Thursday, March 4, 2010
Monday, November 30, 2009
No more...
I am moving my blog to a website that I am working on entitled "The Other Side of Geocaching". For now it will be hosted on Weebly, but eventually I hope to make it into something more professional.
It is under construction for now, but I will be doing some major work on it in the next couple of weeks. Although I am still working on it, it is going to be published every time I add something to it. So you are welcome to keep checking it out and see how it progresses.
For now, the address is gipsie.weebly.com
Thanks for stopping by!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The practice
I have been rappelinga bit, but only made a couple of short ascents. And never with a setup like Dutch's. So the plan was laid. We decided to meet the day after scoping out the PUC#13, to practice and learn ascension techniques.
Four of our team members (Linuxxpert - Dutch and DJ, me and Mike from the Peanuts) met up bright and early (another leaving the house before daylight day for me) to do a little practice and learning. As I pulled up, Dutch, DJ and Mike were laying the lines over the pillar nearwhere Dutch has a cache. It was at least 40 feet in the air. They got the lines laid and the rope over.
Dutch made the first ascent. I guess to show us how "easy" it was. Then I climbed. Went up about halfway, struggling to work the new type of ascender and the gris gris. I came down to give someone else a shot. Mike went up and made it to the top. Dj went up. In the meantime, my friend Mark (4wheelin_fool) stopped by and he made a couple of attempts. Then Dutch went up again. When he came down, he said that if I didn't make it to the top, he was going to tell everyone what a girl I was. Grrrr... So I harnessed up and ascended. All the way up! So there! I guess I am not a "girl", but I am, really I am....
Way tired from two days of way too much driving I headed home. Exhausted with very sore and tired arms, but feeling pretty freakin' good about myself!
Four of our team members (Linuxxpert - Dutch and DJ, me and Mike from the Peanuts) met up bright and early (another leaving the house before daylight day for me) to do a little practice and learning. As I pulled up, Dutch, DJ and Mike were laying the lines over the pillar nearwhere Dutch has a cache. It was at least 40 feet in the air. They got the lines laid and the rope over.
Dutch made the first ascent. I guess to show us how "easy" it was. Then I climbed. Went up about halfway, struggling to work the new type of ascender and the gris gris. I came down to give someone else a shot. Mike went up and made it to the top. Dj went up. In the meantime, my friend Mark (4wheelin_fool) stopped by and he made a couple of attempts. Then Dutch went up again. When he came down, he said that if I didn't make it to the top, he was going to tell everyone what a girl I was. Grrrr... So I harnessed up and ascended. All the way up! So there! I guess I am not a "girl", but I am, really I am....
Way tired from two days of way too much driving I headed home. Exhausted with very sore and tired arms, but feeling pretty freakin' good about myself!
OK, so
OK, so now I have done it......
I am always talking about extreme caches. Now I am obligated to do one of the most difficult caches ever. Psycho Urban Cache #13. Look it up. It is in the middle of the Potomac River on a 70 foot pylon from an old railroad bridge. It was placed by helicopter. A few teams have gotten it and it is legendary.
So the story is that Groundspeak contacted the CO, Vinny. The want to do a TV special on extreme geocaching and use PUC13 as one of the featured caches. So Vinny, knowing our interest in getting this cache, contacted me and my friend Dutch (Linuxxpert) and asked if we would be team leaders on this mission. So we began an interview process and chose 12 team members. Me and Chuck and Dutch and DJ were givens and we wound up interviewing a lot of people and came up with 8 others. There is one other female on the team, an army medic. We have two people that have done the cache before, one a climbing teacher. And six newbies. All have a ton of experience though. We have soldiers, firemen, cops, even a magician (not sure how that fits in, but it is very cool).
So yesterday Dutch and I decided to meet up with one of the people that had done it before at the cache site. I left my house at 4:30 AM and made the long haul to West Virginia to meet up with everyone. We got there and scoped out the area (those pillars are IMPOSING!) and get some kind of plan in our heads. Couple of hours later we decided that, being in the area, we would grab a couple other PUCs. Numbers 3 and 14 to be exact.
Number 3 took us through storm drains in Frederick, MD. 3stages crawling through water filled storn drain tunnels that went under the roads (did I mention it was raining?) Interesting but not nearly Psycho enough!
