Saturday

This past Saturday was the wife's birthday and she wanted to do something special. Not shopping, no big dinner, no trip to the theater. She's just not that kind of gal.

She wanted to finish the dam at Lake Murray near Irmo, SC.

If you Munzee, you know what these power trails are like. Walk and scan, walk and scan. It is time consuming, it is quite a walk and it's fun!

We started this particular cluster earlier this year, just before what I like to call the Great Undeployment of '13, which I know is a sore subject for some folk but it does play a part in this story. So be patient.

I started in Munzee when it first came around. I didn't think much of it at first. It tool a while to grow on me. I was still heavily involved in another geo hobby and was reluctant to change. Things and people get old and after a decade of the other hobby I decided that I would change. I still do the other hobby but if I continue in it as heavy as I was, I wouldn't have any joy left for it. So here I am.

One Sunday, when the kids went with my parents after church, we were in Camden,SC to get the weeks groceries and have lunch. She was playing one of those mindless games like Candy Crush or some such, one of the ones that keeps me awake at night due to the glow from her iPad on the other side of the bed and I was grabbing a few Munzees in between stops. She asked what I was doing and I grabbed her phone and installed the app. In a few minutes she was hooked. (See this post.) And so we found a hobby in common that we could enjoy together again.

We aren't really ones who Munzee for points. The only competition is between us and our friend Wally. I have never really worried about points in any of these games. I just want to get out and enjoy myself.

Which brings my back around to the point of this story. The dam at Lake Murray was a thick cluster. Some of the Munzees were four in one place. There weren't many that were there alone and I was dreading hearing that buzz of "archived" all day long. I really tried to find somewhere else that we could go and something else we could do for the day, but she only asked for this one thing, to finish that cluster. How can you say no to a gal on her birthday?


I could just imagine how long it was going to take for us to make it down the damn. And I could also imagine how frustrated I was going to be about halfway through. I hate when things like this happen and it dampens my enthusiasm for whatever game I'm playing. I only ran one power trail while I was deep in geocaching. It was 108 caches on New Years Day of 2012. I swore to never do it again because halfway through I had a "I just want to get this over with" mentality. I had fun with my friend that was with me, always did no matter what. But it was mind numbing to hit cache after cache. 

I was prepared for Saturday to be like that.

I was wrong.

I want to take a moment to praise the Munzers in that area. Either a very dedicated Munzer or a large group of them have gone through and removed at least 80% of the archived Munzees on that dam. No trash. It's a pleasant cluster full of active Munzees. This made me smile. I've seen archived power trails with moldy pieces of log left on their own in film canisters all over the east coast. I am very pleased to be associated with folks who take a certain pride in the game so as not to put a bad public face to it. It's refreshing, even more so because I found this in my home state. If I could afford it I would send most everyone that has a Munzee on that dam a diamond or a mystery just to say good job.

This is why I play these games. It gets me out and active. It lets me see the world. I get to see the history of the area, I get to meet other players. Occasionally, I get to tell people about whatever game I am playing. We had a gent download the app in front of us on the dam Saturday so that he and his boys could start playing.

We have our problems occasionally. Undeployed limits, clusters that don't follow the few rules we have to the letter, etc. But in the end this is all about fun and getting out there.

And this is why I play.

I was supposed to be at Geowoodstock...

I had planned last year to attend GWXI in Florida this weekend. Plans change.After several things that went down I have kind of pulled back from the geocaching world. I still give a look here and there, check out new listings, read some of the blogs, listen to some of the podcasts occasionally,but the thrill just isn't there right now. The adventure has gone out of caching for me. I don't hear those first four notes of the Indiana Jones theme song when I see a new cache anymore. Maybe it's me, maybe it's that the new cachers think that what's being put out is an adventure. Either way, here I am.

I've only attended two GeoWoodstocks.

