Black Friday Caching

dhrnrcpa and I had communication in regard to a cache run on the Friday after Thanksgiving, in which, retailers call Black Friday.  I try to pick a location to stay away from shopping areas.  We settled for the area around Chickasaw State Park located on Highway 100 south of Jackson.  We also discussed the route to stay away from Jackson.  We met in Huntingdon, traveled through Lexington, later turning West on Highway 100.  dhrnrcpa found over 20 caches that day and was much closer to his 1,000th career find.

We had a good time exploring the highway and state park.  There were many trails and terrain was a little tougher than expected.  For some reason, my ankles were really bothering me by the end of the day.  This has me concerned in that I planning on some hard hiking in January.

The Highway 100 series by dannobub, while area a powertrail and not the caches expected like the guard rails/sign posts in Selmer and Columbia, TN.  All had a place to park and forced everyone to get out of vehicle to search.

My favorite of the day was Lake Lajoie Semaphore .  Being a US Navy veteran, I was aware Semaphore being a communication form.  Solving the puzzle was easy.

Retirement

After 25 years of service, I retired from the Tennessee Army National Guard.  Upon completion of my last deployment from Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn, I took my medical conditions to the Veteran's Administration.  22 months after filing for disability, I was awarded 80% disability.  With the high percentage; it was advised by the full time staff that it would only be a matter of time before I would be discharged from the Guard and in the mean time, I would not receive drill pay or retirement points. After my conversation, I prepared and submitted my request for retirement.

My military career began with the US Navy at the naval station at Great Lakes, IL with basic training.  Later, I attended "A" School in NAS Millington, TN and studied on being a technician as Aviation Support Equipment Electrician.  During that school, I was awarded orders to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico.  Upon completion of the "A" school, I attended "C" schools at NAS Jacksonville, FL.  My time in Florida was probably the most fun period of my military career.  Visited beaches in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, and visited Magic Kingdom and EPCOT center.

Served the next 3 years in Puerto Rico within the Aircraft Immediate Maintenance Department. My work was not very enjoyable, at times working 18 hour shifts under a supervisor whom had no leadership ability who obtained the position due to extortion and blackmail.  I did enjoy the island, visited San Juan several times, a rain forest and swam the beaches.  I also made two trips to the US Virgin Islands, which were only 40 miles away.

Discharged from the US Navy, I joined the 1174th Transportation Company of the Tennessee Army National Guard while attending the University of Tennessee at Martin.  In 1990, my company was ordered to active duty and we deployed to Saudi Arabia to support Operation Desert Storm.  During that campaign, I was assigned to the wrecker and completed dozens of missions retrieving non-operable equipment.  Experienced the Highway of Death, bombing of Iraqi positions and burning oil fields.  Returned home later in 1990, completed my enlistment and left the Guard in 1992.

Re-joined the military in 1995 with the 498th Military Police Company in Murray, KY.  Work in that field was enjoyable with trips to the prison at Eddyville, KY, Kentucky Derby, concerts, Fort Clayton, Panama and Ecuador.  After about 4 years with the MP's, I transferred back to the 1174th in Tennessee.

In 2003, my unit was once again mobilized for war in Iraq.  We deployed to Kuwait and later moved to southern Iraq.  We hauled fuel to Baghdad and other places in Iraq.  We came under fire several times resulting in one KIA (SGT Roger Rowe) and one WIA (SGT Jackson, who was awarded the Purple Heart).  We came home at the end of 2003 and I remained in the Guard.  I transferred to the 1175th Transportation Company in 2006 for about 6 months and obtained the rank of Staff SGT (E-6).  Returned to Dresden that had become the 1171st Transportation Company.  The old trucks were gone and we drove newer Freightliner trucks with air ride seats and air ride cabs.  More comfortable trucks along with air conditioning would make haul missions more pleasant.

In 2009, the 1171st mobilized for Operation Iraqi Freedom that would become Operation New Dawn.  I stayed in Kuwait most of the time and did volunteer to go on one mission to Iraq.  Many of our missions were fired upon; and thankfully with armored trucks there were no injuries or deaths.

In November 2012, I retired after 25 years with nearly 4,000 retirement points.  In my career, I have deployed, visited or transitioned at:  Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Panama and Ecuador.  Within the United States, I visited Louisiana, California and Nevada.

Hydrology series

Pcsenn contacted me and wanted me to tag along for Hydrology 2, a cache that requires watercraft on Carroll Lake outside of McKenzie, TN.  This cacher has signed the log to this cache when out with the cache owner.  Pcsenn selected this cache for his 5,000th find and most of all to coloring the entire 81 terrain/difficulty grid also known as the Fizzy Grid.  We arrived in early morning and had the lake to ourselves.  We made the paddle without incident, arrived near the cache location.  Since I had already found this cache, I had no intentions of getting out of my kayak to get wet and cold.  Pscenn had some trouble getting out of the kayak but did manage to get out without falling into the water.  He found the cache and celebrated the huge accomplishment and joined the elite group of cachers in this goal.  I figure that less than one percent of all cachers will ever complete the 81 terrain/difficulty grid; even many veteran cachers are not close to completion.

We returned to the boat landing and went out separate ways to rejoin later at an event in Camden.  After the event, we drove to Hydrology 3 and found that cache.  This was a huge challenge in that the water was high due to recent rain and current was swift.  We surveyed the area carefully and placed the kayaks into the water.  With the swift current, making the turns on the bends was difficult.  I was in the lead and following my GPS and I went right under the cache.  Thankfully, a watchful pcsenn saw the cache and I turned around.  After signing the log we made our way upriver back to the landing.  This took everything we had to make the trip despite being only a 1/4 mile.

