Aborted Geocache Idea

   Ahh, those must have been the days, drifting down the canal on a barge, your fishing line dragging lazily from the back (or whatever the nautical term is) as your son cleans out the fish-gut barrel.  This fence and it's portrayal of "canal life" were going to be clues as part of a large multicache I was thinking about over the winter.  In the past few weeks I have been trying to pull it all together and I bit off more than I can chew.  Aside from the fact that there were seven stages, I had placed several on what turned out to be State Park property, which requires a form and registration fee of $25 per cache location.  Also, some of the things I hid got flooded out or muggled (found a cigarette but in a micro that I didn't tell anyone about) and overall my idea was poorly executed.

  So, instead of a huge multi, I decided to make a smaller multi and maybe a separate traditional cache and virtual one made of my aborted stages.  I'm waiting with baited breath to see if my submissions have been accepted.  I just happened to film a lot of stuff before realizing I couldn't use it for geocaching, and I'd hate to just delete the footage without sharing my ideas since I have not spent too much time LOOKING for geocaches.  So this is what will NOT be a cache.  There is no music or VO, and the cuts are harsh, but you'll get the idea I had for it.

   That was my grand idea for that tree.  Turns out that whole area is going to be smashed for 32 new homes, so that is depressing. I think some creature was also vying for that spot as a home, so they can have it for as long as it is left.

   Hopefully in the next few days you will see my first operational and accepted multicache, and then I'll get back to my quest.

The Man At The Top Of The Stairs

Click to enlarge any photo in the blog!

   I was down in Philadelphia because my wife was in a race and I had two hours to plotz around the city.  The start/finish line of the race was in front of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and not far away at all were some caches that I thought would be really cool, including one at the Franklin Institute, which is a really cool place, and one that is in the Free Library in a hollowed-out book.

   The problem was that on a Sunday, those places don't open up until much later, so my only option was to piss off along the Schuylkill River and meander around the bottom of East Fairmount Park.  There is a premium multicache 1/2 mile up from the museum in what on Google Maps says is the Glendinning Rock Garden.  It sounds very zen.  It is my destination on foot.

   I was using an old body cam-style camera for the most part.  Yes, the quality of sound and video are two steps backwards,  but it was my desire to not walk around with cameras on tripods or head-mounts. It's not like I was in this super crime-laden place, I just didn't want to be the guy by himself along various stretches of treeline with all this electronic shit out and not paying 100% attention to his surroundings.

All of this is most useless, since I should have just ended this video half way in, or more specifically right after 4:09 because that man aired a certain sentiment that some of us have been thinking for a long time, and it just kind of rumbled my jimjongs.

How It Used To Be

   I did give the cache a go after that, but I made two mistakes.  The first was that I possibly didn't do my math right.  I think.  I don't know.  THe coordinates I came up with after making it to the spot the CO wanted me to and counting the things he wanted me to count put the second stage half a mile away.  I could be right, but my second mistake, looking up old pictures of how this stone garden used to look, took the rest of my steam, and I decided to just head back to the finish line.  I did pick up a simple micro cache along the way back the Schuylkill, but it isn't particularly noteworthy.


   Anyroad, I certainly need to get back down to the Fairmount Park and Center City area when it is nice and sunny, to wash this minor experience out of my brain.

Main Journal Entry 007

   The seventh entry integrates the new camera and premium caches with my poor searching skills, and in keeping with the spirit of geocaching I am not plastering information all over the screen in regards to location or names of caches.  After reading a few comments on videos and exchanging a few words with others, I figure I will be alright with occasional 100% pure-spoiling (perhaps if the cache name is a clever pun, or an obvious low-level entry cache, or some mechanism on the cache is of fine craftsmanship) but for the most part on-screen information will be sporadic.  The only exception will be premium caches; I will try to make sure I don't cheese off the hardcore community.

   The Comfy Video below was supposed to be part of this entry, but I decided against using footage with raindrops on the lens for the main entry and the other stuff was just ammo cans under some bits of tree.  Terrible weekend as far as geocaching goes, but I do enjoy getting out there like a wizard.

   I have completely forgotten about two things that I wanted.  The first was to have a cache count at the end of each video, or at least at the end of each Main Entry.  Forgot to do that.  I do have a little add-on on my sidebar now that displays my current progress.  Anyway, the video below is what I should have put in on the end of the Main Entry video that gets uploaded to the Geocaching Video Only channel, because why bother uploading it twice if there is not some subtle difference in them vis-à-vis some bonus footage?  That was number two?  Was I doing numbers?  I hate it when I get stuck on a number two.

   The first part is thirty or so seconds of me highlighting why most history is boring.  In the second part, I was trying to get a quick shot of me chilling and eating by the stream.  You know, filler video for narration.  I just got done my snack, and popped the last bit in my mouth and...

Camden Waterfront

   I had some business in Camden, New Jersey near the campus area, which is near the waterfront area, so I popped down to see if I could snag any of the four high-favorited caches.  The one I was looking for in the image above is called SJCC: Greenbrier which has nothing to do with the Battleship New Jersey in the background:

America's most decorated Battleship is now the area's most exciting museum, open for tours, events and overnight encampments. Exploring “BB62” is experiencing history in a whole new way. ship

  Well, damn.  I wish I was there during open hours for the walk-in tour.  That thing is a bad-ass looking warship.  I found the cache, but I didn't have a working pen, so I took a picture of it to send to the CO as proof.  It was rated a difficulty of a 3, but the coordinates seemed pretty spot on for me.  I guess things would be different if it was the middle of the summer, with this place crammed with people.  When I was younger, the lot of us would take the river ferry from Penn's Landing in PA to this waterfront to the Tweeter Center to go to concerts.  Plus, the Adventure Aquarium is nearby, and the whole Philadelphia skyline is always nice for a good photo or two.

Nothing wrong with a quick tug.

Intimidating.

The Ben Franklin Bridge ($5 goddamn dollars to get back!)

An unfettered shot of Philadelphia.

   I did try to record a few things, but it was WAY too windy.  Blow-over-tripod windy and pick-up-nothing-but-wind-on-the-mic windy.  So I recorded the wind.

   There was also a simple cache located behind the Adventure Aquarium, which is usually kicking it no matter what season it is,  I took a quick pic of the line before heading around to snag the cache and maybe some footage for the Main Entry, which I should really get to work on.

Any geocachers here?

   There are four caches in the area, and I certainly would like to return here when the weather is more forgiving on the electronics.  For now, I'll settle on just having the ground dry out.

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.

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.

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.