Logs for captainmath
04-Aug-20
MrsCM and I are headed West through Kansas, picking up chosen Geocaches as we go.
This is one of the Geocaches we found today.
I had found this one years ago but since we were going through I certainly wanted to stop and visit again. I did my best to broadcast live from here but the service was no good.??
***”We all use Math every day!“***
This is one of the Geocaches we found today.
I had found this one years ago but since we were going through I certainly wanted to stop and visit again. I did my best to broadcast live from here but the service was no good.??
***”We all use Math every day!“***
03-Jul-19
A line from one of my favorite movies says that “there are big days and little days; which one will this be?”
This morning, we got up before dawn and took the 23 minute drive here, just the head of sunrise, to do this amazing hike for Arizona’s geocache, GC57. Would you believe that this was even better than we expected it to be?
The scenery was spectacular, and the cool, dry air made this a beautiful time to be here. I took a ton of photos as I couldn’t help myself stopping every time I saw something gorgeous, which at times seem to be every few seconds. Getting here just ahead of the sunrise meant that for pretty much all of the hike we were hiking toward our own shadows which was a better compass than anything my phone could do. Along the way we did find the two other geocaches which led up to this but failed to find the one which marked our parking spot, which should have been a really easy find given the hint.
This early in the morning we figured we might see some more wildlife and it definitely paid off in our first two snake encounters of this trip, including a beautiful diamondback rattlesnake. (I’m happy that we saw it from a bit of a short distance rather than from within a foot of it.) each of the geocache finds were really well placed and not hard to find. The big prize, GC57 itself, did take a little more looking in the others, and definitely more than I expected for such an old geocache, but once we spotted the location from the correct angle, it was an easy find. We dropped a lot of trackables that I was moving from the Northeast and Midwest regions, and picked up the trackables that were in this geocache.
Also interesting as we hiked on the way back was that the sun was so well aligned with our position and our car that from a good distance away we could see the reflection of the sun off of our car as a beacon. Very cool!
I am so grateful that Mrs. CM and I got to do this old geocache, along with so many other states oldest, and this is definitely one of my favorites. Only six more to go! Thank you for a spectacular adventure.
***”We all use Math every day!“***
This morning, we got up before dawn and took the 23 minute drive here, just the head of sunrise, to do this amazing hike for Arizona’s geocache, GC57. Would you believe that this was even better than we expected it to be?
The scenery was spectacular, and the cool, dry air made this a beautiful time to be here. I took a ton of photos as I couldn’t help myself stopping every time I saw something gorgeous, which at times seem to be every few seconds. Getting here just ahead of the sunrise meant that for pretty much all of the hike we were hiking toward our own shadows which was a better compass than anything my phone could do. Along the way we did find the two other geocaches which led up to this but failed to find the one which marked our parking spot, which should have been a really easy find given the hint.
This early in the morning we figured we might see some more wildlife and it definitely paid off in our first two snake encounters of this trip, including a beautiful diamondback rattlesnake. (I’m happy that we saw it from a bit of a short distance rather than from within a foot of it.) each of the geocache finds were really well placed and not hard to find. The big prize, GC57 itself, did take a little more looking in the others, and definitely more than I expected for such an old geocache, but once we spotted the location from the correct angle, it was an easy find. We dropped a lot of trackables that I was moving from the Northeast and Midwest regions, and picked up the trackables that were in this geocache.
Also interesting as we hiked on the way back was that the sun was so well aligned with our position and our car that from a good distance away we could see the reflection of the sun off of our car as a beacon. Very cool!
I am so grateful that Mrs. CM and I got to do this old geocache, along with so many other states oldest, and this is definitely one of my favorites. Only six more to go! Thank you for a spectacular adventure.
***”We all use Math every day!“***
20-Jun-17
Today I am out doing some tri-state geocaching, although not the tri-state where I live. I am out geocaching with teen geek squad which consists of Javthrowr, KSU mom, and myself. Today we are visiting many, many geocaches in Arkansas, Missouri Oklahoma.
