Record Breaking Adventure

We have been to Nevada many times and each time we see something a little different. The fall season has arrived and it brought with it the beautiful yellows--no reds, just yellows. The leaves of the few trees we passed were turning yellow as befitting the fall season, yet we found areas where the sage was in full bloom with yellow flowers as if it were spring. Of course the barren hills didn’t seem to change in color, but they have taken on a new look. The dark clouds that hovered on the first day cast shadows that made some of the hills appear to be darkened by fire and others to change shapes and degrees of brown. The desert, however, was still the desert.

For this trip, we (L3-Geo and Geo-Jeeper) were headed to Tonopah, to attend a geocaching weekend event. The route took us by areas that have been abandoned to time and/or changing importance. We drove through an Indian Reservation with boarded up buildings in various states of disrepair. We drove past abandoned mines and old buildings erected by those who dreamed of making their fortune in gold or silver. We drove through the town of Babbitt that was once a thriving military town supporting a nearby munitions depot. It is now a town of weed covered streets that lead nowhere and slabs of concrete that once held houses and a shopping mall. We drove passed monument after monument erected to memorialize those who fought in the various wars. We drove passed old munitions bunkers outside the town of Hawthorne, NV. And, when we finally arrived in Tonopah, we found a town determined to honor the war heroes, the mining industry, and the gamblers with a mixture of monuments, abandoned mining equipment displayed proudly, and the “required” Nevada casinos sprinkled throughout the town.

Our primary goal as we passed all of these sights was to find the geocaches safely hidden nearby. On our trip to Tonopah we found 30 caches. Once in Tonopah we were told that new caches had been released and instead of the few we were expecting to find, we now had over 60 to seek. Our excursion to find these caches took us on some very interesting back roads. I was recovering from a recent surgery. If my doctor (and I) had known where we would really be going, he might not have released me to go on the trip as willingly as he did. But not to worry; through most of the trip, I remained in the car or stood at the bottom of the rocky mountain watching while Larry, Cynthia & Mike reached the top and found the cache. I was the official photographer but I only managed to take a very few pictures.

We ended up with 58 caches that second day. That was a record breaker for us and for Geo-Jeeper. 22 of those 58 were FTFs (First To Finds). We covered a lot of territory around Tonopah. By late morning, the winds were incredibly strong and it was much colder than we really wanted it to be, but that didn’t stop us. At one point, Mike climbed the side of an old rickety windmill to reach a cache while several geocachers watched. Later in the day, Larry and Mike had to crawl their way down a rocky hill to avoid being blown away. What can I say! We are obsessed geocachers and nothing (almost) keeps us from obtaining our objective.

The event was fun. At dinner that night, we met geocachers from all around Nevada--a great many from the Las Vegas area. The organizers did an excellent job and we would love to put them in charge of the next GBES Rally. From our standpoint, the rally would be so much more fun if the emphasis was on families and geocaching rather than on navigating along narrow jeep trails on steep hillsides!

The event ended after a pancake breakfast cooked by the boy scouts and we headed home. Of course, we had 6 final caches to find as we headed out of Tonopah and a few more to grab along our route. We had to bounce our way on some rough roads for a couple of them, but I held my arms across my stomach and kept a smile on my face the whole way! We even managed to avoid getting stuck in the sand but it was close. I continued to leave the rock climbing to Larry, Mike, & Cynthia. By the time we returned to Reno, we had found 100 caches for the weekend! Wow! That really was a record breaking adventure!

DNA Anyone?

Today we decided to tackle the back roads again, but this time we concentrated on the east side of Hwy 65. We had a great time, but we did leave a lot of blood along the trail. Normally, we leave a little here and there, but today we left a lot almost from the beginning. Poor Larry (L1), he really suffered in our quest to reach 4700.

We started the day at 7:30 AM. Our first stop was just outside the Gladding, McBean Company in Lincoln, CA. The company started in 1875 with the making of clay sewer pipes and progressed into clay roofing tiles, terra cotta, floor tiles, garden pottery, and chimney tops. They have an excellent worldwide reputation. You can check out their history at the Gladding Mcbean website . They hold a pottery fair once a year that draws people from all over. There is also an Earthcache (GC14YWC--Feats of Clay) that will give you the story and an opportunity to log another cache. The cache we found was a quick and easy one located near a power tower on the back side of Gladding Mcbean.

Our second cache of the day (GC14MFF--“This Could be a Wash-Out) really was a wash-out and we had to record a DNF. We had hardly started looking before Larry, trying to hoist himself higher up a tree to peer in a hole, slipped and slid his arm down the bark . Instant blood. A little bit later he turned his head into a branch and again started with the blood. We had already looked high and low and far and wide and tangled with more than enough berry bushes. By this time, we had had enough! Time to call it quits! Maybe we will return, but maybe not. The location is not the safest place for someone who seems to be injury prone! We went through a lot of Kleenex and sani-wipes on this one.

The rest of the caches were easy in comparison. We did encounter more berry bushes and a few slippery slopes, but we were able to extract the caches with only a little blood letting. Along the way we passed through vineyards as well as fields with a few antique tractors that looked very similar to the tractors tipped by Mater and Lightening McQueen in the Cars movie. We also traveled along the Camp Far West Reservoir and couldn’t believe our eyes. The water level was so low we almost didn’t recognize it.

One of the most enjoyable caches was the one hidden under the willow tree. I love willow trees, but I also know the damage they can cause if they are too close to a water source (pipes, sewers, swimming pools, etc). This one was far away from anything it could harm and it was a beautiful tree. Once we were inside the branches, we were in our own little world. It was cool and peaceful and we could easily have stayed a while. We were on a mission, though, so we prodded the leaves on the ground with our walking stick and eventually heard the correct thump as the stick struck the metal container. We signed the log and reluctantly headed back to the sun and the heat of the day.

We found several of ”luc pockets’“ caches and, like yesterday, jotted down new coordinates for some of them to include in our log. She seems to have a problem identifying the correct coordinates when she places the cache. One of the caches was hung in a tree near a pasture. At one point, after searching a while, Larry suggested we ask the bull on the other side of the fence. I glanced over and here was a huge bull sitting on the ground staring at us with his big brown eyes. He hadn’t made a sound and I had not known he was even there. I’m afraid he wasn’t much help but I enjoyed staring at him. We eventually found the cache and noted the correct coordinates before heading on to the next cache.

