Yet Another Reason Why I Love Arizona

As you have read in my previous post, I am apprehensive to cache in certain areas as soon as the weather begins to warm up. However, there are places in this world where I think I would feel much more comfortable caching almost anywhere year round. It is actually funny because I actually despise the cold. If you recall, I love to cache in it. If I had the option to have warm weather all year I would definitely take that, especially in Arizona. There it is a desert and not a humid forest. I am not positive if poison ivy grows there, but after spending a lot of time there hiking, I could totally see myself caching virtually anywhere all the time. There basically appears to be no restrictions when it comes to the environment there. If you have yet to visit this beautiful state, then I highly recommend you go. I have yet to cache there, but as I have spoken of before, Erin and I are road tripping there this summer and I could not be more excited. The one aspect I would have to get over, however, is the different types of wildlife that lives there. Rattlesnakes and tarantulas and any type of spider are what give me a little cause for concern. I think I could put that past me if I lived there. I hope to one day move there within the next ten years and if that does indeed happen, I expect to cache much more than I do at this point simply because the barriers will not be as apparent. I know I am saying all of this when there probably are some hindrances that may play a factor in our ability to cache but I think my bias is so focused on moving there that I will continue to tell myself the exact opposite. If anyone has cached there and has anything exciting from it I would love to hear about it.

As Spring Rapidly Approaches

I have been known to promote the idea that I really enjoy winter caching. There are many reasons behind that, but the most reasonable one is the fact that there are no living poison ivy plants ready to spread their toxins all over me. I am extremely allergic to these plants and truly believe that the toxins can simply be in the air and I will find a way to get the infection. Needless to say, spring and summer time are a very cautious time for me to geocache. Don’t get me wrong, I am still going to be out there with the best of us whenever I get a chance. However, I am just much more apprehensive when it comes to woodland caching. I tend to want to stay on the trail as much as possible making sure to avoid any types of weeds that may even resemble poison ivy in any way. I feel bad having to cache like this because I think Erin does not really get affected by these plants. In a way I feel I am hindering her from caching where she wants to but I cannot help that. Once I get this stuff, I am out of the game for at least a few weeks and that is no fun. With all this said, spring is indeed upon us and I am preparing myself for the caches that I know that I can retrieve this time of year. Urban caching will become my forte once again and also the ones I know are not too far off the beaten path as well. The caches I will stay away from are the ones deep in the woods. Occasionally I will feel a little brave and journey in to get those, but that is rare. So as spring approaches, I am trying to ready myself for the caches at hand. Albeit, it is still going to be quite some time before I am even out in the field due to school and graduation right around the corner.

Our Worst Multi Cache Experience Yet

Of our now 426 finds, only 19 of those happen to be multi caches. It is not that we do not like them or avoid them. Traditional are just simply everywhere we look out here and we try to get them all. However, we did have an experience with a multi cache that put quite a sour taste in our mouth. Back in the fall of 2008 Erin and I decided to go on a rather long cache day that began with us trying to find a nine stage multi cache that seemed rather exciting. It was placed in the town of Lexington which was small and the cache was meant to give us a tour of the town while searching out a cache. It sounded like a great idea at the time. We arrived to the first coordinates, which somehow directed us to some barn in which people were painting. The description said we would end up at an old train station. We decided to ask the people and they said that the train station was about a half mile east. This was just the beginning of a messed up cache. So we get to the train station with which there was no correct coordinates leading us there. The next two stages went alright and we were beginning to become optimistic again. Wrong again, because the fourth coordinates brought us back to that same barn and said that a sign would be there to obtain numbers off of. We searched high and low for a sign that did not exist. Reading ahead in the description we were able to brute force our way to the next couple of stages which were again messed up. They were describing all these signs we were supposed to see that magically were not there anymore. After two hours of frustration we finally managed to find the cache by pretty much guessing since the entire thing was wrong. I still wonder how people were able to find that before us because it was ridiculous. If I sound bitter it is because I am. After that find we tried to reach out to the cache hider and we got a lot of attitude back. It was not a great experience what so ever, but we did learn from it.

