Puddles and Poo

Today we celebrated the end of “The Big Storm” by driving out to Fernley and Fallon. Our greatest concern was that, because of all the snow and rain, we would be restricted to pavement and wouldn’t be able to go off-road. Once there we found huge mud puddles that we avoided, no puddles at all and more than our share of puddles that were just right (it’s a guy thing).


We decided that once we reached Fallon we would grab all the caches south of Hwy 50 and then work our way back hitting the caches north of Hwy 50, creating a roughly circular counter clockwise route. Our course took us through thick sand and slimy mud to lifting skirts in parking lots. And, we visited many more of Fallon’s famous “Flood Gates”. More than once we stirred the curiosity of the locals, irrigation canal and utility workers. Luckily we were able to flee before we were asked to explain our strange interest in diversion dams and fence posts.

Toward the end of the day, we found ourselves near a dairy searching for a nano in a haystack, or was it a tree, or..maybe on (in) that cow. Anyway, after we found it we took off down the road to the next cache. I thought the brown colored piles in the road were dirt but when GeoJeep started slipping and sliding I knew the brown stuff came from that dairy. It was more than a little obvious that their manure wagon was overflowing or incontinent. When we got out at the next cache, GeoJeepette wrinkled up her nose, looked at me and asked indignantly, “What’s that smell!” I quickly pointed at GeoJeep hoping I was right. I was...and IT was all over the previously (and lovingly) applied mud. Brown on brown and reeking of poo!

We managed to continue caching until it was time to head home but we weren’t very enthusiastic whenever we had to get out. On the way home GeoJeepette made it crystal clear that, if I didn’t wash GeoJeep before we got home, he would be spending the night on the driveway. So, as the sun was setting I found myself at a do-it-yourself car wash knocking chunks of mud and poo off GeoJeep so he could enjoy the comfort of the garage. Despite the odiferous experience, it was a beautiful day to get out and do something we love and we had a great time.

Beating the Storm

Today we decided to stick close to home because there was a big storming coming. There were several new caches in the area and we’d been saving them up to we could be more efficient. We headed out to Spanish Springs - the farthest point from home and worked our way back.

Our first cache was a short walk down a very icy path. We had been here once before after the last storm and decided to wait for the ice to melt. We felt sure it would be gone by now. No such luck. This time we decided to go for the cache anyway. We worked our way around the ice as much as possible and made the find.

At our next cache we ran into the laughinggravy’s. They were out caching before the storm as well. We visited and each headed our separate ways. As we toured Reno it kept getting colder and colder. We finished our last Reno area cache around 1:30pm just as the snow began to fall. It was pretty light so we decided to make a quick run to the north end of Carson City for a cache we couldn’t get to last time we tried because of snow. As we headed down 395 south, the snow got heavier and heavier. Soon we were traveling through white out conditions. Who had this great idea (not Mike)? But there was no turning back so on we went. We arrived at the cache site, walked through the accumulating snow and found the cache quickly. The nearby hawk wasn’t too pleased to see us but aside from “talking” to us he left us alone.

It was now time to head home. Actually the drive home was a lot calmer. The snow was lighter and it was already melting on the road. We finished the day with nine caches. By the time we headed to bed, we had six inches of snow around our house and they were predicting six more by morning. We’ll see. The weather never seems to go along with the forecast.

PO'd in Auburn??

Saturday morning we hopped out of bed at 5am with Mike kicking and screaming and were out the door by 6:30am headed to Auburn for a day of caching. Thirty minutes up the road Mike was talking to me again so I knew he was finally conscious. We found our first cache at 8:29am and by 9:04am we had found five. We were feeling pretty confident by then so we headed out Forest Hill Road to pick up four more caches. Three DNF’s later we finally found our sixth cache at 10:20. Our confidence was waning, but we headed on back to Auburn in hopes of more caches to be found.

We had a roughly circular route in mind taking us up Highway 49 and then home via Magnolia Road to 80. We worked our way back and forth on both sides of Hwy 49 and were being pretty successful. We visited the back roads of Auburn to find obscure trails to walk. We made a quick left turn into a “Do Not Enter” area, but are happy to report that no cars were coming at us so as I was squeaking, GeoJeep saved the day and headed for the right side of the road. We visited the Auburn Cemetery for the second time and ended up stopping for lunch just outside their gates.

