Geocaching Geochronicle

Truly forgotten...

2008-12-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a brief, albeit eventful caching day. I hunted for five and found four. I got a late start, so I decided to tackle a few caches in Haledon and Hawthorne, NJ. Inadvertantly, all of the caches I looked for was found by one member, weathernowcast. Two were puzzles, which were the first I had hunted. One was the first I had solved, too.

I started at Hofstra Park, a quaint park high on a hill in Prospect Park, a section of Haledon. I had known about the park but never been there, but boy is it beautiful. It's got great views of the city and the surrounding areas as well. weathernowcast has two mysteries there, ekiTT a TTractor and games cache. I had solved games cache a long time ago and was determined to grab my first mystery, and figured I should get ekiTT as well. The puzzle confused me for a long while, but with some hints from the CO I was able to solve it.

As for actually finding the cache, ekiTT was more difficult as well. My GPS was leading me down a hill and of course I followed it. Bad idea. I spent 20 minutes tangled up in mess of thorns and branches. I figured that it couldn't be a 1.5 terrain at that point, so I retreated up the hill to try and average out the coordinates from there. Turns out the cache was behind a fence 40 feet away on top of the hill. Oops. It was a great first find nevertheless. The coordinates to games cache were spot-on and I just about walked up to it. I also found something in the cache that made my day, but I'll get to that later...*

I also managed to accidentally find a premium member cache. I am not a PM and I don't know if I will ever be one, but with a little luck I found one cache that was in the area. I won't link it or name it because it's located in a sensitive area and I don't want anyone to needlessly disrupt it. But it was the best cache of the day by far, even though I couldn't get a smiley.

My next (and last) two caches were in Goffle Brook Park in Hawthorne. One was a magnetic micro that I DNF'd. I didn't have the patience to search for it, for one thing. I'm not against micros, but a magnetic micro on a metal bridge is less than ideal for me. The next was in a birding area; wouldn't you know it, the cache was underneath a birding platform. Pretty cool. It was in a nice little area I didn't know about before, which is why I enjoy geocaching so. Luckily, there was no one around, so I took it to a nearby bench and opened it up instead of leaning over a tree like I normally do. It was also a letterbox hybrid, my second found to date.

Overall yesterday was not a bad day. Today I was too exhausted to go caching, but tomorrow if the weather isn't too bad I'll tackle some of the caches on my "nearest to home coordinates list". I'm working on clearing out my cache radius. Currently I have one within two miles (which I've DNF'd on twice already) and three within two miles (two are mysterys i've solved, the other is a mystery with an on-site ALR). It'll be nice to get those done. The next mile encompasses 32 caches, two of which are PM caches, so that will take me a while.

Keep on cachin'...
-marikun

Christmas was uneventful...

2008-12-27T13:49:00.000-08:00

...so I decided to go caching. :D

Well, the day after Christmas, to be exact. Yesterday's trip brought me eight finds, unlike my last excursion, a few DNFs as well. My overall find count went from 34 to 42, which was ultimately not bad at all. I also managed to pick up a geocoin and drop two TBs.

My adventure started in Tuers Park, a small park in Montclair, NJ. I got utterly lost trying to find it; I ended up deep in the middle of suburbia with no idea of where to go. With a little luck I found an entrance to the park and was on my way to the first cache of the day. The cache, Jerkwater USA, had piqued my interest for a while, and upon arriving at the cache location I soon found out why. The cache was a small jar secured to a tree branch that was a few feet over your head. You had to bend the branch down to unscrew the lid. It was really nifty. I might have to use the idea for a cache of my own.

After navigating out of Tuers Park, I made my way to Brookdale Park. My first cache there was one of slukster's caches, Climb a Tree, Find Cache 3. The find wasn't too difficult, though it was 15' up a tree. I enjoyed it though! After that I found Cache-Cam and Tennis Anyone? nearby. And thus ends my streak of finds.

Prior to this trip, I had attempted one multi-cache, Bergen County Parks, and did not find the second stage of it. There are three multi-caches in Brookdale Park, one of which is disabled, so I was excited that I would find my first multi. The first I tried at the park was a sticker cache that had three stages. I found the first stage without problem. The second stage was a nano that took me a while. But I, for the life of me, could not find the third stage. There was simply no place at GZ where the cache could have been. I checked the hint, which didn't help either. After I nearly twisted my knee due to the soft ground, I decided to give up. They say that you should give up on a cache when it stops being fun, and I did just that.

I also DNF'd on CAT,FC1, but found the second in the series without problem. Another multi, Big Penn, small pen gave me a lot of trouble finding the final stage due to soft coords and heavy cloud cover, but I did find it and exchanged pens. My final find in the park was Buster's Spot, a neat little cache right off the path. With that, I decided to call it a day, my hunger getting the best of me. I found an IHOP nearby that took care of that. :)

On the way back, I decided to hit a few more, since I had some time left before nightfall. I tried to find BROAD ACRES IS THE PLACE TO BE, a "plain sight" micro in an office park, but I didn't have the patience for it. The last cache of the day, Morris Canal Park, was easily my favorite of the day, even beating out the tree climbing caches. The small park it was in is a nature preserve that was previously unknown to me. It is a beautiful park with a multitude of wildlife and a small labryinth/maze type area complete with kitschy windmills and a Japanese peace tower. Very quirky, but I loved it. I vowed to come back when the weather was nicer.

