Old School and some others at Council Grove, KS

I was too busy to go anywhere this summer, but I'm back (I think)!

For the starter, I went to pay a revenge on Harmit's cave cache that I couldn't find in this spring, found it, and then found an old school cache, and since I was there, I went to pioneer nature trail cache which I really enjoyed the hike when I was there last time. Also, I had my friend with me who had not experienced the game, so, I thought it would be a nice one to get the feel of it.

Kestrel

I'm getting little too busy now a days to catch a cache. Boo-! Hopefully, I can get out from my office next weekend...

Manhattan, KS (Land of Ahhs!!)

I was thinking about going for at least one cache last weekend, but it got little too busy. And I was little too tired from my work and my allergy to enjoy anything, especially at outside. But fortunately, I still have previously found caches to be recorded in here.

This one is named the Land of Ahhs!! It is located at one of scenic outlooks of Konza prairie. It is a virtual cache (the one with a ghost icon). Make sure you write down or print out the questions to be answered before you go.

When I got there, it was still too early to enjoy green glasses (it was on April), but at this time of the year, it should be beautiful. Maybe I should visit again this weekend if I have a time.

(4/08/07)

Council Grove, KS (Hermit's cave)

A cache Hermit's cave is located around a historical landmark in a city of Council Grove, KS. An Italian hermit, Giovanni Maria Augustini was hiding in this cave in 1863.

I made an another mistake of not reading logs before you go to the location. Apparently, there was a change in hiding place of the cache. I spent more than 1 hour, but I just couldn't find it. I even wrote down the hint, so, I was so sure about the location...

Now I know the cache may have been moved, I will visit the location one more time later this summer.

Manhattan, KS (GeoSunset)

I got little too busy to update my blog. I don't have much time to go look for a cache either, but here comes one from several weeks ago.

There is a place called Sunset Zoo in Manhattan, and there are trails around it. The cache, GeoSunset Cache, is located in an off-trail location. You need to go about 100 yards out from the trail. You can go there from the top of the hill, but I recommend going down the hill following the trail, if you have time. It is a nice walk to a river.

(4/01/07)

Manhattan, KS: Mr. Roger's Neighborhood

I'm back in Manhattan, KS. No more city life. Oh, well. I better enjoy the mother nature instead. And I don't mind it at all. The spring is coming! ;)

The first one visit after I came back is called Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. What a nice naming! I don't want to give you a spoiler, so, I don't go into details, but the name was a huge hint for the location. It was located in a place I wouldn't go if there was no cache. It is an another good thing about geocaching. The game takes me where I wouldn't go normally.

(4/01/07)

SF trip (Golden Gate Park)

We decided to enjoy the downtown in the last day at San Francisco. After visiting Asian Museum, we went to Japan Town for lunch (syabu-syabu!) and tried to find Nihonmachi cache, but no luck. We spent quite a few time, but we just couldn't find it. I still wonder where it might be...


Then we went to Golden Gate Park. I didn't know what to expect in the park except for a few cache I wrote down on my notebook (my GPSr cannot import waypoints), but the park was great! We enjoy the view and we really wished that we had more time to enjoy conservatory of flowers and other amenities they have.

Over there, we found conservatory of flowers and pool of enchantment. Both are fairly small, yet not so difficult to find. Thanks for putting them in such a nice park!

(3/27/2007)

San Francisco trip (Napa)

In second day, we went to Napa to taste some wine and, of course, find a cache. the day started with rain, but it turned out that most of the time we were out, the sun was out too. We did winery hopping for several hours, and it was great! I wish I wasn't driving!

Cache-wise, we were able to find Red Chicken, but unable to find One Man's Pearls. One Man's Pearls was close to a residential area and it took for a while to get to the location. When we found more public area where we (and GPSr) thought it was a right one, it got too dark and none of us had a flashlight. We looked for 10-20 min, but we had to give up. :(

Also, we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant Red Hen (hint, hint ;)), but the taste was not as good as we expected... I don't recommend to anybody.

(3/26/2007)

San Francisco trip (Hyde Street)

Once we found the previous one. These friends of mine got very interested in finding more, so, we were set to find one more close to the Fisherman's wharf, called S.F. Cable Car - Hyde Street Hill.

It was a nice walk from Fisherman's wharf. Probably because of the buildings, my GPSr wasn't giving a coordinate straight for a while, but once it did, we found the cache. It was already dark, so, I was lucky to have two of my friends who was willing to look for the cache with me.

(3/25/2007)

San Francisco trip (Green Thumb)

I visited SF to see my friends from France and Mexico. We went school together and one of them had a meeting in SF. They didn't know anthing about geocaching.

luckily (for me), when we visited Fisherman's wharf we didn't have clear plan, so, I told them about the game and we start to walking toward the coordinate for the Green Thumb.

They didn't quite understand the concept until I found the cache. But once they got an idea, they were as excited about the game as I was! I'm expecting to see them at geocaching.com very soon. ;)

The walk from Fisherman's wharf to the coordinate was excellent too. Even though the famous fog was there, we get to see Alcatraz from the hill.

(3/25/2007)

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Second one already!

Well, as I said, I'm excited about this game!
My second cache was KSU Kat's Kache.

First of all, I wasn't prepared enough to figure out how to get to Goodnow park which was mentioned in the description of the cache, so, I started off from the top of the hill (Bluemont hill park?). Then, instead of finding a trail to go down there, I decided to go into woods, following my GPS. I saw other people's trail too. (user named swpabst wroted in a log that he/she went the same way too) Apparently, I wasn't the only one went down this way. ;)

In anyway, it was a nice hike and the view from the top was great! I enjoyed it very much.

Also, I used my bike to get there, and found out that you cannot get out to (or access from) the direction of Tuttle Creek Dr. It is a busy street, no bike pass or sidewalk, and nearest traffic light is bit far. So, if you bike like I do, better way to get out (or come in) is the west side (the direction of KSU).

(As other user (MarkWeiss) mentioned, the published coordinate may be little off. I got N 39° 11.517 W 096° 33.711 with mine)
(and I found a cherry tree on the way back!)

(3/23/2007)

My first cache!

My very first cache was the great turnaround nearby KSU football stadium!

It was not difficult to find, but I had to go twice because I wrote down a coordinate from a wrong system (NAD27). Well, at least now I know that WGS 84 and NAD27 are indeed different.

It was a cloudy day and the campus was quite due to the spring break. To be honest with you, I didn't know what to expect, so I went unprepared. But when I find and opened the box, I understand why so many people are participating geocaching. It was very exciting to find something extraordinary from somewhat ordinary place. And the contents of the box tells you that people really enjoy this event. There are many goodies in it. (I thought some people would leave junks in it.) I wasn't prepared to leave anything, so, I just enjoyed to examine what they left.

Well, I guess I'm getting into this game!
(Forsythia is telling that the spring is coming!!)
(3/21/2007)