After lunch we tried to find a new cache that no one else had been able to find. We walked up a short path, around some nasty berry bushes and started our search mucking through the trees. We came up empty as well. We widened our search thinking the coords might be off but with no luck. We went on from there and by the end of the day we had 25 caches and 8 DNFs. It was about 4pm so we headed home.

After arriving home, we discussed whether we needed to worry about poison oak (PO) and were sure that we had not seen any at any of the caches. We had our dinner and I logged our finds. After finishing logging the successes, I started to log the DNFs. As I logged the DNF on the new cache with the berry bushes and the trees, I noticed that a previous cacher said that the trees were covered with PO. Well S**T!! For two old folks, our clothes came off in record time. We slathered on the Technu, waited the required time and jumped in the shower. Luckily we have two showers so we didn’t have to fight over who went first.

Now two days later we are glad to report that we weren’t PO’d in Auburn!!

Cold Ducks and More!

Yesterday the sun came out for a few hours and so did we. Because of work, snow, wind, and cold, we hadn’t been able to cache in several weeks. Since we were tired of sitting in the house, we planned a caching trip and waited for the weather to cooperate. When the sun peeked out from the clouds, we grabbed our caching stuff, jumped in the car, and were off. We started with a cache called “Cold Ducks”. We walked around a local man made lake and at GZ started our search. All of a sudden then was quite a flurry of wings and water. We looked up to see what was happening and realized that all the small black ducks were headed for us. They raced up and practically stood on my feet hoping I would feed them. I felt really bad because it hadn’t occurred to me to bring food for the ducks. They persisted and so did we. We found the cache, but unfortunately, they didn’t get any food.

We continued on our route around Reno and found 5 caches before the cold and wind stopped us again.

Today we raced out to look for 3 caches we didn’t have time for yesterday. We made short work of them and headed back to our warm house.

We have only one thing to say. ENOUGH ALREADY OF THIS COLD AND SNOWY WEATHER!!

BTW: The picture doesn't even begin to show the number of ducks that were first there. By the time I got out my camera, a lot had given up.

The Road Home

Today we headed home up Hwy 95. We waited until we were out of the Las Vegas area and then we began to cache. We found two caches in the Indian Springs area, an Air Force “reservation”. As the jets zoomed over our heads on their practice runs, we walked through the desert hoping they wouldn’t bomb us. For one of the caches, we felt like we were in basic training as Mike had to “slither on his belly like a reptile” to get under a fence to the cache site. After finding the caches, we watched three planes doing acrobatics in the sky. They were zooming straight up and straight down, making us nervous as they approached the ground. But each time, they would pull up just in time.

When we reached Mercury we drove out in the desert for a cache with a view of the Nevada Test Site. Unfortunately we reached a sign notifying us that the area was closed so we had to pass it by. We did get to see the test site and Yucca Mountain in the distance. Next we stopped at the SHM “Nevada Test Site” and learned all about the area.

While we were stopped at “Chain Gang” and up a slight hill at the fence line, a Nevada Highway Patrol officer stopped to see if we were stranded. We explained geocaching to him and he told us he was headed back to Las Vegas after being called up to Reno in anticipation of the storm. He told us it wasn’t as bad in Reno as they expected, that Carson City received more snow than Reno did, and that he had escorted FEMA around Fernley where the levy broke. As we visited with him, we just knew that all those cars zooming by thought we were getting a ticket. If you were one of those cars, we didn’t. He was just happy we were enjoying ourselves and we both went our separate ways.

We made a quick stop at the “Little House out Back” which turned out to be a miniature outhouse in a bush. When opened, it came complete with a toilet and plenty of bathroom products. It’s amazing what you can do in the middle of the desert. If you get down that way on Hwy 95, be sure to stop. It’s certainly worth the short walk.

After that we sashayed from side to side of Hwy 95 picking up caches. We arrived in Beatty for lunch about 1pm. We ate at Rita’s in the Stagecoach Casino. Another hamburger. Middlegate Station still wins as the best hamburger of our trip.

We stopped just short of Goldfield so Larry and Linda could visit their first Brothel. Fortunately, the CottonTail brothel was closed and boarded up. We did find a cache on the sign though. From there it was a straight shot to Tonopah and then 4 hours to home.