Number 14 was definitely Psycho! The first stage was in a cave of sorts. DJ, the skinniest of our trio went in first and wound up making the find. Dutch and I made it in as far as we could, with DJ bringing out the coords to the next stage. Funny thing, DJ went the farthest and came out the cleanest...go figure....
Stage two was a hole in a cliff that was only accesible by rappelling. It was the dirtiest rappel I have ever seen or thought about attempting. "Dirty" meaning not only muddy and nasty but just a nasty rappel. Loose rocks and slippery slope. Dutch went down and made the find, and after watching him slip and slide and not want to climb back up, I decided to be the rescuer and carry down the gear, so he wouldn't have to come back up.
Regardless, another PUC completed....
I am always talking about extreme caches. Now I am obligated to do one of the most difficult caches ever. Psycho Urban Cache #13. Look it up. It is in the middle of the Potomac River on a 70 foot pylon from an old railroad bridge. It was placed by helicopter. A few teams have gotten it and it is legendary.
So the story is that Groundspeak contacted the CO, Vinny. The want to do a TV special on extreme geocaching and use PUC13 as one of the featured caches. So Vinny, knowing our interest in getting this cache, contacted me and my friend Dutch (Linuxxpert) and asked if we would be team leaders on this mission. So we began an interview process and chose 12 team members. Me and Chuck and Dutch and DJ were givens and we wound up interviewing a lot of people and came up with 8 others. There is one other female on the team, an army medic. We have two people that have done the cache before, one a climbing teacher. And six newbies. All have a ton of experience though. We have soldiers, firemen, cops, even a magician (not sure how that fits in, but it is very cool).
So yesterday Dutch and I decided to meet up with one of the people that had done it before at the cache site. I left my house at 4:30 AM and made the long haul to West Virginia to meet up with everyone. We got there and scoped out the area (those pillars are IMPOSING!) and get some kind of plan in our heads. Couple of hours later we decided that, being in the area, we would grab a couple other PUCs. Numbers 3 and 14 to be exact.
Number 3 took us through storm drains in Frederick, MD. 3stages crawling through water filled storn drain tunnels that went under the roads (did I mention it was raining?) Interesting but not nearly Psycho enough!
Number 14 was definitely Psycho! The first stage was in a cave of sorts. DJ, the skinniest of our trio went in first and wound up making the find. Dutch and I made it in as far as we could, with DJ bringing out the coords to the next stage. Funny thing, DJ went the farthest and came out the cleanest...go figure....
Stage two was a hole in a cliff that was only accesible by rappelling. It was the dirtiest rappel I have ever seen or thought about attempting. "Dirty" meaning not only muddy and nasty but just a nasty rappel. Loose rocks and slippery slope. Dutch went down and made the find, and after watching him slip and slide and not want to climb back up, I decided to be the rescuer and carry down the gear, so he wouldn't have to come back up.
Regardless, another PUC completed....
Monday, March 16, 2009
Fires!
We are meeting some friends at two o'clock to run through Chuck's 8 stage multi. Never liking to start that late, we decide to go get his daily (and his 800th) cache a few hours beforehand. As usual, we have plans to meet on Quaker Bridge, Chuck coming into Wharton from the west on Quaker Bridge and me coming in from the east behind Batsto. I am just turning onto Penn Swamp Rd (which turns into Quaker Bridge), when my phone rings. "Have they been doing any controlled burns out here today?", Chuck asks. They were, I tell him, but not now. He informs me that there is a ton of smoldering spots all along the road. I ask him if he sees any brush trucks and he tells me that he hasn't seen any. So I call the emergency number for Wharton and the guys asks where I am. I tell him that I am not sure of the exact location of the brush, but will call him when I get closer. I run into a lost old man and tell him to follow me in his Jeep to get him out of the woods and make my way towards Chuck. I meet up with Chuck, direct the old man the rest of the way out and get back on the horn with the emergency guy. He asks me a million questions and I give him all information and then tell him I have GPS coordinates. He wants no part of it. He tells me he is sending someone and we drive of of one of the side unnamed roads. More smoldering brush all the way in. Still no signs of help, I call a fireman that I know. Tell him where we are and he tells me that they were doing a controlled burn in the area yesterday, but it got away from them. They must have thought they had it out, but didn't quite get it. He promises to call Central and have them check it out. He calls me back and tells me that they are sending someone. We drive further in. Spend about a half anhour looking for a cache on the banks of the Batsto River, find it and head out. We still haven't seen any brush trucks. Halfway out, we saw flames. Get out of our vehicles and grab the bucket. I start to beat the flames and Chuck goes down to the river and gets water. Two bucketfuls of water and shovelfuls of dirt, we get it under control. But it is still smoldering. I call my fireman friend back and he says to call 911. I think about this and decide that it would be too much aggravation, they would never know where we were. So we get in the trucks and rush to the ranger station, passing little patches of fire on both roads. Get to the ranger station at Atsion and it is closed. I see a number for Batsto and dial it. Finally! A very nice lady answers and as I am explaining to her what went down, she asks me if I am the person who called the emergency number before. I tell her that I am and she says that they got the message but had no idea where to send the trucks. I gave her the coordinates and she assured us she was sending someone right out. We left and went to meet our friends.
