Oh, Hai! Geocaching: Weer doin it rite

Lots of caches, empty dirt roads, spectacular views, fun friends.
Yep…
North of Ojai – a jeep trail that only permits 10 vehicles per day to drive on it
Ventura Kids, the Devious Max Power, Terra Girl, f0t0m0m, me
95 finds
THIS is geocaching:

That’s pretty much what we “had” to look at all day. Those are the Channel Islands out there:

Most of the caches were really easy to find, even under these potentially daunting circumstances:

The next one is over there somewhere:

We never could figure out what this alien beacon was really for:

It might have something to do with the lovely little pond nearby:

Steve shows us how to really look for caches. He said he could see it from there, down where we were. Hm.

A Devious Hide?

Snow! We did get out and play in it… sort of…

A little video view:

I look forward to more fun days with these guys!

It IS all About the Numbers (Sometimes)!

One of the comments I got on my post about finding cache #20,000 was what some of my statistics look like. I ran an “all finds” pocket query, and asked f0t0m0m to run it through his GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) program. Some of the results are fun, some are just, er… boring… but here’s what 20,000 caches looks like all taken apart.

First of all, my yearly average, which I’ll compute myself:

I started at the end of May, 2003, for 6 years, 4 months of caching is 3,158 finds per annum. This is also about 263 per month and almost 61 per week. Now that’s not TOO crazy, is it? Ha…..

OK, as most of you know, the most I’ve found in a day with a team is 413. I also found 111 solo with no lifelines and 16 DNFs a couple of years ago in Escondido in about 16 hours. That was a “I’m glad there are so many light pole caches here” kind of day!

The furthest away I’ve been caching so far is in Sweden (the one listed below is an old armchair cache). The highest up is 14,252 feet on the summit of White Mountain in the Eastern Sierras.

Here are my milestone caches and the intervals between them:

Milestone	Date	Interval	Code		Cache Name
1	05/24/2003		GCG1MP		Old Saw Mill
1000	02/07/2004	259 days	GCHKQ8		Milestones
2000	06/07/2004	121 days	GCB38F		A Quick Score
3000	08/16/2004	70 days	GCJWTH		Road to Nowhere
4000	12/18/2004	124 days	GCM9XH		Voce Dorata
5000	04/18/2005	121 days	GCMKG9		VK’s Tax Payment #1
6000	07/11/2005	84 days	GCN6HM		UNR
7000	12/26/2005	168 days	GCPNWZ		Lily Pad
8000	05/18/2006	143 days	GCRDHP		Rainbow’s end
9000	07/19/2006	62 days	GCX7MR		101 View aka “EMC’s 9000th”
10000	09/09/2006	52 days	GCX3BW		SCG GeoFest 2006
11000	01/12/2007	125 days	GCWZKE		I Think You’re Tops
12000	04/15/2007	93 days	GC11EWX		Trinity
13000	07/06/2007	82 days	GCPQQB		Baker’s Dozen #5
14000	11/04/2007	121 days	GC12RR2		South Hills Park #2
15000	03/01/2008	118 days	GC19QHZ		Triple Crown Road
16000	06/10/2008	101 days	GC1CD17		City in Transition #03
17000	10/09/2008	121 days	GC1GCWF		OCTSOC
18000	01/19/2009	102 days	GC1J5XC		One Heck of a Gecko
19000	07/12/2009	174 days	GC1HWFQ		Posted
20000	09/19/2009	69 days	GC1RGH9		MAtM25 Skylarking Lars

76 Diff/Terr combinations found, out of 81
2051 (10.1%) finds were rated with Diff or Terr of 3 or greater

I like the following table in particular. The only way to find so many is if LOTS and LOTS are hidden! Many thanks to these and ALL of you cache hiders!

	Number	Percent
1 – Wheeler Dealers	556	2.76 %
2 – f0t0m0m	251	1.24 %
3 – MightyDee	245	1.21 %
4 – UNCLEJON91 (JONEDI)	238	1.18 %
5 – agouracharger	225	1.11 %
6 – ventura_kids	181	0.89 %
7 – HaZzMaTt…	171	0.85 %
8 – Team Nohoch	165	0.82 %
9 – MaxGold	150	0.74 %
10 – fresgo	150	0.74 %
10 – ShowStop	129	0.64 %
12 – mondou2	128	0.63 %
13 – Yosemite John and …	127	0.63 %
14 – Joshua Tree Bonnie…	124	0.61 %
15 – imusttravel2000	122	0.60 %
16 – capdude	115	0.57 %
17 – Castle Man	113	0.56 %
18 – FishPOET	110	0.54 %
19 – Dooley Noted	106	0.52 %
20 – team 9-er	104	0.51 %

