CacheCrazy.Com

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Geowoodstock Prep Work

By Big Al

GEOWOODSTOCK IX is coming, and it's coming fast.

WELCOME TO THIRSTY THURSDAY!!!
Grab a cup of coffee, or tea, sit back and enjoy the day.

Well I have been getting ready for Geowoodstock IX and I found something that I want to tell you about. It's a new bug spray, or should I say it's a new bug spray for me. Maybe some of you have already been using it. It is called Ultrathon "Insect Repellent" for clothing and gear. It is made by 3M. This spray is to be put on clothing and gear and is supposed to kill or keep off: ticks, mosquitoes, and other critters for up to 6 weeks. That is one treatment can last up to 6 weeks. Sounds pretty good to me. So I sprayed my clothes for this weekend and let them dry. Now I am anxious to see how it works. I will be reporting back to you on how this stuff works. The ingredient that is supposed to be deadly to the bugs is called "permethrin". Here is a description of it.

Personal insect control

Permethrin is toxic to cats. Many cats die after being given flea treatments intended for dogs, or by contact with dogs having recently been treated with permethrin.^[5]

Permethrin is also used in healthcare, to eradicate parasites such as head lice and mites responsible for scabies, and in industrial and domestic settings to control pests such as ants and termites. However, the British National Formulary states that permethrin has low efficacy in eradicating head lice.

Permethrin kills ticks on contact with treated clothing. A method of reducing deer tick populations in terms of rodent vectors involves utilizing biodegradable cardboard tubes stuffed with permethrin-treated cotton. Mice collect the cotton for lining their nests. Permethrin on the cotton instantly kills any immature ticks that are feeding on the mice. It is important to put the tubes where mice will find them, such as in dense, dark brush, or at the base of a log; mice are unlikely to gather cotton from an open lawn. According to the Connecticut Department of Public Health, permethrin "has low mammalian toxicity, is poorly absorbed through the skin and is rapidly inactivated by the body. Skin reactions have been uncommon."^[6] Permethrin is also used on humans for lice or scabies; the common prescription is Permethrin with 5% concentration for scabies, and OTC (over-the-counter) treatment for head lice/crabs is usually permethrin with 1% concentration.

Permethrin is used in tropical areas to prevent mosquito-borne disease such as dengue fever and malaria. Mosquito nets used to cover beds may be treated with a solution of permethrin. This increases the effectiveness of the bed net by killing parasitic insects before they are able to find gaps or holes in the net. Military personnel training in malaria-endemic areas may be instructed to treat their uniforms with permethrin, as well. An application should last several washes.

This sounds like it might just be what I have been looking for for a long time. Anything that kills mosquitoes or ticks is sure to become a friend of mine. BTW, I purchsed this bottle at Gander Mountain. The one thing to remember is that it is NOT TO BE APPLIED TO THE BARE SKIN. Use it on your clothes and gear only. They say to spray the normal "bug spray" on your skin, whichever kind you prefer to use. As I stated I will be reporting back to you on the effectiveness of the Ultrathon. What you need to understand is that I am a tick and mosquito magnet, so I'll know right away if it is working.

So the tent is dried out, repacked, and ready to go. I fired up the good old Coleman stove and it is ready for some great meals. I also picked up a Dietz Lantern while curb side shopping one day on my way home from work. This little lantern is a real beauty, and it has never been used. I got it all primed up and then tested it out. It really throws off a lot of light for an old lantern. The cooler has been washed out and is ready to be filled. The next thing on the agenda is to go shopping for all of my food.

I'm Going to GeoWoodstock!!!!!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Favorites Continued

A couple weeks ago I started listing DLC’s top 25 favorite geocaches. (Since I started the list, I have another favorite to add, but we’ll save that story for another time.)

Here’s the remainder of the list…

15. Where the river bends

A full family outing back in the fall – easily the best view you’ll find of the Lehigh River. I’d go as far to say it’s one of the best views in the Commonwealth. Plus, it’s a well-planned multi. You can read a good story about this cache here.

