Thursday, December 23, 2010

10-10-10

On October 10, 2010, some 78,313 Found It! logs were posted to geocaching.com. Without me, there would have been only 78,309. Like many, I had the goal of finding 10, but it just didn't happen. I had a feeling the iPhone app would be slow or dead (it was spotty at best), so I spent a lot of time planning, which contributed to a late start. Anyway, I did my part.

I started with a newly-posted cache by my house. If you're local, it's part of the Princess Anna series. For some reason, this one took me forever to finally see. Neon blue blends in so well with the trees.

Next, I revisited a cache I'd attempted earlier in the week. Shortly after arriving home from work one night, I got the onimous cache-posted email. Instead of making dinner, I grabbed a flashlight and headed for the door. I parked in front of EyeoftheSeeker's house, debated telling him I was there for about 3 seconds, and then went to find the cache by myself. He showed up about 2 minutes later, which was good because I needed someone to blaze a trail. Heels and a skirt weren't really the best choice for a level 2 terrain. Seeker8 joined the hunt and we waded into the waist-high ferns togethr. We searched for at least 30 minutes, but we came up with nothing. It was much easier to find in the daylight.

Two finds down, I headed for phase 2 of the Princess Anna series. The cache is located on the Cross Seminole Trail near an elementary school. Since this was Sunday afternoon, I parked at the trailhead (in the grass, not in a parking space) and walked to the cache. After a few minutes of stealthy-ish searching, I looked back up the trail to see a police car parked behind my car. I briefly contemplated ignoring it and continuing the search, but then I figured I might be able to avoid the ticket if I just offered to move...plus there was the possibility they would tow my car. So, I walked back, grudgingly. As I approached, the cop got out of his car and started talking into the mic on his shoulder. Here comes the SWAT team.

"Is this your vehicle?" he said, clearly addressing me.
"Yeeeeah," I said, in shame.
"Is everything alright?" he said.
"Yeah," I gestured back down the trail, "I was just geocaching...heh." My shoulders gave a mini-shrug. As I was preparing for the geo-whatnow conversation, he cut me off--
"Oh! There's one of those down there? I see people all the time looking for them. We must have a bunch in Winter Springs. Especially at the golf course, you know the one that's closed. These people come out of the woods with just a GPS and a pen. My partner and I, we think it's pretty cool."
My thoughts at that moment ranged from awesome to whoa. I replied, "Yeah! It's a blast. There are sooo many around here." [insert awkward silence] "Do I need to move my car?"
"No, you're fine. The school is closed today and you're off the road."
"So it's ok if I go back and find it?"
"Oh yeah, go find it! I just wanted to make sure you were ok. Have a nice day, now."
And that was it. I walked back to GZ and resumed my search. But that's not all - a minute or two later I saw this thing dart out from under the bridge I was standing on. It turned back and looked me straight in the eyes. We just stared at each other, until I had the presence of mind to take a photo. The clicking sound scared him off, so unfortunately I didn't get a second chance. The pic I took sucks, thanks to a combination of the distance (about 30 feet) and me being a spaz.

The picture below is a better representation of what I saw, but it's not mine. Anyway, I've thought about this moment a lot. It was part wonder, part terror. Wonder because I had no idea those things were around here, and terror because it challenged every notion I had about the nice kitties of my childhood. The look in its eyes said "I will munch your brains and bathe in your intestines!" I realize now that lot of his mean look comes from the "eyebrows". Those are textbook angry cartoon eyebrows.


I didn't realize until later that in the minutes before I saw it, I heard it. I kept hearing this bleating sound, like a sheep. I assumed that there was a farm nearby, or a sheep got loose, but it turns out that it was the bobcat. Fascinating.

After this little episode, I finally spotted the cache. Now I had the coordinates I needed for the final stage of the Princess Anna series.


This last piece seemed to take forever. I'm not sure which was worse - the tree cover or the swarms of mosquitos. Either way, it made for a miserable experience. When I signed the log I didn't really care what was in the cache, I just wanted it to be over. Now that I look again, there was some cute junk in there. Oh well.

Thus concludes my 10-10-10 caching experience. If you haven't seen it yet, here is Groundspeak's commemorative video.

The video was originally published on Latitude 47, the official geocaching blog.









Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Evelev's Review of the iPhone4 for Geocaching

Some geocachers use a map and compass, others carry a GPSr and clipboard. I am the type of geocacher that does everything with my iPhone. I plan, locate, and document all from the palm of my hand. You can imagine my sheer joy at the announcement of the iPhone 4. They promised faster processing, multitasking, better GPS accuracy, and a range of photographic enhancements (two cameras, flash, and a whopping 5 megapixels).

I joined the iPhone 4 zombie mob late in the game and did not pre-order online like I should have. It was only a few days before release when I tried to get my name on a waiting list. In order to accomplish this, Brian suggested I help my chances by being…flirty. I won’t confirm or deny if I used this tactic, but I found myself in the #4 spot on the waiting list at a nationwide chain electronics store. Oh, Apple, what have we become?

While the guy set up my phone, I jabbered moronically about how awesome it would be. Soon he handed me the phone like a delivery nurse hands a newborn to its mother. Angels sang, trumpets sounded, and the guy behind the counter let out a sigh of relief that I was leaving. In the following days, almost every one of my apps released an update to catch up with the new technology. Groundspeak was among them.

