Is It? Or Isn't It?

The twins went out geocaching with us today and found some very interesting caches. I could let you think it was real, but, trust me, it isn't!



In addition to the rat, we found a cache in a fake lizard, a nerf football, a fake rock, a hole in the fence and several other places. Rebecca and Katelynn loved it. And, they got to log all their caches themselves since they are official geocachers.



We are hanging out watching movies tonight. Tomorrow--new adventures!

We Survived the 2006 GBES Rally

The rally is behind us and we are happy. Happy that we finished and happy that we don't have to do this route again!The day rally was a challenge! Actually, the first part was great and lots of fun. It wasn't until we were all hot and tired that we hit the rough stuff.

The route took us straight up the the side of a hill in Ricky Canyon. One of the vehicles (a Suzuki Samarai) couldn't make it and had to be towed to the top. The rest of us waited below and watched the whole thing unfold. When it was our turn, Mike navigated straight up the hill and got us to the top without incident. It was a dirt road so, in theory, it should not have been a problem--yah, sure!!!

We were navigating our way up and down hills, through and along creek beds, and stopping now and again to pick up a cache. We had some great views, but we never managed to take any pictures--no time.

It took us 8 hours to complete the whole trip. They expected it to take about 7, but since we were stopped twice (both times the Samauri had to be towed up the hill), it took us a little longer.

We were part of the "non-comp" (non-competitive) group so our time didn't matter. Our starting time was later than the competitive group, but we managed to finish ahead of a few of them. We did find all the caches along the way and we were never lost for more than a second.

It was a long, exciting day. It ended with an excellent dinner at the Elks Club in Gardnerville.

The map shows our routes. The yellow route is the Night Rally and the red is the Day Rally. The red line should serve as a warning for anyone who wants to follow this same route. It was a doozy in spots!

The Night Rally

Let's see, the rally itself was great fun. We did have a few problems before and during, but we finished and we were still smiling. In fact, Cynthia and I broke into song several times while Mike & Larry rolled their eyes and pretended not to know us!

We arrived to check in to discover that one of the rally organizers had failed to show. He had all the routes and waypoints for the rally, plus the means to download them into everyone's GPSrs. So, we made due. Brian (the remaining man in charge) loaded the copies of stuff he had to those GPSrs that connected via USB. We had to call my trusty MAC into duty to download all the older serial port GPSrs. See, I told you the MAC was better. I could have downloaded to the USB units also, but Brian had to do something with his PC and he didn't have the ability to handle the serial connections!

Eventually, it was time for the rally to start. It was like starting all over again! The computer and GPSr connection wasn't working (I think it was tired from all the downloads), so our computer tracking was hit and miss. Larry wasn't sure how to use the route function on his receiver so he had to have a quick lesson as they were counting us down to START! Cynthia did a great job with the cache waypoints and getting the extra GPSr set for our cache hunts out of the car. Larry found all the caches along the route and I found the caches at the checkpoints. It was doubly hard since I had to use both the receiver and a compass to find the cache. Mike followed the roads, even when we gave him wrong directions, but he was able to make the necessary adjustments and we made it to the finish line.

Now it is off to bed! We have to be up bright and early for the Day rally. We have to be at the breakfast location by 7:30 AM so we can load the Day waypoints and routes.

Wish us luck on our adventure tomorrow!

The Great GBES 2006 Rally Begins

Today we head out on another geocaching adventure. We will be in Nevada, more specifically, Gardnerville and Minden. The event will take place over the next two days.

This evening we will participate in the night rally. It will last about 2 hours. We will be driving a specific course within a specific time limit and grabbing caches along the way. Mike is our driver, Cynthia is our cache navigator, Larry is our trip navigator and route cache finder, and Linda is our computer tracker and check point cache finder.

Tomorrow is the day rally and will last the entire day. We all play the same rolls.

Last year was the first time we participated and we placed 5th overall. We were just grateful to finish. This year we decided to go for the fun rather than the competition. We hope to be able to enjoy the scenery and take a few pictures without the stress.

Check back for more about our rally adventure

Peavine Mountain

We spent Friday geocaching with Cynthia & Mike on Peavine Mountain just outside of Reno, NV. The weather wasn't always so great, but the mountain was showing us its splender.



The drive around the mountain was spectacular for its flowers and its views. We managed some pictures of the views, but somehow missed the flowers.



We discovered new accessible jeep trails and old blocked trails we were expecting to use but couldn't. We ventured on routes we weren't sure about, but we always got where we wanted to go. We were exhausted by the end of the day but we wouldn't trade a minute of it.



