I am thankful for my Dad (who does some pretty awesome things and willingly drives me all over kingdom come in search of random ammo cans) and for my Mom (who is always fun to be around and makes me laugh every time I see her).
I am thankful for my best friend who, through simply being a part of my life, has significantly improved my quality of life. Our adventures are epic and our friendship the most important relationship I have.
I am thankful to my other friends, both online and off, who always give me a reason to smile. My circle of friends is small, but everyone is a special person to me and I value the friendships I have made.
I am thankful for a steady job, a solid roof over my head, and a reliable income as I know that these basic things are not available to far too many people.
So, with all that, now how did I spend this weekend?? In the most remarkable adventurous way, of course!!
Wednesday (yep, the weekend started early all right), I get off work and head into Carson to grab a quick bite to eat before joining the gaggle of geocachers in the mod approach to a night cache. About 18 (?) of us headed up to work on Bogyphobia and enjoy a pleasant evening in the hills north east of Carson. I had a blast, even if my asthma was really making life miserable for me.
Thursday, my dad and I get up early and head out to the middle of nowhere. I had received an email for a cacher in Canada, asking for help with a local puzzle they have. He asked if I would go out to a set of coordinates (or if I knew someone who would), use a metal detector or similar device to locate a short bar of steel with two clues tacked onto it. Sure, why not? Sounds like fun. So off we go! Trouble was, it was WAY out there - and that's by my standards that think Austin is a great place to get lunch. Anyway, it turns out that our trip was a good one, as about 30 miles west of Eureka, we see a huge dust cloud explode right over the hill from us. The car ahead had run off the road, flipped, and rolled a few times, before coming to a crumpled stop. The driver was banged up but OK, though unfortunately her little 8 month old puppy did not make it. We called 911, waited with her (my phone being used to call family), and filled out a statement for the NHP Trooper that was first on scene. Afterwards, we continued to our destination where I got to use a metal detector for the first time!! (Surprisingly, I was able to rent one from work. I really have to utilize that outfitter more often.) Anyway, I set my GPS at the given coords and my Dad stuck his hiking pole into the spot to measure out the "couple meter" search radius. When the loop of the metal detector kept getting close to the pole it would beep. After a few times, i chucked the pole away, but the beeping continued! The steel bar was RIGHT THERE! That was some pretty sweet coordinates!! Then, we headed out to an old charcoal kiln where we got FTF on a four month old cache. Beautiful spot! We left there at 2:50, and then five hours of straight driving later, I arrived at my Mom's house for a late turkey dinner and conversation with her's and Jim's friends. Back home to crash before the morning!
Friday morning rolled around way too early, but I did get to harass Puzzleman. He swung by and picked me up to head down to Rachel for a weekend of major caching and events as Moose Mob is FINALLY back in the states for good. The 6 hour long drive was TOTALLY worth it to see my buddy. We got down there after grabbing the Earthcache in Tonopah and the Virtual in Goldfield, secured our rooms, and headed out to go grab the rest of the icons in the area to fulfill the "Busy Day" challenge (find 6 different types of geocaches in a single day within a 100 miles of Rachel). We succeeded, found 9 FTFs to boot, got stuck in the sand, were rescued, continued playing around the playa, and ended the night with 45 caches. WOW!
Saturday morning found us grabbing a quick breakfast, finishing loading up all the field notes from yesterday, then heading out. The goal? The two giant geo-art cache series that lie north of Rachel. First we tackled the UFO, a huge 51 cache hiking series that is the shape of a large UFO. There was barely a trail from the other cachers that had done it, but we finished it in time to head back and grab a snack/lunch. Around that time, I got a call from BrazAm that she wanted to come down and join us. I stressed the distance involved, but she decided that hanging out was worth it. So, I talked Puzzleman into changing our plans a little bit so we would finish the Alien Head early and be available when my friend showed up. Off to the Head we went! Though, damn, there's a road now out in the field that goes straight to every cache in that series (all 51 of them). So, we made REALLY good time hiking around that and clearing out that bunch! Then we headed north and picked up a slew of caches along the road as we pushed to reach another 100 milestone for Puzzleman. The sun had set by this point, and the fingernail moon was fleshed out by the backlight, so a full sphere was up there with Venus right behind and a brilliant outline of the mountains gave the whole view a nice setting. The evening was BEAUTIFUL! Around that point, BrazAm showed up, we grabbed a quick dinner, then back out onto the road to try to finish tonight. But with the two long hikes for us, and the 6 hour drive for her, we were exhausted. But at least I got to put to use the double bed room I had as us girl's hung out and chatted.
Sunday morning, another event, and we filled up the Jeep from nvtriker's extra gas can before heading out to finish the road from last night and grab a bunch through Rachel. we cleared another milestone for Puzzleman, and got the Busy Day challenge for all three of us. Then it was off back down the road to home. We stopped in Tonopah for lunch, then again in Hawthorne to clear out a five stage, 5 star difficulty, multi along the Walker Lake. Score, we got that one before it got too late, and now it was a mad dash home before any of us fell asleep. Then, when I got home, I discovered my dad had succeeded in getting a switch installed to raise or lower my power antenna while the stereo is on, so I will stop breaking it when off-roading through trees. I was stoked and played with the switch all the way home. Antenna go up, antenna go down, antenna go up ...
Total for the weekend? 200 caches found! Wow, that certainly destroyed my previous Best Weekend numbers, as well as my Best Day! I think before hand it was 60 something, now it exceeds 130ish O_o
Anyway, that's the weekend. Enjoy these pictures!!
 |
| Thanksgiving Adventure |
No comments:
Post a Comment