Groundspeak has released several updates over the past few months, but the first iPhone 4 version was terrible. Despite the improved GPS technology, the current location dot was extremely slow to update. This made it difficult to pinpoint a parking spot, let alone the actual GZ. I spent a lot of time driving in circles and the maps only compounded this issue. They were slow to zoom and the resolution was horrible, making it hard to read the street names. Back then we also had to choose between satellite and street view. It was barbaric.

I give credit to Groundspeak, they have addressed all of these issues. At the writing of this blog post, we are on version 4.2.1 and the app is pretty darn functional. The satellite and street maps have been integrated, meaning I can view a satellite map (which offers vital clues to a cache’s location) AND see the streets names (which tells me where to start looking). The maps load faster and seem to be more accurate, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe I’m just better at finding.

Another bonus of the iPhone 4 is the button that rotates the map according to the finder’s point of view. Instead of having to shift the phone around to see where I am in relation to the cache, the map moves for me so that all I have to do is walk forward. I use this function almost every time I look for a cache.

The new app also includes a bunch of new features on the home screen. For one, we now get an indicator of whether the app is working – a little dot that turns green when online or red when offline. Let me tell you, that little red dot is infuriating because there is nothing the user can do except look at it (Edit: I hear that logging out and then logging back in helps). Luckily, this rarely occurs. In keeping with their attempt at giving the user more info, Groundspeak also gives us a box dedicated to the device’s current location. It includes the current location’s coordinates, a map of those coordinates, and estimated accuracy (in feet). As I write this, my estimated accuracy is fluctuating between 98 and 213 feet, but the map looks dead on. I may finally be able to hide a cache and use the coordinates from my iPhone.

The search function has improved significantly. When I click “Find Nearby Geocaches”, each listing now includes the cache name, difficulty and terrain ratings, distance, size, and type (traditional, mystery, etc). I also have an option to sort the list by distance, GC code, title or type. I would assume that if you just pressed the “Find Nearby Geocaches” button, you would probably want them sorted by location, but it's nice to have options. Personally, I don't find this function particularly useful because I kept the option to see only 10 caches at a time.  I don't need to see the 30 closest caches unless I'm looking for something in particular. 
One of the lesser-known functions is the ability to add your own waypoints.  I'm not sure how long this function has been available, but someone at FTF Geocacher had to point it out to me, and I have shown several people since.  If I just blew your mind, here's how it works: Look-up a cache and view the map by pressing "Navigate to Geocache", click the little flag in the upper right corner, and enter the coordinates.  You can even name the waypoint, in case, say, you want to add actual coords for a mystery cache and the coords of your car.  Speaking of which, if you want to add the coords of your car, simply stand by it and click "Set to Current Location", which will auto-populate your current coordinates.  Just make sure that your iPhone's signal is somewhat accurate at that point in time.

I found a wonderful use for this feature yesterday.  I was at an event and the hosts had placed several "temporary" (i.e. not published or assigned GC codes) caches for us to hunt.  At the sign-in table there was a sheet with all of the coordinates.  It only took me a few minutes to plot them all out.


My only gripe with the app right now is how slow it can be at times, especially on the weekends.  Sometimes I press a button and have to wait a full 60 or 90 seconds for it to respond, or I get the error "No caches found" when I know I'm standing within a few feet of one.  I don't know if the servers over-loaded, or maybe the cell network in Orlando just sucks, but whatever it is, it's really annoying.

The app as it exists today is full of neat features and easy to use. Groundspeak has obviously put in a lot of work to make it that way. They continue to take feedback from the users and make improvements, which is really all that we can ask for. I eagerly await the next update.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

1st Annual Westside BBQ

Our official reintroduction to the world of geocaching came on August 1st when we attended the 1st Annual Westside BBQ at Magnolia Park in Apopka. The event was hosted by Jarrod88, Thinairmagic, and FamilyCacheFinders. This was our first geocaching event.

When we arrived at Magnolia Park, we found our crew by looking for ruggedish cars and hoards of people looking at their hands. I had assumed that it would be a small gathering of 30 or so cachers, mainly because I RSVP'd on the Facebook page along with 29 others. I had also assumed that it would be "just a barbeque", with ridiculous amounts food, bugs, frisbees, and no organization. I was right about the tons of food part. By day's end, over 100 people attended, some of whom drove hours to be there. The whole event was well-managed, complete with a check-in table, raffle, and lots of cool TBs and geocoins to discover. Mayhem ensued when we attempted a group photo, but only for a minute. The addition of some random "wild" peacocks added a sense of whimsy you just don't get at most parks.

After checking in, we were a bit...awkward. We didn't see anyone we knew and we'd been out-of-the-game so long, it was like starting at a new school in May. The burger-cooking phase of the bbq had not yet begun, so Brian and I set about finding the caches nearby. At the first one, we met team Shade's Brigade, a pair of very friendly, very retired geocachers. They were kind enough not to ditch us while I struggled with Brian's wheelchair off-road. It took us about an hour to leisurely stroll around the park and find three caches. We talked about caching, traveling, jobs, and the difference between peacocks and peahens. By the time we made it back to the picnic area, meat was hitting the grill and a few of our geobuddies had arrived. The sight of War1man & Mimi, Parkhoppers, Mljungquist, and Emeraldcowgirl made us feel like we were "back."

