Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Day After Christmas Cache Run

While attending a cachers event in earlier December, I spoke to titansfan about possibly doing a cacherun the day after Christmas to help advance my attempt to reach 600 cache finds before the end of the year.  We decided a new walking power trail near Ashland City, TN would be a perfect place to do so if the weather permitted.

Around 6 am on December 26, titansfan, chicontater and his son Jordan, and pcsenn met me in Paris where we proceeded towards Clarksville.   We stopped first at the cache Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and realized that the cache was going to be located in a storm drain under the city streets.  Just as we approached the entrance, we were met by scoutpaddle who had just found the cache.  We entered the tunnel, and low walked, crawled, and duck walked though a turn until we located the cache.  After signing the log, we headed back out where we met Orion_13 and his family.  Chico's son Jordan accompanied Orion_13 to the cache, and when they returned, we headed out towards Ashland City.

We found 5 more caches along the way, and then met up with brickbat66 who met us at the end of the trail and transported us to the start of the trail.  We walked the entire length of the 8.5+ mile trail, finding 55 caches along the way and only failing to find one.  Orion_13 and brickbat66 both dropped out after the first segment of the trail while the rest of us continued on.

Most of the finds were simple micros that were dedicated to various Boy Scout merit badges, but were simple, easy to find hides.  The cache Quit While A Head was an interesting little puzzle cache that required waypoint projection.  The cache also met the requirements for the letter "Q" for a couple of alphabet challenge caches that I intend to pursue later in 2012.

All in all, it was a great day spent caching with friends.  Since the terrain was mostly flat, I did not experience the fatigue or extreme soreness from the walk that I expected.  I hope to do more of these type cache runs this in 2012 as well.

Monday, January 9, 2012

January 7, 2012

With tax season quickly approaching, I knew this would be my last weekend to venture far from home for a while.  The weather was nice, so after a quick trip to Alamo to take care of some business, we headed towards Sikeston, MO to eat at Lambert's.  Of course, good weather also meant a chance to grab a few geocaches while out.

 Our first stop was  The Great River Road - Tennessee.  It was going to be a simple park and grab, but I needed it to color in a grid for the Tennessee DeLorme Challenge.  We could see the container as we approached, and it was open and had no log.  I had log sheets with me, so I placed it inside and returned the container closer ot the gorund and hopefully less conspicuous.

Stop # 2 was Aim High.  Another easy P & G, this was my first find in Missouri and centered around a tribute to a Caruthersville World War II pilot.  It was proof that you can make a P & G into a nice cache.

Approaching Sikeston, we then stopped in pursuit of Are they still spots without the leopard? The name made more sense upon approach.  Nothing special, this cache was needed, however, to fill a requirement for the GEO.JOE (RVG Challenge) cache.

Returning to Tennessee, we then hit The "Tennessee Welcome" Travel Bug Hotel.   I picked up a couple of travel bugs to move along here.  I also needed this to help fulfill a requirement  on the Abiectio, the Evil One? (Challenge Cache).  I hit the other cache at this rest area as well before heading home.

Though there were only five caches on this trip, I fulfilled requirements toward the before-mentioned challenges, as well as picking up my 11th Geocaching Virtual Souvenir, which also leaves me one souvenir away from being able to find and log the TN--12-'Souvenirs' CHALLENGE.

Great day and great weekend to relax before the next three months of hard work.