Walking in the Woods of New Jersey

After spending a day in our Piscataway office I could not wait to go out and doing some caching. The only obstacle was the impending rain that decided to show up the same time I started out. But hey I was only going to be in New Jersey another day and then I was on my way to Boston. So I hoped for the best and took the rented cachemobile out for a little spin.

Geofortune smiled on me and I was able to find five nice hides before it became too dark to see. During that short amount of time I walked in two different parks, a hotel court yard, a parking lot and a baseball field. Added a couple more smileys to my belt and had a nice time in the fall like weather. What more can you ask for? Now on to Boston, Mass.

Cache Found! Cupcake cache in Raleigh,

Cache Found! Cupcake cache in Raleigh, NC.

I just had to find me a cache this morning and this one was fun. The past couple of weeks it has been hot down here. Like real hot, upper 90s / low 100s hot. I'm sorry, I love caching but when it is so hot your travel bug melts off of your rear view mirror.... it's hot out!

So today we are actually NOT going to be in the 90s but a comfortable mid 80s which is normal for this time of year. So the bug got to me and I hit a quick grab and go on the way to work. As seen in the photo it was a cute cache container and I really enjoyed the gold doubloon I found within. Great fun in da morning.

Fortunately the past weeks were not completely fruitless. I managed to put out a seven part multi-cache called Six Little Green Stages: Multi Decoder Challenge, put out a rather clever cache in Oxford called Frankly, I Think You're Screwed and am working on something new that I think everyone will enjoy called HHH's Puzzle Tubes. More information to come in the next day or two.

Until then...

And the Winner Is...

Okay I had to laugh when I found this particular cache on the way to work this morning. It was unexpected and quite creative and really set the tone for today.

What you are looking at is a Tivo remote controller and the log is placed where the batteries go. There are two magnets that hold it to it's host.

What a great idea.

TNLNSL TFTH!

Post From HeadHardHat's Phone

Yes went caching in rain.

Yes soaked and smell of pine.

Yes in woods.

Two days without a cache. Going through withdrawals and can't help myself. Plus add $4.00 a gallon gas my pickings between work and home is getting pretty well picked. But sometimes ya just need a quick grab and go.

I'm not obsessed... Right?

Congrats to Mobettamerf for FTF Finish of Entire GTLD Series

Getting The Lowe Down Mystery Series

Congratulations to our FTF cacher Mobettamerf for finding GTLD#5!!! Not an easy task by any means. Read below how this series came to be and what you have to do to complete it.

It started out as a simple TB Hotel and then transformed into a double secret decoder encrypted series. My 'Getting The Lowe Down' series was originally designed to have a nice place for people to trade trading bugs and geocoins in the 40/42 area of Garner, NC. The TB Hotel did so well I thought it would be a good starting point to a secret cache. So GTLD #2 and #3 were born.

Number three is a real treasure trove of which I check regularly and will most likely be changing into a huge ammo box. It currently is stuffed with one ups and other goodies that people have traded. The last log stated it was actually so packed with swag the cacher couldn't put the extra goodies they brought. Did I mention how much I love well stocked caches? Anyways I was getting so many nice comments on this series I decided to expand it but what would make it even more interesting? The answer was a decoder encrypted double secret cache hunt!

Recently a new geocoin was introduced which actually is a Pocket Decoder. This decoder allows the creation and decryption of incredibly secure messages. Now I actually bought one but the nice thing is there is a paper version anyone can print off for free. So you do not actually have to buy it to find these types of caches. Note- they are sweet though so you might want to consider getting one.

GTLD #4 and GTLD #5 were created for this new challenge. In GTLD #4 is a symbol used to decipher the secret message with instructions of where #5 is, what type of cache it is and a well rounded hint. The plan is simple. Find the symbol, decipher the message, get to the hidden mystery cache. Read below what you have to do to complete this series.

- Find GTLD #1 - Retrieve first half of coords to GTLD#3
- Find GTLD #2 - Retrieve second half of coords to GTLD#3
- Find GTLD #3 - Retrieve encrypted message to GTLD#5
- Find GTLD #4 - Retrieve decoder symbol and decrypt message
- Find GTLD #5 - Mission Accomplished

Do you have the right stuff to find Getting The Lowe Down #5? Time will tell who has the fortitude.



Again Way To Go Mobettamerf!!!

Troubles in Smithfield. Cache Found!

Well some times you get days like today. Went out with daughter Geoness to take our first swipe at the Smithfield, NC area and I cannot stress enough how bad it was. I have never seen anything like it.

Granted this was the first time I just loaded my Garmin with about 100 caches for the area and did not load up my palm with the cache info and cache hints. Since we were going for numbers I was not hitting anything more than a two in difficulty. No biggie right? What I didn't see were all the other DNFs for each of the tries we went for. What a shame. Long story short we had only three finds for the first 13 attempts. Very frustrating but it was the first time we had hit such a string of a blatant lack of maintenance.

