Saturday, January 31, 2009

An FTF and exploring a Rally Route

Before my hike with Big Truck Crew this morning, I decided to try for the only remaining FTF from the mini frenzy last night. Now I occasionally have life interfer with getting involved in the race and so I received Puzzleman's taunting voicemail about the new caches while I had a cart load of groceries. Yeah, I'll run right out...

Instead, I get home, and jump online to watch the logs come in. Puzzleman, then Bernsports, then Minden Rat, and finally CastleDwellers all log, leaving just one of the four unfound by the morning. I woke up too early to met with BTC, didn't feel like doing my exercises, and choose to go run out and race up Prison Hill before heading out on the hike.

I plow up there as fast as I can, ending up at the saddle 20 minutes after leaving the truck. Then I scramble up onto a large rock outcrop and try to think where BTC would have hidden it. Well duh, he's as nuts as the rest of us, on top of course! Sheer dumb luck allowed me to find it almost instantly, and a quick call to Podcacher later, I was holding a beautifully blank log sheet!

But no time to admire the town in the glow of victory, I had a hike to get to! I flew down the hill and raced over, screeching into the trailhead right at the 9am meetup time.

Afterwards, I met up with Trekrr who'd found a cool road on Google Earth that he wants to use for a local version of a puzzle we learned about a few years back. So it was off to explore and find a good hiding spot. Boy, that road is full of awesome views and wicked hides. We'll definately be placing more than one cache out there.

On the way back down, Trekrr asks which way home, well we decide one way and are distracted enough by the cop pulling over a big yellow truck - in the middle of nowhere! - that we ended up heading over Sunrise Pass. This road proved to be the wettest, muddiest, slickest, soupy road we'd been on in a long time. Very careful mix of driving and sliding got us over to the other side of the Pinenut Range and we had smooth sailing all the way down the valley.

So of course we had to pick up some of the old Rally caches that are still out there. Three quick Altoid tins in bushes and rocks added to our total. But the day was getting dark, the sun was down, and my energy level was beginning to burn out. Grabbed a quick dinner and headed home.

Tomorrow, another hike and possibly a beginning to Carson's first Wherigo cache!
1/31/2009

NevadaWolf found Voodoo on a Hoodoo, Day Route Cache 9, GBES Rally 2006, Day Route Cache 12, GBES Rally 2006, Harder Than Rock

Friday, January 30, 2009

The Hill hike for tomorrow

This is where Big Truck Crew and I will be hiking in the morning.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

A Party, a Puzzle, and a Problem

Kindergeek's birthday was earlier this month, but we had to throw him an event!

Small turnout, but that made it really cool cause everyone was able to sit back, relax after a long day, and just chat. KG got some cool gifts, including a twist by Lil' Miss Muffit and Big Truck Crew, they gave him coords and he had to go find his gift!

1/21/2009
NevadaWolf attended KinderGeek and the Double Digits

Puzzleman's been telling me about his first puzzle, the one he's been holding onto and waiting for the right place to present itself. He thought he had the perfect hiding method, until some wolf dashed his hopes by semi-complaining about another cache hide that was to be similar. I'm not a Reviewer! But I do know the gist of the guidelines. Sorry man!

So, we're emailing and it's getting late. RoadRunner hasn't posted anything, and I'm off to bed. I check one last time... and there it is. Laying in bed, google searching the answer. Solved and I stare at it debating if I want to bother tonight... oh what the hell. Crawl out of bed and hit the pavement running. Now I've got Puzzleman on email and Bernsports on the phone. Lovely!

We reach the site, and Bern and I with his son begin searching. A few mintues pass and the cache is found! I hadn't answered my email, so Puzzleman calls to see if we're ok. Yep and we all get a chance to chat while standing out in the drizzling cold late late late night.

I love our logs on this one, we had way to much fun!

1/24/2009
NevadaWolf found State of Order

My Diabolical cache is set up in such a way that I'm notified when Stage 3 is found and solved. So, I get the notice - then I get a voicemail telling me there's problems. Trekrr and I have nothing to do on a snowy Sunday morning, so we head out to buy parts and then bounce up into the hills and check every stage and replace everything that's needed. Turns out the sun faded one of the stages, and the extreme cold snapped another. Got all fixed and now it's back up and running.

1/24/2009
NevadaWolf temporarily disabled Now *This* is Diabolical
1/25/2009
NevadaWolf enabled Now *This* is Diabolical

Monday, January 12, 2009

Lunatic!!!

So here I am, hanging out at b0neZ's parents for kindergeek's birthday. And I get a phone call.

"I'm running out of daylight, and don't have time to fool around. Where's your cache, the coords are off."

Um, hi Puzzleman.

Read his log for the story...

1/12/2009
NevadaWolf updated the coordinates for King's Canyon Adventure

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Lazy hike and another race

Circle of 12 is a multi that I've been staring at for a long time.