This was one of two must-hit geocaches lined up for this trip. We arrived at approximately Pi time, and took the long, arduous hike to Ground Zero. He had no trouble with the next step and Shane were signing in. Thanks for keeping this oldie alive.
Thanks for placing this cache!
***"We all use Math every day!"***
This was one of two must-hit geocaches lined up for this trip. We arrived at approximately Pi time, and took the long, arduous hike to Ground Zero. He had no trouble with the next step and Shane were signing in. Thanks for keeping this oldie alive.
Thanks for placing this cache!
***"We all use Math every day!"***
27-Nov-15
I was on a big southern geocaching trip with Angel and Disney boy Tyler on this holiday weekend. The weather was terrific, and it was a wonderful time to come for this, the oldest geocache in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
We found that parking was a little bit of a challenge but fortunately there were a couple of spots still open for us with a not very far walk to ground zero. We got to ground zero and knew we had a little Challenge ahead when we saw what was there and the conditions we would be searching in. Fortunately, this wasn't a very long search as the coordinates were very, very good. It's so great to get another states oldest geocache, this one being the closest unfound states oldest geocache to my home.
Thanks for placing this cache!
[red]"We all use Math every day!"[/red]
We found that parking was a little bit of a challenge but fortunately there were a couple of spots still open for us with a not very far walk to ground zero. We got to ground zero and knew we had a little Challenge ahead when we saw what was there and the conditions we would be searching in. Fortunately, this wasn't a very long search as the coordinates were very, very good. It's so great to get another states oldest geocache, this one being the closest unfound states oldest geocache to my home.
Thanks for placing this cache!
[red]"We all use Math every day!"[/red]
03-Apr-15
We really count ourselves blessed to be able to travel our country as much as we have together, but even more so with geocaching, as I actually have good memories of every single state we've visited - all but Alaska and Hawaii. I've been fortunate to find some really special, memorable geocaches along the journey, and Christmas Cache is definitely one of them.
Looking back, our South Florida vacation didn't go as I had planned, but it turned out better than I could have imagined. Afterwards MrsCM and I still had time to do an airboat tour of the Everglades. My experience of not being able to do this cache when I wanted and planned, but finally getting to do it later and being able to slow down and enjoy it sort of mirrored our whole week down here. God gave us a better time this whole week than I could have orchestrated for ourselves, and this week was like a gift to us.
Thanks for keeping this cache alive.
[red]"We all use Math every day!"[/red]
Looking back, our South Florida vacation didn't go as I had planned, but it turned out better than I could have imagined. Afterwards MrsCM and I still had time to do an airboat tour of the Everglades. My experience of not being able to do this cache when I wanted and planned, but finally getting to do it later and being able to slow down and enjoy it sort of mirrored our whole week down here. God gave us a better time this whole week than I could have orchestrated for ourselves, and this week was like a gift to us.
Thanks for keeping this cache alive.
[red]"We all use Math every day!"[/red]
From the time that MrsCM and I decided to spend our vacation by coming to Southern Florida, this cache was under my crosshairs. I'm not someone who typically goes after traditional geocaches, but state's-first geocaches are a much different story, especially when it's a really special one like this. I had seen photos of this one but hadn't considered that I'd likely get a chance to find this one being it was so far South.
But with our plans for this trip taking us first to the Florida Keys and then through the Everglades before going to visit friends in Sanibel, our path went right through here. Perfect, sweet serendipity. As we picked off some puzzle caches in Homestead and Kendall, and then some Earthcaches and others along Route 41 I looked forward to this special geocache.
