Tag Archives: Geocaching

Found Alaskan Heaven thanks to an Alaskan Angel & Geocaching

Posted on by
Reply

I can’t believe I get to write another story about the luckiest boy in the world going on a road trip. Once again, I packed up my favorite camPERVan, Pervvie, this time the destination is Alaska. A teenage dream is finally coming to realization. Driving from home in Maryland to Alaska. Geocaching goals are pretty limited for this road trip. I say that now yet somehow, geocaching will find its way to consume me. Probably some challenge that I don’t even know exists yet (turns out, that thing is chasing D/T’s). My top goal is my last remaining year 2000 in the USA (DONE!) . That’s in Sitka. Other than that, I hope to find all the types in each state and for each date when possible. The top 1000 favorites, I’m getting close to 70% I think. And then of course anything else awesome that catches my eye for no apparent reason. Other stupid checklist goal, playing frisbee in each state. I hope to check off a few of the northern states as I make my way across the land (also done!).

This is the story of me being visited by an Alaskan Angel named Ed. He descended upon me in an ‘87 Toyota Corolla. He first ridiculed me for my chosen location, and then directed me to a spot I was sure I could not get to. He ridiculed me for thinking that as well. What at first was a failed attempt at finding a 10 year lonely multi geocache, turned into 2 days in heaven.

This is mostly just my log from a geocache I found:

This is the story of a lonely multicache that I was excited for, then depressed over, then it changed my life forever. I’m going to start by saying that both stage 1 and 2 both look like they could have been placed yesterday. Recently at an Alaskan Event, I heard conversation that had 3 key words in it. Multi, lonely, and Star Wars…or Trek, I dunno). Multicache is what really grabbed my attention. At the end of the event, we formed a human pyramid, took some pics, and parted ways. I researched this multicache. The puzzle looked straight forward. Thankfully, my best pal Josh is just the kind of dork I needed for this puzzle. He said it took even his nerdy ass a lot of googling to come up with an answer. I took his info out to stage 1. I looked for quite a while, in all the wrong directions. Then as I hung my head with sadness, there it was. I opened it, thinking I might be the first in almost 10 years. What if the puzzle is unreadable? Nope, looks like it was put there yesterday. Amazing. Been here since 2005 I think? Wow. I did the homework and got new information. I plugged it in and started my way to the final. I got to an intersection that locals know well. I as a traveler did not. I turned back. The weather was awful, raining, dreary, just not that pleasant. I could not see 100 feet due to fog. But I was in Alaska having fun! Whatever I was feeling over this lack of multicache, let’s call it depression just for relatability, I need to get ahold of myself. Depression could also be coming from a recent retarded, yet important, loss to the universe. I pulled into a rock quarry that had 2 higher than normal DT’s. I was going to treat myself to those, a nice climb and stretch, get out of this multi-funk. I made a short loop out for those 2, great climbs, quick finds. Then I returned to the van and restrategized. As I sat catching up on real life a bit, watching a funny video my Juggalo pal sent me, and enjoying a smoke, a drunken Alaskan Angel descending upon me in an 87 Toyota Corolla. His name was Ed. He was giving me crap for having this nice van and camping out at a rock quarry. I made sure to let him know I was not doing that, told him there were geocaches here, he told me I was wrong, I told him where I wanted to go, down the road a bit. Ed then gave me hope in life and told me that even though that sign said one thing, people tow boats that 14 miles all the time. Great news! I don’t even have a boat in tow. I immediately got restarted with such a vigor. Socked in with weather almost the entire day, the clouds broke a bit for views from the top. Gorgeous. What a view. It was a loooooong search for the prize. I almost gave up. I am not used to that kind of a hide. Sounds silly now that I type it. The pressure that was released upon opening, such a sweet sound. And I am pretty sure that trackup&glacierkitten left a toot behind as a 10-year surprise. A happy dance occurred. What a great adventure, thanks for providing. Favorite point obvs.

After the multi experience I continued alone to the end of the Bennett Highway. Thanks to Ed, I knew I could. I’m in a 4wd lifted, and well-prepared sprinter. It was a tough road in for sure, not our worst. The rain made parts treacherous. At the end was by far my most amazing spot of heaven that I have been directed to yet. I have found a lot of amazing places because of GC, but this was b/c of a local, so much better, I think. Once I got there, the skies cleared completely. I had perfect blue skies, grazing wispy clouds, and a river singing to me. I could not believe it, again Alaska shows me all the weather options in a single day. It remained perfect, with just enough breeze to keep the skeeters off my peter. I could not believe my luck, and at the same time could. I do claim to be the luckiest boy in the world. I can’t wait to see how that bites me in the ass one day. I stayed there the day, overnight and half the next day. My time there I saw 3 other humans, 2 boats, and I swear to your dog, a partridge in a pear tree. When I left, I stopped for a couple other 4 year lonely hides along the Bennett Highway. I only left for other nonsense GC checklists. Believe it or not, another multi.

