Adventures in Geocaching

Showing posts with label Geocaching. Show all posts

Thursday, October 27, 2005

The Politics of Caching - Part 1

This past weekend and week, I finally got around to hiding several of the caches that I'd been preparing for several weeks.

Unfortunately, not all of these have gone without incident. One of the simple ones in the base of a street light was called Guard Dogs. The name of this cache came from its proximity to the Ramada Inn on Hwy 84 in Woodway, TX. Just to the side of the front driveway of this location, the hotel has placed two small dog statues dressed in seasonal attire. Shortly after I noticed that the dogs had recently been re-dressed in Halloween shirts, I decided that this would be the perfect spot for a geocache and hid a small film canister cache in the base of this lamp post just several feet from the street.
During the first few days that this cache was hidden, several local cachers had a chance to successfully log this find and all made pleasant or humorous comments about the dog statues. That was until I suddenly got this email message from Rodger Fussell.

"I found a person snooping around my hotel. His excuse was 'he was geocaching'. NO ONE asked to use my property for any reason and that is a shame. If I catch anyone else, they will be given to the local authority along with a complaint. Who do you think you are that you can come on private property without permission. rcfussell"

Apparently, this email came as a result of a confrontation with a local cacher attempting to find this cache. "He lifted the skirt, pulled out the cache, and looked like he wanted to choke me and anyone else in the immediate vicinity. I encouraged him to open it up and read what was inside. He then informed me that I was on private property AND that the Texas he grew up in, he would SHOOT me for doing this."
Well, Mr. Fussell, I'm sorry that you feel this way. Rest assured that I will definitely advise EVERYONE I know including all of those geocachers from out-of-town looking for a place to stay to avoid your hotel. We certainly don't want the general public going on your hotel's property, do we?

Sunday, October 23, 2005

The Woodway Witch Project

In the spirit of Halloween, a couple of my co-workers and I have decided to hide a night cache deep in the woods with a little surprise. The plan is to have the geocachers hike down an old trail through the woods until they reach a much smaller path that intersects the main trail. Here, they are required to make their way down this small path until they reach a clearing with large rocks set up to look like a small abandoned cemetery. Once there, the cachers must turn off their lights and allow their eyes to adjust to the darkness in order to see a small glowing light coming from just outside the left edge of the clearing. Finally, once they reach the light, the cache container will be within a few feet. Unfortunately for them, as soon as they find the cache and let their guard down, a creepy skeleton thing will be released and swing out of the trees toward the cachers.

To make the geocaching.com cache page look just as freaky, I've created an animated GIF graphic that will help introduce the cache. This is the small version. Click here to see the final, full-size version.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Rapunzel Photo Collage

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Brazos River Expedition

Against the wind

I’m still runnin’ against the wind

Well I’m older now and still

Against the wind

Bob Seager (Against The Wind)

Today, five brave souls entered the Brazos River near Lake Whitney and only 3 came out alive. (The other two are still alive, just not so brave anymore.) Three of our party pushed forward with great gusto and would have finished this trip in under 4 hours. The other two, myself included, pushed forward with mediocre gusto and still finished in just a little over 4 hours.

Overall, the conditions were perfect! The temperature was a steady 85 degrees with nice cloud cover and a soft breeze all the way until we reached the cache location. Unfortunately, the water level was a little low and we had to drag over the rocks a couple of times. Some of us did have a few balance problems at first and tipped over within the first 10 feet of our voyage (ok, it was just me). Because there wasn't much water flow from the dam, we did have to work pretty hard for the first half.

Once we reached the cache location, it was an amazing experience! After thousands of years of erosion, the water had carved its way deep under one of the embankments. Since the water level was so low, we were able to kayak under this overhang and that was an incredible view! The climb up was a little scary since a fall would have been about 16 feet down into shallow water over rocks and boulders. The cache tower itself might be better renamed "Ivy Tower" since one entire side of the tower is covered in my three-leafed friend. Once the cache was signed by all, we took a break for some snacks before continuing down the river another 5 miles.

