Wednesday, May 30, 2007

What It's All About

Today was pretty overcast with nasty looking clouds. It has been raining off and on today. But I haven't been caching in like 10 days, so I thought I might as well get out and try one. I was going to do a quick Park 'n Grab, but there were too many muggles around. But there was a cache not far from here along this trail.

What a neat area. I never knew this spot was here. It looks like a nature preserve much like Riverfront Park. It has some nice maintained trails that snake around this island in the middle of the Yellowstone river. Such a cool spot. I think I'm going to have to come back and hike around a bit more. I'll bring my wife and son so we can enjoy this area a bit more.

I would hear interviews of cachers and they say they enjoy geocaching because it shows them places they never knew was there. This is one of those moments. Did I find the cache? Yup. It was a nice cache. An ammo can with lots of goodies. It was definitely a fun find. But the real treat was discovering this area. A place I would have never known was here, and I found it through geocaching. I guess that's what it's really about. I hope I find more like this.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Big Plans

Last week, I've been covering for a guy I work with. So that means that I had to work through lunch each day, which means no geocaching :( I was hoping this weekend I might pick up one or two that popped up near my house. But our chores got in the way of that. So again, no geocaching.

This week, I should have some time to go out during my lunch time. So that will be cool. Perhaps get a few under my belt. I'd also like to get the travel bug picture taken this week so I can drop him off and pick up a new one.

On the plus side, next week is my birthday! It falls on a Tuesday this year. I'm going to take the day off of work and go geocaching. I'm going to the Rims to get a few up there and maybe into the Heights where they are a little out of my reach on my lunch hour caching. I'm hoping to get a travel bug that I have my eye on that's located up there as well. Then I'm going to go home, smoke a cigar, drink a beer and BBQ. I'm really looking forward to it. Birthdays rock.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Godzilla's Heart

Last Thursday, I decided I'd drop off my GeoCoin I've had for the last couple of weeks. There was a travelbug hotel near by, so I thought I'd exchange this coin for one of those so I could play with it a bit. The hotel was off the road near a bridge. I parked in a city park near by and decided to walk to it from there. It was a nice walk. I discovered a really nice path that I didn't know was there along the Yellowstone River. I think I'm going to take my wife and son there next weekend for a picnic and hike.

At any rate, the ammo can was pretty easy to find. I was expecting a bunch of bugs in there, but only really saw 2. There was a laminated photo of a bridge. It was kinda a lame travelbug. The goal sounded cool as it would like to visit and get pictures of other bridges. But a laminated picture? I bet there's a better bug that could have been used other than a picture. It almost looked like it was cut out of a magazine. Needless to say, it didn't strike my fancy and decided to leave that one behind.

The other travel bug was this giant stuffed cartoon heart. The thing is massive. Probably the size of a small cantaloupe. It was the only interesting travelbug in there, so I grabbed it in exchange for the coin. In hindsight, I shoulda left it behind. Something that big would be a bugger to find a cache to place it in. But since I have it, I'll play with it a bit.

I'm trying to think of a good place to take a picture that represents Billings. Problem with Billings is that it doesn't have any real landmark of note. The pictograph caves is just a hole in the cliff. Little Bighorn Battlefield is just prairie. Plus they're really not apart of Billings. I think because this travelbug is so big, perhaps I'll do some photoshop work and make it look like it's huge like Godzilla destroying Billings! That would be fun, I think. I guess we'll see.

On my way back, there was another cache near where I parked my car. I only had 10 minutes to find it. I decided I'd go after it. It was pretty easy too. This one was a Tupperware container that had a few items in it. The container had a hole in it. It cracked or broke somehow. The contents were completely dry. I guess that's the drawback to some cheap Tupperware containers. It's easy to break. But then again, it's easy to replace. The container had a few items in it. Mostly junk. I took a signature card and I decided I'd throw a few toys in there. A few bouncy balls and a few key clips. Just to boost up the swag a little for the next finder. I'm going to have to find some better swag myself. I'm going to try to avoid the cheap garbage and use something I'd enjoy finding. Probably geared more toward kids. Perhaps I'll put in a toy and a signature item. That way the adults would be interested in signature items, kids would be interested in the toys.

It was a fun lunch hour cache.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Permission or Not...

This last weekend, my wife and son and I went to Bozeman to visit some friends that were in town. So I brought the geocoin that wants to visit universities with me. My intention was to take a picture of the coin with the University sign before dropping the coin off in a local cache. Well, I was able to get the picture just fine, but I wasn't able to drop off the coin. My son was very cranky. I tried to find a quick one, but he didn't cooperate. I had to get on the road. That sux. I really wanted to move this coin along. But at least I got 3 pictures to upload to the coin log. One for MSU-Bozeman, one for MSU-Billings, and one for Rocky Mountain College. I think I'll drop off the coin at a travelbug hotel that's nearby. I'm hoping that it will move along. If not, I'm heading to California this summer. Maybe I'll pick it up if he's stuck in B-town.

