Geocache Destruction!

Wow!  What a difference twenty months can make, especially to geocaches made largely of non-treated lumber. 

Recently, I got a couple of alerts letting me know that some folks visited a pair of caches of mine.  One of the cachers recommended that one of the hides be archived (permanently taken off-line). Another wished he or she could have seen the other cache “in its prime”.  I temporarily delisted the caches and went out to check up on them.

I think a series of “before” and “after” pics is a good way to describe what I found.

Here is Mate in One on the day it was placed (whoever found the cache would lift the white queen to reveal the plastic cache container).

And here is what I found today (I piled up the scattered detritus for this pic):

Only some treated and cedar chunks survived.  I am guessing the parts that did not rot away were swept down the slope and into the nearby swamp - probably what happened to the cache container, too.  So, yeah, I archived this one.

Here is what the second one looked like in my garage a couple of days before I put it out there:

Here is what it looked like on its first day:

Here are some pics of what it looks like now:

Although the severely weather-beaten map looks amazing, it is extremely fragile.  The actual cache container and the frame are holding up surprisingly well.  I re-enabled the listing for this one this morning.  I figure this guy has a couple more months left in him before he needs to be archived, too. 

While I’m at it, I might as well post the cache description.  Enjoy!

Geocache Description:

South of Tower
You stand at the end of a gravel roadway near the base of a large, nearly-featureless tower which looms above the surrounding forest.  The tower is surrounded by a tall barricade with a gate in the center of the structure.  Accompanying the birdsong, you can make out the drone of some sort of machine operating at the base of the tower.

>open gate
The gate is locked and you do not have a key.

>i
You are carrying:
A pen
A navigational device
Some trinkets

>north

Forest Path
You walk along the barricade and discover a slight break in the foliage to the east of the fence.  The break opens up to a leaf-strewn pathway of sorts extending north and south.  The fence and tower base are still visible through the trees and the mechanical hum is slightly louder here.  Although it is noticeably cooler in the shade, the mosquitos have taken notice of you and light on you occasionally to snack.

>north
Forest Path
You walk down the path and past the perimeter of the fence where you reach a number of fallen trees of various types and sizes which mark the end of the trail.  Animal burrows are evident here and there and you are careful not to turn an ankle with a clumsy misstep.

>search trees
You find nothing but piles of decaying leaves.

>count leaves
There are 69,105 leaves here.

>examine trees
There is nothing notable about the fallen trees other than they appear passable if you are the adventurous type.

>north
North of Tower
You scramble over the decaying logs to discover the forest opens up a little slightly to the west of the forest path and becomes a small clearing.  You immediately notice that it would have been easier to simply walk around the fallen trees instead of climbing over them, but that is exactly what hindsight is for.  Although the machinery is still audible here, the tower itself is nearly completely hidden from view.  The mosquitos seem to have picked up their pace.

There is an ancient map and a brass lantern here.

>look at map

As best as you can make out, the weather-beaten, ancient map describes a world which no longer exists except in the memories of the elders.  You recall them spinning tales of a vast underground world where voracious creatures lurked in the darkness, where pictures did not exist, and where seemingly innocent mistakes were brutally punished.  You thought the stories were the stuff of campfire fiction meant to impress the young, but here is proof otherwise right before your eyes.

>get all
ancient map: The map is fragile and would probably fall to bits if you moved it.  You decide to leave it alone.
brass lantern: Taken

>turn on lantern
Sadly, the lantern, another relic of a bygone era, does not function.  As you move it you can hear something rattle around inside.

>open lantern

Geocache Update

I haven’t been geocaching in a long time.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m still interested but, since I rarely leave the area and I have found most of the ones within 20 miles or so I’ve kind of fallen out of it.  I’ll pick it up again soon.  As a matter of fact, I have a cache I made out sitting out in the backyard where I’ve been letting it weather for several months.  It’s important that this one looks like it has been there for years and years so it can hide in plain sight.  Enough said for now.

A little while back I got an email regarding one of my caches.  It started out like this:

On behalf of the Hidey Awards Committee, it is our pleasure to inform you and the geocaching world that this geocache has been selected to be a nominee for a GCHR Hidey Award in one or more categories.

