They Should Re-name Fluffy, Rusty

only took three tries and many more drivebys but finally found fluffy (GCW085)...
fluffy was a bit rusty, okay really rusty. took me 11 minutes to pry it open! finally got it open, signed the log then headed home. but didn't make it to the safety of the peep (my little yellow car) before i got asked "how are the fish over that way?" quick thinking got me the response "oh i don't know, i don't fish". he must have thought i was some kind of weird...

also on our afternoon stretch break miranda and i went in search of GC1B6P0 but didn't have any luck. maybe tomorrow. Read more!

Over the river and through the woods, to grandmothers house we go, with some geocaching along the way

kevin's sister, christy, her dog moxie and i took a trip from l/a to arundel today to pick up her trike, visit my grandparents, and find some caches...

we started out in search of GC1FGCQ, troop 160 we were trying out her blackberry and my garmin geko gps to find this cache and see which was more accurate. after mine actually picked up some satellites it was pretty much right on (7 ft), her phone however sent her in the opposite direction.

next it was on to GC1B8GP, webster st. wetland. parked in a little pull off and hit, most likely the only, bumps on the pull off, and hit them hard! chris found this one, well found the onsite clue at first then we spotted the actual cache out of the corner of our eyes. chris went for it and pretty much summed it up with "ewwwww, bugs!" and they were pretty gross, i don't know what type they were but they looked like there were a few in every stage of their life cycle, gross. gotta say i'm glad she got and replaced this cache :-) left a "support our troops" pin and took a little toy compass, which to my great disappointment didn't work, but cool anyway, will have to find a home for it somewhere cool.

GC1GT40, gamble gold was next on the list. the gps led us to this one quite well, was a ways off of the overgrown snowmobile trail but was able to find it with the help of the clue. on our way in, however, moxie found some bushes that had pickeys on them and proceeded to tromp right through them. so once we found the cache we spent some time picking the pickeys off of mox. chris was impressed with this cache, an ammo container of some sort. she wondered out loud what was originally housed in the container due to the imprint on top talking about "toxic continents".

pink flamngos?, GC1BYDZ next. for thisone we parked at a business of some sort, and at the top of their drive i saw a sign for snowmobile crossing so we walked down the road to where the trail started. this one took us down the overgrown trail about two tenths of a mile before it met up with another trail (the trail that the cache was located off from and the trail that was much closer to where we parked the car). oh well, we got some good exercise out of it and saw some deer tracks in the mud. when we got to this cache the contents were all strewn across the forrest floor and the cache container was sealed next to the contents. this makes me think that it wasn't a curious animals doing, but a disrespectful human :-/ we signed the log, packed everything back in the cache and hid it where we thought it was supposed to go, then found a much easier way out then we went in.

a little further down the road and around the corner we came to the cache, 9 ladies dancing - 12 days of christmas, GC1JRPA. this one was right out in the open so stealth had to be used. but fortunately for us it was a gray sunday morning, no one was at the little business center where we were, we made quick work of looking for the cache, and we had not one but two cover stories! cover story 1: we were letting the dog out to do her business (at least that's probably what it looked like from the road); cover story 2: we were sign inspectors. these people who hide all these caches, they can be quite clever! quick park and grab and we were off again!

drove past GCVX2F, 101 dalmatians #11- jenny at first, pulled a u-e and headed back to the location. made quick work of it thanks to the google maps satellite view i pulled up before we left. found it, signed it, and jumped onto 95. at least now i know what i am looking for with the other 100 dalmatians, including fluffy just down the road from me who keeps running off, he must be scared of me.

just because we're on the highway doesn't mean we can't still geocache. stopped at the new rest area in gray/cumberland and went in to get some food before hunting down the cache. both chris and i were dissapointed when we found out that the uno's pizzarea that was listed on the sign wasn't the full resturant but instead about 6 pizzas in cardboard boxes under a heat lamp. we oppted to try somewhere else for lunch. bummed about the uno's (or lack there of) we went in search of GC14B7Z, 88 piano keys note c2 "deep c" #16. we went over to the area where it was supposed to be and christy asked if there was a clue, there was, gr. had to think for a second before i got it, guard rail. too bad there were about 400 feet of them in such a small area. fortunately my pre-caching research payed off and i remembered it being right near the third parking spot in from one area. bingo, got it! signed it and were off in search of real food.

