New Pathtag for 2008

To begin 2008, I wanted a new Pathtag design. Originally, I was planning to change the B-52 to a B-17, but I decided to keep my signature BUFF. So, after wasting many hours tweaking the B-17 tag design, I came up with the tag design shown here. I really like the way it came out. I added the tiny state of Massachusetts in the lower right to denote my geocaching home base.

I would like to create a series of U.S. Air Force bombers at some point. And, if I do, I will start with the B-17 design. We'll see.

Stop by Pathtags.com and see what these tags are all about. They can become rather addictive to collect and have made. Here is my blog about my first Pathtag.

Rappelling Geocacher

Well, Geocaching has taken me to yet another place I never imagined going. Rappelling! Yep, me climbing done a 60 feet rock wall. I even got to claim a cache find half way down too.

BomberJjr and I decided the Cliffsides and Grapevines event sounded like fun. So, he took a day off from work and we headed to Swansea, Massachusetts to see what it was all about. Of course we were the first to arrive. We saw half a dozen cars in the parking area and figured someone must be setting up in the woods. We hiked the .25 miles into the woods to Abram's Rock, but nobody was there. We waited and waited and a half hour after the event was suppose to start, we hiked out. Of course, a dozen people were back at the parking location trying on climbing harnesses.

We jumped into the crowd, introduced ourselves to RLahti (Ron) and Downy288 (Jon), and got fitted for harnesses. Then we all hiked back out to the rock. Ron explained the history of Abram's Rock. It was the home of an indian at one time. He had lived in a cave created by a fallen chunk of the Puddingstone. There were also glyphs he had cut into the rock. Who would think a bunch of rock in the woods had such history?

After surveying the area around the rock, we went right into the training. We started on the ground learning about the harnesses, ropes, carabiners, and such. Once everyone felt comfortable, we started down the 10 foot drop. I went first. I surprised myself how easily I went down. Then again, it was only 10 feet. BomberJjr did his with ease as well, and even went down without using his left hand.

Next we all went down the 30 foot drop. This one was a bit trickier because of the uneven surface at the very top. After you get over the edge, your left foot sinks about a foot into a depression. I navigated that well and actually repeated the rappell two more times. BomberJjr did it twice. The depression at the top did give a few people difficulty, but they were able to recover quickly.

To break the climbs up a bit Ron and Jon set up a Tyrolean. This was a rope tied to two trees 100 plus feet apart and at about a 20-30 degrees angle. Each person got to hook on and ride the rope down on a pulley. Tons of fun!

By this point, it was around 3PM and we needed to leave so BomberJjr could go somewhere that evening. Ron said we had to do the 60 foot drop and Jon quickly finished setting it up. I hooked in to the rope and didn't think twice about leaning back over the edge and start the descent. Luckily, there was a lot of trees right at the edge and I didn't get to see the ground. Once over the edge, I could see the hieght. Too late by that time. I smoothly climbed half way down and had the Bellayer lock me in at that location as I signed the Cliffsides #6 cache log. I took control of the rope again and finished my last descent. BomberJjr followed me and rappelled flawlessly down and logging the cache.

This was such an awesome event and if you get the opportunity to do it, you must do it! Thanks to Ron and Jon for all the patience and hard work.

Geowoodstock 5 was a Blast!

Well, BomberJjr and I made our way down to Raleigh, NC for Geowoodstock 5 this year. We drove down on Friday. After 14 hours of almost non-stop driving, we arrived at 1AM Saturday morning. I was beat! A dear friend of mine, frf, suggested I take I-84 to I-81. It would be just a little longer, but it skirts around all the big cities. Next time, I take I-95 the whole way.

After a few hours sleep, we headed over to the North Carlina State Fair Grounds. It was the perfect spot for such a large event. Even as we pulled into the parking area, you could tell it was a geocaching event. Cars and trucks had writing on the windows about GW5 and turned into travel bugs. So, we registered and took a quick scroll around the grounds. It was a really nice setup, vendors booths, raffle and silent auction area, a store, and of course the Podcacher Podcast table Sonny & Sandy set up. So, we went to say hi and snap this picture. They are as genuinely as nice as they seem on their podcast.

After a short while and checking out pretty much everything there, we went out caching in the Raleigh area. We headed back to the Holiday Inn we were staying at because I knew 3-4 caches were nearby. We knocked out 3 of 4 along the Greenway. the Last one was apparently in some tall grass and we weren't really prepared for ticks. We went back to the hotel for lunch, which was excellent. The sweet tea was the best! Then we headed back out for some more caching before heading back to the event.

Back at the NC Fair Grounds, we ate dinner which fantastic barbeque, watched the unvailing of the original can of beans from Dave Ulmer first cache (stash), watched raffle drawings, chatted with Sonny & Sandy a couple more times, and traded a few Pathtags.

Unfortunately, the event was only one day. Next time I will plan more time before and after. There were so many people, we didn't mingle enough. Sacramento is a great area too. Hopefully, I can get out there next year.

The trip home was planned out to take 2 days. We stopped and did caches in Virginia, W. Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York so BomberJjr could claim all those states on his US map of cached states. I already had them all from last year's APE cache run.