The middle portion of our trip was fairly uneventful except for a brief run-in with a couple of locals. This brought back horrid memories of the movie "Deliverance." We all had choruses of "Dueling Banjos" running through our heads and I half expected one of them to holler out "This river don't go to Aquilla. You done taken a wrong turn." Soon, they got back in their airboat adorned with confederate flags and went to another part of the river to continue their business, and we continued down the river with ours.

Those last few lines of "Against the Wind" describe in great detail the last portion of this trip. By this point in the morning, the sun had escaped from the clouds. The wind had also escaped from somewhere and was fleeing right towards us! Luckily, to our great advantage, the river became much narrower and we had a fairly steady current pushing us forward against the wind that was doing everything in its power to push us back. Finally, with the bridge in sight, we pushed forward and managed to complete this remarkable journey in just over 4 hours!

Thursday, June 30, 2005

10 Billion Years Ago...

For the Jeep Photo Contest, one of the assignments for June was to take a photo of a Jeep TB at a point of origin. "Where It All Began - Find a Point of Origin. Go to any point of origin and take a photo with your travel bug."

While packing for our trip to the beach, I decided my Jeep's point of origin would have a Darwinian theme. I photographed my Jeep crawling its way out of the ocean onto dry land. The caption reads "10 Billion Years Ago...".

So if you see this in the photo contest at http://jeep.geocaching.com/contest/, please vote for me!

***edit on July 1 to include link***
The direct link to my photo in the photo contest is http://www.geocaching.com/track/log.aspx?LUID=99f5668f-f483-4373-b25c-714965f3ea49.

Friday, June 24, 2005

I found a Jeep!

For those of you who don't know, finding one of the new white Jeep travel bugs in a geocache gives you the opportunity to enter into the drawing for an all-new 2006 Jeep Commander-the first 7 passenger Trail Rated Jeep 4X4!

When you find a white Jeep 4x4 Travel Bug you have the opportunity to sign up for the Jeep 4x4 Geocaching Challenge. Each month you will be provided with three goals for the white Jeep 4x4 Travel Bugs. You can enter the contest by completing one of the three goals each month - by taking a photo with the Jeep 4x4 Travel Bug and the goal in the same photo.

I found my Jeep just after bumping into TheGeoGoes near TwinBridges (Nee- CastAway!) in Midway Park in Waco. We chatted for a while and then I found out that they had just dropped off another Jeep TB in the cache. Needless to say, I immediately grabbed the Jeep from the cache even before they had a chance to log onto the GC.com website and say that they left one there!

Monday, June 20, 2005

Homeless Shelter, Bears, and Car Chase

Yes, I know this is the second post of the day for the same caches, but these quick stories seemed to warrant their own post.

While caching on Saturday afternoon, I stopped by Tower of Power which was one of my previous DNFs. This cache is located on the back end of the Richland Mall parking lot near the Sears entrance and next to the abandoned Best Buy. Normally, this is just a clump of trees on the top of a small hill near the high-voltage electrical lines. However, this time when I arrived, I noticed a lawn chair and a half empty bottle of beer sitting near the clump of trees. It looked like someone had recently made themselves at home in the clump of trees. As I climbed the hill and walked further behind the clump of trees, my suspicions were confirmed. There was a make-shift shelter built from two road construction sawhorses and a piece of metal roofing material. Under it were a stack of blankets and a small radio. It was obvious at this point that someone without any other place to live had made this area their temporary home. I quickly found the cache and left the area trying not to disturb anything that might belong to our new neighbor.

