Category Archives: Geocaching

12 of 12 May 2010 …

May 12, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

Another month down and time for another 12 of 12.

Today was nothing exciting but there were a few things that were out of the normal.

The day started as normal dropping the kids at school which allowed some cache maintenance at my Eden Hills CFS cache (spoiler photo). A stop at the Post Office but the postbox was bare today. The usual drive down to Adelaide and grabbed a photo of the city near Scotch College and apart from the traffic at the roundabout there, it was a good drive in.

A couple of photos of the SA Police HQ going up at the back of the Fire Station and the car park going up in the front.

A visit from Ivar with the proof print for the Competitors Map for this years Scouts Rally SA – good to go. 🙂

Today was the start of the second round of Lung Function Testing for our firefighters. The University of Adelaide researchers brought in their equipment today and we set it up ready for the 6 month study as a follow on study from 2 years ago.

There a few photos of work life with the line up of “fire cars”, coffee time and some reading material.

This afternoon, I caught up with Flipper & Co to give some Travel Bugs which they are going to take to Melbourne on the weekend.

Through the carwash on the way back to the Fire Station and then final photo is “Time to Go Home” as the sun sets with the night shift crews about to begin for the night ………

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Firefighting, Geocaching

10 Years of Geocaching …

May 2, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

After attending the 60th Anniversary of Blackwood CFS at the Blackwood Football Club, it was time to head back down to Adelaide to Celebrate Ten Years of Geocaching.

On 3rd May 2000 the first cache was hidden by Dave Ulmer in the forests of Oregon.

On Monday 8th March 2010 the number of active caches worldwide exceeded one million.

Today saw Adelaide’s chance to celebrate the occasion and 150 cachers met in the South Parklands. Activities this afternoon included the group photo, the obligatory Birthday Cake, face painting for the kids and plenty of time catching up with other cachers.

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Firefighting, Geocaching, USA 2010

The OC to Ventura County …

April 7, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

My last day in the US this time round was spent visiting Fire Departments at opposite ends of Los Angeles.

The morning was spent with Battalion Chief Mike Ferdig of Orange County Fire Authority at their Headquarters in Irvine. This is my second visit here as I visited last July.

We spoke about the Earthquake Preparedness of the OCFA, given the 7.2 Earthquake of a couple of days ago on the Mexico / Californian border. Their preparedness looked similar to what we were trying to achieve with our Strike Team pre planning. I can see this doubling as earthquake pre-planning as well for us.

We headed out for a bite to eat. The fare of choice was an All American Dog from Jerrys Wood Fired Dogs. Wasn’t too bad at all. Back to HQ to have a look a their Communications / Logistics Trailer and it was time to hit the Freeway.

I had a 150km drive on the I-5 and I-101 to get up to the Ventura County Fire Department at Camarillo. The thing with LA Freeways is that you can be going at 115kph with hundreds of other cars hoping that someone doesn’t get it wrong or you are doing 10kph wishing you were doing 115kph. I was doing both today and ended up being 10 minutes late.

I met with Assistant Chief Vaughan Miller. I had attended a presentation of his at the conference and wanted the enquire more on his work with PPE and hydration. He has given me a lot of usefu information.

It was time to start heading down the coast towards LAX as there was a plane to catch back to Australia. It was a scenic drive with an opportunity to grab a few geocaches as well. It was going well until I hit Santa Monica when the traffic crawled to a stop.

Luckily I could turn off to grab a more direct route to LAX. Arrived in time to drop off the car, grab a bite to eat, check out the duty free then board the 747 back to Australia. I used points to upgrade to Premium Economy which was well worth the extra room.

Farewell to the United States for now ……

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Firefighting, Geocaching, USA 2010

High Desert California ….

April 6, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

Today I had a chance to drive through some of the country that we would normally see alight with wildfires. Taking the I-15 through the Sierra’s to Baker and Death Valley, it was easy to see why the wildfires get so large.

The landscape is so high and steep with access to most areas limited at best, although the areas were very green today due to recent rains, so it will be a while before this burns,

The further you moved towards Las Vegas, the lower the mountains became but they were still steep. It is similar to the Flinders Ranges.

