Christmas Caching in Panama City

Last Thursday Brian and I headed up to Panama City, FL to spend Christmas with family (including my Dad, fellow cacher, PNutHed). In anticipation of a Christmas-day cooking frenzy, we went out to dinner on Christmas Eve. It just so-happened there was a cache in the parking lot of the restaurant. Coincidence, really.

We assumed it was a typical light pole cache, but lifted the skirt to find nothing. It was a bit disconcerting. That was, until Brian tripped, placed his hand on the pole for support, and something slid under it. Turned out it was the cache, which was an outlet cover, painted to match the pole. I don't recall ever seeing one painted before. I apologize for the poor photo quality...it was dark.

We spent Christmas day in a perpetual cycle of cooking and eating. Even though I was all by myself for about an hour when I ran to Winn Dixie to grab a few forgotten ingredients, I resisted the urge to grab any caches. This is not to say that I did not open the Geocaching app; I know for a fact there was a cache in the parking lot where I shopped, but I didn't grab it. Christmas miracle?

The next day we did some more cooking and eating, but we actually got out and grabbed a few caches. I'm proud to say that we found everything we seriously looked for. The one exception was a cache that is only accessible by sacrificing someone to the bog people. We didn't get a chance to really hunt for it, so it's a pseudo DNF.

The most admirable find of the day went to PNutHed, who saw something we all failed to see. The cache was a 4/3 (difficulty/terrain). I admit the rating alone intimidated me. Both PNutHed's Garmin and my iPhone showed the coordinates being off to the right of the gazebo (below), so we all hopped off the boardwalk and started hunting. The Garmin's reading bounced all over, but kept coming back to the same area, a pair of small trees. We scoured these two trees, tugging on every branch and berry. I was fixated on pine cones, which littered the area and fit the difficulty rating. After a bit I realized I was looking at the same cones over and over. The only way I could think to "keep track" was to toss away the cones after I was done with them. I cleared a small area to absolutely no avail. We also wiggled the loose bark of nearby trees, sifted through clumps of weeds, dug up partially-buried bottle-caps, tipped over a rain gauge (oops), disturbed multiple ant colonies, picked through a pile of clam shells, and pulled finger prints off found pen fragments (not really).

An hour passed with no good leads. I decided to look at recent logs for clues. One log eluded to the cache being on the gazebo, so, we redoubled our efforts there. We wiggled every bolt, duck-walked under the planks, and crept along the railings. Oy.

For the third time, I climbed up on the railings to look at a piece of metal that seemed out of place. PNutHed came up to examine it also. I climbed down, defeated. And then PNutHed spotted the cache.

It became abundantly clear why it was rated a 4/3, and why so many DNFs had been logged. Instead of trusting the coordinates, I had spent an hour flipping over pine cones. Our collective frustration was captured in this one photo.

Here's what the cache looks like next to the hidey hole.

Below is the nano incognito. It wasn't hard to get to, per se, just hard to see. It proves, once again, that geocaching is all about perspective. Sometimes it's just a matter of looking at the right spot from the right angle. But even with that knowledge, I'm not sure I would have spotted this cache.

Our next cache was another first for me. We found a naked log first, then the damaged cache nearby. Granted, the cache consisted of a baggie and velcro, but it had somehow been removed from it's original location. The log was dry, so we signed it, replaced it in the baggie, and stashed the baggie somewhere "safe." I posted a Needs Maintenance note and emailed the owner. Hopefully the cache survives.

Now for some administrative updates. First, Brian added a welcomed-addition to Team Evelev: a new cache bag! Goodbye, Hello Kitty. It has a million pockets, a removable rain cover, and space-age technology that is supposed to keep my back cool. It's wicked awesome. Several months back I swag-traded a pedometer for a geocaching patch, which you can get from Goundspeak for about $4. I sewed on the patch tonight.

You may be interested to know that you may be part of a global phenomenon. A tiny one. I recently figured out that my blog has been visited by people in 14 countries and 31 US states. Turns out, some of you come straight here (because I told you to), some of you click through my Facebook link, but a lot people are finding me on google. Try googling "camo'd bison", I'm the first result. I'm also getting a lot of hits on waterproof match containers - google image search "waterproof match container", I'm the #2 result. I'm also #2 for "decoys in geocaching". I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but this blog is slowly becoming a source for the cache-curious. And you were here first. Congratulations.