14. Up on the rock

Three visits for me to the rock and three adventures each time. Read about the latest here.

13. Deep Hollow Pond

I just don’t understand the lack of interest in this one. It’s a fun multi to just an amazing and unique old structure. Easily one of my favorite caches.

12. Leslie Run

This cache is cool because it takes you to a seldom-seen section of the Lehigh River and it’s a tough little hide.

11. GRACE CHAPEL CACHE and Lewis Family Cemetery

Our own Bloodhounded surprised a lot of folks with this one, me included. I had no idea this little chapel and cemetery were so close to home. Amazing history here.

10. Ducks On The Pond

Really, this cache is kind of a pain, but it’s a great hide and still a lot of fun.

9. A Real Pain in the Cache

Talk about caches being a pain, the name says it all. You’ll enjoy a very clever Stage 1 and then an extended but manageable bushwhack to the Final. We took our two young kids on this one, which maybe wasn't the best idea!

8. Witch's Brew

This is one of the craftiest caches I’ve seen. No spoilers here – you have to see it for yourself!

7. Mummy Cave Cache

You’ll visit an out-of-the-way landmark in the town of St. Marys, PA and then take on a not-so-run-of-the-mill exercise to get to the Final.

6. THE MYSTERY MACHINE

What more can I say – it’s an instant classic. Damguy and I had fun competing the whole way to the Final. In the spirit of Scooby Doo – that meddling Damguy!

5. Tour of Walter Dam

Speaking of Damguy, this is a well-placed multi that takes you around the grounds of the Francis E. Walter Dam. The Final is the highlight.

4. The Keystone Cache

A traditional cache with a twist.

3. Paddlers Delight # 3 - FEW Dam

Up the Lehigh side of the Francis E. Walter Dam…

2. F.E.W. - and far between

…And up the Bear Creek side of the Francis E. Walter Dam.

1. Francis E. Walter Cache

A nice view and well-hidden Final that requires some old fashioned orienteering skills.

As DctrSpott posted a while back, we’d like to know - What are YOUR favorite caches?

Email us here at CacheCrazy.com!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Why Not Wednesday.... On Tuesday!

The CacheCrazy.Com hats just came today and boy do they look nice. They will be issued to each of the CacheCrazy.Com author's and they are here right in time for Geowoodstock. Pretty cool, don't you agree?

Monday, June 27, 2011

Geowoodstock IX and a CacheCrazy.Com Mega Event (Blog Event)

I CAN'T GO TO GEOWOODSTOCK IX
AND THAT REALLY SUCKS! How about you?

But, our very own BigAl437 will be going for the entire event! And, many other folks who share their experience through the internet will be there as well. Once again, I find myself living vicariously through others (I really need to free up my schedule a bit) and you can join me!

Here at CacheCrazy.Com world headquarters we are scheming up a blog mega event that will start on Friday July 1st and run until and including Tuesday July 5th. BigAl and I have been working out a few details and we have also reached out to other resources to bring you the best possible Geowoodstock IX coverage that we can. It will not be in our regular daily post format but more like several short updates, a few awesome pictures, some video and even live feeds coming at different times so set your blogger alerts for new posts. It's going to be the next best thing to being there!

I think BigAl loves this assignment. He's so into it and was fortunate to be able to reserve a ticket on the famed "Geotrain ride" (or so it's affectionately called these days in Warren, PA). He and many others from around the world will embark on a potential record breaking Geocaching Mega event that will set the bar in the history of our sport. Geowoodstock IX! there are already over 2,600 "I'm going" (you lucky son of a @#$%*) logged on the Mega Event Cache Page. Be there or be square, lol!

Over the next week I will be doing system maintenance to set the proper stage for such an event. If you know anyone who is going OR if you are one of the lucky ones, you can share your fun on our Geowoodstock Wall, share a video on the wall, post a picture or send most anything to us HERE through email or contact us, we'll be sure to get it posted.

It should be fun and a great way to spend the Independence Day weekend. So join us and we'll do our very best to bring you some of the fun that Geowoodstock IX has to offer even if we can't be there. And that still sucks, just saying.....

