FTF Day!

May 19, 2013 -- Once the initial thrill of Geocaching in general wears off.  (For us, it still hasn't completely..) the next thing to do is find something you haven't done before.  For the Lorax Gang it was accomplishing an FTF or "First to Find".  There is something truly thrilling about getting to a brand, new cache and seeing a completely empty log, knowing that the last person that saw that log was the person who placed the cache there to begin with.  Pretty darn cool.  The Jenners 3 had accomplished that feat last summer, but we had to travel pretty far to do it because of the avid nature of the geocachers around our area.

So on Sunday, May 19, I happened to check my email and saw that a series of caches had been placed nearby.  At my morning Gulp* session with one of the Lorax Gang, I happened to mention it.  She jumped on the idea and decided to go for it. We called the other member of the Lorax Gang and our team of three was formed to strike out for the elusive FTF.

mmcfarland which has been our cache hider of choice of late had also placed the new set of caches in a park nearby our neighborhood.  We ended up parking at a nearby Educational Center.  We noted there were no cars parked nearby -- which was good news for our FTF possibilities.

Our "bonus" turtle

We headed down the path and the first one we were headed toward was North East South Test along the Muncaster Mill trail.  Knowing mmacfarland's caches pretty well since we'd found all the caches along Park Vista ICC all the way to Georgia Avenue, the one thing we noticed were the titles of the all the caches gave you clues as to their whereabouts.  So the first one called, "North East South Test" must mean something.  We let our iPhone lead us to the general area, but we just didn't know what we were looking for other than a nano.  I stood there thinking of the name, trying to glean some info from it as mmacfarland often does "North East South Test"- why not West?  Why Test? Then it dawned on me "N - E - S - T".  Each letter of each word in that exact sequence spelled out the word "nest."  So we were looking for a nest.  But, of course, a nest can mean a bird's nest or a lair type nest, or a crazy broken bundle of branches that look like a nest.  On our quest we came across this fellow: (left)


A box turtle.  We took his pic, but that's all, as taking turtles out of their habitat is illegal.  Besides he was happy where he was.  And it was a bonus, as M put it.  A bonus to our own happy geocaching adventure. Shortly thereafter we stumbled across this (left) and this (right).

Pointing out the obvious.

The NEST

So it was a nest.  Just a homemade one.  Complete with fake eggs and a real nano.  We excitedly pulled out the log and YES!! PRISTINE!!  NO ONE ON IT!!  Lovely, lovely surprise!  We thought for sure we'd get skunked, but NOT THIS DAY!  The Lorax Gang's official FTF and my second.

WOO HOO!!  The fever was starting...

What the Lorax Gang didn't know, but I did was that this was a just the first in a string of caches that had been placed the day before.  They thought that this one was the only one.  Imagine their surprise when I said, "Let's find the next one!"  

And so we did.

Next Up:  Protrusion

The name says it all, but the problem was the terrain showed A LOT of protrusions, so we just had to keep looking through all of them until we hit the one that had the stash in it.  Finally the least likely one was the winner.  A small protrusion of a stump in the ground was the cache location.

Protrusion

Well hidden

Third FTF?  V.  Okay, is that V as in five or as in the alphabet character? Or something else we haven't even considered?

Along the path we went with our trusty iPhone and Magellan leading the way.  About another 1/10 mile and we were at the site.  Nothing was stand out really.  Until we noticed the shape of the logs.  The seemed to form a, you guessed it, "V" shape.  Upon further investigation:

Not a flattering angle

Like this is better?

 But we did find our cache and our third FTF of the day.  We were on a ROLL.  Next up??

Mighty Fallen

Now I had a pretty good hunch, as did my colleagues, that Mighty Fallen must refer to a tree.  Since we were in the forest.  Surrounded by trees.  Many of which had fallen.  MANY.  Which didn't make this an easy one by any means.

Then we spotted what SURELY had to be THE TREE.  We investigated.  Nothing.  Looking around the area where our GPS had sent us, we saw no other tree that could possibly fit the description of "mighty fallen" other than the one we were standing in front of.  What the what??

D and stick

D, being our most resourceful, and least likely to stick his hand into a rotted log (me, being the most likely) had resorted to taking a stick (see above) and digging around the stump (see right of pic -- the end of the massive stump).  Lo and behold about a foot down under a huge crush of leaves, we uncovered the cache.  Now I have to take a bit of exception here because technically nothing is supposed to be "buried."  I think a foot down under leaves constitutes "buried."  Yes, we did find it, and yes, we did get the FTF, but I think maybe it shouldn't be so deep.  We, of course, placed it back where we found it.  I also just looked to see if anyone had trouble finding it after us.  No one mentioned it so I guess I should keep my trap shut!  And I think the hint really does help so there you are!

