Sox Fan's Geocaching

5 New Caches and an Event

2004-07-25T10:32:00.000-05:00

Got up early Saturday morning to hunt five new local caches placed by ItsJustUsTwo. Hooked up with The Lone Ranger and Little Geek David tagged along. We headed out to Lemont and met up with out partner for the morning about 7 am. The old quarries along the I&M Canal were pretty cool. Mosquitos were really biting and we had to fight them off every time we stopped to log a cache.

Around the Bend

The Ancient One

Heritage Quarry Cache

I & M Trail – Little Stone House

I & M Trail – The Rock

We parted ways with the Lone Ranger and headed over to the GPSr plus Compass - Into the Woods! event at Waterfall Glen.

Saw familiar faces ( Camp637, Geogil and Dairy and of course Panther in the Den and Geo Jongg). We learned about compass navigation an topo maps. The best part was just hanging out with other geocachers.

Butt-kicking in Naperville

2004-07-23T19:25:00.000-05:00

Went out with my friend FallenFaery for an afternoon of cachin' in the Naperville area on Wednesday 7/21. We found 10 caches or should I say She found 8 and I found two. Yes, I was basically useless. Just along for the ride on most of them. That's o.k. The company was great and the caches were fun. An afternoon well spent. Here's the recap:

9/11 :

fallenfaery (638 found) First cache out of 10 for Sox Fan and I. hehe. seems like I was on a running start today but he'll just say he couldn't see the cache without his glasses or that his gps wasn't working well. He can't stand to lose to a girl, but today he did :) Quickly found this just after the rain slowed down.

Fallenfaery 1Sox Fan 0

Sox Fan (1051 found) Lose to a girl huh? Well, sure she found more than me today I just wanted her to regain her confidence after Saturday. LOL!
Nice cache at a neat location. FallenFaery found it before I even had a chance to begin looking. TFTC!!

Hear The Bells Chime:

fallenfaery (638 found) Cache is there. I filled Soxfan in on what I had read here and we started looking for the cache. Didn't take me long to find it after I got a better idea where it could be. Man I guess he didn't have his wheaties today :)

Fallenfaery 2 Soxfan 0

Sox Fan (1043 found) No Wheaties, just the usual cup of morning coffee (afternoon when you work third shift) Yeah, that's it... I'm really tired because I worked all night and didn't sleep very well today...my body clock is off...
Enjoyed the walk from 911. The river walk was empy after a nice little storm had just swept thru the area. FallenFaery Hootie Hoo'd and now she's up two! TFTC!!

Land Before Time

fallenfaery (638 found) Cache number 3 for the day. Cache covering blended well. Only reason I didn't get this one first is because Soxfan pushed me, yeah that's it.

fallenfaery 2 soxfan 1

Sox Fan (1044 found) HAHA... as I was looking 20 away from her I heard a "THUMP". Down she went! Says she slipped on the mudd. By the end of today I was wishing I would have pushed a few times..
I watched her walk right by it and spotted the container !! WOO HOO!! TFTC!!

Child's Play

fallenfaery (638 found) This one took sometime. Used the hint and still took sometime. I had problems with putting my hands in holes where I couldn't see so I let Soxfan do that while I went and actually found the cache. I walked right past it to find someones yard and found it on my way back.

Fallenfaery 3 soxfan 1

Sox Fan (1051 found) Yes..the little girl was scared to place her hand in the hollow tree. I guess she was tricking me. She found the cache now she's up by three.
I was out once before but had a no find. Now I know what rock you were talking about!! DOH!! If it was alive it would have bit her on the melon! Left TB took a TB. TFTC!!

Over And Under

fallenfaery (638 found) What an awesome cache. I must say I'm positive the first part wasn't there as it was today the last time I went to find this cache. Sox Fan found the first part and had to call me over while he tried to calm down. Quickly grabbed the coords and headed to the next part. I headed to the right area wrong end but was able to see the cache first. Once again Sox Fan grabbed it so I wouldn't have to. Headed to the car to figure out which side of the creek the cache was on and spray down with bug spray again. Got out to the area and while he babbled about how far away he was (blah, blah, blah) I headed to the obvious spot. Definitely glad I found this cache.

