A Panoramic View (GCPN8Z)

Ethan and I stopped for a quick cache on the way to the gas station. This one was a little damaged but I was able to find a cool Dragonfly.

--Tom

Victor Falls - Revisited (GC17275)

Ethan and I had to go get Gas and he asked if we could go Geocaching. So we went looking for the Victor Falls - Revisited cache. The cache is in the bush and it was a little too thick for Ethan. We didn't find the Cache but I did get come cool pictures. I will have to come back and find this one solo.

--Tom

---

UPDATE: August 1, 2009

After Dinner I took my brother-in-Law Matt out for his 5th find of the day. We decided to go back after the Victor Falls geocache. Since last time the black berries had been so bad I couldn't find the cache I bought a machete for this trip. Someone must have beat me to it because the path was already cleared.

Matt and I quickly made the find and since there was still a little daylight we decided to go for another.

--Tom

---

UPDATE: January 9, 2010

Shawn, JJ, and Julie hadn't found this one so Ethan and I took them.  It was a fun cache and a beautiful waterfall.

Find 2 of 6 for the day.

--Tom
Link to Geocaching Page

Where are all of the houses? (GC1QKZ9)

The boys and I wanted to go out for a quick find, so we stayed close to home. This was a great find it was just off the road and easy for us to get to. We left a Travel Bug "X-36" hopefully it continues on it's mission to travel the world.

--Tom

NORTH.... TO ALASKA!!! (GCEF6E)

This was my first virtual cache. For those that don't know a virtual cache is a just that there is no cache box but there is usually a monument or some kind of landmark. The cache own usually asked you to email or post something specific as proof you found the cache.

I was on my lunch break and decided to go for a walk on the waterfront. I know it's kind of hard to read so here is what the plaque says:

Historical Point of Interest
The famous "TON OF GOLD" that started the Alaska gold rush was unloaded here in 1897. The S.S. Portland landed the valuable cargo at this pier then known as Schwabacher Dock.
Erected National Maritime Day 1957

I have lived in this area my entire life and I never knew that.

--Tom

Evil (C)ammo 4 (GC19P9Y)

Today was Ethan's birthday so after dinner at Red Robin we asked him what he wanted to do. His answe was go on a treasure hunt "Geocaching." So on the way home I did a quick search on my iPhone and found Evil (C)ammo 4. This is my second in the Evil (C)ammo series and I must say I am really enjoying them. When we arrived at the location Ethan and I went to look while Julie and Oliver stayed in the car. It didn't take us long to find the cache but I must say it was very well hidden.

Inside we found Travel Bug "X-36" it's mission To fly around the world, I think I can help.

Happy Birthday Ethan

--Tom

---

UPDATE: September 12, 2009

Out caching with Jchaager, MysticCedars, & RJBroxton and kids on an all day trip to find all the Evil (C)ammo series.

Ethan and I had already found this one but it was new for Oliver and the rest of the group.

2 of 10 caches for the day.

--Tom

Map of our Trip

Herron Island Ferry (GC1F4PN)

The final cache of the day. After the rain stopped and we had lunch with my Grandparents. Apparently Dad had been talking with Grandpa about Geocaching and he was looking forward to finding a cache. So with Grandpa, Dad, Ethan, and myself 4 generations of Irish's set out. This cache was just a few miles from my Dad's house so we arrived quickly and began the hunt. Dad's GPS's batteries died so we just had my iPhone. Grandpa was the one to find the cache. We found another Travel Bug "Balalaikas F 40" this one was also headed for Seattle it's mission is a race for every cache or every 50 kilometer = 1 point. So, I will find it a new home as soon as I can. All and all it was a fun Father's Day.

--Tom

Jackson Lake Cache (GCY4FK)

After no luck finding the [Home Sweet Home] cache we when on to the next one on Dad's list. This was a nice little fine. There is a little trail next to the boat launch and the cache was right there. This was my first Travel Bug "Catnip Mouse".

