Amping Up Ironcacher

 We met one goal for the year with our final day of 35 caches on each calendar day of the year!

Last year at this time we had tossed aside our goal of 33 in each day while we struggled with a seriously injured geodog and a family member trying to recover from a severe auto accident.  Phineas was in severe pain and struggling to move.  Our thoughts were focused on Phineas and Ali's mom.  Eventually, our vet was able to resolve Phin's issue with accupunture treatment.  Phin was able to even return to the trail.

We reached the new level at the wonderful Richfield Heritage Preserve with an afternoon of caching.

For now, were looking forward to 2021 and a new goal of 38 in each calendar day.

Out-of-State Geocachers in PA

PA COVID orders are quite rigid on requirements.  Traveling geocachers should consider the potential costs of entering the state while these orders are in place. 

Commercial Cache Name Plays

 As Northeast Ohio runs out of Dollar Generals to host 50 Cent Colonel, maybe there are some other options out there like 4 Quarter Shrub, Slam, and my favorite Linenz.

(think Dollar Tree, Dunkin', and Sheetz)

Lucky Cats for Stimpy

We picked up a cat trackable recently.  Before moving it along we gave it some time with our lucky cats.

How Did You Spend Your Halloween?

 

Pennsylvania Ammo Can

 Steel ammo cans were so much easier to paint than plastic ones.  This one in Somerset County had a well done fall maple leaf pattern.

Rock The Cache Box

 When you find a cache called Rock the Cache Box...  you should be hearing Rock the Casbah in your head.

The place where this cache was located was a good trail for some nice hides and interesting challenges.

Cloud 9 Visit

 In the 1960's Cloud 9 was a small amusement park located on Mount Herman in Olean New York.  Dave w/o id has hidden fourteen caches on the land now owned by the city of Olean.  There is a 15th cache hidden in the area by another hider.

The caches are given high terrain ratings with a trail that takes about three hours to complete.

There are some great views

And some interesting old pieces of the Cloud 9 past.

If you're looking for yet another Fizzy grid, this series will fill a few.  There are a few interesting and creative hides mixed in.  Start your journey here.

Geocaching Goals in a COVID World

 For some cachers COVID seems like bonus caching time for them.  The same is not true for me.  I work for a company which is almost entirely supporting essential business so we have stay operational except for one of my sites.  We don't want to put ourselves at risk or increase the possibility of spreading COVID so our travel has been minimal.  We expected to end the year at or very near 19,000 finds.  With 18,416 that is way out of reach.

Instead of thinking of what we haven't done, we've been thinking of a reasonable goal for the remainder of the year.  Our year so far is light on finds.

We are always behind in logging so there are still some finds to log, but it is certain 2020 will be our fourth year in sixteen full years of caching with fewer than 1000 finds.  We used to always try for three caches per day average, but life doesn't always work that way.

I'm hoping now we can do a little fall caching (and a few weeks of winter) to at least exceed our first full year of caching.

We'll see...

Great Footbridge Hide

 I've seen at least one of these before in Oklahoma.  Both were really well done hides.  Both were placed with permission.

All Aboard Knox County's C.A.&C. Geotrail

We visited Knox County in 2019 to find the park caches in their first geotrail. This year, we were back in the county visiting a super bike trail located on the path of the old C.A.& C (Cleveland, Akron, and Columbus) Railroad. We started our journey in Centerburg and employed a minion to hail our train.

There were enough interesting sights to keep our nature nerd side happy.

Buckeyes are less common in northeast Ohio.  The streamside trees were bearing fruit.

The Mount Vernon depot is a nicely preserved example of an old small town station.  It appeared to be closed from COVID.  If not, I would have stepped inside to see the remaining railway artifacts.

We made a detour from the Knox Trail to visit the Brown Family Environmental Center for a walk in the wildflower fields and the pine plantation.

I enjoyed this old twin trestle on the journey.

2020 is the 80th anniversary of this Alco's build.

Ali says come down, we'll finish the trail tomorrow.