The Labor Day weekend is the perfect time for geocaching. We decided that all the rest of the people were out of town, picnicking in the park, boating on the river, or keeping cool by visiting the various malls. We pretty much had the roads to ourselves and didn’t have to worry about being stealthy at most of the cache sites. Unfortunately, we were out in the heat and we were in full geocaching regalia so that part was not perfect. And, we were the ones watching for rattlesnakes as we approached rocks and tree hollows. I guess you win some and you lose some. We were happy with our choice.

We were home by 12:30 PM and had 22 caches under our belt. We made it to 4700 and beyond. Will we make it to 5000 before 2008? Of course we will---with a little determination and luck!

Backroads

Today we followed the back roads from our house to Wheatland. The logical route would have been up HWY 65 but we chose to take the longer route via the back roads which took us through parts of Placer, Sutter, and Yuba counties. We passed some interesting spots as we traveled roads we had not been on before. We passed open fields, creeks, canals, rivers, and lots and lots of walnut orchards. It was so cool and inviting in the shade under the walnut trees, I almost wished we had packed a blanket and a picnic lunch. I’m not sure what the owner of the orchard would have thought about it, but we would have enjoyed our lunch.

Most of the caches along the way were quick and easy caches. We found a lot of “luc pocket’s” caches. Fortunately, enough people had found them that she had corrected the coordinates, if necessary, before we even thought about doing the caches. A significant number of her caches have incorrect coordinates when they are first published and we have stopped rushing out to find them. We did have trouble with one, but a quick call for help gave us the needed information and we found it within minutes and then headed on down the road.

We were looking for something different about now and decided to look for one of the “RetiredProf’s” caches--“kool cop (GC15BRX)”. He is big on puzzles and this particular cache happened to be a puzzle cache. I solved the easy puzzle last night and we figured we had the Prof all figured out so we should find this one quickly. HUH! The coordinates zeroed out on the street but we could see a possible geo-trail and it was in a spot that could be considered typical of an RP cache location. HUH! Larry headed in to the mass of oleander bushes! Within seconds he was covered with ants! They were everywhere! He rushed out and we brushed off all the ants--we hoped. Back he went, using a little more caution. Within seconds he was covered with ants again! The ants were on the ground and on every branch and leaf of the plants. There was no escaping them. Fortunately, I had remained on the perimeter to give directions and I escaped the ant attack! We brushed him off again and circled the likely spot. There was no way in without crossing the lines established by the ant army and they were ready for a full out assault if one of us attempted to enter their territory! We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, called it quits, and headed off to the next cache.

We changed our route a couple of times and we were glad we did. Had we followed our original plan, we would have missed a couple of caches. The Topo map shows roads that no longer exist or are private roads! Fortunately, enough of the roads were still there and we managed to find the most efficient way to each of the caches. The trip was fun and we did get to see some different locations.

By lunchtime, we had 19 caches and we were in the town of Wheatland. We decided to try out one of the local eateries. Actually, it was the only one we could find open on a Sunday afternoon. We later discovered a Mexican restaurant that was open, but for the moment we had to settle for TJ’s Deli & Java. We placed our order for 2 BLTs and sat down at a nearby table. When we heard the counter person ask the other counter person what goes on a BLT, we started to get a little concerned. Neither one seemed to know. We provided the necessary information and they started making our sandwiches. Then we heard the counter person ask the other counter person if this was mayonnaise! At least the other person knew what mayonnaise looked like and she responded with a yes! Soon we could smell the pre-cooked bacon being heated in the microwave. Maybe we would get a sandwich sometime soon. The whole process was taking an awfully long time and we were the only ones in the place! Finally, we got our BLTs. They weren’t bad but it was the first time I have had the bacon all crumbled on the sandwich. Every time I took a bite, I lost half the pieces on the plate! I’m not sure this will be our lunch place of choice the next time we are in Wheatland. There is a new strip mall down the road and a Subway is scheduled to open soon. There is just a shell there now so it may be a while. Maybe it will be open the next time we are in town.

We found a few more caches on the “city” streets in and around Wheatland and finally headed for home. The home trip still involved the back roads but these were familiar back roads and we had found all the caches along the way, so it was a quick drive. We were home by 2:15 and had found 23 caches. We had three on the list that escaped us this time, but we will be back to try again. Maybe next time we will pick a cooler day so we can take a little more time to search! And maybe the ants will have found a new frontier to inhabit when we go back for the “kool cop” cache.

The Elk Grove Experience

It's been a while since I posted any geocaching adventures. Unfortunately, I still don't have any exciting adventures but I can tell you about our day spent geocaching in Elk Grove. Ann (Imawahl) and another caching friend, Don (Dstoye), went with us.

We left early this AM and returned home around 6:30 PM. We were a little shy of a 12 hour day, but we managed to find 44 caches. We covered the area of Elk Grove between the two major highways, I-5 and 99. We had moments of peace and quiet and moments of lots of activity. We enjoyed the peace and quiet in the parks we had all to ourselves. The rest of the world was staying indoors and out of the heat. We, on the other hand, were braving the heat and wandering around in the empty parks. The lots of activity occurred when we were finding caches in the shopping centers. We were almost run over by the people rushing from their cars to get into the air conditioned buildings. We were the ones sitting on the benches in the heat waiting for the mad rush of people to disappear into the buildings so we could quickly grab the cache that was hidden under the bench.

The four of us did enjoy a little time out of the heat. We managed to stake out a table at the BJ Brewery in Elk Grove and shared lunch and a pitcher of beer. We needed an afternoon nap after lunch, but we had to forgo the experience as we had lots more caches to find.

We finished in Elk Grove and started for home. But wait! There were two more caches in the Franklin-Hood area. We couldn't go home before finding them. OK, so they were 4 miles south (the wrong direction), but what's 4 miles when you are geocaching! Off we went, picked up the two caches and finally headed for home.

We were almost there when Don suggested we go get the new cache about 1 mile from our house. There was no way we could refuse! We signed the log and headed for home. The day was over, but we still had to post all our finds, take a shower, relax, and prepare for the next day. Who knows where we will be tomorrow but we will be geocaching!

Blitz that Fizzled!

We (Geo-Jeeper and L2--Larry is still in Utah) started the day intending to go for the numbers. We were sure we could get 50! Afterall, with all the end of the road caches, it should be an easy day.

It didn’t quite turn out that way. We started in Woodbridge to grab a couple we had missed on previous trips. We knew we would have a short walk, but it turned out to be longer than that because we missed the correct path the first time and had to back track a little. Fortunately, it was a nice trail through a pretty park so we didn’t mind too much.