All in all it was a great 5 day trip to Las Vegas via Ely (although certainly not the warm trip we had hoped for) and we ended with 159 caches for the weekend.

Cold and Blustery Event

We started the morning at Whole Foods logging our 40 finds from yesterday and enjoying our breakfast. We headed out to cache about 9am and had a pretty successful morning. We headed to the event about noon and spent a few hours visiting with fellow cachers. We won a geocoin and each received another geocoin from Jeremy of groundspeak. After lunch we wandered around the park and found 5 caches. Then it was time to head on out to get more caches before heading to dinner. We picked up another 40 caches by the end of the day and celebrated our success with a bottle of wine at dinner. After dinner we again visited the Whole Foods parking lot to log our caches using their free internet access. When we arrived back at the hotel, we all collapsed. It’s exhausting work finding caches in the wind and cold!

Thrashing in the Rain (or is that caching)

Here we are in Las Vegas where it is supposed to be warm and dry. Not today. The big storm we’ve been avoiding since Thursday finally caught up with us and it is raining. Last time we were in Las Vegas it was raining too. Maybe we’re jinxed.

We started the day at Starbucks - of course. We needed to find internet access to log our last two counties for the Nevada Counties Challenge. As soon as we got access, we also checked for free wireless access and found that we can sit in the Whole Foods parking lot and get on the internet for free. Yea!

We started our caching day very frustrated. We just couldn’t seem to find the right streets to reach the caches. We finally decided to go to an area that had established streets and we finally began to find caches.

Finally it was time to find the final Nevada Counties cache. We followed our GPSrs to Longwalker’s house and began our search. Unfortunately, Frank (longwalker) was not home so we couldn’t meet and chat with him. We did meet his wife. We found the cache, took our pictures, and headed on to lunch at Baja Fresh where we celebrated our success.

We spent the rest of the afternoon caching around the hotel area. It was very cold and windy, but we did manage to find 40 caches by the end of the day. On our way home we stopped at Whole Foods. While Linda and I sat in the car and entered out finds for Friday, the men went inside and bought some meat and cheeses. We returned to our room and enjoyed our snacks and reviewed our fun day. When we all started to fall asleep we went our separate ways.

Las Vegas or Bust

Today we were late. At 7am, we headed out to breakfast at the elite McDonalds close to our hotel and had our egg McMuffins. Ely doesn’t have a Starbucks so we were out of luck. We had all kinds of troubles with our computers this morning - guess they were too cold - so by the time we finally headed down 93 to Pioche to get our Lincoln County cache it was 8:12am. We had 65 miles of driving before finding our first cache so we needed to get moving. This morning the sun was shining, the temperature was 32 degrees and the wind chill was 24 degrees. Mike was prepared with his ski mask, coat and gloves and Larry had on his sweater. No stopping us now!

As we traveled down 93, the mountains and clouds were spectacular and we were glad to discover that Nevada considers this the “Scenic Route”. I think that’s because it’s not the fastest route. But as you can see from yesterday's blog, we never go the fastest route. What fun would that be? Anyway, the scenic route lived up to its promise. We saw snow covered mountains, every kind of cloud, blue sky, big birds and lots of contrails, which we decided were those aliens headed to Area 51.

At around 9:30am we found our first cache. It was an easy ammo can hide, but it made us sad. When we were working on the Nevada DeLorme Challenge we had to travel through Lake Valley to reach Mount Wilson for the only cache in the quad. The people finding the Challenge now just have to find this cache along the roadway. What a loss for them! The challenge isn’t really a challenge anymore.

Our next cache was a walk through 8“ of snow. Since this was a much nicer day than yesterday, we all made the walk. As we went we were sinking in and slipping and commented that this was worse than walking in sand. We saw lots of animal tracks and tried to follow them, but while they don’t sink in, we certainly did. We found the cache quickly and since this cache qualified for our Lincoln County cache, we only have one more cache to find in Clark County and then we can head to the final County Challenge cache.

Our next stop was the Boot Hill Cemetery in Pioche. According to the sign, 72 men died in the 1870’s with their boots on and were buried at Boot Hill. The tombstones were all wooden. We loved exploring the area.

