Geocaching Success!

Okay, I did it, I went Geocaching to see what all the hype is about. First off I created a Geocaching alter ego---GatorCT. I then enlisted the help of my nephew and niece luring them with the prospect of pirate treasure. We biked to three separate cache locations. We had two unsuccessful attempts that may have been a result of human error, or muggles. At our third Cache location, we were able to discover the cache---a small black film canister. We signed our fake names, GatorCT and Bragonston. 

After one successful geocaching adventure, we are hooked, and have a healthy and exciting activity that will offer us another outdoor activity this summer. I think our next GPS induced outing will take place tomorrow. 

These caches are everywhere. Chances are there is probably one within a mile of where you are right now. Check it out at www.geocaching.com and participate in the hunt.

Watch out for muggles. 

Send us your Adventures!

Adventuring Blog has gone global. According to our records, Adventuring Blog has been visited by people from around the world. Included so far in the list of international visitors are Adventurers from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany,Ireland, Italy, India, Chile, Mexico, Greece, Canada, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and we are especially popular in South Korea.

With visitors from around the United States and from around the world, we wanted to make it possible for other people to share their ideas and opinions with us. If you have any tips, recommendations or stories, we would love to hear them. In addition, if you have experienced an epoch Adventuring trip, write it up and email it to us, and there is a good chance that we will publish it in the blog.

The Adventuring Blog has a new email address.

AdventuringBlog@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

Geocaching

Today, the University of Florida's student newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator ran a story about a UF student that was involved in Geocaching as a hobby. Geocaching being searching for hidden objects, lists and treasures. Rather than using Pirate methods of looking for booty with crusty maps, modern Geocachers use hand help GPS systems to guide them on their journey. 

Why do these people do this? Not because it is pointless. They do it as an impetus for getting outside to explore new places.  To test their ability to navigate and to find hidden objects. Or as a challenge to see who can race to an object the fastest. 

Before reading this, I had heard of geocaching before, but had never given it a second thought. It certainly is not a flashy hobby, and chicks certainly will not dig it. But most girls have crappy hobbies anyway... scrap booking, cooking, cleaning, giving birth to children, etc. 

Anyway, I decided that Geocaching was an activity that I might want to try out. My brother-in-law owns a handheld GPS, and I am going to borrow it and explore this great earth one latitude at a time. In my research, I discovered http://www.geocaching.com/ which allows users to search for caches in their local area, or anywhere they may be going. I hope to have my inaugural attempt this weekend, and will keep everyone a-Breast of my explorations. 

El viaje a México estaba loco

Fireworks, tequila, surfboards, and la policia. That is how I sum up our Mexican adventure. It started off with an 8hr drive from San Francisco to Poway, CA. We arrived around 3pm and spent the rest of the day at the beach, a roof top bar, and playing in an adult league softball game. We were in no shape or form prepared for any sort of competitive activites. Sandals were not allowed in this league, so Brian borrowed some guys business dress socks and some old Goodwill looking shoes while I lucked out and got to wear my surf booties. Friday we packed up for our departure to Mexico and all met at a harbor in the San Diego Bay. With uncooperative weather, the sailing unfortunately did not take place. We did however climb aboard, daydreaming about what it would be like to be out on the open water, and then headed to Mexico in our caravan.

We crossed the border without receiving full
body searches, and made it to our condo. The
rest of our caravan wasn't supposed to arrive until late in the day, so Brian and I pulled on our wetsuits and grabbed our boards and headed out into the water. Google "K38 beach" and this is where we surfed. Friday night turned into a "pre-party" to what was supposed to be the "actual party" on Saturday night. The night ended around 2am with us throwing glow stick rings (out of Brian's survival pack) off of the 10th floor balcony and trying to make them into the pool. This game was quickly ended when security caught us. Saturday was a day full of waking up hungover, drinking lots of coffee and eating little food, surfing for 4 hrs, and then getting in the hot tub with a styrofoam cooler full of beer. The day quickly turned to night as we (we from now on consists of 4 guys, a.k.a LOTPs or Life of the Party) got dressed and headed for the "real party" celebrating Carolyn's graduation with her Masters at UCLA. Margaritas, beer, awesome mexican food, and a Mariachi guitarist. Everyone became increasingly roudy and we decided to grab our headlamps (out of our survival packs) and fireworks (not from our survival packs) and head to the local beach to light up the sky. Pictures were hard to take during this outing while we were all either trying to light fireworks or avoid losing our hearing. On our trek back to the condos, we had to trespass onto some locals land, dodge a furious canine, save Brian's pet rock that he would not leave behind, all as we were climbing a fence.

Waking up Sunday morning wasn't too hard. The past two nights I had slept out on the 10th floor balcony with my Kelty mummy bag (20 F) and my air mattress. Nothing beats the sound of the ocean and hard tile flooring after a night of drinking. Sunday we had to trek back to San Francisco. That was supposed to be about a 10 hr drive. About 1/4 of a mile from the border to the US, we were stopped by la policia (Brian was driving of course). Illegal left turn from a middle lane on a one way street, and the cop wanted us to follow him the the police station in Tijuana. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Brian talked the cop into taking $40 and letting us go! As we crossed the border, reminiscing about our weekend and about how we wanted Taco Bell, the car engine check light went on and off. We hoped this car would make it home, for we were on a tight deadline to make it home for a Easter dinner with the family by 5:30pm. Now it is about 2pm and we are broken down on the side of I-5 North. The car decided to completely shut down, which we found out later that the oil pump had failed and exhausted the entire engine (and turbo) of oil. Calling AAA got us a tow truck who towed us 3 hrs home!! We were only two hrs late for Easter dinner.

