Thursday, December 31, 2009
Reflections on 2009
At the center of my thoughts and reflections from this past year is the tremendous fun I had caching in groups. And it’s not just me - I’ve been hearing the same sentiment from several other geocachers. For me, it seems to have stemmed from our weekly geo-coffee gathering. Friendships forged there have led to more joint caching excursions…leading to geo-coffee attendance growing….leading to even more group excursions. I’m not sure which came first, the “chicken or the egg”! Regardless, some of the most enjoyable caching I did this year was when accompanied by other cachers:
First and foremost are the many weekend and day trips with my bride, the lovely and talented Mrs. Popop! Though not very interested in geocaching, she is fun to be around and we have such a great time together exploring this beautiful state. She tolerates my obsession. The fun for her is capturing nature’s beauty with her camera while I look under rocks and in hollow logs for the elusive geocache.
The very first cache of the year was, in fact, a group effort. Two is a group, right? Running out in the middle of the night with Bad Duck hunting down a newly published puzzle cache by ottontots - Peeping Tom - would be a common geocaching mode throughout the year. These spontaneous joint First-To-Find hunts are always fun. We didn’t actually find the cache that night but spent about three hours running all over town testing our theories making it pretty easy next day.
January had two more excursions - one to Camas Valley with Bad Duck and one to Florence with knightcb. Neither produced very many finds but were enjoyable outings chatting with good friends.
No group caching in February but March started with a run to Roseburg with Bad Duck where we accomplished a 5/5 geocache (not really rated correctly but we took it!). The geocaching mode used today was a simple one - just hunt the next closest cache on either of our GPSr screen…..all day. No route planning, no Google Earth scoping….just hit the “Next” button and go. Ended the day with the obligitory ice cream stop at DQ before heading back to the coast.
Events often produce opportunites to go group caching. Two events stand out from this year. One held in April at the little community of Azalea along I-5 hosted by California cachers honoring Oregon cachers. Though running around with a caravan of about 4 vehicles and a dozen people after the event was fun….the most memorable moment of the day was when I stopped at a rest area to hunt a cache and locked my keys inside my pickup! Fellow cachers came to the rescue and we managed to “break” in and retrieve the keys! Sheeesh! Then in late July we hosted a unique day of events - two events in one day! First was a breakfast event in Bandon, followed by a day of caching in groups and concluding with a dinner event in Winchester Bay. I “grouped” up with Rod of family explorer to find caches on the dunes and high in trees!
Black Point near Brookings
Geocaching brings you in contact with people you would never likely have ever met before. Tincuphunter is a geocacher from the greater Portland area and frequently caches along the coast. We had exchanged emails over the past couple of years regarding caches we both had found and planned to go hiking and caching together some day. A Memorial Day weekend visit to Portland late May was the perfect opportunity to make good on this goal. We hiked the Marquam Nature Park to find several caches including one I needed for progress in the Oregon History Challenge cache. A new friend was made that day. Later in the summer I organized a long hike and caching excursion in the Lakeside area for him and a friend of his. Two other local cachers joined us for a tiring but fulfilling day hunting some Mackie caches.
In attendance (left to right):tincuphunter (Dick) from Beaverton;MrWalkie (Eric) from St. Helens, WA;Charlie ‘n’ Sue (actually only Charlie came);knightcb (Chuck);myself
An early June outing with Rod was the most time-consuming and far-ranging adventure of the year. NO fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants mode for this trip! We had a specific route with very specific caches to find. The impetus for this trip was to make as much headway towards completing three challenge caches as possible. Counting Counties in Oregon, Oregon DeLorme and Oregon History challenge caches. Two days with an overnight camp in LaPine State Park. We logged 1100 miles and nearly 50 caches. No, that’s not a lot of caches for driving 1100 miles but as I said we had specific counties, DeLorme map pages and geocaches to find. It was a nice break from the coastal caching exposing us to some really picturesque country in Central and Southern Oregon.
Some group caching experiences are with non-caching people. Such was the case in July while camping with church friends in Powers. A traditional hike to Hanging Rock yielded the opportunity to show a sizable group what geoaching was all about.
There are geocaches that involve long hikes, bushwhacking, challenging terrain, getting wet and cold and otherwise unpleasant conditions. Hunting these caches alone could be discouraging to the point of not being eager to even attempt them. But going along with some compadres - now that’s a different story! Several excursions come to mind as I recall 2009. Hunting Elusive Butterfly with Bad Duck and knightcb - Jolly Roger with Bad Duck - Black Point with Bad Duck, emeljay and MonkeyJunky - and most recently skull-n-bones with Rod and Mr. Copper. All these were much more fun having done them with fellow cachers.
Mr. Copper & Rod taking a break from the Skull n Bones bushwhack
New in 2009 was exposure to night caches. I did my very first one alone but the other two were with groups…...way more fun in a group!
Now, I still got out plenty of times alone. I had my share of long dune hikes, after work quickies and day trips to outlying areas like Florence, Gold Beach and Roseburg. But as the year came to a close, this geocaching with others seemed to happen more and more. It was something several others had mentioned as well - how much more fun geocaching was when done with fellow cachers. Now when I think about my next geocaching adventure I start thinking who might want to come along - quite a change for me, but enjoyable.