Fallenfaery 4 Sox Fan 1

Sox Fan (1051 found) This is my third Joseppi cache and I was not disappointed. what a neat multi. I found the first stage and just about jumped outta my skin when I first caught a glance of it. Whew!...
We moved on to the second and FallenFaery was all over it from the get go but again was a little shy about sticking her hand into things (Girls!).
Off the the final after a quck stop for more bug spray and she found it after a short search. Let me repeat... she FOUND it but was not about to retrieve it. She mumbled something about bugs and no f'in way she was gonna grab it blah blah blah. So I had to risk taking a head first dive into the river and get the cache. It was a bit slippery after the rains. Well, I managed to open it and we signed in.
FallenFaery is kickin' my butt pretty good today.
Left TB.
Thanks for a fun milti!

It's Puzzling

fallenfaery (638 found) NIce easy walk. I was just one the wrong side of the tree. but hey I guess I gotta let him find a FEW or I guess in this case 2. :)
Fallenfaery 3 Sox Fan 2

Sox Fan (1051 found) Let me find one? HEHE... ok, maybe she did.. It still counts....On the way to the cache we talked about the cool cache that used to be out on the island. Ah...fond memories of a snowy Xmas day in 2002 when I came knockin' on Mrs. Weigland's door....
No TB in the cache, sorry. TNLN. TFTC!!

Forecast: Hot and Humid

fallenfaery (638 found) WE were a little worried about this one. As we drove by I saw one guy fishing near where the gps was pointing. So we walked over and I started watching the water glancing over my shoulder here and there to see if I could find it. I was about ready to move on when i found it and gave a whistle. and another whistle. and another whistle. Where did soxfan get off to. Well i was nearly signed in and had the cache back before he made his way back over.
Fallenfaery 5 Sox Fan 2

Sox Fan (1048 found) Yep...I tell you what, we were sneaky as all heck on this one.As inconspicuous as two bulls in a china shop. I swear the cache was in my grasp but I was off and she was on...AGAIN! DARN IT!! Neat place for a cache. Thought I was gonna have to push they guy in so we could hunt this one. Nothin' stands between me and my caches!!
TFTC!!

Robin Hood and His Merry Men

fallenfaery (638 found) Found the quick easy walk and the cache from the trail. it was quite visible from the trail tried to cover it up a bit better. guess he needed his glasses for this one too
fallenfaery 6 soxfan 2

Sox Fan (1049 found) FallenFaery was out of the van and down the trail before I could even get my butt in gear. SO I had to play catch up a but she gave a hootie hoo when we were 60 feet away. This is getting ridiculous! TNLN...TFTC!!

Gentlemen Start Your Engines

fallenfaery (638 found) nice easy cache. was worried about fly balls as we walked by then i grabbed a trail and soxfan questioned whether it was the right way or not. but then who got to the cache first....that's what i thought?
fallenfaery 7 sox fan 2

Sox Fan (1050 found) Even if she did get hit in the head and knocked out cold, I still would not catch up tonight. By this point I was just along for the ride. FallenFaery was on fire, she said my troubles probably had something to do with my cheap Yellow GPS. OUCH!
TFTC!!

Arrowhead

fallenfaery (638 found) Nice hide. found the area and was able to open the cache log it and put it back all with sox fan 20 ft away. I even yelled "hey, joe's already found this one" but he didn't get it. I guess he's a little dense up there.

Final Score: Fallenfaery 8 Sox Fan 2

Sox Fan (1051 found) YEAH YEAH... I've been married long enough to be trained to tune women out when the start babbling about something. I'm sure I was nodding in agreement...I don't remember it was a blur. When I came to she laughed at me and literally had to point me in the right direction. I was a beaten man... pride wounded, scratched an bloody on the shins (should have worn pants) and humiliated that she found 8 of 10 caches this evening.
(Don't tell her but I'm just setting her up for Wisconsin in two weeks .)
TFTC..now let's eat!!

A MICRO-chasm of a Geocaching Saturday

2004-07-18T12:44:00.000-05:00

Went out with my good pal FallenFaery for a day of geocaching in the Schaumburg area. No pictures as I forgot the camera at home. All the caches we found were micros. Click on the visit log link to read about our adventures or click on the cache page link to get her side of the story.

