Stuck for cache inspiration Hannah came up with the idea, on our way home from work last night, to do one we'd aborted way back in July (pre-Blog days). This had recently come back up on our radar as the cache owner had just put another cache on the same path - two for the price of one.
Back in July we'd missed a subtle turn in a path and had ended up the wrong side of a river in complete darkness - it was about 10pm. We'd already found two so we aborted that cache and headed home with the thought of returning, and of course we never got around to it. Until now.
This time we, of course, took the turn and headed along the woodland path to an easy find and then continued further along to the new cache - a nano hidden on a metal fence, the fence identical in design to where my "Queen 1" cache is hidden.
Well what a nightmare! We were quickly on location and Hannah actually started in (it turns out) exactly the right spot but we simply couldn't find it. I even spent 20 minutes behind the fence (having simply walked around the end of it 20 feet away) inside 'private property' (and goodness knows why it's private, it's a lump of nothing in the middle of nothing on the outskirts of nowhere.)
We eventually reluctantly phoned-a-friend and Patrick (one of only two previous finders here) directed us back to the correct location but we still couldn't see it. However two minutes scratching around later I found it in the mud underneath. We signed the micro-log and replaced it in the same spot but moved it slightly under the lip of the fence cross-bar to shelter and protect it from the wind and rain and to hopefully help it stay stuck on. Bloody nanos.
It was dark by the time we returned to the car but I still fancied picking up one of Patrick's puzzle caches (Carr Car) that I'd solved a month previously. It was only a mile away as the crow flies, but turned out to be a 3 mile drive. Despite the pitch black the coords were good and Hannah had her hands on it in mere moments.
Three more finds but only just over a mile walking.
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Monday 27 September 2010
Cooling Towers and Keyboards
After a very quiet Geocaching week, because we both had heavy colds, we ventured out on Sunday for the third Team PADS outing. Patrick had spotted a good sized series on the North side of Doncaster called the KB series, KB being short for Keyboard and used to solve the final-cache puzzle. We took sandwiches for a break somewhere and met up at 10:30.
On the way around the series we popped in to do a cache that was in a now disused power station and for the first time in my life I was up close to some HUGE cooling towers. The winds that appear from nowhere once you are under them are quite amazing, the echoes are quite deafening and the scale quite bewildering. Of course the kids made the most of the echoes and made as much noise as possible.
Another first on this series, believe it or not, was my first ever on-foot crossing of a railway line. I've driven over them of course on real roads, but I've never seen a small countryside foot one. Our route snaked over the line in a few places and at one point we had to wait for a London bound train to pass at considerable speed - as highlighted by the crossing signs warning pedestrians of trains passing "in excess of 100 MPH". Not surprisingly a couple of the kids were quite intimidated by it.
Two new things in one day; if I keep this up someome might think my life is exciting!
The series was a distorted figure 8, with the car being parked centrally, and after completing the larger northern half we decided to call it a day as we would eventually run out of time and light - we pledged to do the second half within the next couple of weeks.
Overall we found 16 caches and did 7.5 miles walking. The weather held out nicely and it was a good day all around.
On the way around the series we popped in to do a cache that was in a now disused power station and for the first time in my life I was up close to some HUGE cooling towers. The winds that appear from nowhere once you are under them are quite amazing, the echoes are quite deafening and the scale quite bewildering. Of course the kids made the most of the echoes and made as much noise as possible.
Another first on this series, believe it or not, was my first ever on-foot crossing of a railway line. I've driven over them of course on real roads, but I've never seen a small countryside foot one. Our route snaked over the line in a few places and at one point we had to wait for a London bound train to pass at considerable speed - as highlighted by the crossing signs warning pedestrians of trains passing "in excess of 100 MPH". Not surprisingly a couple of the kids were quite intimidated by it.
Two new things in one day; if I keep this up someome might think my life is exciting!
The series was a distorted figure 8, with the car being parked centrally, and after completing the larger northern half we decided to call it a day as we would eventually run out of time and light - we pledged to do the second half within the next couple of weeks.
Overall we found 16 caches and did 7.5 miles walking. The weather held out nicely and it was a good day all around.
