My new hidden cache is called Some Cheese. There is no particular significance to the name of the cache. I just thought it would be amusing to see emails coming in that say so-and-so found some cheese! It is hidden in a relatively new open space park called Sharptail Ridge. It is near Roxborough, Colorado.
The container is a large camouflaged plastic peanut butter jar. Right now it has an assortment of the usual stuff in it including a nice travel bug beanie baby for whoever finds it first. It also has 5 identical blue and white whistles that I picked up from various caches. These are the calling card of a prolific cacher who lives somewhere in the Denver area. I am hoping he picks them up from this new cache.
Sharptail Ridge is a lonely and somewhat out of the way place. I have been by there a number of times and have not seen any other people. Perhaps this cache will help people discover the park.
The sign by the trailhead says no bikes and no dogs but there is the potential for rattlesnakes. I didn't see any.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Templar Geocoin
Shown above are two of the varieties of Templar Geocoins. These were manufactured in three main varieties: Antique Copper (top), Antique Gold (bottom) and Antique Silver (not shown). They are produced by a company in Germany and can still be bought directly from them for 8 Euros each. People continue to try to sell them on ebay and typically get more for them than the company in Germany gets. It always pays to see if you can get something elsewhere before bidding very high on Ebay.
The front of these coins shows a templar shield and features translucent color so that the metal structure of the coin can be seen. The back depicts the seal of the templars.
Like many geocoin producers, this company also produced some limited quantities of special editiosn of these coins. There were no more than about 30 of each of these varieties produced: Nickel, Foggy Gold, Black Nickel, Two Tone. I haven't seen any of these special ones.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Blarney Geocoin
The Blarney Geocoin was part of a subscription of geocoins in which I get a new coin once a month. This was the coin from this past March and is one of the nicest ones this particular compnay has produced.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Colorado 2008 Geocoins
The above Colorado 2008 geocoins are only two of the varieties of this new coin. These are even better looking than we expected and make great additions to our collection.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monarch Butterfly Geocoin
This geocoin was found in a cache near Chatfield sometime last week. It has a nice butterfly design and is quite attractive. I will put this one in another cache soon.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Signal Geocoin
We found this geocoin in a cache in Fort Collins on July 4th. It will be placed in another cache very soon. This is the first of this particular type of coin that we have come across. It is part of a series of coins featuring Signal the Frog. Signal is the official geocaching mascot. This coin is part of a series of 19 coins that were released between January, 2006 and July, 2007 - one a month. You can still buy some of them from the people who put them out. This particular one has a Canada theme.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Talon Geocoin
This is a picture of the new Colorado State Park Talon Geocoin. We were lucky enough to get two of these at a state park recently. I suspect that they are relatively rare. I haven't decided for sure if I will put it in a cache for others to grab.
Ups and Downs in 90 Degrees
Yesterday, I went on an adventure with a couple of interesting misadventures along the way. I planned a geocaching bike ride in the area of Red Rocks park. There are 18 or so caches hidden in the area and I wanted to see how many I could get. The path would be about 6 miles long down and up some mountain bike trails that did not appear to be all that challenging. Well, it turned out differently and this bike ride turned out to be the most challenging bike ride I have ever been on.
Having left work early, I got home and got everything ready and headed out with the bike on the back of the car. I arrive at the trailhead near Alameda and C470 about 1:30 and 6065 feet in elevation. I put my camelback on loaded with water and stuffed my geocaching stuff in my bike shirt pockets. The GPS receiver went on the bike mount and off I went.
The first part of the trail is a switchback up the side of North Dinosaur Ridge. It's an elevation gain of about 400 feet to the first trail junction. Turning right and heading uphill another 50 feet on a rocky trail is where the first cache was. I also found a few other caches on this part of the ridge. From the car to the high point was a gain of about 550 feet altogether. I then continued down the hill to the parking lot at Metthews-Winters park where there is another bicycle trailhead and a number of additional geocaches. At this point, I was at 6338 feet.
The trail in Matthew-Winters park is lengthy with mostly a modest slope. It was not as steep overall as the switchback up Dinosaur Ridge but it did have its moments. The highpoint on this trail is at 6800 feet so that made another gain of almost 500 feet!
I rode with 4 teenagers on this part of the trail and they had been up there before. They advised me to lower my bike seat for the trip back down the other side of the trail. This was a very good idea due to the steepness and roughness of the trail. There are lots of exposed rocks and bumps and a lower center of gravity made this a good plan. By the time I reached a road crossing, I was at 6220 feet, an elevation loss of 580 feet and that was in about 1/4 of the trail length as the distance to get up to the high point.
