#1400

Okay, so for 4 weeks now I have hit a milestone. That is pretty exciting! In my first 2 months of caching I hit 500. It took me around 2 weeks over the next 2 months to get my second 500. If I get to 1500 (I'm sitting at 1442) before the 13th of July, that would make my third set of 500 in 2 months again (being 2 months since I completed Mini-Me). That is great! there has been talk about double 1500 milestoning with Slammer47 or tripling with Ian for his 1,000th also...or POSSIBLY even quadroupling with Big Mamma K for her 1,000 also. Phew.

Anyways, let's talk about the milestone.

Ian, Kristen and I went to Springfield, Ohio (east of Dayton) this weekend with a mission. That mission was to grab "How about these apples?!?!" - GC16Q52, the 2/4.5 TUNNEL cache. I was nervous it wouldn't be there (as we have had such excellent lucky with our other milestone attempts). This one we did prevail on! We even had a few bags of apples with us to make it a little more fun! Here are a few pictures and a cute video for your visual pleasure. See more pics on my Flickr page.

#1300

Alright, alright. Moving right along. That same day (but not really) we got a double milestone (1300/500) with "Ammo with a Problem" - GCZJ6C. This was a 2/4 tree cache. We hit it going into the evening. We had plenty of light when we started, but it faded quick while Sommer attempted to find the cache. I say "attempted" because once getting up and looking as well, we both determined this one was missing. We called Slammer, we called back home to read through the logs, we called Pokerbuzz. We tried everything we could to figure out if we were doing SOMETHING wrong. We weren't...it was just missing. Apparently it has gone missing a few times before also. We had done the work. We set up the rope...done the climbing...we were not leaving without a find. After about an hour and a half, we decided to replace the container with a new one, and a new log. We logged the find as normal - and it is a good thing because someone found it just a few days after us...YOUR WELCOME! Anyways...it was a well deserved milestone, as the climb was tricky - but good company (miss you Ian) and goof times made for a good cache.

#1200

So...I've been busy lately. doing what exactly? Getting caches. Eat, sleep, work, cache. That is pretty much all I do. I've gotten milestones every weekend the past 3 weeks, which is pretty nice in my book. the first one was Earock which I talked about in one of the last posts. the weeks after was busy with me, Ian and the Sommers. Out almost every night. Clearing Hamilton, grabbing some in Springboro, Middletown, Kettering. In that time was the "Thank You Reviewer Webling" event too where I finally got to meet Slammer47 in person.

One weekend the Sommers and I went to Dayton (Kettering) in pursuit of our next milestone - two milestones for me. I like to have a celebratory milestone, and sometime I sit on a few finds to make that happen, but #1200 just wasn't playing the right hand. I was sitting on about 75 caches, no milestone in sight. The only thing I thought to do would be to grab a liar's cache, and I picked the 5/2.5 "A Fantastical Grand Adventure" - GC18K1K. The goal of that cache was to create a Sci-fi story. What a better way to go back in time and grab my #1200 than actually GOING BACK IN TIME. Here is my log along with some pictures:

Some of you may be thinking, "Brian, how do you think this is a milestone for you? You reached 1200 on 6/10/08 while out caching with Sommer Family? This is actually your 1287th find..." While you may THINK that is true, you don't even know the half of it.

There was only one way known to man to log this 1200 milestone when seemingly passing my prime opportunity to do so. I had to travel back in time. How does one do that though? What? you didn't know the powers that lie behind "GC18K1K??!" It's the ONLY way to do it!

I crawl for miles, for what seemed like years. I was in darkness, the only thing I could see was a pinprick of light off in the distance. I followed it, for days and days I followed the tiny pinprick of light until it started to get bigger and bigger. Finally, I come to see a checkered pattern and burst of light. I had reached my destination.

I observe a creature unlike my own, holding what I knew to be the cache. Secretly and quietly, as silent as I could be, I make my way out of the darkness I once called my home.

The creature noticed me, he panicked, and started running away. I had to chase him...it was the only way. Through land and through water I pursued him. After nearly 3 hours the pursuit came to a close. I tackled the creature to the ground, leaving the cache flying through the air. The creature had met his demise. I ran after the cache, scooped it up with my hands, and fled to the "Anchor" : The time travel machine. I strapped myself aboard and BLASTED back in time.

All of a sudden I was back in Sommer's car on 6-10-2008 grabbing park and grabs; the cache and log for GC18K1K was in hand. I had done it! This was now OFFICIAL my #1200! After signing the log it was time to come home. I mounted the anchor one last time, and fled back to the future. Upon arrival, I gave a shout of victory, raising the cache up to the heavens, and replaced as found.

Back to the tunnel I went. I crawl for miles, for what seemed like years. I was in darkness, with nothing ahead in the distance but a pinprick of light.

#1200

#1100

Boy has it been a busy month. Graduating, moving into a condo in Northern Kentucky, band, full-time work status....and CACHING! I've managed to go up to Dayton a few times, and just went this past weekend with Abuhhhh and jcklm for another milestone, #1100.