Monday 20 September 2010
Bradfield take two
After a lazy Saturday (not planned but as a result of a needlessly long Friday night session with several friends from work) we set off on Sunday to do two separate series around South Bradfield. We had originally planned a long series around the North side of Doncaster but the bad weather made us think twice so Patrick (he of Team PADS fame) came up with a plan of two small series split by a pub meal - this way we could stop if the weather was too awful.
We met at 11am in light drizzle, on the Damflask reservoir wall (where we were only two weeks ago) and set off to do A Stroll Around the Brickworks. This was a nice 2 mile series of 6 caches with some lovely views and unfortunately some heavy mud.
Once again the children had been bribed at 50p per cache but to avoid in-fighting between the 5 of them I came up with a new plan; the kids would share £1 between them... they initially thought this was a bad deal until we explained they had five times the chance of getting 20p each.
This also meant the adults had to try harder to save some dough!
We finished the first series and went to the Nag's Head Inn for a fabulous home-cooked meal each, and then decided to continue onto another series called Storrs Circular. This was a longer walk of nearly 4 miles, 4 caches, a little more hill-climbing involved but the view were staggering and made all the more beautiful by rainbows.
The drizzle was on and off all day but not really bad at all; I think we got more drenched from wading through a couple of cow-pat soaked fields! We had a great day caching, chatting and walking and for once I also think the kids enjoyed it too!
Overall result: Kids 6, Adults 4.
Actually I'll put this in more detail to put Patrick and Donna, in fact the Hills overall (except star Bethany) to shame:
The Kids
Bethany 3
Adam 2
Jade 1
Christiana 0
Jorden 0
The Adults
Mark 3
Hannah 1
Patrick 0
Donna 0
Special thanks to the Hill family for their company and also their map which we needed for one of the puzzles. Cheers all.
We met at 11am in light drizzle, on the Damflask reservoir wall (where we were only two weeks ago) and set off to do A Stroll Around the Brickworks. This was a nice 2 mile series of 6 caches with some lovely views and unfortunately some heavy mud.
Once again the children had been bribed at 50p per cache but to avoid in-fighting between the 5 of them I came up with a new plan; the kids would share £1 between them... they initially thought this was a bad deal until we explained they had five times the chance of getting 20p each.
This also meant the adults had to try harder to save some dough!
We finished the first series and went to the Nag's Head Inn for a fabulous home-cooked meal each, and then decided to continue onto another series called Storrs Circular. This was a longer walk of nearly 4 miles, 4 caches, a little more hill-climbing involved but the view were staggering and made all the more beautiful by rainbows.
The drizzle was on and off all day but not really bad at all; I think we got more drenched from wading through a couple of cow-pat soaked fields! We had a great day caching, chatting and walking and for once I also think the kids enjoyed it too!
Overall result: Kids 6, Adults 4.
Actually I'll put this in more detail to put Patrick and Donna, in fact the Hills overall (except star Bethany) to shame:
The Kids
Bethany 3
Adam 2
Jade 1
Christiana 0
Jorden 0
The Adults
Mark 3
Hannah 1
Patrick 0
Donna 0
Special thanks to the Hill family for their company and also their map which we needed for one of the puzzles. Cheers all.
Thursday 16 September 2010
Only fools and horses
We rushed from work last night to a new local cache that had been published two hours earlier. I knew the odds were against us as my friend Patrick was out and about and I had a sneaking suspicion he'd be onto this one.
The cache was a simple find and it looked good for an FTF until I opened the crisp new log sheet and saw his name at the top. He emailed me later mocking me, saying "Hi STF" (presumably "second-to-find") and then saying his wife had found one earlier he couldn't find and he hated being a runner-up, something I presumably was used to by now.
They say revenge is a dish best served cold so I'll bide my time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As promised last week (here) I returned to pick up the actual Wath Wood Wanders cache last night.
Despite abandoning my son at his guitar lesson ASAP, parking the car nearer to my destination and also running 200m to the cache it was still dark by the time I arrived. And I'd forgotten my torch. Again.
Fortunately the cache was a doddle to find.