I was excite to learn this travel bug started in New Mexico in Sept 2007 with a Mission to get to Seattle, since I work downtime Seattle I will get to complete it's mission.

The boys were excited as well but a little disappointed when I told them we couldn't keep our find we had to move it to a new cache. They didn't understand and they wanted to keep their treasure.

So I have also been trying to create my own coin. I have been looking at the wooden nickels and geocoins but I have also wanted to make my own. I read on a blog about shrinky dinks and figured I could give that a try. Here is my first attempt.









As soon as we got back in the car it started to raining so we decided to go home check on Julie and get some lunch. Also, my Grandparents were coming over and we wanted to be home before they got there.

--Tom

Home Sweet Home (GC1F4R4)

After the [Longbranch Trail] we were off to Home Sweet Home. This one was at a park so my Mom and the boys went to play on the toys while Dad and I went looking for the Cache. The hint was "If you were a bird, where would your home be?" So we knew it had to be in the tree.

Dad when looking...























After looking high and low. We decided this one was "muggled" taken by someone. We reported it to the cache owner and moved on to the next one.

--Tom

Longbranch Trail (GC1F4QE)

For Father's Day we went to visit my Dad out at his place. After our adventure yesterday he had been looking up all the caches by his house and had a list of 4 he wanted to check out.

So shortly after arriving my Mom & Dad, my boys, and myself set out (My wife broke her foot and decided to stay home to rest.) Our first stop was the Longbranch Trail cache. There was some kind of renaissance thing going on in the field by the trail head but we went for a little hike. The bridge was washed out from the floors we had this winter so we had to jump the 2 foot wide creek. My son almost went for a swim but i caught him and my Dad was able to help pull him up.

This was Dad's first time with his GPS and after a little playing with it we quickly found the cach. This was my Mom's first cache so she was excited, I think she had more fun seeing the look on the boy's faces when they found the treasure.

--Tom

Evil (C)ammo 7 (GC1J1WD)

So on the way home from [One "Dam" Cache] I decided to take Dad out for one more. There is one cache near my house that is not hidden but camouflaged. So well that it can been seen from over 100 feet away. Julie, the kids, and I had looked for this one twice before and we were not able to find it. I was explaining this to my Dad and within 5 seconds after pulling up he walked right to the cache and found it. This is by far the best cache I have found so far.

Do you see the cache?

That's right it's the camera. This is amazing, I could not believe it. Both times Julie and I had looked we had commented about the camera but neither one of us wanted to mess with it.

There are at least 7 other caches in the Evil (C)ammo series I look forward to finding them all.

--Tom

---

UPDATE: September 12, 2009

Out caching with Jchaager, MysticCedars, & RJBroxton and kids on an all day trip to find all the Evil (C)ammo series.

The boys and I had already found this one but it was new for the rest of the group.

10 of 10 caches for the day.

--Tom

Map of our Trip

One "Dam" Cache (GCA0C2)

Cache #2 with Dad. After hurting my ankle and finding [Outside The Box] we decided to go back to the rim trail and follow the path to One "Dam" Cache. This was by far the longest hike I have gone on for a cache. Most of mine so far have been urban cache no more the a few hundred feet from the road. This one is about a mile into the trail.

I also learned a valuable lesson, don't count on having cell service while caching. I am using the iPhone app and I didn't save this cache so when I lost cell service I lost the cache, the good news is I found a spot with service long enough to download the cache information.

I really enjoyed the hike the brush was a little thick at times but all and all it was a perfect day for a hike. The hint says, it's just after a picnic table and we were just about to give up when we turned the corner and sure enough in the middle of no where there is a picnic table. From there is was relatively easy to find the cache. I picked up SpookDawg13's wooden nickel.