StatCounter.com

Cache Apathy

If you've found any caches in Seminole county over the last week, you may want to wash your hands (and your lungs). In addition to leaving my mark on the logs, I probably left some congestion-inducing cold germs. You will know you've been caching behind me if you feel like your head has been filled with cement and your chest is lined with wool. Next time you exclaim "found it!" you may look around for a geomocking hobo, only to find the gravelly smoker-esque voice is your own.

You will be most-shocked by the one symptom you can't treat with NyQuil: Cache apathy. Over the past week I've turned into an incredibly lazy, muggle-paranoid geocacher. I have the desire to look for caches, but I get out there and I just don't care. I walk away after only minutes. Those of you that cache with me know that's not my style.

Example: This cache in South Carolina. Four of us picked through the trees in the dark for over an hour.

I grabbed three today, but I gave up on four others. And two of the three I grabbed were of the platitudinous variety. If you're not familiar with platitudinous caches, it's a series by legendary cachers War1man & Mimi. The pair is infamous for hiding the most devastatingly devious caches in Central Florida and finding everyone else's the moment they are posted. I suppose the platitudinous series is an attempt to balance out their karma. Platitudinous means "without freshness or appeal because of overuse." In other words, they're super easy. Number padding at it's best.

I actually drove by a few caches today because I just didn't feel like expending the effort. At one in particular, I slowed down the car, figured out I would have to walk about 50 feet to the cache, and kept driving. Seriously. At another, I pulled into a parking lot and a little tuxedo cat jumped out in front of me. Actually, it was less jumping and more sauntering. Then I drove around the parking lot and found him with a veritable coven of cat-friends, who took a moment to practice yoga in front my car. "Not meant to be" I mumbled, and drove away.

Leander demonstrates kitteh-corpse pose.

Here's another example of how off-my-game I am. A few days ago our dear friend EyeoftheSeeker posted a cache at the end of my street - a full 3/10 of a mile away from where I sit at this moment. And for the first time in nearly a year, I went three whole hours without checking my email. I nealy spit out my Nyquil when I realized the cache had been posted. I had just gotten out of the shower and was in my pajamas, but I threw on a pair of slippers, grabbed my wicked new flashlight and headed out the door. I arrived at the location to find another cacher lurking in the trees, barefoot. Been there. Took us a while to hone in on the actual location, but eventually I found the cache. My only victory of the week was squashed by the realization that War1man & Mimi and had been there first. A cache gets posted while I'm at home, less than half a mile away, and I still couldn't get an FTF. Jeez.

Hopefully I get this funk out of my system soon. Brian and I are headed up to Panama City for Christmas to see family (among them, PNutHed, my dad). I'm looking forward to some fresh caching territory and, you know, Christmas cheer.

Lessons Learned and Other Geo-News

I grabbed a handful of caches this week. My first was an attempt at FTF. Twelve hours after publishing, the cache was still unfound, so I thought I had a shot, but I was beaten by a mere 30 minutes.

I learned something about myself at this cache. With over 200 finds, I have acquired the skill of invisbility...or so I seem to think. It seems I have far less stealth than when I first started caching. The area was teeming with muggles on their way to a middle school. The cache was located under a boardwalk and I had no shame about stomping around in the mud (in heels).

At one point a group of 12ish year-olds walked by and one said, "Is that a girl?" Another replied, "no, stupid, that's not a girl." The debate continued. So I popped my head up above the boardwalk and yelled "yes, I am a girl" and resumed searching. Their pace quickened a little after that. A few minutes later an elderly couple walked by and actually stopped to watch me. I tried to ignore them, but they looked nosy, so I stood up and waved at them. The woman waved back and shouted, "Isn't it muddy down there?" I replied, "Oh, it's not so bad" and ducked back under the boardwalk. It was then that I noticed a set of footsteps other than mine and followed them to the cache.

The wave-and-smile technique worked better than I imagined. I suppose she thought she had spotted someone with a nefarious purpose. Except that people who are up to no good don't typically acknowledge the presence of onlookers, so I basically cleared my name by just being friendly. Normally I'm happy to explain geocaching, but since this one is on the main route to school, I figured it wouldn't stay long if people knew about it. The best option was for them to think I was strange. Believe me, I was ready with the "I dropped an earring" excuse, but I'm glad I didn't have to use it.