Saturday, June 25, 2011

GUEST BLOG - Beth from TheDunsilFamily - Scouts and Geocaching

The first time Beth from TheDunsilFamily wrote for CacheCrazy.Com was April 2, 2011. This brought many great comments and was just great work to read. Now she's back at it again and this time she is leading the way with a group of scouts who have never Geocached before. Join me in welcoming Beth back and enjoy her inspiring story of scouts, geocaching and how the two finally came together one day.

As Kevin (aka Bloodhounded) can surely tell you, another cache-loving leader (Percy) and I have been busting our asses trying to arrange a geocaching demonstration and hunt for our cub scout pack (Pack 193 based in Swoyersville, Holla!) for months. Our first failed endeavor was a Venturing (a branch of scouting aimed at 14-21 year old boys and girls) weekend that the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) was holding at Camp Acahela the weekend of May 5^th. They had tons of really cool activities lined up, one of which was termed “GPS Games”. That was their first mistake. Those who are completely unfamiliar with geocaching would never associate this awesome and rewarding activity with a title like “GPS Games”! Not one person who participated in the weekend’s events signed up for our portion of the festivities. It was a monumental blow to my spirit, not to mention my ego. How could these kids NOT see a treasure hunt as, at the very least, an exciting adventure?!?! I think a lot of the problem was the wording of it. I’m sure if they called it “geocaching”, at least some people would have been interested.

After picking up the pieces of my shattered heart, I got back up on the horse and soldiered on, working with my fellow leader, Percy, once again. We were determined to get these kids interested in the sport we both love so much. The two of us brainstormed ideas and tried to work out a feasible game plan for the boys. Mind you, these kids range in age from 5 to 12, so we had to be sure that we could captivate them with the adventure of the hunt and the beauty of the outdoors, while keeping in mind that most of them have little legs and short attention spans. After weeks of bouncing ideas off of each other and countless e-mails and phone calls back and forth, we finally settled upon Frances Slocum. The park is close enough to where everyone lives, affords the opportunity to find multiple caches in one trip, and as an added bonus, I had already found all of what is hidden there. It was the perfect location! We ironed out the details with a den father (Matt) who was organizing the hiking part of the day, and I drew up a plan of attack based on the trails he chose. We (boldly, I might add) decided upon Memorial Day weekend (the 29^th specifically) as the big day (or “G-Day as I now refer to it). As if interest wasn’t hard enough to capture, we had the unofficial start of summer to compete with. With family BBQ’s and traveling, we had our work cut out for us.

I got the ball rolling with a brilliantly worded e-mail elaborating the wondrous adventure that was in store for those who decided to forgo the monotony of potato salad and burnt hot dogs in favor of joining us for the hunt. As an added incentive, the park was holding a family scavenger hunt on the same day at 4:00. Wouldn’t it be fun to do two treasure hunts in one day?! We scheduled our hike for 1:00 to allow enough time to accomplish both. It was like taking candy from a baby. Who could refuse? Despite my delusions of grandeur, I still had some doubts that we would have as profound a turnout as I thought was warranted. But sure enough, within the week after I sent the e-mail, we had a surprising amount of parents responding that, despite the holiday weekend, they were indeed coming!

After getting a rough idea of the number of people attending, I got to work, busily printing out all of the cache pages for the 5 caches we were going to attempt, a park map detailing where they were, and formulating what I was going to say in my explanation of the sport. The day was getting closer, and I was 100% prepared. This was going to go off like gangbusters!

Sunday had arrived and I packed up my manila envelope full of neatly stapled cache pages and maps, along with all my geo-gear, and headed off to the park. For once in my life, I was early. This was my shining moment. I was going to rope these kids (and even some parents!) in with my exuberantly descriptive stories of how fun and exciting this was. The places you will go! The breathtaking scenery you will encounter! The unexpectedly cool swag you can find! They’ll never be the same again.

