Memories - Meeting abeyoni

I happened to make a comment on Twitter that the cache Team Goobie was going after was the one that I had first met abeyoni at. And applejohn wanted the story, so here goes.

January 13th, 2004

Three new caches had published in Reno. One was bobthecat's Dash Through Reno's Past, another was LaughingGravy's Parks Walk-About. I can't recall what the third one was, but I know there was one. Back then, there weren't too many cachers in Northern Nevada, much less FTF hounds. Caches could sit for days or weeks back then. Abeyoni was the FTF king. He'd look through the Newest in Nevada and find the new ones up north and go for it, regardless of where it was. His was the name you saw on all logs. He was the one to beat.

On this morning, I had time and figured I'd try for it. The other multi was downtown Reno, in an area I wasn't familiar with. So I took the chance to head to Mira Loma park. I was worried about the mile plus walk that the Gravies had mentioned on the page. But holding the print out (long before paperless caching here) I made my way to the coordinates. By cutting back and forth I was able to get the information needed and head off to the final.

Course I hadn't cached too much in Reno and promptly got lost in the Hidden Valley neighborhood! Left, left, right, left, I remember zipping back and forth so where my track log was a useless wiggling mass of lines! Oh how much I've come to rely upon Google Maps now and how fun it was to jump into caching blindly trusting a GPS with no accurate map!

Finally made it to the end of the road. No other cars around, did my wandering around the entire valley have someone sneak by me and make it out and back? Only one way to find out! I set out, following the monochrome arrow that was saying "Go that way!" Up the hill I went, looking for footprints and finding none, until the screen showed 10 feet and the cache was found. A blank logbook (an honest to goodness log book no less!) awaited me and I penned my name and story on the sheet before closing it up and heading back.

The trail ran along the top of the hill, before descending down to a gully leading out to the park. As I began the downward slope, a tall guy with a baby riding in a backpack was turning to begin his climb up. We both stopped and stared at each other. Without ever having met, and far enough away that faces were indistinguishable, I heard him shout up "NevadaWolf?" There was only one person it could be, only one person heading up for the first to find on LaughingGravy's new multi. I shouted back "Abeyoni!?"

That was the first day I got to meet one of my best buddies. The grin on his face was absolutely massive and the huge I got was one of the biggest. No way was I just going to bail, so I walked back with them (AJ being just a tiny thing back then, I can't believe how big he's gotten in the last 6 years!). We just talked as Abe searched and AJ looked on. Finally the cache in hand, he signed their names and I got the picture. AJ happened to see the sparkly wolf stickers I was putting in caches at the time. The next thing I know is he's coughing and choking. Dad saved the day (though not my stickers) and we left the cache laughing and continuing the conversation back to the cars.

One of the best days ever. I'm still smiling as I write this entry. Thanks applejohn for asking for the story.

Gaining momentum

One week left.

Work wise, they've hired a new gal that I am training for the courier job and film scanning. It stinks that I don't understand the film request side as I hate having to answer "I don't know" to her questions. But, our boss is around and I'm leaning on her to help make sure the training is complete.

Personally, I think that the stagnant energy I unleashed by clearing out the clutter has swept me off my feet and all I can do is hope the stream is going in the right direction. As the sailing painting says in the doctor's office, "Trust that the wind knows where it's going."

Why do I say that? Last month I unloaded a lot of stuff that has just been sitting around. Afterwards, I went through and smudged the house, opening all windows and doors, and generally renewing the place. The Universe returned the favor.

I decided to go back to school full time (or three-quarters at least), I found the courage to quit my job, I've now moved, and the best news of all? I may have been in the right place, right time, and found a job already.

Got a call on Wednesday that if I was still looking for employment to get in touch. I did better, went down there and talked with the manager. Set up the appointment for an interview on Thursday at 12:30. (Covered my class with two folks taking notes and letting my teacher know.) Thursday, I headed down and went through my first real interview. The manager told me he'd put my name on the list for the district manager and I'd be getting a call on Friday. Friday rolls around, I have a great conversation with the DM, and soon, I'm called back to sign the authorizaions for a background check. :fingers, toes, and eyes crossed: There's nothing I'm aware of on my record, I really really really hope whatever the results are that it's satisfactory and the next phone call is a positive one!

I'm in freefall right now after closing my eyes and taking the plunge, all I need to do is sit back and let the flow carry me towards my goal. So far, things are working.

