Sarah's Fallen Washout Treasure

WARNING: The following blog entry contains spoilers to the caches listed within. If you feel you may be caching in Tucson anytime soon and don't want to ruin your hunt, please proceed with caution.

We did a bit of walking and found some more treasure. Check it out!

WASHOUT

We took the car to this one, and quickly found that the cache was behind a chained-off road. I checked the cache description and saw that it said, in all caps no less, "THIS IS ON PRIVATE PROPERTY. IT IS OK'D BY SIENNA HOME OWNERS. I AM V.P. OF THE ASSOC." Well, allrighty then! Once we were able to find our way over there, past another fence and a gulley, and then a large fallen tree in our path, we found the cache in short order. This was a very small container, with only a tiny monkey face eraser inside. Since we have at least a few of those, we took nothing, and left only a 20-sided die.

Kids' Treasure

I parked behind a row of apartment buildings, and we headed out on foot for the next three caches. We found the first very quickly. I saw the green sticking out from a tee-pee of sticks under a bush. We took a doll and a slinky, and left a 20-sider and something called a "popper." It's this piece of rubber that you turn inside out, and then it flips back to it's original shape, making it fly into the air. Well, look:

Anyway, here's us with our find. Nice container!

Fallen Heroes 2

We walked to this one from Kids' Treasure. Along the way, we found this swing, suspended from what looked to a very old, and very dead, tree. Sarah found that the dessicated branch above would most probably not support her weight...

So she decided to try climbing it instead!

We soon continued our trek through the woods. It was quite a walk, and put us near a small park. I always find it amazing to walk in a wood or forest, and then all of a sudden, you come upon some patch of civilization, or to find that there was a road not far from where you were walking, that had been running parallel to you for quite awhile.

This cache, and the memorial near it, is dedicated to Tucson police officer Eric Hite, who died on June 2, 2008. We found it inside a small fence running around a tree. It's a bison tube attached to a long piece of wire. We TNLNSL (Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log). Unfortunately, we didn't have time to explore the park, as it was getting late, and we had to walk to our next cache, then trek back to the car and make it home in time for dinner!

You may have to look closely to see the cache. I have the wire in my left hand, and the bison tube is suspended by the wire in front of Sarah.

Sarah's Place

Sarah was rather thrilled, since it almost seemed like this cache was named after her. The family who placed the cache, chose this because of it's location. Their daughter had wandered off into this area when she was younger, and she thought the place was magical. She tried to show them what she had found, but she couldn't locate it again. The directions don't say if they found the "magical place" at a later date, and hid the cache there, or if they just chose this as the closest likely spot. It's another bison tube, cleverly hidden in the "V" of a tree.

I'm not sure what's up with Savannah in this picture! Are you okay, honey?

Four for four! We've been doing well lately. Now we're up to 40 caches found. Sweet! Thanks for reading!

                                                               Caches Found: 40                                                               

Hidden Beneath the Pentagon Toybox

WARNING: The following blog entry contains spoilers to the caches listed within. If you feel you may be caching in Tucson anytime soon and don't want to ruin your hunt, please proceed with caution.

After a couple weeks off, we headed a few miles east to hit a few caches. The last two were near a small neighborhood playground. Read on...

Hidden Behind the Car Hops

This cache was right by a Sonic restaurant, of all places. An employee spotted us as he was headed to his car. He asked us if we were looking for the "treasure." I responded to the affirmative, to which he stated that he doesn't think anyone's ever found it. Little did he know, they have, but it isn't easy. It took us quite a few minutes to find this thing, but find it we did. That is, Sarah found it. Here she is with her catch.

Is it Beneath You?

This one was located in what looked to be a mini-rock quarry. Near ground zero, I scraped my leg a bit, failing to notice a gap in the rocks. My leg fell into the gap, up to the knee! It's a good thing I didn't fall, or I may have broken it. Savannah (our middle Terror) spotted the cache. She needed this since she hasn't made any finds for awhile. We took a bag of erasers, a microcar (?), a goldfish, and some rainbow shoelaces. Nikki quickly claimed the shoelaces as being all hers. We left a 20-sided die, a Chuck E. Cheese token, a duck hockey toy, and the "they fired me at gettysburg" civil war cannon TB (we found that here).