I'm onto #4 - but when I attempted it, millions of multi-legged flying bugs were swarming right on GZ. I left and haven't been back.

So, when I see CastleDwellers are working on it, it's finally the push I need to get this one. It's winter, the bugs should be gone.

I drove up, then hiked to the summit of a hill that overlooks east Carson. Easy walk up and a great view - and a quickly found cache. Yeah, I'm GLAD I didn't try for that last time, I would have been eaten alive!

the rest of the day was quiet, then evening struck. Yeah, same story. Course this time I was really late, and showed up an hour after everyone else. Oh well, got a DNF and a STF.

1/11/2009
NevadaWolf posted a note for Circle of 12

1/11/2009
NevadaWolf couldn't find A bogey for sure

1/11/2009
NevadaWolf found I told you Dogleg Left

Saturday, January 10, 2009

It's that time again

MAINTENANCE RUN!

I'm getting bored. With nothing left in Carson that doesn't require a hike, I'm out of caches. So, I'll go around and maintain mine and anyone else's who's caches are basically abandonded (thinking of one cacher in particular.)

Spent the entire morning replacing logs, containers, pen/cils. Foujnd a few in between, but it was mostly just deal with that blasted Needs Maintenance attribute. Course, not being the owner means I can't do a thing about it and the Owner isn't active enough to bother.

Towards evening, I headed over to Starbucks for the first of what hopefully is a monthly event. We've so many new cachers that I want to meet them! But I'm too lazy to bother with a real event. So instead I sent out an email to those I knew and said, Meet me here!

20 people showed up!!! WOW! I was truly impressed and I think everyone was excited to finally meet the folks who've been signing logs and placing caches this last month or so.

But the topper was Bernsports, who sat through the whole meeting, knowing that he had a cache waiting in the queue that would stump us. And he kept a straight face throughout!!! The rat.

I had a fantastic time and look forward to the next!

1/10/2009
NevadaWolf performed maintenance for First look at Carson City, East, Egg-in-One, Egg-ucational, Egg-cellent View, FST: Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers, Th-Egg-rical, Limited Time Only, Egg-calibur, FST: In The Next World, You're On Your Own, First look at Carson City, South, FST: Fighting Clowns, Rest Blissfully, FST: Dear Friends, A Round History

1/10/2009
NevadaWolf updated the coordinates for Egg-le Station

1/10/2009
NevadaWolf posted a note for Polecat creek, the name is the clue, Let's Exercise, " Is Dat SO ! ", On Target, "Let's Share"

1/10/2009
NevadaWolf requested Going 50! on the 50! west to be archived

1/10/2009
NevadaWolf found There's No Muligans in Caching, A Tricky Game, Clear Creek-Kings Canyon Fire Memorial, Carson City Freeway, No Longer A Pipe Dream.

Friday, January 9, 2009

The race intensifies

Whee!!

The last couple nights have been insane! RoadRunner posts between 10 and 11, we tear out of the house and try to beat each other until we either meet up, or pass each other and then help on the way back home. It's GREAT!

Plus I've found that being the mobile turtle not only gives me notice of the last one to be published, but also lets us finish the night together. That part is a blast cause we're all tired and slap happy by that point and it becomes more of a social laugh-fest than a cache hunt, though the cache usually does fall to our search... eventually.

1/5/2009
NevadaWolf found Uncle Buck

1/5/2009
NevadaWolf posted a note for A Tricky Game


1/6/2009
NevadaWolf found SHM #123 - CRADLEBAUGH BRIDGE


1/8/2009
NevadaWolf found Emergency Cache

1/8/2009
NevadaWolf will attend KinderGeek and the Double Digits


1/9/2009
NevadaWolf found Dirt or No Dirt, We Got Kicked Off a Bowling League!, There's No Muligans in Caching #2

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Dayton and insanity x7

So, Puzzleman asked if I wanted to go caching. Would love to!

We headed out to Dayton where I had the ones he needed and he had the ones I needed. Guarenteed way to not have a single DNF. Spent most of the day out there, covering a good amount of territory and effectively cleaning out the entire area (well, I have one left). Really got to know him and am completely glad to have a new friend in Carson. Nothing introduces folks better than a day of caching around an area that neither of you know very well.

Headed back into town and went our separate ways.

Then, as the evening was drawing to a close, RoadRunner decides to work on the queue. And up pops 6 new caches! I dump them into Tracky, fire up the BT GPS, and jump into the truck, burning rubber to get out and into the race before Puzzleman or Bernsports beat me too everything.

As I'm driving by, I see on my screen I'm passing one! Pull over quickly and look - no, there wasn't 6 - THERE WAS 7!!!

I park and begin frantically searching, but struck out and gave up in hopes of bagging the others. I peel out and head to the SHM - and see that I'm behind in the race by 5 minutes for STF, and 10 minutes for FTF! So, the strategy is to head out to the furthest one and hope beyond hope the others are tied up with the other 4.