Then we picked up all the miscellaneous caches in Lodi proper. We even managed to get a couple we had not found before. So we were feeling good and still had high hopes for the day.

Our route led us out into the country next. There was a little more distance between caches and we had a few more side trips off the main road. We made it all the way to Clements. We chose not to look for one of the caches in this area because it appeared to be in the middle of a field full of baled hay. That reeked of private property and we were not willing to risk “prosecution”. Fortunately, we found another one faster because a local resident gave us quick directions to a “future” development, the site for the cache. We think this may have been a future development in the past. Presently, it looked like a area of neglected streets and end of road signs.

We continued to make our way through the back roads. We were unable to located a couple of older caches--we are sure they are missing, but we managed to find 16 before heading back across town and beyond to the Panera Bread we had passed earlier in the day. The place was crowded, but we found a table and enjoyed our lunch. Too bad they didn’t list coordinates for the restrooms and the drink dispensing machines. We would have found them faster if they had.

After lunch, we elected to head south and pick up some old and new caches. We ended up in Oak Grove Park. It is a beautiful little park with a lake and paddle boat rides for the kids. Too bad we were there for other reasons. The shade, in particular, looked inviting.

We followed several of the trails and found several caches. Three of the caches contained clues that led to the final cache. We found the first two easily and headed for the third. The third was a problem. It was somewhere in the pile of logs. We actually found the correct spot almost immediately, but nothing was there. We were not about to give up so we kept looking in case the owner had outsmarted us. After searching for quite a while, a bike rider came up to us and said we didn’t have to look that hard--we were starting to lift up heavy logs. He turned out to be the owner. We pointed out where we thought it should be and declared it was missing. He agreed! It was supposed to be there and after he searched extensively himself, he agreed it was missing. We asked if he could give us the clue we needed to find the final and we asked if we could log this cache. He agreed we could log this cache, but he couldn’t give us the clue because he didn’t have his notes with him. In fact, he didn’t even have his GPS receiver so he couldn’t give us the final coordinates either. He did give us directions of a sort and we headed out. Fortunately, it was in the same park. He stayed behind to continue looking for his container. We were about halfway to the possible final when he came up from behind on his bike. There had been a fire through here on Wednesday and the area didn’t look the same to him. Then he told us that he had given us the wrong directions. He redeemed himself by riding ahead of us until he found something familiar and then he directed us to the tree--behind it was the cache! We thanked him for his help, signed the log and made the trek back to the car. Good thing he was so helpful. Who knows when we would have been back in this area again!

By the time we finished this cache, it was late. Cynthia and I decided we would head home and Mike was grateful. But wait, there are two other caches on the other side of the freeway. It won’t take long to get to them and they should be easy! Mike agreed and we drove practically right to them. But wait, there are two more just a little south of us on this same road. Again, Mike agreed to drive just a little further. One of these caches was out a bike path so we had to walk just a little bit. The other one was in a park and right where some group was having a large gathering. We had to pass on that one.

Now, we really were done for the day and we headed up I-5 toward home. The day wasn’t as productive has we had planned, but we were glad to find several caches that had been on our list for a while. And......we got in our 10,000 steps! See, even if you don’t meet your expectations, there is always something good about a day of geocaching.

Up Up and Away

Geocaching has given us many moments of new and exciting adventures. Yesterday was no exception.

Larry is out of town, but I didn’t let that stop me. I teamed up with Geo-Jeeper (Cynthia & Mike), dstoye (Don) and imawahl (Ann) and headed for the Oroville area. The weather was nice, the traffic was pretty light, and the whole day was loads of fun.

We started caching just a little ways north of Marysville. We wanted to pick up some of the caches in the outlying area that we had missed on previous trips! We found the caches and made good time the rest of the way. To our surprise, this was the first time Ann had ever been to Oroville. We introduced her to a lot of it! We were in town and out of town. We were crossing water ways and climbing rocks. We even climbed a slope to get a cache and then slid our way back down. It is always easier climbing up than down!

We saw some beautiful sights and I did take some pictures. The pictures were mostly of the rest of the group. At one point, I turned the camera on myself and got a self portrait! It wasn’t great, but at least I can prove I was there.

Lunch was particularly interesting. We arrived at the Thermalito South Forebay and discovered two helicopters and a whole slew of men in all the appropriate garb for making water rescues. Two men would stand on the “feet” on the outside of the helicopter and it would head out over the water. In the meantime, a boat was dropping off another man in the water--he was the “victim”. The chopper would fly in low and one of the men on the outside would drop off into the water near the “victim”. The man still on the chopper was there for backup. The chopper lowered a harness and the man in the water put it around the victim. The chopper would then haul the two men in the water to the shore. They did this several times while we ate our lunch and watched. We talked to them briefly and got the skinny on this annual rescue practice session. The things you get to experience while geocaching--amazing.

The afternoon was uneventful, but we ended the day with lots of caches. It was a blitz sort of day and we accomplished our mission.

Poor Baby!

Our Golden Retriever is sick! She has been sick for over a month. In fact, she has been sick since a couple of days after we returned from a trip that included a bumpy ride along the route of the 2007 GBES Rally (see story below) and a journey to Utah and Wyoming! She has been bed ridden in the garage since we discovered transmission fluid all over the garage floor!

Today was the first day she was able to venture out. Unfortunately, she needed help and we had to call on AAA to get her to the doctor! The doctor has not been available until now because of an important jeep jamboree during the month of July. I guess it is a good thing we didn't want to participate in this jamboree!

















We called AAA at 6:30 this morning. The tow truck arrived about 6:45. Wow--that was fast! We were impressed! I hopped behind the wheel of the Golden Retriever, turned the key ( not far enough to start), released the brake and put her in neutral.

Larry and the tow truck driver pushed her out of the garage while I steered her backwards onto the street. Then they moved to the rear and we guided her to the edge of the tow truck platform. The driver attached the tow chain and slowly inched her up on to the truck! It was a heart wrenching moment!

By now we had attracted a couple of the neighbors and we had to withstand the usual ribbing. It was a rough moment!

Larry signed all the "admission forms" and made arrangements to meet the driver and our Golden Retriever at Extreme Gear. We jumped in our Sequoia and followed our jeep down the road. We were sad, but we finally experienced something we had never experienced before. Instead of following GeoJeep down the road, we were following our very own Golden Retriever. Talk about a change of scenery!