CAM season in Maryland again

Posted on by
Reply

It is that time of year when Maryland hosts our Cache Across Maryland. They outdid themselves this year. Usually CAM consists of 10 locations scattered around Maryland. This year is a visit to all 26 Maryland counties! I have been hip deep in traveling everywhere, including zigzagging every nook and cranny of Maryland lately. I am almost done CAM, and still have a couple good road trips and hikes to look forward to. It goes without saying we had some of the best days of our lives recently. I put up a bunch of pictures, mostly the dogs, from recent CAM travels throughout Maryland HERE.

Most road trips comes to an end

Posted on by
2

Day 89:
20,590 miles, and I will stop counting after today.
I woke up at Burke Lake in Arlington, only 2 hours from home, but still not home. And I won’t be home until 5pm. I have a 5pm arrival appointment at home with some very important people. I will see my wife and dogs for the first time in 3 months. I can’t wait to embrace her and roll on the floor with the dogs. What a long strange trip it’s been. I don’t understand why, and stopped worrying about why I am so lucky. I will just ride this wave until the rug gets ripped out from under me. That could be tomorrow. As I was pulling out of a pre-sunrise Burke Lake, the first thing I saw was frisbee baskets. I think that is a sign that my normal life is already returning. I had originally planned to play frisbees in every state I visited. Turns out I only played 1 time. It was very weird how I spent 3 months, nonstop moving and doing, and it somehow feels like I just spun my wheels in place.
My plan for the morning was to head into an empty, Sunday morning DC. I was going to ride my bike around and gather up all the fun there. I got into town, and everything was perfect, the streets were empty, and the weather was amazing. Out of nowhere, and for no reason, I decided I did not want to do that anymore. Instead, I head straight for home base. I had plenty of things I wanted to do before 5pm. Today is the first day in 3 months that I was driving without the assistance of navigation. I saw “95”, knew I could not get lost, and got a bit depressed that the interstate numbers were so high.
On the drive home I stopped by the national park at the harbor. I finished up a couple pieces of geocaching business there, that I had both started, and been unable to complete in past visits. After that it was back to my home area where I dropped off my bike for service, picked up a bunch of crap from work, visited my mother, took a few phone calls from friends welcoming me home and wishing me a happy birthday, and then finally home for a family reunion.
I guess today is the last day I will write a manifesto each day about my activities, photography options, and geocaching adventures. I hope it is not the last time ever, but even if it is, I have lived a much better life than anyone (especially me) deserves.
Thanks for the memories.

I literally just got done adding photos to the photo album HERE.

Playing in Western Maryland to end an epic Roadtrip

Posted on by
Reply

Day 88:
20,370 miles and counting.
I woke up this morning in western Maryland, at the high rocks trailhead, the bottom of the hill from the 2001 geocaching hide. I took sunset pics until late, so made camp there.
I never would have dreamed in a million years that I would finish a 90-day road trip by doing one of my favorite things. Playing in the autumn-colored woods of western Maryland, looking for ammunition boxes. I don’t know that life gets a whole lot better than this. I temporarily moved from my country-wide checklist to my Maryland checklist. For some reason I made it my purpose to find every active CAM cache. It’s something I’ve been chipping away at for a couple years. Now that I am done caching across America, it is time to cache across Maryland. I will get back to America tomorrow.
This morning I went straight to Dans state park where I didn’t see another human being at all, on a beautiful fall Saturday. Today’s weather was perfect. Blue skies, lots of clouds passing, 50° maybe 55 in the sun. After a quick stop first thing this morning at Dan‘s mountain I then went to Rocky Gap State Park, where I spent most of my day. I didn’t plan to be there as long as I did, but either this bridge being out is fairly new, or I did some of the poorest route planning of my life. In the end it just resulted in me walking a bunch more miles through the autumn-colored forest in western Maryland. I ended up being there about 4 hours and covered 7-8 miles. Rocky Gap was a two-fer. There was 2 in there I wanted. Then I went to Green Ridge Forest and then Orleans. Those 3 stops were very aggressive, and I thought I might run out of daylight. I made out fine, and still had time to drive to Burke Lake in VA. It was a very long day, and possibly one of my most productive.
There is one more piece of Geocaching business left, if I complete it then I will have had the most successful circle of the country I could imagine.
Wow, I created a very aggressive geocaching wish list map when I left. I never imagined getting so much fun stuff done. I made Burke parking lot my home for the night. Tomorrow at 5pm is when I will see my wife and dogs for the first time in 3 months! I am very excited. I am not sure how I will fill tomorrow. I might spend the morning around DC. Maybe Sunday morning is empty, and I can get some fun stuff done?