As I leant on a nearby fence, to sign the log, I got the fright of my life as a horse nudged me. It had followed me up it's field as I'd walked up the woods. I petted it and within a couple of minutes there were 4 of them.
I showed them the swaps in the cache but they weren't interested.
Funny things horses.
The cache was a simple find and it looked good for an FTF until I opened the crisp new log sheet and saw his name at the top. He emailed me later mocking me, saying "Hi STF" (presumably "second-to-find") and then saying his wife had found one earlier he couldn't find and he hated being a runner-up, something I presumably was used to by now.
They say revenge is a dish best served cold so I'll bide my time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As promised last week (here) I returned to pick up the actual Wath Wood Wanders cache last night.
Despite abandoning my son at his guitar lesson ASAP, parking the car nearer to my destination and also running 200m to the cache it was still dark by the time I arrived. And I'd forgotten my torch. Again.
Fortunately the cache was a doddle to find.
As I leant on a nearby fence, to sign the log, I got the fright of my life as a horse nudged me. It had followed me up it's field as I'd walked up the woods. I petted it and within a couple of minutes there were 4 of them.
I showed them the swaps in the cache but they weren't interested.
Funny things horses.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Meersbrook Meanders
We made the horrendous mistake last night of trying to get to Meersbrook Park when Sheffield United had a match at Bramall Lane, a fact I neither knew nor cared about, and it was a problem exacerbated by the SatNav desperately trying to route us directly into the traffic or alternatively the wrong way down one-way streets.
So by the time we arrived I was already worried about the dark drawing in. However, thankfully, it was a nice short route around the park picking up 4 caches of a series and 2 randoms nearby, a total of about 1.7 miles.
Nothing of real interest to note; the usual bramble scratches, I almost had to phone-a-friend (until Super-Spandannah spotted the nano) and a now-missing tree that one had been hidden under - it had been chopped down earlier that day but luckily the park keeper had left the cache there albeit in full view.
Otherwise a relatively quiet, Muggle-free walk around a new to us park.
So by the time we arrived I was already worried about the dark drawing in. However, thankfully, it was a nice short route around the park picking up 4 caches of a series and 2 randoms nearby, a total of about 1.7 miles.
Nothing of real interest to note; the usual bramble scratches, I almost had to phone-a-friend (until Super-Spandannah spotted the nano) and a now-missing tree that one had been hidden under - it had been chopped down earlier that day but luckily the park keeper had left the cache there albeit in full view.
Otherwise a relatively quiet, Muggle-free walk around a new to us park.
Monday 13 September 2010
We Hope to go back
I took the kids to Hope in Derbyshire on Sunday to do one of the series there: Silver Train. This is a simple series of 10 (I think) caches which each have clues in them (alongside a sister series called Treasure Fleet) all leading to one final cache.
I'd not realised this when we set off, having prepared the caches at short notice, so of course I never got all the available clues to the final. Having said that, with the state of most of the logs, and the cracked laminate around some of the clues (making them wet and blurry), I doubt I'd have bothered anyway.
The walk led us east out of Hope towards the railway station and then north up (and up) a hill onto the tops. Unfortunately the walk wasn't circular at this point so once we'd got the uppermost cache we simply turned around and walked back down to a certain point where we diverted from our original path and re-entered Hope from a different direction.
It was a lovely walk of 5 miles and certainly got the thighs aching because of the steep hill. (Lowest elevation was approximately 535 feet, highest was about 1250 feet.)
Rain threatened several times which looked very ominous given that both kids had not brought their coats/macs as usual. When will they ever learn? Fortunately there was only slight drizzle for a few minutes about three times. No harm done.
The kids had been bribed at 50p per find again and it worked, they hardly even complained when I realised I'd walked a tenth of a mile past a cache, while chatting and telling jokes, and we had to go back!
Finally I must apologise for the dreadful blog title, but I really do hope to go back again and do the sister series.
I'd not realised this when we set off, having prepared the caches at short notice, so of course I never got all the available clues to the final. Having said that, with the state of most of the logs, and the cracked laminate around some of the clues (making them wet and blurry), I doubt I'd have bothered anyway.