These didn’t make it to the top:

mamaloo (96)	TheDeviousMaxPower (96)	twopoms (96)	OLdweeb (95)
mshock (91)	Team Geo-Rangers (89)	chaosmanor (86)	Don_J (84)
Lyndy (82)	Sandbassking & Queen (82)	Team Perks (80)	PurpHaze (79)
GeoCraig (78)	campyc (77)	PackerTrekkers (76)	Terra Girl (75)
TRUROKR (73)	redwoodcanoe (72)	Thudpucker (72)	Firehouse16 (68)

EMC has also found caches placed by 3664 other people

More fun numbers:

Total cache-to-cache distance:	539441 km, Note: excludes locationless caches. 13.47Earth Circumnavigation, 1.403Distance to the Moon
Maximum distance in a day:	17953 km, on 05/24/2005Note: excludes locationless caches.
Nearest cache found:	What is the Name? GC14QKY
Furthest cache found:	9444.91 km, Go Trabi, go GCMFNK
Most Northerly cache found:	N 64° 50.741, Black & White & Red All Over GCKK54
Most Southerly cache found:	N 29° 01.458, The Postcard Cache GC9660
Most Easterly cache found:	E 13° 45.289, Go Trabi, go GCMFNK
Most Westerly cache found:	W 149° 56.537, Anchorage TB Drop GCNN27
Cache centroid:	N 35° 27.889 W 116° 46.623 MapNote: excludes locationless caches.
Youngest cache found:	09/26/2009, Frozen Flash Mob III GC1W880
Oldest cache found:	08/16/2000, Lake Lanier GC21
Caches found which are now archived:	8257 (41.0 %)
Log Length, words:	Average: 28, Longest: GCGX16561, Shortest: GC1N9741

I’m still missing 16 US states and about 1/3 of the Southern California Delorme challenge (GC18M1N), even though I have found a cache in every county in California. This alone means there are still more caches to find and still reasons to find them… and NOT just the numbers!

Here’s to the adventures that hide in these statistics! Where to next? Around the corner? Around the world?

413 Geocaches in 24 Hours?? YES! We did it…

50 years ago (or as the card my sister gave me expressed it “A Long, Long, Long Time Ago”), on August 29, I breathed my first taste of Terran air. What better way to celebrate than with a crazy, exhausting, record-setting day of geocaching??

For those of you who have never attempted real power caching like this and wonder how on earth it can be done, here are the most essential things for achieving light speed:

1) density – there must be a LOT of caches in a concentrated area

2) ease of transition – no traffic lights or muggles, but an open country grid of roads

3) complete pre-planning – all puzzles solves and the entire route is mapped out for maximum efficiency

***I have to give Steve of the Ventura Kids great credit for handling this part!***

4) ease of finding and logging – not too many nanos, no tricky hides, no vegetation hides, no multis

5) high level of maintenance – lots of folks finding them recently, no DNFs in the history

6) excessive good humor – it’s a LONG time to be driving around… if it ain’t going to be fun, don’t bother!

7) tenacity – especially as the sun is going down again and your hourly cache count with it, you need to know you and your team will stick with it to the end

There’s your basic recipe for a wild and woolly ride through a cosmos’ worth of logbooks.

Here’s a peek into how our day went. Well, first of all, I was picked up at the airport the day before:

We found 15 caches that afternoon, then we all ate dinner and rested up for the coming marathon. At 11:15pm, we regrouped in the hotel lobby. Steve fortified himself with coffee:

We loaded up the trunk with food for the day:

and we were off! We did 5 “warmup” caches before midnight, at which time the other three sang “Happy Birthday” to me!

Here’s our first official find of the 24-hour period of August 29:
‘34 Gold Wing

Cache find 100 was around 5:30am! It was still dark.
Mondo’s Silver Bullet LV

Here’s Jim signing a log on the other side of a ditch while Steve sets his GPSr for the next one. Efficiency is the name of the game, for sure.

Many of the caches were in the late summer’s overgrowth of weeds:

and we got to experience the truly vicious variety of stickers that grow all over this place:

Speaking of stickers – we used a single group one:

I tried to reserve my energy whenever possible:

There were some interesting views at cache #200
Colorado Eastern Railroad

We could see the airport from there and pretty much everywhere all day:

and these wildflowers were all over:

They’re a smaller version of these guys:

Cache find #300 was around 4:30pm
Shadow and Sandy

Sandy of the VKs wants to call Jim “Shadow” now:

Steve observes the log signing ritual behind me. Why did he park so far from the cache??
(hahaha)

Somewhere along the way, we stopped for gas, and f0t0m0m presented me with cupcakes! They did not light the candles since we were at a gas station – whew!