Next we stopped at Cathedral Gorge. Mike has been talking about stopping here since we started planning this trip. Today was the day. Too bad it was so windy and cold but we still enjoyed the view and took lots of pictures. While in the area, we visited the Bullionville cemetery and found a cache there.

The Lincoln County Airport and Panaca were the next caches we found before heading south again to Caliente. It’s now 47 degrees, which seems like a heat wave in comparison to yesterday, but the wind is howling so it’s still cold! As we approached Caliente, we passed through a canyon and actually started to see traffic. OK, 2 cars, but compared to the rest of the day that was rush hour.

It was lunch time when we reached Caliente and we began to look for somewhere to eat. The Branding Iron was our choice since it appeared to be very busy with locals. We’ve found a lot of great places by stopping in small towns at local restaurants. Unfortunately, today wasn’t one of them. After lunch we wondered around Caliente and found several caches and then headed on to Alamo. As we traveled the Joshua trees came and went. They only survive right around 5000 feet so we knew each time we reached that elevation. After passing through Alamo, we stopped for a cache at Lake Pahranagat, a wildlife refuge, and Mike told us this lake was formed by springs from an earthquake fault. Nevada never ceases to amaze us!

Now it was getting late and we had one more cache to find at the old southern Nevada border before heading straight to Las Vegas and our hotel. When we got there, we decided to round out our numbers to 25 caches today so we picked up one more cache in the parking lot of our hotel. Since we were now in Clark County our Nevada County Challenge was done. Tonight we email the final caches to longwalker and tomorrow we find the final cache. Another challenge completed. Now on to finally completing the California Counties Challenge and the California DeLorme Challenge. We only have a few counties and a few quads to go. Wish us luck!!

Reno to Las Vegas Via Ely

No, we’re not crazy. Of course, it would be faster to go to Las Vegas down 95. But we’re on a mission. Aren’t we always on a mission? Well, this one happens to be completing the Nevada Counties Challenge (GCWRTZ). We have found all the counties in Nevada except three - White Pine, Lincoln, and Clark. White Pine and Lincoln are on the eastern side of Nevada and Clark County is Las Vegas. The final cache is in Las Vegas so while we are there to attend an event and get lots of caches we decided to finish the challenge as well.

We were up at 5am to prepare for a 7am departure. We packed up all the luggage for Linda and Larry (L3-Geo) and us and believe it or not we actually were out the door at 7:05. We were packed like sardines in our Geo-Sequoia. You’d think we could pack lightly for our trip. But no - we are supposed to get the storm of the year, so we had to pack extra coats, gloves, hats and more. We filled every empty spot in the car. We made our traditional first stop at Starbucks and were on our way. We were trying to keep ahead of the big storm as much as possible. We certainly didn’t want eight feet of snow stopping our progress. As we headed towards Fallon, the sun was trying to out race the clouds so it could burn our retinas as we headed east. The sun finally won out in Fernley, but for only a short time. The rest of day was cloudy, windy and cold. We made two quick stops in Fernley for Linda & Larry to pick up caches we had already found and then headed on down the road to Fallon. LIttle did we know that a few days later a levee in Fernley would collapse and over 120 houses would be flooded with eight feet of water.

We found eleven caches in the Fallon area. Most were bison tubes hanging in trees or lampskirts. A few were challenging. We enjoyed lunch at Middlegate Station. We had heard that it had burned down and were very sad so we were delighted to see its familiar building as we drove up. This was our fourth visit here. Three lunches and one dinner. Our first visit was when we completed the Nevada DeLorme Challenge. The food and friendly owners gave us an excuse to stop every other time we passed by. As we left, we asked how long the trip to Ely would take. Three and a half hours we were told. We left at 12:30pm and arrived in Ely about 5pm. Cachers can always add hours to driving trips!! Soon after heading on up the road, we stopped for a cache near where 722 and 50 split. We ran into a snow grader waiting for the impending storm. Actually we saw all kinds of snow removal equipment and sanding equipment as we traveled and we were glad to still be ahead of the storm.

Several state historical markers later we stopped at the cemetery in Austin (“Where all the Dead People Live”). The snow was over two feet deep. The guys tried to get to the cache site, but when they started to look and uncovered a tombstone, they decided that they didn’t want to destroy a grave site, so this one would have to wait.