By the time we hit the tenth DNF we decided to leave and hit a richer cache area and had no problems there. Sorry folks but this was a waste of $4.00 a gallon gas. Won't be going back there till we see the caches being better taken care of.

Almost forgot bumped into USAFSP and the rest of Team P who also were hitting dry spots in the Smithfield area. In fact the cache we were both going for turned up to be a DNF for both of us. Usafsp was telling me how he had gone as far as found a muggled cache, actually replaced the cache, gave the owner the new information and coords then the owner did not even bother to redo the coords. Tacky.

Team P are all such a nice family and Geoness and I had a great time talking to them. I wish them the very best in their Geo pursuits. Hopefully we can meet up again at a local event.

Hope Smithfield can get the caches cleaned up. It's a nice little town but gas is just too expensive for such a hit and miss place.

Three Caches Found Before Breakfast.

The sun was just starting to rise and already have Three Caches Found Before Breakfast. On the way to work and hitting a few areas around the east side of I-440 in Raleigh, NC. Found three quick grab and goes including this unexpected ammo box cache.

Pictured below is also a unique cache container. Simple idea but I have not seen before this. It is a basic small plastic bag covered with cami tape. Great idea.

Post From HeadHardHat's Phone

Argh, not one of the most focused photos of myself but it was darkish out, raining and I had about 2 hours sleep last night. Guess I really was out of focus and to top it off with only one cup of java in me too.

Cache Found! This was number two of three for this morning on the way to work. Note the magnetically held silver bison tube under lamp skirt.

Number three was definately more interesting to behold. Check out this soup can protector of the cache.

Caches! Found! Raleigh, NC

Ahhh, two caches this morning. Great start.

There is nothing like finding a cache on the way to work. Why? I think it is that border-line action that makes you momentarily feel naughty. You know, that "If I dude it I get a whip'n.... I dude it!", kind of thing.

I know I should be going to work like every other soul on the road. I should be a model employee and/or drone and just get in my car and go directly to the place of my employment. I know I should, but there they are, caches. Waiting for me to find them and to help get my little extra thrill for the day. Heck for me they are better than a cup of coffee sometimes. So for now, I indulge in the quick micro here, small lock box there and find every shortcut I can to make it to the cubical on time.

How about you?

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men

You can't escape the reality of caching. You start out making plans to do some specific cache hunts and sometimes stuff just happens.

Wanted to do some caching on my home from work today. You see I go one way to work in the morning and another way at night, mainly due to the volume of traffic at those times. So that means there are bunches of caches available on my going to work route that I never have much time to find. So yesterday I thought I would put up with the extra traffic and have some fun caching in the mean time. Well.....

My route takes me from Oxford, NC down Hwy 96 to Hwy 1 (Capital Blvd.). This normally takes me about 30 minutes or so and the only caches available are the Barnyard Fun Series I set up a month or so ago. So not much joy in the caching department there. Eventually though I come down to Hwy 1 and the joy, or so I thought, begins. Started out okay finding the one cache in the area with TBs available. Traded up the last of my current stash and started what I thought would be a fruitful adventure.

That was when my phone rang.. Spent 20 minutes talking some family chit-chat. Normally would not mind at all but when I have the caching bug going I have a one track mind. C'mon, taking too long, (fuzzy static, sorry losing you, fuzzy static, will call you later, bye.) okay I know the blow in the phone/talk partial words trick is stale but hey I'm burning sunlight here.

Found a cache, quick micro bison tube in a tree, two for today but want more.


Phone rings again, it's the wife. First thought that flows through my mind is, "What did I do now?", turns out everyone wants to go out to eat and they are all are hungry. Hint - Hint. My eyes roll up and I know that I have another 45 minute drive ahead of me. Sigh. Okay I may stop for one more as a chaser and then drudge home.


I watch the sun on it's march for the horizon and know that my caching day is done. Heavy sigh. Three for the day. Hardly the effort for putting up with the extra traffic. I now remember why I go home the other route. I can feel myself get a little angry. You can't cache if you are playing beat the clock. You end up frustrated and give up on caches you don't find instantly. I decide enough is enough and that there will be another day. Doesn't make it any easier though when you make plans and they get blown apart. I know this makes me look selfish. I know I have responsibilities. I also know I have X amount of time in a day and when I designate it as my caching day there better be smoke, blood and lots of it to be interrupted. Not always the case though. Sigh. I'm Not obsessed... Right?

POTTT Series Gets Added On To.

Just published Playing On The Train Tracks # 7, #9 and #10.

# 7 has my first micro logbook geocoin. Very Cool and out there for you to find. Enjoy!

Cache Found! With Amanda

Cache Found! With Amanda and her first find by herself. I of course dressed to conceal my true nature and blend in with the environment.