We met the people we were supposed to on time and walked them through the multi. They left and me, Chuck and another buddy., Mark decided to hang out and explore the area a little more. It was an old abandoned underground radar station. We get to the station and there is smoke pouring out from the roof. Some kids had started a fire and left it burning in a "pit" they had made. They may have thought that they put it out, but the cushion of an old chair they were using must have stayed smoldering and then flamed up. So we beat that one down, made sure it wasn't going to cause any damage and left.
I swear I am going to join forest fire services......
We met the people we were supposed to on time and walked them through the multi. They left and me, Chuck and another buddy., Mark decided to hang out and explore the area a little more. It was an old abandoned underground radar station. We get to the station and there is smoke pouring out from the roof. Some kids had started a fire and left it burning in a "pit" they had made. They may have thought that they put it out, but the cushion of an old chair they were using must have stayed smoldering and then flamed up. So we beat that one down, made sure it wasn't going to cause any damage and left.
I swear I am going to join forest fire services......
Waterfall caching
Saturday we had a plan in mind. We were going to do half of the First State Challenge.
A few weeks back we finished the Tour de Cache. Between the two of us, we needed nine more counties and they were all in North Jersey. So we picked out some easy caches and started out bright and early. Chuck had noticed a cache called Rook in the Reeds up in Liberty State Park and was told it was very impressive and that we HAD to do it. So on our third cache stop, we made a side trip through the marsh to get this cache. The cache was easy to find and nothing special but there were bonus coordinates and we went to them. Having no idea what we were looking for, we followed the thin trails through reeds taller than us until we got close. I was in the lead and when I got to GZ, I was amazed. There in the middle of the reeds was a perfect miniature castle made of little stones . It was beautiful. We took lots of photos and then hurried on our way. We rushed through the next 6 counties, called the CO for Tour de Cache and he gave us the bonus coords on the honor system. We grabbed the final and went home. 403 miles and 13 hours later.
So this time, we smartened up. We decided that it would be much more fun to split the challenge up. Do only half of it so we could explore all the different areas. And we did. But before we even started, there was the cache in Delaware that had been driving us nuts and we HAD to get it.
Back in the beginning of February, we went to do this cache down there called "Walk On Down - How Nutz Are You?" It was the coldest day of the winter but we went anyway. We see the cache is only 50 feet off the road, so we figure how hard can it be? We get out of the truck and see that the coordinates are taking us to a waterfall. Right on the side of the waterfall was a rock embankment. Kind of like a "wing wall", but looked natural. We see the spot the cache looked like it could be in and try to reach it from above. No luck and no rope. So I climb down the hill and try to get it from the bottom. I try standing on the pool of ice, but feel it cracking under my feet. So I try to "boulder" my way over to the spot on the wall. I get about half way and I have no safety equipment on and Chuck tells me to stop. I tell him that I can make it and he says that if I get wet, hypothermia is going to set in real quick. Half jokingly, I tell him that if I fall in, he needs to run back to the truck (even though it was 50 feet off the road, we had to park a quarter mile away), crank the heat and rush back to get me. I see the look of horror on his face and he says something about dropping dead of a heart attack before he even reaches the truck. So common sense prevailed and we scrapped it.
