Geocachers Making NO Sense At All

As usual, I am a bit confused.  Let me tell you why with this little bit of a post.  

The temps are definitely still summer like.  I am talking about  the deserts and even the high deserts are hitting triple digits. 



and  - 





my thoughts are still of sinking my naked toes in the sand and playing on a nice cool beach  . . . . . .

when i go out caching, I am still wearing tank tops and shorts because it is just too darn hot to wear protective clothing   . . . . . .




and  -

what do i see that Space Coast Geocaching Store is offering on their Facebook and their twitter?

Holiday Geocoins ! ! !    Yep - Cute little Holiday Geocoins ! 

Now - am I mistaken or is there just something wrong with this?   You check out Space Coast Geocaching Store and let me know what you think.

Space Coast Geocaching Store Update

It's been a while since I have talked to the Space Coast Geocaching Guys but, they have a couple of exciting new things happening. 

First - Signal is hanging out in the store.  For those cachers who geocache as a family will understand how neat this will be for the little ones who come in the store.  And what about any muggles who happen by the area?  If this doesn't bring up some questions, I don't know what will.  Check with Space Coast and see if they are going to do a photo session with Signal soon.  I guess it would be helpful if you live or are visiting their neck of the woods.

And here's some exciting news that you will enjoy, even if you don't live in the area.  Here's their announcement from September 3, 2013 -

Ok fans here is the announcement you have all been waiting for....the trackable license plates have FINALLY arrived. We will begin processing all of the orders tomorrow and hope to have all orders shipped by Thursday. Thank you for your patience. They turned out fantastic. We believe everyone will be quite happy once they see them in person. So within the next week everyone should start to see them arrive. We will also add them to our online store once we have all the orders shipped. So if you did not get in on the presale they should be available starting Friday if all goes well. Again thanks to everyone that took advantage of the presale.

Is this exciting or what?  Trackable license plates.  

Go to the Space Coast site to get yours today and also check out their inventory of great supplies and swag.  

Thanks Space Coast for keeping us in the loop.  
 

Florida Finders Fest 2012 Coming Up

     The Florida Finders Fest is a really big deal in Florida.  Last year they reached mega event status and is sure to be an even bigger event October 2012.  Here is what they have posted on Geocaching.com -
 GC36PZA

Eighth Annual Florida Finders Fest

Florida Finder's Fest returns to the
Fish and Wildlife Commisions's
Ocala Conservation Center and Youth Camp
on Eaton Lake in the ONF!
Join us for a weekend of Food, Finds, Fellowship
AND Fun in the Ocala National Forest! Saturday, October 27th, 2012, 8:00 AM  

On Saturday, at 8:00AM, we will have several semi-competitive, somewhat organized, get lost in the woods, geo-fun kinda caching activities. There will be additional activities in the forest from Thursday through Sunday. (See Activities below for details and links regarding several of the planed activities. More to follow.)

After the caching activities on Saturday, we will be serving cooked animal, an assortment of side items, and ice cold drinks. No need to bring anything for dinner on Saturday, but attendees should plan on bringing their own food and drinks for the rest of the day and/or weekend, though there will be additional events with food.

The posted coords are for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Ocala Conservation Center and Youth Camp in the Ocala National Forest. Watch for additional information at

www.floridafindersfest.com

Visiting the site is a must to check out the camping site available.  They sound amazing.  Even for those who are not avid campers, there will be an option for you.  Space Coast Geocaching Store will be there and have agreed to fill us in on the events when they return.  Hopefully, we get some other reports from attendees.  Here's some fun stuff from the past.  

 

 

Been Evil Fishing 2012

     I don't believe work should interfere with blogging but it has.  Sorry about that.  So this report of 'Been Evil Fishing 2012' is a bit late.  And 'Been Evil Fishing 2013' has already been announced. So here is the scoop.

     What Geocaching.com posted -

  http://coord.info/GC3FRXR

Been EvilFishing?

www.geocaching.com

An Event Cache is a gathering of local geocachers or geocaching organizations. Use a smartphone or GPS device to navigate to the provided coordinates on 8/24/2012 to attend the event.

• GC3VEN6 the night cache

The new and improved basic get out of the house for a day a night and day and/or another night camping/fishing trip with new caches to find.

When
August 24th - 26th 2011

Location

Willow Springs Lake area of the poker caches and fishing is nestled 7,600 feet above sea level in the cool pines of the magnificent Mogollon Rim, Apache-Sitgraves National Forest. Only two and one half hours northeast of Phoenix.