We tackled Ice Pick Man's Cave Multi Cache - GC15Q4B earlier in the day, which was one of Slammer47's favorite caches. It was a pretty fun tunnel cache. Here is a wonderful picture of Ian apparently being chased by the Ice Pick Man.


There is also the wonderful picture of me and my Surefire L2 LumaMax
which illuminated my way.





Luckily, it didn't appear that anyone was following us....but it sure was a loooooooooooong way back out.





A picture of Ian and I at the end of the tunnel. All the information has been snagged - on to the final!







The highlight of our day however (besides the drinks, laughs, and 37 caches on the day) was the milestone, earock 2000finds - GC16GDJ. The following post will have:

SPOILER PICTURES! Please don't read on if you don't want to be spoiled!!!!!!

Just as a safeguard, the first picture will be of our whole team after finding the cache.





It was a very interesting find for the cache. I heard Slammer tell me that you will never find anything like this cache anywhere. It was rated 4.5/3.5. I was excited out of my mind. We get there, and the cache is a small container, just sitting in a tree, maybe 7 feet off the ground. I got very frustrated. There is NO WAY this was the cache. Something had to be wrong. I tried calling Slammer....no answer. I tried calling Pokerbuzz....no answer as well.


We decided we'd atleast leave the cache a little harder to get than we found it. We decided to prop it up with a stick. After looking at that for a few minutes...we decided to go back to the car, and see if we can't get some rope and hoist the thing up higher. I kept calling Pokerbuzz hoping he'd pick up. As soon as we got back to the car, he told me that is NOT how the cache was supposed to be...so back in we went to maintenance.



It was then....when we started working...I got to witness how gorgeous...how simply....amazing this cache truly was.
Slammer told me the tree used to be perfectly balanced in the V of this other tree. Can you imagine? A...60-80 foot or something long tree...perfectly balanced in the V of another tree. For 1) for that to even happen, and 2) for someone to find it to put a cache there. It is just incredible. That, or if like in this picture, the tree was completely leaning the opposite way...and the cache was sitting nearly 80 feet above you. How killer.

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 Micro Cache & My Future Goals

I'm positive that everyone in the geocaching world has come across a micro. I was in conversation with Catlon at the Winton Woods Afterparty about micro caches where he stated, "They should be a league all of their own," and I agree with this statement. As the pin pictured states, "Love to hate 'em! Hate to love 'em!" It's very true. Micros are one of the types of caches that frustrate me beyond belief, but I love finding them. With micros being so small, they can be just about anywhere. Not only do you end up looking for a standard container - film canisters, bison tubes, nanos, or the like...but now people have moved to fake rebar, fake pinecones, hollowed out bolts, logs on the backside of magnets, and lots of other devious hides. It's smart in a hiding sense. I mean, you can only hide a regular or a small so well, however, there are almost endless possibilities to hide a devilish micro. I've become fascinated with these little guys.

I've spent my first 4 months - 800 caches grabbing lots of micros. 44.5% to be more accurate. A lot of those micros would be considered "P&G's" (Park and grabs). P&G's would typically just be number building, and don't provide a whole lot of excitement. Now I don't pride myself in getting number runs, but I like the way Ranger Fox put it in his profile, "To me, the number game is more like the paperwork I do before I can go off and do what really matters--terrain." I feel like I've been doing paperwork for the last 4 months of caching, which I think is good. I started caching with the goal of getting 1,000 by the end of the year. With the rate I'm going, I should reach that by the end of May, having completed over half of my matrix - the lower half. Now with summer approaching I have the chance to go after some terrains. My new goals for 2008 consist of:
1) Reaching 2,000 caches
2) Completing my Difficulty/Terrain Matrix
3) Complete more Multi's
I can't think of a current cache I would call my "favorite". In looking at my favorite bookmark list, you'd see they are mostly well hidden micros. Looking at Slammer47 or Ranger Fox's profiles encourage me and get me pining for some real challenges. Half of the caches on Slammer47's favorite bookmark are now listed on my "I Can't Forget to Do These!" Bookmark. It is these cachers, and those like them, that make me see there is a lot out there I haven't seen...and need to. Luckily, Slammer47 is from the Dayton area, which is just around an hour from me. This summer hopefully will be filled with lots of weekend trips to Dayton to start clearing out that area.

Lately, I've been able to go caching with Abuhhhh and before that my friend ydissac. Abuhhhhh and I have decided this summer we'll start making trips - for number runs, and for terrain challenges. I rarely get myself to do multi's, however it seems people have the most fun on a good multi. Abuhhhh and I have decided we will work on knocking out hard terrains, challenging multis, and really scenic/good quality caches. I feel that geocaching is the thing that has finally got me out into nature like I've been wanting to do for the past 3 years. I've told myself each year I was going to buy a nice pair of boots and camping gear to get out and hike and camp. Well, now I'm finally doing it. I have a feeling the rest of this year will make for some very memorable sites and caches, and now that the blog is up, hopefully I'll have a way to remember it all.