FTF, Lunch, and some Dallas Caching

I've been pretty busy at work lately and haven' t been able to do as much lunch caching as I like to - oh, ya, it's been raining, too. So when I saw a new cache pop up only about 6 miles from work (as the crow files, that is) I had to jump on it.


It was about 10AM when I finally got around to checking my email (and forget about checking it on my phone, there just hasn't been time). I noticed a new cache had been published that morning. I didn't really pay attention to the time it was published but I new it was after 7AM 'cause that's when I turned on my phone and there wasn't an email at that time. I pulled up the cache page and it was still blank - no finders yet. Woohoo - maybe a chance at an FTF for October. (It's not official, but I like to grab at least one FTF each month - except for those few months this last summer when Rebelex was gobbling them all up before I could get there).


I checked again around 11:30AM and still no finders. Humm... I might get lucky. There are other caches in the area that I haven't been able to go after (plus one DNF I would certainly like to rectify!) so it looks like this is the place for lunch today. New Road (GC1GXD9) was found at about 11:45AM. See the log for the suspenseful ending to the quest.

The it was off to Childs Play (GC1G7JN) - which I had previously DNF'd on Oct 2, 2008. I had to find that thing! As I approached the parking lot, a city truck loaded with sod turned into the lot just ahead of me. Rats! This may cause some issue since the cache is within view of the parking lot. That thought quickly dissipated as I watched the city worker get out of his car and head to the port-o-potty (see, there is good reason for having an inside job - no portable restrooms). As he went in I quickly headed out to GZ. I scanned the area for places I hadn't searched yet - and there weren't many. I did notice a couple of places, though, and immediately started searching them. In less than 2 minutes I had the cache in hand as was signing the log. I quickly put it back, made it back to my car, and was driving off before the worker finished his business. I don't know how I missed finding that the first time but at least the cache is now off my DNF list. (see the log entry here)

I went on to find two other caches just to the south. I just hadn't spent the time to walk the trails in this area but sine I was here and the first two went so quickly I figured I might as well do it today. Both were fairly quick finds but at noon there are quite a few walkers, runners, bikers, and stroller pushers in the area so I had to time it just right when I decided to leave the trail. Those caches were Beyond Repair (GC1F79E) and Pictureesque (GC1F7A6) - both hidden by TopGear. Thanks for the hides!


As my post below indicated I reached 2000 finds while on a business trip to Dallas, TX. The rest of the pictures in this post are from some pretty interesting caches and places in Dallas.

This was a tough one to get to. Around and around. You'd never know that this was in the middle of 3 major streets just hanging there. As I walked back from getting this cache a person waiting for the light to change asked if I found the cache. He was a cacher, too.







Ok, this isn't a Dallas cache. It's from the Minneapolis area. I can't say much else but the hider put a lot of work into this. No, you're not looking at the container!

This one turned out to be missing. You're looking at the cap of an acorn. The acorn was not a normal acorn size. The cap your looking at was about 1" across. The bottom part is missing - which was the cache container. If you look really close you can see the fishing line it's hanging by.

One Bugger of an FTF

Caching at lunch today wasn't quite what I had intended. I had planned on grabbing 5 new caches in the area - they've been placed in the last couple of days. One was a possible FTF so I went that way first - Calvin Chooses his fathers Nursing Care Facility (no I don't get the name either but that's ok).

Here's the story as it was written in the log on geocaching.com.

WooHoo!! FTF @ 12:58PM. This was actually a co-FTF with __________ (Dang! I didn't write the caching name down and now I've forgotten it - sorry about that)

This was one BUGGER of a find!! I spent about 40 minutes looking at every spot possible. I climbed, poked, prodded, dug, sifted, and moved just about everything. Did you notice that this was hidden BEFORE all the leaves started to fall!! Yes there is a bed of new leaves (with many more to come in the near future).

Then I realized..... the east side of one tree is the west side of another (see the cache page to intrepet what the means)... Yikes, that makes it even harder! So more poking, prodding, and sifting.

You know I have a meeting back at work that I'm supposed to be back for at 1:00. I don't think I'm going to make it...

It's about 5 minutes to 1. If I leave now I'll be about 10 minutes late....

One more try - I usually leave my electronic compass off on my Garmin Vista HCx. I'm going to turn it on and see where it leads me.

Ok, I've been to that tree already. Yep been there too. Humm, I've been here a lot - it's still pointing over there. I've been here before but I'm going to poke around some more.... VIOLA!! There it is!!

That was one bugger of a find, that's for sure!

Tough FTF Hunt

Yesterday (9-8-08) at about 4:45 a new cache popped up.  Roseville PNG (GC1G3BK) is only about 4 miles (as the crow flies) from where I work.  I decided it was time for me to pack up and head out - maybe I would be able to get the FTF!