Shortly after leaving the Tower of Power, I decided to go find Mikey's Cache! which was originally hidden in honor of a local cacher's birthday. After following the very specific driving directions left by the cache owners, I arrived at the trail head to find something very unusual for this urban area. The trail head was blocked by two orange cones and one of them was labeled "B E A R" in large unmistakable letters. I always knew this was bear country, but had assumed that meant Baylor Bear country. So I still don't know if there really was a bear down this trail or if this was simply meant to discourage people from entering this area for another reason. Either way, the cones were clearly meant to prevent people from entering so I decided to leave the area.

Finally, one of the caches I attempted to find later in the day, Roll with the changes!, was in the parking lot of a local manufacturing business. When I drove into the parking lot, I saw an empty green pickup sitting near the front gate. However, after I found the cache and decided to head on to the next cache, I noticed someone in the truck. The truck then followed me out of the lot, around the underpass U-turn, down the highway, around another underpass U-turn, and down an industrial road. Finally, I decided to do an quick U-turn in the middle of this industrial road where there was light traffic approaching from both directions. As I passed the truck going the opposite direction, it was clear that the driver's intention was to follow me as he watched me drive by. A few moments later when the light traffic had passed, I saw the driver of the truck initiate his own U-turn to continue his pursuit. Luckily, I knew this area very well and quickly turned onto a narrow road with many sharp twists and many adjoining streets. I still don't know if he attempted to follow me down this narrow road, but I did not see him again.

Big Weekend Run

Father's Day weekend was a full weekend of caching for me! On Saturday, I decided to find many of the quick park-and-grabs around the west/central area of Waco. I ended up finding all 11 caches I went for.

Then on Sunday, we went to eat lunch with my wife's family in Hutto, TX near Austin, TX. On our way back, we found 1 cache in Hutto, 2 caches in Round Rock, and 2 caches in Temple. Overall, I found 16 caches and had zero DNFs on this caching weekend. I'm getting so close to #100 that I can almost taste it! I'm sure it will happen sometime this summer.

6/19/2005 Cottonwood Creek Critter
6/19/2005 Round Rock Rocky
6/19/2005 Dell trail
6/19/2005 In The Bush
6/19/2005 Bellaire North
6/18/2005 Off Target
6/18/2005 "A Horse With No Name"
6/18/2005 The Target of My Affection
6/18/2005 Your a Poet and don't even know it!
6/18/2005 Tower of Power
6/18/2005 "I'm A King Bee, Baby"
6/18/2005 Buckle Up
6/18/2005 Roll with the changes!
6/18/2005 Step Up to the Plate
6/18/2005 I Am Ramachandran The Butler
6/18/2005 Welcome to Wally World

Friday, May 27, 2005

San Antonio Caches

It has been quite a while since I've written about my adventures. The main reason I've been AFK is due to the fact that my adventures haven't been very adventurous lately. Sure, I found a couple of new park-n-grabs near my job to run up my FTF total. That just isn't much to write about.

However, this week, I was sent on a business trip to San Antonio, TX. Of course, while I was there, I had to find a few caches in the area. Shortly before my trip, I posted on the San Antonio Area Geocachers web site about my trip and asked for suggestions for enjoyable caches in the area. The responses were abundant. Some sung the praises of one particular cacher and others said to avoid caches hidden by this same cacher unless I'm really into finding film canisters tossed into shrubs. To each his own!

While searching GC.com's site for San Antonio caches near the area where I would by staying, I found 13 days in 30 seconds, which is San Antonio's only webcam cache in front of the Alamo. Being in San Antonio was all the reason I needed to stop by the Alamo and claim a smiley for this webcam cache. Part of the assignment of this cache was to find the camera, stand in front of it, make the University of Texas Longhorn hand-sign, and then call a friend to visit the webcam page and save the picture. Although, I have no particular objection to UT, I couldn't bring myself to stand there in my green Baylor University shirt and make this particular hand gesture in front of mobs of tourists, the Internet, and everyone in the office building across the street. I hope the cache owner will accept a "Sic'em Bears" hand-sign as a substitution. Luckily, the picture quality is so poor that I'm sure nobody would be able to tell what hand-sign I was making with my arm up in the air.