 Savannah and I.

Nikki with Sarah (oldest Terror) and Skylar (tiniest Terror).

Pentagon Hill

The next two caches brought us to Case Park. This is a rather small park, compared to the one we visited last time. There weren't many places to park, but we parked by the curb and headed out. Nikki was feeling a bit under the weather, so she elected to remain in the car. She was glad she did, for this quite a long walk. There was a sizable path heading towards the general direction of the cache, but alas, we were not aware of it. We blundered through quite a lot of cacti and thorny bushes. Luckily, the kids didn't get any needles stuck in them. I did get a few sticking out of the back of my leg, but they were easily withdrawn. We took a Dora Boots figure, a pair of tiny earrings, and some sort of plastic clip. We left a 20-sided die, a penguin toy, and a stamper. It's a good thing I had coordinates for another cache after this one, since I had no idea how to get back to the car from here!

"Bridge Across Troubled... Sand?"

We got it!

Neat rock-lined trail, eh?

I found a Skylar on the trail!

We stopped for a break and a photo-op.

Emily's Toybox

This was a stone's throw from the nearby playground. We found it rather easily. We took a plastic whistle and a little disc toy. We left a 20-sided die and a Fisher Price baby figure. I tried to get a photo with the kids, but they were way too impatient at this point, and just ran off for the playground. I did manage to get a photo of me with the cache though (with the camera hanging from a tree branch by it's strap). The sun was about to set behind me. It was a very good day of hunting.

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                                                               Caches Found: 32                                                               

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A Walk in the Park

Unfortunately, all the finds here were made when the kids weren't with me, and I logged two DNF's (Did Not Find) when they were. After an hour or two at Chuck E. Cheese, we went down to Morris K. Udall Park to stroll around and do some geocaching. I took a few tokens with me to place in the caches.

WARNING: The following blog entry contains spoilers to the caches listed within. If you feel you may be caching in Tucson anytime soon and don't want to ruin your hunt, please proceed with caution.

An Amaze-ing Woman

Well, we looked and looked for this one, but we couldn't find it. At first, we thought it was this plastic egg, which had been vandalized by muggles (non-cachers). Nikki found it cracked open. After looking at the logs of the previous cachers, I see that it's a nano (very tiny), and it's magnetic... and it's not a plastic egg. There was a cool labyrinth with the statue of a Native American woman standing guard.

Lady of the labyrinth.

 This is not the cache. I put it back together, thinking that it might be.

Nikki and the kids got bored and tired, so Nikki sat, while the kids played on what looked like more of an exercise area for adults, than a kids' playground. I quickly set off to try for one more cache.

YUP, Another Micro

I was in a rush and couldn't find this one as well.  :(  Looking back at the visitor logs, I see that the cache coordinates are off by 20 feet or so. I actually just got an email from the cache owner, stating that someone moved the cache because the trees were being trimmed near where the cache was. While this is a very considerate thing to do, it's nowhere near the newly-posted coordinates. I fully intend to revisit this one once it's moved back.

At this point, Nikki wanted to go home because she was tired. We left, and I was somewhat despondent. After only finding two caches during the weekend prior, I didn't want to leave with only DNFs to report back. I decided to drop off Nikki and the kids (who were interested in playing with their friends anyway), and go back to seek the rest of the caches in Udall Park. Ironically enough, all the finds from this point on were quite easy.

Walk in the Park

This was located in a dirt and cacti area between the park itself, and a nearby neighborhood street. I found it really easy. It was a welcome relief after my problems with the other caches today. What I found really neat was the flat stone with a "handle" attached. The cache was directly underneath it.

I took some items for the girls: A notepad with "peace" and "love" logos on it, a Santa Claus maze toy (you know the kind with the little metal ball inside?), and a pin with a crowned heart on it. I left a 20-sided die, a Chuck E. Cheese token, and an action figure of a monkey.