Park and Walk series in Paris, TN

While on annual training in September, I saw a new series of caches in Paris, TN and kept them under observation.  Pulling up the caches on a map; I was aware of the location in and the long sidewalk.  Unlike most power trails, such as guard rails along 4-lanes or containers along a greenway, this power trail was entirely on a sidewalk.

Minnie Mouse and myself had a Saturday afternoon to play around and after attending a Fall Festival at her school, we went after the power trail.  The first one was not on the same sidewalk and I parked at the nearby Youth Villages office.  Made the grab and moved my vehicle to the Memorial Park in Paris.  The park was busy with a number of activities; we parked and began our hike.  The hike was moderate with two hills to climb, this suited me since I have a physical fitness test upcoming.  All the hides were of the micro nature, but in this environment, that is expected.  We had a good time on the walk and were tired upon the completion.  We did throw the discs around for one hole on the disc golf course and plan to return to this course some day.

Caches found:

Park and Walk V1
Park and Walk V2
Park and Walk V3
Park and Walk V4
Park and Walk V5
Park and Walk V6
Park and Walk V7
Park and Walk V8
Park and Walk V9

Completion of "What's Shaking?" series

With a trip to New Madrid, MO this week, I completed the "What's Shaking?" series.  The series are 8 caches spread out from New Harmony, Indiana to Tunica, Mississippi that bring awareness to the New Madrid Seismic Fault System.

I took leave the much of the day after dental surgery to replace a crown, despite my mouth being numb and later sore, I didn't have any trouble on the cache run.  Except, that when I crossed the Mississippi River at Hickman, KY and tried to travel to New Madrid on back roads.  10 minutes after getting off the ferry the road was closed!  I turned north and keep trying to go West for the Nuvi to re-route.  I ended up in East Praire, MO and finally arrived on the Interstate to New Madrid, that taking 45 minutes.  My time was eroding and made quick work of all the caches I selected, choosing the "What's Shaking?" cache to best last since I knew the type of hide and would not have trouble locating the ammo can.

Arrived at the cache location and said to myself, "What a cool location!".  I took several pictures before finding the cache.  I easily favorited this cache as many cachers have done so too.  By far, the New Madrid cache was the best of the series.

Listed below are the "What's Shaking?" caches:

New Madrid, MO

New Harmony, IN

Reelfoot Lake, TN

Metropolis, IL

Tunica, MS

Hickman, KY

Blytheville, AR

Memphist, TN CUSEC HQ

LBL Bike Trail

Making our first trip to the mid-LBL since the bride repair in Aurora, Kentucky, we (Minnie Mouse and myself) completed some hard core biking on unpaved bike trails on Labor Day 2012.  We had biked the paved trail on the far east end of the LBL running along Highway 68/80.  Our day was difficult with the nearly constant rain and drizzle.  When the sun did come out the humidity went up.

We drove to the Visitor's Center which at the intersection of Highway 68/80 and the Trace.  Minnie Mouse and I walked around to verify the trail head and after discussion with a hiker, we found the trail head.  We went back to the truck, off loaded the bikes, grabbed a bag that contained water and ponchos we headed east along the trail.  The trail was tough with many elevation changes and turns.  Minnie Mouse found out the hard way the difficult terrain by wrecking twice.  After completing all the caches on the east trail, we had lunch at the Visitor's Center and walked to two caches on the west trail.  We ended the caching trip with two  caches on Jenny Ridge.  One of those caches completed a statistic that I have been working for over 2 years, in which I have found a career of finding caches hidden by 1,000 hiders.

We plan to return to the west section of the trail later in the Fall.  We are know armed with more experience and knowledge of the area and terrain.  After discussion with bikers on the trail, we completed the most difficult trail and the west section will be much easier.

Caches found on the trail found today:

LBL Greenway Trail East @ the Rocks

LBL Greenway Trail East - Micro#1

LBL Greenway Trail East - "Seven"

LBL Greenway Trail East - Micro#2

LBL Greenway Trail East - Intersection Micro

LBL Greenway Trail East - My Olympus

LBL Greenway Trail East - Halfway to Olympus

LBL Greenway Trail East - US 68 Overlook

LBL Greenway Trail West @ the Trace

LBL Greenway Trail West - NS Micro

Partnerships

This summer I have participated in two Introduction to Geocaching events.  One at Martin, Geocaching 101 hosted by Pharmd93.  We had good participation despite the constant rain during the day.  We walked/biked 3-4 miles on the greenway on that day.

Yesterday, I hosted Introduction to Geocaching event in Dresden; we had a large turnout of cachers but didn't get much turnout from the community.  We did meet with the park staff and one employee tagged along on the greenway where he found caches.  Overall, most of use hiked about 2.5 miles in near perfect weather.  The Dresden Parks and Recreation staff welcome geocaching and geocachers from all over and are excited that the geocaching community once again will be able to help out on October 20th where a CITO will be held in Dresden.

With the partnerships with area parks, we are often told by city staff "Hide More!".

Cachin' in Mississippi

With a number of recent visits to the VA Hospital in Memphis has allowed me to find caches in Mississippi.  I have been working on a stat to have found caches by 1,000 hiders by the end of this year or before I reach 4,000 finds.  Currently, I have seven to go.

The priority cache for me is What's Shaking?-Tunica, MS; this is a cache of an eight-part series and now I am only one cache find from completion.  While in the area, I also paid visit to Tunica Museum Cache.  Reading the logs I was concerned if I could get to this cache, however, it was an easy find and thankful I grabbed this one.

Another cache I really liked was DeSoto Trail #7- Final Stop.  I appreciate the cache hiders who make the extra effort to place a regular size cache instead of a micro.  In the next several months, I may pay more attention to this series and work on completion of it as well.