I also came across my first bird nest cache, which was tilted to reveal the bison tube without much searching. I tried to position it so the opening would face the sky, but it didn't seem to budge. I suppose it's survived this long.

Last week my obsession was puzzle caches (it still is, don't worry), this week I'm on a kick for statstics. A quick google search of "geocaching statistics" brought me to
Cacher Stats, which amazingly ranks all geocachers with 200+ finds. The only catch is that you have to visit one of their currently-watched caches. If the closest cache is more than 50 miles away you can request that they add a cache closer to you. The closest one to me is 6 miles away and I grabbed it this afternoon. This website updates twice a week, so hopefully I'll be on there in a few days.

More digging revealed this neat stat bar, fed by Cacher Stats. You can get it here. As soon as I'm on Cacher Stats you can bet I'll be adding this stat bar to my blog.

And finally, the biggest news of my weekend. If you're like me, you were not aware that us geocachers are about to have own in-print magazine. You will be able to have a normal-people representation of your obsession right there on your coffee table. It's called FTF Geocacher and the first full issue is due out in early 2010. You will have to pay for a subscription, but they haven't released the price yet.

However, signing up for the preview issue is easy and free. Just go to FTFGeocacher.com, where you can read about the magazine and find out how to sign up.

But that's not the best part - the best part is I'm in it! They are publishing my review of Geocache, written by Contributor Evelev. I feel honored to be a part of this new publication. It's my own little contribution to the world of geocaching.

Which brings me to my final point, I had no idea I was contributing to the world of geocaching with this blog. I'm so new, so incredibly inexperienced compared to just about every other geocacher on the planet (not to mention verbose). I thought my readers consisted mainly of friends and family, people who read my blog just to be nice. So I have to admit it's both thrilling and terrifying that people are reading who won't forgive my smart-assedness. Oh well, I suppose that damage is done.

Where do I go from here? I've already been recognized on-the-street from this blog, so I must be well on my way to an embarassing segment on TMZ. And I expect a call from Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, or Bill Maher for me to appear as a free-lance geo-writer. Ever seen one of those on the panel? Or maybe I'll just go to work tomorrow and grab a cache on my lunch break.

Evelev Reviews a Geocaching Documentary

From time to time I search my DirecTv guide for all things Viggo Mortensen.

Seriously, how can you not love him? If I could go geocaching with anyone living or dead, it would be him. That's not a slam to the people I have already cached with, it's just a fact.

Anyway, one of the items that popped up was an interview with him on some PBS show...but it was on a PBS I don't have. So I went to the PBS I do have, to see if I could find it there. I did not achieve Viggo-glory, but I did come across a geocaching documentary, aptly named, Geocache. Here's the website. And here's the trailer.

Let me first say that throughout the course of this documentary I repeatedly uttered the words "I'm not like that...I'm normal" while rocking back and forth. Brian laughed, a lot.

They interviewed:
-Geocachers at GeoWoodstock IV
-Jeremy Irish (Groundspeak)
-Park rangers from Larimer county, Colorado (where Brian and I got married...some of you were there)

The geocachers scared me, probably because I could have given the exact same interviews. First, they all mentioned their screen names (as they should); unfortunately, screen names used off-line are the epitome of dweebiness. Second, they were hardcore, and not in a good way. One of the interviewees was a lady with the most finds (16,000 in 2007). She said (paraphrased), "I have a business, but my husband runs it so I can do this...I miss my kids, they lost interest a long time ago." Yikes. And then, there was the on-going debate between geocachers and park rangers. It went something like this:

Geocachers: We have a right to do this.
Park rangers: We're sick of rescuing your asses.
Geocachers: Geocaches are not litter.
Park rangers: Your crap is bad for the wildlife.
Geocachers: We promote awareness and appreciation of state parks.
Park rangers: So called "geotrails" destory flora and fauna.

I was thoroughly surprised at how much park rangers dislike geocachers. It makes sense. Geocachers aren't always seasoned hikers. We (I) don't usually plan out where I'm (I mean we're) going. I just want the blue dot to match up with the green dot. But by the grace of god I haven't come across poison ivy, or been stung by a scorpion, or disturbed a hungry bear. Yet, the geocachers were completely unapologetic. Can we just admit that we're kind-of a nuisance? Not all of us, but enough to cause trouble.

