morning in my opinion. If it's urbans you are after everyone is in bed or at service. Hiking? Then you are well rested to wake up and get to the trailhead at dawn. So I am pleased to say the new year brings on the transition to caching on Sundays. Whoo-hoo!
This Sunday brings a breakfast event, Not Applicable, which is unfortunately being held at The Fieldhouse. The Fieldhouse is probably a good place to toss a few drinks back while watching sports on the big screen - but breakfast? Ahh... no.
So my hopes are to get out early, cache a couple of hours in the east valley area, go to the event, mingle and get back out on the road for more caching. No firm plans with Trizumi! yet, so we shall see.
Palm Springs Recap
Had a GREAT Day in the Desert last weekend in the Palm Springs area. Didn't end up getting together with the K.N.O.C.K. group for night caching but Trizumi! stepped up and did some "darktime" finds with me (thanks!).
We did meet some fantastic people at the event: Wheeler Dealers, the host and hostess; Terra Girl & The Devious Max Power; EllisTrust as well as other very friendly Californians. It kinda felt like when I moved to Los Angeles from small town Tucson in that as soon as I got there it was a sigh of relief to find out there were people like me. In Arizona everyone is aloof and looks down on finding urban caches. You must be only interested in being a hard-core hiker / backwoodsman to be a REAL cacher (even though it's a metropolitan area?). It's gauche to talk about numbers. But in Cali, it's all good - at least from an Arizonan's point of view!
Looking forward to attending more Palm Springs events!
We did meet some fantastic people at the event: Wheeler Dealers, the host and hostess; Terra Girl & The Devious Max Power; EllisTrust as well as other very friendly Californians. It kinda felt like when I moved to Los Angeles from small town Tucson in that as soon as I got there it was a sigh of relief to find out there were people like me. In Arizona everyone is aloof and looks down on finding urban caches. You must be only interested in being a hard-core hiker / backwoodsman to be a REAL cacher (even though it's a metropolitan area?). It's gauche to talk about numbers. But in Cali, it's all good - at least from an Arizonan's point of view!
Looking forward to attending more Palm Springs events!
Saturday, January 03, 2009
But even though I have not blogged - lots of geocaching stuff still going on!
Trizumi! and I placed two "challenge" caches:
Arizona Challenge of the Century - Traditional
and
Arizona Challenge of the Century - DNF
I had talked about putting these out months ago but never got around to it. Trizumi was concerned because a couple of other challenge type caches had been released recently and he felt the need to get a couple of them out right now. There are (at least) four more in the series yet to be published FTF, Multi, Mystery and Virtual. I hope to be putting those out in the next couple of weeks or so.
We placed the traveling cache at the base of Lookout Mountain (still has a nice view) but it has not been picked up yet.
Picking up cute kitty from the airport at 9:30 and heading directly to Palm Springs. My mecca of geocaching! We will do a couple of caches along the way, check in the hotel, maybe get a few more caches and then off to the event. GREAT day in the desert looks like it is going to have a huge turnout - 47 will attends! It is being held at the Stuft Pizza® Bar & Grill in La Quinta which looks very, very yummy.
We will be seeing some of our friends from Lake Havasu City and after the event we will be pulling out out flashlights for a night of caching with Southern California cachers. So fun!
Sunday will be spent on the Mission Trail series and on to Cabazon to cache and attend another event. This time a flash mob, KNOCKS VISIT WITH THE DINOSAURS, but there is a dinner afterwards at the Wheel Inn. I'm so excited!
More later - of course!
Trizumi! and I placed two "challenge" caches:
Arizona Challenge of the Century - Traditional
and
Arizona Challenge of the Century - DNF
I had talked about putting these out months ago but never got around to it. Trizumi was concerned because a couple of other challenge type caches had been released recently and he felt the need to get a couple of them out right now. There are (at least) four more in the series yet to be published FTF, Multi, Mystery and Virtual. I hope to be putting those out in the next couple of weeks or so.
We placed the traveling cache at the base of Lookout Mountain (still has a nice view) but it has not been picked up yet.
Picking up cute kitty from the airport at 9:30 and heading directly to Palm Springs. My mecca of geocaching! We will do a couple of caches along the way, check in the hotel, maybe get a few more caches and then off to the event. GREAT day in the desert looks like it is going to have a huge turnout - 47 will attends! It is being held at the Stuft Pizza® Bar & Grill in La Quinta which looks very, very yummy.
We will be seeing some of our friends from Lake Havasu City and after the event we will be pulling out out flashlights for a night of caching with Southern California cachers. So fun!
Sunday will be spent on the Mission Trail series and on to Cabazon to cache and attend another event. This time a flash mob, KNOCKS VISIT WITH THE DINOSAURS, but there is a dinner afterwards at the Wheel Inn. I'm so excited!
More later - of course!
Drama
I been slacking on the blogging this week as I have spent my online writing time over at the AZCachers forum. There is this local guy who organizes hikes to get some caches along a trail. But he also makes it a geocaching event and lists requirements of you must do this and you must do that to be allowed to post an "attended log" for the event. Well now our local reviewer has said nope to his latest event and he came on to the forum to complain that people had complained and shut down his fun.
Well.... I figured that was an open invitation to post my views about his exclusionary events.
Well.... I figured that was an open invitation to post my views about his exclusionary events.