Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Reflections on 2008
Let me get the boring statistics out of the way first:
Broke over the 2000 mark
Over 800 for the year
Sixteen consecutive days with a cache find
56 finds in a single day
Other boring statistics can be found on my profile page.
But remember - it’s not about the numbers!
iPhone caching!!!!!
The beginning of weekly geo-coffee hour!
The first memorable outing was in January with my grandson exploring the vast and expansive Cougar Mountain Regional Park near Seattle. We only found four caches of the many available to us but thoroughly enjoyed the hike - especially fun was busting up the iced-over puddles along the trails!
Unusually nice coastal weather in February lured Pat and I up to Lincoln City with the trailer. It turned into a good caching weekend for me but only because Pat was sick the whole time and stayed in the trailer! Poor girl!
This early point in the year also marked the begininng of caches being placed in what has come to be known as the “Forest of Ill Repute”. So named because of perported “ill-will” between Bad Duck and Family Explorer as they took turns placing caches of increasing difficulty and/or sneakiness! In reality, all was done in a light-hearted manner but the name stuck.
Returned to the Lincoln City area in May and really enjoyed out hike to Drift Creek Falls.
For the second year in a row, hiked and cached with buddies on Table Rock near Medford while the wives attended a nearby church ladies retreat. Last year we did Upper Table Rock and this year Lower Table Rock. Also noteworthy of this trip was a two days of “binge” caching with GBlack. Dawn to dusk was exhausting but a whole lotta fun - except for the crazy, upset lady yelling “What the ____ are you guys doing with that phone booth?”!!
Pat and I hiked the Rogue River trail to Rainie Falls. This was one of the most enjoyable and scenic trails we walked this year.
Helped my dad place his first cache on the Barlow District of the Mt. Hood National Forest where he was District Ranger for many years.
Pat and I really enjoyed the Earthcaches around the Bend area while vacationing there in August.
The longest hike of the year? Oregon Walkabout #3 of course. This took Rod of familyexplorer and myself two separate days to complete. The first day out we clocked over 19 miles! The second day amounted to a mere four miles. I don’t even want to see a Walkabout #4!
Other memorable outings in the final quarter of the year were; [1] Sauvie Island (portland) with my son-in-law, [2] A WET and wild goose chase with Bad Duck, [3] Creepy Cricket Cave, [4] caching in Portlands 2008 snow storm the morning of my daughters wedding and [5] dune hiking with Bad Duck all the while drooling over his new Garmin Oregon GPSr!!
I should report here on progress made on the many challenge caches in which I’m participating. Unfortunately only managed to pick up one more County (Columbia) for the Counting Counties in Oregon cache. Faired better with the Oregon DeLorme challenge picking up five more sections. Also picked up five qualifying caches for the Oregon Fire Lookout challenge. Started two new challenges this year - Oregon Fizzy and ABC Challenge caches.
Here’s to a new caching year…....may the log sheets be dry, the micros be few and the scenery gorgeous!