Lovely M and her dolphin

Last FTF of our all FTF day:  Z

Owing to the fact that V was the shape of the wood in which we found the cache, Z was a no brainer.    Kind of like Z for Zombie (also a no-brainer--get it?)  So off we went on the trail to find our Z-shaped logs.  iPhone tracked to the spot.  Z logs found.  Presto!  Zingo!

FIVE FTF's IN ONE DAY!!  HOORAY!

D at our last FTF of the day

All in all a perfect geocaching day.  We didn't stumble across any other fellow geocachers and made our way back to the car without incident.  A great day for geocaching for the Lorax Gang and the Jenners3.  TFTC!!

This Is a Cache Only Line!

April 14, 2013 -- Had a spare hour and decided to go with the Lorax Gang on a beautiful day to cache a bit.  Our friends had had to put their cat to sleep that day and we decided to take the young son out to make him feel better.  Caching always has that effect on people.  The Lorax Gang, The Jenners 3, and Spencer went geocaching at the new Norbeck Park.

The first cache we tried to find was Jacquelyn's Cache which was supposed to be by the kiddie park.   After about twenty minutes of fruitless searching we gave up.  There were four of us searching all over the place with muggles all around (it was a beautiful day).  But no luck at all.  This was listed as a 1 1/2 star difficulty.  If that's the case, then I can only assume that it's missing.  I put a maintenance note in for the owner.  She needs to go and check it out to make sure the cache is still there since the last five people to try to find it have come away empty-handed. 

The second cache at the park was findable.  The name of the cache is Plastic Blocks Trading - Meg Dolphin Finder.  It is a lock and lock that was placed relatively easily for families to find. It's purpose was to trade plastic blocks/legos/duplos etc.  I have to say that there weren't any of those to be had in the cache when we got there.  Hopefully down the line, people will replenish the stash with some legos and duplos.   It was another one of those.  Okay, think logically and you'll find it.  Forest, trees, where could it be?  Once you figure out where it COULDN'T BE it's easy to find where it should be.  And that was the end of our caching that day.  Mission accomplished!!

The Great Cache-A-Thon Day Two

Following the wire to its source

Meet "the wire"

Yep, another sneaky one!

March 30, 2013 - Day Two of the Great Cache-A-Thon had two of the Jenners 3 and only one Lorax along this time as we continued our quest to find DII, C, B, and A of the Hiking/Biking ICC Trail, Georgia Trail series.   Oh yikes!  This one definitely took us awhile even on Day Two and once we found it, we were shaking our heads.  The problem lies in the fact that if you get something into your head about "what it SHOULD be" rather than thinking outside the box, you will never find what it is you seek.  Once you let go of your foregone conclusion and just let your mind wonder, then you end up finding your cache.  This one is not for the faint of heart!!

Checked off DII and moved to C!  And this was another sneaky one.  But once you are in the mind of mmacfarland, things end up being easier and easier as you go down the trail.  We (Drew) found this one without too much difficulty using the idea of "what has no earthly purpose being here" method of geocaching.  And this did not.  Another micro notch for our geo-belts.  It did take a bit of "reflection" to find as mmacfarland so aptly put it!

Moving towards the head of the trail and on to B! It was and wasn't where we thought it would be.  This one was difficult in that we had a pretty good idea where it SHOULD have been but it wasn't.  It really wasn't until we put our GPS's away that we found it.  And it was just tossed off to one side.  I think it had been found by a muggle and muggle-ized.  We ended up putting it where we are SURE it should've been in the first place and not 50 feet away from where both of our GPS's said it should be.  There was other evidence of tampering, but now it's back in its home and ready to be found by the next geocachers out there.

Down there!

"A" was our very last cache of this day and it was a honey! It was a quick find for us to end our day (rather than start it as we did this trail backwards).  Drew ended up taking the Kuwaiti coin (thank you very much) and we were all happy that we had done the entire trail from start to finish.  Upon further inquiry, we have discovered that mmacfarland has placed a few more caches since March 30, so now we must go back and find those caches to round out the trail.  Our next grouping will have to be mmacfarland's Emory Road trail.   Can't wait to try out that one!  TFTC!!

The Great Cache-A-Thon

March 30, 2013 - We FINALLY got back to caching after a long drought of no caching due to winter hibernation.  I realize that's no excuse, but it is mine and I own it.  On this day the Jenners 3 minus 2 and the Lorax Gang also minus 2 took off for the many and varied caches along the fairly newly built Intercounty Connector (ICC).  (That huge structure that sits about 50 yards from my house -- yeah, lovely).  Drew, Intrepid Lorax #1, found that the hike/bike trail next to my house had a virtual GOLD mine in terms of geocaches running along it and we decided to "cache in."  (Love it, don't you?  hee hee).

Our first cache catch of the day was H/B ICC Post and by a post it was.  See pic below:

ICC Post - note post

This was a nano and all you could do was write your name on the TEENY TINY little log that was in a TEENY TINY little tube.  No swag for this gang.