I eventually made it to Baker, home of the World’s Tallest Thermometer and Gateway to Death Valley. The weather today wasn’t that bad with the worst that you would suffer would be a bad sunburn – temperature was 66F.

From here it was time to tackle one of the 3 Geocaching Power Trails. Due to the time of day I tackled the smallest one, the Presidents Trail with 32 caches, each located at the bases of High Voltage power pylons.

While in the area, I met up with Flaglady and BoydChicks, a couple of Californian Geocachers who ended picking up 412 finds in 17.5 hours. I cached with them for a while but had to head back to Los Angeles while they continued on.

$I-15 through the Sierra\'s$

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Geocaching, Skiing, USA 2010

Mt Rose skiing revisited …

April 4, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

After being “slightly” sunburnt and windburnt from yesterday on the slopes, I did the right thing and added some suncreen. I needed not worry as the closer I got to Mt Rose the cloudier it got.

By the time I got to the slopes the wind had picked up and the snow was starting to fall. Despite the conditions, I persisted until 1:00 pm then called it a day when it really started to dump.

It wasn’t the snow so much but the wind which went straight through you. I still enjoyed the skiing I got in but my thighs are telling me different.

One thing I can say about Mt Rose is the staff. They were friendly to regardless of the conditions – this is something the Australian ski field staff could learn.

I headed back down the mountain being chased by large amounts of white stuff falling from the sky. Once down on the plains, the sun appeared but the wind persisted. It gave me a chance to go caching and I picked up another 32 finds.

Back to the hotel to pack the bags, then to find that there had been a number of earthquakes in California. LAX had been closed down to inspect the runways for damage. It will be interesting to see if we get in tomorrow if there are more quakes overnight. There is also up to 18″ of snow forecast for Reno overnight.

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Geocaching, Skiing, USA 2010

Skiing Mt Rose …

April 3, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

I had all intentions to be up on Mt Rose at 9:00 am with the lifts opening after 12″ of fresh powder snow but by the time I had got a rental car and rental skis, it wasn’t until 10:30 am before I got there.

There was plenty of evidence of the fresh snow. The snow here is different to that back in Oz. It is a dry powder rather than the wet and icy snow we have at home and the spring skiing here is a lot different to home – no elephant snot.

Mike Brown had organised a lift ticket for me but he was busy doing avalanche control and about every 20 minutes an large explosion was detonated on the Chutes until about 12:00 noon.

Had a great day skiing but the thighs and knees were telling me that it had been 7 months since I had last been skiing. Should be a lot better tomorrow.

Tried to find some of the caches on the mountain but had no luck due to the fresh powder. It wasn’t until I got to the base of the mountain that I could find a cache. 🙂

I managed to capture myself on the webcam at the end of the day. Caught up with Mike eventually and by the time I left the Ski Patrol, my car was the only one left in the parking lot. 😮

Grabbed a few caches on the way home but too many to list.

$Don\'t have a fire ...$

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Geocaching, USA 2010

Good Friday Caching …

April 2, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

A big day out caching today with Jeditrekr, JimmyReno, ForeverChaos and HRKneese getting out to Pyramid Lake and around North Reno. 61 finds, 3 DNF’s and 1 hide which will have dual citizenship on GC.com (DUAL CITIZENSHIP) and GCA.com (Dual Citizenship – what the heck is that …..) 🙂

The day started out with LPC’s (Lamp Post Caches), even having the opportunity to try a Spicy Bite at a LPC. The further we got away from Reno and started getting into the “Outback”, the containers got larger with most being ammo cans and a chance to drop in some TB’s (Travel Bugs) I had brought from Oz.

The countryside is similar to the Flinders Ranges but not as high with rock formations and open spaces.

Our final location was Pyramid Lake which is an alkaline fresh water lake inside the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation. There are a number of geological formations here as well as a large pelican population.

The wind started to increase and another storm headed in with a large dust storm covering the western end of the lake. This storm ended up dropping another 12″ of snow at Mt Rose. 😀

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Geocaching, USA 2010

Downtown Reno …

March 29, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

Another day down on the Strike Team Leaders course and I decided to go for walk into downtown. There was a storm on the way but it looked clear so should be OK.