Caching wise, we finally placed a new cache at one site from the Dodge Campout, went out and found one while it was cold and raining (and then WAP'd the log to psych the owner out), and had a FTF surge when 5 new caches by sierradogs published. Those were fun in that Puzzleman and I were going to hike out to see the beavers along the river, but the photographer we were going with had the wrong time so the hike was cancelled - instead, we head out and start bagged FTF after FTF. Second to last we find ourselves outside sierradogs house having a great conversation, enjoying the puppy's (okay, old body, puppy at heart) sniff tour of the yard, and a fantastic drive through the sheep herds up on the hill to get the final cache. Well, I drove, Puzzleman hiked straight up and beat me by a mere 8 minutes. The pest.

Saturday, Trekrr and I cleared out his house in preparation for me moving back in. Then Sunday we spent the entire day dismantaling one house and moving the entire contents over to his house. I'm actually writing this from my new room. It'll take awhile, but I'll have my place set back up. This is just another step towards my goal. Save as much cash as I can and finish the classes I need for my degree.

I'm on my way!

A leap of Faith

Another same ol week. For the most part, until the weekend, that is.

A few caches published, of course, while I was at work. So I had to wait till afterwards to grab them. Trekrr and I even picked up one in Reno after driving around randomly and looking for a place to eat, ending up in Spanish Springs at a joint called Ghengis Grill. YUMMERS! I loved it and hope we can go back up there.

Then Friday rolled around.

I finished up my morning deliveries, made sure my worklist was caught up, and strolled into the Big Boss' office. "I've been thinking," I started, "that it's time for me to go back to school and finish my degree. Here's my letter of resignation."

Two weeks. In two weeks I will no longer be working. Two weeks to figure out what in the world I'm going to do. But in two weeks, I'm going to set out on a path that I can't see and trust in the most important thing in the world, the vision I have for my future. I finally have a vision, I finally can see beyond the darkness, I finally know the answer to what I want to do with my life. Now to get there!

Saturday, Trekrr and I headed down south to finish clearing out Gardnerville. Once again DNF'd the mini micro one, I'm convinced it's not there. Headed back into town, grabbed my gear, and off to Starbucks I go for our monthly meetup. I was hoping to get my homework done before hand. HA! Who am I kidding?

Another awesome turnout. We even had OKRA and TopazGeogoats stop by and hang out with us. And I got to get rid of more crap. House is slowly being broken down to the basics.

Sunday there wasn't a whole lot of energy to do much, so we drove up to Tahoe to check out the snow level along Kingsbury Grade. Even grabbed an Earthcache along the way. Then back to Carson to take a stab at solving Bernsports new cache, Caching in the Stone Age. We had a good idea where it was supposed to be, but once Puzzleman and BigTruckCrew/Lil Miss Muffit found it, we were convinced.

I had a second reason to find this bugger - the pest of a cache owner put the false coords 94 feet from my front door. I'll get even, don't you worry (unless you're Bern reading this, then you worry and everyone else can sit back and enjoy the outcome!)

First campout of the year!

A few months ago, I got an email from BigTruckCrew linking to a post on Reno4x4.com. It was some guy from Carson Dodge/Jeep inviting all off-roaders out for a day of "geocashing" and camping. He said later that he does know how to spell it, the "gal in the back" didn't.

So that was this weekend, but first the beginning of the week.

Monday morning I'm getting ready for work when suddenly my texts go off. Three new caches, two SHMs and one out in Washoe State Park. Figuring everyone would go after the SHMs, I took off for the one in Washoe. Get out to GZ, have some guy ask me about my truck rack, then continue the search. Nothing! What gives!? Soon another rig pulls up and NVGeoscouter joined the hunt. I had to bail and later on there's a DNF note that says the cache was found during the easter egg hunt. Ah well.

But something on the page catches my attention, a Nevada State Parks Geocaching Challenge? Ohhh. They've since posted additional information, one cache in 6 northern state parks and 6 southern state parks. Three challenges, find the North, South, or Statewide caches. Hurm... ROADTRIP!

GOt my GIS Mid-Term back, whoo hoo 96%! Now I can't wait to see what my Math score was. Erk.