And we're moving on...

Next on our list was H/B ICC More Container Fun.  Not to be confused with Container Fun which we do next.  I think we may have inadvertently started on the wrong end of the trail.  Oh well, no go backs!

Evil, evil container

Container FUN?!?  More like container evility (is that even a word?--my guess is that if "Funner" is now a word then "evility" can be a word, too--so there!)  But we did find this one - see pic to the right.  Drew isn't so sure this is "fair" but those evil geocache hiders have done their work and we have our work cut out for us.  Thanks, mmacfarland for this wonderful hides!!

Next up - ICC H/B Container Fun - Yep, another case of Cache Evility right here -- and so close to home!

See pic below!  Who would think to put an evil bison cache in a thing that looks like, well some kind of ICC type thingy?  Only mmacfarland!  That's who!!  But Melissa picked up on this one right away and the cache was a cinch for our eagle eyed crack team of geocachers.  Is it a bird, is it a plane, no it's the Lorax Gang and Jenners 3 to the cache!!

Drew and Melissa eye the evil bison cache

Would you have noticed this?

Wow!  This day is going GREAT!  We will surpass our last great caching day by 10x!  We are on a roll.

Next up - Yep, you guessed it.  ICC H/B Log It.  

Did you guys-- ahem--"log" this one yet?

We learned that we needed to pay special attention to the titles of the caches by mmacfarland.  Those were clues as well.  SOOOO off we went to the next on the list.   I don't think any explanation is needed after you take a gander at the picture to the right.  Yeah.  That's it.

Rolling rock

On  the road again - to - ICC H/B Rock n Roll    And here is the pic from that little beauty. (left)  Rock.  Roll.  Well, you get it, right?  Love the puns.



What's next on this intrepid journey?  ICC H/B RIDE ON.  I have to admit that this one was one of my very favorites.  It was devious, intelligent, well-thought out, ridiculous, cunning, clever, canny, and all the other "c" words you can think of.   I really loved this one.  Turns out that all you needed to do was figure out the old adage "what is here that's not like the others."  If there is a bolt that is not bolting something into place, is it still a bolt?  That seems a little Zen actually, but that's exactly what the answer to this puzzle is.  It's NOT a bolt, it's a cache!

RIDE ON sign

Yeah, yeah, I know it LOOKS like a bolt, but the end of it is hollow and inside is stashed the log book.  Yes, it is BYOP!  This bolt was in the Ride On sign and it was not bolting anything in place so a quick unscrewing and checking to be able to check this off our list!

This is one devious cache

And we continue to...ICC H/B Picnic. (Picture left) This one was a no-brainer.  Meaning those that have absolutely NO brains can still find it.  Hmm.  Picnic table, by itself, off the beaten path, nothing else around.  Lock and Lock.  Done and done.  This was the first lock and lock that we came across on our ICC H/B caches for this day.  It was a welcome respite to have one that was a pretty easy grab.

Onward to ICC H/B Marking Time. (Picture right) Lorax Gang member #2 found this one with ease.  It's another of those that you just have to use your spidey senses and thought processes to find.  Melissa had an evil glint in her eye when she eye-spied this one.

The Russian Princess

Wow!  We are absolutely crushing the ICC H/B series!  Woo hoo!  Bring it on!  Next up -- Christmas Tree.  Okay, this one was pretty obvious and another quick find.  Luckily it was also a lock and lock so I was able to FINALLY drop off my Russian doll tracker bug.  I had had this since we did our first geocaching in Wyoming last June.  I felt really bad that I'd kept it so long and needed to set it free.  These caches were getting a lot of traffic so I thought it was important to place her in one of these.  Within a day of placing her in the cache she was off again on another adventure!  Whee!

Christmas tree.  Get it?

Bye bye Russian princess!  Hope you find your way back home!!

Next up for the Caching Gang was the first in the next series along the ICC trail (actually the last of the series on the next part of the trail since we were doing these backwards).  And this would be.....F- Hiking/Biking ICC Trail, Georgia Trail  

This one should have been E for EVIL.  Because that's what it was.  E-----V------I-----L!!!  As I said in my geocaching log, this one you find in many fairy tales as an evil omen or an evil ingredient.  Apparently, upon checking my iPhone I did not take a picture of this one.  Hmm.  Not sure why.  Probably because I was totally flummoxed and forgot to since the find was so hard to -- find.  But wary of this one, very, very wary.  And beware of poisonous fungus!


The next up was, of course, the actual E.  E-Hiking/Biking ICC Trail, Georgia Trail.    This one was a bit hard to find, only because it was so well hidden.  A traditional lock and lock.  Nothing that fancy about it really if you keep your wits about you and know the type of cache hider that mmacfarland is, but you definitely need a few easy ones interspersed with the really tough ones - see F.