The walk led us east out of Hope towards the railway station and then north up (and up) a hill onto the tops. Unfortunately the walk wasn't circular at this point so once we'd got the uppermost cache we simply turned around and walked back down to a certain point where we diverted from our original path and re-entered Hope from a different direction.
It was a lovely walk of 5 miles and certainly got the thighs aching because of the steep hill. (Lowest elevation was approximately 535 feet, highest was about 1250 feet.)
Rain threatened several times which looked very ominous given that both kids had not brought their coats/macs as usual. When will they ever learn? Fortunately there was only slight drizzle for a few minutes about three times. No harm done.
The kids had been bribed at 50p per find again and it worked, they hardly even complained when I realised I'd walked a tenth of a mile past a cache, while chatting and telling jokes, and we had to go back!
Finally I must apologise for the dreadful blog title, but I really do hope to go back again and do the sister series.
Thursday 9 September 2010
Damned nights
While Adam was at his guitar lesson last night I went off to Wath Woods to collate the clues for a cache - there's 4 points to visit from which you calculate the 5th and final location.
With limited time (an hour including driving) I set off hoping to get the 4 clues and leave the final point for next Wednesday when Adam is in his next lesson.
I parked up about 7:45 and it was already going dark. I walked down a huge long alley between two housing estates leading into the woods and as I entered the woods and it was now dark.
Bloody nights drawing in.
I got the first two locations easily but by the time I was setting off for the third it was so dark I was struggling to see the path; it was hard to tell whether the dark ground 10 metres in front of me was path or leaves or just a gaping hole. Fortunately most of the paths are of good quality so I walked reasonably quickly and safely to the third clue.
I say 'reasonably quickly' because by now I had spooked myself a little. Here I am, a grown man who's not particularly afraid of the dark, walking through unknown woods in pitch black with no torch and no idea where the surrounding population is. (Although I can always get back to the car using the GPS of course).
I might not be bothered about the dark, per se, but I am a little worried when there are huge CRACKing noises and things running and falling through the trees. Gulp.
I moved on to the 4th location which was on the outside edge of the woods, near a tarmac lane. Sanctuary. I got the clue and stopped to look at the GPS - the road route back to the car was over 2.5 miles long - I only had 20 minutes left and also needed 5 minutes driving time.
So, big deep breath, stop being silly Mark, I set off back through the woods up the fourth side, unknown territory again.
Walking quickly, using the GPS to the car, I was now hoping I wouldn't bump into anyone else, not for my sake, but for THEIR sake... the site of a 40+ year-old man walking alone in the dark and breathing heavily would probably be more than enough to spoil someone else's night!
Geocaching. It's all fun!
With limited time (an hour including driving) I set off hoping to get the 4 clues and leave the final point for next Wednesday when Adam is in his next lesson.
I parked up about 7:45 and it was already going dark. I walked down a huge long alley between two housing estates leading into the woods and as I entered the woods and it was now dark.
Bloody nights drawing in.
I got the first two locations easily but by the time I was setting off for the third it was so dark I was struggling to see the path; it was hard to tell whether the dark ground 10 metres in front of me was path or leaves or just a gaping hole. Fortunately most of the paths are of good quality so I walked reasonably quickly and safely to the third clue.
I say 'reasonably quickly' because by now I had spooked myself a little. Here I am, a grown man who's not particularly afraid of the dark, walking through unknown woods in pitch black with no torch and no idea where the surrounding population is. (Although I can always get back to the car using the GPS of course).
I might not be bothered about the dark, per se, but I am a little worried when there are huge CRACKing noises and things running and falling through the trees. Gulp.
I moved on to the 4th location which was on the outside edge of the woods, near a tarmac lane. Sanctuary. I got the clue and stopped to look at the GPS - the road route back to the car was over 2.5 miles long - I only had 20 minutes left and also needed 5 minutes driving time.
So, big deep breath, stop being silly Mark, I set off back through the woods up the fourth side, unknown territory again.
Walking quickly, using the GPS to the car, I was now hoping I wouldn't bump into anyone else, not for my sake, but for THEIR sake... the site of a 40+ year-old man walking alone in the dark and breathing heavily would probably be more than enough to spoil someone else's night!