This geocache was nominated by at least one person from the geocaching community. Since not all geocaches nominated make the ceremony, you should be proud of your accomplishment.

Sweet! I looked into it and the hide GCHR was talking about was “North of Tower” (GC5TRPC) for “Most Creative/Innovative Cache”.   It’s up against some pretty stiff competition and it looks like my odds are about 1/10 but I’m just jazzed to be nominated.  Thanks guys!

I was less jazzed that the snow prevented me from attending the January 7th meet-and-greet, but I became re-jazzed when I found out the event was pushed out a couple of weeks.  I think I can go.  We will see.

Last bit of geocaching info: the Snowurchin travel bug (pic in upper left of this post) has been on the move for three and a half years.  Here it is under a bridge in England in April 2016.

It is currently in North Wales (N 53° 04.121 W 004° 04.592) and has over 15,000 miles under its belt.  The sidebar has (finally) been updated with this info.

That’s it for now!

Godspeed, Little Cache!

Oh No!  One of the geocaches I made has gone missing!  Why, why do bad things happen to good caches?!? You were too young to be archived  [bellows incoherently at heavens, rends garments]!!! 

Sigh.  Well, it had a good run.  In memoriam, here is a pic, the cache description, and the logs for LSL Combat. Oh, yeah, don't forget to play Boys II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" while reading the post. Enjoy!

Cache Description:

My Dearest Mother,

I write this quick missive in the hope that it finds you well.  As you know, it is brother against brother and casualties are heavy on both sides.  Such is war.

Your repeated pleas to “walk away” from this stark, barren battlefield have not fallen upon deaf ears, I assure you.  I wish circumstances were different and I could simply sit and join you for a home cooked meal – I can smell your world famous sweet potatoes as I write this - but we are soldiers and we have a job to do.

 I implore you to have patience. This war cannot last forever and I will be with you and Father as soon as I am able.

Your Devoted Son,

Lt. Beauregard Snowurchin

P.S. Bobby is cheating again!  Make him stop!

Logs (latest to earliest):

snowurchin
  Archive
04/10/2016
Cache archived.

snowurchin
  Write note
04/10/2016
After reading the last comment, the seven year old and I visited GZ to see what was up. We are sad to report that the Geocache has been stolen... Well, maybe not stolen, but it's not there anymore. So it goes. :). Archiving this cache. Thanks for all the favorites, everyone!

latkinsonvarn
  Found it
04/09/2016
Found this container laying on the ground not inside a wooden box. Was hoping to see what was prize worthy. Tried to hide it a little better.

stumphunter
  Found it
02/27/2016
TFTC RAF

flowers22
  Found it
02/04/2016
Fantastic!

reineeann
  Found it
01/25/2016
Love it!

cjcj1515
  Found it
01/19/2016
Wow really cool! What a cold day for caching with the wind whipping at 20 some miles an hour, I dared the cold to claim Lone Star Park. Found the caches as promised. Thanks for the fun.

SNAP!!!
  Found it
12/13/2015
12/13/2015 12:47:00 PM #7517 [i]{details about this cache or event are in ORANGE below}[/i]
We are doing a major run through Lone Star Lakes Park doing maintenance on not only our caches but all others that we can find (or until we get too tired to continue). There were also several caches in the area that we have not found - might as well do them also while we are here!!! 
Once we find the cache we will:
a) Dry the cache out
b) Empty all trash or old and moldy stuff out of the cache
c) Examine the log for dryness and writability
d) Replace logs as needed
e) Repalce baggies as needed

Very quick find here. BUT... the cache was as expected. snowurchin always puts out great caches! So, we not only awarded this cache a favorite point BUT... named this cache as the WINNER.... of the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award!!! Congrats! 
SNAP!!! actually stands for "Suffolk Nana And Papa". We are a husband and wife team of cachers who really love both cemetery and historical caches. HEY!!! - if you are ever in the Suffolk, VA area - - - stop by and say hello - - - we are located at the last cache in the SNAP!!!-land geo-graffiti 
Thanks snowurchinfor the cache and the smile which made this a great day of caching!!!
check out our Geocaching blog at: SNAPgeocaching.Blogspot.com
:)