Hmmm.  Is this....???

Stalking the lock and lock

Then there was DII and D in the series.  DII was a challenge because it was off the beaten path and down a pretty steep hill.  It took awhile to figure out where it could be because there were MANY places that a lock and lock could be placed on that hillside.  It was a matter of hunting around until we hit upon it.

Yep.  I found it!

This time I was the finder and I took my picture with my new iPhone 5.  As you can see it takes LOVELY pictures of a squinting lady holding out the phone and trying to figure out how to use the backwards photo capability.

By the fence under lots of grass

This ended up being our last find of the day.  Why?  Because D was the biggest challenge of the day and one that we were not mentally or physically capable of doing.  We were all pretty hungry at that point and needing to get home.  We did attempt it on this day, but gave up after about 15 minutes of searching when our stomachs began to protest loudly.  Our search continued the next day...

It's a Whole New Year!

March 22, 2013

New Year, New Geochallenges!

Yes, it is definitely a WHOLE NEW YEAR!!  And it's begun with a bang!  Well, not completely true, but my geocaching buddy, Melissa, reminded me that it's been WWWAAAAAYYY too long since we've been geocaching.  In fact, for me, it's been since October. It's getting to be Spring again when the weather is milder, and the plants and critters begin to stir.  Although you'd never be able to tell from the thermometers!  Yesterday was downright bitter.  But I digress...

With Spring comes the Caching Across Maryland challenge that actually began on March 16th and continues through May 5th.  The challenge is to find 10 caches across the entire state from the "panhandle" to the Eastern shore.  It is said that people have driven over 1000 miles in years past to get all these caches.  In the end, you are rewarded with a set of coordinates that take you to a special picnic for those that were clever enough and/or persistent enough to find all the caches in the challenge.

I accept the challenge.

I with my intrepid team shall take on the Caching Across Maryland challenge and defeat it at its core.  Or something like that.

So stay tuned for a lot more geocaching fun and games as Geocaching 2013 ramps up for another fun summer!

20,000 Leagues Under the....Park

October 10, 2012 - Charleston, SC

Finding the cache!

Recording for posterity.

My sister and I take an annual trip together and this year was the year of Charleston.  Since I was down there I decided that I would HAVE to do a cache since I was in another state and could rack up another State Badge by finding one.

This cache was from a series of caches named after books.  From the title we surmised (quite cleverly, I might add, that the cache MUST be near water).  And so it was!  In fact, it was in a park that was next to a marina and near a school (you know, like school of fish....right?) 

Charleston is a beautiful and friendly city and one that I would have LOVED to have done more caching in, but I had already been on my feet for three days straight and probably logged about 20 miles so I just couldn't do any more extensive walking than this.  Besides it was our last day in Charleston and we didn't have more time to spend on geocaching.

This one was a very easy cache and I was able to drop off one of the errant tracker bugs I have! 

Saving Snow

August 18th, 2012 - It was a warm and sunny day (not a dark and stormy night).  It was finally the moment we had been waiting for. We had found all seven dwarves.  Our scouting parties had been successful and we had gotten the necessary codes to fill in the blanks for our coordinates to where Snow White was being held captive by the Evil Queen.  Actually one code was MIA, but I think that was on purpose -- to make us think a little harder. 

Saving Snow White

Once we plugged in the coordinates in our handy dandy GPS gadgets and got the directions to the "prison" we could see we were going to a very familiar place.  We'd been here for about four other caches.  We were ready!  We picked what we thought was the logical path to go down.  We headed down it chatting!  We were close! About 600 feet away!  Walking, walking, walking.  Wait a minute!  Now we're 1/10 of a mile away?  What?  We walked up and down the path once.  Twice.  Back and forth.  We couldn't seem to get any closer.  Was this a wicked enchantment put on our GPS by the Evil Queen?!?  The GPS kept bouncing and telling us we were close, but no cigar. 

There she is!

The ensourceled stump

Finally it seemed as though we were going to have to do some heavy bushwhacking in order to save Snow.  Hang on!  I pulled out the GPS and looked at the description, "About 10 feet off the path."  Okay, that does NOT jive with what is going on here.  Maybe we got the coordinates wrong!  I looked at them again -- nope they're right. Then my son says, "That's an 8."  I said, "No, it's a B."  He replies, "No it's not, it's an 8."  Well, darned if he wasn't right!  My poor eyes were not seeing the number 8, they were seeing a very clear letter B and as such I had filled in that part of the coordinate puzzle with the corresponding number for "B" rather than an 8.  Once we cleared up that misunderstanding, a short walk and the cache hiding place was pretty clear.  We found it easily.  And so to end this happy tale, Snow is once again FREE!  Huzzah to the scouting party!  Huzzah to her rescuers!  And they all lived happily ever after!!  The End!!