TAKE FLIGHT   [visit log]

Just Plum Protected!   [visit log]

Lancer Creek Micro [visit log]

savings stash   [visit log]

Campanelli Micro [visit log]

Hauserman Micro [visit log]

Ahhhh....Bock! [visit log]

DONKEY CACHE [visit log]

EARLY SETLER?? [visit log]

Centre Park Micro [visit log]

Deer Trail Micro #7 [visit log]

Deer Trail Micro #4 [visit log]

Embers Only [visit log]

Midway Sentry [visit log]

Aussie's Nickel [visit log]

Hikers Hollow [visit log]

Across the Creek! [visit log]

Just Another Micro #2 [visit log]

A Saturday of geocaching...

2004-07-11T11:08:00.000-05:00

I was up at an un-godly hour on Saturday morning. David and I had a day of caching planned so I decide to head into downtown Chicago and snagg the virtual caches that I have been saving for such a morning.

Stop number one was at the Tribune tower. The cache, "Stone Faced" required the finder to take a picture of one of the many pieces of famous structures that are embedded into the walls of the building. I chose the Parthenon from Ancient Greece.

The WGN Radio showcase studio can be seen from Michigan Ave.

My next stop was for the "The Photographer's Cache III". it took me to the Old Water Tower just across the street from the Hancock Building.

I then moved on to "Battleground". This was a neat place. A shelter right on the lake front that was erected with chess boards built into it. The shelter was flanked by two statues of chess pieces.

The next place I visited was Buckingham Fountain. The cache was called "Passing the Buck"

My last stop in the city was at

"Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight". The was at the Chicago Fire academy and a sculture is locacted at the spot where the Great Chicago Fire started. Kinda neat huh?

I went home, logged my visits and David and i headed out for some regular caches.

We hit two newer caches first. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Between a Rock and a Wet Place" were pretty good caches with very clever hiding techniques. The mosquitos were out in force so bug spray way used liberally all day long.

Signing the log at One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

David walking along the creek near "Between a Rock and a Wet Place"

We moved on to a place where the mosquitos were big as hummingbirds and hungry as hell.
O'Hara Woods in Romeoville contains a few caches. I've been here before but there are two that are fairly new that I needed to get.

"Chloe's Trip to Petsmart" was a cool cache. It was suspended high in a tree via a rope. David thought it was pretty cool.

The next cache was the adventure of the day. "Office Max on Gilligan's Island" was unbelieveable. I'll copy my log. I think it sums up the trip out there...

July 10 by Sox Fan (1025 found)
This one is just wrong!....Let's start at the beginning. The walk over from Chloe's cache was fine. We seemed to be closing in on it quickly. Then we reached..."THE ISLAND". That was a whole different story. The giant mosquitoes were swarming. I was spraying and searching, spraying and searching. Man, these guys are invincible!! When I saw where the arrow was pointing me I elected to have the Little Geek stay and I went across and sacrificed myself to the shoulder high stinging nettles and hummingbird sized blood suckers. Cuss, itch, search...cuss, itch ,search. Repeat...over and over again. Finally I found it! Grabbed the cache and made a mad dash thru the creek and into the clear.!!! More spray! Keep those suckers away long enough
to sign the log. Quick pics and splash across, toss the cache in the general direction of where it was placed (I really didn't do it. It's back where it was.) and let's get the heck outta here!! With the exception of the loss of blood, sweat and skin. This was alot of fun.! Took a TB. Thanks for the fun *cough* cache *cough*! I wish I would have waited until winter!

Yes...it was that bad!

An easy one was inorder after our last ordeal. We headed over to Plainfield and hit "A Long Walk Back". This one took us thru the history of Plainfield. I was kinda neat and required a little bit of fact finding and math to get the final coordinates.

Our final stop was right down the street at "Cachiversary: Anderson's Introduction". It was a nice walk thru the woods but we ran into a little bit of an obstacle. it appeared that there was a small bridge that crossed the creek. But it was down and out. We managed to get across but David was not too sure he wanted to attempt it. I talked him across and we found things in short order.

That was our day out. We also found 4 travel bugs and a traveler coin.

4 Caches found on 7-8-04

2004-07-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

Went out for an afternoon of caching yesterday. I struck out at my first stop "Time Marshes On". This is the second time I've been out there with no luck. I'm begining to wonder if it's there or if it's gonna be "one of those caches" that everybody encounters.

My second stop took me to another cache by GPeskimo "Vogt Early, Vogt Often". This was a fun little hide. I managed to make it harder than it had to be. The mosquitos were chewing on me even though I had deet on.TN~Left a Sig card.

