With my re-newed focus on the game, I, along with pcsenn and dhrncpa set out for South East Missouri to grab numbers for The Traveler's 5-State Challenge that I intend to find in May 2014. The cache run netted 29 total finds, 26 in the state of Missouri, bring my total for that state to 78 finds. I have a trip to St. Louis in July and being that I will be with my family that is not overly interested in geocaching, I will aim for about a dozen or so finds, my agenda being to grab the counties of: Perry, Ste. Genevieve, Jefferson, St. Louis city and county. This agenda is to color in the counties on my GSAK map but I have no intention of working towards a Missouri County or Delorme Challenge.
Pcsenn already found all the caches in the bootheel of Missouri and I invited dhrnrcpa to come along. He enjoys any cache run and does not have opportunties to cache as often as he would like.
The majority of the caches found were of the park and grab type and not many were that special. There was one cache, a multi stage that looked interesting, The Key to the Mystery. I was very disappointed that, despite the owners of the cache reside near the first stage and final stage is at their residential property, the key was missing and there was not way to open the final stage.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
New Goals?
I have been playing the Geocaching game for over 8 years, found over 4,000 caches in several states and 4 countries. Unlike other years, I really didn't have any goals in mind other than hit the 4,000 find milestone. Over the past 3 years, I have passed or re-passed or going to pass, a number of cachers in the numbers department, to include BigDaddyD, cgeek, pronotpup, Abiecto, Mackheath, just to name a few. Some have quit playing all together, some are playing differently or far less often. Lately, I have been calling the game of geocaching.....The game of guardrails. It does appear the game is going to power trails; and while I don't mind a hiking power trail, the majority are those along 4-lane highways and utilize the emergency shoulder to stop and find a cache.
With intention of attending Geo-Woodstock XII near St. Louis next year, I saw a cache called The Travler's 5-State Challenge that caught my attention. Most challenge caches that I found in the Jackson, TN area, I had little to work on, in that I had accomplished the requirements just playing the game over the last few years. This one had me study my caching profile and decided that if I had completed 3 states, I would pick out 2 and set out my course. After much review, I easily had Tennessee and Kentucky, to my surprise, I met the requirements for a 3rd state, that being Mississippi. Then I looked at others, like Arkansas, where I have 64 finds of the 100 required, but I only have 2 icons. Thus, I crossed off that state. Missouri, I have the icons (which is the most difficult part) and 52 founds. A good run of the boothill and vacation to St. Louis next month, I would be able to close in that number. Finally, what is the 5th state to work on? Indiana, I have the icons, but only 38 finds, however the state is too far for repeated cache runs. My sights will be set on Illinois, where I have 4 icons and need 48 finds. I am considering a 2-day trip to Rend Lake, north of Benton, IL to accomplish that requirement.
With intention of attending Geo-Woodstock XII near St. Louis next year, I saw a cache called The Travler's 5-State Challenge that caught my attention. Most challenge caches that I found in the Jackson, TN area, I had little to work on, in that I had accomplished the requirements just playing the game over the last few years. This one had me study my caching profile and decided that if I had completed 3 states, I would pick out 2 and set out my course. After much review, I easily had Tennessee and Kentucky, to my surprise, I met the requirements for a 3rd state, that being Mississippi. Then I looked at others, like Arkansas, where I have 64 finds of the 100 required, but I only have 2 icons. Thus, I crossed off that state. Missouri, I have the icons (which is the most difficult part) and 52 founds. A good run of the boothill and vacation to St. Louis next month, I would be able to close in that number. Finally, what is the 5th state to work on? Indiana, I have the icons, but only 38 finds, however the state is too far for repeated cache runs. My sights will be set on Illinois, where I have 4 icons and need 48 finds. I am considering a 2-day trip to Rend Lake, north of Benton, IL to accomplish that requirement.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Obion River CITO
After much delay and schedule conflicts, the Obion River Blueway CITO was held this past weekend. There was good turnout, despte concerns the river would be high again after recent rain. However, the river had gone down several feet and after first glance did not look much different than the day in March when caches were placed on the river.
Coordination was made with TeamKC, where 1/2 of that team aided in transportation of cachers from recovery to the launch location. Without that assistance, the CITO would have been hampered. Departure was about an hour behind and we were underway around 11:15 am. The landing at the launch area was full of mud and made placing kayaks in the water really difficult. As an experienced kayak/cachers, I wore my SCUBA diving boots and I recommend those type of boots for all cachers who kayak since our game does sometimes require getting in and out of the boot and no need to mess up a good pair of hiking boots. The mud came up to nearly the top of the boots. I did not look forward to the muddy conditions of the recovery area.
Current was a little swift at the beginning and only required light paddling. I clocked myself going 2.0 MPH just letting the current take me along. We stopped along the way for caches and I really got out of the boat. I did observe the terrain at most the cache locations was very difficult with mud either being very slippery or would sink upon stepping on it.
As we neared Highway 45 West north of Kenton, I observed the current was not nearly as fast as when he departed. Thus requiring more paddling. All the caches on the river were found, one needing some attention and I had brought extra log books with me.
Met cachers during the event that I had not met prior, Geo-Huff whom we had emailed each other since I began playing in 2005 and looknaround. As seen in other CITO's and kayak runs, cachers always get things done, work together and over come obstacles to achieve their goals.
Coordination was made with TeamKC, where 1/2 of that team aided in transportation of cachers from recovery to the launch location. Without that assistance, the CITO would have been hampered. Departure was about an hour behind and we were underway around 11:15 am. The landing at the launch area was full of mud and made placing kayaks in the water really difficult. As an experienced kayak/cachers, I wore my SCUBA diving boots and I recommend those type of boots for all cachers who kayak since our game does sometimes require getting in and out of the boot and no need to mess up a good pair of hiking boots. The mud came up to nearly the top of the boots. I did not look forward to the muddy conditions of the recovery area.
Current was a little swift at the beginning and only required light paddling. I clocked myself going 2.0 MPH just letting the current take me along. We stopped along the way for caches and I really got out of the boat. I did observe the terrain at most the cache locations was very difficult with mud either being very slippery or would sink upon stepping on it.
As we neared Highway 45 West north of Kenton, I observed the current was not nearly as fast as when he departed. Thus requiring more paddling. All the caches on the river were found, one needing some attention and I had brought extra log books with me.
Met cachers during the event that I had not met prior, Geo-Huff whom we had emailed each other since I began playing in 2005 and looknaround. As seen in other CITO's and kayak runs, cachers always get things done, work together and over come obstacles to achieve their goals.
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