Tuesday, March 10, 2009
ABC Challenge Cache - Done!
Finally got up to Albany to make it official and sign the logbook of the final cache. Grabbed a TB wanting to go to sandy beaches.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Roseburg - Long Time No See!
The Roseburg area had been pretty slow caching for most of 2008 so I hadn’t spent much time over there. It seems to be coming alive again with some new cachers so I decided to head over there today.
Just before leaving the house I “Twittered” my intentions (for anybody that cared) then got on my way. I got a few miles out of town and get a text from a Duck like “Caching without me?”. Ten minutes later I’m at his doorstep picking him up. Bride of Ducky shoved him out the door and said “You can have him ALL day!”. Now before you get the wrong idea let me clarify that she did so with a grin - Darrin was NOT in the duck house er.. doghouse.. or whatever!
Our approach was to hunt caches that showed up as closest and neither of us had found before. No pressure for numbers, just seeing how far that would take us.
Started the day with two new caches in the Coquille/Myrtle Point area but we were skunked on one of them (but got it at the end of the day when we came back through). Darrin also needed Our Dearly Departed near the junction of Highway 42 and Powers road so we stopped for that as well. Some activity on the farm next door this morning but our presence didn’t seem to bother anyone.
We had several miles before any more caches to be hunted so we had a great conversation about local caching and cachers including a fun idea for a summer event. Also discussed the geocaching app for iPhones as we both are helping beta-test new features.
Before getting into Roseburg proper, we side-tracked for three caches. One cache, in the middle, got published just hours after Darrin and I left that vicinity on another cache outing several weeks ago. Jumped to the north side of Highway 42 to pick up MISS J’s cache then on into Winston for the I Love You cache at Love’s Travel Stop where we stopped for some lunch before heading into Roseburg. Additional brainstorming for a summer event took place.
As I stated earlier we just started at the first cache that we both needed and let that dictate where we went next. The result was seven caches in the south part of town. One cache caught our attention due to it’s name - *****Five Stars All Around *****. You wouldn’t expect a cache with D/T ratings of 5/5 in town like this so we checked out the first stage to see what was in store. It was a quick find and got the coords to the final. Without giving too much away here, let’s just say that was probably the easiest 5/5 I’ll ever do.
Transients seemed to be the theme of the day as their presence and/or their “humble abodes” influenced many of the cache hunts.
Finished off the day with the obligatory ice cream stop at DQ in Winston before heading home.
I was reminded that caching is more fun with others - thanks for the company today, Darrin!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Dune Hike from Spinreel
My main goal today was getting LipRipr’s two new caches south of Tenmile Creek. I used the suggested Spinreel dune access point to park. I started early so there wasn’t much ATV action to contend with since my chosen route was the main dune road running to the beach. A mile and a half later I was at GZ for the Tenmile Creek Lake Overlook cache. After signing the log, I wandered down to the lake edge and spotted somebody’s duck blind. About then some ducks caught sight of me and took off to the other end of the lake. I’m glad no duck hunters were there ‘cause I just spooked their prey!!
Duck Blind
Continued down the sand road towards the second cache - The Perching Dropoff. As I approach the general cache location I spot a couple of quadders having some technical difficulties with one of their machines and they are working on it within 50 feet of the cache! So I find a high grassy dune nearby and take the pack off, sit down, break out the lunch and otherwise pose as a hiker taking a break. After fifteen minutes they still hadn’t moved so I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. The view of the ocean was pretty lousy due to dark skies and a very heavy surf spray so I looked east towards the dunes and I spotted a couple of deer grazing slowly in the grass. Snapped a couple of pics then noticed the quadders leaving - finally! Found the cache easily enough then started gearing up for the return hike.
I wondered about walking up the beach to the mouth of Tenmile Creek then catching the fisherman’s trail back to my pickup but worried that the water might be too high in the low area between the beach and the trail. What the heck, it’s a short 3/4 mile hike so, at worst, I’d add 1.5 miles to my day if I had to come back. I did indeed have to come back! But it was an interesting walk - came across an area that had been bulldozed flat for some reason (I suspect habitat restoration from invasive European beach grass or scotch broom, or both). I walked out through the middle of it to see if their activity uncovered anything interesting. Not much - a piece of plastic with Japanese writing on it!! Also got to see a couple of egrets, a couple of osprey and loads of ducks. Sooooooo many ducks! I even chatted with a geocaching duck upon returning to Coos Bay! Do you know? Do you know? Do you know?.........
Muggles!
Total distance was 6.6 miles including the extra side trip.
After the hike I drove into Lakeside and found this new cache then went to Reedport to get knighcb’s new Drive-In cache before heading back home.