Friday, February 27, 2015

Winter II

My artsy-fartsy shot of the lake with a layer of snow over the ice.
   I like the snow.  I really do.  I even like the ice, when I am on foot.  However, these multiple layers that the East Coast has been blasted with destroyed plans either by restricting traffic, or by parks and parking areas not being open.  Also, the recent and constant below-freezing temps play havoc with the slightest moisture trapped inside geocaches, making log-retrieval impossible without damaging the goods.


   So my quest has been brought to a stand-still for the past week and a half.  This should be the end of Winter.  Today and tomorrow should be the last two days of this arctic simulator.  March looks astonishingly ice-free and I hope to get to the Fat Man and Little Boy of Philadelphia parks:  Wissahickon Park and Pennypack Park.  I'm also hopeful that in between those I'll get to New Jersey's Pine Barrens to get the cobwebs off my body and ride the bike a tad.  Bike = more caches per hour, so I am looking forward to that.  I do like the snow and the winter landscapes, but now I want to see some green again.


Friday, February 13, 2015

Supplemental Entry: Premium Cache Bravo


   It turns out that the person who made Premium Cache Alpha has made several puzzle caches all in separate wooded areas, and like the first one this one was not difficult to find.  I even managed a puzzle built for two, but got hung up on some little box that may or may not summon something from Clive Barker's imagination.  This cache is a Difficulty 4.

   In the middle of my preparations, a man (who I will refer to as The Chanter) came walking through and although I had moved away from the cache itself, it still seemed like it stood out right over my shoulder while we were talking.  The dude seemed normal enough.  We talked about drones and owls.  He sang more.  Really set a mood as the sun set.



   Part of me wants to just...borrow the puzzle piece for a night or two.  I mean, I won't.  I highly doubt it.  It doesn't appear to be found that often, most likely because you need to have a spare gallon or two of water with you, not to mention another set of hands, or in this case my neighbor.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Winter


   Hey Journal.  I haven't been on any lengthy sojourns recently, but I have been popping off here and there to bolster my numbers. I have several personal obstacles to overcome, two of which are wanderlust and lack of focus.  I can plan out a route and try to get many caches in a short time, but I get distracted by pretty colors and doodads.

click to enlarge
   I also have it in my head to "close out" the Washington Crossing Park area.  Something in my brain wants all the smileys filled in there.  Perhaps it is just some basic OCD-esq desire to have the map look uniform, or maybe this happens to all geocachers at some point.  Anyway, I'm having trouble with two caches in particular, but when I find them, you'll know.

   I enjoy the snow.  Like a lot of people, I particularly enjoy how a small layer of snow can make any landscape instantly more inviting, but it does make searching for ground-based caches more difficult.  Not complaining, just explaining.  Personally, I think it adds an extra element of fun.  I just don't record myself cursing the gods when I don't find something.



   The first part is the flagpole cache, which I thought was a pretty cool, but the second stage was anti-climactic and placed in (what I think) is a poor area due to the high frequency of homeless people smoking crack there.  I still need to work on the Hat Cam.

   The second part highlights what I was saying about the snow.  Things look cool, but if there is any GPS bounce you are going to be spending a lot of time digging in Scooby Doo mode.

   The third part is just me trying to justify why I threw out a cache.  Did I do the right thing?  I'm 90% sure I did.  I looked around for a good bit before finding cache contents but no cache, and then I looked around some more for the container.  I read some entries online and determined it had been this way for awhile, so I took what debris that was left and threw it out.  I did right, yes Journal?

My search pattern for the cache with no container.  And some caching music, I guess.