Adventures in the cold & ice

We finally managed to get out and break in 2013 with some caching this weekend! Although the weather was windy and cold, the troops managed to fight through and from Fri-Sun we managed 20 finds and a handful of DNFs.

Fri: The afternoon saw us touring around the Delafield/Waukesha area while grabbing a select few caches. I managed to avenge my previous DNF on Sisyphus. Turns out that I had the right idea the first time, but didn't follow it through to the conclusion. We also grabbed a challenge in the area, got some LCG points and managed a FTF in Palmyra on the way home, GC43QPQ.

Sat: Saturday was a roadtrip up to the Stevens Point area for the 4th Annual Sweet Treats event. This makes our 3rd birthday celebration that we've made it to and it's always fun to help Pat & Becky enjoy their birthdays. While in the area, I managed to knock the 5/1 off my Cheesy Well-Rounded list with Wazeecha Walking Trail, which is a cool hide, although it was in need of some TLC when we found it. We stopped off in Wautoma on the way up to try and grab a couple of challenges, but ended up with DNFs on both of them. Will probably have to wait for warmer weather before I make another attempt on those.

Sun: Finally we managed to knock the Johnson Creek woodpecker series off our list, this has been 3 years in the making! Assembled a great group for our river trek; Lord Cadogan, tick27, chevyole & Scribble Scribe along with the lil hippies. The weather was perfect, not windy but still cold enough that the ice was in great shape. A great series of caches and when we got to the final, we were worried that it was MIA. Finally after much searching for GZ and even more poking and prodding, chevyole came up with the ammo box buried in the dry rot in the tree. One sled ride back to the parking area for the boys and our day was complete!

Welcome to 2013!

So here we sit, opening the door on a new year! A few quick stats here before we begin tackling the goals for the year:

Caches found: 3575
Caches hidden: 22
Challenges completed: 75
TBs/Coins: 180
TBs/Coins discovered or moved: 1523
Cacher Stats rank (WI): 88th
Avg D/T: 1.89/1.8
US States: 14
US Counties: 140
WI Counties: 56
WI DeLorme pages: 51
FTFs: 148

Goals for 2013 1. Find GC1XHXR WRR 72 - Mountain Rd near Ripon to complete the Rustic Road Challenge. I've been working towards this for several years and now I'm finally down to the last cache I need.

2. Complete GC3PNKE by finding an EarthCache that starts with a "J". I've got several possiblities lined up including one in Joliet, IL on the way home from MOGA and one up near Duluth, MN to grab during our summer vacation along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

3. Continue to be active in CITO events, as I only need 3 more to complete GC1N4BP down in Busse Woods.

4. Search out qualifying caches for my double, triple & quad fizzy challenges as well as The 'Cheesy' Well Rounded Cacher! They are few and far between, but each one promises to be an adventure.

5. Lastly, just keep grinding away at puzzles so that one day I can log my find and join the 1K Puzzle Club! Considering the fact that I'm currently at only 386 puzzles found, it might be time to clear out my solve but unfound list a bit.

Mostly though, I want to keep having fun with friends and family on new and ever more challenging adventures! T5 icewalking, insane tree climbs, LCG & FTF runs, local events & Megas; it all sounds great. Hope everyone had a safe & fun New Years Eve and I'll check back in soon!

Happy Hippie Fools Day 2012 Run

So the boys and I headed out on an April Fools adventure to Watertown and the Happy Hippie Fools Day 2012 Run was born. Spent a couple of hours caching around town and ended the day with 45 finds, no DNFs & 1 TB to move plus we ran into Hearty Soles while working on GC32Y7N. It was a great day to be out, filled with some country road PnGs, some parks in the city where the boys could play, WSQs, a few tricky nanos & a lot of fun.

Still have a bit of work to do in cleaning out the area, including most of the puzzle caches in town and a few more evil little nano hides. I'll have to make plans for another trip out to clear out the remaining 25 or so caches around Watertown. Although I do want to wait and tackle GC11PJ3 for a milestone. It looks like a lot of fun and hopefully I can assemble a group to watch my insanity as I try and tackle this one.







This is TB3DEPB Odgi's Voyage, which has presumably been missing since the summer of 2010. I just pulled him out of a cache container that has been sitting in my basement for the last several months! It seems that he somehow managed to escape Roehl-Carver Park where he was listed and make his way into the final for my very first hide. No one ever logged him into the cache or discovered him while he was there. Probably because the coin part is so small that it just looks like swag. Anyways, several months back, I had removed the original container and replaced it. After glancing in the jar and seeing the logbook and a bunch of swag, it had gone to the workshop. There poor Odgi languished until today when I decided to repurpose the container and as I was looking through the stuff inside, I spotted the coin and saw that there was a tracking code on there. I find it kind of ironic that the boys and I actually found the cache where this was listed when we were at the Happy Hollow Event last year and left a note stating that the coin was gone, and then he he ends up with me after all.