Geocaching

About 12 years ago, I adopted a Geobituary (GCJQGP), a puzzle cache published in 2004. The puzzle was, unfortunately, ambiguous, and there was no checker. The container (a mini-tombstone) and its location adjacent to a city cemetery were fantastic. When I adopted it, the container was in bad shape from the weather. I sought out to build a new one from scratch. The original container in 2009. Not having done this before, I thought it would make sense to frame the tombstone “top” out of wood cut into roughly semicircles. I Filled in the gap with some random wood bits, then screwed it laterally, then through the steel moderate-sized ammo box lid. ...

When my daughter was in college, I’d periodically visit to check up and take her on a Target trip to ensure she had all the household comforts needed. Although there was scheduled flight service to the college town, it was generally cheaper and quicker taking the nonstop from Seattle to either Chicago O’Hare or Milwaukee Mitchell, renting a car, and driving the rest of the way to the college town. And being one who likes to wander, I’d also scout out geocaching opportunities. On a particular trip in 2018, shortly after I started a new job and had no accrued vacation time, I flew after work on Friday, arriving to my motel after midnight. I intended to get up at the ass crack Saturday morning, meet her for breakfast, spend time with her (as she was available), then drive back Sunday afternoon to Milwaukee and fly home. ...

I’ve been through the town of Pomeroy, WA, a couple of times. The first, in 2010, was during my last Cycle Oregon, which I had to DNF shortly thereafter because I’d acquired Achilles tendonosis. That was extra unfortunate because I was over 40, and it took a long time to heal. However before then I enjoying the undulating landscape of the Palouse, occasionally stopping for geocaches. Long and climbing road ...

Before I forget, I wanted to jot down some notes about the Parks on the Air exercises I just did in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Final statistics: Iceland: 11 parks activated (9 the first time anyone had), 382 QSOs, 277 confirmed (as of writing) for 41 countries. For the Faroe Islands, 172 QSOs, 121 confirmed, 37 countries. I also found my 10,000th geocache. Pre-trip preparation Paperwork. The ARRL is a starting point for US hams operating internationally, but their site is primarily a collection of links to documents you’re supposed to pore through and understand. The material can be exceptionally boring (T/R 61-01 zzzzzzz). The Iceland club had a nice summary, only lacking a specific link to the permit needed. (The permit was free, and quickly obtained.) There was a club for Faroe Islands, but it and the Danish authority were challenging to browse with Google Translate. I was unable to find anything specific, and hoped it wouldn’t be a big deal. Equipment optimizationthrough Trial POTA activations*.*This was also an opportunity to work out kinks with my laptop, re-familiarized myself with the KX3, tried different antenna options, and set up a flow for logging. Identify potential POTA sites. Logging is complicated. I had a TF/WT8P from last year, and added OY/WT8P, which was “announced” and led to conversations with DX Daily (who publishes information about DX operations) and a ham who offered to manage sending paper QSL cards. ...

Belatedly following up with Part 1, my remaining time Prague had a day-trip to Bohemian Switzerland National Park, Bastei Bridge, and a lot of geocaching throughout the city. (Prague geocachers bring their A-game. I went home finding 132 caches in Iceland, 71 in Czechia and 5 in Germany.) To blow through my remaining CZK, I made a trip to a grocery store and bought enough candy and beer that I needed a second suitcase. ...

Geocaching just sent a nice “wrap” of my 2023 activity (which I don’t remember them doing last year) that was fun to reflect on. It also became obvious how much of my activity has changed. Using Project-GC, this is my monthly activity over the last eight years: Quick observations: There’s a pretty huge shift from pre-covid (right half) to post-covid (left-half), as I have been unable to get out with friends. From 2018 through part of 2019, I was trying to do a geocaching “streak,” whereby I’d go out every day and find a cache. It gets brutal as I’d be finding all the caches I’d otherwise ignore just to appease some arbitrary metric. Each year has had a spike of activity around travel taken. My activity has been declining, which I think is a sign of clearing out nearby things to find. After all, I’m in Year 16 of geocaching. Iceland: Check! I did a geo-trail around the Reykjanes peninsula, also a lot of wandering around Reykjavik. ...

After my time in Iceland, I spent a few days to see Prague, which is renowned for its history and the excellent geocaching community. It did not disappoint. Day 1 Summary:_ ****Fly from Keflavik, arriving early afternoon. Check into the apartment rental. If time permitted, exchange currency, then wander to the meeting point for the Taste of Prague food tour. Sleep._ The American version of airports. The night before, I dropped off my rental car and walked to the airport hotel two blocks from Keflavik International. Thinking the US airport experience was the norm, specifically, a lot of time-wasted because of security theater, I planned to be up and out the door by 4:30 a.m. to do all the security hoops for my 7 a.m. flight. ...

… must come to an end. For my last day, I had an early reservation at the Sky Lagoon, which is an Oceanside geothermal lagoon closer into town. I just could not get myself interested in the Blue Lagoon on this visit. Although I brought my swimsuit, I ended up renting one so I wouldn’t have to deal with a wet garment in my suitcase. Sky Lagoon’s “The Ritual” is eloquently explained on their website, but I would summarize as alternating between hotter and colder forms of water. Towards the end, you rub oily salt on your body, then walk into a steam furnace until you absolutely cannot take it anymore, grope for the exit, and take a normal shower. The transitions, especially hot to cold, are surprisingly invigorating. ...

Today, my last night in Reykjavik, I spent the morning geocaching around Petrin, checking out the ruins of Oskjuhlid Hill, a WW2 relic. The walk from downtown was a lot longer than I had planned for, but it was basically Seattle weather, and nice to be outdoors: Stairs to ??? WW2 structure Bunker On the way back, I was enjoying checking out the local street murals. The cat-stronaut is one of my favorites, but there are several solid works. My favorite ...

There’s some definitely extremely NSFW content here involving an uncharacteristically large number of dick pics. At least twenty. Oops, sorry for the Dick pic, source: Wikipedia. To avoid the naughty bits appearing at the top of someone’s internet feed, I’m going to complain first. After last night’s Food and Drink Walk, I ran back to the hotel to dispose of some beer I no longer needed and change into extra warm clothes for another tour that would take us out to see the Northern Lights. It was serendipitous that I’d scheduled this specific day because we were between storms and it was going to be cold and clear, with no interference from the moon, and a Kp index of 4. Although we were successful at seeing aurora, I would not recommend doing this in a tour group. ...