We arrived at the jeep hospital and Larry backed GR down the ramp and into a parking space--sort of. He misjudged the arc of the curve at the end of the ramp and ended up a little "cattywompused" in the parking space. Oh well, that is the way she was going to have to stay!

She is still at the doctors. We aren't sure how long she will remain there. Hopefully, not too long! We may lose a few arms and legs to get her out, but she is worth it as she has taken us on many fine adventures! In the meantime, we will continue to do some urban caching and save the more adventuresome caches for sometime in the future!

I wish we had pictures!

Ann(imawahl), Larry, and I went geocaching on Sunday. It was quite a day, but we didn't get any pictures!

We started the day on our bikes. We met up with Ann's bike group (including 2 brand new geocachers) and rode to Woodcreek Oaks Golf Course for breakfast. The bike ride was over 12 miles and Ann and the other new cachers found a couple of caches both coming and going! We were pretty worn out by the time we got home!

But, the day did not end there. A new geocache had been released that morning and the owner just happened to be DStoye (a friend of ours). Naturally, we had to make the effort!

The cache (Don's Revenge) was described as an evil cache. Trust me, the word evil does not describe this cache! There were a total of 5 stages but we must have found several decoys along the way! Each stage was more devious than the last! At one point, we were prepared to give-up, but we chose to call Don for a hint. It turned out that the coordinates we had found at one of the stages were incorrect! He provided us with the correct information (and fixed the problem for other cachers) and we were off to the next stage.

I will avoid any specific hints on the different stages, but consider the various activities we performed to get to the final stage and the all important cache! We waded through a creek (Ann did this one), climbed a wall, walked through stickers, made a couple of round trips, crawled under bridges (felt like the military drill where you climb under things on your stomach and then switch to your back), reached in questionable places, battled spiderwebs, solved puzzles, tried to use x-ray vision (didn't work), wished we had more water to drink, out maneuvered some other geocachers, and touched who knows what! Of course, not all of this was necessary, but most of it was!!!

Just in case you were wondering, it took over 4 hours for us to find all the stages of Don's Revenge! We were pretty exhausted when we finished. We were anxious to head home for showers, but first we had to go to Starbucks to celebrate. We were the first people to find it and the prize was a Starbucks gift card! I'm not sure the people at Starbucks were excited to see us--we were pretty dirty--but we didn't care! Our frappuccinos were mighty tasty!

Some people would think we were weird! Some people would think we had actually lost our minds! Some people would just shake their heads and pretend they didn't know us. But if we get a nod and a smile from you, then we know.... We know you are as obsessed as we are and will be going for this cache sometime soon!

We had quite an adventure during those 4+ hours and we really loved it. I just wish we had pictures!

We Made It To Wyoming!

But wait! Wasn’t our destination Tremonton, Utah? It certainly was, and we got there but we just couldn't resist the temptation. We arrived in Tremonton on Monday after a lengthy drive (including geocaching) from Reno. We spent a good part of our visit chatting with family. We did take a break occasionally to run to the store and pick up a few geocaches along the way. We justify the geocaching by claiming it is our exercise for the day.





Now it was the 4th of July and we thought we would see some of our country Larry and I had never seen before. We left everyone else behind and headed out across Northern Utah. We had a destination in mind, but we didn’t know if we would get there or not. We did! We made it all the way to Wyoming and found a total of three caches. One at the border but on the Utah side and two in Wyoming within 12 miles of the border.

To get there we followed The Behive State Hiway 30 from Tremonton, through Logan, through the Cache National Forest (interesting but we didn’t find a cache here), along Bear Lake, passed the town of Pickelville, passed the Redevous State Recreation area, through the Old Laketown Canyon, to the border and a little beyond! It was an interesting trip. We were obviously not in a pretty part of Wyoming (by our definition) when we got there but we saw signs directing us to follow this road to Jackson, WY and on to Yellowstone. We were tempted but given the distance and the fact that we were not prepared to extend our trip, we were able to ignore the temptation.

We had accomplished our goal for the day so we headed back to Tremonton. We debated taking the longer road leading back to Salt Lake, UT to make a bigger circle, but we figured we had abandoned the family long enough. It was time to get back in case we wanted to see the 4th of July parade in nearby Riverside.

Breaker! Breaker! We've Got Ourselves a Convoy!

We just spent the last weekend (June 30 & July 1, 2007) running the 2007 GBES Rally Route. We covered a lot of territory and all I can remember was that is was “way rocky”! Actually, the first day was the rockiest and we spent so much time bouncing around, I couldn’t do a thing with the computer except hold on to it! So, check out Geojeepers blog to get the more exciting version! The second day was a little easier but it was much hotter and there was less shade than the first day so we spent a fair amount of time in the sun finding caches.

We started the first day at the parking lot at Albertsons in Carson City. We were joined by Geo-Jeeper (Cynthia & Mike), our illustrious leaders, and Geospyder (Jim & Marja), they had the middle spot, We brought up the rear. After filling up the cars with gas and ourselves with the traditional Starbucks, we headed out. It was 7:38 AM. It wasn’t too long before we picked up our first rally cache. Now we knew what we would be looking for at each stop for the remainder of the day. It was a piece of pvc pipe with caps at both ends with a piece of paper (log) inside. Sort of sounds like a pipe bomb. It sort of looked like a pipe bomb as well! Good thing we knew what it was! According to my pedometer, we took over 13000 steps during the day to find these caches. In reality, I think it was over 13000 bounces along the rocky roads.

During the day we saw some incredible views, drove down some pretty rocky and steep roads, enjoyed the company of our fellow travelers and hit 4300 caches. Geo-Jeeper hit a milestone of 4000 caches and Geospyder hit 1800 caches (he is the baby geocacher in the crowd). We were wishing for a champagne toast, but we settled for a beer at the restaurant at the end of the day. By the time we got home, we were all so tired we posted our finds for the day and were all in bed and asleep by 9:00PM. Guess we aren’t party animals any more!




For our second day, we again met in the Albertson’s parking lot. This time, Nevada Wolf (Teri) joined us. We had done most of the day rally caches yesterday and some of the night rally caches. Today we did the majority of the night rally and finished up with a couple of the day rally caches in Virginia City. It was fun for us because we had a change of scenery. Instead of GeoJeeps rear we saw the rears of two jeeps and a Toyota 4-Runner. We could tell exactly where the road would turn by watching the position of the three vehicles in front of us. Again, for the real story, check out Geojeepers blog. Mike said it so much better than I could at this point.