Baseball Season is in Full Swing

Nothing to do with baseball, but I did find the cache rather easily. The container isn't the best (with the neck being slightly smaller than the rest of the container), and it was missing a lid. I took a toy lizard, and left a die.

I found this strange-looking plant (a cactus?) on the way to the cache site, and took one of it's fruits as a souvenir.

 Yes, I'm wearing a skort.

Roundabout # 6

I don't know about roundabouts 1 through 5, but this one is pretty interesting. Strangely enough, I didn't take a picture of it. Here's a photo taken from one of the previous finders of this cache. The javelina isn't real, of course, but neither is the cactus!

After looking at the artwork for awhile, I looked for the cache, and found it straight away. It was getting late (and dark) by this point, so I called it a day after this one. I took a dolphin pin, and left another die and another token.

Caches Found: 28

50%

WARNING: The following blog entry contains spoilers to the caches listed within. If you feel you may be caching in Tucson anytime soon and don't want to ruin your hunt, please proceed with caution.

Some geocachers have a "signature item" that they like to leave in the caches. For example, there is someone who lives around here who goes by the handle of "Dominoes." He tends to leave a domino in the caches he visits. This sounded really neat to me, and I racked my brain for a few weeks, trying to come up with a signature item for myself. It had to be small enough to fit into most caches, and of course, non-perishable. Being a Dungeons and Dragons fan since at least the late `80's, I thought, "Hey! Dice!" And there is no more iconic die out there but a twenty-sider. I was able to find a lot of 100 on eBay for $15, including shipping. And they're purple. Take a look...

Purple nails, purple dice!

We found two for two last weekend. In other words, we got only 50% of the caches we sought out to find. Bogus, dude. Interestingly enough, they were all hid by the same person. No car this time, we just walked from one cache to another. My two older daughters and I had a nice walk around the neighborhood.

BAZOOKA!

I'm not sure why this is called, "BAZOOKA!" I thought it would have something to do with the gum. But then again, the cache instructions did say that this was in a temporary container. We started looking in the wrong place at first. My GPS seemed to be a bit confused.  Once we were in the right area though, the find came quickly. It was under a bunch of rocks! We took a foreign coin, and left a domestic penny and a 20-sided die.

Right after we found the cache, a woman and her dogs came over to say hello. We stealthily hid the thing until they left.

Savannah (L) and Sarah (R) with the cache. My trusty GPSr is in the bottom right-hand corner.

Bubbles&Alfonzo

This is one of a series of caches in which the cache owner talks about various cats he's known over the years. As far as I can tell, the caches themselves don't resemble anything catlike. But then again, we only found one of them. You can click on the links to read the stories. This one was in a Ziploc bag. One of the previous cachers found it without a lid, so he or she bagged it to protect it from rain and such. We found this behind a rock. We took nothing and left a twenty sided die.

I'm holding the teeny tiny cache in my right hand, and the rolled-up logsheet in my left hand. I was using that brick to lean on while writing.

Ashes and Niners

This was our first DNF (Did Not Find). The clue is, "rope is your friend" We did find a length of cable, but couldn't figure out how to use it. To climb, I suppose? The cache might have been up a tree (which may have trouble supporting most people's weight), or in a hole on top of a high concrete wall. Then again, maybe there's another way to it. I don't know. It does have 4 out of 5 stars for difficulty. I'll try this again one day, with a ladder or something.  ;)

Hallow and Murphy

Our second DNF. This was in a very prickly area. Cacti all over, and two nasty trees. One cut down and strewn on the ground, and the other one standing tall, waiting to prick someone. Sarah and I got quite a few cactus needles stuck in our skin, with nothing to show for it. After some kids asked us if we wanted to play in their clubhouse (I told them I'm a bit old for that, ha ha!), we gave up on this one. I see notes from others now, indicating that it may be easier to attack this one from the south. We didn't come from that way, so I'll give this another try at some point.

And that's the sum of our adventure for the weekend. I'm used to finding more, so this was a bit of a bummer. Luckily, we aren't graded on geocaching. I would definitely have come home with a bad report card on this one.

