Geo-Valley.com | Ships of the Cache

Today is a sad day.

Moun10Bike, who maintained the last Project A.P.E cache in the states for more then 10 years, had to archive it. The original stash was stolen. According to Groundspeak policy the Project A.P.E. caches are archived in this case.

A lot of people mourned this loss, but there was one who didn’t. You can read his note to the discussion here. It leaves a little aftertaste and makes me wonder if this person knows more. However, this is not the place or the time to start a hunt for the muggle that hit us hard.

The cache had been muggled several times over the last year. It just makes me wonder, if there was someone not liking the cache there after so many years. And if so, why this person was not able to get in touch with anyone of us to talk and make something up. This reminds me a lot of the events around the E.T. Power Trail in Nevada.

Many of MAGC Germany planned to visit the location over the next year. stefmaus and I started planning our trip for next summer the other week. I guess we will change plans now.

Thank you, Moun10Bike for maintaining this cache so long.

I just wish we could set up a plaque or something like that in the area to find the cache as it was done for the original stash in Oregon. I just don’t feel like I want to travel to Brazil for the last remaining cache of the series.

Update: There is a discussion about this in the forum.

Personal Log of the Captain – Stardate 100826

Usually I am not about numbers. Well, I am. Sort of. Every week I generate statistics of my finds. I love comparing my statistics with other and chimping about who is better and such. I also try to keep my found traditionals below 85% of my total finds and fill my cache matrix.

But usually I don’t write about numbers. I prefer to write about special finds, great hides, views, locations or whatever else I stumble upon while geocaching.

This find combines both. It is a very special find for me and a number of finds one can be proud to achieve.

My 900th found cache was placed by my best friend. We started out geocaching together two years ago when Steffi and I visited them. Back then it was a great excuse to buy the GPS, but in the few days Mike, Lee, Abi, Steffi and I cached together, we realized it was more.

Now we visited Mike and his family again. We had a great time, cached together, but somehow our numbers did not raise as much as we thought they would.

On our last planned evening in the area we tried to go for it, but had bad luck. We had a lot of DNF’s, it got dark, it got late and it was our last planned day in the area. I was very sad and should have spent the time with the family, instead to go for a number.

Next day Steffi went really ill. We wanted to drive to Washington DC, but she had to see a doctor. After that we asked if we could extend our stay with them for one day to give Steffi some rest. Gladly Mike and Lee agreed. Thank you so much for your support!

So we skipped our visit to Washington DC. Steffi went to bed and I went on a mission.

I had 6 caches to find for #900. It was a hot day again. Pretty humid. My wife was sick and sleeping. But I was on a mission. I was a Federation Captain. I was no weakling. I ignored everything the Klingons said about me that way. I would succeed.

I took the rented cache shuttle to several caches. Waited at some for what felt like an eternity. Searched. Did not find some. Found others pretty fast. Took detours as our rented navigation system had maps from 2005 (5 years old!).

It took me the whole afternoon. The sun was already setting. It was a beautiful evening. And then, on a highway, I had marked my 900th find! (Actually find number 899 was one of Mike’s caches too.) It was a hard bit of work, but it was all worth it!

Now this is where the statistics come in. This find will be forever on the board of my milestone finds. It will be displayed on the stats forever. And this makes me proud!

As my Klingon friend General Huntar would say: Qapla!

Captain Robert Donovan
CO, USS Trailblazer
Ambassador to the Staunton Sector Group

Pathfinder Log — Imperial Stardate: 2010,09,11

One of our primary reasons for setting course for the Charlottesville System on this date was to conduct a survey mission of an installation called the Virginia Discovery Museum.

There were many interesting things to discover with our littlest warrior seeming to enjoy the balls quite a bit while I personally enjoyed observing a colony of insects that seemed to operate with something of a hive mind.

They reminded me a bit of the Borg although not quite as dangerous.

Establishing communication seemed near impossible for us as although we observed them shaking their hind end at each other quite a bit, I’m afraid mine just doesn’t move fast enough these days.

— Gen. Huntar
Commanding, I.K.S. PATHFINDER
The Order of the Pathfinders
and the Klingon Empire

Returning to the Trail

There was a time not long ago that I honestly wondered if I would live to see the day I might truly return to the sport of Geocaching.

Unfortunately, the last year has found free time more limited as it takes a lot to keep a young one at home when both parents work separate shifts.

But with the littlest one now beginning preschool, a fair amount of free time has been freed up with Geocaching being bumped to the top of the list of things I wanted back in my life.

Yes, I gain satisfaction from marking the finds as well as the challenges of seeking out those finds.

It gets my mind moving with the reward of a smiley when the hunt is successful.

More than this, however, is the physical activity that goes into an adventurous hunt.

When I was active in the sport previously, I not only lost weight but was in the best physical condition of my life.

I have no doubt this helped me when it came to surviving and recovering from my heart-attack a year or so back.

But in the time since, I have regained the weight and my health has turned south … with a primary reason being that I have lacked time to Geocache or even exercise.

Yet, the hunt resumes with the finding ofgeocache “SVCC CCCCC.”

After my own first time dropping little Abi off at preschool, I went out looking for this cache and marked the find straight away.

But my adventures did not stop with this one on this date as I also performed maintenance on three of my own hidden  caches as well as scouted out a location for a night cache that I plan to bring online within a week’s time.

— Mike Tripp / Hunter of Stories

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“Adventures of the Pathfinder” follows the adventures of “The-Pathfinders” (aka. Order of the Pathfinder, Klingon faction among the Ships of the Cache) of which Mike Tripp is a part as they explore the world with an adventurous spirit and a lot of fun.