Other highlights included a Canadian geocacher who dresses up like Batman (yes, he caches in a cape), and a guy who found himself without a pen and signed the log in blood. I signed in pink highlighter once...

I thought I was a geo-dweeb, but it is not so. I'm average. Mundane, even. It's ok, I'd like to think of myself as the friendly, unobsessed face of geocaching that muggles can relate to. I'm positively nerd-chic.

Finding more than a good deal on Black Friday

Normally I don't leave the house on Black Friday. I'd rather pay a little extra than get up extra-early to stampede with a bunch of stuff-obsessed people like bovine-encephalitic cattle. I'd like to keep what faith I have left in humanity, thank you very much.

But this year I woke up and found myself alone (Brian had to work), with little homework and housework. I decided to fill the space by doing something I haven't done in a while - sit in a coffee house and read (Contact by Carl Sagan). I thought geocaching would be out of the question with muggles on high alert...but I knew of one recently-placed cache that I could grab on the way to the coffee house. Like a junkie, I said to myself, "just this one...I'm just going to get this one cache, then I'm going to read."

I arrived at the cache location and found it deserted. Beautiful.

I followed my iPhone to the coordinates and found...spider webs. So I started reading the recent logs and realized that the coords were off by 60-80 feet. Luckily, it's a boardwalk, so that narrowed down the possibilities, and after reading the description again, I expanded the search radius. When I finally found it, I was 92 feet away from the posted coordinates. How's that for geosenses?

Then I saw this thing. I'll entertain any guesses as to what it is. It's like a bird house designed by MC Escher.

By this time I had unashamedly decided to attempt the mystery cache nearby. I looked at the description and was completely baffled. So I cheated a little and started looking at the log photos for clues. One photo seemed promising, so I set out to find where it was taken. When I finally found that location, I was at the other end of the boardwalk. I realized that they must have parked on this end, and taken a picture before they started looking. Drat. I poked around for a bit, feeling utterly naked without my mirror. When some guy in a minivan asked if I needed a ride, I decided to get the eff out of there. As I walked back to my car I debated whether I should finish the morning drinking coffee and reading...or geocaching. I decided coffee.

When I got to the coffee shop, it was closed. Not closed-for-the-day closed, closed-forever closed. I considered driving to a Starbucks, but it felt like slapping god in the face. How could I ignore this obvious sign? I drove back to the house to plan some caches and charge my iPhone.

Over a bowl of Cheerios I made a list of caches, including a few mystery caches I recently solved. I also picked a multi. Up until now I've only done traditional caches. I wasn't ambitious enough to do a multi (remember I don't have a real GPSr), and not smart enough to solve a mystery. However, I recently got a boost of confidence from reading Digital Fortress (Dan Brown), which is kinda like DaVinci Code (only kinda), but with cryptography and the NSA. I don't know why, but all of a sudden some of the puzzles started making sense. I decoded the messages and ended up with logical coordinates...now I had to trust Motion-X (iPhone GPS app) to get me where I was going. I have grown quite accustomed to Groundspeak's app, so this was a little scary.

The first one was a bust. I drove up and down this one road 50 times. Every road I tried to turn down was gated or clearly posted "authorized vehicles only." I'm a wuss, I know. Again, I turned to the recent logs and found that others had experienced this problem...until they figured out the correct coordinates. My retardedness was confirmed. Smrt, just like Homer Simpson.

Not to be deterred, I headed in the direction of another mystery cache. I parked as close as I could, but soon realized I would need to go into the woods, which was really not cool considering I was already 0-1 for mystery caches. Luckily I didn't really have to do any bushwhacking, there was a clear path straight into the woods. I arrived at what I thought was the location and started snooping around. Not surprisingly, the tree cover messed with the signal, causing my GZ to bounce all over the place. After about 15 minutes, I was ready to walk away. But then I read the description again, which made reference to another cache I had already done, and suddenly it was clear. I found the cache a mere 30 seconds later.

Next I revisited a series of four caches I found a month ago. At the time I didn't realize that each held a clue to the coordinates of a fifth mystery cache. This process was relatively smooth until I grabbed the third cache and something was living in it. I don't know what it was, it moved quickly and had a cocoon...so I'm thinking spider. The coordinates took me to a location that would normally be crawling with muggles, so it worked out that I grabbed it when I did.