Overall, I have enjoyed working the caches in Mississippi.  Roads are newer that in some areas I have normally cache and straighter.  The terrain is also flatter which is better for my knee.

Geocaching makes Mid-South News!

This past Saturday night a pair of cachers left a wedding party to go after a cache, Up A Creek with Half a Paddle by chimps8mybaby and from the news reports dropped their iPhone which was their GPS into water and the device was unusable.  Monday morning, I got up to read on GOWT on Facebook that a pair of cachers were missing south of La Grange, TN.  I pulled up the caches, read the news reports and from what I could tell, the cachers didn't bring a watercraft of any time.  I kinda figured they were at Up A Cree with Half a Paddle.  I called the Fayette County Sheriff's Department and told the dispatcher the direction of the cache from the road and asked they call chimps8mybaby and provided the law enforcement agency his phone number.  The FCSD did contact chimps8mybaby and he told the authorities what direction they need to be looking.  About 10 minutes later, the young men were found.  Thankfully, they were OK medically.

Since then, there has been knee-jerk reaction from many areas with even some calls to prohibit geocaching in Fayette County or the Wolf River.  Personally, I hope that does not happen, I have enjoyed all the caches in that area and look forward to future trips.

I do have some questions:

1) What is the experience levels of the cachers?  Apparently, they may not have a geocaching name and this gives me concern of their experience with the high level terrain caches.

2) They had some planning, in that they changed out of their wedding dress clothes for caching, but they had not other items, such as a handheld GPS, batteries or water?

3) Why would the young cachers attempt a 4.5 level terrain cache at night, especially in summer?

4) They became disorientated after their iPhone which was the GPS was not working, but when morning came on Sunday, they would obviously know the direction of the sunrise (East) and to head the opposite direction to Yager Road?  Heading North would take them towards La Grange, take a heading East into the sunrise would take them to Highway 18?

In conclusion, this cacher is thankful the young men are safe and hope this does not end their geocaching experience but take the opportunity to learn some wisdom.  I appreciate the efforts of the various authorities in their response and search efforts.  I also want to thank the leadership roles of various cachers who called the authorities who offered assistance.

Island Hopping and LBL run

This time last year, I had the feeling of that I had not accomplished what I really wanted and that was getting my kayak out more often.  Posted on the RVG and GOWT Facebook pages of my intentions to hunting the two island hopping caches in the north LBL.  I did change the date of the cachepedition due to there was an event in Paducah that could conflict the each other.  On the day of the cache run several cachers from Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois arrived at the landing.  We placed the kayaks into the water and off we were.  Our first stop was Lake Barkley Island Hopper , it was not far from the landing and the paddle took only a few minutes.  After some searching the cache was found and we resumed the paddle to Lake Barkley Island Hopper II.  Again, another short paddle, finding a place to beach the kayaks would be the challenge.  We all set off together to find the cache and was found quickly, however GEO.JOE was upset that he didn't find the cache.  This was something we should have agreed upon before we departed the mainland.  Oh well, lesson learned for next adventure.  We went back to the landing and loaded up the kayaks onto our vehicles.  The paddle was not difficult at all but the heat reflecting off the gravel and torture and I kept sucking water from my camel back during the loading process.  After the load up, we all got together and discussed what to do next.  Some continued to paddle, others continued to cache.  Thankfully, this paddle there were no turn overs or incidents.  Just after our paddle the lake became busy with pleasure craft, jet skies and fishing boats, which could have made our paddle very difficult.

I spent the day the rest of day grabbing some caches around the north LBL.  Some of the cool caches I found are as follows:

Often Overlooked, a cache on a bike trail that run across the Kentucky Dam, awesome views from this cache location.

KY BLACK BOX, a trail system that I didn't know about and hope more caches are placed at some time and I will return.

Ole' Fishing Pond Series -Pond #34, despite the high heat of the day, refreshed with Gatorade, I went after this cache being a 4-terrain.

Hidden Lake

Cachestalker94 attended the American Legion Girls State in Nashville, I had to pick her up at the conclusion of the week long activities.  I picked out a few caches to go after but due to construction on I-40, I was 45 minutes late.  We left Nashville and we decided to go after one cache, Hidden Lake.  I had attempted this one before in 2009 and came up empty.  I had read the logs and found some updated coordinates and used those numbers.  We parked about a 1/2 mile from the cache and hiked towards the lake.  There was some muggle activity with other hikers on the trail.  We didn't bother them, they did not bother us.  As we hiked, we came across a fork in the trail.  We went left and I began to notice this was not the trail I had taken in 2009.  Despite that, we pressed on and climbed around some rocks and went around the lake.  Turns out the trail we picked on this day was more scenic than the other trail.  We came upon ground zero and I found the cache quickly.  After signing the log we kept on the loop and exited the trail that I had been on in 2009.

I could tell why Hidden Lake is one of the favorites in the Nashville area and encourage other cachers to pay this cache a visit.

GW X Part 4 and Reflections

Day of our departure had arrived and we left Louisville, crossed the Ohio River once again, to head west on I-64 in the direction of home.  A typical 4 or so hour drive from Louisville to Dresden turned into a 12-hour cache run and saw a few sights along the way.  We did visit Santa Clause and New Harmony, Indiana.  Santa Clause had some Christmas stores that we visited and we drove around New Harmony and found out it was twice a utopia town.  Some of the buildings that were built in 1814 were still in existence and used.

