Schools Out For The Summer!!!

Well, it's been quite a while since the last time I posted on my blog here, but since then, I've reached cache #400. In fact right now I'm up to 433. I've also created two new caches, not including the cache I referred to before, Falcon's Nest (GC162D5), has long since been published. My newest caches are Along the Mumford (GC1CFFX), and one that I actually put out in a rock quarry (pictured above) in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, which is called Becket Quarry Cache (GC1BKHP). I have done quite a lot of caching this spring at school over in Fitchburg State College. That's where I found my 400th cache find called Rebel's Treat (GCJJWX), and I'm still going pretty strong. I'm hoping to continue to have a good summer with lots of caching.

Later this summer, I hope to take a trip with a couple of my friends out to the Cleveland, Ohio area to visit Cedar Point and to see an Indians game, not to mention find a few caches in a new state. My summer has just started and I can't wait to see what things I might get to do and place I might travel to. I will have to keep this blog updated.

P.S. Congrats to Sonny and Sandy of the Podcacher Podcast (a great geocaching podcast and my favorite overall podcast out there) on your adoption of baby Sean! You two will make excellent parents.

College Caching

I know its been a while and I even acheived my 300th find milestone and went to a huge event since my last blog, The Great Northern Tier Geocaching Tournament 2007, but I thought its better late than never to get back into the swing of blogging again.

At the beginning of this month, I went through a big change of scenery when I went off to college at Fitchburg State College. After moving in and getting used to my course schedule, I was back to geocaching. My first cache while staying in Fitchburg was Sky View GeoCache, which actually happened to be placed in Prospect Park, the area that is home to the first cache I ever found, Hide of the Heron. This was just a quick find while out and about buying food for my dorm room.

A few days later, with some extra time, I decided to head out for a few more nearby cache finds. The first cache was Walton's Mountain Cache, which was a multi cache that put a great spin on parking lot caches. Then it was off to a very quick LPC called RUNaWAY View Micro, which was in a quiet part of a BJ's parking lot near the runway for the Fitchburg Municipal Airport. The final cache of the day was A Walk On The History Side., which was a very well hidden cache hidden in a very well preserved old cemetery which dates back to the 1700s. I was amazed to see such old tombstones in such amazing condition. I had actually been to this park a few times, but had not even realized that there was an old graveyard behind it. As I had no print-out for this cache, I had to call up my dad, BomberJohn for a hint after a good while of searching with no success. With the quick call, I had a much easy search and eventually found the cache.

Also, just yesterday I placed a brand new cache within the vicinity of the college, but I am still waiting for admin approval so I will leave that for next time.

Extreme Geocaching: Rappelling

A couple weeks ago, my dad, BomberJohn, mentioned that he had an interest in attend a geocaching event called Cliffsides and Grapevines, in Swansea, MA. The event was a day of learning how to rappel and belay taught by geocachers, RLahti (Ron) and Downy288 (John). I had always seen these events posted, but had always thought them to be something too extreme or requiring more skill, but I took the day off from work and headed to the event bright and early with BomberJohn.

When we got there somewhat early, there was noone to be found, so we headed to the event cords to a massive rock with very high cliffs, but waited until a bit after the event was scheduled to start and still nothing. We headed back to the parking lot and met up with the crew we were looking for. We then got into our harnesses and hiked back out to the rock, which we found out was named Abram's Rock, after a Native American man that used its caves as his home, until he was forced to leave the land.

After an orientation of the rock, Ron went through basic instruction and the technique of rappeling and belaying. We tried setting up on the ground, and then all of the geocachers tested out theses techniques on a 10' wall. With our confidence in rappeling boasted it was on to the 30' wall on the other side of Abram's Rock. Looking at the edge of the wall had me a little nervous, but once strapped in, it was really only a longer version of the 10' wall. I then learned to leave height out of the equation and began to really enjoy the sport. With a few runs down the 30, Ron and John had a Tyrolean set up, which is basically a horizontal line used for crossing cravasses in the mountains. This one was setup with a decent drop and was more of a backwoods roller coaster. For over an hour, we took turns sliding down and as time drew close to 3:30, when I had to leave for another appointment, we told Ron we would have leave early, but he suggested that they have the 60' wall set up for use before we left so we could get a chance to find Cliffside #6 which was stuck in a crack halfway down. Of course, we agreed, the rope was quickly set up and we sent BomberJohn down first to act as the test dummy to make sure the knots would hold. Before heading down, I remembered I had a Red Jeep TB in my Cache-Pack and decided there was no better deserving place for one to be placed and stuck it in my pocket. With a much more confident rappel down, I reached the cache spot and requested to be belayed in order to open and log the cache with both hands. I quickly signed the log, placed the Jeep TB, replaced the cache, retook control of the rope and rappelled the second half down.

