Saturday, March 31, 2007

Out and About with Jeepers and L3-Geo

I do believe Linda summed up this day nicely, "No offense, but you're crazy." Why, thank you!

Okay, after being up too late despite going to bed early (the *thing* is occupying my thoughts lately), it was suddenly 6am and I needed to once again head out to Fallon. No quick cache grabs today on Hwy 50 - Cynthia told me to be there between 7:30 and 8 and since I was late last weekend, this weekend I was going to be early.

You know Murphy dictates that someone in the group will be late, no matter what - today, it was them. However, a bright blue GeoJeep with Mike and Cynthia (GeoJeepers) and a sunny yellow "Golden Retriever" with Larry and Linda (L3-Geo) are really hard to miss. So we loaded up on Starbucks and headed out.

This was a pure numbers run, so with me in the GeoJeep, we headed out to the area covered by the caravan on the 24th. Since I knew where everything (almost) was, I told the others they weren't allowed a DNF today. I also managed to be a Phone-A-Friend to LostInReno and my Dad! Though that doesn't belong in this story.

Mostly, it was a reverse of last weekend and all the K7XC caches. In the end, they got 30 caches and I got 6. Though the best stories aren't from the caches - rather the journey to them.

First, John had placed a cache the very day of the caravan - and it's been sitting lonely for a week. We trekked out there and walked over to the cache, after Jeeper proved his belief that there's always a road. Peak-a-Boo Rock was really cool, giving us a chance to walk through a small arch and generally play around in rocks and explore. There was even a wicked eagle's nest nearby that we admired. Jeeper was proving he was a risk-taker himself, and Linda (L2) commented once that there are just certain things you don't say around him. Me, being the smart-mouth that I am, just had to say some of those things!

Up through Dixie Valley to grab all those caches, but this time we turned north and headed after the remaining caches up there. Now understand - Dixie Valley only means one thing to me... BOX FALLS! One of the best sites that I've found thanks to geocaching.

After a lot of suggesting, I manage to get both Jeepers to at least look at the site and consider the cache. The description had been changed to say that a ladder was required, but I was confident that with a good sense of balance the cache could be found.

My side of the story:

Jeeper led L2 and I up to the foot of the falls. L1 and Jeepette hung behind to check the Jeeps and grab the camera. So the three of us scale the lower level of slickrock and make it to the first ledge. Easy - the other two came along shortly.

Second level took some creative hopping by Jeeper and a sideways walk by me, L2 used the hiking pole to balance and made it up. L1 and Jeepette hung back on the first level.

Now, at the foot of the third level, Jeeper got his shoe wet which made any rock scrambling impossible. I scaled the wall and made it up to the next rise. A few moments later, and with boots now dry, Jeeper made it up by carefully sliding along the edge of the rock and very controlled small jumps to the floor. L2 decided she was happy where she was.

So, now, L1 and Jeepette were on the first level, L2 was waiting on the second level, and Jeeper and I were on the third. At this point, Jeepette decided to see if she could get the Goodyear view and scrambled up to the top of the canyon - her angelic voice shouting down questions along the way. It was trippy yelling up at rock and having rock answer back!

Now it got interesting.

The original pair of boards were now only one and it was very wet. We stood there and stared at the rock face, mapping out the tiniest foot and hand holds and planning a climbing route. The board was used as a ramp and it, combined with muddy shoes, only proved to be a wooden slip-n-slide. I had fun stepping up onto the ramp, hoping to catch a handhold and sliding back down. After two tries on this, Jeeper props his foot on the ramp and with a steady hand, pushed me enough to get my other foot to the only toehold on the rock wall. I was up!

Okay, from top to bottom - we have Jeepette on the top of the canyon, me on the fourth level with the cache, Jeeper staring at a wet board stranded on the third, L2 abandoned the second level and joined L1 back at the first level - with the camera.