I also went to a very nice and very large park on the north side of San Antonio called McAllister Park. "For those of you that love nature, this place is one of the best in the San Antonio area. McAllister park is a generous 986 acres, and was originally created in 1968. It was originally called 'Northeast Preserve' for good reason as you will see, but was renamed in 1974 to honor former San Antonio Mayor Walter W. McAllister." Here, I found a couple of caches - The Good Old Days and Where Eagles Walk. There were at least 10 other caches in this very large park, but I decided it was time to move on to another local park that was highly recommended.

Next on my list was Walker Ranch Park which is just on the north west side of the San Antonio Intl. Airport. This was a nice, well-lit park with a paved walking track and numerous hiking trails. The most exciting thing about this park was that it is right along the final approach flight path for the SA airport. Planes would fly so low through here that you could almost throw a rock at them. (Although I'm sure that both the FAA and Homeland Security department frown heavily on throwing objects at passenger planes.) It now makes perfect sense that one of the caches that I found in this park was called Airplane Spot. While in this park, I also picked up the Spring is Great travel bug from Tiger Kitty.

Before it got too dark, I made time to stop by one more cache called Yoga 101. Although this turned out to be one of the film canister caches people had warned me about, the cache would have been very interesting if I had completed the second task associated with finding it. To claim a second find on the cache, you had to stand on the corner of this VERY busy intersection and do Yoga poses. Since I did not bring my camera or have any other way to prove that I stood there and did Yoga (other than a possible arrest record), I decided it would be best to avoid the public humiliation associated with doing this particular activity.

With extreme disappointment, I was unable to visit one of San Antonio's largest caches The Weapons Cache. This was a very large ammo can full of PVC pipe kits. When you assembled the PVC pipes in the kit according to the directions, you created a fully functional marshmallow gun. While reading the details of this cache from my San Antonio hotel room, I read the latest entry on the cache page posted just days before my visit. "May 22 by G4Xplorers - It appears a big mean bulldozer has flattened the largest ammo can we have ever seen. Components of what should be marshmallow guns are smashed to bits.......Stay tuned, this will be up and running again in the near future."

Last, but not least, I had just enough daylight left to stop by one of San Antonio's virtual caches, The Pyramid. Here, in front of a pyramid shaped bank building was a large statue of several intertwined eagles by a local artist. The way to prove that you found this virtual cache is to email the artist's name and how many eagles there were to the cache owner. So, if you want to find out more about this statue, either ask me or just visit the building.

Thank you San Antonio and SA cachers for a great trip and great recommendations!!!

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Gunsight Ghost Town

This weekend, my wife travelled with her family to an old Texas ghost town called Gunsight where a family plot exists in the historic cemetary. In honor of their trip, I packed an ammo can and had them place a cache there called Gunsight Ghost Town.

GUNSIGHT, TEXAS. Gunsight, in southern Stephens County, was named for the nearby Gunsight Mountains. It was settled in the late 1800's and gained a post office in 1880 at J. W. Shepard's store. The community's population was fifty in 1890 and grew to 150 in 1920 because of the oil boom and the town's location near the Wichita Falls and Southern Railway. During the 1920s Gunsight lost its railroad station and post office. Its population was reported as six in 1980 and 1990.

As early as 1858, Gunsight was on a wagon road from Fort Griffin in Shackelford County to Stephenville in Erath County. The road continued through the Gunsight mountains across Colony Creek in Eastland County toward Ranger. Settlers started coming after the Civil War in 1865. The loan Methodist church building was relocated to its present site across the road, north of the cemetery in 1978. Here now are the three remaining vestiges of a once thriving community; the well kept cemetery, the old school building, and the vacant church. The Gunsight Cemetery marks the final resting place for over 450 people. Many graves are unmarked and there are at least 40 graves of war veterans. To date, there are three known Civil War veterans of the Confederate States, two Spanish American War veterans, twelve of World War I, twenty-one veterans of World War II, and two Korean veterans.