32obx
  Found it
12/11/2015
Couldn't resist getting outside on this beautiful day to grab a few caches. Loved the container! A lot of work went into this one! Thanks for placing.

silvertop1 
  Found it
12/08/2015
Another well constructed hide.
Gotta be a favorite.
Thanks snowurchin for the cache and the fun I had finding it.
Silvertop1

balloop
  Found it
11/29/2015
What a pleasant surprise to see this container after cresting the small hill. Well done and quite creative! No experience with that game. SL. TFTC. Took the TB.

grandad24
  Found it
11/04/2015
In town to attend a funeral, so a morning of geocaching in a park is a good way to reflect on life. Quick find. Thanks for placing this cache. Log was signed and returned as found.
This has to be the most unusual cache I have ever found. Funny write up, funny cache, and an uplifting moment. I really needed this type of cache this morning. Thanks a bunch. Instant favorite. Left TB Atlantic Slave Trade.

rg1334
  Found it
10/24/2015
Awesome find. Kids favorite one so far.

hairysojourner
  Found it
08/15/2015
Great hide! TFTC

DrMedicineWoman
  Found it
08/15/2015
Tftc!

teamziegler1
  Found it
08/15/2015
Did not think the container would look like that

gkygirl24
  Found it
08/07/2015
Tftc. Signed as Sammies. We had a fun afternoon exploring the park. Best find of the day... Maybe ever. Impressive container!!

episcodad
  Found it
08/07/2015
Another very creative snow urchin cache. Puzzled for a few moments as to where the cache was hidden until I read the hint. TFTC

GrandpaGene
  Found it
08/05/2015
Another easy to find masterpiece by Snowurchin! Be aware that water is pooling inside. SL for #5,927 and left a pink and white Mickie Frog. TFTC.

Lacey1961
  Found it
07/27/2015
Found for 4550. Another awesome container. The workmanship is outstanding. This is another one that would make a great milestone cache. It was a "midway" milestone for me.
I took a photo of it, for myself. And I sent a copy to bramatic. :) I can understand how she forgot. You get caught up in admiring the work. (And now that I'm at LSL, I think I'll grab a photo of Critical Cache, since I forgot when I found that one)
Thanks, snowurchin, for a very fun find. Favorite point.

bdramatic
 Write note
07/26/2015
snowurchin is gaining a much-deserved reputation for the outstanding containers he's put out! Just look at this one, for instance. So far, it's at 100% favorite rating! This (like the other 3 he's created) is a most creative container, and well worth the search. It's one of those containers that when you see it you know right away that you've found the cache. I meant to take a picture of it with my phone (NOT to post on my log, but just to keep for myself) but I found myself so excited about the find and marveling at the workmanship involved that I completely forgot to take the picture! Fantastic container! If I could give it more than 1 favorite I surely would!! :)

bdramatic
 Found it
07/26/2015
Had to wait until AFTER church but even after taking the VERY long way to gz I was still FTF. Will write more when I get home. Collected FTF prize coin, sl, and left signature PT. Thanks for another great hide!

A Post About a Cache

I haven't done too much geocaching lately but I have put out a few caches of my own. Of the four I have created, this one was the most fun to build. I like to place easy-to find containers like this well off the beaten path to make it unlikely they will be accidentally discovered, but still make it a bit of a fun surprise when they are found.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (me so lazy). Enjoy!

 

Dusty Keyboard? Write Something Geocache-y!

Finally!  A break!  Ok.  Things have calmed down a bit so it is time to catch up on some stuff.  Let’s talk about some work on the geocaching front.

The family and I have been grinding our way through the 100-cache SNAP!!!-Land series.   This series has you driving around Suffolk, VA in a winding-but-fairly-connected path, jumping out of the car every once in a while to find a container, sign the log, and move on to the next one.  As long as you planned your route  ahead of time and you have a driver, a fetcher, and a signer you could probably knock this out in a day.  