As in any large event, we ran into other cachers who like us were on the way home.  Last cache we stumbled across cachers was at a rest stop in Illinois, Take a Rest on the Wabash/Travel Bug Motel!!.  After that find, we headed south and didn't see anymore cachers on the road.  Other rest stop caches we ran into cachers was at, I-64 Rest Area and Hoosier CaCO3 Sinkhole.  We got into the discussion of the sinkhole and found it unusual that a rest stop was built here, but assume the sinkhole was not a geographical feature at the time of the rest stop's construction.

One reason for the long day was to visit the What's Shaking? - New Harmony, IN cache of the What's Shaking series.  Currently, I am two caches away from completion of the series, one in New Madrid, MO; the other in Tunica, MS.

We arrived home in the late evening on Sunday and thankful that Monday was a holiday.  I had decided to not to conduct any caching on Memorial Day.

Reflections:

The days following GW X, I browsed the profiles of some of the GOWT members who attended and saw everyone had their own agenda; such was working on Fizzy or Jasmer Challenges, visiting locations around GW X, finding the oldest caches in Kentucky or Indiana, earthcaches or number of icons in a day.  I had 49 finds over the four day trip and reflect my satisfaction that I saw interesting and different places and met other cachers.
One goal, I set for myself this year is a career total of finds of 1,000 different cachers.  Going to GW X aided that goal considerably to much less than 50 to go.

GW X Part Three

Day of Geo-Woodstock had finally arrived.  And, boy it was hot!!!!  The GW X shirt I received the day before, being a solid color of black would not be worn on this day.

On this day, I intended to break my single day icon record, which had been at five.  I ended up with six icons, beginning with Edison House.  I had already grabbed the answers by researching online to make the visit a little quicker.  Like most caching during a Geo-Woodstock, a cacher was at the location obtaining answers when we arrived.  I showed Carolina Thomas Edison's house prior to him being fired and then becoming a famous inventor.  We traveled to Sellersburg, IN and after finding a couple of traditional caches we arrived at Geo-Woodstock X.  The park was huge and there were hundreds of cachers in the area.  We had also stopped in the parking lot to observe the many decal travel bugs on vehicles.  We made some attempts to socialize, however the heat made standing at any location other than shade miserable.  I grabbed several caches in the park to include a Whereigo.  After finding a couple of traditional cachers, I observed a cacher with an iPad and asked what he was seeking, he told me the Whereigo.  I asked if I could tag alone and he said "no problem", as we neared the final coordinates, our little group had grown to about a dozen.  I signed off on the Whereigo and met with with Abiectio and grabbed a couple of more caches in the park.  We settled in a shady area and then I noticed it was lunch time.  I met up with my entourage for lunch and we talked about what to do next.  With the intense heat, we found the remaining traditional cachers in the park.  We life and we grabbed a puzzle and a multi.  During the hunt for the multi we met with Lizzie60 and Shan7on, cachers we knew from Tennessee.  I completed six icons and I was done for that part of the day.

We got on I-65 and headed towards Henryville, IN where a tornado was virtually leveled the town a couple of months prior.  We stopped at Fairtales and chatted with the cache owner about the storm.  We looked around the town grabbed a couple more caches and after a stop at a flea market headed back to Louisville for the motel.

An observation I have made from mega events; hunting any cache within 20 miles of a large event, one should expect other cachers to be at the location or arrive while one is hunting or signing the log.  It's just part of the game and one should enjoy the social aspect of a mega event.

GW X Part Two

After a night at the Comfort Inn, we stayed near the hotel that morning with a visit to the Louisville Flea Market.  Closer to lunch time, we crossed the river into Indiana and went to lunch at Hooters in Jeffersonville.  We were in Jeffersonville to take a tour of Schimpff's Confectionery set up by members of the Middle Tennessee Geocachers Club.  We had fun touring the candy factory and museum.
We picked up a few caches in the area.  The fun ones were in the Falls of the Ohio area.  Due to time constraints we were not able to go after all that we wanted, the high temperatures didn't help either.  Carolina had a big time finding fossils in the river bed.  She has an interest in geology.

We found, Falls of the Ohio, our first regular cache find in the state of Indiana.  Most of the rest were earthcaches:  Older than Dirt!, Sandstone Erratic, FoTo: The Potholes and FOSSIL IDENTIFICATION at THE FALLS of the OHIO.  We were tired and hot at this point and we drove to the Miles of Smiles Meet & Greet .  We picked up our registration packets, stayed a bit and left.  The heat and long day had worn use out.

Part that was worth most to me was visiting the Falls of the Ohio area.  I have observed cache events in the area to go after all the caches in and around the park.  I hope someday, I can return to this park.

That evening, we settled in the Sleep Inn in Louisville, a place that I don't recommend.

GW X Part One

We left bright and early on Thursday, May 24th from Dresden, TN with the destination of Louisville, KY.  I selected a few caches to go after but I knew time would be a factor and didn't cache much on the way.  After missing the exit for the Parkway and we found ourselves on I-24 heading towards Clarksville, TN, I auto-routed to Big Spring in Princeton, KY.  We liked the area and took some pictures.  Since we were near the Parkway, we got back onto the road towards Louisville.  While traveling north on I-65, we picked up a very easy earthcache, Drive-By Geology.  We reached the destination at Churchill Downs in Louisville with nearly an hour to spare.  While parking we noticed other cachers in the area.  I was thankful that we arrived as early as we did.  Walking to the point of the flash-mob was difficult.  We arrived at the event and perhaps over 100 cachers attended the event.  Afterwards, we toured Churchill Downs and stayed for the rest of the races.  We checked into the Comfort Inn which was a short distance from the racetrack and then headed downtown Louisville to attend Crossmage & Phonix Lady R Gettin' Hitched @ GWX! .  Very cool event, we chatted with the cache event host, bride and groom while there.  We walked over to the Old Church and grabbed that cache.  We stayed around and walked with a group of cachers to visit an old hotel that had a Gothic feature in the basement dinning room.  Near the event area was an area of many restaurants, where we ate at an Irish place.