The sunset looked similar to the sunrise, just in a different part of the big, broad sky:

Find #400, at just before 11pm.
Cachonomic Stimulus Plan #2

We were a little worried earlier in the evening that we might not pull this off, but now we knew we were in the clear! We found the record-breaking #407 at 11:30pm and continued to midnight to nab 413!
Douglas #12 Hungate

Oh, and here’s a short video that shows you basically what driving up to each and every cache was like:

Here are our per hour stats (listed from the beginning of each hour):
midnight = 15 
1 am = 11 
2 am = 23 
3 am = 20 
4 am = 24 
5 am = 21 
6 am = 19 
7 am = 17 
8 am = 17 
9 am = 15 
10 am = 20 
11 am = 27 
noon = 18 
1 pm = 17 
2 pm = 13 
3 pm = 14 
4 pm = 16 
5 pm = 20 
6 pm = 14 
7 pm = 16 
8 pm = 12 
9 pm = 15 
10 pm = 17 
11 pm = 11 

We also had 24 DNFs!

We don’t know how long we’ll hold this record, but we hope it will stand through the winter. Come the longer days next year, though… who will go for it??

YOU???

P.S. The Daily Reviewer has me on the list of top geocaching blogs! Here’s the *LINK*. I’m honored!

p.p.s. here’s a jpg of our route! (Steve lost his track, darn it…)

Generic Geocaching in Simi Clarita

I spent two mornings this week out geocaching, one with f0t0m0m, one with him and Capdude. The first of the days we were in Simi Valley, the second in Santa Clarita. Both days were fun and relaxing, overcast and cool. The finds were mostly standard with a couple of really good camo jobs thrown in. We did not do any hiking per se, but did climb a couple of hills in open space or parks. We had lunch at decent restaurants, but nothing gourmet. We saw lizards, birds, and squirrels, but no unusual wildlife. We were unnoticed by muggles. We were not in a hurry, and our lists had only around a couple dozen for each day. I took a few pictures. We enjoyed the fresh air, the anticipation of each hunt, and the satisfying ritual of the log book. We got outside, and saw something new around every corner.

I’d call it generic geocaching. This does not diminish the experience in any way, however. This is what we really enjoy: just finding geocaches and finding more and more of them.

I know is says “no parking”, but we really only paused here while we found the cache in the corner:
Corner Cache

Olive trees are great places to hide caches, with all the crevasses they have:
Mulligan’s Micro Madness

This cache afforded a really lovely panoramic view from a bridge connecting a big shopping complex with the residential neighborhood to the west:
Paseo Ranch

I’ve found 3 or 4 caches under this little bridge. It’s in a small valley amongst the homes that’s lace with walking paths.
Bridge to the Summit

Capdude hid a new one by the nature preserve in Lake Balboa Park:
Guardian Toad – Ellen

On another day, I did some cache maintenance, replacing damp, moldy log sheets. Some of my readers might see their names here:
Vector Sees Stars!

Until next week, happy plain-wrap caching!

My Live Blog – Posting as I go Geocaching

I posted as I went today, using Loopt to update Facebook and Twitter. I entertained quite a few people with my photos and entries. All of the photos were taken by iPhone, so could post them immediately, so the quality and detail is not superb, but it’s in the moment. Note: some of the time stamps are guesses, but they are all in order! Here we go….

preparing to go caching and “live blogging” – stay tuned…. 9:37am

Logged in a travel bug to take with me @ home. 9:40am

My usual break of eggs (free range) toast (cracked wheat) & milk (no rbst) @ home. 9:49am

That would be breakfast… @ home. 9:51am

coakford @ emcofnorthridge
Where will you go caching today? 10:00am

@coakford
Around the San Fernando Valley and Burbank.

