Over the Deer v2

This past Sunday, I hooked up with -boatman- for one last cache adventure before he leaves West Tennessee for Middle Tennessee for good. I have always enjoyed caching with -boatman- and didn't pass up this opportunity.

The cache I wanted was Over the Deer v. 2 by dalls. I didn't get the opportunity to go after this cache prior to deployment since I am rarely in this area on weekends. I really detest the traffic along Highway 45 By-Pass in Jackson and don't want to travel it when I don't have to. I spoke with -boatman- and we set out for the cache after church. Thankfully, I didn't have any delays leaving Dresden and traffic was light. I arrived at the parking location to find -boatman- already there. We prepared ourselves for the hike. I had not been to the river's edge but have been to this area a couple of times before and didn't know what to expect. I made a couple of calls inquiring if special equipment was necessary and one told me the equipment he used was the cache owner! I really wanted Over the Deer v.2 due to it's unique terrain/difficulty rating. We set out with our packs, hiking poles and I put in a rope in my pack. We first found Bigfoot's Territory. On the way to this cache, we spotted the first snake of the year, a Garter snake sunning himself. It was in the area and I wanted the 4-star terrain rating. I already had it's difficulty/terrain rating but the 4-star would look good on my stats. Besides, if I fell in the river at Over the Deer v.2, I wouldn't be in the mood to make another find, only to get to my truck before hypothermia set in.

We ventured over to Over the Deer v.2 and studied it for a long time of how to approach it. I tied a rope around myself in the event I feel in the river, -boatman- could pull me out. I scooted and straddled across the large tree that was almost parallel with the water below. It took everything I had to remain calm and when the wind kicked up, I just waited for the wind to die down. After several minutes, I had crawled to the cache location and it was just out of reach. -boatman- said, dalls meant for the cacher to stand up. I refused to do that and besides I am taller than the cache owner. I reached and reached and pulled the container down. I could sense -boatman-'s relief that I had it in my hand. I signed the log and in the process dropped the log protector and -boatman-'s pen in the river. Replaced the container and then discussed the return trip. Had pictures of myself on the tree which I posted on my Facebook Account. I scooted across the tree backwards (opposite the way I went to the cache) and asked -boatman- to pull on the rope slightly to give me some momentum and direction.

Hiked back to the parking lot and after some discussion I went home. Only had two finds that day and it didn't matter to me; I was happy to get another Well Rounded Cacher grid number colored in.

Now my magic number for the Well Rounded Cacher is 3 and my terrain avg. is up to 1.69.

5 Icons in a Day

A couple of weeks ago I noticed 5-ICON "In a Day" Caching Challenge I-40 RS East and figured I had that one in the bag since I had a 5-icon in day in July 2008 while caching in Michigan and Ontario. However, after further reading, I had to do this 5-Icon in a day all over again since the cache page reads that my busy day has to be after December 1, 2009. I had cleared much of my surrounding area and but I am keeping some caches in reserve for easy finds to color in a day on my 366 days of caching stats. I pondered what to do; this would be a difficult task. I did notice a Mega event near Mt. Vernon, IL coming up in March. I could get a two-fer with a Mega and Event cache the same day, near same location but different times. Looked around, there is a wherigo cache, but I am not equipped for those, thus I don't much attention to those types of caches. Noticed a mystery nearby but it requires a GPS that can pick up the chirp device, so I am not equipped for that either. Only the Garmin Oregon and 62 with correct downloaded software can pick up the beacon.

While caching with pcsenn and Pharmd93, I informed both of them that after the events of the day, they would be only one icon short of the goal and suggested the earthcache at the Hatchie River National Wildlife Refuge. Turned out Pcsenn had already completed that earthcache. At least Pharmd93 could get the 5-Icon challenge. But after some researching after the event, there was a short multi, Old Wagon Trail in Collierville. We all competed that cache, which was fun and interesting. On the way back we found the 5-Icon challenge. Which by the way, is the third cache that has been placed on that end of the rest stop on I-40, the fifth total at the stop. On the way home, we picked up West Tennessee-Silt 'loess' Deposits-Earthcache. While signing the log, we had only 4-icons, we knew would get the cache since a DNF at an earthcache is highly remote.

"You did them all?!"

Teamed up this past weekend with pcsenn and Pharmd93 for a cache run in the Collierville area. I had set my sights on Flip Dizzy Loves Jelly Beans for the unique terrain/difficulty rating. I also set my sights to complete all the caches in that same park as well. When I arrived at the events for 76Stinger and Jaybirder, I were asked "How many did you get?", the reply was "got them all" and jaws dropped. They knew and we would find out on the trail why the jaws dropped. The terrain and unforgiving, the trails, if they could be called trails didn't have a pattern and were more of ruts than anything else.