We ended the second day at Jim & Marja’s house for beer and pizza. We were all pretty exhausted so we enjoyed the rest before heading back to Cynthia & Mike’s house for a good nights sleep!

One of the things we like about geocaching is the people involved in this great “sport”. It is such fun to share your experiences with others and this was a great group--both days. It is also reassuring to know that if you get in trouble, others are there. We were on some very interesting roads and experienced some “hold your breath and pray” moments! We were glad the others were there!

A Day of New Beginnings

Today we took some new geocachers out to find some caches. We decided to walk the bike trail in various parts of Miner's Ravine and see what they could find. Hopefully, they would see several types of containers and hide locations that would prepare them for the great world of geocaching.

The new cachers are our neighbor (imawahl), her son (Skiritai72) and her three grandchildren (they were along for the fun). We let them follow their GPS receivers and look for a bit before we offered clues. OK, occasionally we whispered a few additional words in the ears of the grandkids so they could make the find. It was a learning opportunity for all of them and they did well!

It was a long hot day, but we were all having fun so we hardly noticed! Our last cache in the ravine was the Alice in Wonderland--Pool of Tears. It was the highlight of the day as it gave them an opportunity to cool off a bit. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a picture so they will each have to create their own image of the cache.

We ended the day at Starbucks courtesy of imawahl and Skiritai72--thank you very much.

Great fun! Maybe there will be at least two more geocachers in the world.

Tahoe in June

I can’t believe it, we actually left Cynthia & Mike’s house before our projected departure time of 7:00 AM. True, it was only by 20 minutes, but 20 minutes is 20 minutes. Besides, we had to make our traditional stop at Starbucks. By the time we had our coffee in hand, it was still before 7 and we were on our way to Tahoe. We headed out via the Mt. Rose Highway. Up, Up, Up we went. Round, round, round we went! It was a “steep” climb from roughly 4100 ft. to 8260 where we stopped for our first cache at the Mt. Rose Ski Resort. We actually got to 8889 before we crossed over the “Highest Year Round Sierra Pass” and headed down into the Tahoe area.

One of our first caches we found was just off the Cave Rock Trailhead, The walk to the cache was pleasant enough, but then we had to suspend ourselves on the side of a hill. Mike and I headed down hill, first to the trees and then to some rocks. We were “climbing” all over that tree as we were sure it was there somehwere. I eventually found the cache a little further down the trail. It was a fake rock next to a larger rock under a bush. I was precariously balanced while I signed the log with our geocaching names. There are lots of pictures of that one!

We spent a little time in a wooded location along a fire trail and found the cache decorated with the pieces of a pine cone. After finding the cache, we walked to a nearby park and watched a few minutes of a baseball game in progress. One ended and another started while we watched. We were taking a rest.





After that we headed to a nearby cemetery. It was an old cemetery and one of the neighbors came over to ask if we knew anyone residing in the cemetery. We told him no, that we just had an interest in old cemeteries. I took some pictures and we chatted a while to distract from what the others were doing. We had quite a lengthy discussion about cemeteries, genealogy, and the important Tahoe families that were buried here. Eventually, he got tired and returned to his house. Then we could get down to business and find the cache! He was a talkative sort!

At one point, we were on the edge of a fabulous meadow. It really was beautiful. Cynthia and I posed for Larry to take our picture while Mike grabbed the cache and signed the log. The neighbors were right there in their backyard so we had to be stealthy! We got a good picture out of the deal and all their attention was focused on us.




A little further along on Hwy 89, we came to the Promanade Walk. The Old Tallac Hotel used to be the site of a major resort at Lake Tahoe. There is an old walkway that connected this hotel with the Tallac Point House. The walkway was called the Promanade. The guests could walk between the two at night along this lighted path. We met another geocaching family (hawaiilovers) at the start of the path. We all walked along the path together. It was one of the sons who made the find. Nice family. This was such a nice walkway. We could imagine how much the guests enjoyed it in it’s day. Too bad they had to take down the resort. I guess the daughter was concerned about the impact on the environment even back then.

We stopped for lunch at a location familiar to Larry & Me--The parking lot by the Vikingsholm Trailhead. We have hiked the Rubicon Trail along the west side of the lake from this point to DL Bliss State Park so we were familiar with the area. We had a fantastic view of Emerald Bay from this location.. We set up a tailgate party in the parking lot as it was a little breezy to be eating from a point where we had a view. This way we could enjoy our sandwiches while we watched the other cars jockeying for a parking spot. I’m sure they were wising we would hurry up and eat.

Along our route we found several Mile Marker caches. A geocacher named “AppleJohn” has been working on placing a geocache near every mile marker around Lake Tahoe. He has now placed a cache near every marker but three along the westside of the Lake from South Tahoe to North Shore. We found some of them in interesting locations. They were not always right at the marker. Sometimes we had to follow trails off the road a bit and one of them was a multi which meant we had to find a couple of stages before we found the final location of the cache. At one point, I ended up at the bottom of a pile of rocks in a crevice. They didn’t snap the picture until I was already out from the depths!

All and all, it was another beautiful day. It was a little hazy and breezy at some locations, but we still had some beautiful views and ended up on some interesting trails. We left the lake at Kings Beach and headed back to Truckee. Once in Truckee, Cynthia & Mike headed back to Reno and we headed back to Roseville. Here’s to future fun-filled geocaching trips!

A Leisurely Day

We relaxed today. The “boys” got to sleep in while the “girls” rushed out to get a First To Find Cache. We pulled up and spotted two suspicious looking characters. They turned out to be AppleJohn (from the Tahoe area) and Randallh from Reno. AppleJohn had already signed the log and returned the cache to its hiding place. The rest of us finally got around to finding the cache after we chatted for a while. We always enjoy meeting fellow geocachers in our travels.

The “boys” were up and around when we returned. Once we were organized , we headed down to Carson City to see what we could find. Fortunately, we never know what we will find. In this case, we found the Carson City Sheriff’s Department Motorcycle driving competition. They had taken over one of the local parks and mapped out a course for the cyclists to follow. The participants were from all over--even Rancho Cordova and Sacramento. We were in the park to complete a multi-cache challenge. We completed our challenge and several of the officers had completed their course challenge by then. We don’t know the results, but we saw a great display of some pretty sharp motorcycle driving skills.