--Tom

Outside The Box (GC1P1AF)

I was out at Mud Mountain Dam for my son's 4th birthday party. After the party I decided to take my Dad out for his first cache. We were looking for [One "Dam" Cache] and I thought we could cut around to the backside to save a little time. Well it turns out that wasn't such a good idea. The backside is about a 300 foot drop then across a river and about 300 feet back up the other side. In the process of figuring this out we decided to go under a bridge and I jump from about 10 feet up to a service road and hit my ankle pretty hard on a rock.

But the good news is once we got back to the truck I stumbled across this one, it was on the other side of the bridge from where we when down. I have never found a troll cache before so it was fun. I found GrnXnham's wooden nickel. I think my Dad and I will enjoy geocaching together.










--Tom

Tree Farm (GCY86C)

Since we found the Prarie Wood cache so fast we decided to look for another. A quick search on my iPhone and we found the Tree Farm cache. I think this is a pretty cools cache, it's easy to find but it's in the middle of a tree farm. The boys and I had blast, Julie was a little camera shy.

I found a wooden nickel from the Booski Family, I will have to find a new home for it soon.









--Tom

Prarie Wood (GC13TM8)

It was a beautiful day today so after dinner the whole family decided to go out and find a cache. I had been reading about the Prarie Wood cache and figured it would be perfect for Ethan and Oliver. Ethan traded a toy boat for a silly snake.

--Tom

Falling Waters (GCY871)

Today I took my 4 year old son Ethan with me. He was very excited to find the buried treasure. I think he thought it would be full of pirate gold or something. I explained to him that in order to take an item from the cache we had to put something in the cache. So we brought a carabiner with us and he insisted on calling it his gold then entire time we were out looking.

We had fun just hiking around and looking at the waterfall and taking some pictures. We even stopped to pick a rose for Mom.

After about a half hour I was about ready to give up, we parked on the opposite side of the falls from where we were so I told Ethan we would make one more pass along a trail behind the waterfall. I am glad we did because on along the trail we found the cache. Ethan started jumping up and down saying we found the treasure. He told me I was his best adventure buddy.

We signed the log and traded our carabiner a pack Star Wars trading cards. Ethan a is huge Star Wars fan so as soon as he saw the trading card he know that is what he wanted.

I am looking forward to taking him with me on future caches.

--Tom

Fennel Creek (GC16J6K)

Today I found my first Geocache. I must say I am very excited, I think this will be a fun new hobby.

I first heard about Geocaching on the HowStuffWorks TechStuff Podcast. If you know me then there is no reason to ask why I would listen to a TechStuff Podcast. But honestly Jonathan Strickland and Chris Pollette are both funny and informative. May I suggest episode #59 GPS Games People Play.

So after listening to the podcast I instantly wipped out my iPhone and searched for a Geocaching Application. I downloaded the Groundspeak’s Geocaching Application part of the http://www.geocaching.com/ website. I quicky discovered there is a cache less then 200 feet from my back yard. Well that did it, I had to go find this cache.

At first, I tried taking my boys (Ages 2 & 4) with me of course they wanted to help but really they just wanted to run around. A few minutes later my wife came over more to help with the boys then find the cache. After about 20 minutes of looking and me messing around with my iphone we gave up and decided to go home for dinner.

After dinner and putting the boys to bed I decided to give it another shot. I when back out and once I figured out how to use the iPhone application it was rather easy to find. I found my first wooden nickel from Stikbow.










I have never been one to blog but I figured now that I have something to write about I would give it a try.

--Tom

---

UPDATE: June 14, 2009

Ethan (my 4 year old) and Oliver (my 2 year old) really want visit this cache since they didn't find it on Friday with me. So I took them back out to show them where it was. Oliver traded some play money for a cool toy basketball and Ethan traded his transformer for a spinning top.

---

UPDATE: June 24, 2009

Ethan really likes this cache so we came back and we left Travel Bug "Balalaikas F 40". This was the first travel bug he found and he was sad he didn't get to keep it. So he wanted to put it in a cache that was close to home.