I decided he was close enough that who cared if he didn't actually hold the cache. Grabbing it, I came back to the ledge - held it up for L1 and L2 to see and meant to hand the logbook to Jeeper. He, however, was still trying to figure the best approach to get up. I moved the cache away and went looking for anything to help. And I found the second board - and it was DRY!

Tossing it down, away from the water, allowed Jeeper to construct a two-level step and with a few strong hefts, he was up on the rock and onto the fourth level! Yeah! Everyone sign the log and let's get out of there.

Oh, down....

I think, since my description of getting up is now long enough, I will let you read what the others wrote...

Geo-Jeeper and L3-Geo

L2 sent me a link to her Flickr photos - so here you go!


Ok - to explain the Dumbest/Smart titles... a brief explanation would be that it was a good 10 foot rock 'slide' and I just had to slide down it - didn't bother me that my 'slide' was vertical. It was basically a straight drop down. Now, wisdom is kicking in and I'm not sure what condition my knees will be in tomorrow morning.

We finished out the day nicely, even enjoyed a late lunch at Middlegate - all five of us are Delorme Finishers, so we knew where to grab the burgers after a hard day caching.

The return trip netted three more caches for them (totalling the 30) and a new one for me. sadly, it was time to say farewell to a great fellowship of cachers!

Now, what was really interesting was when I got home - there was a CCPD DUI checkpoint right over the hill. Any alcoholic drinks today? No officer, however I'm drunk on adrenaline from an absolutely prefect day of caching!

Thanks you guys - and I hope to be able to do it again!



Friday, March 30, 2007

Hitting Reno with Mama Gravy

Well, after class let out (like that was time well spent), couldn't help but notice that a cache I thought was on east Carson was... well, less that half a mile away.

So, I drove over and was too busy fussing with everything else that I completely missed the GPS buzzing me and did a double take as I spotted the site. What's a bench doing there? A creative U-turn brought me back to the site and a quick grab got me the cache.

Off to Reno! But, since I knew Mama Gravy was going to be tied up for awhile, I decided enough was enough. I'd been seeing Pagni Canyon on my unfound list since the GBES gang decided to resurrect it. Well, knowing where a cache is and it's little icon popping up on my GPS was irritating. So, another creative U-turn (which, BTW, does NOT happen when you are trying to get off Eastlake Blvd onto Hwy 395) took me back to the parking area and I was able to hike to the cache.

While there, I was yelled at by two hawks who were annoyed that I was so near their nest, though where the nest was I didn't know. I also spotted another white owl on my way out of the canyon, just like I had seen on my first hike up that amazing place.

Having reached Reno, I needed to retake pictures of the Steamboat crossing. Since it was me, and since my camera has a self-timer, I managed to get some interesting shots. Jerry approved all of them, so I posted the two best. While checking email and sending photos around town, two USGS workers pulled up to do some surveying - of course I was parked in their line of sight.

Hooked up with Gravy at the usual McDonalds and after a quick lunch, decided to do byjer's Caveman cache. Two reasons, GeoSpyder sounded like he enjoyed it and with the *thing* coming up next week, the more practice I get on his caches, the happier I'm going to be. However, while I still don't really know him well enough to predict anything he does - his warning it'll be an SOB cache makes me really glad Spyder agreed to come along.

Once at the caveman site it became obvious this wasn't going to be normal. Some creative tweaking of the natural materials - since when is fishing line 'natural'? - got me what I needed to retrieve the cache and then what do I do? Pull the same stunt Spyder did and down comes the cache at terminal velocity and pop! There goes the lid, nicely busted. Oops. Later also discovered that the means of snagging the cache also vanished. Okay - there goes the second email to byjer today.

Afterwards, we went out and did the Swan Lake series. Yet, we ended up on the WRONG side of the ditch. Don't ask how, but when we got to the cache site, I stood a mere 12 feet from the cache, I could see where it was hidden, and the only thing between me and it was a creek of treated sewage water. Ewwwww.