And then when we arrived came "the crash." Unknown to me, on the day we were flying to Miami a controlled burn was occurring in Collier-Seminole Park in the area of the trail to this geocache. When we got to the ranger station two days later, we paid our entry fee, chatted briefly with the very nice park staff, who casually mentioned the controlled burn and that a trail just to the West was closed. At first I thought that hopefully it wasn't "the" trail, but it became apparent that it was, in fact, this trail that was closed. Seeing my disappointment, the very nice park staff member, knowing we had come a very long way to do this one, asked us to pull over as another ranger, Michelle, came out to speak with us. As disappointed as I was in our poor timing, I was impressed with the empathy of these folks. In the end, they told me there was a 75% chance that it might be available the next day and that I could call at 8am to check. We did go into the main area of the park to get the other caches, but my heart wasn't into those as much. We got back to enjoying the rest of our time.
As it turned out, the trail wasn't available the next day, and now looking back it was a good thing for us. We got to spend some really good time with our good friends at Sanibel, attend a spring training baseball game with them, and bike to find their very special multi and many traditionals on the island, opportunities we surely would have missed out on had we come back to do this geocache.
And then, after a couple of days we learned that the trail had been re-opened. But by that time we were already well farther North doing another set of planned puzzle and challenge caches. But what worked out well was that those didn't take as long as I had originally planned for them and although it was one long, tiring day of geocaching, it opened up a possibility that I had ruled out - the possibility of targeting this one cache on our last full day in Florida.
So finally, we get to the big day, the day that I'd get a chance at this geocache anyway. We didn't do many geocaches this day but this one was definitely the highlight, geocachingly speaking. We revisited the ranger station, filled out our paperwork and headed over to the trailhead. From the time we hit the trail, it was obvious that this place, even with the controlled burn (I was surprised how little it seemed to affect what we saw) was more beautiful than the pictures had shown. The first part of the trail was remarkably straight, which at times made it look like a tunnel through palm trees that went forever. The scenery, which varied from looking like Florida jungle to beautiful palm and pine meadows made every step a treat. We shot photos liberally and were thoroughly enjoying this experience. Eventually we got to GZ, and neither of us were surprised when we spotted the religious pilgrimage style geotrail that left the main path towards ground zero. As it typically goes with these states' oldest geocaches, it was an easy find at the end of a fantastic experience. The return hike was maybe even more beautiful, now with the Sun more at our back.
continued…
But with our plans for this trip taking us first to the Florida Keys and then through the Everglades before going to visit friends in Sanibel, our path went right through here. Perfect, sweet serendipity. As we picked off some puzzle caches in Homestead and Kendall, and then some Earthcaches and others along Route 41 I looked forward to this special geocache.
And then when we arrived came "the crash." Unknown to me, on the day we were flying to Miami a controlled burn was occurring in Collier-Seminole Park in the area of the trail to this geocache. When we got to the ranger station two days later, we paid our entry fee, chatted briefly with the very nice park staff, who casually mentioned the controlled burn and that a trail just to the West was closed. At first I thought that hopefully it wasn't "the" trail, but it became apparent that it was, in fact, this trail that was closed. Seeing my disappointment, the very nice park staff member, knowing we had come a very long way to do this one, asked us to pull over as another ranger, Michelle, came out to speak with us. As disappointed as I was in our poor timing, I was impressed with the empathy of these folks. In the end, they told me there was a 75% chance that it might be available the next day and that I could call at 8am to check. We did go into the main area of the park to get the other caches, but my heart wasn't into those as much. We got back to enjoying the rest of our time.
As it turned out, the trail wasn't available the next day, and now looking back it was a good thing for us. We got to spend some really good time with our good friends at Sanibel, attend a spring training baseball game with them, and bike to find their very special multi and many traditionals on the island, opportunities we surely would have missed out on had we come back to do this geocache.
And then, after a couple of days we learned that the trail had been re-opened. But by that time we were already well farther North doing another set of planned puzzle and challenge caches. But what worked out well was that those didn't take as long as I had originally planned for them and although it was one long, tiring day of geocaching, it opened up a possibility that I had ruled out - the possibility of targeting this one cache on our last full day in Florida.