SO Friday night I pack up my bag as if I was hiking the whole weekend. Must...build...up....strength ::thud::

Saturday morning, 5am (ARGH!) Dad picked me up for a quick breakfast and then off to Carson Dodge. We get there and Bill Baker, our host, is waiting with donuts and several other folks. We get the lowdown on the challenge. Go to the coordinates, find the ammo can, and pick it up, keeping the prizes inside and returning the cans. Okay, we can do this. I had brought my netbook to map out the locations and once the sheet of coords was in my hand I started typing away.

We headed out towards Mexican Dam Rd, picking up one in the hills, then south towards Hot Springs Mountain, grabbing two more - and having fun with a range gate that was all the remained of a long gone fence. The one up on Hot Springs was a steep rocky climb, and once we were about 100 feet from the cache, the road banked behind a tree.... and vanished! Dad had to back up and turn around all while sitting at a seriously sharp angle. Loverly.

The last stop on the route was down by the airport, and that cache had been picked up already. So, we had 4 of the 15 sitting in our rig and it was now 2 hours into the hunt. We turned back north to go see if any others were left.

The nice thing about clearing out all of the Eagle Valley and surrounding area? I can say "It's near "______" and Dad can start driving right up there while I fine tune the directions. Think about it, we knew every cache, every access road, almost every hill, and now we were looking for more caches. So I give directions, we get right up there, and find another cache. What?? Why is this one still here? It's only a half mile from the start point.

We check the next one, and find it, and the next and find it. What's going on?? 7 caches now found, despite a long detour, an hour lunch, and an hour dinking around on a road that we saw going off in a different direction (dumb No Trespassing sign...). So we head over to the other area and finally, two caches missing. The others must've come here first.

Off to the campground which was down at a ghost town site of Centerville, south of Markleeville. I've known they close several of the passes over the mountain during the winter, but still it was a trip seeing a big gate across a main highway. All we needed was Gandalf shouting "You Can Not Pass!"

Camping was a blast, though chilly! My 15 degree bag plus the Reactor liner worked out really well, except my toes. I think it's course my rainfly wasn't blocking the mess panel enough and letting in the wind storm right by my feet. Yes, wind storm, it was cold and WINDY! but I slept safe and sound in my little tent. Experiment was a success, now bring on the camping season!!

Sunday, we headed up into Sunrise Pass after a delish breakfast at IHOP. It was fun once again being the only Toyota in a herd of Jeeps. We even stopped an picked up two caches on the road, and got to play in a big sticky nasty mud puddle. One of the Jeeps got stuck briefly, but that's cause my directions weren't clear and she drove too close to the moat edge. I did get pics and video of the rest of us going through. Bill, not only our guide but also one of the sales guys, threatened to put the muddy Jeep on the showroom floor. Now THAT I would buy! LOL

After I got home, Dad and I got to wondering if the rest really were found, so back out into the hills we went and ended up finding two more of the caches he placed. This guy's geo-sense is sharp! While several were to close to existing caches, many were in open areas and almost all were in places that were downright awesome! Two are going to end up with regular caches at them once I stock up some of the cans Clark Gable got me. Also his coordinates were dead on, not bad for a newbie who hasn't done much caching. If he were to get into this full time, we'd all be in trouble and having the adventure of a lifetime!

An Easter surprise

Not much happened during the week. It's Mid-Term time, so in Math we were studying and in GIS we were handing the test back in. Otherwise a usual work week.

Summer classes will be starting soon, so I need to sit down and decide how I'm going to spend the next three months. I'm so close to my GIS Certificate of Achievement that I want to knock out as many classes as I can.

Now the weekend was interesting. Originally the plan had been to go hiking up the Indian Hills area on Sunday so Puzzleman could go with us first thing in the morning. However, the winter storm warning moved our hike up to Saturday. I took my fully loaded pack (all 25 pounds of it) and lugged it along with Puzzleman, BigTruckCrew, dragonflynv, and peruhuntress. I think I did fairly well despite the weight, but the cold air and soon snow eventually took their toll. While the rest went after a few more caches, I made a beeline back to the rigs, (eventually) fired up my JetBoil and had myself a cup of Starbucks VIA while I was sitting there in the snow and waiting.

Sunday, Dad and I enjoyed a quiet restful breakfast, until my phone texts went off. 6 new caches all over the valley! However, our food had just arrived, so we would go out afterwards and grab them. It was actually interesting. Bernsports was running late for a family get together and Puzzleman was running late for something else, so while those two FTF'd everything, Dad and I were the only ones to get all 6 the same day.

