New Gear

Well, it is that time of the year to buy new things for the upcoming season. I have been telling myself for 3 years I would buy some good camping stuff, and 2 summers have gone by with nothing purchased. Well, since I got some money for graduation, I decided to finally go out and get some stuff!






First up I got some new hiking boots. Merrell Chameleon Wrap Gore-Tex XCR's. They are super awesome shoes - perfect for geocaching. If you don't believe me, just read the tag. Particularly note the part where it says made for people who endure "TERRAIN". These will definitely be the shoes I wear this summer while cracking down on the difficult terrains.











2 Military style cots for Kristen (or whoever) and I to use. VERY comfortable.











North Face Terra 40 Backpack. Perfect for overnighters and long day hikes - perfect for this summer!







Large enough tent for the cots and some extra room. Nothing too special - got it at Dick's.







Every guy should have a pocketknife...right? Just needed a new one.







New Leki trekking poles. I never knew how helpful they are until I started using them, and now I love them.













A very nice sale at Bass Pro for a very small backpacking size sleeping bag. fits right into the bottom storage on my Terra 40.









20L Dry bag...just in case it gets a little too wet out there...








A nice 70 oz camelbak that slides right into my Terra 40 (set up for hydration).









Now for the cream of the crop. the big shabang. I also bought myself several flashlights. First off I bought a Maglite 4D LED lite. It seems everyone needs a maglite - the weapon light. However, while I was at Bass Pro this guy showed me these Surefire lights. They were expensive, but I became obsessed with them, and now I have 3 of them.

The 6P LED, L2 LumaMax, and the C-3 Centurion. The 6P has 11 of 80 Lumens, the L2 has a 15 lumen stage and a 100 lumen stage, 18 hours/1 hour respectively, and the C-3 Centurion has a Xenon bulb in it which produces 105 lumens of white light for 60 minutes. All have their perks.



I also bought a Nintendo DS with the addicting puzzle game "Professor Layton and the Curious Village," which Kristen kidnapped and beat.

The big 1-0-0-0.

Well, after the 900 milestone and the caches I had done prior, I was backlogged about 106 caches. Ian had actually made a list - a map of caches if you will - for me to tackle in his hometown of Harrison. It hit several surrounding areas, and I went one morning trying to get as many as possible. I didn't think it would happen, but I reached the end of the night with a record 53 caches - and that was nearly solo (except for a few going around with Abuhhhh). Anyways, with all those caches, the ones I did while in Anderson, and several here and there around Cincinnati, I had a list. 2.5 hours later (monday afternoon) they were logged and I was ready for a little caching break. I spent the next week only gathering about 12 caches. However - this was a good in leading me up to the next milestone: the Big 1,000.

I knew exactly what I would do, The new epic Tipp City (north of Dayton) multi-cache Mini Me - GC1AW67. Here is my log entry for this cache:

"I knew nothing about Slammer47 until I heard the name in reference to a cache: Evil Easter Bunny. See, the whole idea behind this cache of his was nearly an exact replica of an original (or so I thought) cache idea I had thought of and was getting ready to put out, when my cohort ydissac informed me, "uhm, there is a new cache called evil easter bunny in Dayton that I think is just like the cache you were going to put out..." It was in hearing this that I became mildly upset, but then emailed the owner telling him that 'great minds must think alike'. He then responded telling me that if I was going to be coming up to check it out, that I should wait and come up for this new multi he was putting out, and it would make the whole trip up for evil easter bunny worth it. Well, a week or so came, and the cache got published, but I thought nothing of it. 'Mini Me'. I don't really get it. He has Austin Powers pictures and some lines, but so what? 2.5/4.5, alright. Well, then I started reading ABOUT the cache...miniature versions of amazing milestones he had done. I had soon become wrapped around "Slammer47" and his incredible profile, full of wonderful milestone caches he had done. I began feeling down on myself, about how I haven't done any wicked sweet killer fun caches in my time. Now, I've only been caching 4 months...but I still felt I needed to pursue more. I had already done the cache Lane Change, but we had sent up another member from our team to retrieve it. Slowly, all of Slammer's favorite caches had been added to my "MUST DO THESE" list. However, in studying and prepping for my milestones, and coming quickly up to my number 1-0-0-0, I thought...what a better cache to do than one that embodies all of these other caches in one...the very spirit of these amazing caches, not only to Slammer, but to every other person who has used any of these caches as a milestone in the past. It is in that, I knew this had to be my 1000. I set out, thinking the worst...that some climb would be more than I could bare, or that the tunnel tighter than I would be comfortable to enter. However, with Abuhhhh taking on the tunnels, and me doing the monkey work, I can successfully say that I have done one of the best caches to date, and recovered my 1000th cache. Thank you Slammer for the exciting cache, and the great memories. Now on the rest of the big versions!"