Geocaching is my Escape

With college quickly coming to a close it is really beginning to become very stressful. When the weekends come I just want to do something other than think about school. In fact, school is the last thing I want to think about until Sunday night when it is time to study for the next day’s inevitable exam. Anyways, the weekends are when I can free myself of the chains of education and go geocaching. There are so many benefits to this sport for me. Not only do I find it as a very fun hobby to just do for fun but it helps me to take my mind off of the things that are going on around me. I may go off on some tangents here but it is only because my mind has been so jumbled as of late. I am trying to find a career for after I graduate and in doing so I have had interviews almost every week. I do not know what day of the week it is anymore. This past weekend when I went home it was such a breath of fresh air to be out in the woods again completely oblivious to the fact that in less than two months I will be facing the real world head on. I am not sure if other cachers get this feeling or not but I hope it never goes away. Even after I do find somewhere to work and begin a whole new chapter of my life I still want geocaching to be my escape from everything. Who knows what kind of stress I will be facing then. The one thing I do know is that whenever I need a pick me up or some kind of positive energy in my life I like to go geocaching. I realize I am still rather young and am pretty new to the whole geocaching scene. However, I do not think it is too early for me to notice that when I am out in the world searching for hidden treasure that every one of my problems or troubles just seem to disappear all together. Who could complain with that?

My Theory Behind Earth Caches

My father and fellow geocaching buddies often jokes with me about the amount of earth caches Erin and I have accumulated this past winter. Albeit it is only 13 total, that is a lot to a man that I believe has zero of them. He likes to make fun of the fact that in the area we find them, Bloomington-Normal, there is a lot of erratic rock caches. Therefore you will see pictures of us by rocks which is apparently a riot to him. I understand where he is coming from and although it may seem funny, I think there are solid reasons for earth caches being placed where they are. For instance, these rocks that we are finding are usually in a distinct area in which a glacier passed by some millions of years ago. Because of this the landscape is often more exciting than the typical Illinois farm field per say. I think that a majority of these earth caches are placed to bring the cachers out to discover certain areas and in turn reward them with a cache find for doing so. It is a win-win situation in my opinion. I can recall my favorite earth cache we have done this far. It involved driving out to a wind farm that is several miles in the middle of nowhere. In order to get credit for this cache we had to answer various questions about these fantastic turbines and also take a picture with one in the background. Basically, we were able to gain knowledge about something we would have otherwise not known too much about. Not to mention, the information is actually really neat once it is put into perspective. Then we had the opportunity to get up close to one of these things. Let me tell you, they are gigantic once you are right underneath them. It was a great experience that I would not trade for the world. Earth caches are a valuable asset to the geocaching world and as long as they exist, we will keep on finding them.

What May Happen Next

It was beautiful to have finally cached again this past weekend after such a long layoff from the field. What scares me most now is the duration that is about to occur before we get the opportunity to cache again. With Erin deep into student teaching and myself rapidly approaching crunch time in school it may be months before we get the chance again. It is depressing because geocaching is something I look extremely forward to doing on the weekend because it takes my mind off of all this school stuff that clogs my brain Monday through Friday. Our goal of having 500 finds by the time of our Arizona trip in May looks very bleak at this point and that is sad as well. I realize that it is really time to get my work done to insure my success following my graduation from college. Everyone needs a break from time to time though. I just will not be able to utilize my breaks to go geocaching because A. Erin has the GPS with her back home in Crystal Lake and B. Erin is back in Crystal Lake geocaching. I suppose that if my urge became way too large to handle I could go back to the old times and try to find a few using Google maps. Then again, Erin will not be able to accompany and I do not enjoy myself when I am not with her. Besides, caching alone can indeed become very lonely in itself. Basically, it is going to take a while for me to convince myself that geocaching is going to have to be put on the back burner for a bit. School is very important to me and there is no sense in slacking too much now. I am really hoping that by keeping up with this blog and my website, my enthusiasm will stay positive and when the times comes for me to cache again I will be totally ready.