I arrived at ground zero at about 5:15 or 5:20 and started the search.  I of course scoured the traditional locations very quickly and came up empty (BTW, future finders, don't play with the electrical box taped to the light pole.  The cache is NOT in there and the electrical box is live).

The area is definitely muggle heaven.  Tons of people around everywhere... but I can't give up now.  I widened the search radius and continued on.

After a short while I noticed three people walking toward me so I started walking back toward ground zero.  Soon one of them gave a little "hello" wave and smiled.  Of course I waved back and could tell they were cachers as well.  Turned out to be Lasreaine, Magicite, and Moonpies who were also hoping for the FTF.

We all continued looking throughout the area.  Some widening the search area and others keeping around ground zero.  Finally I heard the sweet sound of "found it" from right behind me (5:35PM).  Yes, behind me because I just searched that area.  It was Lasreaine who came up with the find - and it was a tough find at that!!

You can read my cache log for some more insights.  Lasreaine's log is there too.

Thanks for the fun hide, Joukkusisu.  It was great to meet three new cachers today and I hope to see them again sometime.

NOTE: Turns out this cache has been a thorn in others sides.  Lots of DNF's in the first 24 hours.

Holiday Caching and an FTF

My sister-in-law and her family are here visiting for the holiday. We just got cleaned up from a morning of paintball fun (but that's a different story all together) and I sat down to check email. While I'm sitting there two new caches pop up. One puzzle and one regular. Our visitors have only been caching once before - when they visited last time - and they've never done a puzzle cache before.

I printed the cache page out and handed it to my brother-in-law. After a few minutes he had it solved. Then I explained that these two caches had just popped up and that if we left now we might be able to get the coveted "first to find" honors (I explained what that was, too).

After a few minutes we had a group of six of us who wanted to go and a list of 10 caches that we might be able to grab - including the two FTF's. Of course each kid that came wanted to have a GPS so I had to load 4 other GPS's with waypoints (and charge the batteries that were dead). Loading only takes a few seconds with GSAK but charging took 15 minutes - and every minute counts when hunting FTF's in this area.

We headed straight for the first FTF attempt. ROCKIN' by KC0TWB. By the time we made it to the cache site the listing had been published for around an hour. The group was hopeful that the FTF might still be possible but I wasn't so sure. An hour is a long time in these parts.

After some hunting the kids finally found it (only a couple of small hints to get them going in the right direction). They were impressed by the container and the work put into it. I think they're beginning to like this game!! We opened the log and, yep, we were too late. We were 3rd to find. The kids wanted to trade all the SWAG so I pulled out the SWAG Bag and added a bunch of trinkets to the cache.

That one didn't result in an FTF but we had one more chance - the puzzle that my brother-in-law solved. We all piled back into the car and headed straight to that one (passing some other caches along the way in hopes of an FTF).

The next one was TXT4FUN by meralgia. When we pulled up I thought to myself another one of these (no, not an LPC but another popular hide in parks). As we approached I thought, yep it should be over there. The kids thought so, too, and started searching the area. I stood there watching the other five search and noticed something just a little different. Humm, that looks interesting. I meandered over and took a look - trying not to get the attention of the other five. Yep that's it - very cool! My sister-in-law saw me look at it and now we're playing the waiting game - giving hints every so often to get the group in the right spot. One of them even said, "What's a _____ doing there?" (sorry can't give too much away) But he didn't go check it out. We finally gave enough hints so the kids all found it.

We opened the container hoping that the log book might be blank. Slowly we opened the log book and VIOLA! A blank log book. WooHoo! We were first to find!

That was a fun find and now they're hooked. We continued the day finding more caches in the area, including the ones we passed on our way to the FTF. In all we nabbed 7 before heading home for dinner.

That night my brother-in-law ordered a Garmin Colorado 400t from Amazon. It will be here on Tuesday so we can play with it.

Note: the pictures are not from the caches mentioned in this posting so they are not spoilers for those caches. They are other caches we found today.

Trifecta Caching

WooHoo! A trifecta all in one cache!! I've had a trifecta day, or a trifecta week, but I don't think I've had a trifecta cache before!

Trifecta: The situation of having three major accomplishments or achievements in a sport, profession, or pastime.

Pastime: That which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably; sport; amusement; diversion; games.

Game: A pursuit or activity with rules performed either alone or with others, for the purpose of entertainment.

"Would you like to play a game? How about Global Thermal Nuclear War?" (10 bonus points of you know what move that quote is from)

Since Geocaching is a game, and a game is a pastime, and a trifecta is an accomplishment in a pastime I think the name qualifies: Trifecta Caching.

June has been a slow caching month for me for many reasons. Now that it's July I can get back on the bandwagon again - and there's no better way to do that than to start with a trifecta cache!

X=GZ (GC1DQGK) by Topgear was that cache.

