On Monday, January 21 was the departure day. Since I drove alone; I headed back alone. That morning, I took the time to admire the cabin that Nelms3 reserved. I was still in awe of the planning and operations executed by GeoYakr and Tiger130. I have led a few cache runs, but nothing of this magnitude. It was best, that I offered nothing in an agenda since my knowledge of the area was vague. I trusted the planners and I was not disappointed.
I picked up three caches on the way home. The caches on the return trip were on my Nuvi, however, when I added the Chattanooga pocket query, it over-wrote the pr-exiting query. However, I was not alarmed since I had begun using an Android smartphone with the C GEO free application.
First find, and officially my first find using a smartphone was New York Infantry. Being that I have a friend who is a Civil War buff and resides in New York; I took a few photos to send to him. Took a break on to of Monteagle and grabbed Westbound over Mt. Eagle. My last find on the trip was a huge travel bug hotel, Team Trunk Monkey's XXL Travel Bug Wishing Well. Of all the private property caches I have found, this one was the best. I admire the work to create this cache.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Frozen Dozen: Day 3
On Sunday, the Notorious Nine went in different directions working on specific agendas; for me, I had no agenda and handed out with peanutpapa and GeoYakr. We went after Mushroom Rock, an earthcache and decided to park on a highway about 1/2 mile away so as to cross a suspension bridge. I soon realized that our hike would be a tremendous journey when I observed many close contour lines looking at the topographical map. We ended up hiking up one hill, down another and then up another. It would take us two hours to hike to Mushroom Rock. Along the way we stopped at the suspension bridge and took many pictures. As we approached our goal, we could hear small children and quickly realized that they did not travel the same way we did. Turned out, those two families hiked in from a soccer field that was not far away. We did find The Mushroom "Traditional Ammo Can" very close to the earthcache. We found out that the people we ran into know about geocaching and they found the cache as well.
We had lunch at the rock and the kids showed us where they found a cave nearby.
We made the trek down the hill and our journey back didn't seem to take as long as it did on the way there. At our next stop, we would get together with bitbrain, endorrider and Hoot Owl.
We first tackled Help Me Find My Keys, and We'll Drive Out!, one of the very few micros we would complete as a team. This was a cool site for a cache, since it appears to be a wrecked vehicle that was never retrieved due to the steep hill.
Our next cache was Hibernation, which took a very long time. From there, we bushwacked across the same elevation to Hawg where a lot of effort was made to locate that cache. I'll not that they cache is 12 years old! We stayed on the trail for one more cache, Hogskin, despite we were loosing daylight and temperatures were dropping. Hogskin was another old cache. We hiked back to the parking area and found Lost in Wilderness. There was some discussion to go after another cache, however, peanutpapa, GeoYakr and myself retired back at the cabin where peanutpapa make a great Cajun bowl for dinner.
We had lunch at the rock and the kids showed us where they found a cave nearby.
We made the trek down the hill and our journey back didn't seem to take as long as it did on the way there. At our next stop, we would get together with bitbrain, endorrider and Hoot Owl.
We first tackled Help Me Find My Keys, and We'll Drive Out!, one of the very few micros we would complete as a team. This was a cool site for a cache, since it appears to be a wrecked vehicle that was never retrieved due to the steep hill.
Our next cache was Hibernation, which took a very long time. From there, we bushwacked across the same elevation to Hawg where a lot of effort was made to locate that cache. I'll not that they cache is 12 years old! We stayed on the trail for one more cache, Hogskin, despite we were loosing daylight and temperatures were dropping. Hogskin was another old cache. We hiked back to the parking area and found Lost in Wilderness. There was some discussion to go after another cache, however, peanutpapa, GeoYakr and myself retired back at the cabin where peanutpapa make a great Cajun bowl for dinner.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Frozen Dozen 2013: Day Two
Developing this blog, I decided to begin Day Two on the late night of Day One. After attending the event, peanutpapa and myself drove to the cabin. The large cabin was reserved by Nelms3 and this cacher thanks him for going above and beyond with the reservation.
All the others arrived later that evening. I had not been involved in the planning stage of this cache run, but I do have a lot of experience in developing and leading cache runs. I figured it would be best to stay out of the planning since I had no agenda. That evening and early morning hours, I observed Tiger130 and GeoYakr go after the maps and what were going to be caches in the target list. They knew what they were doing and felt best that in the morning; I would load up into someone else's vehicle and not drive, a decision that would pay dividends later. I went to bed and awaiting tomorrow's adventure.