Geocaching. It's all fun!
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Not enough time...
We had already planned to pop down to 'Go Outdoors' last night to pick up a ticket for the new Geocaching competition and to also genuinely look at a new GPSr device. I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to an Oregon 450 for the paperless caching features.
As we'd be in that area we had also planned a quick 6 caches at Meersbrook Park but just as we were leaving work an email notification of a new cache came through and coincidentally it was only a couple of miles from where we were headed.
We went home, got changed and set off for the new cache. By the time we arrived, blindly following the GPS in road mode in an area I'd never been, it was raining steadily but after a short walk we successfully got another First-To-Find (FTF) only about 70 minutes after it was published.
We signed the log, turned around and then we saw a gentleman and two children approaching, all looking just as suspicious as we did. A quick chat and it turned out they were just a couple of minutes late for what would have been their very first FTF. For some reason I do love my FTFs but I felt bad that the kids hadn't got one. I'm really sorry. Good luck next time!
We went to 'Go Outdoors' as planned and spent some money on a decent backpack that's bigger, lighter, more ventilated and generally better on my back. I also got some more walking trousers and a water bag.
Yet more money - who would think walking would be so expensive!!
Going back to the title of today's blog, time... with other events coming up, and the nights drawing in, it really looks like the caching is going to take a hit and I'm not happy about it. It also looks like I'm going to have to bribe the kids again so I can do longer walks at the weekends...
As we'd be in that area we had also planned a quick 6 caches at Meersbrook Park but just as we were leaving work an email notification of a new cache came through and coincidentally it was only a couple of miles from where we were headed.
We went home, got changed and set off for the new cache. By the time we arrived, blindly following the GPS in road mode in an area I'd never been, it was raining steadily but after a short walk we successfully got another First-To-Find (FTF) only about 70 minutes after it was published.
We signed the log, turned around and then we saw a gentleman and two children approaching, all looking just as suspicious as we did. A quick chat and it turned out they were just a couple of minutes late for what would have been their very first FTF. For some reason I do love my FTFs but I felt bad that the kids hadn't got one. I'm really sorry. Good luck next time!
We went to 'Go Outdoors' as planned and spent some money on a decent backpack that's bigger, lighter, more ventilated and generally better on my back. I also got some more walking trousers and a water bag.
Yet more money - who would think walking would be so expensive!!
Going back to the title of today's blog, time... with other events coming up, and the nights drawing in, it really looks like the caching is going to take a hit and I'm not happy about it. It also looks like I'm going to have to bribe the kids again so I can do longer walks at the weekends...
Monday 6 September 2010
Damflask
After my sister bravely completed the Sheffield 10k run on Sunday morning we met up with my Mother and set off for a short route around Damflask near Lower Bradfield on the outskirts of Sheffield. This was a nice easy stroll around a reservoir, put together once again by Mr. Truffles.
If anyone is after an easy Sunday afternoon's walk I do recommend this one - there's a total of 14 finds, 3 of which are puzzle caches but are simple to calculate en-route, the walk is all flat and the hides are pretty easy. We logged it in at 4.4 miles total and to top it off you can have an ice cream on the way to the bonus cache!
I tried to motivate the kids into getting involved by offering £5 to whichever of them got the most finds. This caused some squabbles in the last couple of seconds at several caches, but Adam soon became despondant when he was 4-0 down to Jade with 7 found and only 7 more to go. At this point, to motivate him YET AGAIN, I changed the rules to £1 per find each. Well blow me down if he didn't win 5-4 in the end.
Hopefully he might have learnt a lesson about not giving up.
Hopefully I might have learnt a lesson about not changing rules and losing an extra £4!
If anyone is after an easy Sunday afternoon's walk I do recommend this one - there's a total of 14 finds, 3 of which are puzzle caches but are simple to calculate en-route, the walk is all flat and the hides are pretty easy. We logged it in at 4.4 miles total and to top it off you can have an ice cream on the way to the bonus cache!