Once on the right side, we score that cache and the Act II cache. On the way to the End cache, we were surrounded by an amazing cacophony of bird calls! The only way I can describe it was LIFE! This must be the overwhelming feeling that Castaneda describes Don Juan subjecting him to. Though he had to listen for the holes, I just stood in awe of the complete tapestry. That was the best moment! That also resulted in about four more emails to byjer.

We picked up a few other caches, until getting skunked on the "Duke" for the fourth time. Okay, enough's enough, time for a phone call. Hurm, voice mail - we'll come back.

Headed over to a new-ish one that just puts a smile on your face, and then off to Bark Bark before picking up my rig. While searching, the phone rings and there's the SOB (sweet ol' byjer) himself giving the OK for a find since the cache that skunked us is technically missing.

Bea and I finish up our day just as the sun was going down and I began heading home. Got on the phone with byjer and just chatted the whole way to Carson - mostly about the *thing* and our upcoming trip to Lodi for the RCGDS event.

Yeah it was a Jerry day - now I need a rest.

Tomorrow - Jeepers!

Boy, I'm turning into a regular social butterfly.

PS - the *thing* will be revealed after all is said and done. Going to keep it hush hush at the moment. Needless to say, there are those who already know what's going on.

New sticker!

Well, thanks to RockinWs down in Vegas - who earned the business of the Nevada Rock Art Foundation and mine - I have a geocaching sticker. Enjoy!


Sunday, March 25, 2007

I'm a sucker for a dare

After the Pyramid run with NVGreenGecko and LostInReno - I earned a somewhat risky reputation of having no fear.

So what do these two do? Place another challenge in my lap. This time, a Stuck On You series cache at Steamboat Ditch. The goal - walk across a narrow board to the cache site. The catch - some rather nasty water in the stream below.

So, during yesterday's desert trip, I was talking to byjer (owner of the cache) and got a few tips on how to accomplish this goal.

Today, after work, I head up to Reno to grab a few caches. First, though, I had to put GeoJeepers hint to the test at the Sunset cache here in Carson. Struck out three times on this thing and was now Ignoring it. Cynthia, however, gave me one more shot at it. The hint was "It's probably where you think it is."

Yeah it was. Hurmmmm :-\

Up in Reno, and meeting up with the dynamic duo took us out to the UNR sheep field (whatever it is called) and back along the foothills where Steamboat ditch runs. Underneath the bridge is a measuring station that requires an operator to hoof it out over a board to the display.

Both of the gals hung back, so I lent LostInReno the camera and off I went. Wasn't as hard as they made it sound, but the bird poo make it interesting to cross. Even had some fun with precarious poses, and one-legged stances.

Bagged the cache easily once I just got into a byjer mindset again. It's hard to decide who is the biggest mind case - byjer or churm, but either way, you don't want to be doing too many of theirs in a single day. Tylenol becomes the drug of choice.

We got back up on the road and headed over to the cache at the cattleguard. NVGreenGecko hadn't gotten that one yet, so we let her look. After awhile, the three of us got down in there to search for the cache. Both LostInReno and I had found it while it was a black magnetized hide-a-key. No longer! Gecko made the score.

Seeing as we still had time left over, we decided to hit a nearby cache called Movies-R-Us. Took some creative driving around Hidden Valley to get to the coords, and once there, Gecko made a quick find. Cache was stuffed with movies. Cool theme idea.

Heading back to Holly's house, we passed by a cache that had been placed less than 400 feet from her living room. When we finally found it - she was fifth to find! We had fun chatting awhile, then it was off to dinner.

So, after work, I scored the four caches I needed to bring me up to 1140.

Good round number to hold onto while I see if it is even going to be possible for me to head over to Lodi... which at this point is looking doubtful.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Desert Caravan

A few weeks ago, I asked on the NGA board if anyone wanted some practice driving on dirt for the Rally coming up in June.

I got some positive responses - that is, until a few days ago.