Our first find was actually a park and grab, Babble on and on, situated next to a large parking area, the hike was not much more than 100 feet. Cache was difficult to get to and hard to retrieve. Cache was on the target list so as endorider could color in a grid for the Well Rounded Cacher.
From there, the majority of the rest of the day would be spend in the Prentice Cooper area and some hard hiking. Our first stop was Half Way to the Rock. On the same trail was one of the best views in Tennessee, Tennessee's Grand Canyon. After logging this cache, I questioned why a cache that was about 5 years old had such few finds. Our stay was long due to taking many pictures and gather information for our next cache, Snoopers Rock. Getting to Snoopers Rock was difficult to say the lest; having to backtrack and re-route onto another trail. This is where I began to observe GeoYakr's mountain goat skills and wondered if he actually had feet or hooves. On the way to these caches, we stopped at a Wal-Mart where GeoYakr purchased high rubber boats that he wore the entire caching trip. I questioned the wisdom of wearing new boats for long hike and not made for hiking. However, to my amazement, GeoYakr knew what he as doing and I attempted to just keep up.
Next cache was maybe the most difficult, Size Matters. This cache was down a 4X4 trail and took a lot out of me to get there and back. I could feel my knees popping and crunching this entire hike. Thankfully, I had my bottle of Advil with me. The area is very scenic. This cache didn't surprise me with its low number of finds. Our next stop was at Indian Rockhouse. This area near this cache reminded me of my caching in the Shawnee National Forest. This cache was difficult to find, despite that at least four of us either stepped on or stepped next to this cache.
We left Prentice Cooper area and headed towards Signal Mountain. On the way, we pulled over to grab Indian Ammo #50. Again, GeoYakr's mountain goat skills came in handy. We found the remains of this cache, did some maintenance and headed on our way. We went up Signal Mountain and found a lonely virtual Cypher Point Cacher. The views were great and took pictures. This overlook was used by Union soldiers as a communications station.
Our last cache find of the day was after dark at Ruby Falls Earthcache which provided maybe our best group photo. Once we toured Ruby Falls, we drove back to the cabin, where endorider made outstanding venison chili.
All the others arrived later that evening. I had not been involved in the planning stage of this cache run, but I do have a lot of experience in developing and leading cache runs. I figured it would be best to stay out of the planning since I had no agenda. That evening and early morning hours, I observed Tiger130 and GeoYakr go after the maps and what were going to be caches in the target list. They knew what they were doing and felt best that in the morning; I would load up into someone else's vehicle and not drive, a decision that would pay dividends later. I went to bed and awaiting tomorrow's adventure.
Our first find was actually a park and grab, Babble on and on, situated next to a large parking area, the hike was not much more than 100 feet. Cache was difficult to get to and hard to retrieve. Cache was on the target list so as endorider could color in a grid for the Well Rounded Cacher.
From there, the majority of the rest of the day would be spend in the Prentice Cooper area and some hard hiking. Our first stop was Half Way to the Rock. On the same trail was one of the best views in Tennessee, Tennessee's Grand Canyon. After logging this cache, I questioned why a cache that was about 5 years old had such few finds. Our stay was long due to taking many pictures and gather information for our next cache, Snoopers Rock. Getting to Snoopers Rock was difficult to say the lest; having to backtrack and re-route onto another trail. This is where I began to observe GeoYakr's mountain goat skills and wondered if he actually had feet or hooves. On the way to these caches, we stopped at a Wal-Mart where GeoYakr purchased high rubber boats that he wore the entire caching trip. I questioned the wisdom of wearing new boats for long hike and not made for hiking. However, to my amazement, GeoYakr knew what he as doing and I attempted to just keep up.
Next cache was maybe the most difficult, Size Matters. This cache was down a 4X4 trail and took a lot out of me to get there and back. I could feel my knees popping and crunching this entire hike. Thankfully, I had my bottle of Advil with me. The area is very scenic. This cache didn't surprise me with its low number of finds. Our next stop was at Indian Rockhouse. This area near this cache reminded me of my caching in the Shawnee National Forest. This cache was difficult to find, despite that at least four of us either stepped on or stepped next to this cache.