I tried to motivate the kids into getting involved by offering £5 to whichever of them got the most finds. This caused some squabbles in the last couple of seconds at several caches, but Adam soon became despondant when he was 4-0 down to Jade with 7 found and only 7 more to go. At this point, to motivate him YET AGAIN, I changed the rules to £1 per find each. Well blow me down if he didn't win 5-4 in the end.
Hopefully he might have learnt a lesson about not giving up.
Hopefully I might have learnt a lesson about not changing rules and losing an extra £4!
Saturday 4 September 2010
UK GC Podcast
I've just been listening to the UK GC Podcast via iTunes (link on the right) and I got two mentions! Well one-and-a-half to be accurate.
I've emailed Collin (the host) several times in the last 6 weeks or so as he has the first UK based podcast about Geocaching and I was really impressed with him making the effort on our behalf.
However it transpires that his web-based contact form has been broken for ages and he only realised this week. I emailed him to ask how long it had been down and then based on his reply tried to remember everything I'd emailed him previously.
In this months show (episode #3) he gave me a simple shout-out (ie. a mention) and also gave out this blog's web address; I hadn't told him this so he must have done some research!
Then in his mention about the previous show's question-of-the-month, for which he'd misplaced all his email replies, he did say he had heard from someone, he couldn't remember who, who had said they were currently about 15 feet from their nearest Geocacher at work - but as it was also his girlfriend it was a little bit like cheating as he also lived with her. Well as you've guessed by reading this, that was also me. (I had mentioned that I also only live about 8 doors from Yorkypudding and Aginghippy but he must have forgotten that too.)
Anyway my other email gave him a possible question-of-the-month and he thinks he may use it next month.
Fame at last!
I've emailed Collin (the host) several times in the last 6 weeks or so as he has the first UK based podcast about Geocaching and I was really impressed with him making the effort on our behalf.
However it transpires that his web-based contact form has been broken for ages and he only realised this week. I emailed him to ask how long it had been down and then based on his reply tried to remember everything I'd emailed him previously.
In this months show (episode #3) he gave me a simple shout-out (ie. a mention) and also gave out this blog's web address; I hadn't told him this so he must have done some research!
Then in his mention about the previous show's question-of-the-month, for which he'd misplaced all his email replies, he did say he had heard from someone, he couldn't remember who, who had said they were currently about 15 feet from their nearest Geocacher at work - but as it was also his girlfriend it was a little bit like cheating as he also lived with her. Well as you've guessed by reading this, that was also me. (I had mentioned that I also only live about 8 doors from Yorkypudding and Aginghippy but he must have forgotten that too.)
Anyway my other email gave him a possible question-of-the-month and he thinks he may use it next month.
Fame at last!
Thursday 2 September 2010
Return - and revenge
It's been a busy week with little time for Geocaching since our Bank Holiday but we have managed two quick runs...
On Tuesday, when we were supposedly having a night off, we had just finished watching a film when an email arrived at 20:55 reporting a new cache only 4 miles away. Well of course we couldn't resist and dashed off in the car, arriving and signing the log by 21:15! FTF of course, but more satisfyingly also our quickest to date. On the way home we detoured several miles and picked up a drive-by down at J31 of the M1. A nice easy 2 in the pitch black.
Tonight we planned a quick walk back to Rother Valley - firstly to get revenge on the one that eluded us on Monday and secondly to pick up another very close to it that was frustratingly published on Monday while we were already out.
The bridge was a doddle - it was a bit annoying we didn't get it before, but at least it's now done.
Two caches and two small miles.
On Tuesday, when we were supposedly having a night off, we had just finished watching a film when an email arrived at 20:55 reporting a new cache only 4 miles away. Well of course we couldn't resist and dashed off in the car, arriving and signing the log by 21:15! FTF of course, but more satisfyingly also our quickest to date. On the way home we detoured several miles and picked up a drive-by down at J31 of the M1. A nice easy 2 in the pitch black.
Tonight we planned a quick walk back to Rother Valley - firstly to get revenge on the one that eluded us on Monday and secondly to pick up another very close to it that was frustratingly published on Monday while we were already out.
The bridge was a doddle - it was a bit annoying we didn't get it before, but at least it's now done.
Two caches and two small miles.
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