The first was in Warren, PA. That was an awesome weekend for me. I am not very comfortable around large groups of people. I like to hang back, take pictures and watch. I never had much interest in poker but I ended up  sitting through nearly the whole of the Geopoker tournament and really enjoying it, sitting through the podcasters live shows and making a couple of friends out of the bargain (HeadHardHat probably remembers a late night call) and meeting folk from all over. This really brought me out from behind the lens of my camera. I'm so used to being on the other side and just watching that I forget that the picture has sound! I just have to listen. I met Triple HHH, DarylW4, XpunkX, you know all the big names. I met MollyMonkey and made a friendship there that, while infrequent, is always there when we see each other in real life or online. It was a whole new world for me. I also visited Centralia, PA and a part of the abandoned PA turnpike and several other very cool locations. This is what caching is about to me. 

GeoWoodstock IX was very well put together. The exhibits and the flow of it were pretty good. Nothing's perfect, I heard complaints, but I heard way more good than bad. I met some of the people I've always wanted to meet up with. I also had the chance to promote Geocoinfest 2011 which I was helping plan and I really got to see what it meant to put on a great event. I will always be thankful for that to the folk that set up the Warren event and I made it a point to tell each volunteer and board member I met for that event. It was truly worth my time and money to be there. And it was a privilege.

Then came GWX. They took it back to its roots, as close as possible anyway, I still don't understand why it wasn't held in Louisville where the first GW was held.

It was held in Sellersburg, IN. The big difference for me was that this one was very spread out. Hundreds of feet between sections of the event. The flow was very bad. the vendors were sparse, the heat was unbearable. Now they couldn't have done a thing about the heat. That's not in their power to make happen. What I saw was that there wasn't water for the animals brought to the event, public restrooms that were available on the fairgrounds weren't made available to the attendees of the event, people were having to walk in a half mile to the event (there was special parking if you bought the top tier of package, we did), the food line and drink line were split so that you got your food first then had to go stand in another line to get your drink, etc. So much was wrong with this event. Again, this was compounded by the heat, which was out of all of our hands.

Not all was lost for me that weekend. I visited Captain McHarry's Vault, which was one of my favorite caches ever, I ate dinner at Claudia Sander's Dinner House (yes, the Col's wife) and downtown Louisville is something you have to visit. If you're ever there spend a day and really take it in. Sights in between all these and other great places and you get why we cache and take the chances we do.

It's all in the journey. And at the end of it, I don't really have a complaint.
______________

This led to my decision to stay home this weekend. I didn't want to go and feel like I wasted my money. I am sure the folk in Florida made a fine presentation of GeoWoodstock and I would like to hear from cachers either way how it went. Just post in the comments here or on the comments on G+, it will get back to me.

I stayed home and took the kids to the zoo. It was a perfect Saturday with perfect weather and I couldn't have spent a better day with better people than my family. No caches found, no Munzees scanned, the zoo most of the day, a trip to the bookstore and dinner. We were home by five and relaxing.

I thought about the last two GW all weekend. I had some great road-trips and was lucky to have ended up having at least one great experience for an event. 

I just felt like writing. Thanks for reading.

Geosphere

On Saturday I was allowed to get out of the house for a bit and wander. I cache and munzee and take pictures when I am out and found that Geosphere (iOS) is going to be a great tool in the combining of the output from three sites and two hobbies. All three sites (GC.com OC.us and Munzee) allow a GPX to be downloaded for use on your devices so with a little bit of a learning curve I was able to easily drop all three sites data into one group and export the data to another GPX to send out to my caching partner +Wally Turbeville.

I wanted to try this not just for ease of use but because of something +Dave DeBaeremaeker mentioned awhile back. When we are out in the field playing we don't want to have to switch back and forth between different apps and websites. Having all this data in the same place is much more satisfying as I only needed to run two apps, Munzee and Geosphere, the whole time I was out. It made it a much more enjoyable experience as I took Wally into the wonderful world of OCUS and took him to several of their caches in Charlotte. I am especially glad to see the virtuals with OCUS that I can find and have the chance to place. I was a late comer on virtuals for GC.com and while I have found several, sadly I will never be able to place one. I hated when virts were taken away from GC. I found them to be some of the most interesting caches. I do understand the reason for archiving the cache type though. People abused them and when a few bad apples abuse the right we all lose.