Our jeeps were at home and we were traveling in Geo-Jeeper’s Sequoia. We did have to try a dirt road and actually made it fairly close to a cache before we had to stop and walk the last 200+ feet. After that we drove up the Kingsbury Grade for a guard rail cache near the 6000 ft. elevation.
We had some beautiful views of the valley below, the mountains behind and the storm clouds forming over the mountains. Based on the cloud formations, we were expecting a thunderstorm later in the day .

We ended our day back up in Reno at Rancho San Rafael Park. We parked near the dog park and watched some of the dogs romping. The actual cache was up a walking path just outside the dog park. I think we were glad as it might have been difficult to explain why we were there without a dog. As it was, no one paid any attention to us. Then it was back to Cynthia & Mike’s house. The clouds were looking nastier but we didn’t care as we would be safe and sound watching the lightening and listening to the thunder from inside the house.

Northeastern California Here We Come

It's another day and another trip to find caches in various quads in Northeastern California. 7:00 AM was our (Cynthia, Mike, Larry and Me )projected start time. The first time we left it was 6:54 AM. The second and final time we left it was exactly 7:00 AM. I do believe this was the first time we ever actually started one of our trips on time! But, we had to make our first stop at Starbucks for our geocaching coffee fix. We do this every time, but we always forget to record it with a picture. This morning I asked a lady who was already late for something if she would take our picture. She did! And here it is for all to see!

We had a long drive to the first cache. We were following 395 when we came to the Honey Lake rest stop. It was a pretty nice rest stop! We had a beautiful view of Honey Lake, plenty of picnic tables and very nice facilities. Too bad we didn’t get to enjoy much of the surroundings, but, as usual, we were on another mission and had to keep going. Honey Lake is an interesting lake and it is pretty large. At one point I asked Cynthia & Mike if this was a good lake for recreation. Just as they said no, I knew why. There was a cow standing ankle deep quite a ways out in the lake. It may be big, but it certainly isn’t deep!

The first few caches were out in the middle of nowhere, but I guess nowhere is relative. We picked up the cache for Quad 51(GCJZ9P) right near one those infamous shoe trees. Good thing we didn’t have to check in each shoe! Then we headed for Quad 50(GCWVCC). We were driving along this dirt road and suddenly there is a man on a bicycle coming towards us. He must be lost. Where did he come from? Where was he going? I guess we will never know as he didn’t stop and neither did we.

Maybe if we asked one of the cows that approached us eyeball to eyeball along the road she could tell us. A couple of them “spoke” to us as they crossed the road in front of us, but Larry’s cow translating skills were a little rusty. I guess we will never know the answers to any of our questions.

10 minutes. That is how long we were expected to wait, according to the flag lady! There was construction up ahead and we were stopped. These construction people just didn’t realize that we didn’t have time to wait or waste! So ......we sat. Fortunately, not very long. Our forced rest period was only about 5 minutes and then we traveled through the construction area. It looked like they were widening and rerouting the road. 395 will be looking pretty spiffy one of these day--assuming they ever finish the construction.

We were Likely in the Pit at one point and if we had been prepared, we could have golfed along the way to Quad 41(GCP1MX). We passed through the town of Likely and then followed the South Fork of the Pit River for a while. According to signs we passed along the way, there was a golf course around here somewhere. We never did find that, but we saw some pretty countryside on our way to the cache. At the cache location, we were surrounded by swallows. They were building nests under the bridge where the road crossed the river.

We were in Alturas at lunch time so, after finding a couple of caches for quad 40(GCK8GN & GCWBDE), we stopped along the road beside the local cemetery and ate out lunch. How many people do you know that picnic in a cemetery. While we were enjoying our lunch, a robin flew in to have lunch with us. He pulled a juicy worm out of the ground and proceeded to munch it down. For dessert, Mike & Larry feasted on Cynthia’s homemade oatmeal cookies--much better than the robin’s lunch.

The Oregon border was our last stop along Hwy 395. We had two caches to find there. One gave us California Quad 31(GCCB37) and one was supposed to give us an Oregon quad (just in case). As we drove up Hwy 395, we were paralleling Goose Lake. It actually looked kind of muddy as we drove along. The clouds that were forming could have been casting shadows on the lake, but Cynthia said the description of one of the caches indicates the lake is only 8 feet deep. Larry thought the color was from all the goose “poop” while Mike thought it was in the direct flight path of all migrating birds. Since more clouds were forming, Mike was hoping for a thunderstorm, while the rest of us were hoping to find the caches before the thunderstorm started.

We traveled along Stateline Lane to get the Oregon cache. We were actually traveling between/along the Oregon/California border. As we headed to the cache, we were in Oregon. As we returned from the cache, we were in California! Unfortunately, we didn’t find the cache. We all looked carefully. but no luck. The last people who tried didn’t find it either so I guess it really was missing.

You know, we do have such interesting discussions on these trips the four of us take. Today Mike asked Larry what the difference was between a rancher and a farmer. He answered that a farmer raised crops and a rancher raised animals. We all joined the discussion and eventually agreed. A little further down the road, Larry raised the issue again. He said he had been pondering the answer for some time. Maybe we didn’t have the correct answer. After-all, Old MacDonald had a farm and on that farm he had a cow, a chicken, a pig, etc. So we got into a more lengthy discussion. We referred back in history and all our examples supported our theory. Then Mike asked if maybe it was a regional thing. Maybe farmers were more an eastern concept and ranchers were more a western concept. Interesting. We shall have to continue to ponder until we resolve this burning issue. We never lack for fascinating discussions!

Our next stop was Big Sage Reservoir for Quad 30(GC!0F2A)! And, guess what! it started to sprinkle as we headed up the road to the Reservoir. The sky was getting darker! When we walked down the path to the cache we could hear the thunder in the distance. We hadn’t see any lightening yet, but we didn’t stick around too long just in case. We did see lots of virga, but very little rain was actually getting to the ground. It wasn’t until Larry frightened us all when he yelled “WOAHHHHHHH, that one of us actually witnessed a streak of lightening. Mike missed it but we were all eagle eyed after that. I believe Larry saw the lightening just as we were passing the town of Fletcher. We didn’t see much of the town but maybe the lightening was a sign of something!

There it was! The rain came tumbling down! And those were pretty big drops! It was almost over before it began. The wind was blowing and we got bursts of rain at first and then lots of rain--maybe even some hail. The temperature dropped over 20 degrees (from 74º to 55º) in a matter of minutes and the noise level of the rain hitting the windshield was incredible. Mike figured this was the height of the trip. We were hoping it stopped before we had to look for the next cache! We just needed to get one more cache for one more quad and we were done for the day.