Full of ambition, I drove towards the multi-cache I had picked to be my first. I was looking forward to visiting all these different locations, but it didn't work out that way. The cache was a locked utility box mounted on a telephone pole. The key was hidden nearby...so that's why it was a multi. I was under the impression that a multi was a string of caches where each cache had coordinates for the next. Apparently not.

About a million people saw me open up the cache, but I wasn't worried because if they came back they wouldn't be able to find the key. I'm just surprised some paranoid Progress Enegy employee hasn't reported this thing and had it blown up.

While the rest of America got killer deals on electronics and the latest hamptser toy, I got some cache glory. I'll do my Christmas shopping later. Don't be surprisd if your stocking is filled with swag.

The Honeymoon is over

It was only a matter of time. Geocaching, while still very entertaining, is just a little less enticing. We've had our first big fight and it's gained 10lbs. I still love you, geocaching, but we need to talk.

First, there's all this unnecessary bushwhacking. Last Saturday I made a third and successful attempt at a cache within walking distance of my house. I brought Savannah along, and once again she was completely useless. I tied her to a tree while I followed each of several geotrails. Turns out none of them were right. All that bushwhacking was for naught.

To top it off, the cache tried to eat Savannah. Not cool.

And then there's the false sense of hope. After this little victory I suddenly had a misplaced craving for bushwhacking, so I planned an entire day of it. The next cache was near a pond at the edge of the woods. I bravely climbed into the trees and was consulting my iPhone when I felt an intense sting on my arm. "The mf-er bit me!" I blurted out and shook my arm...but it wouldn't let go. So I brushed it away and looked at Brian in horror - "what the hell was that??" And then the buzzing started. I started spinnng around, flailing my arms. "It's a yellow jacket," Brian said, "and now it's on your back."

Waving my arms around my head, I hurried towards the pond. In my haste, I forgot about the briars I had stepped over so carefully before. I was soon covered in scratches and punctures. Before I could take a breath, the buzzing resumed, as did my seizure-dance. I scurried back and forth along the edge of the pond, pausing every few seconds to see if it was gone. Finally Brian yelled "use your bug spray." Considering I had already sprayed myself, this didn't make a lot of sense, but it was worth a shot. I sprayed it all around me as if I was casting a spell Harry Potter be jealous of.

That's when I got a look at my first hornet sting, which was now quite painful and starting to swell. "I want to go home," I mumbled. Then Brian yelled that he found the cache. I sprayed a liberal amount of bug repellant into the bushes and headed towards him.

I dub this ammo-camo. Some of that bark is glued to the can.

We spent the next three hours bushwhacking to no avail. The words "this isn't fun anymore" were spoken.

The next day I awoke with a new perspective. I planned a day of easy urban caches, but of course it didn't work out that way. It started out with an uncooperative iPhone and was punctuated by geotantrums (as Brian called them). Here are the highlights.

Early in the day we went looking for a cache that made reference to finding an X. I got out of the car and saw this:

Bingo! Not so much. This X was just a coincidence. It's a good thing Brian found it because I was too hung up on this area to look elsewhere.

We had the pleasure of finding another sticker-cache. This one is notable for two reasons: a) I think it's an actual sticker, not one of the sticker-caches you buy on ebay; and b) I actually poked and dismissed it twice before finally realizing it was the cache. Well done!

I found a rock cache. It wasn't as devious as I imagined since it was actually a plastic hide-a-key. A real rock turned into a cache would be a lot tougher to find.

For the second time this month, Brian's cane proves invaluable. This cache was a bison tube with a magnet attached, placed about 8 feet in the air. It was an easy grab...for him.

The goal last weekend was to get my 200th find. It was all cool until I realized I had to go in here.

After walking face-first into a spider web, I resurrected the spider-whacking stick. It was an easy find once I got to the location. Go me.

On the way home, we grabbed one last cache. A first-of-it's-kind for me - a butterfly attached to a test tube (test, not bison), hanging from a branch. It was definitely original, but I'm afraid it's going to be a target for muggles.

And finally, to celebrate my 200th cache, Anatomy of a Geocacher.