From here on, it was more gastrofest than geoanything. Over fried chicken and potato salad, we swapped stories of caches past and put faces with log scribbles. There was one moment of discomfort when we were talking to a cacher we'd never met before, and I made a joke about stealing a geocoin (which I have never done)...and it did not go over well. Mental note: not everyone thinks I'm funny.

After the food, there were raffles and prizes. Brian and I both won shiny new geocaches, so that was cool. Finally, we were corraled together for a group photo. It wasn't an easy shot, that's for damn sure.
You can't see me in this picture. I'm in the back somewhere, content with the fact that I was there. We look forward to next year!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

The Long Road to 300 Finds

After three exhausting months post-surgery, Brian and I decided to take a much-needed mini vacation. I booked a super cheap room on Hotwire (highly recommend it). We ended up in a 7th story ocean-front balcony at the Doubletree on Indialantic beach. My first indication that we were going to have a good time was when the front desk person complimented my True Blood tee. The second was the free cookie (even though it was over-cooked). Oh yeah, I believe in signs.

The next morning, I woke up early in anticipation of a fantastic day. While Brian slept in, I started mapping out caches. Not that it did much good, the first few were duds. We encountered a veritable sea of muggles, plus, I made the mistake of heading south. This meant I was contstantly making lefts and u-turns; not an easy feat on a busy road near the beach. I resolved to drive south aimlessly and then cache our way back.

We drove for about 30 minutes and soon found ourselves far from the sunscreen-slathered beaches of Melbourne. I pulled over at the Barrier Island Sanctuary to run a new list of caches. Lo and behold, there was one nearby on a trail maintained by the Sanctuary.

Our first find of the day almost didn't happen when I spotted this banana spider. Despite their relative harmlessness, the mere sight of one practically induces an aneurism.

Luckily, the cache wasn't over there.

This cache container was one I had never seen before. It was a green/gray jar about a foot tall with measurements listed on the side. Whatever it is, it's well-suited for geocaching. In the photo below you can see the cache, and the Sanctuary in the background.

Next, we headed a litte further south for some caches in/around Long Point recreation area. This cache took us a while to pinpoint due to bad reception. Turned out it was also hung in such a way that it was only visible from one angle - very clever.


I'm not really sure what the container is, though. It was a bit bigger than a 35mm, but the cap had these swirls of plastic. It reminded me of the bottles of soap bubbles I played with as a kid.

The next complication due to bad reception lead us past the next "planned" cache and onto the Isle of Redneck. Let's just say my European car wasn't exactly welcome. Luckily, there was a cache nearby, so we grabbed that one.

I might not have been able to find this cache if some d-bag hadn't defaced it with a gold sticker. As it was originally intended, the cache was a small silver ziplock, stuck to a piece of metal via a magnet. Retrieval was further complicated by the location's natural shadow AND the wasp sentry guarding it. Snagging the cache wasn't too hard, but replacing it (lining up the magnets) attacted the attention of said wasps and I narrowly escaped without a sting.

On our way out of the recreation area, we stopped to look for the cache we'd passed earlier. The coords weren't particularly accurate, so it took a while, but I was pretty impressed once I found it. The design was simple - a waterproof match container with some leaves glued to it. What made it tough was it's placement beneath a branch. You would expect the leaves there to be a bit darker, which is why it blends reasonably well.

The next cache I attempted was only difficult because I was not dressed appropriately. Shorts and flip flops were not the best choice for a sandy hill riddled with cactus, century plants, and cabbage palms. Case in point - whilst I scuttled up that particular hill, one of my flip flops shifted in the sand, I lost my balance, and left a blood sample on the leftmost plant. Yeah, I found the cache, but it wasn't worth blood loss.

What happened next, I am not proud of. It's a period of my life I would like to forget. And it all started with those simplest of phrases, "are you hungry?" The answer was yes. Ravenously hungry. Deliriously hungry. Hungry enough for us to spend the next 90 minutes driving in circles and screaming at each other. Actually, most of that was me, but Brian snuck a few zingers in there. After checking out several places and finding them closed at weird times or just not to our liking, we finally settled on Bunky's Raw Bar. The food wasn't amazing, but it was good, and cheap, and the restaurant was filled with a variety of saltwater tanks. We sat next to one with a puking eel and hermit crabs well-versed in the art of futility. Seriously. It was cool.

Gastronomically satisfied, we continued the pursuit of 300 finds. Before Bunky's we stood at 298. I wish I'd found just one more cache before this one, making this one #300, because it will be on my top 10 for a while. This cache was a deceptively easy 4/1. The first step was searching this walkway for the cache, which I found in about 2 minutes. Since locating the cache is the easy part, I will momentarily break my policy of not naming caches. This one is called Frogger, aptly named because of how it feels to dart back and forth on the walkway.

I found the bison tube hanging from a piece of fishing wire in the triangularish space between two metal pipes and the concrete wall. I figured all I needed was to snag it with a pair of tweezers and I would be home free, but it wasn't that easy. Turns out, the bison tube was too large to fit between the wall and the pipes, which meant that my only option was to lift it out through the top.


Oh, not so fast. The way out was blocked by rocks clerverly wedged in spots where chunks of concrete were missing. I say cleverly because the rocks were not actually removable, just shift-able. Armed with tweezers in one hand and a pen in the other, I had to scoot the rocks into the right positions using a motion that I call "fruious knitting."


Once I had done all that (a good 20 minutes later) I was finally able to snake the cache out from it's hiding spot. I was pretty freakin' proud of myself.