I didn’t take a jumper and it was warm, but by the time I got to downtown it started to get cool – around 10 degrees and light rain.

I walked along the southern bank of the Truckee River, taking in some geocaches on the way. At one of the caches I came across a couple of cachers, Foreverchaos and HRKneese, found the old Reno arch and into the Main Street to check out the new Reno Arch (the one my Reno pathtag is based on). Downtown was deserted, probably due to the cold, wind and impending storm.

Also checked out the Bowling Centre and Reno Fire Department Station #1 which is similar design to Station @#21.

The round trip today was 12.2km, grabbing 10 caches and getting back to the hotel just as the rain / sleet started with 8.8 degrees and falling.

Caches found:

GCZRKG – “Imagine”

GC1TYDB – Be Patient

GC1R70B – Ye Old Pipeline

GCHREY – Souvenir Penny Cache

GCT7T8 – SHM #210 Depot

GC1RZP8 – Bakers DZ.9 – Bavarian Creme

GCRZPF – Bakers DZ.0 Pan Dulce

GCT7TA – SHM #220 Fight

GCPKKF – SHM #240 Coney Island

GC19ZYG – What a Rush

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Geocaching

Morgan Caching

March 7, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

After spending 5 hours on the SeaDoo yesterday and a bit of a session last night, Sunday was a rest day, at least in the morning.

Some of the families wanted to head up to Morgan to the off road quarry areas to try their prowess, especially after last nights rain. I had the Camry so that meant being a passenger.

It also meant that I could get some Geocaching in as well. 🙂

We headed up to Morgan but found that there wasn’t the mud that was expected, but everyone still had fun and some challenges in the quarry area.

After spending an hour in the quarry area, the other families headed back to Roonka and Team Hurtle and me went caching around the Morgan area returning back to Roonka on the eastern side of the River Murray.

Caches found were:

GCHJM6 – Morgan DTU

GC1CAM3 – Harvey

GC1D30V – No. 52

GCZKPN – Hibercacheon

GCZKP9 – Flowcacheon

GCY67X – River Habitat

GC1AMY2 – APC

GC20YEV – Murkbo Bank

GC1D3YK – G.R. Aldridge, Esquire

GC20YEW – Lock One

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Family Life, Geocaching

Geogaine 2010

February 27, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

We took part in a world first event? The South Australian Rogaining Association put together the idea of a Rogaine with the use of a GPS, with the result of a new event type, the GEOGAINE! In the pleasant surrounds of Victor Harbor the task was be to find as many temporary geocaches in 3 hours on foot.

Our story started in the afternoon when we picked up our Japanese homestay student from the High School around 2:30 pm. Out of the 20 students thee was one that had been sick from the airport to the school and yes it was ours.

We got him home and settled briefly, then it was time to load everyone in the car to go to Victor. It wasnt long and our Japanese friend was ill again. Turn around and drop him and Jenny at home and we were on our way again. The team had now dropped from 5 to 3 and it was now 4:30 pm. We were going to be late.

The drive was going well until about 5km out of Victor when someone decided it was fun to drive at 60kph in a 100 km zone all the way to Victor with the biggest train of cars behind him and no opportunities to pass.

We arrived at the scout hall just in time to hear 5-4-3-2-1 and this crowd of Geogainers heading out the gate. Headed in and grabbed the maps and stuff and headed out still not knowing the rules of engagement.

We decided to grab the very easy ones close then the kids wanted to go to Granite Island so it was then off to do the hard ones. On the southern side of the island, the wind was so strong it was difficult to keep your feet. After picking up all the hard ones we headed south along the coast to make a start on the next series.

Of course in all this the 13 year old daughter was properly kitted up with thongs even though she was told to wear sneakers. But you cant tell a teenager.

It was getting close to 8:00 pm so it was time to grab what we could and head back to the scout hall. It was getting dark and the GPS was telling us that it would take 18 minutes to get back and we had 15 minutes left so time to pick up the pace.

With a little gallop at the end, we made it with 10 seconds to spare to the 8:30 deadline.