Not sure entirely why, but lately, I don't really want to log the caches I'm finding. Maybe it's something to do with the 3000 hanging off the end of my name, but since then, I've been writing notes on any I find and then Ignoring the cache to get it off my active list. Got about 10-15 logged like that so far. Maybe I'll do that for awhile, at least until I want to get back into the smiley side of the game.

Not much else going on. Just surviving day to day.

Spring Break

I'VE BEEN ON VACATION!!!

Okay so to sum up a fairly busy week - well, you've already seen the first two days.

Monday; never was called so spent the day around Washoe Valley clearing out the few caches I had left. The morning started in Davis Creek, the afternoon up Pagni Canyon, then later up and around the hills above Washoe City. I walked Davis and Pagni, but the DNF above Washoe City really burnt me out and so I drove to the last one. Went back to Carson to grab lunch and call the gal, but her phone was off, so I went up to Six Mile Canyon below Virginia City and drove to a cache that was WAY UP THERE. I'm not usually spooked on heights, but narrow mountain Jeep roads where there's nothing between me and the valley floor... um, yeah. I'll walk.

Tuesday; After a doctor's appointment, I headed out to El Dorado Canyon and hiked out to the lone cache out that way. OMG, this place is beautiful! I absolutely loved the easy hike (flat dirt road walk) as I crossed back and forth over the creek. The cache also was great, resting below a really funky arch that resembled a castle's gate with turrets. Then it was a hike back out to once again try camping out. Yeah - fail. I'm just too stressed over the idea of "something out there". I'll try again when the weather warms up over night.

Wednesday; Time to hike up and around Virginia City. Originally was going to hike Ophir to Jumbo and down to Washoe - hahahahahaha a mapped out 12 miles. Yeah, that ain't happening! So drove up to the "x" (where the two roads come together) and hiked up toward Mt Davidson, picking up two caches, skirting a horse herd, and plowing through a valley of snow, and about 300 ft of knee deep snow to get to the cache. And all of this before heading to Reno for a backpacking basics class at REI.

Thursday; Dad got off work early, so we headed down to Gardnerville to clear out the southern end of Carson Valley. The big fun came when we decided to get a cache 4.1 miles north of us, but the page indicated the roads were "not passable". So a 21 mile detour that took two and a half hours finally got us to that cache and now the east side of the valley is clear!

Friday; I got a note posted on my new cache from CastleDwellers saying that since I was on vacation, why wasn't there any more new caches out? Okay, FINE! I spent the day driving around and placing 8 new ones, including a revival of an awesome multi that was abandoned by its owner. RoadRunner published one in the afternoon, two in the evening while I was out watching How to train your Dragon, and the remaining five the next morning. TAKE THAT!

Saturday; Took the truck in to be serviced at the fancy new Toyota dealership, then it was back down to Gardnerville to clear out the west side of the valley. Only four were left, but it was a great adventure. The last two were really fun as one was in a Rock monkey's paradise and the other was overlooking a "closed" lake. Afterwards, we were invited to hang out with Puzzleman and Bookmarked at the Firkin Fox for dinner and to watch UFC 111. Still have no idea what's going on in those, but it's interesting to watch.

Sunday; After logging everything in, I realized I was only 6 away from the big 3000. So, before heading once again to Truckee, we grabbed 5 really quick ones in Reno. Then breakfast, where the unheard of phrase "Sorry sir, we're out of coffee" was uttered. HOW is Burger King *OUT* of coffee at 9am?? Anyway, onto I-80 we go, up to Truckee, and we set up camp at that stupid Jeffery Pine tree. Round and round we go, up and down the bark, pulling out everything that resembles a tail. An hour into it, I requested a very generic hint, and then 35 minutes later, the cache was in hand. 4 trips, 9 hours and finally that bugger was ours!

Not a bad week at all. Too bad I have to go back to work in the morning.