Oxford, NC - Rail Road Track Series Coming Your Way

It all started out so innocent.

Found some interesting rail road signals out in the middle of no where near Oxford, NC. Liked it so I much I put a pretty hard to find cache right on the tracks. Then I did a little more research and found an entire railway system that was sitting there doing nothing. People drive by it or over it everyday and do not realize it was there. Well we gotta do something about this.

So I created a series called "Playing on the Train Tracks", which currently has a total of six caches but I have a feeling I may have a boat load more soon.

Some have as pictured here, no tracks on the streets but they are nearby. Others have tracks that are in secluded places where there are no other signs of the rail road anywhere and some of the tracks are completely gone but the maps still show them as being there. Usually there is just pieces of existence like old electrical boxes or part of a signal station.


Still going through the series shows you things of a time gone by. If anything else you can enjoy some nice scenery in North Carolina and a fun road trip. I plan on doing this series from Henderson all the way south of Raleigh. Will take a while but I will get there.

In any case I hope you enjoy this series as much as I enjoy finding more spots to put caches.

First To Find!

First To Find! Oxford, NC

I hit the wrong browser selection which just happened to bring up the Oxford, NC area in google maps. Normally I see nothing but a bunch of smiley faces looking back at me except this time one wasn't smiling - it was green! A new one I think to myself, a real new one just listed! WooHoo - I burst out the door and head up the road two miles... Where, where, where? Ahhh, there it is..

Another First to Find to add to my collection. Just love them clean sheets. Signed the log and put cache back in it's happy host.

HeadHardHat Has No Excuse

Well it's finally happened, I have finally gotten a Round Tuit.. Yes, yes, I know it's hard to believe. Me being the ever loving Mr. Procrastinator has now been able to get a "Round Tuit", sigh.

Actually as geocoins go this one is sweet. It is black enamel with glow in the dark green enamel mixed in. The front of the coin has the word "Tuit" with promises of logging caches, going caching, going back to missed sites, uploading pictures, etc. and on the back is the secret decoder for deciphering hints found on geocache.com.

This is one of about 9 different types of geocoins I had recently purchased. Several of those types including a Round Tuit will be going out into the system in the next week or so. The Round Tuit actually went into a Cache in Garner, NC this morning. Keep an eye out, you just might find it.

So I now officially have a GeoCoin collection started and I couldn't be happier. The weight of the coins just feels great and the whole pirates treasure thing is cool in itself. Oh and by the way, I have several FTF coins that have not been activated yet. Some rather cool series troves are in the works and these coins will be in them. Keep posted for more details...

HHH

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold.... or not.

Greetings GeoCache Fans,

You may or may not have read one of my past posts called EU457. This little gem was about a particularly troublesome cache hidden by Oxford, NC's own Ringer2410. Long story short, I had to eat some crow and get a hint to find the darn thing.

Yesterday I get an email from Ringer asking if the coords were correct for that cache and if so could I give him a hint. Well look who's glove is on the other foot now? Recently, I put out a new cache called, "Playing on the Railroad Tracks" and ole Mr. Ringer is having some difficulty finding my homemade cache. Well, nanners....

Err or not, I wish I could be the vindictive type but the truth in the matter is Ringer is a really nice guy and since we seem to be the only ones putting new caches in the Oxford area I better be nice, cuz he's a clever dude and I will most likely be the next one to need the hint...

Sooooo, needless to say, when I was going back to the cache site this morning to revalidate the coords guess who I see scouring the tracks? Yup, Ringer. I stayed a goodly distance away and watched the man work. He only took a couple of minutes and it appeared he had found my cache. Shortly after putting everything back in place he started to drive away. That was when he noticed where I was parked and came over to say hi. After a brief talk and just before we parted he handed me a GeoCoin and said for me to put it in a good spot. I didn't think too much about it until did a little research about out it. Then I realized it was a coin Ringer had just taken from a 5 /5 cache site. The hardest you can find and/or get to. That was really cool in my eyes so I am going to take it down to a particular cache of mine in Garner where people will appreciate the find.

Ringer2410 is a class act and I look forward to caching with him at some up coming event.

Quick Jaunt To Henderson, NC. Missed FTF By That Much.

Here again was another new cache that I was hoping to sneak in a fast FTF (First to Find). Long story short I missed it by "that much"! One of the well knowns beat me to it by going out last night (darn night vision goggles). Ahh well, that's how it goes sometimes. Just shows you though how many want to jump on FTFs.

This area is quite nice and I actually want to come back when I have more time. It was an old mill that no longer is in production. The cache was found fairly quickly and the sounds of the running water and the scenery around the area is quite loverly.

Three Caches Found and all FTFs!