Now here we are back in Delaware again and having to drive right past that same cache. We had rope this time, but I forgot my harness and a coin I wanted to drop off. Who cares? It is warmer (although still cold) and we decide to park illegally right on the side of the road. So back we go. Chuck asks which one of us is going down and I tell him that I am of course. So I tie off and he belays me down. Right to the area that we just KNEW the cache was in. I move some rocks, reach in and...nada! Damn! I mess around a little more and thoroughly aggravated, I tell him that I am coming up. I get to the top and we walk around a bit, looking for another spot. Nothing. He asks me if I am SURE it is not in there. I tell him that if he doen's believe me, he can go check himself. So I belay him down. And he searches. He loses his footing a little and kicks a rock. Clunk! Both of our eyes go wide and we grin. I give him some more rope and he goes down a little lower and comes up with an ammo box! Yippee! I sign us in, hand the box back down and then we start our challenge. Cool way to start our day. We are going back on Saturday so I can drop off that coin. Now that I know where it is, I will be climbing down....again.
A few weeks back we finished the Tour de Cache. Between the two of us, we needed nine more counties and they were all in North Jersey. So we picked out some easy caches and started out bright and early. Chuck had noticed a cache called Rook in the Reeds up in Liberty State Park and was told it was very impressive and that we HAD to do it. So on our third cache stop, we made a side trip through the marsh to get this cache. The cache was easy to find and nothing special but there were bonus coordinates and we went to them. Having no idea what we were looking for, we followed the thin trails through reeds taller than us until we got close. I was in the lead and when I got to GZ, I was amazed. There in the middle of the reeds was a perfect miniature castle made of little stones . It was beautiful. We took lots of photos and then hurried on our way. We rushed through the next 6 counties, called the CO for Tour de Cache and he gave us the bonus coords on the honor system. We grabbed the final and went home. 403 miles and 13 hours later.
So this time, we smartened up. We decided that it would be much more fun to split the challenge up. Do only half of it so we could explore all the different areas. And we did. But before we even started, there was the cache in Delaware that had been driving us nuts and we HAD to get it.
Back in the beginning of February, we went to do this cache down there called "Walk On Down - How Nutz Are You?" It was the coldest day of the winter but we went anyway. We see the cache is only 50 feet off the road, so we figure how hard can it be? We get out of the truck and see that the coordinates are taking us to a waterfall. Right on the side of the waterfall was a rock embankment. Kind of like a "wing wall", but looked natural. We see the spot the cache looked like it could be in and try to reach it from above. No luck and no rope. So I climb down the hill and try to get it from the bottom. I try standing on the pool of ice, but feel it cracking under my feet. So I try to "boulder" my way over to the spot on the wall. I get about half way and I have no safety equipment on and Chuck tells me to stop. I tell him that I can make it and he says that if I get wet, hypothermia is going to set in real quick. Half jokingly, I tell him that if I fall in, he needs to run back to the truck (even though it was 50 feet off the road, we had to park a quarter mile away), crank the heat and rush back to get me. I see the look of horror on his face and he says something about dropping dead of a heart attack before he even reaches the truck. So common sense prevailed and we scrapped it.
Now here we are back in Delaware again and having to drive right past that same cache. We had rope this time, but I forgot my harness and a coin I wanted to drop off. Who cares? It is warmer (although still cold) and we decide to park illegally right on the side of the road. So back we go. Chuck asks which one of us is going down and I tell him that I am of course. So I tie off and he belays me down. Right to the area that we just KNEW the cache was in. I move some rocks, reach in and...nada! Damn! I mess around a little more and thoroughly aggravated, I tell him that I am coming up. I get to the top and we walk around a bit, looking for another spot. Nothing. He asks me if I am SURE it is not in there. I tell him that if he doen's believe me, he can go check himself. So I belay him down. And he searches. He loses his footing a little and kicks a rock. Clunk! Both of our eyes go wide and we grin. I give him some more rope and he goes down a little lower and comes up with an ammo box! Yippee! I sign us in, hand the box back down and then we start our challenge. Cool way to start our day. We are going back on Saturday so I can drop off that coin. Now that I know where it is, I will be climbing down....again.
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