As far as I can tell, there is no icon for Munzees in Geosphere. Come to think about it, why would you need one? You can't scan Munzees from Geosphere or mark them as found. This was all done for planning and mapping purposes. As you can see each regular Munzee was marked as a MEGA because how often are you going to come across a Mega. Both OCUS and GC caches fell under the regular icons of what is available for their particular cache types. Mystery Munzees were marked automatically as CITO. We were glad to have a good map with a nice view of what was available to us in any given area. I opted to make regular Munzees a black pin and virtuals a white pin in the map view and was very pleased with the view I got from that. I was also impressed with the accuracy of the Munzee app in different conditions. It was a nice clear day but I usually have problems dialing in on locations with a GPS under power lines and such. Most of the coords were dead on with an iPhone 4s and the Munzee and Geosphere app. (Props to TermiteHunter for dead on coords at each of his OCUS hides we hit!)

All in all a great day. 30 Munzees, 5 OCUS caches, 4 GC caches. And we had fun! That's the whole point anyway. We found some interesting history due to all three of the different parts of a game we both love very much. Caching gives us more than just coords on a map. It gives us an education, skills we wouldn't otherwise have, friendship. I wouldn't have met Wally if it hadn't been for caching or most of the people reading this. If we haven't met, you never know, could be never, could be tomorrow.

S

Let's talk about WAAS.

I can't count the number of times I have run into a new cacher on the trail and have heard, "My GPS just isn't that accurate. It doesn't get me to the cache."

First, no GPS is going to put you right on top of the cache. The game just wouldn't be that fun if you were put dead on the X. Second, there's a multitude of things that can affect your GPS accuracy from tree blockage, power lines, solar activity, etc. C, there's something you can do about it with the right GPS.




Each manufacturers GPS is going to be different. 

Maps, settings, capabilities, etc. I've seen two GPS of the same model get wildly different readings dead on top of a cache. Sometimes tens of feet apart, even more. One thing I always check first for a new cacher, after politely asking if I can hold their GPS, is their WAAS setting. Most will not have WAAS enabled.

From Garmins site:
WAAS consists of approximately 25 ground reference stations positioned across the United States that monitor GPS satellite data. Two master stations, located on either coast, collect data from the reference stations and create a GPS correction message. This correction accounts for GPS satellite orbit and clock drift plus signal delays caused by the atmosphere and ionosphere. The corrected differential message is then broadcast through one of two geostationary satellites, or satellites with a fixed position over the equator. The information is compatible with the basic GPS signal structure, which means any WAAS-enabled GPS receiver can read the signal.

I knew one cacher that had his settings off and had the wrong format set in his GPS for a year. He was using the wrong datum and found 1500 caches. Quite a feat. In the end it made him a better cacher because he had to develop skills that he would not have attained otherwise.

What does this mean to you? It means that your GPS will be more accurate and put you in the general area of the cache more quickly. Typical WAAS position accuracy is three meters (9.84 feet). From there it's all about the geo-force, your eyes and hands. The best thing I can suggest is experience. Many cachers hide the same way, a lot. I know a lot of cachers that hide the same way all the time. LOL So that makes it pretty easy.

Check you settings, especially on older models, to see if your GPS is WAAS enabled. You might be surprised.

And if you're  one of the new breed of cachers who use them new fangled cell phones for all your caching needs, I can't help ya. Just kidding. I found something that really help with my iPhone 4S. But that's next time.

Next up: GLONASS

Munzee or I've created a monster...

Late in the morning on Saturday, my parents called wanting to take the kids out shopping so they could spend a bit of time with them. I don't care how long you've been a parent, how protective you are over your children, whatever worries you may have about them being away from your side, the answer is always YES!!!

+Wally Turbeville has gotten me interested in +Munzee again. I have to admit that I didn't give it a chance the first time around but, to be honest, no one was playing here. I placed the first Munzee in South Carolina. It has never been captured. A game is no fun when you're the only one playing in your area, no matter how much you try to get others to play.

A lot of folks don't like it, it's not geocaching. You don't find anything. What's the point? (I am getting to that.)

I have been geocaching for over ten years, as I have mentioned before. I always enjoy it but I do get burned out on it from time to time. A lot of folk don't put thought into their hides, the spots aren't interesting, the containers are lame, it's just another lamp post, etc. The same can be said for any of the geo location hobbies. It depends on the cacher/munzer(?) on what the hobby and the experience are to them. You get out of it what you give. My fun is in-between caches for the most part. If I'm alone the caching comes second as long as I have my camera or can put a paddle in the water. Or light up a tunnel with my headlamp.