Monday, April 25, 2005

FTF x 2

I haven't done that much caching lately. Most of last week was spent preparing for my annual evaluation at work. However, I have finally been FTF! In fact, I've now been FTF twice.

4/14/2005 Koehne Park Hike
4/21/2005 Bates Motel -- The Sequel

Also, last Tuesday, I attended my first Geocaching Event. This was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed meeting several of the local cachers including DrHogg, Sawdust92, BikerMike, Eagletrek, S1Waco, HOTCrawlDaddy, and others.

Friday, April 15, 2005

WiFi Caching Map

Another interesting use of a GPS device is to map out local wireless access points in your neighborhood. When the GPS is connected to your laptop computer, you can run a program like NetStumbler to record the coordinates of the wireless signals you discover. The mapping program, JiGLE, uses these coordinates and the signal strength of the detected wireless networks to map the approximate location of the source of the wireless access point that was detected. To create a map like this one on a Windows XP computer, follow the steps below.

Download and install NetStumbler from http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/.
Download and install JiGLE and the vector map for your county from http://www.wigle.net/gps/gps/GPSDB/dl/.
Connect your GPS to your laptop with a data cable and configure your GPS to send a NMEA compatible signal in your Interface Setup screen.
Start NetStumbler and begin driving through your neighborhood. Each time NetStumbler picks up a signal, it will show its listing on the main screen and generate an alert sound.
When you are finished with your drive, close NetStumbler and save the NS1 file it generates for you in your C:\JiGLE directory as "nt.ns1".
From the command line or the Run menu, launch JiGLE by typing "C:\JiGLE\run.bat -getstumble nt.ns1".
Then choose your county map from the drop-down list and you will be able to pan/zoom around the map to view the wireless access points in your neighborhood.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Two-in-one and a solar eclipse!

Last Friday afternoon, a small group of the BUCachers and I got together to log two caches-in-one. The plan was to visit the coordinates for Bridges to Nowhere at exactly 5:06:34 p.m. on April 8, 2005 to claim credit for "Timing" is Everything. In order to claim the find, we had to take a photograph of a digital watch that displayed this exact time and date next to a GPS that displayed these exact coordinates. For the credit, we used the coordinates N 31° 34.062 W 097° 08.170 which corresponded to virtual coordinates of N31° Seconds.Minutes2 W97° Day.Hour(24-hour)0. Oh what we'll do to log a couple of caches!

However, what was really cool was that we did all of this during the 2005 solar eclipse. Although it was fairly overcast and we really couldn't see much of anything for lack of shadows, it was still cool to know that we were out there when all of the action was going on.

Later that afternoon and on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, I drove around town and logged a small collection of other locationless/reverse caches and one physical cache that I've been searching for 3 times already.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Wire scorpions, DNFs, and a cemetery night cache...

Recently, I've had the opportunity to exchange email messages with quite a few geocachers. Many of these messages have been with local cachers providing information about their hides or recent finds such as Sawdust92, Alphatexana, and Aggie99. On other occasions, I've been swapping horror stories about poison ivy with The GeoGoes. But most recently, I've been exchanging emails about how to post images in the Groundspeak forums and creating avatars with losel2. In exchange for my assistance, he is going to send me two scorpions made from wire that he made. One will be for me to keep, and the other to place in a central Texas cache. Overall, I've got to say that I've really enjoyed getting to know these geocachers even if only through email and cache logs.

Secondly, I went 0-for-2 with the last two caches I've searched for and am getting a little frustrated. Although I've had several DNFs while acquiring my geosense and learning the ropes of geocaching, it still frustrates me every time I have to log another DNF. It especially frustrates me when I consider how much time I've spent looking for a cache that either doesn't exist or is WAY off of the posted coordinates. I guess that is just the way the cookie crumbles.