The cache popped up last night as a new puzzle cache. I thought I might have a chance so I quickly solved the puzzle the old fassioned way (printed a map of the area with the coords on it then used a compass to disect some lines, drew a couple more lines and viola - ground zero was found). I was pretty sure Rebelex wouldn't be going after this since it was a puzzle, so my odds of being "first to find" where even higher. So I added X=GZ to my list of caches to go after on the way to work in the morning.

On the way to work I arrived at a parking lot near the cache. Another car was ahead of me and parked in the same end of the parking lot - where no other cars were.

"Humm", I thought, "Looks like I might have to share this find with another cacher."

I quickly got out of the car and so did the other person. We kinda glanced at each other and moved on. He grabbed a very large bag out of his trunk and headed toward a door.

"Whew, I think I'm back on my own for the hunt."

Approaching the cache I waded through tons of poison ivy, mosquitoes who wanted to drain my body of blood, and even a tic or two. After a short search I finally made the find, traded a travel bug, and signed the log.

Ok, now here's where the trifecta comes in. My three achievements are:

1. Marked off another day for "Bakers Dozen." This will be a puzzle for Day 5. My bookmark for the Bakers Dozen caches can be found here.
2. I needed an X for "Alphabet Soup" - X is the last one I need to finish that puzzle. My bookmark for the Alphabet Soup caches can be found here.
3. WOOHOO!! First to Find at 8:05AM. I really didn't think this one would last until 8AM but it did. I haven't had an FTF for quite a while - April 17 - so that makes it 2 1/2 months. SWEET!!

I finished the caching day by completing Day 5 of Bakers Dozen at lunch.

I wonder if there's such a thing as a quadfecta for next time....

Spring is here! I think...

I really should be focused on work today but I just had to get out for a quick cache hunt. The temp in the Twin Cities is finally above 70 degrees so it's time to do some spring caching.


Over the past week or so I spent most of my caching time at the University of Minnesota campus just east of downtown Minneapolis. Most of the caches I found were hidden by meralgia. She's got some excellent hides that are not only challenging but the high muggle traffic around the UofM make them plain hard at times.


On "Don't Give Up" (GC1B9KV) I was lucky enough to get the FTF!! WooHoo!! That makes 75 FTF's (I think). I still have 25 more to go before I can log King Boreas' Challenge cache for FTF's.


One interesting find hidden by Wylbur was "Pipeline" (GC1A3HH). Two things made this one fun. First the hide. I spotted it right away but had to find the right time to get it. Again, muggles in the area - and the house construction going on next door - make this one tough. Two, this one had a digital camera and Wylbur asked that you take a picture. So now my mug shot is out there for everyone to see. In taking the picture I couldn't hold the camera up and take a shot. I had to hold it down by the cache (which one on the trunk of my car) and shoot up at me. Hummm, that's one interesting photo.


Also in the UofM area was a puzzle cache called "Where's Yoda?" (GC196CE). firstbass does an excellent job at puzzle caches and this was another fun one (fun because I was able to solve it!!). The find was just as fun as the puzzle. The cache is hidden along the Mississippi river with a very nice view. It'll be even better once the trees and flowers bloom.


Today's caching took me to the White Bear Lake area. Some fun caching near Bald Eagle Lake. Yes, it's spring, but the ice isn't off the lake yet. I'm hoping it will be soon!!

Confounded Bridge

Yesterday I DNF'ed this cache because I can't read instructions correctly. Today, I met up with TeamCNJC to try for the cache again. Boy were we surprised when we checked the log.... No FTF but it was still fun. The snow is melting which makes lots of mud!

Cache Name: Where is that confounded bridge?
Waypoint: GC1A8NN
Log Entry:
After I showed that I couldn't solve a puzzle and TeamCNJC couldn't see we decided to go at this one together. We met at GZ and went after it. After a short search we were able to come up with the cache - opened the log - GWWR WAS HERE EARLIER TODAY!!! You're killing me GrayWolf! TeamCNJC and I come up 2nd and 3rd on this one. TNLNSL TFTC!! (and the lesson on solving puzzles)

In the Middle

I went caching on March 22nd in hopes of finding a new caches in the area and getting a First to Find. Isn't March 22nd supposed to be in spring?? What happend here? I'm not sure but this isn't much like spring.

Cache Name: In The Middle
Waypoint:GC1ADKE
Log Entry:
3-22-08 WooHoo!! FTF @ 11:15AM I thought someone else would have nabbed the FTF for sure. With all the snow you'll be able to follow the tracks. Go ahead and do that. My tracks will take you all over the place. It took me a long time to find this one. You know how you get something stuck in your head and you just can't let it go. We'll this was one of those. I finally got the crazy idea out of my head, thought clearly for a while, and made the find. Took the geocoin. TFTC, Rebelex!!