With only a pair of caches left in the series we started our day in Westerville completing the Adventure Lab.  We made the cache near the Bridge of Dreams covered bridge our last in the series.  We enjoyed the bridge, but this stop concerned me most of the journey.  The bridge area was crowded with little mask usage.  We wore ours, but still felt at risk.

As a reward for completing the trail we were sent a coin.  It is a really attractive design and a nice memento of a fun journey.  This is the second Knox County geotrail we have completed.  Both were well done and very enjoyable.

Like last year's coin, this one is not trackable.  We have used a new trackable code to make the coin trackable.  It can be found here if you wish to discover.

Surprise Find While Geocaching

 We are catching up on logs and noted this log from an earlier finder...

I would have settled for a DNF or a did not hunt.

Charlie... RIP

The cacher Charlie, or Charles Reno passed recently.    He placed clever, challenging caches.  I only had the pleasure of meeting Charlie once at an event.  He was a pleasant, engaging person.  He loved talking about caching.

Charlie started geocaching about a year before we did.  I was impressed that he was one of the early cachers to make the journey of finding caches in all the states.  He finished all 50 states and the Ohio 88 county challenge in 2007 at a time when caches were much less plentiful.

source: Geocaching.com

Rest in Peace Charlie

Ohio Caches By County

 Someone posted this to a social media site recently.  I stay away from most active social media as a rule, but this was interesting.  The counties I have 100% coverage are highlighted.  There are a few others where I have small portions.  I guess I stay busy as a reviewer. 😉  In July, I reached thirteen years of reviewing.

Years ago I helped Cleveland Metroparks craft their current geocaching policy.  When we started caching, Cleveland Metroparks would place a few hides and issue at most one permit per park for geocachers to place hides.   All permits expired in a year leaving a practical reality of about 10-12 hides in CMP parks per year.  Since the new policy, geocaching has grown to where there are now almost 500 hides in the parks.  Not all of those hides are in Cuyahoga County as some CMP holdings are ouside the county, but that still means the caches placed in CMP parks in Cuyahoga County are a significant part of the reason why Cuyahoga is #1 in Ohio counties for active caches.  That makes me happy!

Imagine how many more could be in the area if Summit Metroparks would get past their outdated belief that that leaving a cache in a park is the equivalent of leaving trash.  Summit's justification of As the saying goes, "Take only photographs, leave only footprints." makes no sense in a park system that allows archery, builds baseball and basketball courts, soccer fields.  Its fake tree hugging.  In Cleveland Metroparks far more damage is done to the parks' nature by runners creating their own trails to suit their desires.

Cacher or Not?

As a reviewer I use Google Earth a lot.  It is an easy way to look at hide locations.  Mostly I'm looking at light posts in parking lots.  Today, I checked a spot with a car sitting along the road.  Cacher or Not?  I'm guessing someone fishing but who knows.  Maybe the car occupants can get an FTF.

So You Want to Host a Geocaching Event...

Part of the joy of geocaching is meeting with friends who also geocache.  In times of COVID that means risk.  A team at Georgia Tech as put together a tool to help people determine just how great that risk can be.  Since we primarily live in northeast Ohio and fifty people attend the event, the risk that one attendee will be COVID positive is...

67% in Cuyahoga County.

37% in Lake County

35% in Summit County

34% in Lorain County

31% in Medina County

25% in Portage County

25% in Stark County

23% in Geauga County

That's great!  Look at how much safer an event in Geauga County is than one in Cuyahoga County...  maybe.  Remember, geocaching events are open to everyone so an event in any county will most likely be blended with all those counties by the attendees.  It might even have an attendee from Huron County where the risk of a COVID-positive attendee would be 56%.  Maybe one of the attendees recently visited the Lake Erie Islands for some summer fun.  The risk in Ottawa County is 68%.

Now, just think if your event were being held in Kentucky...  and maybe 500 people were expected to attend.  The entire area around Daviees County shows a 99% risk that at least 1 attendee will be COVID-positive.