CAMPSITE coordinates along with a note will attached to the message board at the posted coordinates. These coordinates will be for the CAMPSITE. At the campsite the coordinates or the event log will be posted.

The Event Log will be available once the campsite has been established on Friday. The event log will be accessible all weekend til Sunday Morning, once camp is broken.

There are plenty of free near coordinates or along FR 237 and low cost camping spots at Sink Hole, Canyon Point campground has showers or even stay at the lodge in Forest Lakes.

Friday-Sunday There will be fishing around the lake, depending on how things go, you can catch fish or find the other caches around the area.

New this Year The planned activity for Friday night there is a special night cache. Meet at the campsite at 8pm.
Thanks to David of Morenutz, for taking charge....

Saturday morning 8am a breakfast buffet at Bugles. N 34° 19.828 W 110° 48.015 This is where I will be handing out the coords for the poker run caches, and maybe a few other soon to be published caches..

How EvilFishing works: Saturday Morning if you do not make it Friday night, you will be shown a map to some "fishing" holes. Ok a poker run each ammo can will have a baggie of envelopes take 1 envelope from each of the 5 locales. This will take some time and distance to complete.

Awards and such will be Saturday at the campsite just before sunset. The GPS says it should happen at 6:55pm. Bring the envelopes unopened to Saturday evenings campfire where they will be opened and best hands determined.

There will be a raffle and prizes awarded..

If you would like to donate to the prize pool please do, as that would mean more winners.

Just like these Fine people:

Space Coast Geocaching Store (visit link)
Elk Butt Ranch
Kitty T
Buttaskotch

Real Fishing AZGFD One Day Fishing, Class D (includes trout privilege) $ 16.25 which can be purchased most anywhere or at the General Country Store in Forest Lakes

This was created for EvilFishing Event.  Located just off Highway 260 on Forest Rd 512 going South .3 of a mile.

Should take 15 to Twenty minutes to complete!  The tools needed for this are A flashlight for the first stage down a closed road.  The second stage you will need a black light, but good geosense's makes the blacklight  not required!  It will however make it more fun to find as there are things in the night that will make this a fun to find with one,  plus as a group will even be better!  The reward is a large Ammo can with swag and trade items.  Second stage you are looking for three embers at the GZ then the cache is close!  Have fun and enjoy                                                  

There is another like this only harder and just as fun between Gilbert and Mesa Az.  Just off the 60 freeway at Lindsay rd.  It is:  GC3HG7A 

How was the weekend?

 According to Team Evil Fish the event had a few less attendees but was a great weekend non the less.  Mother Nature was kind and did not rain out the event.  Shamik Kt Tris Morenutz and Space Coast Geocaching Store put the prizes over the top.  'Just Hike' won the ammo can and Sierra won the poker run with a pair of kings.  

Here's a few pics of the event -

Fido Downs avoiding the smoke with a stylish stash mask.  Love it!

 

Such a beautiful view.  Perfect place to get away from the stress of the big cities.

 

 They called this the 'happy tree'.   hummmmm 

Team Evil Fish watch dogs, chillin' out. 

     Here's the scoop for the 2013 event.  Of course there is no designated number as of yet; that will happen when it is closer to the event.  (can't get that until last 6 months prior to date)

August 23, 2013 at 5:45pm until August 25, 2013 at 9:30am

5th Annual Overnight camping, along with the Poker Run a night cache and breakfast buffet and marshmallow roasting.

So mark your calendar for a great summer get away from the heat. 

Thanks Team Evil Fish for sharing the info. 

Midwest Geobash Is A Hit !

     I don't have much info as of yet, but I just wanted to post a little bit about last weekend's mega event - Midwest Geobash, held in Wauseon, Ohio.  This years event theme was "Halloween In July" and the mascot was Spook the Owl.  The Halloween theme opened up a lot of options for activities including the campsite decorating contest, with the top three winner receiving GPS units!

     This one-of-a-kind event was started in 2005.  It started out being a camp out weekend with friends in the Midwest.  Games were added and cachers from surrounding states signed up and it was named "Midwest Geobash".   I don't believe that anyone at the very first event could have imagined where this was going.

     Like I said, I know very little about this event as of now but I am working on changing that soon.  What I do know is that this event is really different from others.  The event is three full days of events, activities, contest and one of the best - night fires and what is called 10 pm "Area 51" transformation.  I can't wait to learn about that.