Supplies for my urban caching in the San Fernando Valley @ home. 10:03am

The cachemobile & the day after a rain in LA means gorgeous clear skies @ home. 10:10am

@flicka47 heading out now! 10:12am

flicka47@emcofnorthridge Cool, will keep tabs on your progress 10:14am

flicka47@emcofnorthridge Cool ,I drove as a courier in LA for abt 5 yrs,should be able to follow your progress fairly easily. Have fun! 10:15am

Ready to roll, jazz on the radio. No video on iPhone so that will be on the blog later @ home. 10:22am

First stop new cache Pennies From Heaven @ home. 10:24am

Arriving @ GC1N482 it has a clear hint & recent finds @ Los Angeles, CA. 10:38am

Doesn’t mean I can find it right away LOL @ Los Angeles, CA. 10:41am

aHA! Vegetation hide also logged in live on geocaching.com – One! @ Los Angeles, CA 10:49am

It’s near a recycled Circuit City @ Los Angeles, CA. 10:51am

Carpe Diem GC1FXER in Mission Hills right across from where I bought my Prius (just pd it off!) @ Los Angeles, CA. 11:05am

Instant find – yay! @ Los Angeles, CA. 11:07am

On the way: Mission San Fernando @ Los Angeles, CA. 11:16am

Next cache Well Bred found in the heart of San Fernando @ San Fernando, CA. 11:26am

@coakford need help with King of 31! under the sign or by phones? in Los Angeles, CA 11:48am

Oops never mind – found it! Duh… & my favorite container, too (spoiler photo) @ Los Angeles, CA. 11:57am

[nice, empty freeway]

Daily Prophet bonus cache! @ UPS Store @ Los Angeles, CA. 12:27pm

Platform 9 3/4. @ Los Angeles, CA. 12:29pm

I revisited the Daily Prophet since I’d missed the cool themed bonus cache! Just logged GC1JNA4 Burbank Fire St12 @ Burbank, CA. 12:43pm

Just logged quick find @ Burbank Fire St. 14 GC1JNA6 Time for lunch @ Chili John’s nearby! @ Burbank, CA. 1:05pm

Having chili spaghetti in this classic diner @ Burbank, CA- 1:20pm -
Amy Engelhardt likes this.
Kristy Montgomery at 1:26pm March 5
mmmm…..i’m hungry…that sounds good.

cinderellasarah@emcofnorthridge Oops! Typo! What classic diner is it? Looks fantastic and I work in Burbank… 1:30pm

@cinderellasarah Chili John’s! Burbank & Keystone 1:33pm

Lunchtime reading RT @weirdnews: Sea lion wanders to Mexican restaurant http://cli.gs/10Vn7T 1:34pm

Onward! (burp) next is a puzzle multi cache GC1JTP4 Cypher Me This – wish me luck… @ Burbank, CA. 1:49pm
Greg Blocher at 1:56pm March 5
LUCK!!!!!

Well, I’m zeroed out @ the corner of an apt. bldg no obvious hide@ WP1 & not comfy searching… Help? @ Burbank, CA. 2:04pm

A recent log left a bit of a hint about succulents. WP1 in hand – whew! @ Burbank, CA. 2:09pm

Hey! I interpreted the puzzle correctly, drove around the corner, & spy it there. Fun! @ Burbank, CA 2:22pm

Nice that a tool is provided! @ Burbank, CA. 2:23pm

flicka47@emcofnorthridge Yeah! Congrats! It has been fun following you around town! 2:31pm

Found a magnetic one in a tree – LOL @ Burbank Firefighter Training Center @ Burbank, CA. 2:41pm

GC1N1JA Burbank Park Pacific is near this monument to aviation history. @ Burbank, CA. 3:01pm

Time for just one or two more caches. Hope this has been fun for y’all! @ Burbank, CA. 3:05pm
Kristy Montgomery at 3:07pm March 5
can we go to the mountains? can we? can we?

Cache #10 is at a hidden park by the 170 freeway in N. Hollywood on a street split by said freeway. @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:25pm

Recount: that was #9 gotta find one more! @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:27pm

Awwwww a Christmas cache! @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:35pm

CacheAdvance@emcofnorthridge Thanks for allowing the vicarious caching today! 3:41pm

shawnmcguirt@emcofnorthridge been enjoying your caching post! 3:45 pm

shawnmcguirt@emcofnorthridge great to see what other cachers are seeing and doing! 3:46pm

Bonus cache! This is an odd dead end street in N Hollywood & where they shoot “The Office” – kewl! @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:51pm

Calling it quits & joining the locals for weekly cachER maintenance. Was this fun? Comments? @ Los Angeles, CA. 3:59pm

Kristy Montgomery at 4:12pm March 5
I for one had a GREAT time from my sickbed-I am exhausted! can we do it again tomorrow? xoxox kiki

I’m looking to find more creative ways to blog about geocaching. Comments and suggestions are welcome! Cache on….