I also completed the first stage of a mystery cache, Cemetary Cache 1. I had had my eye on this cache and go near here weekly, but normally only in the dark, which would disallow me from entering the cemetary and also creep me out. I wasn't able to find the cache because I didn't have the cache page to instruct me on the coords. Once I find that, it will be the first mystery I would have done too.

This weekend it's supposed to be rainy and I'll be busy with post-holiday madness so I'm not planning on caching at all save for doing TB drops on my caches. I may hide one if I feel like going out. I just found out that there is a marsh trail behind the Mill Creek Mall in Secaucus, which I really want to do, but I'm afraid the ice might impede that.

Keep on Cachin'...
-marikun

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T23:21:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all who celebrate them!

This is clearly not my weekend.

2008-12-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

As I'm usually far too busy during the week, Saturdays and Sundays are my time to find solace in geocaching. However, this weekend, I got no caching done! It would appear that the 6" of snow and below freezing temperatures impeded my caching. Darn you Northeast weather!

In any event, I tried to grab a cache yesterday. On the way to go holiday shopping I tried for Brownstone Quarry, a 1.5/2.5 traditional in Little Falls, NJ. The snow made the search exponentially harder. Any suspicious piles of sticks or rocks were obscured by the fluffy white stuff. I must have looked for more than 20 minutes when the unfathomable happened; my glove ripped. My index finger was now vulnerable to the snowy cold. Deciding I didn't want to risk frostbite, I gave up and headed home.

(On a side note, I did do a nearby letterbox. Yes, I know, it doesn't count, but it was my only "find" of any sort for the day.)

And then today, after church, I tried to place a cache since the ice made any sort of hunting out of the question. My goal was a small secluded spot on the Passaic River in Garfield, NJ. The spot had no posted signs, but I got the feeling it might have been private property. I even found a nice hiding spot when I got wet. Very wet. Wet and cold is not a good combination. I realized that I simply wasn't meant to place a cache there and left, again, defeated. I also meant to swap TBs at one of my nearby caches, but I was too discouraged to even attempt it.

Luckily, as Christmas is upon us, hopefully I will have more time for cache hunting. I still have a mess of spots left to tackle: Brookdale Park, High Mountain Reserve, DeKorte Park, Goffle Brook Park, Dunkerhook Park, Hofstra Park, Eagle Rock Reservation, and the many urban parking lot caches that constitute my backup and rainy day supply.

Keep on caching...
-marikun

5 inches of snow?!

2008-12-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

That is currently the weather forecast for northeast NJ. Unfortunately, this means (at least for me) a little impediment to geocaching. Now, I can handle the cold -- last week's Mills hike was done at about 30 F. But snowfall complicates the problem. It also increases the potential for slipping and falling. Now, I'm certainly not a codger when it comes to caching, but if there's a cache up a tree or on some bedrock, I'm going to want to get it, and the potential of slipping on the snow and cracking my skull is going to affect that.

Tomorrow's high is 28 F with snow all around, though it looks like it will all be on the ground and not falling. I was planning to do the red/yellow trail at nearby High Mountain Preserve, but that is far, far out the window. Hiking up to the top of Mt. Cecchino is not something I want to do in the snow. I have a few more friendly spots I can forge (Brookdale Park in Bloomfield, for example) but if the weather's really bad, home is where I will stay.

But man, I really want to go caching!

My poor eTrex Venture is getting lonely in its little spot on my desk.

2008-12-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. Out of thirteen caches on the radar, I searched for eleven and found ten. The most caches I've found in one day before this was five. Overall it took me about four hours or so, which averages to about one cache every 24 minutes or so. (Yes, I'm also a stat freak. :p)

My caching adventures today brought me to Mills Reservation, Cedar Grove Park and the Essex Rail Trail, all located in the towns of Montclair and Cedar Grove, NJ. Let me say first that I didn't know about any of these places before geocaching, and that all of them are great locations for hiking, walking and geocaching as well. Now onto my travels...

I started near this cache, in Mountainside Park, adjacent to Mills Reservation. The cache is a 1.5/1.5 two part multi, and wouldn't you know that I didn't find it. Not a great way to start the day. The cache was located in the remains of a tree, which I thought I found several times, but as I was in a forest it really wasn't that effective. I decided I didn't want to spend forever on it and vowed to come back later.

From Lonesome Dove, I headed north to slukster's original Climbin' & Findin' Cache. The find was actually quite perilous; you had to walk sideways along a bedrock face (about 10' or so up) and the cache was tied to a tree. The hardest part was getting it untied! I was glad to log a find on this one as I had previously found three more of slukster's series of climbing caches (C&F 2-4 at Garrett Mountain Reservation in West Paterson). For those unfamiliar with northern New Jersey, slukster has placed seven climbing caches in various parks in the area. However, five of them were archived (including the three that I found) after someone blew the whistle to our local reviewer. The reason given was that "rock climbing" is not allowed at any county park, but as the laws are dodgy at best, slukster is working on getting them relisted.