As we drove out of Austin up to the 7440 foot summit, we were treated to some beautiful views of the valleys below and surrounding mountains. We were also treated to some very icy patches on the road. When we reached the top, the wind was howling and we were glad we didn’t have to get out of the car to find a cache.

Finally, we were entering White Pine County. We stopped at Little Antelope Summit and Mike and Larry walked 200+ feet in the 2.5 feet of snow. While getting to the cache site, Larry fell flat on his face and thrashed around for a bit before he could find his feet. Leave it to Larry to provide the entertainment. When Mike and Larry arrived at the cache location, they actually found three caches. We’re still trying to figure out what that was about. As they returned, Mike sprinted through the snow to get back to the warm car. We made one more stop at a historical marker.

As the sun set, the last rays abandoned the highest mountain tops and the sky caught fire. Just after this awesome firey display, we rolled into Ely.

As we unloaded the car, we “enjoyed” a wind chill factor of 25 degrees. We could hardly wait to get our wet clothes off and jump in a hot shower. Once dry, we spent the evening logging caches, drinking wine, and eating snacks. All in all it was a great beginning to a great weekend.

Fernley and South

After being sick for most of December, caching was desperately calling our names. GeoJeep was lonely and we were starting to get the shakes from withdrawal. So today we planned a trip to Fernley, south to Fort Churchill and home on Mikes favorite road, Six Mile Canyon, through Virginia City. The day started out cold but sunny and soon warmed up so we could cache without our coats.

We headed straight to Fernley with no stops in between with a list of 18 caches. We made our first find quickly and then were stumped by the next cache at the busy intersection of Highway 50 and Highway 95. These type of caches are our worst nightmare. We can’t find anything when we are standing in the middle of traffic and are feeling very conspicuous. This was no exception. We searched for about 15 minutes and then decided to phone a friend for help. That got us nothing but voicemail. About that time our stubborn streak kicked in and we weren’t about to give up. We headed back to GZ and this time the cache practically slapped us in the face. It couldn’t have been more out in the open if it tried. We signed the log with a big sigh and headed on to the next.

Eight caches later we were ready to head down 95 to the Fort Churchill area. We weren’t sure what the roads might be like in the mountains around Fort Churchill because it had snowed a few days ago, but what the heck, we decided to give it a try. As we headed south, the snow in the mountains diminished and our hopes were high. Sure enough we were able to get to the top of the mountain where the cache was located and we found the “Rat with a View”. After signing the log, we enjoyed the view while we ate our lunch. We found one more in the state park and then headed south again.

A few caches later, we were on our way to “A Comfortable Saddle”. The road in was a well maintained dirt road and we were able to get to within .3 miles of the cache. Unfortunately, the cache was located at the top of a very steep hill. First we went around to the south looking for a way up. No way! Back we went and headed north. Still no easy way so we began the climb. We had to negotiate a rock fall that almost caused GeoJeepette to fall, but luckily she recovered before rolling down the hill. On we went, climbing higher and higher, huffing and puffing harder and harder. At last we were at the top and we found the cache. It was cold, windy, and miserable by now but we were actually sweating. We enjoyed the view for a few minutes and then headed down. As we were making our way down, the smallest train we’ve ever seen roared past (just the engine) and honked it’s horn and waved. They probably thought we were crazy and who’s to say we aren’t! Back at the jeep we were just glad our hearts were strong and we had survived to tell the tale.

Since it was getting late in the day, it was time to head north to Silver Springs and try for two more caches in the hills. As we made our way up the dirt road, the snow began to get thicker and thicker and where there wasn’t snow, there was mud. GeoJeep’s tires were just hunks of mud by the time we reached the first cache. We again had to hike a little ways and by the time we found the cache our shoes were also hunks of mud. Back at the Jeep, we tried to knock the mud off, but I’m afraid the inside of GeoJeep needs a little attention. The sun was beginning to set, so it was time to leave the mountains before the roads froze. We made one more stop along Highway 50 for an easy historical marker cache and then we headed home up Six MIle Canyon, through Virginia City and down to Reno. We ended up with 13 caches. One we looked for was missing and we ran out of time for the rest. Oh well, they’ll be there next spring too.