caching Sunday

Well, I took my nephew out on Sunday, to try & get a few more caches. We started off OK, hitting a couple real quick ones, no problems finding them. Then, as we were heading to another local one, I saw 2 pop up on my GPS. I asked if he wanted to grab them on the way. "Sure" he answered. Thus, it begins....
So, I am circling the woods where these caches are located, and we settle on parking in a clearcut area. Seeing no trail (we are used to this, by now), we just follow the arrow. Much to our surprise, the is a nice, open field to cross. No tripping, crawling through underbrush, pickers, nothing! So, we cut across, do a little bushwhacking, and find a trail. We head down the trail, get to ground zero, and begin our hunt. After about 10 minutes, we find the cache. We are at the top of these cliffs, about 100 feet up or so. I ask my nephew if he wants to try this cache, about 1/2 mile away, looking like its down the trail. Again, he responds positively. So, we begin walking. Following the trail. The trail cuts down the cliff. Slowly, slowly, we get close. A fifteenth of a mile. A tenth. Five hundred feet. Now, mind you, we are at the bottom of the cliff. I stop, take a reading, look at the map. "Bad news", I say. Without saying another word, I simply look up, at the cliffs. "are you serious" my nephew asks. I tell him, simply, "hey, you give elevation, you gain elevation". So, instead of doing the SMART thing, and head back the way we came, we decide to scramble up the cliffs. We begin half climbing, half clawing our way up. Josh, my nephew, grabs a stump to pull himself up, which promptly separates itself from the ground. "Don't grab that dead tree" he says to me. Like there was much left to hold onto after it was ripped out of the ground.
Finally, after a few more hairy moments, we get to the top of the cliffs. "Hey", I say; "the cache is only like 50 feet that way", I point to my left. Sure enough, there it was, under a rock.
And, sure as the sun rises in the east, we find the REAL trail as soon as we replace the cache.

Caching items part III

Ok, so, here is the third installment of what I carry. We are going to touch on clothing items. Here, you'll notice I have three articles of clothing. These are a fleece jacket, and wet weather tops and bottoms.
These items I have with me ALL the time. I figure that, should I get caught out somewhere, these will get me through a rough night. Also, come fall (like it is now), I will throw in a knit cap. I also add thicker socks as backup (they can double as mittens). You have to draw a fine line between lightweight and comfort. I figure, worst case, I'll be stuck overnight. It may be a miserable night, but it would be surviveable. And, I just may need to, or, WANT to, stay dry; and I always know where my gear is!

Part II

Ok, here is part 2 of the essentials. Now, an integral part of geocaching, and a main attraction to the sport, is, of course, the GPS. There are MANY options on the market today; the two frontrunners are garmin and magellan. Although there ARE other handhelds out there (please, make sure that the one you get is weather proof), these two are the ones you will run into the most. I, personally, have always used garmin products. Others swear by magellans. Its kinda like the coke/pepsi thing. Each one has its ups & downs. I currently own a GPSMAP60Cx, which is their premier GPS at this moment. It is capable of storing maps, has a removeable memory card, has autorouting (more on that later), and even has a geocaching feature, which allows you to log the geocache, and go to the next closest one. Its a feature I really like. There is also a calendar feature, which logs all your finds each day, so you dont have to actually remember them.
The next thing I carry for electronics is a camera. I use a Nikon Coolpix L3. Camera choice is yours. I keep mine in a plastic bag, inside a case, to keep moisture from getting to it. It takes AA batts, same as all my other electronic stuff, so I dont need to carry different types of batteries. For me, a digital camera is best, as I can download my pictures to the net. Again, the choice is yours.
Next up is a walkie talkie. I honestly have never used mine caching; some do, some dont. I carry it simply because. IT also takes AAs.
LAst one for now, my PDA. My PDA is a Garmin Iqueue 3600. IT serves several purposes; first, its a PDA (duh). Second, this model is also a GPS, and, with a car kit and external antenna, it is my car navigation system. This has autorouting (plug in an address, and it routes from where you are to where you want to be), voice turn by turn directions, and works reasonably well. Third, I use my PDA for paperless caching. You can read more on that there. But, it beats the heck out of carrying tons of paper with you. One word on caching with PDA's; get a good case for it. There are several weatherproof cases on the market today. The one I use allows me to write through the heavy plastic front of it, and, it floats. You want to protect your investment.
speaking of investment, you can get a good used pda off of ebay for a song. All you need is one that is capable of hotsyncing, and has palm os 3.0 or later, for uploading files to it. More on that later.
Well, thats all for now. Hope you found this all informative!

Part I, as promised

Ok, as promised, here is one of several installments as to what I normally carry when out caching. Here is a picture of the pack I carry:
This pack is one that has been with me for several years. Almost any type of daypack will do, so long as it can hold your essentials. Mine is a 3 day pack, and can swallow enough gear to support me for several days. Mine is manufactured by Blackhawk, and is pretty bombproof. It has a hydration sleeve, side compression straps, a sternum strap, & a waist strap. I have run several miles with this, and find it fairly comfortable.
Well, thats all I have for it right now. Next, I will go over some of my electronic gear.

I hit 100 today!

Well, despite the weather, I decided to go out & finish up my first 100 caches. I had pre-planned a route last night, and chose a few caches in the area. I also planned on leaving my current green jeep TB. I hit my one hundredth cache on its miller time. I went on & did one more, before calling it a day. I wanted to do a decent one to drop off my green jeep, as the 100th cache was a small one, and could be muggled. Well, finally finished up, with doing 8, in the pouring rain, in about three hours. Overall, a good day for geocaching. Even with the rain. It kept away the bugs AND the muggles!