South East Missouri Cache run

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. 

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. 

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. 

Plans to attend Geowoodstock XII

Next year's Geowoodstock XII was released and I do make plans to attend.  The event will be held in St. Charles, MO, which was the launch location of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  This blogger was surprised to hear that GWXII would be in the St. Louis area, figuring since most of the events have been held in the eastern part of the United States.  I looked more into the decision and sum that the area does have strong geocaching groups in the region that can assist in the huge event, it also in the region of the geographic center of the United States.

Prior to the announcement, we had already made plans to visit St. Louis in July and a side-trip to Hannibal, MO.  I added the virtual near GWXII to the vacation bookmark and maybe have the opportunity to visit the area prior to the mega event.  My entourage attended GW X in Sellersburg, IN and we did not know the area and made the mistake of staying in Louisville, KY which was resulted in back and forth trips across the Ohio River. 

Over the next few months, I will obseve the activities of the mega event and may have an agenda to either increase my icons in day (which stands at 6) or attempt to add the states of Iowa or Kansas to my geocaching stats.

4,000th find

Life and work has been keeping me closer to home, more than usual, which is abnormal for me.  On the homefront, I hve been preparing a section of the backyard for 26 chickens.  To add to the matter, my 3-year old MTD riding mower had engine problems, requiring a new engine.  I wanted nothing of that and sold the mower as is for $200 and purchased a walk behind self-propelled mower.  Since mowing of my yard will take twice and long and be much more physically demanding, my time for caching has been reduced.

As I neared the 4,000 find mark, I was frustrated with my latest run in Henry County where I found one cache out of four attempts.  This past Saturday morning, I had all work chores caught up and had Saturday morning to grab some caches.  I drove up north of Mayfield, KY and grabbed three Miles of Smiles caches and then selected Candy Apples, Cotton Candy & Funnel Cakes as my 4,000th find.  I selected this cache as my milestone since it was regular size. 

Henry County

Currently, have reached a slow down in my caching.  Reviewing my stats from previous April months; I don't rack up number despite the warmer weather.  Reflecting, April is a time of yard work and other non-caching distractions.  This year, I have a daughter graduating from high school.  Rain and thunderstorms on weekends have also dampered my caching exploits.

With no desire to make a long trip, I have focused my energies on caching Henry County since it's my neighboring county and has the numbers to reach my 4,000th find.  Highway 79 between Paris and Dover is quickly becoming a power trail like those I have expereinced in Selmer and Colunbia, TN.  It appears the game is becoming a stopping at guard-rails.  This past Saturday, I couldn't do anything at home, so I cleared the highway between Paris and Paris Landing.  I also wanted to clear those caches before the summer tourist season is in full swing and the highway become very busy.

On other days, I have been grabbing a cache or two on each trip.  There were a few that I liked.

Have you seen my lunch?,  it's simple grab at a diner, I was impressed the cache owner placed a regular sized cache. 

IS THIS A JOKE????, the challenge was finding the correct way to get to the cache.  I parked at a nearby church and walked across the field.  Turns out this is some type of rest stop and took me a while to locate the cache, since experience told me to check the wagon and I should have relied more on my GPS.

Helping Hand, this cache is a regular size and was closest non-found cache to my home.  I knew from the map it was located near a bridge, therefure I was concerned about water due to recent heavy rain.  I also was cocerned about parking since previous cache seeker made comments about lack of parking.  I arrived near the posted coordinates and turned up a nearby road to park.  I was just 75 feet from posted coordinates.  Took a little time to think about the situation and grabbed my hiking pole.  About that time, two people in a beat up 2-door car drove up and they decided to make the turn up the road where I was parked.  They kept going, I went onto the cache.  Found the cache after a short search, getting to it took some effort.  As I was signing the log, I heard that same car come back by.  I didn't look at them, but kept my ear to them.  They continued north, opposite where they came from when I arrived.  I had little doubt they were scoping me out for a robbery.  I figured, they would head north just a bit to turn around and on the 3rd trip make the strike.  With my mission complete, I headed to my unlocked truck and open window.  (I sometimes don't lock my vehicle when I am all alone and will be in full view and less than 100 feet of it during the cache hunt)  I have a handgun carry permit and had a 9mm Glock 17 loaded with a 17-round magazine.  Following one of the rules of handgun carry is to avoid the confrontation in the first place, I immediatly drove away in the opposite direction away from the people that were scoping me out. 

Using a smartphone for cachin'

Prior to my deployment in 2009/2010, I observed several cachers using smarthphone for geocaching.  Being an owner of many caches, I noticed that emails for cache finds come during the day, instead in the evening when cachers return home from a cache run.  I wondered if I should make the dive to the smartphone.  With my retirement from the National Guard and a VA disability, I have the funds for the date package and invested in an Android phone.  I browsed and downloaded the C : Geo, a free application for geocaching.  It did come in useful when I stopped at a reststop on I-24 outside of Chattanooga and didn't have the caches on my pocket query.  -boatman- began using an iPhone more than a year before I went to the smartphone and he reported that the smartphone application is very useful when one finds themselves with an opportunity to cache that was not planned.  I quickly found that to be a reality.

This past weekend, my oldest daughter used my laptop for a research paper, so I did not have access to GSAK, so all I had was the phone.  I also didn't know the exact plan and with a phone, I could just find caches of opportunity.  In which, we found one in Dover, TN, (Battlefield....Dead End Series Continued).

Advantages: 

Very useful when out and have unplanned time and opportunity to cache.
Everything is on one device, cache page, logs and GPS arrow.
Log the find after signing the log. 

Disdvantages:

Phone is not as rugged as a Garmin handheld, not a good idea to use on or near water or rock terrain.
GPS feature on the phone uses battery charge quickly.
Using applications for a long period will use up the data package.