We have been taking chunks out of this series for a couple of hours for a few weekends now (weather permitting - it actually snowed a bit last Saturday).  We have done about 75% of them so far, skipping over active construction sites and dicey neighborhoods, since our fetcher is six and is usually unarmed.

But it's not all park and grab - there are some cool things to see along the way.  The pic in the upper left of this post is a fallen tree that someone painted to look like a dragon.  I think that is near number 38 in the series...

As I reported earlier, the d20-shaped geocache I made is now officially "out there". About a week after it was placed the weather got really crummy.  Rain, snow, thaw, freezing rain, snow, thaw, freeze... Mother Nature was really taking a bat to that thing and I was concerned that it was now just a pile of pieces in the woods.  It turned out I was worried about nothing.  It survived just fine.

I built another geocache container.  Here is the progress of the build.

It is 20" x 20" x 5”, weighs a ton, and cost about eight dollars to make.  The squares are from a pine board I found in the hall closet of my old house, the trim is from another piece of pine, the chess pieces are scrap furring strip, and the sides are spruce 2 x 4.   Move the queen and the Tupperware-container cache is revealed.  I picked out a pretty good place in a nearby forest and I hope to put it out there this weekend. 

Then again, the other one sat in my garage for, what, like, a year-and-a-half before I did anything with it…  Time will tell.

Bamboo Ghosts

I am a fan of working with reclaimed wood.  Old tabletops, boards from a century-old dilapidated barn, discarded pallets, cedar leftovers from a playset, you name it.  I like the challenge of dealing with the imperfections in the material and, often, the reward is an unexpected beauty shining through that would be difficult to duplicate with new stock.

Also, the reclaimed stuff is usually free, so there's that, of course...

I had been holding onto a retired bamboo cutting board for a while and I wasn't too sure what to do with it. Since I have run out of cipher disks and little fish I figured a new batch of geocache swag was in order.  I wanted whatever I was going to make be small and simple, though, since I have a number of irons in the fire right now.

The splits in the board determined the dimensions of the final pieces, really.  I needed to cut fifteen to save ten.  After rounding an edge on the belt sander the idea to make little ghosts came to mind.  Some finishing work on the bandsaw, some decoration with the wood burning tool, some stain, some sealant, some googly eyes, and there we go - geoswag shortage averted. 

I have a bit more of this stuff left over so I am thinking the next bamboo group will be little cartouches or something like that with a hieroglyphic message or something burned into them. 

I think the next batch of whatever will make creative use of my kid's crayon maker, though.  We will see.

It's Finally Out There!

I attended a meeting of geocachers a couple of weeks ago where I met bdramatic.  We were talking and I mentioned I had a cache container taking up space in my garage - it was fun to build but I was not really all that psyched about being a CO.  I showed her a couple of pics and left the meeting (it was outdoors and super cold and windy that day).

A couple of days later I got an email saying that she would like to be the CO for it and she already had a place in mind.  Fantastic!  It gets put to good use and some much needed real-estate in the shop gets freed up - win-win!  We made plans for placing it out in the woods for this past Saturday but the park was closed to let hunters cull some deer.  Crummy luck, but the weather Sunday was going to be awesome, so we re-scheduled for then.

That morning I bundled up the tools I needed (a rock hammer and a cordless drill) for mounting the container on a post off the forest floor. The post looked like a hiking pole and the tools were in a small, nondescript black canvas bag so no worries about drawing attention on that front.  The basketball-sized cedar d20, though, would certainly result in some odd looks if I were to simply walk around with it in the open.

I didn’t have any boxes (as if that would have helped…) so my options were limited.  I had an old white sheet I was using for painting in the garage that I fashioned into a small bag so I could carry the thing around without looking weird…

Because what could be more normal, right, than a couple of people laughing and chatting merrily as they walked into the woods with what looks for all the world like a human head in a makeshift bag?   “Well, officer, they walked off the path into the forest with this… thing… then I heard a bunch of pounding and some power tools, and they came out about an hour later without whatever it was, smiling and sharing pictures.”