We all met at the park office and followed Percy to where we would park to start our hike at around 1:20. 13 kids and 7 adults ended up making it. After getting settled and together, Matt spelled out some safety rules and Percy elaborated the finer points of “Leave No Trace” to the group. Then it was my turn. Everyone was gathered around a small picnic table, eagerness glinting in their eyes. I quickly explained what geocaching was exactly (most of the group had never heard of it) and gave them a few of the rules. I had made sure to include a brief description of it in my previous e-mail, and asked them to bring some swag in case they found something they wanted to take from the cache. Everyone had brought their own little bag of trade items! After the formality of it all, we were off on our hike. I was overflowing with anticipation of how they would react when they made their very first find. THAT was what I was looking forward to the most. The looks on their faces. The pride in their voices. I know that feeling all too well, and I positively could not wait to see it come to fruition on the faces of these boys.

Our first cache, oddly enough, was “Frances Slocum Rocks”. MY first find. My previous blog post detailed the experience I had finding this cache, and it was only fitting that I introduced this to the scouts as THEIR first. The trail from the parking area to GZ was short enough that they didn’t have to wait a terribly long time to get started. I did this intentionally, so as to get them hooked from the beginning. To make the longer hike ahead worth it, knowing what they were striving for. Those who had GPS devices followed their coordinates, and the others just tagged along, waiting for instruction. Once we got close, the boys took off with a start, scouring every inch of the small area where their GPS said the cache was located. I stood there like a proud momma, tears welling up in my eyes, as these kids searched with fierce determination, for a mysterious box. There were no video games, no TV, no cell phones… Just nature and adventure at its purest. And they were actually ENJOYING themselves.

After looking for about 20 minutes, these newbie cachers came up empty. Percy and I tried to give them some easier clues to follow (after Percy had discovered the cache himself, since I had completely forgotten where it was after the year that had passed since I first found it) and they uncovered their first cache! These boys, of varying size and age, descended upon the container like geo-vultures, crowding around and knocking each other over to find out what was inside this elusive tube. I cracked it open and there was a hush in the crowd as they all waited to see its contents. Their eyes were wide with wonder as I took everything out and showed it around. There was nothing special in there… some pencils, small toys, and boy scout patches… but the boys all traded something and signed their names to the log like it was the Declaration of Independence. I signed it “Scouts of Pack 193”.

After replacing the cache, we continued hiking to the historic rock shelter for a small history lesson. On the way, I could hear them excitedly discussing how cool it was to find the previous cache and how they were going to be doing this more often, now that they know what it’s all about. I beamed with pride as I thought to myself, “Right there is exactly why I did this.” I knew if they gave it a chance, they would love it. As frustrating as it was trying to get people interested, it was all worth it to see the sense of accomplishment on those boys faces. The absolute pure joy of hunting for, and finding what you set out to.

In a time where kids find fun and happiness more often in Xbox games and Facebook than nature and sports, it was refreshing and rewarding for me to be able to give them this. As a direct result of “G-Day”, most of the scouts and their families who were there, have started their very own GC.com accounts and have been actively geocaching. My heart wells up with pride and I smile when I think that I had a little something to do with that.

Until next time, Cache On!

Beth

Friday, June 24, 2011

A Whole New World

A Whole New World

DctrSpott

Many of my friends and family ask me about the surroundings in my new home, Laramie, WY. A picture is worth a thousand words, then a minute long video must be worth sixty thousand words (a veritable years worth of blog posts.) Enjoy these videos, I suggest muting them due to high wind speed and my inane rambling. These videos were taken in Pole Mountain unit of the Medicine Bow National Forest. Check the video descriptions for more details.

This video was the first mountain I had climbed in the area. The geocache nearby was archived (it was crushed by a falling boulder), but it was still a nice view.

My second climb (in the same day!), gave me a surprise treat: not only did I nab the nearby Where the eagles soar (GC1YAW1), I stumbled upon two benchmark FTFs!

Finally, a video just taken today, I was lucky to nab Terrace View at 8300' (GC1M03J), a spectacular climb. Note my neat shoes.