Prepping for GW X

With school nearing an end, ballet recital complete, I am focusing my attention on Geo-Woodstock X which will be held in Sellersburg, Indiana.  I have attended one prior Geo-Woodstock, that was number seven in Bell Buckle, TN and had a great time.  Since I will have my family entourage, my focus will be on earthcaches, virtuals, attending a few events and grabbing caches at interesting locations.  We plan to drive up along the Purchase Parkway to I-65 and to Louisville on Thursday to attend the flash mob event at Churchill Downs.  Will do some caching on Friday, I may go after Kentucky's oldest cache.  I will see what the mood is at that time.  Saturday will be the big day with events and socializing with hundreds of cachers.
The return trip is still up for decision, it will either be a trip to Nashville to see my oldest daughter at Girl's State, or head west on I-64 and visit Santa Claus, Indiana.

In my opinion, an experience cacher who does not attend at least one Geo-Woodstock is missing out on the complete caching experience.

Canada Trail

With regular trips to the Memphis area, I browsed around for clusters of caches and observed a series of caches on Canada Trail, a green way between Highway 64 and I-40 at Exit 20.  Normally, I pass through Shelby County, grab a couple of caches and head towards home.  Being that the trail is on both sides of the 4-lane highway, I made three trips to find all the caches.  The first trip on February 2nd and the next trip on February 16 and March 1st .  The first trip, my time was short and used the short stroll and drive up and down the highway for observations reasons.    My trip to Memphis in March was unusual in that I spent the two nights in Memphis due to back to back VA Hospital visits.  On two last days days the weather was nice and never had any muggle encounters.

Caches on the trail:

Canada Trail - Evergreen

Canada Trail - Water

Canada Trail - Rest

Canada Trail - Sit

Canada Trail - Woody

Canada Trail - Troll

CITO with Elite Company

This past weekend, I attended my first CITO (Cache In, Trash Out) event in nearly four years. Being a cacher with over seven years experience and nearly 3,500 finds, I am embarrassed that it's been so long that I attended a CITO. I saw the Ghost River CITO published and soon afterwards logged a Will Attend. I forced my schedule to make room for the event.

Arrived at the CITO coordinates to see a large group gathering. The majority of the "Will Attend" folks were there and some others. I saw old friends and chatted with new friends. Even made first face to face contact with some cachers that I am friends on Facebook.

Being the weather had turned cool but would be sunny, I changed to my ACU combat shirt that I used on when on mission in Iraq. The shirt is long sleeve but with underarmor type technology that keeps me from over heating. Changing to that shirt would be the wisest thing I did all day.

We drove to the put in location about six miles away and off we went into the water. The water was up from my two previous trips on this water and paddling upstream would be difficult all day.

I learned more about my kayak and it's uses throughout the day. I also trusted my GPS like never before. About three miles from the end location, I had become totally separated from the group. For over an hour I was alone and followed the arrow to the Spirit Lake exit and then onto the CITO location. It was during the three times I was alone that I nearly tipped over. The first was most eventful, where I listed several degrees and very cold water rushed into my cockpit. I trusted my GPS and was very thankful the cache owner provided the lake exit coordinates. I pondered if I had become completely lost on that lake, it could have been very hazardous. There was no where in sight to bank my kayak and seek help.

Out of the CITO group, I was second to paddle into the exit area. I was tired and had a load of trash in my kayak. It was an hour before I saw the rest of the cachers arrive. All were tired, some were drenched head to toe. I think one managed to flip a total of six times!

All in all, it was a great time and considering the conditions, some wind, cold water and a current drop in temperature, the group braved the elements. I hand it to the new cachers and those who had little experience on kayaks or water to be part of this CITO. I also thank the CITO hosts for setting up this event.

I do regret that some were not able to find all the caches on the river.

Shooting in Sanford, Florida and Geocaching

By now, everyone had heard or read about the shooting in Sanford, Florida. While the shooting has nothing directly related to geocaching. In a way it is related. I generally cache alone and rely on my Nuvi to auto-route myself near the cache. There have been times my auto-routing has taken to residential areas where there are neighborhood watch signs. I sometimes wonder when I am driving or walking through the area, who is watching me? Myself, I have had about three negative encounters with muggles. Most of the other encounters have been positive and some apathetic. Sometimes caches go bad, even some simple P&G parking lot caches with over 100 finds have been detonated by bomb squads. Early in my geo-career, one of mine went bad. Lessons were learned.

This cacher thinks that more description in a cache page is helpful to include coordinates for parking and trail heads. Cache owners should know the area and if something isn't right, let the future finder know that information such as, not parking at this location. Or, approach the area from this direction.

When this cacher obtains permission for a cache and it is placed, property owners or managers of the area ask me who and when will they come find it? It's a good question, but inform them that once a cache page is published, I have little control of who or when anybody will visit.

Tunica River Park

With back to back appointments at the VA Hospital in Memphis, I decided to stay two nights in the Memphis area. With the first day of exams complete, I headed in the direction of Tunica and find caches in the park located next to the Mississippi River. The day was sunny but, very windy. With the high winds, I thought it would be best to stick to one cluster of caches instead of stopping every few miles for a PNG.

Welcome to Tunica Riverpark! was the first find. What a Drag! was next and I used that area as parking for White Tail Diner. For White Tail Diner, I ended up walking on the road to get to this cache. Since it was a very windy day, traffic was light. Later, I drove to the museum parking lot and left my truck there to find the rest of the caches. Overflow Parking was another fun hide and had to negotiate around water to close in on the cache. I came within feet of Walking on the River but, couldn't figure out the hide technique and my GPSr was going nuts. A crew member of the riverboat had his eye on my and I elected to take my hunt elsewhere.