I can’t really say too much more about this until the cache officially posts.  I will say, though, we were a little worried about the location being too visible from the road but as soon as we backed away from the cache about 50 feet it basically became invisible.  There is only one angle that we found that the thing stood out at all, but it is a very small angle and you have to know what you are looking for.  The springtime growth and natural weathering should camouflage it even more.  Still, though, the reason that spot was available in the first place was because her giant ammo container was stolen…

I hope it lasts a while (at least 6 months) before nature or people destroy it.  In any case, it’s finally out there and I am excited to call that a “win”.

New Signature Items

I am sitting down to write this a little late so this will be short, sweet, and full of pics.

The pic to the left is the Geojunk Clock I made - and have been making - for my son’s room.  After I cleaned out my backpack this weekend I found there is pretty much no more space in which to cram Geocache treasures we find, so I will need to come up with another way to use the items.  Not sure how yet.

Not all the items you see are McDonald's toys and Dollar Store trinkets.  A few of them are signature items that people actually sit down and craft like those you see below:

The first one (the blue beaded bauble) was made by KBear757, and other was made by Wife2Aviator. (There are others in the clock, too, like custom bottle cap art pieces that are unsigned).

Speaking of which, I noticed I was down to 3 cipher discs and 1 fish plaque (see sidebar on non-mobile devices).  I knew I would run out soon so I made these guys… Not sure what to call them.  Scrolls of Pretention +1, maybe?

The sixteen scrolls are all the same and they should fit into smaller caches than either the cipher discs or the fish do.  The poem is one I wrote and posted many years ago.  I originally wanted to do something with Wordles but the print was too small to tell what was going on so in the end I just aged the paper with wood stain and went this route.

But not all is sunshine and unicorns in Geocache-land.  Check this out:

I have seen a lot of careless (or planned, I guess...) damage to plant life (ruined topiaries, snapped branches, etc.), and I have seen one instance of a clue on a multi-cache being destroyed - clearly ripped to pieces and chucked into the woods - but I have never seen an overt threat like this before.  I wrote an email tonight to the owners of the cache asking what the story was.  If they respond, I will post what they say... if they are ok with me doing so, that is.  [Pre-Publish Edit:  Just got word from the CO that they have never seen that behavior before.  Usually, caches just go missing, SNAP!!! said. ]

One last thing: the little rook Travel Bug (sidebar) is still on the move but seems to have slowed down quite a bit on its trip to the castles of Scotland.  Still, it's pretty cool to see it "out there, somewhere".

[Another Pre-Publish Edit: Just got another email - this one from SEBWheeler saying that they found one of the Cipher Disks I placed in a cache a while back.  Good luck, guys!]

Geocache Update November 2014

Now that it has cooled down a bit and the leaves have begun to fall in earnest it is once again perfect weather for Geocaching.  

We went out of town a few weeks back so my wife could visit with her relatives so the boy and I went and hit some caches around central Virginia.  The following Saturday he asked if we could go again so we spent the day cruising around our stomping grounds and finding what we could find.  A lot of new caches had popped up since I had last gone so it didn’t take too long to find an area that was dense enough where we wouldn’t be doing more riding around than walking.

He loves his backpack.  Lots of pockets mean lots of places to stuff snail shells, sea shells, cool leaves, cooler stones, and about a bazillion acorns.

Hiking through the woods with the six-year-old is a blast.  He is more jazzed about finding waterlogged, broken dollar-store trinkets in a muddy sandwich container under a rotten log than any sane person really has the right to be, and that energy is super-infectious.  Also, he is tenacious without being ridiculous about it.  That is, he’s not a quitter but he knows when to give up when we can’t find what we are looking for.  As the great philosopher W.C. Fields once said “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  Then quit.  There’s no sense being a damn fool about it.”

“Besides, we can always come back some other time, right, dad?”  “You bet.”

It’s not entirely about the stuff in the caches, really, or even finding them at all (we are about 75% successful).  For both of us the coolest part is the hunt and exploring along the way.  For example, the picture you see in the upper left of this post is a California Redwood tree that someone transplanted to the middle of downtown Suffolk, Virginia in 1954.  It was my first time ever seeing one and I doubt I would have ever known it was there if I hadn’t been looking for geocache number GC2319B. (If you are reading this, TFTC, SN&P!)