Finally, we reached the ominous #300. The first candidate didn't work out. As I stood at the edge of some trees assessing the best way in, I heard someone behind me say "There's a cache is in there." I ignored it, for fear, this muggle would go find the cache for me, which has happened before. And then they said it again. I turned around to see a scruffy homeless (presumably) guy, who now said, "Cats! There's ferral cats in there." Oh.

So we moved on to the next cache. Following suit with what seemed to be a huge problem in this area, a muggle was hanging out at a table near GZ and a group was setting up for some kind of party. The set-up crew was totally occupied, but the guy was in a position to block by 300th find. We sat in the car for a few minutes assessing the situation, watching this guy shift in his seat, hunched over something. We narrowed the something down to a book or a can of beer. Whatever it was, he seemed pretty focused on it, so I decided to head for the trees behind him.

I was successful, I suppose. My plan was to walk confidently and acknowledge him with a smile or a hello or something when he looked up...which he totally did not. Nope, that book was way more interesting than the chick scurrying towards the trees. He also didn't notice when I darted in and out of the trees avoiding spider webs. I can only assume this happens all the time.

Anyway, I found the cache, pushing me out of the 200's forever. It was not as satisfying a moment as I had hoped.

Needless to say, I was...sweaty and Brian was in desperate need of a pool, but there was there was still time for one last cache. On the way back to the hotel was a cache that has great potential, but is in need of a little fine tuning.

With a fresh coat of red paint and a little more thought put into the camo (chunks of concrete just don't cut it), this cache could really blend in with it's surroundings.

The only thing that made this cache a tiny bit difficult was that I wasn't expecting it. Upon seeing a large, red, metal structure, I immediately whipped out my mirror and started looking for a magnano. I was wrong. *Gasp!*

After what was arguably my crankiest cache session yet, we went back to the hotel, and we relaxed. We watched some TV, hung out on our balcony and watched the ocean, and swam in the hotel pool. I was so relaxed that when some bratty little kid walked around the pool kicking water at people, I said, "Cut that out, you're being very rude," instead of tripping her.

One of the highlights of our little trip was seeing the sea turtle mounds on the beach and u-shaped turtle tracks in the sand. I can't even tell you how much I wished we would get to see a hatching. Can you imagine how amazing it would be to fling baby turtles to the freedom of the ocean? Maybe fling is the wrong word. Maybe, stand-guard-and-shoo-birds-away is a better plan. Either way, I want it.

The morning of our departure, I took the opportunity to do another kind of seeking: metal detecting on the beach (a special shoutout to EyeoftheSeeker and his lovely wife for this super awesome Christmas gift). I neglected to bring any "tools", so I made do with a glass from our room (for digging) and a plastic bag (for booty). Despite getting up before sunrise, there was a surprising number of people milling around on the beach. The thought of almost-certain embarassment almost sent me back to the hotel room, but then I looked up and saw Brian pointing the camera at me from our balcony. I took a deep breath, readjusted the headphones, and set about waving the metal detector evenly and slowly above the sand. My finds included many blank stares, several bottle caps, and a rusty fondue fork. I can say with some confidence that I saved someone from a nasty bout with tetanus.

Sadly, my finds ended there. We hit a few caches on the way back to the mainland, but with no luck.

We almost came home with a new cat, though. We found him in a park doing the most adorable stretches near where a cache should have been. You may have noticed that his ear is a little ragged. That means he's been fixed and "marked" by the county. Our cat was born feral and has the same clipped ear. It reminds me of the thug-wannabes who shave a line in their eyebrow to signify allegiance to something.

Thus concludes my quest to 300. 400 feels a lifetime away.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The Triumphant Return of Evelev & Brian

Did I jump up and down in excitement? No. Did I shed a tear of joy? No. I dusted off my backpack. Then, I wore it around the house while I packed an ammo can with bottled water and snacks. After a 111-day hiatus, Evelev (and Brian) returned to the world of geocaching.

Here's us at our first find post-surgery, a nano on a guardrail. Our latest geocaching experiences are different than they once were. There is no quick park and grab. Instead of jumping out of the car and into the nearest bush, we now have to assess the terrain/distance and decide if the cache is best-approached by walker or wheelchair. For this first cache, Brian used the walker to get to the guardrail, and then he sat on it, scooting around to look for the cache. I "found" the cache, but being that it was right under where Brian had decided to stop looking, I think it was a gimme.

Magnet-on-a-guardrail is one of those caches that is so hard the first time you encounter it, but basically screams at you each time thereafter. Finding them is now much easier with the aid of a telescoping mirror-on-a-stick (courtesy of Vikki4FSU). Useful for finding caches, and cleaning their teeth.

At the suggestion of War1man, the remainder of our caches for the day were located on or near the Seminole Wekiva Trail. The trail is paved, and mostly level, making it ideal for wheels of all-sorts. The caches weren't quite so friendly, but the path was. Mostly.

The first cache required me to enter the woods, by myself. Spiders everywhere. After I found the cache and emerged from the wilderness, I felt like I was a mile away. In actuality, I was about 20 feet from where I entered. *sigh*

The next cache was definitely not Brian-accessible, but as I approached he said, "look in that log," and the cache was there. Team Evelev works. Mostly.

Finally, we arrived at a cache that was Brian-accessible. He looks all non-chalant, but believe me, he was stoked.