Off all the people, only Geospyder confirmed he and Marga were going. So now I either need to find more people or cancel. Some last minute emails and one long phone call solved the problem.

I headed out early this morning, intending to beat everyone to the Fallon Nugget so I could get some tables set up for us. But, there was a cache at the Overland Station ruins - hey, I know how to get down there. It was really cool being able to see that grand old building lit up by the morning sun, and of course I just had to take pictures while I was there.

Once I got into Fallon, it wasa stop at Raley's for a sandwich and Frappachino (I'm so addicted). Then I made my way to the Nugget. First thing I noticed was a red jeep with a geocaching G stuck to the side of it. Hurm, haven't seen that truck before. I get into the restaurant and there's jahoadi and john, geospyder and marga, byjer, sights2c (whom I hadn't met before) and two soon-to-be cachers (James and I forgot his name already). Byjer made the comment that they had just been talking about how their 'leader' was late. I was not, it was only 8:30!

After a quick breakfast, we had about an hour to get ready, so I went to gas up and everyone else went to cache. While at Fox Peak, I spotted Spyder and Byjer across the way at the hospital, picking up Emergency. So I hitched up with them to go grab a few on Rattlesnake before heading out to Salt Wells. In total, we got two up there, one for me, and two for them. I'd already picked up F, but needed Christmas Cache.

Once we made it out to the brothel ("Hey, we just passed some caches!") we had a group that was a whopping 7 rigs! So much for having no one around. John was eager to go, so off we went.

I took them up through to Mountain Wells, where a cache was waiting (John="I've never driven so far for just one cache!") and then it was back out to Hwy 50. Had James comment that this was beautiful country we were driving through - which of course was the whole point of the venture. At Hwy 50, CharlyBaltimore left us to head home, and we continued up to Project Shoal.

John had previously been up to Ground Zero - though he came UP Pucker Canyon. He couldn't believe how easy the road was on the other side. At the monument, we all circled the trucks and had lunch, talking evil hides (remember who we were hanging out with - add to it that the others were originally from California), and generally wondering if we were going to glow tonight.

Then it was down Pucker and off towards Sand Mountain. Since John had been out here already, we had an involuntary tour guide as we bounced through all the different K7XC caches that line Hwy 50. All told, today there was at least one person in the group who had previously found every cache we went after. Makes it nice as it prevents DNFs. After we grabbed the two near there, and sent a few off to the virtual down the way, we headed east on 50, picking up the various caches along the way.

After turning down Dixie Valley, the Rally route was abandoned in favor of caches and we ended up grabbing all the southern valley caches. Most of the time I led, but when John ended up in front, we had a wild ride through a sandy road, a deep ditch, and a fenceline. He quickly stuck me back in the lead.

Two more caches, easy ones right off the road, ended the main caravan. However, some of us hadn't gotten the rest of the K7XC caches, so we split into two groups and headed out. I was with Spyder and Byjer and that proved to be a great time. Course, we kept leapfrogging with the other 'team' of cachers all down the highway.

After it began to get dark, Spyder, Marga, and I overrode Byjer and it was off to dinner. A quick pizza stop before the day finally caught up and we broke off to had our separate ways. I made a quick dash home.

Now I'm sitting here recouping and being thankful for a great day!

Monday, March 19, 2007

Pre-Rally Run

Well, I'm finally sticking my foot in...

Awhile back, LostInReno mentioned she doesn't do any off-road driving. Then I find out she's entered the rally (or volunteered, I can't decide what she's doing). This brought up a bunch of questions from new participants and suggestions from 'veterans' of last years course.

So me, knowing the course for everything except the 2006 night, offered to lead a tour out to the 2004/2005 route. Instant response.

I figure it's a good opportunity for those who haven't driven off-road to get a feel for what dirt is like, and for those who've been stuck in the city to long to shake off their pavement addiction and get back out there.