Finally, I want to share my recent experience night caching. Last Friday night, my wife and I had a chance to enjoy a few hours alone without Geo-Baby (although we love caching with her very much!). After a nice dinner for two, we decided to go look for Stanford Chapel Night Cache near Hewitt, TX. This experience was such an emotional roller-coaster for both of us! The cache is located in a little cemetery tucked away in a remote neighborhood. Although I've always known it was out there, I have never had an opportunity or reason to actually stop by and see it. I've never been a big fan of cemeteries at night since they tend to bring up mental images from a slew of 1980's, low-budget, horror films, but this one seemed extra peaceful for some reason and I was pretty comfortable being here for a short while. As we were entering the cemetery, my wife mentioned that she knew two people that were buried here. One was a former teacher and another was a high-school classmate that was killed in a driving accident. (Add my 80's horror imagery to the peaceful nature of this cemetery with the recent knowledge that we actually know people buried here and you already begin seeing the hills, valleys and twists of the roller-coaster beginning to build.)

As we approached the location of the bench mentioned in the coordinates, we noticed a very recent grave site along our path covered in flowers and Easter Lilies. When we stopped to read the small metal marker with our flashlight, we noticed it was for a small infant who apparently had died just days or weeks ago. (By now, our roller-coaster is beginning to hit an all-time emotional low point.) While we continued on to the bench mentioned in the cache description, I began to think about some of the previous log entries and remembered about another nearby bench from a log entry by BikerMike, "If you want to see something else in the cemetery, go to N 31 28.344 W 097 14.162. You'll come to a grave with a small bench there. Under it is a tupperware box. Inside is a picture and a notepad for people to leave thoughts etc...about the 15 year old boy there. Interesting and sad all at once. I read a few of them, and most are quite touching." Shortly after reaching the bench and remembering these entries, I spotted the cache blinking in the direction of the cemetery entrance. Now, the adrenaline is pumping again and the "I Found It" emotions are roaring! After signing the log and replacing the cache back in its hiding spot, my wife and I talked on the way out about how incredibly odd this whole adventure has been. I'll never know if her "roller-coaster" was anything like mine, but it must have been similar. So many intense emotions like fear, remembrance, sadness, excitement, joy and relief were all rolled into this one night cache adventure that I will always remember.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Geocaching Blogs

This is a partial list of the Geocaching blogs and blog related sites that were submitted to me through email or the Groundspeak.com forum topic, Geocaching Blogs.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Walk Alone

I decided I would try my hand at a new avatar yesterday. I've seen some avatars done by other people that were like little scenes more than just a logo, so I thought I'd give that a try and see what I think. This edition has my own version of a non-trademarked "stick figure" man hiking. It also really captures my interests and is a little more symbolic of how I feel about geocaching.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Wherever I May Roam

Today, I was thinking about why I decided to get into this sport. Conveniently, I was listening to "Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica and realized that this song described exactly why I'm into geocaching!

...and the road becomes my brideI have stripped of all but pride So in her I do confide And she keeps me satisfied Gives me all I need...and with dust in throat I crave Only knowledge will I save To the game you stay a slave Rover wanderer Nomad vagabond Call me what you will But I’ll take my time anywhere Free to speak my mind anywhere And I’ll redefine anywhere Anywhere I may roam Where I lay my head is home ...and the earth becomes my throne I adapt to the unknown Under wandering stars I’ve grown By myself but not alone I ask no one ...and my ties are severed clean The less I have the more I gain Off the beaten path I reign Rover wanderer Nomad vagabond Call me what you will

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

“The search for truth is more precious than its possession.” - Albert Einstein

Yesterday, Hoby2199 and I spent the afternoon geocaching around the Woodway Park area for several hours. The first cache we hunted was really the only one that could not be found. We spent almost an hour just looking for this one cache called The Hills Are Alive... and finally had to give up. But after that, we found all of them we searched for. Well... almost all of them. It turned out that we spent about 10 minutes looking for a cache before we read the description and learned that it has been disabled and removed a few weeks earlier. So depending on how you view the last situation, we went either 4 for 5 -or- 4 for 6. C’est la vie!