Check in next week for more tales from the wild west!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

GEOWOODSTOCK IX

By Big Al

WELCOME TO THIRSTY THURSDAY!!

Grab a cup of coffee, or tea, sit back and get ready for GEOWOODSTOCK NUMBER NIIIIIIINE!!!!!!!

Can you say “Excited”? Wooohoooo!

July 2^nd is coming so quickly and for those of you who did not know it that is the day of Geowoodstock 9. This is going to be a really big event. I am so excited. (Can you tell?) It’s going to be totally awesome. Not that I’m excited or anything.

GWS 9 is being held on the Warren County Fairgrounds in Pittsfield, PA this year. The event starts on July 2^nd at 10:00 a.m. There will be vendors there selling everything Geocaching that you can think of. NEPAG’s own Hound, from Fox and the Hound will be there with his new store which is GxProxy.com. If you have not checked out his site then shame on you (Just kidding). His site has so much stuff to offer and he is coming out with new stuff all the time. Do you need trackables? He’s got them. Need SWAG? He’s got that too. Proxy coins? He’s got those also. Check it out. There will also be folks from GC.com, Delorme, Geo-Gear, Pathtags, and many more.

Now you might ask “why is Big Al so excited about GWS 9?” Well let me answer that for you. This is the first really BIG event that I am going to. There will be lots of other Geocachers there to meet and become friends with. There will also be lots of caches to hunt for. There will be caching stuff to purchase, games to play and prizes to win. Another reason I am so excited is that I will be covering this event for Cachecrazy.com. That’s right; you heard it from the the Big guy. I’ll be there covering all parts of this event. There are going to be pictures galore, and possibly even some videos.

So let me start out with what will take place over that weekend.

Although the event starts on the 2^nd, there will be meetings and get togethers starting on July 1^st. Whoo-Whoo; all aboard. Chuga-chuga-Whoo-Whoo. On Friday there will be a train ride through Oil Creek Valley. More on the train ride while I’m there. There will be plenty of time for some caches that day too. Then that evening there will be an actual POW-WOW with Lance White Eagle, a Native American Storyteller. I just love Indian stuff and it might just have to do with the fact that I am part Cherokee. (Just a little bit of Big Al trivia for you.)

Then on Saturday the main event starts. There is going to be stuff for the kids to do like games, crafts, learning about bird banding, and much more. There will also be lots of food to eat, classes about caching, and even games for the adults. I hear there is even going to be a Midnight Geocoin madness 3 event from 9:00 until midnight. Sounds like fun to me.

Then on Sunday there will be another get together at a nearby beach for swimming, eating, caching, learning about the Allegheny National Forest, and much more.

Let me state it again that I am totally excited about this event. You’ll be hearing more about it each day that I am there. And for those of you who think this is an easy job let me tell you that Big Al will be living in a tent all weekend and cooking on the camp stove. Just my style. It couldn’t be any better than sleeping in a tent, cooking out in the open, and hitting some caches. (Well if the family were going along then it would be totally unbeatable.) So prepare yourself to be GeoWoodstocked by Big Al from Cachecrazy.com. Hope to see some of you there.

Big Al

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Buzztails!

With a name like "Dodger Lizard Crew" you'd expect that we'd have some love for reptiles. So on Saturday, we took a little trip up to the Noxen Rattlesnake Roundup. This annual affair serves as the primary fundraiser for the Noxen Fire Department and is one of several rattlesnake hunts held each year in Pennsylvania. If you've never gone to one of these, I highly encourage you to check it out some time. It's a fun carnival atmosphere that is an excellent way to view and learn about this misunderstood and mythical creature of the Commonwealth. Please note that no snakes are killed during these events. Each animal is carefully tagged and measured and, as dictated by Pennsylvania law, returned to the exact spot where it was initially captured by dusk Sunday evening. Come on along on a photo journey with us!

Some of the curious onlookers at the Noxen Rattlesnake Roundup

A few of the snake hunters inside "The Pit"

Ah yes, that's what we came to see!