But back to Saturday. We decided to go down to Camden, SC to hide (post?) a few Munzees that I had printed up. I also wanted to grab a few that were around the area, just testing the waters. At the first three, Mags / MASEEGARS / +Mary Ann Seegars just watched and then I saw this...

Their are 92 Munzee in this area. I know that makes me sound like a number whore, I'm not, I looked at it as more of a chance to try several different types. I grabbed Mags phone from her hands and downloaded the app. We hit a few single Munzee and then went to lunch. Afterwards, we headed for the rest stop off of U.S. 20 that we are going to be spending a bit of time at for the next couple of hours of free time that we have. 

I started showing Mags how to use the app while I refreshed myself. I am iffy about the iPhone app, but I also know that there is an update in beta right now so no review of the app right now and no complaints. It gets me there and much like my first GPS, the find/capture gets made. So I think we spent the next hour, maybe an hour and a half at this rest stop looking for those little QR codes. 

The placement of all these proved to be a pretty quick training ground for both of us, so much so that we took the kids back to a park in Camden Sunday and made a picnic lunch of McDonalds. The kids got to play at their playground and we got to play at ours. Six more Munzees in the bag and I thought that might do her for the week but then I get this today.

She ended up grabbing six today (Monday. During her "break") and making Level 8. Not bad from nothing at all on Saturday. And for her to strike out by herself is really something. I know she likes it.

She was with me at my first geocache find and for many in between. I have never seen her get overly excited about a cache. Saturday I looked over and she had a smile on her face doing this. She was actually enjoying herself. And in the end it wasn't about the Munzees, or caches, it was that we've found something that we enjoy doing together.

So I Munzee now. Munzees are cool.

She's going to make me do this.
I just know it.

The Plan

The plan for tomorrow is to try to finish placing the rest of the caches in my series, Along the Border.

It has been several weeks since I've just been out by myself for a day.

I plan to find a nice greasy spoon along the way for lunch.

I think I'll start on the back porch with a cup of coffee in the swing though.

Then off I go.

Tomorrow will be a full day of cache placement, blogging from the road, and hopefully a find or two.

Along The Border

I had the urge to start hiding a series of micro/nano caches on the county line here in Kershaw County, SC. I am using these great little containers from Cache Advance called hanging nanos. I have had some great logs from a lot of cachers on these. Some good ribbing/hatred of the things because, as you can see, they are tiny! +Wally Turbeville can vouch for both the size and the hatred of. The reason I mention Cache Advance is due to their pricing. I found these for $1.65 apiece. A lot of the other sites are running $2.00-$3.00 apiece and I found one that I won't mention here wanting $4.00. Cache Advance will see more business from me in the future.

I've also been using some containers from GxProxy. As this won't be a full micro series I will also be putting out a few Mighty Megas. These are large enough to hold most coins and have enough room for pathtags and small swag. The price on these ($5.99) may be a little more than most want to spend but you can get a discount buying in bulk. Several cachers buying a lot together can get a great deal from GxProxy. They also sell a range of other containers, lights, swag, and mint geocoins and other specialty items.

I have already placed and posted the first six of this series and hope that my new containers arrive this Friday so that I can continue hiding this Saturday. The weather looks just right for a full day of caching and hiding. It has been awhile since I had a whole day to myself and I plan to take full advantage of it.

Trackables and why they are...

At my very first geocache I found my first trackable. From there I formed in my mind what these were supposed to do, what their intended purpose was. Like most, I stick with first impressions.

 I received an email this morning about the discovery of a coin dated yesterday and how this person was really amazed at how cool the geocoin was and that they really appreciated the chance to discover it at an event over the weekend. It was more detailed than that but, I don't want to out or embarrass anyone for what I am about to write because it's just my view of what goes on. My opinion.

The geocoin in question is sitting on my desk, as it has been for the past two weeks because I haven't found an acceptable cache to place it in. I am sure that the owner would like it to travel and I want to give it the best opportunity. I will be attending an event on Thursday evening and will probably drop it there.

