[Az-Geocaching] 300 club

Scott Nicol az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com
Mon, 04 Mar 2002 17:24:18 -0800 


>From: Brian Cluff <brian@snaptek.com>
>Reply-To: az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com
>To: <az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com>
>Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] 300 club
>Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 15:14:32 -0700 (MST)

>http://geocaching.snaptek.com/linegraph.html?t=cm9waW5ndGhld2luZA==+VGVhbSBcIld5bGUgRVwi&bdate=2002-1-6&edate=2002-3-4
>
>Brian Cluff
>Team Snaptek

> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Brian Cluff" <brian@snaptek.com>
> > To: <az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com>
> > Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 2:17 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] 300 club
> >
> >
> > > Is he?  hmmmmmm
> > > You are actually finding them quite a bit faster than he is.  Check 
>out
> > this
> > > graph of your progress compared to his.  If you can keep it up, your 
>catch
> > > up before too long at all.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Wow! :)

I got into geocaching in early January after seeing a link to the 
geocaching.com site on Garmin GPS's web site. I clicked on the link and 
started reading all about Geocaching. I truly love navigation and doing 
things that require navigational skills. Whether it be map reading, 
plotting, compass use, using a GPS or all of the above (as a hot air balloon 
pilot, I fly competitive balloon events that require such skills)... 
geocaching definetly seemed to interest me. I got a friend and we went out 
after our first geocache... the Junk Drawer Junkie Cache on January 6th, 
2002. We kinda really earned that one and we kinda didn't! You see, we didnt 
read the printout and was using only a GPS and didnt bring the topo maps of 
the area (I have one of that area, just forgot to bring it!). So, we winged 
it and just followed the GPS. We found ourselves hiking thru the canyon to 
the east and below the cache site. The GPS wasnt working to well down there 
and couldnt get a really good fix. It was starting to get late and sunset 
was fast approaching when a light bulb came on in my head and I figured that 
it must be at the top of that ridge.. sure enough. We climbed up and out and 
headed to the point where the cache was. There we saw two people looking 
around the area. Could they be geocachers? Sure was! We met Team Wyle 'E'.. 
Connie and Larry. We thought it was cool that we met some geocachers there, 
but, had no idea who they were :0 :) Other than just another geocaching 
team. Well, they found the cache container and we just kinda fell into the 
find. It turns out we were there for the first find. Of course, Wyle E 
actually found it first as we were walking up toward the cache site. We 
logged in second. So, dont feel that we really earned that one. If we hadnt 
hiked down into the canyon, we may have had a first find on our very first 
geocache! (since then, on the really tough caches, I usually remember to 
review my topo maps first!). Wyle E offered us a ride out in the 'Yellow 
Jeep'. We thought it was a really cool jeep as we made our way out that 
really rocky 4x4 road. Now... that we look back on it.. I thought it was 
really cool that I met the top team in AZ Geocaching.... Wyle E! And to meet 
them on our first geocache outing and find! AND... We got a ride in the 
yellow jeep! That is a priceless experience that no amount of money can buy! 
:) Disneyland doesnt compare!

Anyways, since that day... we have gone on to log over 100 cache finds. We 
were hooked on it that first day and have been going after caches at a 
pretty fast clip. Being that I am very competitive... and after seeing Team 
Snaptek's stats page.. we knew that the records and big numbers could only 
be had in the early part of our geocaching 'career'. :) Now, big numbers are 
harder to come by as the caches are farther in between and we have to drive 
farther to get to most of them. Still, there are new caches and some caches 
closer to home I havent gotten yet or havent been able to find. So, we 
thought we would go for some records and try to get that big 100 finds and 
try to see how fast we could do it. It took us less than two months to 
accomplish that. Having found our 100th cache on February 28th. I am proud 
to say that Libby's cache... HEDGPETH Cache is our 100th cache find! Thanks 
again Libby for putting that cache in the necessary spot to grab our 100th! 
:) (since I was in that area that day working on 96-100).

On one day we had a 12 cache day and in the month of February we logged 69 
cache finds. Some days I went out alone and other days with my team mates 
Brent and/or Erik. Other friends have expressed interest in trying this out 
and hope to see they join me soon. It is indeed alot of fun!

We now plan on slowing down though. We wanted to get the big numbers early 
on while we could and now are going to have some serious fun with it! We 
plan to get out of town when we can and go for some of those now. The ones 
that require longer hikes and longer drives, we will now try to work for. 
Just going to have fun with it. Not that we havent in the past two months.. 
however! :)  ;)

Boy, I have done more hiking in the last two months than I have done in my 
lifetime! Got a good workout on some of those!

We have met several teams in the past two months as well. Wyle E, Tres 
Hombres, Team CHUMP, Cachemeifyoucan, Team Cyclecool, Team Cache-Quest and 
Cache-Quest Jr and others. It has been fun.

Look forward to the next 100! I dont think they will come as quickly as the 
first 100 did though!

I dont think we could ever top Wyle E's status. In fact the top 5 or 6 teams 
are up there. We are happy being on the front page and just plan to try and 
stay on that page. The actual ranking number doenst really matter. Either 
way.. we plan to have some serious fun with the hobby from here on out. We 
do some weekend balloon/camping trips and now are plan on combining on some 
balloon/geocaching trips as well! (could it be possible to fly a balloon 
onto Bronco Butte!? hhmm). We also plan to hide our very first cache 
utilizing the balloon to place one somewhere. We were thinking it would be 
cool to try and fly to a cache or two and have a passenger get out and find 
the cache! Of course, easier said than done, but, who knows! Might just give 
that a try!

This past weekend we did the two Willow Springs caches. In the past two 
months we have been going straight to the caches, logging in and heading for 
the next one. During our Willow Springs Canyon hike, we did some exploring 
in the area before and after each cache find. We really enjoyed the 
afternoon hiking and exploring the area. We now plan to spend more time in 
the areas of these caches that seem interesting after we log our find there.

Anyways, thanks again for the graph Brian.. that was interesting to see! I 
know a few other teams that seem to be finding caches at a pretty fast clip 
too and I would bet those teams will be giving the top teams a run in the 
near future as well.

Now, if I can just finish Wyle E's mission: caches!

My most exciting geocaching moment so far: finding Gilbert Water Ranch 
Revisited!!!!!! :) (it only took me 6 visits to the park to find it!).

See yall out there on the trail!

Scott
Team Ropingthewind

Scott's Adventure Flying web site:
http://www.geocities.com/safwp




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