As you can see, it's a fairly long loop. I started out at Salt Wells and headed towards Mountain Wells. The road is mild, with small rocks to contend with, and little washboard. There's a rocky hill that TLG wants me to watch my little ducklings go over, and a small section of loose sand - small as in a truck length. All in all though a very easy road as long as you don't go to fast. It does hook up with the road along the edge of the bombing range and it's a great 60MPH road.
After that, we swing up into the Project Shoal area, where in 1963 an atomic bomb was detonated underground. There's a brand new marker at Ground Zero and a new cache. Then it's down Pucker Canyon.. The view up here doesn't bother me as much as it did the first time down this road, but oh boy is it stil steep.
Once back out on Hwy 50, we head over to Chalk Mtn, where there's a section that I might cut. I was hoping for the stream to have water in it, but I forgot about the extremely dry winter we've had. Bone dry all over the area. Afterwards, we cut down a road that I think MooseMob would love if I'm reading the logs of his new Jeep's maiden voyage right - seems he was racing as fast as possible down the dirt. This road is easily a comfortable 70MPH, more if you're brave.
Back up into the mountains and towards La Plata, then up over the mountain on a very narrow twisty road that ends up on the BEST overlook for the whole area. Then down we turn towards Mountain Wells again before taking another road and heading into Ripley Canyon. Even in the twilight, it's a beautiful place and I think I found a spot for a cache, possibly even the Aerial Intelligence cache I would like to do.
Nothing exciting after that point, just out to Stillwater and back into Fallon. Overall, it took me 4 hours to complete as we got out there about ten till 3. TLG is thinking that it should take everyone else 6-7 hours, that shows you how fast I shouldn't be going.
So far, LostInReno wants to ride along with me, and GeoSpyder will be making an appearance.
Oh mystery readers, if you're in the area, want to meet up and go for a drive in the desert?

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Nevada Appeal finally comes through

Yeah, my story finally has been published.



Friday, March 16, 2007

Great NV TB Race Gala & Grub

If ever there was a name for a tongue twister, that's it. Actually, my original suggestion was "GreenGecko's Gargantuan Gala for Gathered Gangs of Great Geocachers Gripped by Golly Good Grub and Girdled by Gaggles of General Goofiness."

No one else was going for it either. :-)

So all day yesterday and today, the Gang (NVGreenGecko, LostInReno, cookie&faith, and I) were emailing back and forth trying to find out what still needed to be done. One thing that did come out of this was the suggestion of declaring byjer a "Cache Bastard!" for all his truly evil caches that just make you want to... well, call him a bastard.

However, due to the realization some might not find that term all that funny, it was changed to the Disgruntled Cachers nominate byjer as the Machiavellian Cacher of the Month. Now there's a mouthfull!

Dad and I arrived early (Nicole not being able to make it due to... not my place. But it makes me wonder if we should even plan events as inevitably something bad happens). Now, you need to know this conversation:

At home -
Dad "Look what I found!"
Me "What a cute squirrel! But Bryan says he can't come over mid-week."
Leave squirrel home.

At Bully's -
Me "Look, Holly's here, wonder who else? Oh what a cool Jeep."
::looking at geocaching permit on bumper::
Me "Oh, it's a ..... SKWERL LICENSE PLATE!?! He's HERE??"

After that, it didn't matter that Geo-Jeeper's had a new cache within 400 feet, Bryan was at the event! Trouble with people like Skwerl is that they are just so awesome you just want to hang out and occastionally hit them for not being around more often.

We settled into the party room with Skwerl and Holly chatting away. Geospyder shows up and says they've been waiting in the other room ("they" of course being Jeepers). After they moved into the right room (and the loud March Madness fans moved out), there suddenly opened up a steady stream of cachers. Oy, who was all there?

