Jim Carson

I did my first nighttime caching – the initial starting point was a trailhead specified by the GPS coordinates on the tick sheet. Because I wasn’t sure how long the route would be, nor was I keen on carrying a flashlight in hand, I used the helmet-mounted bike light, its battery tucked into my rain jacket pocket. The route was marked with a white trail tack every few hundred feet. “Trail tacks” are little reflective thumbtacks that you’d completely miss during the daytime, but stand out moderately well with a flashlight aimed in the general direction. (I guess they’re primarily used by hunters?) Even in the rain, they worked well.

There were several turns onto other trails. The off-trail portion was marked by an additional orange trail tack. After ambling down and into the bush for another 20-ish feet, we spotted the pair of orange “eyes” marking the final, a camouflaged ammo box.

Like Chris, I will need to check myself into Geocacher’s Anonymous.

Inspired by WoodstockDC and Chris , I paid off my last loan. The process seemed absurd at times because the industry is still entrenched in its 1840s technology – a fax was needed for the payoff info; I had to hand-write the wire transfer form for moving money between divisions of the same bank. The wire transfer form was unintentionally amusing because it had a checklist of internet scam scenarios (e.g., “Are you wiring these funds for lottery winnings?”) The bank teller didn’t appreciate my suggestion they add “Does the recipient SHOUT IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and use poor grammar?” :-)

I also deposited a $4.99 rebate check from Staples for some dry erase markers I bought in August… it seemed very anti-climactic. The next evening, all transactions cleared and my bank became the latest subsidiary of JP Morgan Chase.

(I really need to blog about the ride, but…) I rode this year’s Cycle Oregon, doing all of the optional routes and adding bonus mileage (mostly to pursue geocaches) whenever the opportunity presented.

• Seven days of perfect weather. Sure, it was chilly at night, but as soon as the sun came up, perfect. I had enough confidence in the forecast that I didn’t pack rain gear. However, I had wool things just in case.
• 481 miles, and over 20,000’ ascent. The longest day had 7,400’ but featured the Hells Canyon Overlook, which had extra meaning because I did the optional dam ride (drumbeat) the day before. I thought I was doing pretty bad when I got into camp around 5:30, but some riders apparently came in as late as 10pm. (Official route shutdown is 6:30, which gives them an option to be SAGged in, so I assume they’re as stubborn as me.) Anyway, it was nice seeing how my regular bike commute prepared me well for most of it.
• Three “slow leak” flats on the front tire – all due to the frickin goatheads’ perniciousness. In retrospect, I should have replaced the tire sooner than I did. one minor collision with another rider, sprained pinky (I think from geocaching), minor spider and mosquito bites.
• Over 30 geocaches found, including two FTFs.

With the product launch (hope hope hope this expletive thing’s out the door tomorrow or there may be 43Screams :-) and the kids’ soccer season starting, August was a lighter month. Barring calamity, I will finish the goal on bike-cation in northeast Oregon the week after next. If I can really pile on the miles, I may supersize this to the 5k goal just to keep the challenge going.

For the month: 14 riding days, (9 dry, 2 heavy rain, 2 light rain, 1 with wet roads); 434 miles, 2 days were above 90°F.

Happy birthday, dear Stacy! I look forward to next year’s Grace Century.

The first location I was thinking of needs more research into the ownership of the area, so put my second cache (GC1F476) out first. Goals are to make one easy to find and maintain by the geocachelets, whom I hope see this as an opportunity to kick in some of their toys.

As of this morning, I’ve found thirty caches, plus I placed one (jokingly titled “U-pick blackberries”) Sunday evening.

Of the ones this weekend, Saturday’s multi-cache was probably the most fun since there was enough (but not an insane amount of) challenge, inclement weather, and a fun selection of toys at the end. That night, I found a bookcrossing-style cache located a stone’s throw from Redmond Town Center.

July: attending Emma’s Bat Mitvah.

August: Geocaching. Though I started doing this in July, August has been about the kiddos enjoying it. As Julie said, the allure of cheap, plastic hidden treasure just has to be experienced.

I made a huge push this month to ride as many days as I could muster. The most gratuitous example was riding to work, catching a bus to King Street station, then taking the train to Vancouver. On the serene, midnight bike ride home, I enjoyed clear skies with a waning half-moon just over the horizon.

To celebrate breaking mile 3000, I rode up Claire’s multi-deity hill. (It tops out at 19%.)

Totals for the month: 24 days of riding (21 dry, 2 light rain, 1 heavy rain), 701 miles, 3,029 YTD.

I tried three caches along my ride home today. I found the “hard” one buried in a nook along Alp’d’Eastgate , but had no joy with the other two “easier” ones, including one “right in the open.” Clearly that cache was missing a blinking neon “Yo!” sign. :-)

The tricky part about this was finding the right trail. The obvious and incorrect one led me past a community garden then some kind of construction site with a steep drop. I turned around when I saw garbage and bear scat.

The small, windy fork was pretty easy to follow. When the GPS beeped, I found the jar nestled inside a hollowed-out log at ankle level.

I picked one close to home for my first try. The GPS got me within 50 feet, then there was some sleuthing. The cache was ingeniously designed. Took a plastic dinosaur, left a couple of cool rocks. (I wanted to leave the Wienermobile, but was vetoed. It wouldn’t have fit anyway.)

With nine days of business travel , three days of off-site class, and having the flu for two, this was a pretty bad month for riding: eight days (2 heavy rain, 6 dry) and 266 miles. Though it was hot, it felt so nice being out today.

Here’s hoping July is better!

+ I sold and packed up my old bike, clearing the path for acquiring another :-)
+ Mountains of laundry done just by keeping it flowing whenever I walked past the washer/dryer.
+ Removed a tree stump with my mind ... and a really large crowbar. Planted $5 tall lilies from Costco in its place.
+ [wink]
- $54 to fill up with gas today

As expected, the acoustic guitar I purchased has provided excellent incentive to (try) to play more. For various reasons, I have a narrow window during weeknight evenings that I can play. Thus, I haven’t been able to really use the twenty-something episodes of Guitar Sherpa my Tivo’s downloaded. There are apparently a million jillion Hal Leonard books, and I’m working through the ones the library has. (Biggest problem: the library copies often have missing CDs.)

But there has been progress – I have small callouses forming on the tips of my fingers! And, sometime during the last few weeks, I learned (passable) versions of several simple songs, most recently Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream” and Pearl Jam’s “I am Mine.”

As pleased as I am with finally getting that opening riff of “I am Mine” down, what’s brought the most accolades from my family has been impromptu renditions of children’s songs. For example, last night I plugged the electric into the amp (something I hadn’t done in >10 years) and did an embellished (_but not too loud) “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with the waaaah of the slowly stretching string. There was much giggling.

w00t! I ended up with six non-commute days this month. What was really cool, though, was seeing how regular commuting has built a fitness base such that going out and doing a 70+ mile ride won’t kill me the next day.

640 miles for the month, 18 riding days (2 heavy rain, 5 light rain/wet roads, 11 dry)

For June, I have a week long, multi-hop trip to Detroit and the northeast, and probably not enough gap to justify bringing the folding bike.

Rolling hills and no traffic.

Near Hermiston, OR

Just south of the Bar M ranch (which is northeast of Gibbon, OR)

+ Spent a “mental health” day biking
- Trip to the dentist
- Dentist has poor bedside manner
+ Chocolate cherry cake finished
+ Callouses starting to form on my fingers/I almost have down the sequence to “Sweet Home Alabama”
= 7

CENSORED would have brought this to a nine. ;)