I came across a muggled cache last week. I emailed the owner stating that film can was thrown to the side, but no log in sight. I took the film can with me, as I didn't know where it was originally hidden and there was no log. He got back to me on Saturday and asked that I put the can back and he'll put in a new log. Unfortunately, I didn't see where he was referring to. I gave him the info where I found it. So hopefully that cache will be active soon.

Since I was out and about, I decided I'd go after a cache. This one was near an entrance of a business. So there's all kinds of muggles. I spot checked around, trying to act casual, but with no luck. If I stuck around too much longer, I'm sure somebody would get suspicious. I don't think I'm going to go back for this one. I guess this is why many people don't like urban caches. I don't like the ones on business property...permission or not. I like the ones in parks or any other area that's easy to get to without dodging the muggle-gaze.

Oh well. I think I need to find a few caches to log. I haven't been doing so hot lately. Uggg.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Fort DFN!


I decided to go after a multi-stage cache in Riverfront Park. A little ambitious for a lunch hour cache, but I figured if I couldn't complete it in one day, that would be OK. The first coordinates took me to a really cool place. It was like a fort made of fallen trees and branches. It reminds me of a crude sweat lodge or something. If I found this as a kid, man, I'd always hang out there. There was a bit of trash there. Empty juice bottles and cigarette pack. I'll have to go back with a trash bag and see if I can't clean a bit of that up. At any rate, did I find the first coordinates? Nope. I looked all over that thing for at least 30 minutes. It is suppose to be a match container. Uggg. Now I know why people hate micros in the woods. My GPS was bouncing all over the place. The section it told me it was couldn't be the coordinates as there is nothing there. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fort. I tried pretty hard to find it. But I had to give up, or I'd be late for work.

On the way back to the office, I decided I'd log a DNF and ask for a hint. But after reading the logs, everybody seemed to find it except for 2. They said it was a tough hide. Well, I didn't feel quite right about swallowing my pride so early. I think I'll give it another go before asking for a hint.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Campus Tours

Today, I decided I'd get those pix for the GeoCoin I have. The coin wants to visit a bunch of Universities. So I thought I'd take a picture of the coin next to university signs. I went to Rocky Mountain College first. Not technically an university, but it does a regular 4 year degree programs. While there, they had this really great tree. It must have been there for a 100+ years. Huge trunk and really great looking branches. There are a couple of places on that tree that has a hole where a branch use to be. I might look into putting a cache in there. I love cool old trees like that. I should have taken a picture. I had my camera, after all. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Then I went to Montana State University - Billings. The only sign I saw was kinda lame. It was in front of a parking lot. I wanted something with a bit more flair. I'll have to go by and see if I can find any other signs with a decent backdrop. I want to show off the beauty of Montana. Can't do that with a parking lot! Oh well. "At least there is a cache near by," I said to myself. So I pull into the visitor parking, pay my 50 cents for parking and went to track it down. First of all, I must say they have done some BEAUTIFUL landscaping since I attended the University. What a great area. If it wasn't a campus, I'd go there for a picnic and a bottle of wine and while away the hours looking at the sky. The area I was looking for the cache was in a water fall area. They had a really nice creek with waterfall. So cool. But there was maintenance guys hanging around. Fiddling with wires and valves and whatnot. So I couldn't go hunting for the cache. I guess I'll have to go back one evening to see if I can't track it down.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Man's Best Friend

I have this new interest in travel bugs. There's a travel bug that I want to recover, but I specifically have to block out some time to get there. Not that it's hard to get to. It actually looks pretty easy. But I can't casually get to it if I 'happen to be in the neighborhood.' At any rate. It's purpose is to get pictures of your K-9 friends. My dog is really getting old and probably won't last much longer. So I think I'm going to get the travel bug and have my picture taken with my dog and the travel bug. I also bought a travel bug tag. I'm going to look for a toy dog that looks like her. When she passes, I'm going to launch the travel bug in her remembrance. I'm not sure what her goal will be. But I thought it would be a good sentiment.

Stroll in the Park


I wanted to go out and take some pictures for the GeoCoin that I retrieved last week. But I decided against it due to the fact it would take my entire lunch hour. I wanted to find a cache, instead. So I think I'll take these pix some other day.

There was a new cache at a ball park. So I decided I'd go after this one and try to pick up a puzzle cache that has been eluding me for awhile now. The first one was pretty easy. This one really made me laugh. It was this rubber dragon with a bison tube attached to it. It really blended in well with it's surroundings. I liked it so much I had to take a picture of it. What a fun cache.

The next one was the puzzle cache that has me stumped. It points to pole and I looked everywhere. I can't find where it would be hidden. The problem with puzzle caches is that you can't depend on your coordinates because you could be wrong in solving the puzzle. I don't know. This is the second time I went to look. I think I'll give it another go before asking for hints.

Since I couldn't find this one, I decided to go after a Cache n' Dash. It was a pretty easy one. Tally one more for the list. Perhaps this will balance my DNF.