we were thinking of going to this one biker bar in arundel that i knew of, had never been to but it seemed intriguing. until we got there and saw the insane number of harley's out side and figured the two of us, the dog and the peep (that's what we call my car, i'll have to get a picture soon) would be WAAAAAYYYY out of place. so we kept driving, went right past my grandparents and headed on to federal jack's restaurant and brew pub in kennebunkport. this is where all the shipyard beers are brewed, too bad pumpkin head wasn't on draft yet, mmmmm pumpkin head. but we did have some good seasonal peach wheat beer and nachos. christy had a sweet pepper relish burger and i ended up with haddock tacos. a very yummy meal overall.

we finished up just in time to make it to the trike shop (a.k.a. some dudes garage) for christy's appointment. he gave us the low down on the bike and how to adjust it, chris rode it around a bit and we loaded it up into my car. as we were driving away we noticed that we seemed to match quite well, yellow trike, yellow car, her in a yellow shirt, me in a brown shirt with yellow graphic on it. funny how things work out that way.

after picking up the bike we stopped in to see my grandparents. we sat with them for a while and they were quite impressed with christy, her story and with moxie. and as we left chris shared that she enjoyed spending some time with them as well. my grandparents are awesome, they aren't so old and stuffy that you feel like you have to be proper and not touch anything in their house. you can just sit there. have a beer and shoot the shit with them, they rock!

some pics from the day:

moxie with troop 160

troop 160 w/ pin

gps with webster st. wetland onsite clue

webster st. wetland onsite clue & cache

christy w/ gamble gold

deer tracks on the way to pink flamingos

the busted up pink flamingos

9 ladies dancing Read more!

Not the Right Shoes

even though they are awful cute, these are not the right shoes for geocaching...
actually besides making my feet look good i can't think of one thing that these shoes are actually good for. well maybe creating sore, sweaty feet, and getting all sorts of wizard of oz comments out of the guys at work.

went looking for GCXZ99 after work today but the shoes and nature took over, i really had to pee which the water lapping up on the shore of lake auburn didn't help much. i also was terribly hungry and the alluring smell of the pizza that i had picked up on the way home wafting from my car made this a limited search.

the hint was "rotten stump" and i was again w/o a gps and just using my memory of what i saw on google maps to find this cache. at least i know the area and it's another one that is quite close to home (and go figure on one of my bike routes) i'm sure i can find this one at some point.

looks like kevin & i are going to take the wheeler to oxford and explore some trails out there after i get out of work around 2. maybe i can look up some caches in the area -- don't know if any will be on the trails, but its worth a look right?? addicted? maybe. Read more!

The Search for Fluffy Continutes (with Updates)

i wanted to stop to find cache #GCW085 on my way home from work. but the search for fluffy continues...
too many fishing muggles to stop and look for fluffy. maybe i will have better luck tomorrow morning on my bike ride. fishermen don't get up early do they??

UPDATE 8.19.10 7:52am
went looking again for fluffy this morning on my bike ride. no muggles out at the butt crack of dawn today, but no fluffy either.

i don't know if my inability to locate fluffy is due to my lack of experience geocaching, lack of a good, working gps, or just because i'm not looking hard enough in the right places.

i am going to look into the reviews of different gps's and gps enabled devices and see what i can find out, i may just have to suck it up and make a purchase anyway :-(

UPDATE 8.19.10 5:04pm
i looked up the original cache site for all the dalmatians (GCVQ1D) and found this little tidbit of information: "you can hide your puppy under a lamppost, behind a guardrail, or anywhere that you feel it would be safe and dry. you cannot hide it in the woods, because they are too small to take care of themselves. All the puppies in this cache have rolled in soot to help them hide better, and all are numbered."

perhaps i'll stop by on my way home from work, i'll also check out the two others that are on lakeshore drive. i just hope the construction that they are doing on the road won't disrupt any of the caches. Read more!