The rain stopped just as we arrived in the town of Adin. We pulled over into the parking lot of a park outside the county library and walked just a few feet to pick up the last Quad (39) and the last cache (GCK9WP) of the day. It took us a few minutes of searching before Mike suggested we look there. Sure enough, there it was! Once we had the cache properly logged we had to make the big decision: which road do we take home? We let Mike decide. It wasn’t long before we were on a dirt road connecting the town of Adin with the town of Madeline. We stopped once along the way in Holbrook Canyon to take a picture of the field of yellow flowers, but once we reached Madeline, we found hwy 395 and headed for home and our glass of wine! We saw a lot of distant lightening along the way home. Another fun day!

A Krajovic Kind of Day

We are on the road again. This time to pick up the quads in the Northeastern part of California for the California Delorme Challenge. Today, however, we were driving at a leisurely pace to Reno. We figured there would be plenty of time to find some geocaches along the way. Little did we know that it would also be a Krajovic day for us. (Krajovic is the term we use to describe anything we do for the very first time--sort of a virgin experience).

We meandered on some of the back roads along I-80. We were on such roads as Ophir Road, Christian Valley Road, Rollins Lake Road, Norton Grade Road and several others. So far, the only familiar one was Ophir Road--I just love the name. At one point we were waiting to get back on the road. The traffic was pretty heavy this time of morning (all the commuters) and finally Larry said: “Ophir heavens sake! We may be here forever!” We just looked at each other. Neither could believe he said that! After we laughed a little, there was a break and we were back on the road again.

The Halsey Forebay was located out Christian Valley Road. The name rang a bell with me, but who knows why. Larry had never been here before. Of course, we were looking for a cache. It happened to be in the middle of a grate walkway that spanned across the fast rushing water canal. As long as we didn’t look down, we were fine. Even a slightly downward glance brought with it a feeling of Vertigo. Good thing there was a chain link fence on either side of the grate to use as a hand grip. Retrieving the cache was “fun” since it was suspended from the side of this walkway. Phew--that one’s done!

Rollins Lake was a new experience for both of us. We didn’t have much time to admire it, but it looked like a nice quiet place for a picnic. It was the shortcut back to the freeway that was the real experience. It was a twisty-turny road and if you are inclined to get carsick--watch out! Fortunately, we are both OK on that front! It really truly was a shortcut and took less time, but we were glad to see the freeway.

Just a little ways off the Cisco Grove exit, we found a new little park. Not much here yet, but plenty of parking if a traveler needed a break from the freeway. And did you know there is a residential community in Soda Springs? We didn’t know that until today. It is a mixture of old and new and there are some neat little lakes in the area. We found the Volunteer Firemen’s Headquarters and those were some pretty fancy digs! They had a huge bright green water tower near the building and the cache was at the base of some trees behind the tower. As we left we were stopped by some local residents who wanted to know if we owned some of the nearby land. They were digging a ditch to bring in a water pipeline and were looking for neighbors to share the cost. Not sure whether that was a good thing (we didn’t have to pay), or a bad thing (we didn’t own any of this beautiful land).

What a difference a few weeks make. It was the beginning of the month when we came through here the last time. We stopped at this rest stop then and everything was covered with snow. We stopped here again and there isn’t a patch of snow anywhere. Amazing!

The town of Truckee is an interesting place. We have been here before, but not to the Veterans Memorial Building and not to a local old cemetery We were looking for a multi-cache and the first stage took us to the Rolling Stone monument alongside the Veterans Building. The second stage was in old cemetery. These cemeteries always fascinate us. We always stop to read the headstones as the older ones include so much more information than the newer ones. Most of those from the 1800’s or the very early 1900’s include the country of origin--that is the type of information genealogists love! This particular cemetery had a lot of old wooden crosses of different “shapes” and sizes as well as the regular headstones. Unfortunately, the wooden crosses didn’t have any information on them.

We had a quick (and not particularly good) lunch in Truckee. We had to hurry as we could see the thunderclouds starting to form on the horizon. It didn’t take long for the first sprinkles to hit. We had just replaced the “Floristan Sentinal” cache when the big drops fell. I guess it was time to leave the Sierras behind and find a drier location. We were not encouraged as some of those thunderclouds were on the Nevada side. At that point we had our fingers crossed!

The rain held off and we managed to pick up a few more caches before arriving at Cynthia & Mike’s house. We figured now we could sit back and relax, but first..... Only one more cache and that was on the way to dinner. Now we get to relax. Tomorrow is another day...

Dreaming of a Sourth Carolina Xmas!

That's the name of our new travel bug that we started on its way this morning.

We recently learned that the the sister and brother-in-law of one of our very good friends are fellow geocachers. They go by the geo-name of "canuman" and they live in South Carolina. They recently sent a travel bug on it's way to California, specifically, Roseville, CA. If it gets here, we will take our friend over to find and retrieve it (she is already beginning to show interest in geocaching).

We could just sit back and watch it's progress, or, we could start one ourselves and head it towards South Carolina. We, being obsessed geocachers, decided to send one on its way and to take it one step further, we decided to have a race and see which TB makes it to its destination first. I could even take it one step further and say that the owner of the losing TB has to personally visit the final destination. That wouldn't be fair, though, because Ann really wants Sharon & Ron to come out here for a visit so we can meet them. If we go back there, she would miss all the fun. So, I guess, we will just have to settle with a hearty congratulations to the owner of the winning TB.

We will post the progress of these two bugs on this blog periodically.

If you want to check them out, here are the links:

Dreaming of a South Carolina Xmas (TBKH1B)

California-bound 'Babe' (TB11EZQ)

What a Trip!!!

This is the route we took over the last three days. We headed out baseline/Riego, down 99, down 80, across 12, up 37, out 20, up 101, up 199, across 62/140, down 39/139, across 161, down 97, up 5, out 3, back 3, down 5, out 89, across 299, down 5, out 36, back on 36, down 5, up 99, across Riego/baseline and home! We traveled over 2000 miles, found bunches of caches in 5 counties and 20 quads, and traveled through two states. We truly were on a mission and we were happy with the end results. Click on the map to get a better view!

South to Home--sort of!

We were so close, we just had to make the trip north to Yreka to pick up a quad for Cynthia & Mike. Sure it was in the opposite direction, but what the hey, we were so close. We didn’t count on running into rain, but we did. Fortunately, it was just sprinkles and stopped as fast as it started--several times. The unfortunate part was that we looked for two caches without success before we actually found one! We did have a nice view of the reservoir while we searched for one.