Ron then gave us a gift of a Downy288 geocoin as proof of our acheivement and we gave him our thanks and one of my new pathtags, but time was ticking and we had to go. Truly, this was one amazing event and I will always remember how much fun BomberJohn and I had here. I hope we can someday soon attend one of the Cliffsides and Grapevines CT Style events, which is a higher level of the same thing and put our new skill to more use.

The BomberBoyz Hit GW5

It was months ago that BomberJohn and I began to plan our trip south to North Carolina to attend GeoWoodstock 5 (GCZKVX) and this past weekend, it all came together. Last Friday, BomberJohn picked me up from school at 11 AM, after my madatory high school graduation rehearsal and we started our 12 hour drive south. The ride was long, but I as we'd find out the next day, it was well worth it.

It was an early morning for a vacation weekend, as we woke up to be over at the NC Fair Grounds in Raleigh for our first ever Mega Event for 8 o'clock. After registering, receiving our complimentary things, buying a t-shirt and geocoin, checking out all of the geocoin vendors, and, of course, meeting Sonny and Sandy of the Podcacher Podcast, we decided we'd spend the afternoon geocaching around town and return for the evening events.

The first few caches, ATM 3, ATM 2, ATM 1, and Jacks Not Evil...Really! were all caches along a well kept bike trail which passed close-by to our hotel. At the cache, ATM 2 I found a small collection of transportation tokens, which I took through a swap, as I have always enjoyed collecting coins and tokens from around the world. After these finds, it was over to Eastgate Park, where we found Jack's Magnetic Keyholder, with the accompaniment of a fellow geocaching family attending the event, and Ahhh..I Don't Know Hon..., both of which were a bit tricky, but failed to stump the BomberBoyz as the nearby micro Sticking Around in Eastgate park did. With these cache finds under our belt, we picked up lunch and headed back to GW5 groundzero.

The fair ground was now completely buzzing with hundreds of geocachers. Dinner was an amazing BBQ buffet with chicken, pork and steak tips, many sorts of salads and a choice of either strawberry shortcake or a moist chocolate cake. Our stomach full, we met up with Sonny and Sandy once again and had a better chance to talk. They were even nice enough to give me a Podcacher pathtag, despite the fact that I had none to trade. After chatting with the Podcacher crew, BomberJohn went on to find some other cachers that had pathtags for trading and swapped for a few which he had yet to collect and we then headed back to the hotel, but not before stopping at That's a fairly good sign..., which we saw cachers finding and logging as we drove by all day.

The next morning was another early morning as we packed up and went on our way back north. On the way back we plotted out a few quick caches off the highway to stop at in order for me to claim the states we drove through as cached. First was Roadrunner: What's love got to do with it? in Virginia, Easy Pick Up at a Park & Ride in West Virginia, The Lost Cache and Bowman Buisness Park Cache at an industrial park off I-95 in Maryland, and after stopping in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to get a room for the night and eatting out at a Damon's Grill for dinner, we searched for An A-Plus View of Some Super Stores. Monday morning we hit the road again and stopped in New York to find Not Big, Not Blue, which was another micro at a Park & Ride parking lot. From there we drove straight home with plenty of memories, geocoins, and my ambition to create a pathtag to repay S&S back for their own.

Florida Caching

Since last year, when mention of my senior class trip to Disney World first started, I was on the GC website looking up potential cache finds in the area. As details came in, I learned that we would not be able to leave Disney World Resort grounds, but that still left me with a handful of virtuals within the Disney parks. Friday the 13th roled around and it was time to head south for our trip and I was sure to pack my Garmin 60CS and the cache listings for the Disney virtuals.

The week was great. Day one in the parks was Saturday, on which we headed to both Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. Which both virtuals had fairly easy logging requirements. We had a blast at Epcot riding Mission Space, Test Track, and experiencing the different country showcases. At the Magic Kingdom we got to ride Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, and the trecherous "its a small world". For day two, Sunday it was off to MGM Studios, but just minutes after arriving, the sunny weather we had seen for the past two days disappeared and a 15 minute downpour roled through. After the rain subsided and we were back on rides it was lots of fun. In the afternoon we made our way to the back of the park to ride the excellent, Rock'n'Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror. Here, I also got to accomplish my third virtual of the trip, by observing features of the decor of the attractions. For Monday, we all headed to the two Universal parks. We had tons of fun riding the Mummy Ride, ET, Spiderman, The Hulk, The Dueling Dragons, and seeing Shrek 4-D. Tuesday was our day to make it over to The Animal Kingdom. At arrival, we bolted to Expedition Everest, then went to Dinosaur, rode the Kali River Rapids, and made our way back to the Tree of Life to see Its Tough to be a Bug. After the show we finish the last virtual by hunting for the listed animals carved in the tree required to be found for logging the cache. We then went to see the Lion King show and ride Everest and Dinosaur once more, before leaving and going to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. To end are time in trip to the Disney parks, we hopped on the schuttle to Epcot again, to ride Soarin', as it was too busy the first visit and to watch the Illuminations show. After watching the amazing light display, we went back to the hotel to pack before bed. The next day was a relaxing day at Blizzard Beach before heading to the airport to fly us back to Logan.