Started on the trail and found the broken container for Geometrix. Beyond the Trail End Circle, I observed the very busy Mississippi River with many barges in the area. I spent a lot of time at Box Elder Overlook and there my first muggle activity was seen. I did a lot of crawling around at this cache. Hiking behind the muggle hikers, I left the trail without them noticing for Name that Tree. Oxbow Cutoff was much easier than the similar hide at Box Elder Overlook. Final cache of the day was Batture . The cache was at this park during my first visit in 2008 but, at this visit, I didn't have time to hunt this cache. It took a long time to locate this cache since it had floated away from the GZ during last year's flood. After reading the logs, I went out about 60 feet and made a circle and found the cache.

Since, I had been to Tunica on prior visits, I knew the limits of the fast food places. I didn't want to go to Paula Dean or Sam's Town buffets since I have been to both before, I set the Nuvi for the Horseshoe and had the inexpensive lunch buffet. After a fine lunch, I headed back to the motel and prepared for more exams at the VA Hospital.

Garden of the Gods

With spring break approaching, the family looked for a place to visit. Last year, we visited Mountain Home, Arkansas to see the Ozarks and find a cache placed in the year 2000 to qualify for the Well Rounded Cacher. With that accomplishment, we looked somewhere closer to home and set our target on Godly Gardens in the Shawnee National Forest. Last year's visits to the VA Hospital in Marion, IL gave me the opportunity experience the roads in that state and some of the forest areas. Unlike West Tennessee, the Shawnee National Forest has rock formations. Generally, while caching in West Tennessee anything that is under a 1/3 mile of hiking can be taken for granted and not very difficult, unless there are water obstacles or large amounts of briers. I have learned from experience that even 200 feet from a cache can NOT be taken for granted! With that in mind, being that I would have my family entourage there was no need to go after anything that was not a short hike or park and grab.

Over the past few years I had heard of the Gardens, mostly from the River Valley Geocaching forums and I really wanted to visit the location. We drove up and hit a few caches along the way. Quiet Repose, was a quite cemetery and easy find. It gave my family members there first find in Illinois. Lusk Creek Crossover, a cache in a very small town and a nice view of the Ohio River. With time running low, we made a direct line to Godly Gardens. We met up with Kodiak62 who gave us some iPad advise in regard to caching and walked with us on the quarter mile loop. Garden of the Gods was produced by glaciers that pushed the rocks to this point, where the glaciers rescinded. We took many pictures for Carolina (youngest child) for future Science projects in school. How many kids in her class will have a project to do about glacier activity only 2 hours from home? For Kailee, the oldest, she wanted Senior pictures made.

The overlooks are great and some of the terrain was a bit challenging. As posted on Facebook, I recommend cachers and muggles alike to visit this location. Our last caches in the Garden of the Gods area was Arch of the Gods. We found the cache quickly and then went across the road to see the natural arch and was amazed by the rugged beauty. Again, we took many pictures.

Afterwards, we headed north towards Harrisburg, the direction where the glaciers came from and observed the area was as flat as prairie land and elevation dropped from 830 feet in the Garden to 290 feet! While in Harrisburg, we view the recent tornado damage and made a quick visit at A Piece of History. We enjoyed the cache despite the museum being closed. We learned that the county has coal mines, we think we stay a strip mine on the way to Harrisburg.

Our last cache find was Salt of the Earth, an educational earthcache that my girls like and learned about pre-historic times. We settled in later at Harrah's Casino/Hotel in Metropolis, IL. Being a Sunday night, the rates were only $42 for the room. Next morning, we visited the Superman statue in downtown Metropolis and shopped in Paducah, KY.

Ellington Agricultural Center

I had heard of the Ellington Center in Nashville a couple of years ago and I shown some interest in the area. In a visit to Nashville, I bookmarked the caches in the center and went after them. It proved to be an exhausting mission since I was unfamiliar with the trail system. Often, I bushwhacked my way towards the cache.

Walk Along with Roger was my first find. Parking was easy and finding the trail head was just as easy. Took more time than I wanted to find the cache since my GPSr took me in circles.

Later, I parked at another location and went after the remaining caches. Bushwhacking was difficult due to the heavy vegetation. I did find trails and tried to stay one them, but there were trails within trails. When I went after the last cache, I finally found a board that mapped the trail system.

The Plantation that Wasn't: Walk on the Wildside

Cache Creek

When I visited, it was during the week, where there were may state muggle employees running about. It would be my recommendation to go after these caches on a weekend, holiday or after work hours. Good knowledge of the trail system and use of a mountain bike would be fun.

Leap Year Event

Four years ago, I attended a Leap Year event in Jackson that had an exceptional turn out. Little did I realize that coloring in the February 29th date, at that time would be pivotal when I completed the Finds by Date calender in 2011.

Last week I gave back by hosting an event in South Fulton at the Lean To Restaurant. Was concerned if I would get more than a dozen or so cachers being that South Fulton is not a destination for many cachers and being Feb. 29, 2012 fell on a Wednesday. I set the time for 7 to 9 pm and requested no door prizes. Being a weekday, I didn't want anybody to feel obligated to stay to the door prize section of the event. I have observed in many events, that after door prizes are given out; comes the exodus. At this event, I noted that many cachers stayed around to closing time. Everyone had a great time and some assisted restaurant staff in helping with clean up.

One cacher during the event was offended that another event was being hosted in Paducah, Ky. I replied that I was not offended by the least. Paducah was about an hour from South Fulton, TN and I wouldn't expect cachers from Paducah/Metropolis area to be at the event in South Fulton.