Thanks to geocaching, we have discovered a beautiful side to Nevada. There really is more to it than what you see along I-80.

We Used Our Reno Extraction Tool!

There is this geocache in Maidu Park in Roseville. It's name is "The Multi-Magic Tree Cache". This cache is a multi-cache with a rating of 5/5. That means there are several stages you have to find in order to get the coordinates for the final stage, but it will not be easy as the terrain is difficult and the cache itself will be difficult to find.



We actually found all four of the stages earlier in the week. The first stage was easy. The second stage required climbing a huge oak tree. The third stage required crossing a rapidly flowing creek and climbing another oak tree. Neither of these stages was an easy climb, but Larry managed to get to the spot that hid the information we needed to continue our search.



Finally, we arrived at the final stage. What we found was a huge oak tree (see picture) with room "at the top" for a picnic. The problem: we had to get to the picnic spot. Larry and I were so exhausted after the other stages, we could not climb the tree if our lives depended on it. We eventually gave up, but figured we would return with a ladder in hand.



Saturday, Cynthia and Mike were here to geocache. We eventually ended up at the final stage to this cache. Mike loves to risk life and limb so we conned him into climbing the tree. He made it to the "picnic spot" and found the cache and signed the log for them and for us. Success!!!



You will have to read their blog (Cynthia & Mike) to find out what they thought of the whole thing.



It's amazing where this whole geocaching game takes us! We Love It!!

L3-Geo Finds #2000

We did it! We found our 2000th Geocache!!We were joined by Don Stoye in our quest. He was the one who originally interested us in Geocaching.We left early in the AM as we wanted to have plenty of time. We were originally headed for an 11 stage cache located in the Spenceville Wilderness Area. We were unable to find the third stage of that devious cache, so after over an hour of searching, we moved on the the NUT MEG'S cache--still in the wilderness area. We were glad we found this one quickly!

We never were more than 3/4 of a mile away from the car as the crow flies, but we walked roughly 5 miles up hill and down hill--mostly up! We had some beautiful views and for such a hike, the weather couldn't have been better--a little overcast and not too hot!

We spent the entire day in the Spenceville area and found at least 10 caches. Some required more hill walking than others, but we enjoyed each and everyone of them.

By days end we had found 13 caches. We just couldn't resist those extra three caches on the way home.

Now that we have accomplished this fete, we can get busy finding the local caches that have been hidden recently. Finding Geocaches is a never ending task and we love it!

Yes! We Are Obsessed!

We admit it! We are obsessed geocachers!

The weather folks were predicting rain, thunderstorms, and lots of snow (in the mountains). We were supposed to scout a hike we are leading next week, but we cancelled because of the weather. Instead, we headed out early this morning for Oroville.

Yes, it was cold--very cold. Yes, the sky was black. Yes rain was threatening at every moment. But, we did not let that deter us. We found a total of 26 caches! As we found the last cache, the rain came. At that point we didn't care as we were headed home after that.

We have no idea what the weather was like in Roseville, or the foothills (where the hike will be), but we sure knew what the weather was like in Oroville (an hour plus from Roseville). And, we can add 26 more caches to our geocaching numbers!!!

As we are frequently reminded: "It is not about the numbers". Try and tell that to an obsessed geocacher! As Abe in Reno would say: "Cache On"!!!

Our FBC

The clouds and wind were moving in, but the cache was only 2.25 miles from our house. It would be a perfect cache to find while riding our bicycles. This would be our very First Bicycle Cache (FBC). Off we went, riding in the bike lane while cars swooshed by much closer than I thought they should be! We made it to the cache without incident and found the little bug (it was a fake caterpillar in the tree) quite quickly.



We made it home safely, but the sky is getting darker and the winds are getting stronger. Rain is on the way, but we are happy! Now we can stay inside safe and warm for the rest of the day.

Geocaching Wins Over Football!!!

Hands down, we prefer geocaching over football. While the rest of the world was supposed to be watching the Super Bowl, we were out geocaching in the Roseville, Antelope, Citrus Heights, Fair Oaks, Orangevale area. As it turned out, there were others not watching football either. We had a little more traffic to deal with than we planned, but we did find 14 fun filled caches. A couple were multi-caches so we had several stages to find before we reached the final cache. We enjoyed some nice walks in some wonderful parks. It was a beautiful day to be outside and we didn't miss the Super Bowl at all!!!