What a Weird Day of Caching

This weekend Erin and I were finally able to cache again and in doing so we collected a mere 23 finds. It may not sound like a lot; however, we were deep in some crazy forest that had many ups and downs, literally. My dad had talked with his caching friend and they both decided that if we all went caching this weekend that it would be in a park in Oswego, Illinois. I had no problems with this idea because I know that spring is upon us meaning that the weeds and bugs will be back sooner rather than later. I really wanted to take advantage of the fact that it was going to be nice out without the annoyance of the bugs or weeds yet. Naturally, I figured that it was going to be the typical, yet exciting journey into a new park. We would discover many new places that would undoubtedly shock and awe us as they usually do. I was not mistaken with the shock and awe, however it was kind of mixed emotions. These were not your typical hiking trails. In fact, they were built for horseback riding which still surprises me as I write this. The paths went up and down constantly bringing us down steep hills and then forcing us to jog up the other side. It was indeed a nice workout. Not only that, but when you tried to bushwhack, it was nearly impossible due to the thickness of the brush. Some caches did get a little aggravating because we were walking through walls of brush that just scratched at you relentlessly. Not to mention, there were a lot of creeks and streams that we had to traverse. Erin did not enjoy this seeing as she got wet on nearly all of them. In the end, the park turned out to be alright once we found better paths to take. It was a very large park that we were able to clear out and discover every cache. I can only imagine how hard these caches get in the summer.

Ideas for Unique Cache Containers

Lately I have been unable to cache nearly as much as I would want to so I have had time to begin thinking about when and where to hide our next cache. Now, I say I have had time to do it, but it does not mean I have done that much as far as making progress is concerned. There are a few things I am sure of that must occur in our next hide. First off, I want to probably make it a micro because we have yet to hide one of those. Next, I want this hide to be fairly tricky for even the veterans to find quickly which also makes a good case for it to be a micro. In thinking about this much it has occurred to me that in order for it to be genuinely tough I will need to think of the perfect cache container to place. There are numerous routes I can take in approaching this as well. Basically, the first step for us is to decide on an area for the next hide so I can search out the surroundings and assess what kind of micro will blend in the best and cause some trouble for the finder. Here is my dilemma though; should I buy a pre-made container or build one with the numerous materials available? I think it would be more unique to build my own but then I look at the ones online and they look so elaborate and perfect that I am tempted to buy those. I am really at odds about this one because I am afraid that I could not build a good enough micro to satisfy my urge to have a cache that is actually very tough to find. I guess I am trying to find out feedback from people who have hidden pre-made ones versus built their own. I have found both and they seem equally hard to find if done right. It looks like I am going to be thinking about this up until we find the place to hide it which at this rate may be awhile.

Finally

I have had enough of sitting and waiting to get out a cache. It has been over a month since Erin and I have done a substantial search and my patience is wearing thin. Not to worry though because this weekend my wishes will all be granted. I will be heading back home to meet up with Erin as it is her Spring Break for where she is student teaching. Even better, this weekend it will be a complete double whammy! My dad is going to join us on a trip of a minimum of 25 finds come Saturday. You have no idea how excited I truly am. With the weather being as nice as it has been lately I have been itching to get out there. Not to mention, as the warmer weather comes, so does the poison ivy with it. I want to get out in the woods at least one more good time before I have to really watch what I am doing. In fact, my dad just asked me today what kind of caches I thought we should go after this weekend and my answer was please no park and grabs. Since we have been away for so long I want to make sure we have a nice trip into the wilderness rather than drive-ups. To be honest, this next time I am totally not focused on numbers for one of the first times in a while. I know I mentioned a minimum of 25 finds, but you got to realize if I was after numbers 40 or so would be what I would be willing to minimally attain. Even then, if we do not hit 25 I will not be too upset. The main thing is that we will be back to the old grind and even have the luxury of my father coming along as well. Be prepared for the stories that are inevitably going to come out of this journey taking place this Saturday!