I have been to the park once before, grabbing Caching A,B,Z's and More Fun than a barrel of monkeys and knew that park has a paved and unpaved trails. As we ventured further into the park, we did much bushwacking, wading through water and trying to find one trail after another. The cache De-Hydration took a lot out of us getting through the brush. After finding that cache we found a trail and continued to head west. Prior to De-Hydration we found Wild Turkey without any trouble. As we continued west, we found Mirror, mirror. With that find came the most difficult task of navigating to The Saga of the Frozen Dozen. I was having second thoughts at that point but we continued the mission studying the terrain we could see, using the high ground and the topographical map on my GPS. Crossing water was the biggest challenge. Pharmd93 noticed a long 2X4 laying around and we put it across the water and crossed it. Where my 2X4 came from, who knows.... Found The Saga of the Frozen Dozen and then went onto Penny's Worth of Trouble. With that cache having a rope can in handy once again. After that cache we wanted to head towards the parking lot, pscenn noticed the sewer covers in the area and noticed the easement. We headed south and found a better path back to the parking lot picking up the mystery Say What? . My military experience was useful to solve this cache.

After that agonizing nearly six miles of hiking, we picked up Silo Mentality. This cache was fun, but it was an open area and we really felt the cold wind trying to find this one. With 45 minutes before the events, we drove over to LPS001 where pscenn and Pharmd93 had the honor to place their names on the oldest geocache in Tennessee.

After the event, I set my sights on a multi. Story of that will be continued......

Saga of the Frozen One

Over the past three years, each Martin Luther King Holiday weekend in January there have been organized cachepeditions led by bitbrain and Tiger130 and called themselves the Frozen Dozen. The 2009 adventure was at Walls of Jericho in Alabama, 2010 was Virgin Falls in Tennessee and this past year the hike were near Stone Island State Park in Tennessee. I have been invited to these cachepedition but for one reason or another I have been unable to attend. Unlike the group effort, I went about this cachepedition finding three category grids, solo.



This past weekend I had a long trip while not intended to be in Arctic conditions, my caching was in the snow and ice. My first significant find was Stumpy's Path, which was near the end of a 1/3 mile long paved trail. Normally, this is just a walk in the park, but the snow and ice made this a little more difficult. I found the cache and went to the end of the trail to view the spectacular water fall. Later in the day, seeking more difficult terrain cache, I sought and found Ensor Shower. This was a major accomplishment since it was rated a four difficulty. Thankfully, with the frozen conditions, I found the cache with ease. Had it been a recent hard rain, this cache would nearly be impossible to retrieve. I kept on hiking and found No Ships or Loose Lips Here. I had been to this park in 2006 and didn't go after this cache even though I was just about 600 feet away. I recall when I found the nearby earthcache, it was pouring down rain.



The next day the roads were in better shape however, there was still plenty of snow and ice on the ground. I made my way to the one of three caches I wanted, Love/Hate Relationship Redo. While deployed to Kuwait in 2010, I spent much of my idle time looking for caches to complete the Well Rounded Cacher category grid. The original Love/Hate Relationship was missing and became archived. The redo cache was placed in November and made my plans to find it. Arrived at the parking location, took some pictures and found a nearby cache. While my walk was only about 400 feet, I was freezing. Being I had a little less than a mile hike with elevation changes, I put on another layer of clothes. The temps were below 20. Made my way to cache location taking my time and with small steps due to the icy conditions. After doing some crawling around, I spotted the hiding location and was elated to find this cache. Signed the log and took a long time getting back up to the parking location, a change in nearly 300 feet of elevation. I figured this would be the most difficult and exhausting cache of the day, I would be correct.

Later in the morning, I made my way to Basket Case. I studied the satellite photos of this area and the weekend prior I made a light recon of it from the nearby 4-lane. I got an idea of what I needed to grab this cache by calling the cache owner and took his advise word for word. I must have looked strange carrying so many objects from the parking lot and across the bridge. I spotted the cache right away. Completed setting up my gear and retrieved the cache without incident. Signed the log and then went after Down Below. This one turned out to be the most hazardous since I fell on the icy rocks and nearly smashed my GPS. Thankfully, I was uninjured and GPS only suffered a small scratch. I was going to give up on the cache but after looking from a distance, I spotted what I thought was a hiding place, regrouped and found the cache.

Left that location feeling tired and worn out and elected not go after anymore in this area, I went after the last find for category grid, Protector of the Great War. I had solved this mystery while in Kuwait, studied photos too to figure how I would retrieve the cache. A few days before I was set to return to the United States, the cache was archived. It seemed like a punch in the gut to see this one archived since the nearest 4.5 terrain/4.5 difficult was almost 200 miles from home. After conference with the cache owner, he explained why he archived it and told me I could still find the log the find. I parked nearby and quickly made the find.

The next two days, I paid for the adventure with a sore knee and strained calf muscle.

It was an awesome day, knocking out three caches of the 81 category grid and now my magic number is at five.

Caches on target are:

Flip Dizzy Loves Jelly Beans, a mystery that is about 95% solved, close enough to that I think I can find it.

Over the Deer V2 located in Jackson, TN.