Next, we off-roaded the chair through a substance that looked like grass, but was actually sand. So, I ditched Brian a few feet from the cache and found it sitting on a tree with absolutey no camo. I attempted to take a nice picture of us with the cache. Brian photo-bombed it.

While rehiding the cache, we noticed these markings on the tree. Brian says a bear made them. Brian, who is obviously a bear expert.

Against my better judgement, we ventured down the sandy path ahead. If you've never pushed a wheelchair in sand in 90 degree heat with 2000% humidity, just try it. I expended a tremendous amount of effort to find one cache. It was a super cool cache, but it still only counts for one.

I've made a point of not kissing caches (not even FTFs) but I couldn't pass up this photo op. Plus I needed the motivation for the death march that ensued.


If you've seen Lost, this tumorous tree will remind you of the sonic fences used to keep the smoke monster at bay (we don't know why, it just does). This should have been a clue that the remainder of our foray would be exhausting, confusing, drawn-out, and ultimately pointless. First, the geocaching app failed. I don't know if it was a signal issue, iPhone4 issue, or an evelev issue. It just didn't work. So I tried to look for the next cache, with what little information I could remember. After about 20 minutes of bushwhacking (in a circle), I decided the cache must be on the other side of a nearby fence and resigned to a DNF.

At this point, we were exhausted and only about three-tenth's of a mile from the car. Three-tenths as a crow flies. A crow, I am not. In between us and the car was a ditch, then a hill, all covered in grass, and a bunch of very active softball fields. One option was to go back the way we came which was easily over a mile, about a 1/3 of which was on sand and partially uphill. But Brian, in his infinite wisdom, suggested we brave the ditch, the hill, and the grass. It's easy to say that when you're the one in the chair. So...I positioned myself behind the wheelchair, took a running start into the ditch and road the momentum most of the way up the hill. Then I struggled like hell to get us both the rest of the way. That itself was a miracle. Then we began our journey through uneven grass past the softball fields. I was narrowly missed by an errant softball, believe it or not, and nearly tipped the wheelchair several times.

I learned two things. First, I'm a freakin' ox. And second, we need a wheelchair with skis. Somehow, we made it back to the car. And somehow, Brian talked me into making another attempt at the DNF from the other side of the fence. While he stayed with the car, I hiked quickly back to the cache. Now that I had a signal again, it seriously looked like the cache was on the other side of the fence (the one I had just been on). I spent 30 minutes looking - 27 of which I thought about how to hop this 6' chain link fence. After several visions of getting my jeans or boots caught, falling and breaking my ankle, or impaling my eyeball on some exposed chain link (it happens)...not to mention all of the above scenarios PLUS spiders, I gave up. I shrugged back to the car and we went home. It was a good day of finds, marred by over an hour of misery. The things we do in the name of a find.

This cache doesn't really fit into this blog posting, but it deserves honorable mention because I found it within the same week. I've seen these before, so it wasn't tough for me to find, but it made me realize how my perception has changed. To geocachers, this bolt couldn't stick out more if it was glowing. Most muggles wouldn't give it a second thought.

And this is just to show what awesome pictures my iPhone 4 takes. Speaking of which, I will be reviewing the iPhone 4 for caching in a future post. Stay tuned.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Temporarily Archived

First, let me firmly state that I have not abandoned this blog. I love this blog, and I love that people find value in it. When Brian had his (first) surgery and I knew team Evelev would be out of commission for a bit, I was a teeny bit excited. A break from actual geocaching meant that I would finally have an opportunity to develop the article ideas brewing in my head. But it didn’t work out that way.


You should know that I have written, edited, trashed, and re-written this very post several times over the past month. Every time I start writing, I mosey-on for a bit like normal, and suddenly I find myself in downward spiral towards the melodramatic swamp of self-pity (there might be a cache there). Somewhere deep in the rational part of my brain, I knew publishing that crap was more destructive than not writing at all. This a blog, about geocaching, not an episode of Blossom. With no new geocaching experiences to keep me on-track, I basically put the blog into cryosleep/medically-induced coma, until I felt creative again.


Am I feeling creative now? Not remotely, nor do I have any new geo-perspective to add. To be honest, thinking about caches-past is a little (cue the violins) painful. Everybody has new stories to tell, new accomplishments to boast, and I...don’t. I just miss it. I miss writing.


Now, dry your eyes, and hang up with the 911 operator. I’m not getting ready to jump off a cliff. I’m not in some state of depression and my life is not that bad. It’s just really busy and exhausting right now.


ALL of that being said, it’s really flattering that people stop by. With no new posts, I’ve still had 477 hits (and made 8 cents in advertising revenue...woo). I don’t know when I’ll be a regular in the geocommunity again. I will tell you that every week I plan to write, I think about new articles, and then I just don’t get around to writing them. So, maybe next week, maybe next year. My ground zero is still right here.

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Next Frontier

First, I must provide an update on the status of team Evelev. As I mentioned before, Brian had back surgery on April 2nd. He spent the next two weeks in inpatient physical therapy. His recovery was going extremely well, until April 17th when he had an emergency apendectomy. By the time he went into surgery, his appendix had ruptured. So began a longer and more arduous recovery than we ever anticipated.


