We were in Nevada this weekend. We arrived late afternoon Thursday and headed home today. Our goal for the weekend was to find 6000 caches. Actually, our goal was not just to find them, but to find #6000 at the same time Geo-Jeeper found #6000. We brought them into the geocaching world and it seemed fitting that our numbers meet at some point for an important find.
Before we could get to 6000 we had to catch up to Geo-Jeeper. I think we were 30+ behind them at this point so we cached our way to Reno and then spent Friday out and about with Cynthia & Mike. Part of that time we were picking up caches that they had already found and many more that neither one of us found before.
We got a big kick out of finding so many ocean named caches--in Nevada no less! One of the more challenging was the “Whales Spout” (GC1BNQ5). Cynthia and Mike had already found this cache and you can read their adventure on their website GeoJeeper”s Great Adventure. Now it was our turn. We found the location quickly. The tricky part was in the retrieving. We went there with the plan of Larry and Mike hoisting me up on the top of the rock. If I wanted to get back down I had to trust that they would catch me! When we got there we climbed to a nearby rock so we could see the cache container (ammo can) in a spot that clearly looked like a whale’s spout. We thought about it a bit and finally Larry decided to try his trusty dusty retrieval tool that served as a light bulb changer in its former life.
With a few minor adjustments, it has served us well in retrieving caches that were well beyond our reach. This cache was no exception. Larry and Mike worked in tandem and hooked the retrieval tool to the handle of the ammo can with what appeared to be minimal effort. Larry lifted the pole and out came the ammo can. That was a much better method than trying to lift me up onto the rock! We had even more fun trying to recreate the retrieval for the camera. It wasn’t as easy to hook the handle with the subsequent tries but we finally succeeded and had our pictures and movies. With this cache, we have now found a full whale! “Looking Into the Whale’s Mouth” (GCKE5K), Whale Tale (GCH8AP), and now the Whales Spout (GC1BNQ5).
Another highlight was our lunch in Virginia City at the Palace Hotel. The lunch was fine but the real treat was the discovery of Moose Drool Beer! Mike combined that with his Buffalo burger and said the combination was out of this world. OK, maybe those weren’t his exact words, but since we went on a search at the local grocery store when we got back to Reno, I assumed that’s what he meant.
Our second day we added John of “Jahoadi and John” to our mix. We caravanned through Jack’s Valley and other areas surrounding Carson City. Here we ran into Indians, bears, rocks, and who knows what else (all caches). We also made our first geocaching video. We had tried bits and pieces the day before while we figured out how to operate the camcorder and how to set it up on the dash to take the movies. We had snippets that were OK, but today was the real action! The movies turned out pretty good--both with the camcorder and our canon digital camera.
The highlights of the day were the beautiful views from several of the locations. We did have one incident where Mike spun and buried his wheels in the gravelly sand. That meant we stopped there and walked to the cache. Now that the important part was out of the picture, we could concentrate on Geo-Jeep’s predicament.
It really wasn’t a difficult situation but for entertainment we had him try to go forward again so we could see how far the tires could throw the dirt! Eventually he backed down the hill to a more stable spot and turned around. Mike almost got stuck here as well, but John gave Geo-Jeep that extra little push she needed with his hands to save the day. Of course, the cameras were not aimed in the right direction and Mike and John refused to recreate the event for me.
John was driving a Toyota FJ while the rest of us were in our jeeps. We gave him a bad time about his jeep wannabe so he was proving himself at every opportunity. He was the one parked precariously on the hillside and the one doing wheelies at sandy intersections. He was certainly putting it through it’s paces.
We started our third and final day with 5992 caches each and a destination in mind on the West side of Lake Tahoe. John joined us again as we headed over Mt. Rose to Incline Village at the north end of the lake and followed State Hwy 28 down the west side. We found several mile marker caches and several stream caches all hidden by Applejohn.
We took the Barker Pass turnoff to head for Applejohn’s Sunken Meadow cache. That was the cache we planned to make our 6000 find. We set up our camcorder and headed out. We were actually providing narration about the cache as we went. Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans. The only two roads into the trail head were blocked by snow and they were closed. Guess we would have to pick another special cache. At least John got the opportunity to race through a mud puddle. Mike and Larry had to go a little slower as their additional passengers were giving them special looks and offering sage advise about the disadvantages of roaring through the mud puddle.
Our 6000th find turned out to be “Tahoe Streams 6--Blackwood Creek” (GCICW77). The cache was in a beautiful location. We followed a dirt path along Blackwood Creek to the final spot. As we approached we handed John our digital camera and asked him to take a movie as we found the cache. At the point we had to leave the trail Cynthia and I both pointed to the left and immediately spotted the likely hiding place. We raced to the final destination and jointly removed the cache. It was a “decon” container buried under debris at the base of a fallen tree stump. The day was beautiful, the location was perfect, and the find was all that more important because it was #6000 for both L3-Geo and Geo-Jeeper. Click on the picture to see a short movie of our adventure.
We continued around Lake Tahoe and found additional caches as we went. The traffic was getting heavier and people were everywhere. When we reached the Kingsbury Grade, we headed over the top and on into Mottsville and Minden. We ended the day at Dairy Queen with a treat of blizzards and root beer floats. By the time we returned to Reno we had reached a total of 6031 caches and Geo-Jeeper had 6021. We ended with more only because we were passing right by some caches they had already found and they were happy to stop and let us find these caches. As they said: “you are here so let’s do it”. Thanks Cynthia, Mike, and John for a wonderful weekend adventure!