One Lost, One Found

well the first one wasn't really lost, i just couldn't find it. went geocaching near the house on my way to running errands yesterday morning...
CACHE INFO:
CODE: GCWO85
NAME: 101 Dalmantions #62 Fluffy
COORDINATES: N 44° 10.528 W 070° 16.466
HINT: None
CACHE SIZE: Micro
DIFFICULTY: 1
TERRAIN: 1

this was the first cache that i took the geko gps to. it was also the first cache that i had to log a DNF (did not find) on :-(. i got to the area and let the gps settle in for about 5 minutes. went to the proposed location, let the gps settle again and it said to go 60' in the opposite direction, went there, let it settle and then it was 80' in a totally direction. i didn't look very closely at google maps when i was at the house and now i am wishing i did because after 20 or so minutes of searching to find what area it was actually in i gave up and went on to do my errands.

had i looked closer at google maps with the satellite view i am pretty sure i would have been able to find the cache! fortunately i live less than 2 miles down the road and can go back, maybe i'll even stop on my way back from work this evening, or better yet, go on a bike ride (this cache is also on one of my routes) tonight to retrieve it and a few others that are along my route.

fortunately the second cache i looked for that day was found.

CACHE INFO
CODE: GC1GGCB
NAME: Dam No Good Name for This
COORDINATES: N 44° 07.957 W 070° 27.741
HINT: Retaining
CACHE SIZE: Small
DIFFICULTY: 1.5
TERRAIN: 1.5

Hundreds pay last respects to Theodore
"Ted" Heidrich
Photo courtesy of Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

kevin's step-grandfather passed away last week and yesterday was his funeral. it was a beautiful service held in the apple orchard of his own farm. kevin's dad & step-mom live right across the street from where the funeral was held, and right on the little androscoggin river, and guess what was right across the river on the other side? that's right a cache!

told the "kids" about it and christy, her service dog moxie, jake & heidi all came along with me to look for it. we used steve (kevin's dad's) gps and it did the same thing that mine was doing earlier in the morning -- maybe they are used to get someone in the general area then you have to use what you saw on google maps and your eyes to search for the cache... but on the other hand the app that miranda had on her smart phone the other day got us right to the cache... it'll be something to look into.

anyway we were searching for about 10 minutes then we had jake look up the clue on his phone, i had looked at it earlier but couldn't remember what it was, well once we found that it took jake about 2 minutes before he found it! there were a bunch of trinkets in it and the log was just about full! we all wished we had brought something to put in there but none of us had anything. we also forgot to get a picture -- oh well we now know where it is, had a blast looking for it, and i think i may have made 3.5 more geocache addicts :-) lets just hope we didn't get any poison ivy while searching around! Read more!

Downtown LA - Park Street -- UPDATE: FOUND

CODE: GCQFJF
COORDINATES: N 44° 05.841 W 070° 12.989
HINT: It is within 5 or 6 feet of a permanent 15 minute parking sign.
CACHE SIZE: Micro
DIFFICULTY: 4
TERRAIN: 1
FIND #: 2

went with my co-worker miranda on our morning stretch break. we work less than a block away at sun journal and every morning and afternoon a nice lady comes over the intercom letting us know that it is time for our morning/afternoon stretch. we try to take advantage of these with walking around a few blocks. however today we used our stretch break for a little neighborhood geocaching...


this was the second cache i went to find, or should i say attempted to find. we were equipped with a google maps street view and miranda's droid that was downloading a program for entering in long/lat coordinates (which only started working after we gave up and went back to work). needless to say we didn't find it.

looked in the sewers to see if something was tied to the grates hanging down into the abyss below. looked up in the near by tree, saw a bunch of leaves and a birds nest. wanted to inspect the 15 min parking spot a bit more but didn't want to look like i was trying to break into the little old lady's car that was parked there. was half tempted to open up the mcdonalds chicken nugget box on the side of the road but figured that it wouldn't be in something that could so easily be thrown out. examined the "15 minute parking sign" as if i was a doctor giving it a physical. saw a beer can crunched up and shoved into the sewer grate, thought maybe, but how would you get it out w/o it falling in?? no luck.

here were some of the "hints" we got from reading the log on geocaching.com:
• no need to tear anything up. it's there. the container is smaller than a film canister.
• talk about TINY, we took a pic of the cache next to a nickel
• it was the recovery of the cache which gave us fits.
• i was right on top of it before without even knowing it!
• there is nice stone landscaping around a nearby tree. the cache is not there and there is no need to lift up or dig up any of the rocks.
• you don't have to disturb anything for this very clever hide.
• this cache is one of a kind.
• the shadow tipped me off to the cache.
• this was perhaps the coolest I have found to date. very nicely put in a location most passersby wouldn't think of looking.
• please read the clues carefully, there is only one place it can be.
• bringing little hands sure helped on this one

my thought is that is may actually be in the beer can, or maybe in a crack in the granite curb... we will check back on our afternoon stretch break. until then...