He came home a little over a week ago. Since then, I've spent 18+ hours a day helping Brian, studying for finals, working, and reclaiming our home. After three weeks of doing little more in this house than sleeping, our beautiful new home turned into Lord of the Flies. The dog is Piggy, the cat is Jack, and the bird is somewhere in between. Our lawn turned yellow-ish, which became the talk of the neighbordhood. One neightbor actually called Brian to tattle on me. I can't wait to get back to my normal, boring life. I appreciate it a lot more now.


It will be a while longer before we get back to geocaching. That's ok, I was obviously FTF-addicted. This is like my own form of rehab. I haven't hallucinated any disembodied babies on the ceiling yet, so I guess I'm doing ok.


When we do we get back out there, and we will, it will be with some modifications. Brian might be in a wheelchair for a while longer. It won't be permanent, but recovery takes time. We'll probably start out with a steady diet of park and grabs, then we'll work up to parks and eventually woods.


The other day I came across Handicaching.com, which allows users to re-rate caches on a slightly different scale. I went through my past 10 caches and couldn't find any that had been re-rated. Then I realized they only have 21,700 caches re-rated. I guess it's not that popular, but it's a fantastic concept.


The most recent re-rated cache is GC10KX7, a 1/1.5 in Australia. The new rating on handicaching.com keeps the 1 for difficulty, but increases the terrain to 5. The rater notes "impossible for a wheelchair" due to rough/bumpy terrain with small-moderate obstructions (branches, vegetation, etc). To be fair, the cache page includes an attribute for "not wheelchair accessible." And, according to cacheopedia.com, "a 1½-star terrain rating could indicate a very easy hike (easier than typical 2-star terrain), but a cache location that is not wheelchair accessible." So, it's not that the original rating is wrong, but the handicaching.com rating provides more information.


To do my part, I rated a cache I grabbed a few weeks ago, GC23HCP. If you have nothing better to do, here's my rating. The cache description is really honest about this cache, so it's not like I'm making a difference, but it makes me feel useful. I'd like to get into the habit of re-rating caches for handicaching.com...we'll see.


What I can say for sure is that we are about to evolve as geocachers. It should be a good experience, like holding your toothbrush with the other hand. A little strange at first, but we'll get used to it. One of the beautiful things about geocaching is the flexibility it offers. We will definitely put that to the test.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

And this one time, when I was geocaching...

This Tuesday, April 13th, marks one year since I found my first geocache.



As much as I hate to admit this, it was actually the 8th cache I looked for. I chalk it up to my lone-wolf style of geocaching, but on the down-low, it probably had a lot to do with geo-tantrums. Don't act like you've never had one.


I don't feel like I've accomplished much in my first year, but it has certainly altered my perspective. Not a day goes by that I don't look at a light pole or guard rail and wonder if there is a cache there. When I see someone milling around on the side of the road, I mutter, "geocaching?" My purse now includes a flashlight and a mirror. I never carried a mirror before, but I do now, and I owe many, many finds to it.


The most significant change in my life is that I no longer experience afternoons with nothing to do. An unfound cache is always nearby. When I run errands, I usually take a look at what caches are on the way. If Brian and I leave town for a few days, we always make to time to explore new territory. I even look for easy heel-friendly terrain ratings on my lunch break. Geocaching is always in the back of my head.


What have I learned? Spiders, while still out to get me, are not nearly as abundant as I thought. Not everyone is watching me, and the ones that are do not automatically assume I am a terrorist (mostly). Stealth isn't about ninja-like quickness, it's about looking like you belong. One of the easiest ways to deter muggles is to acknowledge them - wave and be friendly, they usually get spooked and leave. Other geocachers are not my competitors (mostly), they are the most interesting and decent people you will find. Water is the most destructive force on the planet. My dog hates geocaching, while everyone else I have introduced loves it. And finally: anything, anything, could be a cache. You just don't know until you wiggle it.


The best stories come out of the geocaching, and I have definitely bulked up my arsenal. I look forward to many more years of finding nanos, ammo cans, pill bottles, and 35mm film cannisters. My GZ is right here.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Skeletons in the Ammo Closet

As some of you know, Team Evelev is temporarily out of commission. Last Friday, Brian had surgery to untether his spinal cord (don’t ask me how that happens) and remove tumors and scar tissue. His recovery is almost on-schedule, though we were a bit delayed by a spinal fluid leak (ick, I know...) Today, he was cleared to start moving around, but walking is a challenge. On his last day in the hospital, I think we’ll get him in a wheel chair and try to grab the mutli cache here. I can see the starting coordinates from his window.


So, if you were hoping to read about my caching escapades this week, I am sorry to disappoint. I do, however, have a little piece I started working on a few weeks ago. It’s been waiting for a weekend such as this.


A few weeks ago, I was dozing off on the couch, when I heard, "You found my cache?" One eye popped open. "I knew it!" I yelled at the TV, "I knew that ammo can was a cache!"


I don't watch The Forgotten. In fact, I avoid all things Christian Slater. It just so happened that Lost had ended moments before. I really needed to go to bed, so I didn't change the channel, but I didn’t get off the couch, either. Enter Mr. Slater, and his widow’s peak.


It starts like all other prime-time-crime-dramas. Two teens, sneaking off into the woods (presumably to do what teens-in-the-woods do) trip over an enormous ammo can marked EXPLOSIVES. Being the good citizens that they are, they put their necking on-hold to report this to the authorities. A bomb-probing robot cautiously opens the ammo can to reveal...gasp! Bones.