So finally, we get to the big day, the day that I'd get a chance at this geocache anyway. We didn't do many geocaches this day but this one was definitely the highlight, geocachingly speaking. We revisited the ranger station, filled out our paperwork and headed over to the trailhead. From the time we hit the trail, it was obvious that this place, even with the controlled burn (I was surprised how little it seemed to affect what we saw) was more beautiful than the pictures had shown. The first part of the trail was remarkably straight, which at times made it look like a tunnel through palm trees that went forever. The scenery, which varied from looking like Florida jungle to beautiful palm and pine meadows made every step a treat. We shot photos liberally and were thoroughly enjoying this experience. Eventually we got to GZ, and neither of us were surprised when we spotted the religious pilgrimage style geotrail that left the main path towards ground zero. As it typically goes with these states' oldest geocaches, it was an easy find at the end of a fantastic experience. The return hike was maybe even more beautiful, now with the Sun more at our back.
continued…
27-Jul-13
While continuing our moseying drive back to the North with some stops along the way and a lot of slowdown from the weather and traffic, I stopped for this one. Thanks for the cache!
26-Jul-13
When I first started planning the trip to Georgia a while ago - a trip not for geocaching but for ministry with my puppet team - it wasn't long until my mind turned to the possibly opportunity to bag a couple of very special caches that I really wanted - Lake Lanier and Georgia's oldest, Beaver Cache. I knew of this one too, but I didn't really think that I'd have a chance to get this one also.
Well as it turned out, one of our skits needed a small raft as a prop. When a friend back at home offered his raft to us for the trip and it turned out to be a six-man raft rated at 900 pounds complete with four oars and four life jackets, the wheels in my head started to turn (finally). Could it be that an opportunity to go for Marooned was going to fall right into my lap? It got even better when it became apparent that the gals on my skeleton squad of a South-bound puppet team were enthusiastically up for the adventure. So plans were made to hit this one on the way back.
Then those plans hit a snag. While doing the skit on the last day of our program in a church South of Atlanta, it became apparent that one chamber of the raft had a slight leak. Not much of one that it would affect the the skits we were doing, but enough that a mile of rafting each way to Marooned might just leave us marooned on the island for real. So early the morning of the departure, I decided to make a call to a friend who had recently done this and had mentioned to me earlier that she still had the number of the outfitter who rented a tandem kayak to her. She gave me the number of Canoe & Kayak Rentals of North Georgia (770-519-3513). I called them up and they were very happy to help. At first the price to get something to get four people out to that island was a little pricey for my budget, but I'm guessing things might have been a little bit slow and they seemed happy to help out the geocachers so they came down in price to give us two tandem kayaks. I didn't even have to remember the name of the park with the boat launch - they knew exactly what we were doing and where we needed to start and scheduled the delivery of the kayaks to meet us at the launch. Mona and Jim were terrific to work with, and Jim, who had an hour trip down to deliver them, just hung out at a friend's house while we spent a good while out on the lake.
Well, off we went. It was an easy paddle for a little over a mile, and it wasn't hard to pick out a landing on the island. We had a little lunch on the island, talked about being like Gilligan, and then started our hike towards this cache. Heather used my GPSr to get us close and then it was an easy find. We had a terrific time with this cache - lots of laughs along the way, beautiful scenery, and perfect weather. We went over and got the other cache on the island too and shot a lot of mushroom photos along the way.
Thanks for keeping this remarkable cache alive. This one finished off Double Jasmer for me, which fell right into my lap this Summer by bagging Beverly (IL's oldest), Octopus Garden (NC's oldest), and the Georgia Triad of Lake Lanier, Beaver Cache, and this one. This was a totally satisfying adventure, and coupled with our hike to the top of Stone Mountain just a day earlier, made for an amazing two consecutive days of fun in North Georgia.
PS - I typically wouldn't place travel bugs in a five-terrain cache, but this one gets so much traffic that I thought it was safe to put them here. And since it's such a special one, I thought that outweighed the challenge to get to it. The next cacher to find this will have an opportunity to pick up a lot of trackables which traveled a long way to get here.