Peace and Tranquility I, located in Clarksville, TN.

Hi Ho Silver, located near Franklin, TN.

Legal Only by Boat Nashville Secrets #1, located in Nashville, the only cache left for the category grid that requires a kayak.

Upgrades to Groundspeak

I've been using GSAK stats on my geo-profile for many months and still plan to keep using the feature. Recently, Groundspeak updated their website to install, a Favorites, Statistics and Souvenirs sections. I really like what the folks at Groundspeak have done and will be watching when more information are installed in the Statistics and Souvenirs sections.

Been paying a lot of attention of the statistics section saw where my 1.74 difficulty average is at or very near the norm while browsing the profiles of many cachers that I know or have passed through TF territory. My terrain average, I find to be a disappointing 1.67. While it's ahead of a few who have completed the Well Rounded Cacher requirements and also tops a reported runner. Heck, I've completed the West Tennessee Mega Multi, kayaked to several caches and no stranger to the trails at Bartlett Park, Shelby Farms, Natchez Trace State Park and Land Between the Lakes. This year, I am going to strive to reach a 1.7 average, which may mean less park & grab and more hikes in the Land Between the Lakes. Also plan to get the kayak out far more this coming summer.

When the Favorites sections was introduced, I went through my completed caches and favorite'd 146 caches. I am going to exclude events and CITO's and most that are archived. Bridge, No Bridge, thus far is the only cache favorite'd that has been archived. Currently, I own one cache that has been favorite'd four times, that being Cache Raider. However, I adopted that cache, the original owner Canoe Guy deserves the honor of having the high rating among peers.

Received many emails from Groundspeak where I received Souvenirs, all of which are from the many states that I have cached. I did noticed that Groundspeak is awarding the state souvenirs in the order the US states were admitted to the Union. Have noticed the art work on the souvenirs is great. I am only awaiting the state of New Mexico. I figure Groundspeak will produce souvenirs for the countries I have cached, which are Canada, Kuwait and Iraq. Time will tell.

Hiking in the New Year

The day of New Years Eve, I pondered where I wanted to go cachin' and selected the southern part of the Land Between the Lakes, a hiking trail near Piney Campground. I got up around 6 am and left just before 7 am heading for Kentucky Lake. First stop was at Wave at Hank, a geocache near the lake, where the cacher has to pass by the home of Hank Williams Jr. This was before 8 am, I had doubts that Mr. Williams would be up, I chose to go after the cache and not make a visit.

Arrived at the parking coordinates and headed for the hike. I had hiked this trail about 10 years ago and knew where to enter the woods. I turned my tracks on the GPS to record my travel where I would later upload the trip on EveryTrail.com. There was much rain the night before and I would later find that many intermittent streams were flowing at a large and fast pace. This made crossing the streams a delicate operation. My first find on the trail was Murray's Cache; took some time to find the cache since the coordinates were off by more than 30 feet. Since I was tracking myself, I elected to set down the GPS and not track all the circling, back and forth, ei cache dance that comes with the game. Found the cache and had just as much a difficult time to finding the trail. I would have another difficult time finding the trail and then began marking where I left the trail to find the right spot to resume the tracking.

Next find was Where's the Door, a cache at a small burial plot marked with stones. Very interesting location. Next cache was Sadee want to cache, too, that one took some hill climbing. Staying on the trail I sought 20th Anniversary then found Volunteer, followed by Micro in the Tennessee Woods. Micros in the woods are not my favorite caches but this one was spotted very quickly and coordinates were dead on.

After returning home, I uploaded the tracks and can be found here.

Returning home, I drove through Puryear, TN grabbing Audrey's Cache, Is anybody home? and ended the day with State Line Evil Micro. I will have to return to Puryear and avenge a DNF at Is anybody home yet?, I DNF'd the cache even through I could see the container. About two feet of water prevented me from retrieving the cache.

Shelby Farms re-visited

Hooked up with pcsenn for two days of caching in the Memphis area. Pcsenn was in a warpath to complete the West Tennessee Mega Multi series. We arrived at Shelby Farms and first picked up Ode to Spencersb. Had to beat down the briers to get to that one. We found The Mystery of the Lost Treasure of Beale and then pcsenn found the Up the Creek Up the Wolf cache of the WTMM. We did a lot of work on Cache Obscura, a very evil and ingenious hide. Then finalized with cache finds near the new greenway, The Frank Stockton Cache, The Lady, or the Tiger, Blue Trail???, Greenline- #1 and had some fun with The 385 Cache where pscenn knocked out another grid category.

After nine miles of hiking in Shelby Farms we headed to the nearby Osprey Park where pscenn found another WTMM, Osprey Nest Platforms. We also found West Lake, Lake or Pond? and walked across the new footbridge over the Wolf River to find Rusty's Trail.

The next day, pscenn completed the West Tennessee Mega Multi and I picked up a few park and grabs on the way home.

Overall, successful two days of caching, hiking over 12 miles and thankfully my knee didn't give me any trouble.