Bernsports (plus kid and dad), byjer, cookie&faith and Dora, Jeepers, Spyder, my dad Trekrr, Skwerl, LostinReno, SmokeysRedheadHelper, TopDeadCenter , John from jahoadi and john, safe1, Minden Rat, Cash'n out, Nexus-Wanderer, LaughingGravy, NVGreenGecko and Drizzt Do Urden, mobiletrekker, randallh, um, um, oh, I know I'm forgetting someone...

Oh yeah - ABEYONI!

The minute Riss walked in, I think my jaw fell open; when Abe and AJ came in behind her, I know it slammed into the ground. It's been far to long since anyone has seen or heard from them, they got excited welcomes from everyone.

There were tons of coins and bugs all over the place (I think 50+ were listed on the cache page) and between byjer, John, and spyder, there were enough to make every geocoin icon hog - like me - a very happy person.

NVGreenGecko showed up late as her printer was fouling up the award. I passed it around to everyone, except byjer, and got tons of muffled laughs and lots of smiles. Looks like we weren't the only ones overly frustrated by his devious hides.

We called everyone's attention to me - Ms. Safety - standing up on a swirly chair. I thanked everyone for coming, introduced the TB Race, and began the 'ceremony' by talking about how Jerry and Jim had offered to give a tour of Pyramid to the cachers a few weeks ago. Then I turned it over to Angie. She read off the reasons for the award, getting lots of applause and cheers. She then proudly announced that Byjer was our Winner and Holly handed the award to him (and I handed over the black roses). He was grinning ear to ear and everyone was laughing.

The crowd - it really was - stayed chatting about caching for the next hour, eating good food and enjoying each others company. Towards the end, byjer tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I'd gotten the new Jeeper cache. Nope, so out I go with Abe and Riss to find it. Byjer's blasted Magellan led me to the crinder brick wall, and he just sat and laughed, before giving up and saying he was within a few feet of it. Abe made the find, just as Bernsports was wandering out.

Oh, earlier, I was talking to Mike and Cynthia when they walked in, and I asked why had that cache been on hold since February... Mike slipped up and gave me a clue that would have helped if I had had a decent Garmin in my hand... :-P

Eventually, everyone drifted out to head on their way. All in all, this was an AWESOME event and one I hope we can hold monthly with just as great of a turnout. One cacher said it best "This was fun. No affiliation, no politics, no agenda. Just cachers having fun together." (Yes, I paraphrased)

Yeah, this was a lot of fun.

Oh yeah - and I got a great shot of the racers:

Monday, March 12, 2007

Second Mini Reno Run

Okay, right back into Reno I went.

This time, when I stopped to hide my cache, it was so early in the morning, no one was parked there. A few rearranged rocks and I have a hidden cache just waiting for the call back from Washoe State Park.

Once I got to Reno, headed over to NVGreenGecko's house. Once I got there, faith of cookie&faith also showed up and into the house we went. Faith got to show off the mirror plaque she and her husband has made for the Travel Bug Race! It looks awesome!

We headed over to IHOP for breakfast and then onto the road! My original plan was to just head along McCarran and grab all those, and we sort of stuck to it. Found some fun ones down in Oxbow Nature Study, including one that had a rather comfortable log to, well, log from!

We also got to play up under the huge bridge over the Truckee - of course after realizing we were on the wrong side of the river! I had a blast playing around on the sloped underbelly of the supports and we got a great picture that really messes with your perspective.

Around we went, grabbing the quick drive bys. Got near UNR and found a BYJER LAMPPOST! I loved my log "Jerry! Why?! Oh, how the mighty have fallen." Later, we even found a geospyder LPC and that log read "Et tu, spyder? Et tu?" hehehe, I have to pick on them, they volunteered to lead the tour around the lake a few weeks ago.

Most of the others were standard micros. We did hit Rancho San Rafael and got to visit with the animals. Good thing NVGreenGecko volunteers there. Great looking ram and boy did he love Wheat Thins!

I'm now 23 ahead of TLG after this insane weekend, though how long that will last I don't know. Only 13 behind the next in line. Now I'm beginning to understand the Obsessed's viewpoint of the "Next cacher."