Still Alive and Heading to GW5

Since there are actually a few people reading my blog once in a while, I figured I'd just let you know I'm still alive. However, due to my busy schedule and this past weekend's weather, I haven't cached for several weeks now. The rain washed out a numbers day of caching in Mancher, New Hamphire. And, I didn't have time for the 15 minute flash mob event the Buckskinns hosted one town over on Sunday. It looked like a ton of fun.

This Friday, BomberJjr and I will be heading down to Raleigh, North Carolina for GeoWoodstock 5. This is our first even GeoWoodstock. Not totally sure what to expect, but I have no doubt it will be fun. Jr has high school graduation rehearsal Friday morning and then we're off. I suspect we'll get in late.

We plan to hit a few caches in the states between Massachusetts and North Carolina so we can add to our totals and add states to Jr's US map of cached states. I already hit all of those states last year on a APE cache run to Maryland and a business trip to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hope to finally meet Sonny and Sandy (iTrax & FoxTail) of Podcacher Podcast fame. You gotta listen to their podcast if you aren't already. It is a family friendly show all about caching.

Also hoping to trade some wooden nickels and the few Pathtags (see previous article) I have left. Another 100 tags have been ordered.

Come back and see how we did on our adventure to GW5.

Pathtag Update

I got back from a weeks vacation in Florida and my Pathtags were waiting for me. Yeah! I have to say they look pretty good. After designing it, I lost perspective on the size of them. They are very small. They are only around 23 millimeters (0.9 inches) in diameter. Still like them though as a trade item. What do you think?

Because I was able to get the extra 25 tags, I will trade a dozen or more with other geocachers online. But, my original intention was to trade them at GeoWoodstock 5. So, I'll definitely be taking 25-30 tags at least there. Whatever tags I return with, I'll trade online and with local cahers until they're gone.

New Signature Item - Pathtags

As I approach the completion of my second year of geocaching, I wanted to try something new as a signature item. I had been toying with the idea of creating a Pathtag for months. After hearing Sonny and Sandy (of the Podcacher podcast) interviewing one of the people from the company, I was inspire to work on my design and just order them. I tweaked my design to fit the tag layout and submitted it.

In quick order, I received the official artwork back via email and they are now in production. Lucky for me, the day we put them into production the starter kit which had 25 Pathtags in it was now being sold with 50 tags. So, I emailed the company and I will get the extra 25 on top of the original 25. Yes! Special thanks to Tank Hounds for bringing the new offer to my attention, which also sparked my first tag trade.

I will be taking my tags to Geowoodstock 5 for trading and then I will begin trading online also.

Checkout Pathtags.com.

Sunday caching with frf

I finally got out caching again on Sunday with frf. We had no grand plan, so we headed out to clean up the remaining caches frf hadn't done yet within 10 miles of his home. We drove up to Winchendon, MA to clear out the American Legion Park cache. It was a quick micro on an old canon, half buried in a snow bank. It was a bit unnerving though because it was directly across the street from the Police department. We made quick work of it and took off. I SO prefer a long hike in the woods.
Next we headed up to Rindge, NH to knockout I don't know's on 3rd, The Hann-Mart Hide, and Christmas is Like Caching caches. I don't know's on 3rd had an very nice cache contain I can't divulge here. While hiking out to the Hann-Mart Hide cache, we walked the ice and snow covered trail carefully to avoid slipping and walking through water pools. Suddenly, I looked back and frf appeared to have fallen. As I walked over to him, I saw him climbing out of a hole in the ice covered trail. He had fallen into a water hole up to his knees. See the aftermath picture above. Luckily the weather was in the 40s, so we carried on to the cache. As we drove to find another cache, we passed one I had DNF'd on the same day BomberJjr lost his Garmin eTrex Legend. The Christmas is like Caching cache was found in seconds. I swear it wasn't it that spot the last time I was there. Oh well. Got my smiley.
We next headed down to Gardner, MA to do the When in Rome cache. As the name states, you want to be in "Rome", as in Rome Conservation Area. We took several trails, mostly snowmobile trails, but not the one with signs to the left and right of the entrance saying Rome Conservation Area. Anyway, we bushwhacked to it easily enough. Easier walk back to the car.
Next, we headed west. frf wanted me to find his MF Micro cache. On the way to another cache, he stopped to let me find it. It was near an old steel structure bridge over a river with a rail bridge close by. Nice New England feel to it. However, with the nearby main bridge under repair, more cars were using this bridge. Hard to look inconspicuous.
Better than the golden arches cache was the last cache we found of the day. It was a previous DNF for frf and my first attempt. We scaled down the snow and ice covered embankment to the base of the steel arch bridge which spans the Connecticut river. The clue actually threw us off for a bit as we searched the area. But my keen detecting skills spotted it. We made our trades and signed the log. The climb up the embankment was fun (not).
Right next to this cache was the Billy Goat Gruff Would Be Proud cache. frf had already done this, so I went for the quick find alone. After 20-25 minutes searching, later with frf's knowledge of the cache, we determined it was muggled. Oh well, next time.
At this point, we were both soaked and wanted to kick back, warm up, and eat. We headed back to frf's house and celebrated a good day of caching and exercise with Chinese food. Ah, what a good day of caching and hanging out with frf.