Well as it turned out, one of our skits needed a small raft as a prop. When a friend back at home offered his raft to us for the trip and it turned out to be a six-man raft rated at 900 pounds complete with four oars and four life jackets, the wheels in my head started to turn (finally). Could it be that an opportunity to go for Marooned was going to fall right into my lap? It got even better when it became apparent that the gals on my skeleton squad of a South-bound puppet team were enthusiastically up for the adventure. So plans were made to hit this one on the way back.
Then those plans hit a snag. While doing the skit on the last day of our program in a church South of Atlanta, it became apparent that one chamber of the raft had a slight leak. Not much of one that it would affect the the skits we were doing, but enough that a mile of rafting each way to Marooned might just leave us marooned on the island for real. So early the morning of the departure, I decided to make a call to a friend who had recently done this and had mentioned to me earlier that she still had the number of the outfitter who rented a tandem kayak to her. She gave me the number of Canoe & Kayak Rentals of North Georgia (770-519-3513). I called them up and they were very happy to help. At first the price to get something to get four people out to that island was a little pricey for my budget, but I'm guessing things might have been a little bit slow and they seemed happy to help out the geocachers so they came down in price to give us two tandem kayaks. I didn't even have to remember the name of the park with the boat launch - they knew exactly what we were doing and where we needed to start and scheduled the delivery of the kayaks to meet us at the launch. Mona and Jim were terrific to work with, and Jim, who had an hour trip down to deliver them, just hung out at a friend's house while we spent a good while out on the lake.
Well, off we went. It was an easy paddle for a little over a mile, and it wasn't hard to pick out a landing on the island. We had a little lunch on the island, talked about being like Gilligan, and then started our hike towards this cache. Heather used my GPSr to get us close and then it was an easy find. We had a terrific time with this cache - lots of laughs along the way, beautiful scenery, and perfect weather. We went over and got the other cache on the island too and shot a lot of mushroom photos along the way.
Thanks for keeping this remarkable cache alive. This one finished off Double Jasmer for me, which fell right into my lap this Summer by bagging Beverly (IL's oldest), Octopus Garden (NC's oldest), and the Georgia Triad of Lake Lanier, Beaver Cache, and this one. This was a totally satisfying adventure, and coupled with our hike to the top of Stone Mountain just a day earlier, made for an amazing two consecutive days of fun in North Georgia.
PS - I typically wouldn't place travel bugs in a five-terrain cache, but this one gets so much traffic that I thought it was safe to put them here. And since it's such a special one, I thought that outweighed the challenge to get to it. The next cacher to find this will have an opportunity to pick up a lot of trackables which traveled a long way to get here.
22-Jul-13
I stopped to get this one on the way to the Atlanta area. I wanted to light up another county, and this did the trick. Thanks for the cache!
Thanks for a super-cool virtual which was a nice part of our Georgia trip! Answers emailed.
I stopped to get this one on the way to the Atlanta area. I wanted to light up another county, and also get myself another Scout Master cache, and this did the trick. In fact, it did more as we also spent some time and money inside the business here thanks to the cache. Thanks for the cache!
03-Aug-12
This was one of many geocaches that MrsCM and I did today as we traveled from Laramie to Buffalo. Thanks to these caches, we had a terrific time taking in some beautiful Wyoming scenery. Interesting location/story here. Thanks for setting up this cache!
15-Apr-11
Found the obvious item easily, although had to look on both sides to find which was the "right" side. Will send both. Thanks for bringing us here!
06-Aug-07
Going the roundabout way through Utah with my wife as we circled back toward Colorado via ID/UT, and visiting a friend from nearby Sandy who doesn't geocache but has another Utah-friendly hobby, this was a must to get the oldest cache in Utah. What an amazing trip it was to the location, and I didn't have to drive at this point.