Cachers who attend the event in South Fulton came from as far as: Pinson, Jackson, Huntington, Troy, Springville, Puryear, Paris and Union City, all in Tennessee. From Kentucky, Murray, Mayfield, Clinton and Sedalia.

Three if by Land One if by Sea

A cache that caught my attention over the last couple of months is Three if by Land One if by Sea. I noticed the cache in October when it was a 5-terrain cache. I had wondered how would I get to the cache without the use of a kayak. I had read a log from one of the first going after the cache of looking for a place to launch a kayak and to no avail. Thinking, I would bring a kayak at some point, I looked at the aerial photos for a landing and did not see one. With that information, I knew it would have to an overland approach.

Made a drive by of the cache a few weeks ago and saw some parking on Huff & Puff road, near a skirtlifter cache. When I came be on 2/16/12 between appointments, I thought about parking at Huff and Puff road, but I saw it would be about a 1/2 mile hike and didn't see a geo-trail or any other trail into the woods, I was concerned. It also concerned me that I would enter the woods from a busy road where driver's seeing me could assume I was heading into the woods for a meth lab. I kept my search by road and found a park nearby. Drove to the park and was with .35 mile of the cache and could see a trail. I quickly went after that trail since my time was beginning to run short. The trail took me almost all the way to the cache. While on the trail, I observed the remains of an amusement park. Cachers on GOWT Facebook, mentioned the old park, in which, I had no memory of such park.

Made quick work of the cache and drove to the VA Hospital in Memphis for my appointment.

Battle of Nashville

Over the past few months, I have made a few visits to the Nashville area and have the opportunity to grab caches related to the Civil War Battle of Nashville.

My favorite cache in regard to the Battle of Nashville is: Shy's Hill, parking is enough for one vehicle, loved the climb to the cache and the view from the high hill. I did ponder why the Federal Army didn't contest this hill when the Confederate Army arrived from Franklin. This was the location that came under Union attack that broke the Confederate line, collapsing the Army of Tennessee and forced the rout.

Right Flank, a simple park and grab. It was apparent of the Confederate Army's weakness that they were not able to surround Nashville and left this flank hanging.

Battle of Nashville Redoubt Number 1, parking was an issue but thankfully a not very busy street. Made the quick find and admired the view from the artillery position. Area is complete with trench works dug by Confederate soldiers.

Battle of Nashville Monument, a fitting monument to the sacrifices made by both sides. Parking is easy. Took a bit to find this cache.

There are other caches regarding the battle and hope to find those too. My visits to that area of Nashville maybe winding down after the month of March.

Tiger130

Recently, on Facebook this article regarding one of the most respected and premier cachers in West Tennessee. While this author's actual caching experience with Tiger130 is very limited, I have had the honor of sharing several phone and email conversations.

I had met Tiger130 at a 1K event I hosted in the Memphis area. When I am a host of an event, I attempt to speak to all participants and I observed two people on the outside section where the event was held and I could see they were highly observing the event and introduced myself.

When I was overseas, in Kuwait and planning out my R&R leave and asked for assistance in transportation from the Memphis airport to Dresden, TN; Tiger130 was one of the first to respond. She and bitbrain were at the airport when I arrived and transported me to Jackson, TN. It was Tiger130 and bitbrain who alerted me that they would be diving at Mermet Springs, IL and provide me the opportunity to get the 5/5 cache located at the bottom of the spring.

Some of the things I admire:

Tiger130 has given back to the geocaching community by being involved in Introduction to Geocaching events held in and around the Memphis area.

Placement of outstanding caches, such as Purple Heart that I have yet to sign.

Coordinating several cache expeditions such as: Walls of Jericho and most recently Mt. Nebo in Arkansas.

Tiger130 was the first and maybe the only West Tennessean to complete the Tennessee County and Delmore challenges.

One of the first West Tennesseans to complete the Well Rounded Cacher where only just over a dozen cachers from Tennessee have accomplished this feat.

Overall, her competitiveness has inspired me to more adventurous and take the game to a higher level.

Update (2/13/12), Tiger130 and bitbrain were married yesterday becoming Team SpiderMonkey

7 FTF's!

A few days ago, dalls called to inform me that he has placed new caches off Deep Gap road in a Tennessee Wildlife Resource Area. I told him that I was pleased and especially pleased to hear most were regular size caches. I told him that I would look at my schedule and determine when I would go after the new caches.

I emailed pcsenn of the new caches and after looking at my schedule, I saw I could go after the caches on Friday, where I would work part of the day and take annual leave the rest of the day. Met with pcsenn that morning and he rode with me as I conducted a visit at a contract agency. After the visit, we headed towards the new caches. The caches had been published a few days and since there were no new logs, we figured we had the chance for the First to Find.

South Fork Haunted Hollow, a multi was our first. When we found the finally, we noticed that no one else had attempted the caches and we should have FTF on all the caches. Next was Raccoon Hideout. Took a bit to ind and retrieve the cache. Then we went after Deer Trail, a micro in the woods, but was an easy find. We ventured to the outskirts of the TWRA land and found Turkey Crossing. The best and my favorite was Bobcat Hangout. At this point I was very thankful I wore my Goretex waterproof boots. Even though I was not used to the extra weight of the boots and took a toll on my knee, I really didn't wet feet. I made the climb to the cache and found my boots are slick. So I crawled up the tree. Signed the log and headed back down.

Pcsenn told me at one point to jump, but remembering my ankle injury I suffered last year, I decided to take my time and come down the safer way. Pcsenn was happy to color in another difficult/terrain grid on this cache on his way to the Well Rounded Cacher. Our last find in the area was Possum Hollow. Cache was easy to find, but retrieving cache was very difficult. We headed to Over the Deer V.2 and wanted pcsenn to log that find. However, he was nervous about it and he decided not to attempt it.

