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...