---

Found
3/22/2010 CDM ~ Coin Exchange
3/22/2010 Coconut Crab
3/22/2010 FTF-TAG you're it #17:RKT Revenge! (Hounds&Hares)
3/22/2010 "Sagebrush mountain"
3/22/2010 Cinco de Mayo King of the Hill cache
3/23/2010 The "Hole" View
3/24/2010 uphill battle
3/24/2010 Last Name Peak
3/24/2010 Is this a forest or a jungle OR A TAIGA?!?
3/24/2010 Escarpment
3/25/2010 "bailys' skater"
3/25/2010 "bailys' east valley"
3/25/2010 Motorhead
3/25/2010 FRED
3/25/2010 Nutcracker
3/25/2010 PINEfrogNUT
3/25/2010 GEO-PIG
3/25/2010 Shady Grove
3/25/2010 "Baily's Cache 3"
3/25/2010 "Well-watered" Panorama
3/27/2010 hi... dis is mebbin
3/27/2010 Something Fishy in the Rocks
3/27/2010 OFF the Rez
3/27/2010 Rocky Situation
3/27/2010 Into the Blind
3/28/2010 RFN #7
3/28/2010 RFN #10
3/28/2010 RFN #9
3/28/2010 RFN #8
3/28/2010 El Peacie
3/28/2010 Camouflageus Cacheia

DNFs
3/22/2010 NevadaWolf couldn't find Rafflesia (Hounds & Hares)
3/24/2010 NevadaWolf couldn't find Is this the Geigers the Jumbos or the Kingsburys?
3/27/2010 NevadaWolf couldn't find bailys' "not here again!"

Getting on the move - it's SPRING BREAK!

The extra daylight is definitely helping!

So, after work, I'm now going for a walk. And three times a week, hopefully, my Daddy will be joining me! So this week, we walked along the bike path by the prison to check on a cache stage, then circled back around the sewer to the truck. Tuesday and Thursday are my really push it days, so I tackled the face of Lakeview Hill and got right up to the shoulder below the summit (ran out of light). Wednesday, Dad and I walked the bike path by the freeway before class. Thursday I took on Prison Hill and found myself a nearto cave. Friday I was helping a classmate with the classes she missed, so nothing there.

BUT! Friday at 5pm I was officially ON VACATION!! WHOO HOO HOOO!!!

So, Saturday morning, early, I packed up my big backpack with all my camping gear. My goal: walk/hike as often as possible and carry all the gear to condition myself for the Tahoe Rim Trail. My first target was Hot Springs Mountain, and the three caches still left in that area.

Drove up to the last turn around point before entering the mountain itself, and with backpack on and loaded, began the trek up. Surprisingly, I didn't huff-puff as much as I normally do, which made me psyched beyond all belief. Got up to the first cache site and sat, enjoying my lunch, the view, and the funny whizzing sound that just went by... O_o wha?

And ANOTHER! BULLETS!!

I dove behind a big rock, smashed my back against it, and huddled as the ricochet came over the ridge right over and around me. Once the hail stopped, I grabbed my gear and raced downhill and around another hill to put more distance and dirt between me and the shooters.

The good thing about this, is that as I detoured the LONG way around them, I came upon a deer herd, one of whom was not happy I was there and motioned that I "keep moving" as s/he huffed at me each time I paused. That was just COOL!

Found the second cache with no problems, followed the trail from the tailings to the old rock house (our third cache find ever), talked with a guy carrying a big military style gun, and then set down the ravine to pick up the final cache. As I stood on the road to Sand Trap, I was pretty darn proud of myself as I had just hiked up and OVER Hot Springs Mountain. Whoo Hoo Hoo!!

But my feetsies were hurting, so called Dad for a ride, grabbed dinner, then headed up into the hills to try camping out on my own for the first time. Alas, that didn't work out so well as I just could not relax enough to sleep - I kept stressing myself out that "something" was out there.

Sunday, Dad and I headed up to Truckee to once again try for that bugger of a cache. A couple hours into our methodical grid search, the owner himself swung by and we had a great chat. He loved our string grid method and wanted a picture of it. Being very kind hearted, he gave us the general area to search, but another hour into that and we still had nothing. Ah well.

Back in town, we picked up the two new ones before heading south and clearing an area of Carson Valley. All was well and good until we DNF'd one near another archived cache. One log claimed the other cache was still there, just at the bottom of the well. So, we had to go look - and hey, there's a Myntz tin down there! Whoo Hoo! An hour of fishing with a magnet-filled bison tube snagged us the tin and we lifted it out with high expectations. What cache is this, can we find it and log it, ohh how fun!

Dad pried the rusted tin apart and we both saw old dead mints... Well, bummer!

Still made for an interesting day. No camping tonight. Tomorrow, Monday, I'm supposed to meet up with a gal who said she knew of a place in the PineNuts where a vein of garnets is right out in the open. Can't wait!