I know what happened, the dreaded trackables list. I find these ridiculous and they go against everything these coins are for. To show the design and the beauty of these little miniature pieces of art and to log the miles from cache to cache or event to event, this is what they exist for. Not to be hoarded somewhere while someone hands out a list of numbers from a stack of papers they carry around. It just doesn't feel like that's the spirit of the thing to me. Is it that important to get every little icon? You were given a number on a sheet of paper to attain pixels on a screen. What did you end up with?

This is one of the many things that bothers me about caching nowadays, the huge change to a game that is going to nothingness. This game used to mean something so much more than that. It was the thrill of the hunt, going to new places, travelling the back roads. Now it seems that those new places are strip mall parking lots, same old places, sticking to the highway.

The first trackable I ever found was Osmo 1. He was actually in my first official find. I followed him as closely as possible after that. This trackable actually mad a road trip happen for me and the wife. After I had placed him in the next cache we placed him on the watchlist and ended up travelling to Blowing Rock just to track him down again at a cache called Mossy Rock. That weekend led us to caves, scenery, and a trip down a waterfall. (She hated that part.) The point is that there was an adventure and a bonding experience that we would not have had otherwise.

All because of a trackable. That's where the adventure is. The actual physical travel and the sights and sound of geocaching.

You can't do that from a keyboard.

Osmo 1 is gone now but not forgotten. When I hear trackable I think of that first one. This is a part of what caching is to me.

Always be prepared...

I am a geocacher. Some of you don't know what that is so...

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

At times these caches can be in place that you wouldn't normally go.

Always be prepared is what I want to write about today. My cache pack is also my daily pack. I carry a range of things that most cachers wouldn't think about and probably wouldn't need to think about. Why? Because on rare occasions I might get to go underground or reach for the sky. That requires special equipment and a real need for that Boy Scout moto, Be Prepared.

I of course carry flashlights, first aid kit, a knife, these are all necessities that any cacher would find handy in the field.

But I also carry a climbing harness with a safety line, gloves, kneepads, waterproof boots, a UV light and marker, headlamps, a pair of short range two way radios, matches and a lighter, even disposable rubber gloves, 75’ of rope, caribiners (not the Wal Mart kind, real load bearing climbing type) and an even bigger knife!

Some cachers I know carry a handgun. That, in the past, was not my thing. I can see the need for protection of that sort in everyday life nowadays, and if you are out in the wilderness caching. The only problem I ever had was seeing a gun on someones belt or in a shoulder holster at an event. 

Something you might find strange that I carry in my pack is diapers and wipes! LOL (Stay at home Dad). I always grumbled about making room for them, but, my wife reminded me, in a pinch me that a diaper could make an excellent pressure bandage. Everything can have multiple purposes! You just gotta think outside the diaper bag!

 
The types of caches that I love to go after, it’s necessary to be prepared. I am not the most extreme cacher. I don’t get to do them that often and there aren’t that many around here. If it weren’t for one of the Dirtbags, Vortexecho, I wouldn’t have as many under my belt now.

Do all of these things fit in my pack? No. I keep the back of the car usually well stocked when I know I am going caching. But we tend to buy hiking boots that are waterproof and carry most of this stuff on us.

The most important thing I can say that you need to have with you is a partner. It is at best unwise to ever go at it alone. Someone who isn’t fearful of the “what might happen”. If you don’t have the right mindset, you’re going to get in a tight spot and freak out. That’s not good for you or anyone else with you.

It’s also good to know you’re limitations in anything in caching. I have a buddy who loves to tunnel cache, but he is rather tall and after awhile, the stooping and bending gets to his back and he has to back off. That’s when he removes himself and becomes our ground support. 

And speaking of ground support, this is an important aspect as well. I have climbed up for a cache with my partner probably 75’. We had no one on the ground. In hindsight that was foolish. If the improbable happened and we both fell, who was going to call for help? Always think before you do caches like this. A good back up team is just as important as the team finding the cache.

Do your research on caches like this. You can find out loads of info from others who have done the cache you’re looking for. They don’t have to give it away, ask them not to spoil you before you ask about the cache. The extreme caching community is a bit smaller than the regular caching community. All of us don’t like the dark underside of the world, some of us live for it.

There are also those times when you don't know quite what you might run into. Sometimes you need a special tool like say a screwdriver to get the cache log...