Our First Travel Bug: Update

A while back I wrote about the turmoil of our first and only owned travel bug. At that point it had only traveled roughly 30 miles in a matter of five months. Here we are two months later even and the travel bug was up to 150 total miles. What I must mention though is that those 80 miles added on were thanks to Erin and I. We took matter into our own hands. The bug was not moving out of the cache it was in so we decided to go out and grab it. It was a good thing we did because the cache was at risk of being either muggled or destroyed. Anyways, we made the decision to move it back to Erin’s hometown. A few weeks passed and we finally drove there on a weekend to take some time off of school. We planned a very basic day of caching and in doing so also intended on replacing our travel bug. I hope you can kind of see where this is going. The bug was placed again in a semi-decent cache that was just hidden. We figured that since it was new cachers would flock to it for quite some time. We were wrong, very wrong. I came to find out the other day that it appears this cache has been muggled. There are two DNF’s in a row stating that they looked for quite some time with no success. This cache was a very simple find in the first place. The fact that they looked around for a long time only reassures me that it is gone. I was slightly worried when hiding our bug in this cache but I was hoping it was just nerves. It is kind of depressing to have your first travel bug move a grand total of 150 miles before it disappears forever. Instances like this only make me angrier with muggles and their willingness to steal something with little or no value inside. It is going to definitely take some time before we decide to take the now risk of putting out a new travel bug. If and when we do, however, we are going to make sure it is hidden in a well hidden cache that is still found quite often.

A Few More FTF’s to Finally Keep Us Moving

It has been a long time since Erin and I have been out in the field collecting multiple caches in one outing. As a matter of fact, it will continue to be a long time because although I was able to snag two caches a few days ago, they were unfortunately without her. I had actually been at work at The Home Depot on Sunday and a fellow cacher came in to buy some stuff for their house. Naturally, we began talking about geocaching because that is what we do. After a little chit chat he hinted to me that he hid two caches on his way to the store and that I should keep my eye out for them to be published that night. He even went as far as telling me that they were going to be close to my home. I know that some people may not agree with this, but it was all harmless. Everyone had equal chances once they were published because all the hardcore cachers in my area all get text messages the moment a cache is ready to go. Immediately when I got home from work I filled my dad in on the information that I had received and we decided to wait it out and just see when the caches published. It had been getting pretty late and still no caches were popping up as new. Finally, at about nine at night I got two text messages regarding two new caches in the area. It was them! After a few minutes of deliberation with my father, we decided to give it a go and see if we could get first to finds on both of the caches. We did the one closer to our house first thinking that was our best shot and turns out it was. We found it and discovered a clean log inside of it. It was nice to get another FTF under our belt. Then it was time to head to the other one further from the house and just hope that one of the other cachers did not snag it up yet. I must say that I was not to confident with this one, but turns out we were indeed FTF again! Basically, in a nut shell, I still am itching to have an all day cache hunt with Erin the next time I see her, but the satisfaction of achieving two FTF’s in one night should at least hold me over a little while longer.

My Progress Thus Far

So as I have said numerous times, this blog and website can all be attributed to one of my college classes during my senior year. With that said, here I am halfway done with the semester and I am going to attempt to evaluate myself and the project as a whole. Caution, this will probably be one of the very few blogs that have little mention of geocaching events. Anyways, I can tell you that being given this project has helped me a lot so far. First off, I never really thought I would enjoy blogging from the beginning. I have come to like it more and more every time I post a new blog. I realize that the traffic aspect takes time or may never happen. However, you learn that blogging and website building is not just all about that. If you enjoy doing it, then continue with it. I believe that traffic will eventually comes once the search engines decide that what you are doing is legit. At this midpoint I can tell you that I do intend on continuing this blog and website even after the semester ends. I know that in order to also be considered a legit blogger that you need to blog regularly. While I am trying my best to keep up with this, it is a little tough at this point with my heavy workload in school. I hate making excuses and I don’t want that to be, but it is the truth. I can only hope that after school I am able to be a little steadier with my posts in order to achieve more recognition. With that said, I am pretty sure I will never run out of geocaching stories to tell, so blogging should become easier and easier as a I learn this new gig. As far as my website goes, it is definitely still a work in progress. Not to mention it is done on a free platform which will take even longer to become found by searchers. This aspect I definitely do not mind because I need the time to develop the thing into exactly what I want it to be. All in all, this project is real exciting and I look forward to seeing how far I go with it.