Slater’s character rushes to the scene, and here we find out that these bones could be those of his missing daughter. Go ahead, gasp again. The detectives inventory the can, which includes a rubber band ball, a ladybug key chain, and some puzzles, which are presumed to be clues to the identity of the killer.


They trace the cache back to a young teen, who informs the detectives that they found a globocache. Soon after, we find out that the ladybug is actually a trackable hopper. The detectives find themselves at a globocaching event. You know, to look for clues. It is here that globocachers prove just how cool they are, by dressing in animal costumes. A giraffe, dog, macaw, skunk, and pink hippopotamus were all in attendance. The detectives track down the hopper’s owner, who pitches a hissy fit when they inform her that the hopper won’t be hopping. Excuse me, Miss, it’s part of a murrrrder investigation.


Good detective-work leads them to a suspect: a good geocacher with a bad attitude. Oooo. I really wanted to link a video, but ABC makes that tough. If you have a spare moment and need a good laugh, go to The Forgotten’s website, wait for the video to load, then click “More Videos” (lower left), and then select the one titled “Good Night Moment 3/9.”


After that, the crew completes a platinum cache, which is sort of a multi and mystery cache combo placed for them by the killer. They get up to all kinds of detective-based mischief and solve the crime, blah blah blah. Anyway, the show sucks and I will never watch another episode, but this particular one was pretty funny. I don’t think they meant it that way though. Well, maybe ABC thought it would be funny, Mr. Slater – not so much.


In all seriousness, geocachers do find human remains occasionally. It's not usually this funny, though. Or maybe it is. I'll let you know when it happens.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

The more things change, they really change.

Our nephew, Overcast_shade, came down to Orlando to spend the weekend with us again. Faced with an amazingly beautiful day, I simply couldn't let either of us waste a Saturday on the couch killing zombies. I decided to take him to one my favorite caches: GC18HQF. I know I'm breaking my policy about naming caches, but it's ok because the cache is easy to find, not so easy to get to. If you recall my blog post The Evelev School of Flipflip Geocaching, I had to cross a creek (by walking barefoot across a log) to get to this cache. It was a blast, and I knew he would enjoy it.


But here was my first clue:



Not so scary, right? Except that last time I was here, it looked like this:



I guess we've had a lot more rain in the last 5 months than I thought. The water was too big to jump across, so we bushwhacked a bit until we found a nice wide log we could walk across. Our next task was finding the log I used to get to the area where the cache is. This is what it looked like in October:



Now? It's 2 feet under water. So we set about finding another way across. This is what we settled on:



"But Evelev, that log doesn't go all the way across." You're right, it doesn't, but it went further than any of the other fallen trees. Overcast_shade went first.



The plan was to get as far as possible, and then leap to the shore. It went basically like this:



I had a very similar dismount, but luckily there was no one back there taking pictures with their iPhone.


Safely across, we set about finding the cache. Actually, he set about it. I knew where it was, so I just hung out and did a little dance to keep the spiders from crawling on me. I didn't see any, but I know they're watching me. Always.


Anyway, he found the cache pretty quickly, and then we headed back across. He went first so he could take pictures of me this time.


Here's me, standing in the water, on the log. Yeah, I'm super cool.



And here's me trying really hard not to fall down. Contrary to what you might believe, it's actually a lot easier to walk on the log while it's under the water. I thought the current might unsteady my footing, but that was not the case. Coming out of the water onto the dry log was a bit challenging.



Funny story, about that stick, which I still have by the way. When I first stepped on the log (before we found the cache), I was curious to see how deep the water was. So I plunged the stick into the water by the shore. My hand got lower, and lower, and I damn near fell in. So, I don't really know how deep the water is...at least as long as that stick.


Oh, by the way, my leg is went from when I tried to jump off the log and onto the shore. I didn't pee myself, let's just be clear about that.


One cache down, we set about finding another in the area. Brian and I tried for this other cache a few months back, but didn't find it. Someone has since updated the coordinates, so we decided to try again. The map showed that we were .09 miles away. Cool, let's bushwhack. I'm game. After all, I remembered the cache being just a little off the path. 20 minutes later, we were still .08 miles away, and somehow ended up back at the log we used to get to the first cache. Oy. We headed back to the car.


And then it hit me. The cache was right off the path...just not the path we were on. I had forgotten that Brian and I had taken a different trail. So we walked (on the outside of the woods) to that trail, bushwhacked for about 10 minutes, and found the cache. If I gave a prize for the cutest log, it would be this one:



After that, I had yet another goal. Flashback for just a moment to November, The Honeymoon is Over, when I was stung by a wasp while looking for a cache. In my frenzy, I lost a travel bug I was going to release. I've been meaning to go back and look for it, seeing as how no one has come across it. We weren't right next to the cache when this wasp-incidence occured, but I was hoping that someone else in their quest might wander by my travel bug.


We didn't find it either. Too much new leaf cover. I might go back with a metal detector. What we did find this owl, just hanging out on a branch. I think it might be a barred owl, but I'm not sure. We we were about 30 feet away when I saw it looking at us. It was about 5pm, so I suppose it just waking up. Owls are so elusive, I was surprised to see one so calm, and out in the daylight.



We did a few more caches after that. We had the unfortunate experience of accidentally wandering into private property, twice. The first guy was clearly annoyed, and rightly so. We apolologized profusely and left quickly. I'm not 100% convinced it was his property, but I wasn't going to argue. At the next location, the guy was really nice, and even let us keep looking for the cache. I apologized, and apologized, but he didn't really care. The land is undeveloped and for sale, so he didn't see that we were doing any harm. We didn't find the cache, but I probably won't go back. Even if he didn't mind us being there, I was embarassed.