A snake hunter displays her catch

Bill Wheeler of the Keystone Reptile Club answers questions while holding a timber rattlesnake

My snake watching team

Annalie was pretty happy to win some prizes...

...and enjoy some of the rides and games, but notice the look on her face - "Hey, where's Sadie going?"

Sadie had other things on her mind...

Looks like we have a future snake hunter in the family!!!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Why Not Wednesday.... On Tuesday!

12 DAYS UNTIL GEOWOODSTOCK!

The CacheCrazy.Com insiders say:

If you have a geocache hidden just off the on/off ramp of any of the below major highways, be ready to get hit with Geowoodstock storm of smiles. You should make sure it's ready for some extra traffic and fun.
Build a special "On My Way To GEOWOODSTOCK 2011" logbook and collect names of geocachers who are on their way to or from the mega event. It will be a collectors item among cachers everywhere and great to share at smaller events.
Leave something special for the geowoodstock traveler to make the find special. Any type of memorabilia or something unique to the area would be cool. I live in the anthracite coal region of North East PA so I was thinking about putting out a small bucket of coal for travelers to take as a souvenir.

View Larger Map

Saturday, June 18, 2011

The Best Father's Day Present Ever!

A note from Bloodhounded: Guest Blogger this weekend features Brian "Big B" Sullin from Team Blueball. This post is special because Big B is none other than ol'Bloodhoundeds son! So in the spirit of Father's Day, being able to post my son's guest blog is the best Father's Day Present EVER! Big B was the guy who turned me onto Geocacheing and for that I am forever grateful! Enjoy as he takes you to one of the best geocaches in NEPA!

Before I get into all of that, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Brian "Big-B" Sullin and I am a founding member of Team Blueball in NEPA. Yes, you read the name correctly, Kevin of Bloodhounded is my pops and I am proud to say a few short years ago I had the pleasure of introducing him to this great sport we have all come to love (or be insanely obsessed with). Blueball has been on the caching trail for quite some time now and the members seem to be a revolving door, but like anything else in life, change is inevitable. At the present time Blueball consists primarily of myself, my girlfriend Mara, our 2 Boxers Laila and Bishop, A great friend and also founding member Mark and another buddy Dave. Its great to meet you all and be able to share our experiences on the trail and I look forward to meeting some of you in the future.

WHERE THE RIVER BENDS.....

N 40 56.745 W 75 41.508.........And what an adventure it was.

NOW.......onto the Cache. It was a Sunday morning early June, and if you recall we had a heat spell of temps in the 90's for a few days. What a break today was, mid 70's low humidity, not a cloud in sight. You could see for days it seemed like. The other members of Blueball were slowly piecing their lives together after a night of slight over-indulgence but not this guy......no way no how. This Sunday has been on my radar since the 7 day forecast came out a week ago, and if us cachers know one thing....its the weather forecast is always accurate. HAHAHAHAHA. It played into my favor today.

We decided we wanted to venture out towards Hickory Run then make the swing into Jim Thorpe, so we our coords in order and saddled up. Cache number one on the list was a little bad boy by the name of "Where The River Bends" a short 3 mile rounder multi. No big deal right. Right?!?!?!

We find ourselves approaching some state game land parking and see a nice open gravel path, way better than the high grass I like to call Tick Land. Punch in the coords for stage 1 and set off. "Alright Alright" I think to myself, a nice easy hike on some gravel relatively flat, man my hungover friends must love me for this one....Well, here we are, ground zero for stage one and a little search ensues. No more than 2 minutes and we hear the signature "GEOOOOOOOOO" Nice!!!! Here my friends is when the story starts.