On the way out of the woods, we met with Abiecto who was going after the FTF's. He reported that he drove up and saw a truck in the parking lot with a geocaching decal on the windshield and Operation Iraqi Freedom tags and knew it was me.

After caching south of Jackson, we ate a late lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. This was his first visit to this establishment. I told pcsenn of a few events that were held at this location.

On the way back home, we grabbed the last cache, another FTF at White City-Friends Welcome-Strangers Too.

Concluded the day with seven First to Finds, the most I have ever accomplished.

Caching with GEO.JOE

Typically, I have something to do on New Year's Eve Day, but this year I had no plans to reign in the new year and thought it would be nice to make a cache run. GEO.JOE placed several new caches in the Shawnee National Forest and offered to head up a cache run. I posted on the RVG page on Facebook that I was interested. Being the meeting was at 10 am in Paducah, I knocked out It's on Track! Are You?. It's a really difficult hide and worked a while to find it. Two muggles noticed my struggle and after I took their pictures at the locomotive, they assisted in finding the cache. From there, I met the crew at the Pilot Truck Stop located off I-24. GEO.JOE offered me a ride, in which, I gladly accepted. We drove onto the forest and met scoutpaddle and Bubba95 who had camped at the parking area.

First cache was: Splatterstone Falls, probably my favorite of the day, very nice waterfall. Coordinates were way off and GEO.JOE adjusted the coordinates while we were there. We stopped to take a few pictures. Mine are posted on my Facebook profile.
We found more caches in the canyon, another one of my favorites was Heart Arch. By this time in the run, I began to get ahead of the group. I found the cache and in the time it took for the rest of the crew to arrive I ate my lunch. After Heart Arch, next stop was Above the Boulders, again, I had left the group and made a beeline towards the cache. Nearing the listed coordinates, I began to worry that the cache would be located on top of the ridge line and would be embarrassed to see the rest of the crew on top of the ridge and me below. I persisted and went to the listed coordinates and climbed onto the rocks. Thankfully, the cache was not on the ridge top. Coordinates were about 30 feet off but my geo-mojo found the cache. I waited another 20 minutes for the crew to arrive once again. This time, I had the cache signed and replaced.
I took the time to rest and drink lots of water while the others looked for the cache. We headed off for the next cache, Filmy Fern Cave. Getting to this cache was hazardous by climbing over and through rocks. After this find, we headed to the last cache, Go With the Flow. This time, the crew had thinned down and two of us signed the log. Regnad's son was with us, the others left the trail, one had twisted a knee.
Was one of the best adventures of geo-year 2011 and what a way to end the year with a hard hike with friends.

Crew consisted of:
GEO.JOE and his wife Fairy Flirt
Adventuretrekker
Regnad and his family
scoutpaddle and his son Bubba95

Ashland City Trail

In 2006, Pharmd93, brickbat66 and myself cleared the caches on that trail while on bikes while I was on a warpath to reach the 1K. I have wanted to return to the trail.

While attending the 1K event for Sunshinegirl42017 in Murray, KY, dhrnrcpa mentioned about hitting the long trail where over 50 caches were placed prior to tax season where his employment as an accountant will slow down his caching. After some weeks of preparation, a group gathered Paris and Clarksville and I hit the trail once again. I decided not to bring my bike along since there were cachers placed nearly 528 feet from each other and getting on and off the bike were become tiresome. There were too many caches to keep count and all of us ended up setting new daily find records. I managed to knock out 57 finds. My GSAK stats noted 58 finds, but after further research, I had double-logged a find and that has been corrected.

It was a great day of caching and on the way back home we stopped to eat in Clarksville where I purchased the meal for Chicontater and his son since we took his truck from Dresden.

All who made the hike were:

Chicontater & son

pcsenn

brickbat66

scoutpaddle

Orion_13 and his family

and the one who got the cache run going, dhrnrcpa

Record Breaking Year

Had a record breaking geo-year in 2011. A year that had me find caches in new states and a district: Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. for a total of 23 US souvenirs. The biggest highlight was completion of the Well Rounded Cacher and finding two Fizzy Challenge caches related to the WRC. Completion of the WRC placed me in elite company, where around 14 cachers in Tennessee have completed the 81 category grid.

Had 738 finds, out doing what I did in 2006, which was 640. Found 738 finds over 167 cache days, marking 13 consecutive months with double-digit cache days. With the high number of finds, I also increased my terrain rating from 1.64 to 1.71. Increased my regular (ammo can) find rate from 24% to 26%.

Hiked many miles of trails over the year to include over 50 finds on a trail outside of Ashland City, TN. Also visited a new area for me, the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois where some extreme hiking was conducted. Completed a few kayak adventures, one in Clarksville, TN and another in Mississippi.

Another recent completion was the Finds by Each Day of the Year. I set a goal to complete 95% of the grid by the end of 2011. Thankfully, caches were placed near my home area. I was able to complete the challenge despite some stressful days in May.

What will geo-year 2012 bring? What are some goals?

With completion of the WRC and other challenges, I want to keep the game interesting for me. Numbers are nice, but I feel numbers bring burn out, which I believe resulted with some friends giving up the game. Therefore, to keep the game interesting for me, I have the below.

I plan to revisit the Shawnee National Forest.

Make an attempt for the Mississippi Fizzy Challenge cache.

Hit the north end of the Land Between the Lakes.

Attend Geo-Woodstock X in Sellersburg, Indiana.

Uphold the above 25% find rate of regular (ammo can) size caches.

Attempt to make more kayak runs.