I really wanted to get to this brand spanking new cache area first thing in the morning. One because it was newly listed and two because it had three caches about .10th of a mile apart and there is nothing like quick grab and go's.

Besides, it was on my way to work (okay, about 5 miles out of my way, but hey).

So I shot out of the house and reached the site about 6:10am. Perfect.. Nobody around and I appeared to have the whole road to myself. Fantastic, I decided to work on the three caches from the farthest one out and work my way in, ohhhh, this was going to be fun.

Hit the first two with no problem and just started looking for the third when a white pickup pulled up. There was a very nice gentleman inside and as he walked up to me he had a big smile on his face. After reading the back of my car which promptly states "Hard Hat Brotherhood: Fun, Farting and Friendship - Join Us!", I think he knew who I was.

"I recognize you", he said, "You must be HeadHardHat".

"That would be me", I replied and put out my hand in friendship. The gentleman's name is Zuni (1208zuni) a regular in this area and quite the geocacher with almost 3000 finds.

We spent a good 10 or 15 minutes shooting the breeze and scouring the area for the final cache. Zuni was able to recover it first and said we should co-FTF this one. Very cool. Had a real pleasant conversation that I would have loved to continue but had to cut it a bit short due to that whole "work" thing. Before we left I was invited to an upcoming event and look forward to many more talks with Zuni and the rest of the Geocaching community. What a great hobby to be a part of and some really great people to get together with.

Sunday Cache Fest...

Had a great time caching today with several hours worth under my belt. Here is the overall list and it would appear that I walked over 8 miles. No wonder me dogs are barking.
Found - Rock Pile, North Carolina

This was a beautiful walk. The cache itself was quickly found but again with all the green of North Carolina, why rush?









Found - 'Cause You Love Me For It, North Carolina

Ever have one of those caches where you know where the cache is, you can hear it breathing, there is even a clue telling you it's there.... yet you can't find the dang thing.. Looked for 10 minutes on this one until finally success. Phew!


By the way saw this at the cache site... What is it? Benchmark maybe?

Found - Watta View, North Carolina

This was fun. My parking coords did not put me near the cache and I did not take the time to Google Earth the area.. Big mistake. Tried to find an entry point to what is actually a well used park. Ended up going up a road that I thought was part of the park. Instead it turned out being an area next to the park but the owner said if I parked down the entrance way I could enter the park there. Cool! Found the cache after some frustrating tries and then enjoyed walking several miles from beginning to end. Not because I had to mind you but because I wanted to. The view was fantastic and I wanted to see more.


Found - Parking Aside, North Carolina

A rather quick cache that include a bit of a hike to actually get to the site. This was the first of three separate places today where I spotted deer walking around.






Found - Crowder Cache, North Carolina
Had to laugh at this particular cache. Apparently the other caches in this area have been muggled. The owner of this cache took extra steps to make sure it didn't happen again.






Found - The Fairview Roundabout, North Carolina

When I stopped near this area I confused what I thought was a roundabout and the actual roundabout itself. Turns out this roundabout is in a church parking lot. Had an added challenge of a squad car parked about 50 yards away with two fine officers doing paper work. So I do what I always do and put on my backpack and head off into the woods. I guess I didn't look suspicious and they never stopped me. With my caching done I waved as I drove off. Received another woodlen scare when I found several deer in this area too. That do make the heart start a pump'n.


Found - Mack's Micro IV, North Carolina

I really wanted to do this particular cache for several months now. Though the thought of a briar patch and some serious bushwacking did not appeal to me. Determined even with the possibility of some good scrapes I grabbing my favorite bushwacking stick and swiped through.
Note, I don't have a problem showing the cache here because the owner tells you straight out what you are looking for. Finding it is entirely another matter. After several minutes of searching I found my prize and not a scratch on me.







DNF :( - Keys to the Cache-l Part 2, North Carolina

This one makes me want to wallow in my own beer. Spent over 90 minutes looking for an ammo box high in the hills of South West Raleigh. The walk included some very deep woods trails to the point where I was thinking to myself - dang this is some deep stuff. Cell phone had five bars so on I went. Then there was a rather steep climb to the upper levels. This 300 pound cacher made it up with a little wheezing but felt great doing it. Then after scouring the country side came up with nada, zip, nothing, etc. Long story short, a whole lot of exercise but that is about it.
Will have to take another whack at this when I get a chance. Saw all sorts of swamp areas, ponds, streams and other wildlife like more deer.
All in all a great day of fun and lots of walking. Going to lose this weight one way or another. Might as well enjoy how I do it!

Headhardhat's Big #100th Cache!

Well the benchmark is finally here. I am now in triple digits - WooHoo!

That may not be such a big deal to some but hey I just started this hobby.. I'm absolutely tickled pink and can't wait to make it to four digits. So let us take things one interesting cache at a time.. Next up.. 101 and counting...