Click to view full size.

Mock-multiple

As you can tell from my lack of posting, I haven't had a lot of time to go geocaching in recent weeks. This week: one cache.

We met some friends for breakfast (on the way to the Lady of the Lakes Renaissance Festival...go ahead, point and laugh), and we got to the restaurant 70 minutes early. They said 9:30, Brian heard 8:30. So, we decided to grab a nearby cache to kill some time.

The search was short. After a final review of the description, and the realization that it was a 2.5/1.5, I stumbled upon the cache. As we took it back to the car, I said to Brian, "I don't know why this is a 2.5 difficulty, it was practically out in the open." Then, in Saw-like fashion, I opened the cache to find instructions and a locked box.

I exclaimed something quite profane when I read the instructions. They included a new set of coordinates and instructions for how to get the combination. My first thought was, extract the log (which was inside the locked box) with tweezers...but that's dishonest. Plus, you have to email the combo to the cache owner or he won't let you claim the find.

With hesitation, I closed out the Geocaching app and opened up Motion-X GPS, which is a pretty comprehensive GPS app for the iPhone. In the past I've used it to location-stamp photos, so this was the first time I used it to find something. I fumbled a bit with the settings, but eventually I entered a new waypoint and off we went. Our instructions were to use the nearby addresses to figure out the code.

I have a geo-confession to make, and I shouldn't admit this in print. I kidnapped the cache. I knew we were staying close and wouldn't be gone long, so I took it with so we could guess at combos on the spot instead of writing them all down and taking them back to the cache. If you have less respect for me, I understand. The good news is we quickly figured the combination, signed the log, and replaced the cache. No harm done.

I'm classifying this as a mock-multiple. I didn't even think of it as a multiple until the two people I told both misunderstood and thought I was talking about a multiple. Yes, we had to go to two locations, but there was only one cache. We just had to go to a different spot to get information.

I hope we come across more like this. It was slightly challenging, but not mind-bendingly difficult. As the only cache I grabbed this week, I don't regret that it was this one.

The Evelev School of Flip Flop Geocaching

Brian and I were on-campus last night for the Robin Williams concert. We started out the night with falafels and ended it with a little caching while the traffic cleared out. It was a cache I've been eyeing for several weeks. I've stopped by after class a couple of times but always find the area crawling with muggles.

I had a hunch as to where it was, which happens when you observe rather than look. My hunch was right, it was under this piece of concrete.

This morning Brian and I went out for breakfast and then grabbed a few caches in the Oviedo area. I hadn't planned to do any geocaching today, so I wore flip flops. Best idea ever.

Brian found this one. It's a slight variation on the fence pole cache.

And the cache in it's full glory. A bison tube hanging from a piece of fishing wire.

This is a close-up of how they screwed the wire into the cap. I've never seen it done quite this way before.

Here's a shot of Brian using Geocaching Intro to look up the next cache. Now that we've used it a few times, I can say it's pretty accurate and user-friendly. The major drawbacks being that there is no satellite map and you can only look up the three closest caches. I highly recommend it for any beginning geocacher.

This cache was described as a "redneck pumpkin." I'm still not sure what that means.

The next cache marked my 175th find and opened a new chapter in my life as a geocacher. First, I learned I should start wearing closed-toed shoes all the time. Second, I really should look at the ratings before I go trapsing through the woods. Although I probably wouldn't have ever attempted this cache if I had. I have to give a lot of credit to Brian for nudging the crap out of me.

Let me just say, this sign is less of a warning and more of a challenge. Did they really think I couldn't do this in flip flops, with a NY&Co purse? (btw, thanks Aunt Rachel.)

Our first challenge was hopping across this little stream. Brian went first and lost his shoe in the muck. So he laid down these palm fronds for me, which actually held up quite well as a makeshift bridge.

Then we wandered down a trail parallel to the creek until suddenly we were 51 ft from GZ. I walked to the edge of the creek and realized the cache was on the other side. I assumed there must be a different way around, but then I looked at the cache description (for the first time) and discovered it was a 2 for difficulty and a 4 for terrain. The description reads: To get to this cache you must have very good balance since the only way across the little creek is to walk across a fallen tree. Great.