We did some more bushwhacking today. For some reason, today's cache locations were fraught with thorny vines. I wore jeans, but I might as well have been bare-legged. Oh, and the mosquitos are definitely back.


On our way to the first cache, the Groundspeak app went down...again. I've found it doesn't really do Sundays. To kill a little time, I took Overcast_shade to grab some of the caches I've already done. I was reminded again how fast things change in a few short months.



This cache used to be a bird. Now it's a charred marshmallow with an attitude. Looks like somebody overcooked their peep. Happy (almost) Easter.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Ick. Eek. Nasties.

It's been a couple of weeks since I got out to do any real geocaching. This weekend was a nice reprieve. It started on Friday evening. I was setting down on the couch, wallowing in the crumminess of my week, when my iPhone buzzed with an email. Cache posted, 2/10 of a mile away. I leapt (yes, leapt) from the couch and ran out of the room...quickly realizing that I probably shouldn't leave my little snack where the dog could grab it. I scrambled back into the living room, gathered up my cheese and crackers, plunked them on the kitchen counter, and ran out of the room, again. I slipped-on a pair of sneakers. No time for socks. On my way out the door, I asked Brian if he wanted to come, he declined, and I was off.


I arrived at the location to find this crappy-looking bog. The terrain rating is a 3, so I put on my backpack and prepared to bushwhack. But then, in a stroke of genius, I looked a bit further and found a neat, manicured path to GZ.



At GZ, I got an up-close look at the bog. I felt like Frodo at the Dead Marshes (formerly the battlefield of Dagorlad). If you don't know what that means, pat yourself on the back for being less of a nerd than me. Anyway, with a 3-star terrain rating, I thought I was going to get even closer to the bog. Thankfully, I didn't.



There's a funny thing about FTFs. I think I get cache-blindness because I'm so spazzed that someone else is going to run up behind me and snag the cache. Neurotic? Yes. Immature? Of course. Justified? Absolutely. Don't judge me.


The happy ending is that I did finally find it first. It just appeared, dangling right in front of my eyeballs.



On my way out, I ran into mljungquist, so I hung around while she found it, and then we caught up for a few minutes.


When I got home, our nephew (Overcast_shade) and two fellow Marines had arrived. Two of the three stayed with us for the weekend. Had I not intervened, they would have spent the entire time playing xbox. I think I did them a favor.


I was supposed to spend yesterday studying, but the weather was just too nice to pass up. Plus, it rained all day today, so I had plenty of time to hit the books.


The first cache we visited is about a mile from my house. It's one I've wanted to do since I started geocaching, but was apparehensive because of the previous logs and the fact that it hadn't been found in over a year. I've had it on my watch list, and a few weeks ago, someone logged it.



The water near the car was stagnant and icky. Further down, it was clear but deeper with a bit of a current. We started out on the east side, but soon had to cross over to the west side on this downed-tree. The path ahead was dense with trees and had a high probability of spiders. Plus this log was like 2 feet wide and very easy to cross.



Here, overcast_shade and his buddy cross the stream in front of me. That's the benefit of caching with Marines, they try everything first.



On the west side of the creek, there was a well-beaten path leading almost to GZ. The description had noted that there were two ways to approach - wet feet or bushwhacking. We had unknowingly chosen wet feet. Not to worry, the creek looked shallow, so the three of us took off our shoes, rolled up our jeans, and waded across. It was almost as shallow as it looked, except that the sand was soft, so we sunk a few inches lower than we'd thought. But no harm done, really.



I spotted the cache almost immediately on the other side. It's some kind of box with a cool locking mechanism and a bunch of ferns glued to it. The description says it from a helicopter (minus the ferns). That's all cool, except that helicopters aren't made to be in water, and neither is this cache. It's absolutely disgusting inside. We couldn't even find the log, I think it broke down into it's original elements. Nasties.



This is the cache in it's "natural" habitat. Blends quite well, but I suppose some wanderer could come across it eventually. We saw ATV tracks. The nearby mobile home park is called Sherwood Forest, so the greatest muggle of all, the Sheriff of Nottingham, might obscond with it one day. Avert your eyes, I just got a little dweebier.



Then we moved on to a cache Brian and I tried almost a year ago, but didn't find. Turns out, the coordinates were off by a good 20 feet. Also, the clues were misleading or just irrelevent. I have to wonder if this cache isn't where it's supposed to be. Anyway, overcast_shade finally found it. There was a yay and an eek at the same time - the camo was covered in enormous red ants. You can just make them out in this photo, which should show you that these are no ordinary ants. I was ready to give up then, but the Marines brushed the ants aside and extracted the bison tube.



Not far away was another cache. The coordinates put us in the middle of the street, but obviously it wasn't there. The clue made reference to hanging, so we scoured the trees nearby. No cache. I was getting ready to call it a DNF, when I made one more loop around the trees and spotted the cache hanging from a piece of fishing line attached to a cinder block fence.



We found two more caches before we had to had home to a very hungry Brian. It was my first DNF-less day in a long, long time. Fingers crossed we get nice weather next weekend. I'd like to do some of the kayak-only caches in the area before it gets too hot and buggy here.