Here are some pictures from the different stages through the multi:






Here is Ian entering the first stage - A narrow tunnel with the second stage clue inside.







Me going after the second stage - A mini ammo box somewhere up this tree - only problem was there were no branches, only little nubs and notches along the way.





Me trying to retrieve a covered matchstick box tied to a branch just out of reach on the 4th stage while walking along a horizontally fallen tree over a little pond area.







The 6th stage, the mini "Lane Change" - climbing REALLY high in the tree to retrieve the last clues for the final:










Slammer had visited earlier in the day, preparing the cache, making sure everything was in tact, and leaving a travel jeep "trophy" for me to retrieve.




After caching with Ian around Tipp City, and clearing the 1,000 cache mark, we celebrated with a set of wings and a few beers at BW-3 on our way back home. It was a good way to relax, and think about the past 4 months of caching. I can't wait for the next 1,000 and what they bring!

The 900 recap

Well, it has been a little bit. I normally get really antsy if I haven't cached in awhile, but it has been an exhausting past few days leading up to and just after the 900th milestone. The day before we went to anderson for our double milestone cache we met up with jcklm to tackle Cincinnati's well known 1/4 cache, RR2K#L - GC677B. It was one of the old railroad tunnels, long abandoned, dark and WET. Well, the entrance was wet, the actual inside was pretty dry. It was a creepy hike, not knowing anything at all to expect with the cache. We passed up it's location on our way in, but backtracked and I made the find. We got some celebratory pictures on the infamous "throne" and made our way out. What a fun cache...but, it was only a taste of what tomorrow will bring.

Sunday Ian and I went to Anderson, Indiana where the 5/5 "Hydrology" - GCXP99 lies. We didn't really know what to expect going into it. The aerial maps show up an icon on the side of a river. We couldn't tell if it was actually in the water, or on the land. That information alone can give it a 5 difficulty. Also, it was a little chilly of a day. Maybe in the 70s, but for the beginning of May, that is still really cold to be getting into a river. We still knew we'd do it anyways.

We didn't get but a few caches on our way up, as we wanted to save for this milestone. We got to the cache at near 1:30-2 o clock in the afternoon, dressed in our water clothes, and analyzed the situation. It appears that we would have to get in. We got in the water, which since it had rained a lot two days prior, came up to atleast my chest. The water wasn't too strong, but it did catch us a few times. We felt more than confident that we'd find the cache, and not too long of looking secured that though. We found the cache, and got more than excited that we just 1) hit another milestone, and 2) found a 5/5 cache! It was a rush. We swam/waded back, dried off, and spent the rest of the day/night caching in the area. Overall I'd say we had almost 35 caches (I think 34).

Another cache we had found afterwards, as directed by the local cacher "doobies" to do was Big Ball of Paint - GC12FPA. The cache was at the Guinness Book of World Record's record holding largest ball of paint. The man there gave us the history of how it got started, how much it weighs and all that, then let us paint a coat on. We painted coat number 21,061. It was very cool, and made it to my list of favorite caches. This was the second cache I've been to at world record holding places (The other being the world's largest basket - GC8F96).

Another funny moment of our day showing up for one of the caches, Another Shadyside Cache - GC105YW that happened to be a 4/1 in a baseball park's parking lot. Anyways, it was one of those micro caches on the end of a piece of rebar in the concrete beams at the end of parking spaces. However, this particular piece of rebar had been welded to it's container, and the welding had broken off; leaving the cache stuck in the ground. However, ingenuity beat out strength and we chewed some gum and got it out. I replied in the log about how "big league chew" comes in handy here. I thought it clever.

Backlogged...back soon.

Sorry it's been a bit since I've updated. I was planning my 900th milestone with a friend and in doing so caching constantly. I am now backlogged 105 caches, a few FTF's, and some nice pictures to go along. I'll update as soon as I can, but then on to planning the 1,000 milestone celebration.