Punch in coords for part 2 and see just about a half mile to go. With a clue reminding us to stay on the trail, okay sounds fair. Well, not using our geosenses we completely miss the correct trail and stay on the main one. Yes we noticed the distance was going up but for some reason we thought it would loop around and take us dead on like a freight train. How wrong were we you ask? Very. What should have been an easy in/easy out turned into some of the deepest forest I've been in. EVER. The trail we took winded us through woodlands both thick and open for what seemed like years. We had multiple encounters with snakes, some of which were 4+ feet in length. Now to me that's not a snake, that's a dragon. One Copperhead, wonderful. Best yet, a ton and I mean ton of Fresh bear crap. It almost seemed as if we were on a hunting trail that coyote and bear use frequently. Okay let me re-phrase that. We WERE on a hunting trail that coyote and bear use frequently. What are we doing we say out loud and laugh just to make each other feel better about the situation. Mara is terrified, Dave is willing to trudge forward but albeit reluctant and me, well I'm disappointed in myself because like a Mack truck it all just hit me. We just walked a total of 5.5 miles in when all we had to do was make a right down the correct trail. The ultimate DOHHHHHHHHHHHH moment. They saw the light bulb come on, hell, Stevie Wonder prob could have seen that light bulb come on.

We navigated back, got on track, finally saw the gps get down to 500,400,200,100 feet to destination. Then there it was, a break in the trees. Wow. It was like all of the hiking, sweating, snakes, bears never even existed. I've been to a lot of great overlooks and lookouts in NEPA and The Virginia's, but this, this was the Creme de la Creme. I don’t know if it was because the risk for reward level was through the roof at this point or just because I feel as if I was halfway to the gates of Heaven. Cache secured, log signed a few laughs and a good breather later we were in the cache mobile. Needless to say, the list of 5 caches magically shrunk itself into a list of one. Where The River Bends.......

"One man’s wilderness is another man’s theme park......Cache on friends"

Your fellow Cacher and friend,

Brian "Big B" Sullin

Well, there you have it. Another geocaching adventure that takes you to CacheCrazy.Com Cache of The Month for October, 2010 ~ Where The River Bends!Check it out, I was able to interview the CO's and these folks are great! Big B and his team seemed to take the loooooooong way buy hey, that's what geocaching is all about. If it were an exact science, it wouldn't be as much fun!

Thanks Big B for the awesome guest post and Happy Father's Day weekend to all Dad's everywhere in the world!
Bloodhounded

Friday, June 17, 2011

A Trip to Mount Baldy

A Trip to Mount Baldy

DctrSpott

As some of you may know, I've recently moved from Wilkes-Barre, PA to Laramie, WY. It's very nice here, thanks for asking. But we'll have much more time for that later.

I'm lucky enough to have many friends, and even luckier that the good lot of them have many good ideas and suggestions for me. One was to take a pit stop over to Mount Baldy, part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. This happened to be an excellent suggestion: the exit off I-80 to Mt Baldy was about 50 feet before a massive several hour traffic delay. You can see the general area right below, Mt Baldy is right below the 12 in the center!

View Larger Map

So, what is Mt Baldy? It's a neat sand dune located right on Lake Michigan! You can climb to the top of this 126 ft (~40 m)...

...and get a spectacular view of the surrounding area!

Mt Baldy is home to two Earthcaches, GC1MJW, The Wandering Dune, a cache explaining Mt Baldy's southbound migration...

...and GC1V33W, The Hungry Lakeshore, explaining both the dune's migration, and some unique properties of the Great Lake.

So, if you're passing through I-80, make sure to stop by this great national park! The rest of the park is home to many traditional, multi, and mystery caches for you to explore. The area makes for a great stop on I-80, whether for a few hours, or for some overnight camping. And, let's be fair... there isn't all that much on this stretch of Indiana anyway...

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Hooked anyone lately?

By Big Al

If you're not sure what I'm talking about then read on.

WELCOME TO THIRSTY THURSDAY!

Grab a cup of coffee or tea, sit back and let your immagination soar.

Several weeks ago my family and I went to Ohio for a funeral. When we arrived I found out my brother and his wife were in from Florida. They had brought their oldest daughter and her 3 year old son with them. He had never played in the snow before so I knew this was going to be fun.