I have added a lot lately to the photo album HERE.

Western Maryland Welcomes Me Home

Posted on by
Reply

Day 87:
19,850 miles and counting
This morning I left cabin 9 at Table Rock State Park after an amazing couple of days. I’ve been on the road for over 80 days, living alone, eating alone, and mostly being alone, doing everything alone. It’s been the most amazing adventure of my life and I couldn’t be more grateful for it. The last two days have been spent with some of my closest friends at a celebration of a wedding for two beautiful people. I could not be happier for them. I also could not be more thrilled to have been included in their beautiful day. They brought me somewhere I may have never come on my own, Table Rock State Park and the Pretty Place. I got on the road just before sunrise, and I believe I’m just heading to Western Maryland for the day. I should be able to get there before sunset and find somewhere to take some pictures and camp out for the night. But the day is early and my plans typically change 100 times before I get where I’m going.
I turned over the 20,000th mile of this road trip just after crossing into Virginia on I-81, heading towards home over the next couple days. I spent most of the day speeding north, back to my home turf of Maryland. In a surprising plot twist, my wife asked me not to get home until Sunday, a full 48 hours from now. Either there’s a live-in boyfriend situation that needs to be cleaned out before I get home, or she has something to surprise me with when I get home, and wants to be there because it’s my birthday as well. Truth be told, I want her to be there when I get home too. The best way to ensure that is schedule my arrival around her busy life. I did not stop forward momentum today too much. Mainly for feeding Pervvie her delicious liquids, and a few pictures and tinkle stops. I made it to the firetower trailhead in western Maryland that leads to High Rocks. I was a bit later than anticipated, and I had to jog most of the way up. I made it in plenty of time to see an amazing sunset, get some great pics, and find the really old geocache from 2001. This trailhead is the perfect spot to call home for the night. After a headlamp hike back down the mountain in the pitch black, I made some dinner and settled in for the night with some music and junk food. Tomorrow I will kill a day hiking around western Maryland, and then hopefully head toward Arlington for 1 piece of unfinished business. After that, I will have successfully completed the most unrealistic, impossible, satisfying checklist of my life.
When I take these type of pictures of myself, I have always been able to say I was completely safe. I always use a shutter release. I forgot my remote in the van. The van was a mile away, straight downhill. For these pics I used the built in, 10-second camera timer. I had to sprint into this position. I almost tumbled to my death each and every time. I said each and every time was the last time, but then the light kept getting better. Thankfully I did not die this time, but I will have to die sometime soon. Hopefully while failing at doing something awesome like this.

I have added a lot lately to the photo album HERE.

Road Trip Show Ending Wedding

Posted on by
Reply

Just like every good TV show, this road trip has come to an end with a wedding. A lovely union of 2 very fun people.

Day 85:
I woke up in my van at Sassafras Mountain, South Carolina’s highest point. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy and there was no sunrise to be seen. This is probably only the second or third time I have seen rain in three months. I actually enjoyed it. I opened up all the windows, let the fresh rain air in, let it get freezing cold, and climbed under a blanket. I just did nothing for a little while and enjoyed the mountain rain song. Now it was time to go see friends for the first time in 3 months! I drove down the mountain to Table Rock. A whole bunch of us are renting the cabins for a wedding. I spent today with 2 of my bestest friends from home. It was the first time in 3 months that I have been a passenger in anyway. I have driven 20k miles in a row, over 3 months, since the last time I was a passenger. We visited a couple waterfalls and a dead end tunnel. We had a great time, caught up, and enjoyed being in nature. That evening there was a rehearsal dinner. I was invited and uninvited to that dinner twice, that has to be a societal record. I was on my own for the evening, where I did nothing. After the rehearsal dinner a bunch of us got together, around the campfire, to make fun of the rest of us that did not show up at that campfire. Then it was off to a very uncomfortable bed. I thought about sleeping in the van, but I did pay for this uncomfortable bed.