We left Prentice Cooper area and headed towards Signal Mountain. On the way, we pulled over to grab Indian Ammo #50. Again, GeoYakr's mountain goat skills came in handy. We found the remains of this cache, did some maintenance and headed on our way. We went up Signal Mountain and found a lonely virtual Cypher Point Cacher. The views were great and took pictures. This overlook was used by Union soldiers as a communications station.
Our last cache find of the day was after dark at Ruby Falls Earthcache which provided maybe our best group photo. Once we toured Ruby Falls, we drove back to the cabin, where endorider made outstanding venison chili.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Frozen Dozen 2013: Day One
Over the past few years, a cachepedition, normally led by bitbrain and Tiger130, is held on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in January. This cacher has missed out on previous cachepedition for one reason or another. This year, I finally attended and had a great time. I will post on this blog the experiences of each day as separate posts, so please stayed tuned.
Day One, was my travel day. Departed Dresden about 45 minutes after my daughter went to school. My first stop was not actually for a cache but at Outpost Armory located on Exit 89 on I-24. I stopped in to see the store where the Barrett sniper rifles are sold, even through, I will never purchase or own the rifle. I did browse for .223 and 9mm ammo, which were sold out....like many other places. Left the store and hit a few caches on the way and in Chattanooga. The only cache that required any real hiking was MTCBSA, ER Dist. Adventures of Scouting #5, a cache on the outskirts of Arnold Air Force Base in Manchester, TN. I picked up some park and grabs along the way. On top of Monteagle, I found I-24 EB Motel & Swag-Monteagle. Got back onto I-24 and got off at South Pittsburg, TN and headed into Alabama to grab some caches. My favorite on that swing was Teary-Eyed Trail. I wanted to grab some caches in Alabama since I only had one find in that entire state and that was in 2006. After a stop at Wal-Mart at Kimball, TN, I headed in the direction of Chattanooga. I intended to stop at Nickajack Lake rest stop, but was closed. As I traveled closer to Chattanooga, I ran up on another rest stop, that I did not bookmark for caches. The day prior, I upgraded to a smartphone and using C Geo application, I saw there were two caches nearby. Not completely understanding how the phone application really works, I brought up the cache page and entered the coordinates by hand to my Garmin 62s and found the caches: Welcome Expansion and Ya All Come Back, you hear!. Took a break and waited around, grabbed a couple of Munzee's, an application on a smartphone.
I arrived near the event in Chattanooga about an hour or so early. I walked around town and did find one cache in the dark without using any lights, Toujours Pret #1.
Settled in at the event and chatted with many local cachers. After the event, myself and peanutpapa drove to the cabin on the Georgia side of Lookout Mountain.
Day One, was my travel day. Departed Dresden about 45 minutes after my daughter went to school. My first stop was not actually for a cache but at Outpost Armory located on Exit 89 on I-24. I stopped in to see the store where the Barrett sniper rifles are sold, even through, I will never purchase or own the rifle. I did browse for .223 and 9mm ammo, which were sold out....like many other places. Left the store and hit a few caches on the way and in Chattanooga. The only cache that required any real hiking was MTCBSA, ER Dist. Adventures of Scouting #5, a cache on the outskirts of Arnold Air Force Base in Manchester, TN. I picked up some park and grabs along the way. On top of Monteagle, I found I-24 EB Motel & Swag-Monteagle. Got back onto I-24 and got off at South Pittsburg, TN and headed into Alabama to grab some caches. My favorite on that swing was Teary-Eyed Trail. I wanted to grab some caches in Alabama since I only had one find in that entire state and that was in 2006. After a stop at Wal-Mart at Kimball, TN, I headed in the direction of Chattanooga. I intended to stop at Nickajack Lake rest stop, but was closed. As I traveled closer to Chattanooga, I ran up on another rest stop, that I did not bookmark for caches. The day prior, I upgraded to a smartphone and using C Geo application, I saw there were two caches nearby. Not completely understanding how the phone application really works, I brought up the cache page and entered the coordinates by hand to my Garmin 62s and found the caches: Welcome Expansion and Ya All Come Back, you hear!. Took a break and waited around, grabbed a couple of Munzee's, an application on a smartphone.
I arrived near the event in Chattanooga about an hour or so early. I walked around town and did find one cache in the dark without using any lights, Toujours Pret #1.
Settled in at the event and chatted with many local cachers. After the event, myself and peanutpapa drove to the cabin on the Georgia side of Lookout Mountain.
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