I call Puzzleman and I can hear the grin in his voice as he brags he got all 3 FTFs. Um... dude, there was 7 posted. WHAT?! Neither he nor Bernsports are as mobile as I am, so when they leave the house, they cut themselves off from the latest updates.

I meet up with him at the furthest cache and we spend the rest of the time talking and waiting for Bern. He pulls up and turns out he didn't know about the last one either, the one I spent my time looking for.

We turn the race into a caravan and head out, grabbing all but two as one was in a neighborhood and three rigs showing up at midnight is not good and the other was behind a locked fence. Finally all the caches are gotten and we turn our collective attention to the final one. A good 20 minutes go by, we're freezing, Bern spots it first, then Puzzleman and I spot it simultaneously. Great hide and a great night!!!

1/4/2009
NevadaWolf found Where's The Water, Desert Bugs, "Eye Was Framed", "Want Some Bush", Above the Rubble, Dino Egg Quick Grab 1, A diller of a Ziller, NevCachers The Two Towers, Gateway to Big "D", The "D" at the Cross Roads, Whistling Pinion Pine, Second Choice, Quad 1, SHM #193 - Historic Flume and Lumberyard, These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things - #2,Lifes Little Goodies, Lets Play Ball, Sticky Rice

1/4/2009
NevadaWolf posted a note for A Tricky Game

1/4/2009
NevadaWolf posted a note for Rattlesnake MT.

1/4/2009
NevadaWolf retrieved Amber

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Getting out

Oy, new caches in town!

So, I head out to go pick up the ones that have sprouted lately. Today was fun as the caches I'd found were ones that not only were new in town, but the outer ones that I'd been watching for awhile. Plus I'd managed to solve Puzzleman's Not New Jersey cache yesterday, so I had that one also.

After grabbing a handful in Carson, finally went down to pick up Rocks & Lizards - OMG! Awesome Cache!!! This one is highly recommended for the adventure getting to it and the view at the end.

Also zipped up Hwy 50 towards Spooner to grab the few new ones that really mess with you as to which side of the road you need to be on. There's a three foot concrete barrier all the way up!

A fun day of just goofing off, but isn't that what weekends are meant for?

1/3/2009
NevadaWolf found Can't See the Forrest Through the Trees, Path to the River?, Not New Jersey, Goni Trail, Rocks & Lizards, Spooner TB & GC Hotel, Hanging in There

1/3/2009
NevadaWolf couldn't find Clear Creek-Kings Canyon Fire Memorial

1/3/2009
NevadaWolf temporarily disabled Carriage Park

1/3/2009
NevadaWolf discovered AG's Travelling British Columbia Coin

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!

So what do two people with no work today do on a beautiful day?

Go caching of course!

I actually needed more UV lights for Diabolical, and the only place I've found them is Fernley. So, Trekrr and I head out there via Fallon, and grab a few caches along the way.

One of the goals was NVGreenGecko's letterbox as it's part of the Northern Nevada Oldest Caches challenge, put out by (surprise) SKWERL. So we head up there, hike through some great pogonip and bag us a cache along US 95.

Then up to I-80 and out to Fernley, where I discovered that there were NO UV lights left. ARGHH!!!! Had a big lunch, fixed up our cache, then decided to go exploring since we were out there.

The route took us up to an old siding outside Fernley, and then out towards the northern tip of the West Humboldt Range, before swinging down below the southern point of the Humboldt Range, passing through a narrow summit, and then coming down all the way through Dixie Valley back to Hwy 50. Simple, right?

HA!

Once we left pavement, the road turned snow covered, though oddly plowed. We crawled through pristine mountains, passed by powerline poles with no lines, old mine tailings, sites with no names and names with no sites, found new areas to explore come summer, and forks in the roads that led to distant places. We even came upon a geothermal drill parked in the middle of the road and the crew looking at us like we were bonkers. Not far from the truth.

It was a great trip and one I've very glad to have made. We got back to Moundhouse just in time for my phone to buzz that there was a new cache in town. Can we make it?!

We pull back into Carson and see someone rooting around in the bush. I roll down the window to yell at Puzzleman that he can't find it first, but of course he did. Then we headed over to the site of another cache that had really bad coordinates, and using a phone-a-friend to the only one to have found it (using a major hint from the owner), we located the cache and got the correct coords.

A wonderful day! 1/1/2009
NevadaWolf found Anchor's Away, Twilight Zone, IHO the Fallon FTF Queen, Guard Rail to Fallon, Tubey, Graboid Territory, Gecko's Grotto, Frog Pond Two, It Used 2 Be In My Fish Tank, Fun Area for Summer, Quieter in the Winter

1/1/2009
NevadaWolf couldn't find K7XC #2 - Dixie Valley Ranch House

1/1/2009
NevadaWolf performed maintenance for It Had To Have One