Interestingly, one of the caches called Secret Squirrel-Revenge! was a cache I found last summer as a muggle. While enjoying the park with my wife and daughter, we spotted this cache and wondered why someone would put something like this here. I now wish I had opened it up and learned about Geocaching then instead of waiting until now.

But most importantly, I've now pulled back in the lead over dinkumator!!!!!

Thursday, March 24, 2005

New Avatar Design

After getting a few comments about my previous avatar and how it looks somewhat like the Groundspeak logo, I noticed it does look like 1/4 of the Groundspeak logo, but this 1/4 of the Groundspeak logo looks a LOT like the Handspring Visor logo. So does this mean that Groundspeak owns the rights for all solid color stick figures and Handspring owns the rights to all multi-color stick figures? My purpose in using this avatar is not to defraud any consumer or pull any business away from either Groundspeak or Handspring - especially since I am a paid member of Geocaching.com and have purchased a Handspring Visor. My purpose is simply to leave a mark that signifies me and what I enjoy doing which is participating in the recreational sport of geocaching with my trusty Handspring Visor. With this in mind, I offer up for your viewing pleasure my temporary, new, M-T-P logo!

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

POISON IVY: The Bane of All Geocachers!

There are many evil plants in the world such as Henbane, Hemlock, Datura, Deadly Nightshade and Mandrake. But the most vile, contemptible, wretched, and loathsome of them all must be Toxicodendron radicans - POISON IVY!

After we purchased our new house last summer, we noticed that poison ivy was actively growing in our back yard. Unfortunately, I discovered it only after I was covered head-to-toe in the itchy rash that has come to plague me for the umpteenth time since my boy scout days as a child. If you are not aware of how poison ivy affects your body, a normally benign oil called Urushiol is produced by these plants and binds with your skin. Once bound to cell membranes, urushiol is virtually impossible to wash off and attached to cell membranes attracts patrolling T-cells and initiates a full-blown immune response which is the cause of the horrid rash. Each time you come into contact with poison ivy, your body learns how to "fight" it harder with an increased T-cell response.

To make this long story short, I hired a lawn service three times to come dig up the poison ivy found in our yard, and I followed by filling the holes with Roundup. For the remainder of the summer and fall, this seemed to do the trick. Every time that I had to mow or do other yard work, I had no recurring reaction - UNTIL NOW! This weekend, I decided to pick up the remaining leaves and ground clutter in our back yard by mowing the yard with the grass catcher attached. It did a fantastic job and yard looks great! But as Sunday night passed into Monday morning, I began noticing the ever-so-distinctive itching sensation under my right arm. Now, I'm covered once again!

Needless to say, each bout of poison ivy makes you hyper-sensitive to the three leafed plant in your surroundings, and this is how it relates to Geocaching. Even though my arms, legs, and chest are covered in this itchy rash, I decided I'd attempt to be an FTF at Anti-Q-Zoo near the old Waco Zoo. After I arrived in the abandoned parking lot, my GPS was guiding me near the edge of the lot towards the old fence line and some trees. As I approached the edge of the pavement, my eyes focused on one thing and one thing only near my feet! POISON IVY! Everywhere I looked, there was POISON IVY! There were a few patches of grass and tall weeds between the pavement and the fence, but through it all was POISON IVY! I truthfully don't think I've ever seen so much of this dreaded plant in one place in my entire life and I was about to trample right through it!

I'm afraid this will be one cache that will forever be on my forbidden list. In fact, I feel incredibly sorry for anyone who ventures near this cache and wonder how sawdust92 managed to hide it without being covered in the oils of this demon.