     I hear that there may have been 2500 in attendance and 400 camp sites that were completely filled or almost. Sounds amazing to me.

  Space Coast Geocaching Store shared their photos and info - so glad you guys were there.  Thanks so much for sharing, as always.  You are super!

     Yipee !  Here's a little YouTube video that I found showing some of the campsite decor.

Space Coast Cachers Facing A New Challenge

     The folks from Space Coast Cachers are rising to the occasion.  They are taking on a great challenge - a cache a day for the next year.  You may be thinking this may be pretty feasible but I am not talking about finding a cache.  I am talking about placing a cache a day.  That sounds pretty wild to me.  I am anxious  to follow them and see how it is going.

     Here is a description of the 'plan', direct from Dale.
     

     Geocaching Challenges, love them or hate them they are here to stay. We have decided to embrace them and see what we can do about generating more interest in them here on the Space Coast. When you visit the Space Coast Geocaching Store you will not only be able to grab the #1 favorite traditional cache in the entire state of Florida, you can complete a challenge as well as capturing two different Munzees.

      Barb and I have decided to attempt to place one challenge every day for 1 year. Not sure we will be able to find that many places but we are going to try. We plan to host an event that will be challenge related. We understand many people do not like the challenges but if you put aside the fact that they do not count in your numbers they really can be a lot of fun and bring you to some really interesting locations that just cannot support a geocache. Besides, they do show up on your profile for everyone to see how many you have completed. So if numbers are what you are interested in then why not grab as many challenges as you possibly can? The other thing about placing a challenge is the fact that there is no impact on the environment, no maintenance required, for the most part no permission needed, and you do not have to be in your home area. You can place them anywhere of interest. The community will decide if you challenge is of good quality or not.

     So why not join us in embracing Groundspeak’s latest idea and place a challenge of your own. Or if you are not interested in that at least go out and complete a few of them to see just how much fun they can be. Sometimes we just need to step out of our comfort zone and do something goofy. You will be amazed at how good it will make you feel.

     You know that I will keep you updated so check back to follow this brave team.
   

Happy July 4th !

     Hey Cachers - how are you spending your July 4th?  So many post that I have seen on Facebook were from cachers who are taking advantage of this extra day off, in the middle of the week, to get out there and cache.  Here in Arizona, the high temps in central and southern Arizona have gone from the triple digits to way below seasonal averages.  Actually, more than 20 degrees cooler.  Perfect for getting out in the deserts and mountains and adding to that cache count.

Check out what Space Coast added to their store.  Never too late to order - patriotic accessories never go out of style.
   
     If anybody would like to share how they spent their day and please send me a note and I will be happy to post.

Space Coast is Everywhere

   
Yep - you don't have to be in Florida to visit Space Coast Geocaching Store but if you happen to be in the vicinity of Merritt Island you can actually stop by and meet Barb and Dale.  I asked Dale a to tell me about the store and here is what he had to say -

     We created the Space Coast Geocachers Association back in 2007. We opened the Space Coast Geocaching Store in September of 2007. Our local caching community has been a very strong and active community ever since we started the group. Currently our group normally hosts at least one CITO event each month as well as other local gatherings. We do not have membership fees just a bunch of like minded folks that like to enjoy geocaching with each other.

     As far as our product the Space Coast Geocaching Store is the original walk in geocaching store and largest supplier of geocaching products. We carry over 300 different geocoins at any given time as well as gps units, cache containers and most anything you might need for geocaching. We sell online at scgastore.com or in person at 55 Goodwin Dr Suite 103, Merritt Is land, FL 32952. Our phone number is 321-453-SCGA (7242) or toll free at 855-454-SCGA (7242). We are active on Facebook as well. The Space Coast Geocaching Store is also home to Florida's most favorite traditional cache "A Cool Cache" (GC15RQB). It also ranks in the top 20 caches in the United States.

Here is a little of what I found when I Googled them - 

amazing product - and lovin' the swag -

 

And they are out there at events - like Geowoodstock X - pretty convienient.

                  And selling more than just swag.

Sporting those sharp pink shirts ! I wonder who's idea that was.  Great logo !

     You can find all sorts of good stuff by visiting the Space Coast on line store or find them on FaceBook.  And if you live out in the middle of 'noplace', you will love having this store at your finger tips.