On to quad 35! We headed down Hwy 3. We used to travel on the other end of 3 when my parents owned a house in Trinity Center. The trip brought back memories of the time we spent in Trinity. On our journey we passed through the town of Fort Jones. We were curious about whether a fort really existed here at some point so I checked it out on the internet. According to Wikipedia: “Ultimately, the town of Fort Jones takes its name from the frontier outpost once located less than a mile to the south. From the time of the earliest communal settlement, circa 1850, the town was referred to as Scottsburg, then Scottville, and in 1852 the townsite was named in honor of Mr. O. C. Wheelock who, with his partners, established the first commercial enterprise in the upstart village. In 1854 a post office was established in the town by the name of Ottitiewa, the Indian name for the Scott River branch of the Shasta tribe, and the name held for some six more years until 1860 when local citizens successfully petitioned the postal department to change the name to Fort Jones in honor of the nearby military outpost”.

While on this drive we were also traveling through the Marble Mountain Range. According to the internet: “Established as a primitive area in 1931, the Marble Mountain area received Wilderness designation in 1953, establishing it as one of the earliest Wilderness areas in California. The area where the Marble Mountains now exist was once part of a the flat bottom of an ancient, shallow ocean. Millions of years ago, violent volcanic upheavings and the erosive cutting action of rivers and glaciers combined to form the Marble Mountains. Marble Mountain itself is composed primarily of prehistoric marine invertebrates. Almost all the lakes of the Marble Mountains were formed by ancient glacial activity. The colors of this wilderness area, from the majestic white of Marble Mountain, to the lush green of Morehouse Meadow, to the deep blue of Cliff Lake, interspersed with various hues of sheer rock cliffs and densely timbered mountainsides, provides a spectacle not soon to be forgotten”. It truly was a lovely drive. I think it was well worth the extra time it took! The views were spectacular! And, yes, we found the cache!

Based on the description of the cache, we were expecting to climb down the hill. The description included warnings about watching our steps and it was a long way down. Logs on the cache page talked about the way to the cache being slippery and precarious. We parked in a pull out along the side of the road. Larry & Mike actually headed up a step precarious slippery rocky slope while Cynthia & I remained below to summon help if necessary. When they got to the top, they discovered a parking area accessible from a road a little further up the road from where we parked the car. Cynthia and I got back in the car and drove up to the top to offer them a ride down. The cache was just a couple of feet down the slope from the parking area! I repeat: the views were spectacular.

Now we had to retrace our steps at least part way. When we left this cache, we were traveling on the Cecilville-Callahan Road. When we reached Callahan we “switched” to the Gazelle-Callahan Road. We traveled through the hills, through meadows, around some hairpin turns, and saw some beautiful sites. We traveled on Old Hwy 99 as we left the town of Gazelle behind and headed back to I-5. It was a beautiful time of the year to be traveling through this area.

Lunch was quite an experience. We spent a lot of time waiting. We ate at the Black Bear Restaurant in Mt. Shasta. That was our first mistake. Since it was Sunday, everyone in town plus all the travelers were eating at the Black Bear. We had to wait to be seated, we had to wait for our server, and we had to wait for our lunch--a long time. Once we were served, the food was good, but the whole process put us behind schedule. Mike said he would have to drive faster if we wanted to do everything we had hoped to do today! We didn’t argue with him.

We headed over to McCloud on Hwy 89 for a cache and a quad. There were two more close by (depending on your definition) a little further up the road so we kept going on 89. We stopped for a cache at a Mt. Shasta vista point. The mountain was partially covered with snow and presented a pretty picture. The issue was the the cloud cover that partially obscured the top of Mt. Shasta. With the right camera, it can still be spectacular but we had to settle for using our happy snap.

Now we were faced with the burning question: Do we continue on 89 to pick up another quad or do we return to I-5 and head for “home”? We asked our driver (Mike) his opinion and he basically said he didn’t care (my words, not his). Cynthia and I looked at each other and agreed that he was committing to the trip so we jointly gave the go ahead. Larry was eager to go along with our decision (my words, not his). It was only 30 miles away as the crow flies so off we went.

It’s a good thing we decided to go! We found ourselves right in the middle of a cattle drive! We just pulled over to the side of the road and watched the cows go by! They didn’t pay any attention to us while we snapped their pictures. We kept waiting for the cowboys on their horses, but all we saw were young ladies on their quadrunners driving along behind the cows. Those cows thought they owned the road and we weren’t going to argue! What fun! They did get a little close but three of us were in the car safe and sound. Mike took pictures from inside while Larry was outside taking pictures. Larry wasn’t worried--he raised cows in his youth and knew just how to handle them!

At the other end of the cattle drive we found the grounds of the Fort Crook Museum. There was an old jail (we avoided that location), a blacksmith’s shop, and miscellaneous other buildings with Indian artifacts. We wandered around a bit but ultimately ended our exploration when standing over the cache we had been seeking. Once we signed the log we headed west on 299 and passed the Pit River Power House. Cynthia and I used to fish near the Power House when we were little. Our father would come to this area on business and fishing was our entertainment while he took care of business. This has definitely been a trip of memories for the two of us.

It has also been a trip of different textures, colors, experiences, views, and fun! There was so much to see and enjoy no matter where we were! We traveled at a more leisurely pace today (don’t ask Mike if he agrees) but we managed to take in a lot of territory and adventures to add to the previous days experiences. The four of us were born and raised in California and have been to many of these places before. It was nice to see them again from a current perspective.

Our last cache of the day was out Hwy 36 from Red Bluff. We discussed the description of the cache and decided it just had to be a shoe tree. We have seen shoe trees in various locations. Someone started it by throwing a pair of old shoes up into the tree. People just kept adding and now there are bunches of shoes in various trees scattered here and there. We were hoping the cache was not hidden in one of those shoes. As it turned out, it wasn’t. The cache was hidden in an obvious location near the base of the shoe tree. We were very grateful when we actually arrived as it was a roller coaster road and Mike and Larry were enjoying every minute of it! Cynthia and I on the other hand, were not having quite the experience that they were having, but then we were in the back seat! Good thing neither one of us gets car sick!

Someone once asked us if we ever got sick of geocaching. The answer then was no and the answer would be the same today. The four of us had three great days of geocaching. They were long days and we did spend a lot of time in the car, but we certainly saw a great deal that we would not have seen otherwise. Geocaching is fun! It is also a learning experience! We love it!