Third stop was Greenback's "What A Good Boy Am I". This is one of those dreaded micros in the woods.It was a real nice .4 mile hike over some up and down terrain. The clue really helped as I found the "thumb" and pulled it out to reveal the "plum". I also saw a cool tree frog (see pic) and a mouse on the tree where the cache was hidden.

Tree Frog I saw at the cache site.

My fourth stop was a great new cache called "CCC-Stone Bridge-Caution One Way". This has gone down as one of my favorites. It was located at the site of an old stone bridge along the I&M Canal. It was an easy .5 mile hike along a paved bike path but the hide was well done.Took a Beer Bottle keychain and left a carbner.

Signing the logbook.

My last stop of the evening was at "CCC-Hiking Shelter-Bikers Rest". Another nice cache by Panther In The Den and Co. It incorporated a hike in woods and a hike on a bike path. The hide was an easy one to locate but it was fun. Took an alien figure and left a small Coke Tin.

Here I am with the cache.

Milestones

2004-07-09T15:12:00.000-05:00

1st Cache: "Thicken Orange Juice" (GC1B4C) Aug.4, 2002...
Found this one with my kids Samantha, Sydney and David.

100th: "Burlington Creek" (GC1B3) Jan.20, 2003...
Found this one by myself.

200th: "I Believe" (GC27E3) April 22, 2003...
Found with Greenback, Spyderuser and Genius Loci near Milwaukee, WI

300th: "Lizard 1" (GCD49A) July 8, 2003
Found with Greenback near Bloomington, IL.

400th: "Jasinski Cache" (GCBEB8) Aug. 9, 2003...
Found with Spyderuser, GeoFool, Genius Loci near South Bend, IN.

500th: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (GC9DF1) Aug. 20, 2003...
Found with Greenback, Genius Loci, Spyderuser near Minneapolis, MN.

600th: "Stretchin' Your Legs" (GCGNXB) Nov. 29th, 2003...
Found with Greenback, Genius Loci, GeoFool, Spyderuser,JBGeo near Indianapolis, IN.

700th: "Merry Christmas Cache" (GCHCMG) Jan. 10, 2004...Found with Spyderuser near Rockford, IL.

800th: "Hatfields and McCoys" (GCEKHM) April 8, 2004...
Found by myself.

900th: "Dessert" (GCHDG5) April 29th, 2004...
Found by myself.

1000th: "The Death Trap" (GCED34) June 19, 2004...
Found with my son David (Little Geek)

Logo and pics

2004-07-07T19:05:00.000-05:00

Here's a view of my logo/avitar I use on GC.com.

Here I am with find #1000:

#900:

Summer Caching...

2004-07-07T03:44:00.000-05:00

I've really soured on summer caching this year. We had an inordinate amount of rain early in the season and the mosquitoes are out in force. Couple that with the heavy foliage and I just seem to lose the urge to go out. Give me fall and winter caching any day!

Getting up early on a crisp fall morning and walking along a path to a cache...That's livin'! How about a walk in the woods the morning after a few inches of snow have fallen. The quiet is so relaxing. The fresh snow is beautiful. The air feels clean as you breathe it in.

The next few days are supposed to be cool. I'm hearing a high in the low 70's. I hope the cool night air will keep the mosquitoes down on Thursday. I'm planning an afternoon out to hunt a cache or ten !

Geocaching...why???

2004-07-04T00:31:00.000-05:00

Geocaching. A hobby I picked up in August of 2002. I started this very addicting hobby when I read about it in the local paper. I figured it would be a great way to spend time with the kids while doing something different. Litle did I know how much I would end up enjoying it.

As of this posting, I have found 1010 geocaches. As I was approaching #1000, I took a few minutes to reflect and wonder how the hell I accumulated so many finds. Think of all the time I spent driving around, walking and fumbling thru the woods, parks and suburbs of the Greater Chicago area. Of the hundreds of geocachers in the Chicago area, there are less than 10 of us that have found 1000 or more. In the geocaching community, that is a pretty big milestone to pass.

It was a cache by my good pal Genius Loci (Joe is his real name). What a great cache it was! As an added bonus there was a coveted Yellow Jeep Travel Bug in the cache. It will be kept as a momento of the magical #1000.

I plan on getting out and doing a few caches on the 4th. I noticed a few new caches that were posted tonight. Close to home so that's a treat these days.