All in all it was a great weekend and I had a blast hanging out with MoonChaser, NVGreenGecko, and faith. Can't wait to go out again on the big adventure for the Rally primer.

Oh, and good news Sunday night - finally got an email from Abe. To just hear from him is welcoming. Not sure if everything is (or ever will be) settled, but knowing he has the time to sit down and read through months of email must be a good sign, right? I hope I can see him again soon.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Mini Reno Run

Well, today, moonchaser and I hit Reno.

Spanish Springs to be exact. While not a true 'powercaching' day, it was still a lot of fun and I think I ended up with 18 caches today.
We met up at McDonald's (our standard North Reno meeting place) and headed out Sparks Blvd, then bounced over to Vista. Fair number of finds, and a few DNF's to keep us on our toes. We struck out on two of Spyder's and one Team Alamo - rather good in my opinion, considering who the hiders are. I did email Spyder for a hint on the second DNF and he was able to get me in the right direction.

Tried a bit of night caching, though by that point I was starting to get wiped out, mostly because I only ate a 6-piece at noon and I was now facing 8pm.

I headed home over Virginia City, scoring one cache, being fooled by a mystery, and skipping by two others due to being dark and me being really flakey on the drive up Geiger.

On another note - I did scout out a site for the cache I'll be placing in Washoe tomorrow. Got to give my racer a good start and a new cache sounds like the perfect way to do it. Course, I have to make sure RoadRunner cooperates. :-)

Sunday, March 4, 2007

A totally wicked day!

Last weekend, several of the ‘new group’ of cachers (as I call them – you know, the ones that have cropped up in the last six to ten months – or at least I became aware of them in that time frame) wanted to go hit Pyramid. That’s cool, but I was already planning on spending time with Mom. Well, then geospyder drops the bomb – both he and byjer will join the group for a personal tour of the lake.

Now, understand, of all the caches out there, byjer has hid 95%-97% of them. The rest? Hidden by Spyder! Now this officially sucks, and I told them so.


All of the new folk came back crowing about a fabulous day and anywhere from 32-43 caches found. Crap, crap, crap.


So, LostInReno, NVGreenGecko, and I took our turn at the lake. Since it’s on Paiute land, it’s a $7 pay-to-play (as byjer calls it), so whenever you go up there, you go to get your moneys worth. And we did.


Heading up from SR445 to Sutcliffe, and then further north to Warrior Point, we grabbed every cache along the road, including a few I’d DNF’d on my trip through with dad. I ended up being the adventurous one as I scrambled across the face of a huge tufa outcropping to get one of Spyder’s caches. Holly got an, um, interesting shot of that pose. We also grabbed numerous byjer ‘cattleguard’ and ‘guardrail’ caches. Angie at this point began humming the Band-Aid theme song as the whole series is called “Stuck on You”. We also found a cool cache that ranks up there with the Talc Mine, this called Inside an Indian Head? Funny little tufa cave with questionable goo along the rocks that I had to put my hands on to climb up into it. Bagged the cache and we were out of there.

On the way back, I again got to be a ‘monkey-girl’ at our one and only DNF that night. Turns out it was too dark to see properly, and so while standing up in the tree, I failed to see the cache. Crumbcakes. However, my nerves were tested later as, in Wadsworth, I crossed a rotting old railroad bridge where several places has fallen away into the Truckee below. However, as it was pitch-black by this time, I was able to cross easier than I would have been and the cache was found.

We got back into Reno, and Angie wanted to try breaking the score set last Saturday. However, once the stop at Holly’s house for some Advil happened, the adrenaline rush came to a halt and the cold air finally got to us. Still, 11.5 hours of caching was a great day and I look forward to planning out a 24 hour attack on Reno once the night warms up.

Thanks to this run, I finally caught back up with LaughingGravy, course it’s a fragile lead. I think I bagged 23-25 caches yesterday. Yeah, it was a good day.