On the way down this hill, there is a cache hidden hanging in a tree. When I approached the area, there was another biker resting in the shade of the tree. I stopped and chatted a while about the trail he was about to go up. He wasn't ready to leave so I told him all about geocaching. He said he would check out the geocaching.com website and he seemed genuinely interested. I showed him the cache when I found it.
At this point, I was in Red Rocks park. I found a couple of caches there. One of the ones I did not find was by a small cemetery that is in the park. It's the old Morrison cemetery. The cache is hidden inside of a hollow square pole. You have to stick your finger in the hole from underneath and the cache can be found there magnetically attached. When I was there, I was not willing to stick my finger in the hole so I did not find the cache. It was a good thing too since when I later read the logs on the cache, I discovered that there is a family of wasps who live in that very same hole! The last person who found the cache got stung on his finger. The cemetery is at 6000 feet.
The next cache I found was not too far away and it is a film canister hidden under a rock. After this find, I was facing the biggest climb of the day...
Did I mention how hot it was? It was well into the 90s. It was not too long after this point that I ran out of water with a couple of difficult miles to go. Not good. The high point on this next climb was 6575 feet - another gain of 575 feet, with no water, rubber legs, and a rocky trail so rough and steep that I walked and pushed the bike more than I rode. I took lots of breaks. When I finally reached the downhill switchbacks, the same ones I rode up at the beginning of the ride, I was quite relieved and really enjoyed that bit of downhill back to the car. I arrived at the car more than 2 hours after I expected to. The ride was almost 12 miles rather than the 6 that I expected.
I found 15 of the 18 geocaches that I went to find so it was a very good day in that respect. I was very exhausted when I got home but did sleep very well last night!
Having left work early, I got home and got everything ready and headed out with the bike on the back of the car. I arrive at the trailhead near Alameda and C470 about 1:30 and 6065 feet in elevation. I put my camelback on loaded with water and stuffed my geocaching stuff in my bike shirt pockets. The GPS receiver went on the bike mount and off I went.
The first part of the trail is a switchback up the side of North Dinosaur Ridge. It's an elevation gain of about 400 feet to the first trail junction. Turning right and heading uphill another 50 feet on a rocky trail is where the first cache was. I also found a few other caches on this part of the ridge. From the car to the high point was a gain of about 550 feet altogether. I then continued down the hill to the parking lot at Metthews-Winters park where there is another bicycle trailhead and a number of additional geocaches. At this point, I was at 6338 feet.
The trail in Matthew-Winters park is lengthy with mostly a modest slope. It was not as steep overall as the switchback up Dinosaur Ridge but it did have its moments. The highpoint on this trail is at 6800 feet so that made another gain of almost 500 feet!
I rode with 4 teenagers on this part of the trail and they had been up there before. They advised me to lower my bike seat for the trip back down the other side of the trail. This was a very good idea due to the steepness and roughness of the trail. There are lots of exposed rocks and bumps and a lower center of gravity made this a good plan. By the time I reached a road crossing, I was at 6220 feet, an elevation loss of 580 feet and that was in about 1/4 of the trail length as the distance to get up to the high point.
On the way down this hill, there is a cache hidden hanging in a tree. When I approached the area, there was another biker resting in the shade of the tree. I stopped and chatted a while about the trail he was about to go up. He wasn't ready to leave so I told him all about geocaching. He said he would check out the geocaching.com website and he seemed genuinely interested. I showed him the cache when I found it.
At this point, I was in Red Rocks park. I found a couple of caches there. One of the ones I did not find was by a small cemetery that is in the park. It's the old Morrison cemetery. The cache is hidden inside of a hollow square pole. You have to stick your finger in the hole from underneath and the cache can be found there magnetically attached. When I was there, I was not willing to stick my finger in the hole so I did not find the cache. It was a good thing too since when I later read the logs on the cache, I discovered that there is a family of wasps who live in that very same hole! The last person who found the cache got stung on his finger. The cemetery is at 6000 feet.
The next cache I found was not too far away and it is a film canister hidden under a rock. After this find, I was facing the biggest climb of the day...
Did I mention how hot it was? It was well into the 90s. It was not too long after this point that I ran out of water with a couple of difficult miles to go. Not good. The high point on this next climb was 6575 feet - another gain of 575 feet, with no water, rubber legs, and a rocky trail so rough and steep that I walked and pushed the bike more than I rode. I took lots of breaks. When I finally reached the downhill switchbacks, the same ones I rode up at the beginning of the ride, I was quite relieved and really enjoyed that bit of downhill back to the car. I arrived at the car more than 2 hours after I expected to. The ride was almost 12 miles rather than the 6 that I expected.
I found 15 of the 18 geocaches that I went to find so it was a very good day in that respect. I was very exhausted when I got home but did sleep very well last night!
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