Things we learned:

-Don't drive your own car across the border

-Have some cash on you at all times, but not over $60

-Try to learn some Spanish before you head out on this adventure

-Take more tequila than you really want

-Don't throw a lit M-80 at the feet of your drunk friends

-Rocks don't always make best friends

-Never make this trip with out people you trust or people who should be there...meaning Charley next adventure we have you are COMING...no excuses!

Aventura Mexicana

Stay tuned for a detailed report on what went down in our trip from San Francisco to Rosarito, Baja Mexico. The picture above is just a taste.

Mexican Surf Adventure

Today, Brian and Jeff will be setting off from the San Francisco area for an adventurous Easter weekend in Mexico. There is little known now of whether or not they will be looking for huevos. From what I know, they will drive to San Diego, where on Friday, they may be able to stow away on a sailboat for an early morning day trip. Following their time under sail, the group they are with will be caravanning south of the border to Baja. There they will go surfing, probably drink tequila, and most likely attain a moderate case of Montezuma's Revenge. Hopefully, after their return home from this great adventure, they will post a complete synopsis of the goings on of their trip.

Below you will find a link to a guide for survival of Montezuma's Revenge, and a picture of the man himself.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4453647_survive-montezumas-revenge.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

Google Terrain view

www.maps.google.com

Google, the most innovative company on the planet, recently came up with an additional feature for Google Maps, that will be useful to Adventurers. Now, not only can someone use Google Maps for planning driving directions, they can also look at the Google Terrain view tab, which will allow them to check out the topography of a place they may want to hike. This feature will be great to plan hiking routes, or just to get a better lay of the land before setting off on an adventure. Of course you need to know how to read a topographic map, but any Adventurer worth their gorp already knows how to do that. I reccomend for everyone to take a look at this feature before your next wilderness forray. 

Below are Google Maps screenshots of Camelback Mountain in Arizona, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. 

Above: Camelback Below: Grand Canyon

Also reccomended: look at Mount Everest

REI Garage Sale- Results

On Saturday, REI had a Garage sale to get rid of items that were returned, damaged, used, or out of stock. The sale was to start at 9 AM, so I woke up around 8AM, and drove over to the store. I arrived at about 20 minutes before 9 and saw a very long line of outdoorsman and outdoorswomen lined up outside the designated garage sale parking lot. Some of the residents of this line had camp chairs, sleeping bags and one guy was wearing a Selk sleeping bag aka a mummy sleeping bag with legs check out the link to see what I’m talking about.  http://www.lippiselkbag.co.uk/store/d58-Selk-Bag-Store-(US-Dollars)

So I was in line with about 200 people in front of me. Shortly before nine, and REI employee began shouting to the crowd.

“If your mom never taught you manners, Leave now. No Pushing!, No Shoving!, No grabbing from others! If I or any other employee tells you to leave, leave immediately, you are trespassing. If pushing or shoving happens, you will be banned from all REI stores for LIFE! I can make that happen.”

With the threat of a life sentence away from our favorite store, the tension in the air was tangible. Like your first day in prison, everyone was contemplating what they would have to do to survive. I wanted to push EVERYONE.  I wanted to grab EVERYTHING!

When the floodgates were opened, I could see the people that had camped in line running like the wind to go grab armfuls of the best items. By the time I got in, many of the clothes racks had been pillaged, and the Vikings that had ravaged them were guarding massive piles of loot. I even saw one guy that had gotten his hands on three Mountain Hardware monkey man fleeces for $50 each.

I was able to snag a used REI Taj 3 tent for $39.99. It is a 3 person, 3 season backpacking tent that had formerly been used as an REI rental tent, and I’m sure it has been on many trips. It is in good condition, and as the weather improves, I can’t wait to pitch my tent!

As far as the sale went, I had the opportunity to buy some light North Face hiking boots for $35, and there were some decent snow shoes for $40, but I failed to pull the trigger before someone snatched them.  The sale was advertized as going from 9-2, but by 9:15, the place was mainly cleaned out besides a few canoes and kayaks up for auction at the end of the day. Overall, people were well behaved and courteous. For me, this was a great start to my Saturday. Up early, interaction with gear, and likeminded people, and a chance to improve my current cache of outdoor gear. I recommend REI Garage Sales for anyone; just get there earlier than I did. I will continue to look for them in my neck of the woods. 

REI Gear Garage Sale

This post only really applies for Adventurers in the Chicagoland Area, but the REI in Oakbrook Terrace is having their members only gear garage sale this Saturday. If you do nto know what REI is, you should do your research, because it is one of the best outdoor activity stores around. 

When: 4/4/2009 9AM- 2PM

The Details: 

Up to 80% off of used gear. 

Gear or clothing that was returned, damaged out, slightly flawed or is dirty. You never know what you will find: packs, tents, footwear, rain jackets, snowboards, GPS, maybe even a bike or kayak. 

Only members can purchase from the garage sale. Not a member, you can join. Lifetime membership is only $20. 

Garage sale items are sold as-is, and as priced.

Location: REI Oakbrook Terrace

 17W160 22nd St. 

 Oakbrook Terrace, IL 

 41° 50.8' N

  87° 57.783' W