Odd nooks of public land sit awkwardly in areas you would never expect.  Tiny jetties forty feet wide and a tenth of a mile long jut out into protected swamplands all over the place here – just park on the street and walk a “trail to nowhere” for a really rewarding view even if you aren’t rewarded by finding a cache.  It’s weird to be able to stand less than 75 yards from a CVS drugstore and still be enveloped by nature (pics below).  

 

That tree in the second photo had about two dozen vultures in it… just silently watching us not fall down and die, I guess.  Off-putting, sure, but cool nonetheless.

Rook Update: The rook I put into a geocache forever ago (see pic in sidebar) is now in South Wales.  It has traveled 10,000 miles since it was turned into a Travel Bug by the people who found it 16 months ago.  I am not sure what the owners have in store for it after it completes its “tour of Scottish castles” but I am thinking about offering to trade the D20 cache container I made for it should the little guy ever make it back to the States.  The D20 is (still) sitting in my garage taking up space and I (still) have no desire to be a CO for it. Nonetheless I would really like to see it used “out there somewhere”.

Geojunk Clock Update: Although a couple of pieces of the geocache treasure that had been hot-glued to it have fallen off, the clock is still ticking away as expected.  After 300+ caches, though, real-estate on it is at a premium so I might be forced to come up with a solution for what to do with new cache finds sooner than later.  

Also, I only have a couple of handfuls of the cipher discs and the little fish I made to trade so it will soon be time to plan for replacements.  Not sure what I will build next, but I doubt it will be puzzle-related.  

Maybe something with invisible ink, though… Hmmm…

The Majestic Suffolk Seaboard Coastline Trail

A couple of days ago I went geocaching along the Suffolk Seaboard Coastline Trail. I didn't have very much luck finding anything (2 for 6, I think), so I took advantage of the outing to document some of the more eye-catching flora and fauna instead. Enjoy!

Immediately upon entering the trailhead I was greeted by a herd of Spotted Used Mattresses, sunning themselves majestically just southeast of the main path. I did not want to pass up a rare opportunity to photograph them in their natural habitat, but I made sure I was careful not to startle them to avoid interfering with any willomying and flolloping they might be engaged in. 

This flock of Bud Light Tall Boys was probably drawn to the area to feed on the ample offering of broken glass and shattered stereo speaker casings left on the manhole cover in the foreground. 

A cluster of Abandoned Sofa Sets and North American Armchairs stood shyly off to the left of a side trail and waited for me to pass.

This Broken Plastic Bin was caught bathing and slowly sinking into one of the many fetid still-water pools alongside the main trail.

I was fortunate to snap a pic of this clutch of Sofa Cushions while their mother stood a few yards away.

A Discarded Children's Swimming Pool stands guard five yards off the main path, precisely where I had spotted it six months before. This time, however, it was joined by a Disintegrating Lawn Chair and the remains of a Girls Vinyl Lunch Bag (not shown).

A Bright Blue Gas Can in repose. 

A gaggle of Balding Automobile Tires takes turns sipping stagnant ditchwater.  The Deflated Basketball must wait its turn.

A solitary Collapsed Plastic Chair sits on its rusted, crumpled legs.

Out of respect for their holy culture, I blurred out some of the more… umm… poignant writings the natives left here.  My translation may be off slightly but it suffices to say that, whoever Justin is, he is not beloved by all. 

Several outcroppings of Discarded Roofing Shingles line the path, beckoning travelers closer with their promise of flattened bicycle tires and tetanus.

Overall, I was very impressed by the level of abject neglect that has been achieved in the short period of time this trail has been open to hikers, bikers, and illegal hunters.  Space and good taste prohibit me from listing all of the interesting things I discovered along this 1.5 mile pin-straight trail segment, but I encourage everyone to don some blaze orange biohazard suits, come on down, and start their own photo-journal. After your visit, be sure to thank the Suffolk Department of Parks and Recreation for a job well done!

Personally, I can't wait to see what the next ten miles of this trail is going to bring!