#200!

This Presidents' Day morning I woke up and thought, "three more to 200, lets go do 'em" so I looked through some log sheets I had ready for caches in the area that I was looking at. I decided I'd try for The Whistling Tree (GC10B1t) and Clamming on the Branch River (GC107QV), both of which were along the trail system behind Burrillville Middle School in Burrillville, Rhode Island. I had been to this area before with BomberJohn will visiting The Mustang Cache.

I headed behind the school equipt with my winter gear, a telescopic pole, my 60cs, my cache-pack and cache print-outs. As I reached the woods I passed kids sliding down a hill, happy to not be in school for the week. I traversed the icy trails, which happened to spiral toward the cache, by the route I ended up taking. When I reached the area of The Whistling Tree, which was named for the nearby tree that looked as if it was actually belting a tune, I had to look for a little bit, but not to long, as it it had been uncovered the previous day by a local cacher. As I signed the log, a noise grew closer and louder, and then I saw it in the air; a huge military helicopter just above to the south. I then replaced the cache and continued on with my goal to reach 200. Carefully hiking across sheets of icy snow, I began to appreciate my decision to bring along my telescopic hiking pole. When I got to the cache area for Clamming on the Branch River, I noticed tracks and spots where some cacher had obviously searched aroung, but failed. I too was near giving up, when I spotted a small bit of something that looked out of place for the area, which much have been slightly uncovered by the recent DNFer. After 5 minutes of digging, the unusual container was clammed out of the snow and I was just one cache away from the milestone I was looking for.

For the final cache of the day and #200, I thought I'd check out Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (GCCC88) on the shore of Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster, Massachusetts. This is actually the longest official name given to any body of water in the enitre world and I thought it would be perfect for the big one. As I searched for it, a muggle came by and seemed like he thought I was up to no good. He actually walked back to his truck and sat there watching for a few minutes to make sure I was harmless. After he passed by, the uncertain hint became clear and I found it with little no problem. There it was in my hands #200! I signed the log, made a sig card swap, and left with the pride of reaching my milestone.

And a Happy New Year

As school was cancelled today due to the death of the beloved principal of Sutton Elementary School, Mrs. Simonian, I thought I would take Snidy and BenMac out on a caching trip to Milford, MA. The first stop of the day was at the newly placed Old Stone Bridge Cache (GC100ZY) where we met Milford4+ while heading to the cache location. It turns out that she actually knows the hidder, seekerjay, and was the one to introduce him to the sport. He has since passed her by many caches. After a great hike, quickly finding the cache and chatting with Milford4+, we parted with our new friend and hiked to the nearby cache, Field of Ferns (GC7044), which actually sugested other parking cords, but ended up only being an average cache hike along very nice trails. This was a just quick find and log and we were headed to the car to get over to the Cameltoe Cache (GCMXK3). Cameltoe ended up being a traditional high tension power line cache, but when we find the container and opened it up, we found that it only had one pen that had dried up months ago and we hiked out to it unprepared. As proof of our find, all I could do was leave one of my new 2007 BomberJjr signature cards. As we got back to the car, the team was feeling a bit hungry so with the new 60CS, I was able to track down a closeby Wendy's and navigate ourselves to it, passing the parking area for our next find, the Frontier Cache (GC456A). After filling our stomachs and loading up with calories, we needed this one last cache to help us burn off some energy. The cache was one placed nearly five years ago in a municipal park with a great bike path. We followed the bike path for quite a ways and realized we were not getting closer but were really circling the cache, so when we spotted an unmarked trail off to the side we went into the woods to get to our destination. Once there we over-estimated the hide job and over shot the easy spot that we later found it in. It was great to see such an old cache still up and running, although it probably could use a removal of some of the junk inside. We found our way back to the bike trail by continuing on the trail rather than turning back, got to the car and then had to get back home for BenMac, so he could go to work.