While this may not be an extreme cache, I was prepared. And some of you are probably wondering why that screwdriver looks so weird. In caching, as in life, you never know what you're going to run into and sometimes in one day out of a thousand, you get lucky. And some things might just need to be a little more sonic.

We'd went as a family to the beach for the day to do a little caching and to attend an event. While there I ran into some fellow Whovians as they found out my handle used to be Doctor Who. My daughters handle is still Tin Dog and she is a wonderful caching and time travelling companion, full of wonder still, at age seven. Imagine how excited we were that day! One in a thousand days but this was a jackpot.

Freekacher

Walking it all away...

30.68 miles this week biking and walking. I beat and bettered my goal.


Now the rest of the story. (I miss Paul Harvey)

That's not me. But, poor fella, that's how I felt.

I finally got tired of looking at and accepting myself as I am. Things had to change.


I used to be a soldier. During those years I was in shape, not just in shape, I was damn near super human. I know its an illusion that the young have that they are invulnerable, but Uncle Sam put into me what I put into the tasks he set for me, and it paid off.

I ate what he fed me and did what he said. I reaped the benefit of physical and mental well being from this. It is, quite simply, who i was. I respected myself. And from that respect of self, some would call it overconfidence, others respected me.

Have you ever met someone that you can tell doesn't really think much of themselves? It's in their body language, their demeanor. You can't respect them can you? No you can't. Because they know deep down that they don't respect themselves. This is where the core of my problem lies. I have to like me. It matters to a point that others do. But I have to.

Here is where I stood about a month ago, maybe a little more. In front of the mirror not liking what I saw. A flabby, out of shape, shadow of what I used to be. And finally after all these years, I got the mind set I needed. This was enough.


So with a diet change I started losing a bit. I felt better. I dropped the Mt. Dew which I have relied on for so long. I don't even miss it now, though I have allowed myself one twice in the last month. My calorie intake has changed drastically. I do eat some junk food, but you gotta control how much you take in. Portion control is the key to most anything I eat. I used to eat til I got full. Now I eat and I am satisfied. Big difference. Fruits are back in my daily diet. A good sized salad with grilled chicken is a treat. Read that again, a salad is a treat. My bedtime snack now is grapes and clementines. Very tasty, and so filling.


About two weeks ago, exercise came into the picture. I have not exercised in years. Decades. I started out slow. Walking a couple of miles a day last week. Sometimes one, sometimes two. One day I walked three. Then I knew it. It's on.


This week I have either biked or walked 5+ miles a day. I have been sore and tired. Damn near broken somedays. And I have come to the point of pushing myself so hard that I was nearly in tears. But I am very proud that I have that soldier I used to be telling me I can do it. And I guess the imaginary drill sergeant telling me I am going to do it. I swear that I can hear Sgt. Hoopenbecker screaming at me sometimes. And that's okay. It's a good kind of crazy.


I pushed myself once this week to nearly six miles.


Today, I hiked while geocaching with a friend. We left the cars at the main parking area and walked for 4.2 miles. It has been years since I did a hike like that for caching. I miss it.


So here I am tonight writing this. I started a little over a month ago at 226 pounds. I have weighed myself but I have not posted what I have lost. Mostly because I would be ashamed if after all this hard work I had lost nothing.


Friday I weighed myself like everyday, first thing in the morning, mostly unclothed. :)


And the big unveil here is that I weigh 210 pounds now. I have knocked out 16 pounds. I am happy with that. But I am not stopping there. Next goal is 200. And on until I get to what might not be my perfect weight for my height and all, but what will make me happy.


I have no illusions about ripped abs or anything like that. I may not have the body structure for that. But I can be where I want to be. And I am perfectly okay with that.


And I have to say that I am exceedingly thankful to my friends here, my family, and my friends in circles on G+. Y'all have been supportive and encouraging. And that is a bigger help than you might think it is when you write something nice and go on about your day. It really does mean something to me. So thanks!

Quick Cash Cache!

So I was taking my daughter to the doctor on Sunday and we weren't in a serious hurry, just wanted to be first in line. We stopped for breakfast and a quick cache and ended up with quick cash! You can talk all you want about the lameness of P&G's but from now on I'll be beating the bushes around them in shopping centers!