Having Those Bad Days

There definitely will come days when you are out geocaching and it just seems like it is not your day. I am not going to lie; these can severely ruin my morale when I am on a mission to find at least 20 in any particular day. The worst way to begin a day full of geocaching is beginning with a “did not find” on your first attempt. Then it just feels like the day is going to continue to roll downhill. I have come to learn that with more experience eventually comes more patience. I am going to be honest, there have been times where we will DNF our first three searches and you do not want to talk to me after that. However, I think that there is a combination of patience and calmness that need to accompany you when you are searching for caches. It seems like the days that I get extremely angry will continually get worse. Imagine that. I have noticed that the more calm and collected I stay when we get a few DNF’s the better off I am as we continue our search. Not to mention, I like to plan a few extra caches in order to accommodate for those few DNF’s that will occasionally occur. I know that may have come off as being somewhat negative, but I like to accomplish my find goal each day and if that means taking DNF’s into account, then I am going to continue that. Moreover, patience has become my best friend as of late. There have been times when I search for five minutes and get frustrated because the cache has not jumped out at me right away. I have become much more patient with my searches and have even come to realize that the moment I am about to walk away I will find the cache. Talk about bitter sweet. I think the best thing for any cacher to realize is that DNF’s are going to occur no matter how good of a cacher you are. It is just up to you on how you want to handle them. If you stay positive then there is no reason you could not still have a successful day. This has helped me immensely over the past few months.

Going the Distance

I know this is kind of early to post something like this, but I have said before that I fully intend on finding as many caches as possible before I ever even think about quitting this sport. It is my hope that one day we can reach 20,000 finds and then some. I am honestly unsure of the exact amount that the highest finder has found but I intend on finding more. I know that some of you will assume that it is wishful thinking but that only gives me the motivation to actually get there. I can promise you that the moment I graduate and figure out exactly what I am doing with my life that I will then figure out just how I am going to accomplish this monstrous task. It may take years on end, but then again, that is what motivates me. I find geocaching as my way to step out of the typical thing that we do every day. After along day’s work I can definitely see myself coming home and wanting to go caching to basically take my mind off of the day’s work. It is a release that if you have yet to feel then you are missing out. I realize that I am probably preaching to the choir on this one, but I feel everything I say needs to be said. After all, that is why I started this blog. I want to express my ideas in hopes of responses to elaborate on anything I say. I think it is many cachers’ goal to be the best one day and I am ready for the competition. However, I like to think that I thrive under pressure and the idea of everyone trying to beat me only makes me want it more. I guess the only way to see if this actually happens is to check in with me ten years from now and see my stats. I am hoping that I can impress many cachers with my accomplishments one day.

Our Upcoming Journey

Coming this summer, Erin and I are planning a road trip to Arizona. This is a prime opportunity for us to finally branch out of Illinois and find caches in numerous different states. I can only hope that we are able to snag as many as possible. I figure that by road tripping we will be able to experience many different states. We will take the northern route down to Arizona and then take the southern route home. This will allow us to cache in at least 10 states I presume. There are a few ideas of things we want to do before we embark on this new journey. For instance, we are contemplating buying as many travel bugs as the states we plan on caching in. This way we will place one in every state and see where they end up moving. It seems like a good idea mentally, now we will just have to see if it pans out physically. After our rough experience with our one and only travel bug I can tell you that we are a little nervous to place more travel bugs out in the game. However, we know that we will eventually and what not a better time to do it. Not to mention, during our drive out there we are planning on doing some of the most scenic drives in America. We bought a book that tells you how to get to them and we look forward to finding caches on these routes. If I think that finding new parks and such in Illinois is amazing, I can only imagine what my opinion will become after this trip. I get more excited everyday and the trip is still a few months away from occurring. What I can assure is that we are going to have fun going about our mission of finding as many caches as possible on our journey to Arizona.