Day 86:
I woke up in cabin 9 in Table Rock State Park. I really might sleep in the van tonight. Billy and Jen called first thing to go back out exploring again. The wedding was at 2, so we had the morning. We caught breakfast, and then over to the mill and petroglyphs. Here I ran into a very interesting couple, and family. Visually they stood out, and they knew it. I knew I had seen this man before. He was too unique and colorful to mix up with some other bum. So I asked him, where I might have seen him. Just then it clicked, sunset at Sassafras Mountain the other night. We get to chatting about travel and picture things, and then parted to both explore the mill with our respective families. About 30 minutes later I look and see there is an actual geocache at this mill. I tell my friends I am with, and it was only 100 feet away. I look, and wouldn’t you know it, that same family was rummaging through an ammo box, and signing their fake internet name on litter. How fun is that?! That sparked up another 10 minute conversation that would bore any non-geocacher to tears. Billy is a good sport, he hung in there and feigned interest. What an unexpected fun addition right at the end of my roadtrip.
Today is the wedding, it is at the Pretty Place, which I hear is spectacular. I also hear that the internet ruined it for the locals. Thanks internet.
The wedding ceremony at the Pretty Place and reception back at Table Rock were a highlight of my trip. The weather was perfect, the wedding was a ton of fun, and seeing loved ones for the first time in 3 months was great. Tomorrow I will start a slow drive back home, arriving and ending my roadtrip later this weekend.

I have added a lot lately to the photo album HERE.

The Highest Point in South Carolina is Sassafras Mountain

Posted on by
Reply

And you can drive right to it.

Day 84:
19,500 miles and counting.
I woke up at the Holiday Inn Express in Logan, WV. Shortly after waking up I was called to perform an emergency surgery. Thanks, HIE!
I rented a UTV from Bobby yesterday. After that I spent the day at the hotel catching up on real life stuff. I also spent most of this morning chipping away with that kind of nonsense. Today I will leave and head back south to South Carolina, for a wedding in Table Rock park.
I left the Holiday Inn express with a couple of quick detours. I had about a 5 hour drive to get back to table rock State Park in South Carolina. I should have plenty of daylight, even factoring in all the needless and random stops I will probably make.
There’s a possibility that I may see some of my closest friends tonight, for the first time in over 3 months. I’m going back to South Carolina for a wedding on Thursday, and a bunch of my friends from home in Maryland are traveling to it as well. I am excited for this time, to see some friends and people I love for the first time in months. And to see them in such an amazing place like the mountains of South Carolina! That’s just a bonus.
I spent the day getting to South Carolina’s highest point, Sassafras Mountain, as fast as I could, hopefully before sunset. I had hoped to meet some friends there, but they did not make it here until very late. I made it in plenty of time and watched an amazing sunset with a bunch of fun strangers, now new friends. I got to talking to a local retired couple. Turns out they lived in the town I grew up in for a long time. What a small world this actually is. Either that or nothing is actually real. After the sun was gone, and the conversation dwindled, it was time to retire to my van. I made that my home for the night in hopes of catching the sunrise in the morning. Sadly it rained all night, overnight, and into the morning. There was no sunrise to speak of. 

I have added a lot lately to the photo album HERE.

I love when I run into pro photographers in the wild. I take pride capturing as many groups in a single photo as possible. This is 3 groups in 1 shot, my record is 4 wedding parties in 1 photo in Glacier.

UTV Racing Is My Future

Posted on by
Reply

Day 83:
Today I met Bobby from BAC Rentals in WV, hands down the coolest geocaching ally I have met this trip. I have met a lot of our allies during this trip. There are people all over willing to help me out with my stupid hobby, and obsession to complete nonsensical tasks.
I woke up this morning already at the place I wanted to be. That place was meeting Bobby with BAC UTV rentals in WV. I was renting a UTV for the day, and part of the plan was to find WV’s oldest geocache. That was a very small part of an amazing day driving like an idiot. 80 miles, 5 hours, 3 geocaches, and only 1 close call/near death. The time flew by! Another thing I did during this road trip that I had the entire place to myself. I only saw about 10 other people all day using the Hatfield & McCoy trails. I was on a UTV just a few weeks ago near Phoenix. That is how fast I forgot how much fun they are. I had a blast today. The terrain was very mild compared to Arizona, but still so exciting! All day I was driving these trails, I felt like the fat guy from Lost, 21-10-33-31-45-42-26-14-18. When I was in my 20’s a bunch of my gearhead, knucklehead friends bought ATVs and came down here all the time. Somehow, I did not fall in line with them that time. I grew up with dirt bikes and guns, so they were not a novelty to me. Bobby said it might take me about 2 hours to get to my first stop. I was there in just over an hour. I drove like a maniac, because that is the fun way to drive off road. I spoke to Bobby later, and told him what I did. He said the next fastest anyone has done what I did, is 10 hours. That is twice as long. I told Bobby I am fast, I always have been fast, I used to race big wheels. I think Bobby and I are going to be pals for a long time. I hope to come visit him again soon.
After an amazing day playing, on the edge of death, I had a hotel nearby to catch up on some real life, and I had to do a zooming meeting this evening. A shower, internets, and proper lighting are required. Tomorrow I will head back south a few hours for a wedding in SC in a couple days.

I regularly update the photo album HERE.