Caches Found: 25

Sergeant Electric Glory

 WARNING: The following blog entry contains spoilers to the caches listed within. If you feel you may be caching in Tucson anytime soon and don't want to ruin your hunt, please proceed with caution.

We had a really nice weekend of caching. We rested on Saturday, and cached on Sunday and Monday (Martin Luther King Day). Here's our Sunday adventure.

Electric Substation

A couple weeks ago, we searched for this cache (last entry on the page) and did not find it (DNF). It appeared as if we came from the wrong direction, since there were fences in the way. We resolved to come at it from a different direction. Take a look at the picture below. The red trail shows our path from the car to the fence (dead end!) when we first looked for this in the beginning of this month. The trail in blue illustrates the easiest and quickest way to the cache. The trail in purple shows the way we ended up going. The cache in the middle of the map is the 123 Book Exchange cache, and the one to the far right is the Goes to Eleven cache. More on those in my next entry.

We parked by a medical building, and we headed southeast from there. We ran into a fence.

We soon found a gap in the fence.

I had no worries since I saw a couple other people walking around in there. We came across a huge crater. It looked like a wash that was deteriorating. We went around that in a large crescent.

 It may be hard to make out, but the land opens up at about the middle of the picture.

 Wrong way, kids!

We then came to a small concrete wash. We got across that without any difficulty. The angle was only about 150 degrees. We just ran down and then back up.

This can be confusing to look at. You're looking down into the concrete wash. There is graffiti on the far wall, and a fence goes over the wash to the right.

 

 Sarah just had to prove that she could climb along the fence. What a fence monkey!

We got near the cache, only to find a fence in our path. Down about 300 feet, there was a gap in the fence. We crossed it, doubled back, and soon after, found the cache. We took a tiny plastic helmet, a plastic fish toy, and this suction-cup ball thingie. We left some kind of red monster toy (I was told it was from the Hercules cartoon), a duck hockey player with wheels (McD's Happy Meal item, boy I love trying to describe these things, lol), and a hippo toy from Madagascar that will probably talk to whoever handles the cache next, so keep your ears open! Ha ha! Interestingly enough, we found our way back much easier (the trail in blue on the map above). I figured out the way we were supposed to go... southwest from the car, not southeast!

Savannah and Sarah with their loot. The fishie was for Skylar.

Me with the cache container and my trusty GPSr.

Upon heading back to our automobile, we found the easy route. I almost fell down when I saw our car... right there, on the other side of the parking lot!

"You've gotta be kidding me!"

This was a fun walk for my two older daughters and I (the other two Tucson Terrors had stayed home). There were plenty of gulleys and hills. The walk was more enjoyable going the way we did. The kids wanted to go back that way anyway, but I wanted to hit two more caches and it was getting late.

Senior Master Sergeant (SMSgt)

This is one of a bunch of caches named after the enlisted ranks of the US Air Force. This one was a "park and grab." It was literally just that: We parked, and we grabbed. Sarah headed toward this cool-looking tree and scurried up. The cache happened to be in that very tree! We found a few tiny items inside, but we took nothing and left nothing.

Sarah and Savannah right near the cache location.

Me with the cache.

Here are two dogs that were barking incessantly as we were seeking the cache. After I took this photo, they seemed to quiet down. I guess they just wanted their picture taken!

Old Glory 2

We had a bit of trouble getting to ground zero on this one. I thought it was on the west side of the road, but then it looked to be on the other side. I parked in an apartment complex on the east side, and then found we had to cross to the west side after all! It took us awhile to find this one. It was up high, hanging on the inside of the pole that Sarah's standing in front of in the picture below. It was hanging by what looked to be a straightened-out paperclip, similar to the Kodak Cache (second to last entry), one of our first finds. Sarah found this one, and in fact, she found all the caches today, three for three!

The cache stated that this is "another fine example of our national symbol of freedom," but I saw no symbol of freedom here. Just a tiny tube with a log sheet inside.

She loves bubble gum and geocaching!

It's dark! Time to go home and make dinner.

Stay tuned for our holiday adventure. Thanks for reading!