Over the next several days as we visited I shared with them all about Geocaching and how much fun it was. They had seem my many posts on Facebook about the fun I have had while out with my family in search of Geocaches. That was when it happened. My neice began to ask me some questions about Geocaching. Now I’m not going to pass up a chance to share my love of this sport so I proceeded to answer them. (I began to see the bobber moving a little bit.) I explained in more detail about how to look for a cache and the thought process that goes into hiding them. Then I talked about Travel Bugs, Geocoins, and SWAG. (Did I see that bobber go under just a bit?) I talked to her about the fact that this is a wonderful way to get the family outside and have some fun. Now that I had her full attention I went to GC.com and showed her a cache page of a cache that was not too far from my sisters house. (I could tell she was beginning to take the bait.) We ate our dinner and then I visited with my other family members. My neice then told me she had signed up for an account. (The bobber was really starting to bob now.) I then asked her if she wanted to go out with my boys and me to see if we could find the cache I had showed her earlier. She gave a resounding YES. We got in my car and headed out.

When we got to the spot I showed her how to use my GPS and then we parked and began our search. It did not take too long before we had found the cache. We let her sign the log first and I could see the excitement building in her eyes. (The bobber went all the way under. She went straight to the bottom with the whole hook, line and sinker.) BAM! Another Geocacher is hooked. She immediately wanted to look for another one. I then led her on to two more caches before going back to my sister’s house. I showed her how to log her finds and she had to call her husband and explain it to him. She said she could not wait to go out again. We talked about TB’s and I told her I had a couple of extra tags with me and I could give her one if she wanted it. She was elated. We went out shopping and we both found a nice item to send out as a TB. We went home and created the pages for them and decided we would send them out the following day.

Tony the Tiger and The Travel BUG

The next day was Saturday and we deicded to take her son and my two boys over to the park and go sledding. We had borrowed some winter boots and clothes from a cousin for her son to use. For some reason they don’t use these types of clothes in Florida. Seems odd to me. We arrived at the park and took her son up the hill with a sled and let him and my son go down together. Wow! Talk about screaming with excitement. This little guy could not wait to go down again. The kids went down the hill over and over again. Then this big guy, me, went down too. I could not let them have all of the fun. I’ve never seen one little boy be so happy. My little grandnephew could have stayed much longer, but my boys had forgotten their gloves and hats so we decided to call it quits. But then I remembered there was a cache right over near the picnic area so I let my niece find that one too.

We went home and ate lunch. Then my niece put her son down for a nap and we headed out for some more caches. This time we were going for some bigger caches that I was sure would have some SWAG in them. We all took along some trade items and headed out. We got to the first place and headed into the woods. This one called for some serious bushwhacking. We finally found it and we noticed it was frozen in the ground. It took some time to loosen it up, but we did get it out, and it only cost me one knife blade. There was not much in it other than a log book so I left a few items. Then it was off to the next one. This one was a little more challenging, but we did find it. As we approached it I could see the ammo can and now I was excited. We opened it up and it was overflowing with SWAG. We let my niece go through it first and choose what she wanted to keep. We both dropped off our TB’s and then we headed on to the next cache. My niece said she could not believe how much trouble the cache owner went through to put the cache where they had put it. They had brought a Christmas tree all the way out in the woods and planted it. That is if you can plant a fake tree. At the next cache we thought we might not find it and then I spotted it. This one took a little more experienced cacher to find. We all signed the log and then headed towards our last one of the day.

The last one was special because it was in a cemetery and it was hidden in honor of a guy named Jon who was awaiting a heart transplant. This guy had purchased a GPS, but was just too sick to go out. The CO hid the cache and the person he was honoring, Jon, passed away the day after it was published. He never got his chance to go out and find his own cache. Well my youngest son found this one first and we left some neat “heart themed” items. We went home and logged our finds and then I decided to release a Geocoin in honor of my brother who had passed away too. After all, he was the reason we had all gotten together.

Stargazers3378, Cacheking1998, Bigaljr1693

Well I don’t want to leave this post in an emotional tone, so I’ll get back to the title of it. Hooked anyone lately? When was the last time you shared your love for Geocaching, and have you taken anyone out recently to find a cache or two? This is such a fun and exciting way to spend time with family and friends so get out there and set those hooks.