After putting the cache back, I made my way over to the three active caches at the south side of the park: All Dogs go to Heaven-Mills, The Walk, and The View. All were fairly easy caches. I bagged my first unofficial CITO as I replaced the plastic bag that The Walk was contained in. The View (of course) had an awesome overlook over the cities of Montclair and Upper Montclair and what appeared to be the sheerest cliff face I've seen in a while. Then I walked over to Mills Reservation, a VERY old cache (GC2332) and disabled as of November 5th. I went to get it in case it was removed and to push back my cache finds date. It was a pretty easy cache to get and I suspect the reason why it was damaged (the container was cracked and waterlogged) was the large rocks that surrounded it.

Here's where my judgement slipped. Since I was "ahead of schedule", I wanted to go nail some of the caches at the Rail Trail, which was just across the street and only 0.6 miles (as the crow flies) away. I didn't take into account, however, the Cedar Grove Reservoir which was inconvienently in my way. After walking around it and taking a detour down a side street, I found the park where the rail trails were. After some tinkering with the GPS I found Quiet Time and then Boulder City nearby. The trail between the two caches and then the trail from Boulder City to the next cache was stunning. The white trail follows the river, and the yellow trail then fords the river and runs between them. The topography of this area is bizarre but makes for a great walk.

After leaving the first park, I skipped over the Dizz-Knee Challenge cache and found my way to By a Waterfall instead. By a Waterfall is in a great location; the views around it are extraordinary. It's certainly located in an unexpected place. The rail trail runs right over it so I was able to follow the trail back to Ridge Road. This place is now in my "I really really want to come back" file.

I entered Mills Reservation again from Normal Ave and followed the red trail up to the west and north side of the park. I'm surprised that there are no caches here as it's a beautiful area and probably my favorite part of the park. The trail led me almost directly to Snoopin' for the Red Baron. The cache was located in a rock formation and it was extremely visible. I covered it up with a rock and wished it well.

On my way to the parking area, I realized that I had skipped a cache in the park and figured I'd give it a quick go. The title is "Mills Lunchtime Micro" and the description says it's an "easy lunctime cache", so what did I have to lose? Let me tell you, it was probably the hardest of the day. The cache was located in the loose rocks that were there. There must have been a hundred feet of space where the cache could have been. The hint was "two reddish rocks", which I looked frantically for. Once I did find them, however, the cache was a breeze. Now I felt stupid. I must have overturned every rock within 50 feet of the cache. I rehid it as well as I could and departed.

At the end of the day, we have: thirteen printouts, eighteen waypoints, ten caches found, eleven caches attempted, one cache inadvertently skipped, three travel bugs out and four travel bugs in. Today was a great day and I hope to get out and do more of the Essex Rail Trail. All seven caches at Mills have been compromised and I'm seriously considering putting another one there. My feet are going to be sore in the morning. :p

I was supposed to go to Eagle Rock Park tomorrow, but I fear I'll be too busy. Next weekend could bring me to either High Mountain Preserve in Wayne or Dunkerhook Park in Ridgewood. Wherever the wind takes me.

-marikun

Pictures from My First Escapade

2008-12-12T19:01:00.001-08:00

Thought my last entry was kind of sparse, so here are a few images to satiate your needs:

My current GPS, a Garmin Etrex Venture. It doesn't currently have a nickname. I earned that scratch while pursuing this cache.
(And yes, I got the find! :))

A few lock and locks that I camo tape'd.

What's inside? Geoaccessories of course!
My very first ammo can! Nothing in it yet. :|
Some signature cards to put into caches. (They are actually Where's George? cards that I don't use. I'm also an avid WGer but I prefer to keep the accounts seperate.)

Thanks for reading! Hopefully soon I'll have some caching stories for your regurgitation.

-marikun

Hello Geofriends!

2008-12-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

Well, hello there to all my geocaching friends. My name is marikun and I'm a cachaholic. Well, not really. After all, I only have 24 finds and 5 hides right now.

But anyway, I was inspired to make this blog on a whim from this thread on the Groundspeak forums. I figured, why not? Good timing, too. Tomorrow I'm setting out on a caching adventure with eleven on the radar. Who knows if I'll find all of them? The adventure is in the journey.

Currently I'm geocaching from Passaic, NJ. My 24 finds encompass Passaic, Bergen, Essex and Somerset Counties in NJ and a few in Orange County, NY. I also have five hides located in Paterson, Clifton, Wallington, and Little Falls, NJ. I plan on finding and hiding many more. In fact, I just bought my first ammo can last week! In addition, I camo taped some lock and locks today for my trip tomorrow. For geocaching I use a secondhand Garmin Etrex Venture (first generation). I may upgrade to a better model, but until now it works for me!

If you really want, you can track my hides, finds, travel bugs and more at my Geocaching profile. Tomorrow I set out for Mills Reservation, Cedar Grove Park and the Essex Rail Trail. Wish me luck!

-marikun