UPDATE 1:59 PM -- FOUND
miranda and i went back on our afternoon stretch break, okay a few minutes before... this time equipped with more log reading and a gps that worked. we let it settle then walked to where the gps said the coordinates were and let it settle again. there was only one place for it to be, after looking for a few minutes i spotted it! and pulled out the tiny capsule.

it's downtown lewiston, and there are some real shady people in the area, and its probably one of the only place where suspicious looking geocachers look like they actually fit in (as prostitutes, drug dealers/addicts, or petty thieves). this said we tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, we even saved the excitement of finding it and the hi-five until we were back in the safety of our office.

this was a great find, what a creative place to hide it, miranda and i talked on the way back of how the person hiding it actually got it in there! amazing! Read more!

No Purchase Necessary

without fail it is raining this morning. i say "without fail" because it seems that every time i plan on taking a bike ride in the morning it rains.

but it wasn't a total waste of a morning, kevin found his old garmin geko 201 gps and this morning i downloaded the manual and found out how to use it! which means i don't need to buy my own seeing as my phone won't work as a gps...


its pretty much a perfect fit for me to, IT HAS A GECKO ON IT! those of you who don't know me, geckos are my favorite animal, i actually have 3 tattooed on my body and many trinkets, shot glasses, artwork featuring geckos.

so this morning i am going to spend the few minutes i have before i have to get ready for work programing in the 10 geocaches i have listed on the right side of this blog. and maybe today if it stops raining i'll check out the cache that is a few feet from my work. Read more!

Basin Micro

CACHE INFO
CODE: GCXYZY
COORDINATES: N 44º 10.619 W 070º 16.962
HINT: Hidden not buried, no need to disturb anything to find it.
CACHE SIZE: Micro
DIFFICULTY: 2
TERRAIN: 1.5
FIND #: 1
(image: it wasn't totally dark out yet...)

first cache ever! and so close to home (1.4 miles, but went through 3 towns, turner, auburn & minot)! it's actually on my "hilly" bike route. no gps required, just google maps w/ street view...


muggles (that's what they are called right??) were there fishing when we first got there so we decided to go have dinner at davinci's first then check on the way back. it was just after sunset so we made it a quick search, kevin found it (he says i was scared to go into the woods—more like he had the flashlight and i couldn't see to even begin to look).

honestly him finding it first kind of took some of the thrill out of it for me, i was so excited about this new hobby. but it is fun to share it with him, it'll give us something to do together! he did have a good idea on the way out though, with so many in the vicinity of the house i can ride my bike to each one, looks like there are some on my bike route that takes me down lake shore drive. hopefully early tomorrow morning no muggles will be around when i go for a ride.

here are some images of the evening:

dinner out

view of the old mill buildings from our seats

another view from our seats, through the umbrellas to the brick

we found it!!!

"don't take a picture of me with it" okay, i won't...

Read more!

Googled "Geocache"

i've heard it mentioned before but never knew what it was so if someone was talking about "geocaching" i would politely smile and nod until the conversation ended or the subject was changed.

i don't know what it was today that made me think of it and type it into the search box on google.com but i am glad that i did. i am also disappointed that i didn't do it sooner...

to those that don't know and haven't gone to google it themselves geocaching is "a high-tech treasure hunting game" where the idea is to "locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors then share your experiences online" (from geocaching.com -- the official geocaching site).

so basically treasure hunt meets hiking meets hide and seek meets social networking, or basically an awesome way to get off ones ass and explore the area around them!

currently there are 1,157,471 active geocaches in the world! and because anyone can create a new cache this number will continue to grow!

so get off your bum and get geocaching -- because that's exactly what i'm going to do and i'll share it all here with you! Read more!