Brian pointed me in the direction of the most sturdy-looking tree and threatened to go across without me. I slipped off my flip flops, rolled up my jeans, and put my iPhone in my purse (couldn't take the chance I might fall in). Brian suggested I take his cane, lest I lose my balance or find the need to bash something with a stick. Off I went, shimmying accross the log, Dirty Dancing style. See below for a slideshow.

I poked around a bit on the other side before deciding I would need shoes if I was going to go farther. After Brian frisbee'd my flip flops over, I bushwhacked my way in the direction of the cache. Mind you, I left my iPhone with Brian, so I was bushwhacking "blind" with only a rough idea of where the cache should be. After a few minutes I noticed a suspicious-looking tree, peeked my head around it and found the ammo can. I picked it up and yelled "I got it!"

The next thing Brian heard was a scream and a thump. For when I had looked back down at the cache, there was a wolf spider (2" diameter) perched near my hand. I screamed like a much littler girl than I already am and threw down the can. Turns out, the cane wasn't such a bad idea because that's what I used to shoo the spider, who was far less afraid of me than I had hoped. It took several jabs for it to scamper away.

When it was gone, I picked up the can and looked for the nearest clearing so Brian could take a picture. See below. This might be me, it might be the missing link. I can't really tell.

Then I began the task of opening the cache, which was rusted shut, as ammo can sometimes are. I had to use my patented Evelev technique. It involves turning the can upright, steadying it with one hand and stomping it until it opens. Inside I found some decent swag, on account of this being seriously more than a park and grab. I took this cigar tin from the Dominican Republic. It doesn't have any cigars in it, but it's pretty cool.

Now you know. It is possible to do a level 4 terrain in flip flops...but I wouldn't recommend it.

Geocaching at Sunset

Certain people make fun of me for this, but I really like to immerse myself in geocaching. I don't want to remember the cache, I want to remember the whole experience. This is why I take lots of pictures and why I blog. It's also why my favorite time to geocache is at sunset. Even mundane locations are beautiful when the sky melts into shades of gold, orange, and red. Plus there's an added sense of urgency when it's about to get dark and I don't have a flashlight. For reasons unknown to me, we get our best sunsets between now and the end of the year, so I have a lot to look forward to.

But before I talk about this week's caches, let's spend a moment in geohazard corner. As Vikki4FSU recovers from Lyme disease, I count my blessings that I'm not in her shoes. That was until I took my car in for an oil change this week and learned I needed an alignment on my tires, a mere four months after I bought the car. The guy asked if I go over lots of speedbumps. I said no, and neglected to mention the off-roading we did in Naples. It reminded me of when Vikki4FSU said, "if only we had a boat, we could get to that cache." To which ZykoMike responded, "geocaching is cheap until you say, 'I need to a buy a boat for this cache.'" Indeed. It's all cool until someone loses an eye. Or buys a helicopter. Or gets Lyme disease.

I ended up with 6 finds this week, which is really quite good considering I worked 12-hour days all week and wrote two papers. On Thursday I ended up near the airport, at sunset. Since it was the first day all week I'd gotten out of the office before dark, I scoped out the area and found four within a mile radius.

Three were part of a series of waterproof match containers hidden in different but obvious locations. The first one was tucked into the pipe you see above. The second was hidden under a rock, under this crapified traffic cone.

The third was tucked into this cabbage palm. As if the palm itself wasn't a hint, there was a pronounced geotrail. While these caches are usually easy, I am really starting to dislike them. They're usually infested with ants and the fronds have no respect for personal space.

Then I tried for this one, also located in a cabbage palm, but I didn't find it. I was over the bugs at that point, but the bridge was super cool.

My last cache of the day was a plastic jar loaded with swag. I only took a geocoin. The cache was perched behind a tree. I used my mirror to avoid reaching into the unknown.

Then I got to finish the day with this sunset. This picture was taken a few feet from the cache.

I didn't think I was going to grab any caches this weekend, but I was able to squeeze this one in this afternoon. I had looked before with no luck. Today, I stopped by on a lark. As soon as I pulled up, something the Orlando Holleys had said to me at another cache fell into place, and I started twisting all the rebar. I can't believe I missed it before.

Here's what the extracted cache looks like. I've been hoping for one of these. Very clever. You know I'm a sucker for caches like this.

That's all for this week. Hopefully this cool weather holds out for next weekend and I get to take full advantage.