Actually, when the map zooms out a good portion of the eastern US shows a gathering of 500 people would virtually be assured of at least 1 attendee who is COVID-positive.

It makes one wonder how big an ego one must have to try pushing an event to a mega in the time of a pandemic...

I am saddened to see so little regard not just for the geocachers attending, but for their families who will be put at risk, the exhausted medical community that might be needed to find even more to offer to serve geocachers who might become sick.

This year's play appears to be a part of a ploy to get the next GeoWoodstock.

Geocaching at Kent State

If you are planning a visit to Kent State to geocache, you will need a mask for the visit.  The university now wisely requires facial coverings while on campus.  Be responsible!  Wear a mask!

Give Brain Plaza a visit while you are there.

COVID Caching in Canada

We had a great time when we visited BC and were thinking this year might be time for a return.  It's a pleasant drive north from Spokane when I finish business there.  COVID-19 has pretty much ended that option with a 14-day quarantine requirement when entering the country.  A Minnesota couple recently found out the hard way when they entered Canada and failed to follow quarantine instructions.  They were arrested and each fined $1000 Canadian.  They were lucky.  The maximum fine for not following quarantine rules when entering Canada is $750,000 Canadian per person.  We will wait for better times to hopefully return to BC.

Ohio Geocaching Events Continue to be Restricted Under State Orders

Governor DeWine citing increased positive tests for COVID-19 and R values greater than 1 for significant areas of the state announced the current ban on mass gatherings would continue indefinitely with no date of expiration on the state order.  The R-value indicates the average number of people who will be infected by a COVID-positive carrier.  At an R-value greater than 1 every positive person will on average infect more than one person with whom they are in exposed contact.

As of the 4th of July, Ohio's R value was 1.15 which ranked Ohio as the 18th worst state in the country for COVID spread.  As of the the 4th only 11 states had R values lower than 1 contributing to increased illnesses and greater near-capacity hospital usage.

(Source: rt.live)

As Geocachers we can help by wearing a mask to protect others, maintaining social distancing of at least six feet, not traveling to geocaches in the same vehicles as other cachers with whom we don't live, and reducing the number of group selfies that seem such an important part of finding a geocache.

(Source: rt.live)

Events in Ohio will continue to remain unpublished.

NE Ohio continues ot offer great places to cache socially distanced.  We visited Girdled Road recently to find a puzzle cache in a series.

Stay Safe.

Findley State Park Bomb Scare

I was made aware of a geocache recently being mistaken for a bomb at Findley State Park.  I can't tell from the information which geocache was x-rayed and if the cache is still in place.  There's a chance the cache was never published.  Each year a number of caches are dropped at places requiring a permit and never published if the cache owner doesn't follow up for permission.  Caches in satte parks rarely cause bomb scares, but this one did.  Remember to always mark your geocache containers when you place them.  This ammo can is waiting for us to find a hiding spot in the ANF.

In April, a bomb scare was reported when a geocache was found in Leesville, Louisiana.  The container was reported to be taped up "like a pipe bomb."  Nearby residents were evacuated while the bomb squad destroyed the cache container.

This last report from October 2019 is more disturbing.  It appears from the news report someone in Allen County (Lima, Ohio) removed a geocache which had been in place for over a year and moved the cache to a nearby Bob Evans where it was placed under a bench.  The container had what appeared to be a fake fuse sticking out and contained a note inside.

Different Micro

We've seen plastic versions of this made from soda bottle preforms.  This is the first time we have seen a brass garden hose union used with two rubber hose caps.

The container has held up well for nearly five years.  The original log was dry and in great condition.

Wettest Container

We found this cache recently.

We may have seen wetter caches, but this one was filled with water.  I stopped Ali before she poured out the entire container.  The slime line shows how full the container was.

The old logs inside were a nasty pile of mush.  Amazingly a new log and baggie left by friends about a year ago were still dry.  It was a nice hide in an interesting location.  Unfortunately it was doomed as the owner put a hole in the top of the container to hang the cache.