Good morning everyone. This week's fun fact is a breakdown of the caches I have found in North Dakota so far. I have found: Mystery - 2, Virtual - 3, Multi - 2, Earth - 1, Event - 5, Letterbox - 0, and traditional - 112 for a total of 125 caches found in 9 different counties.
One part of this game that every geocacher will experience is the dreaded Did Not Find (DNF). The blue, unhappy face on your geocaching map. Avenging that DNF, finding that cache you couldn't find before for whatever reason, makes that find just that more special. That feeling of exhilaration like you just made fire by rubbing two sticks together. Success. You've conquered that nagging blue face on your map and turned it into a happy face. I was able to do that with not just one, or two, but three DNFs in a single day. It wasn't my plan to avenge these age old DNFs. All three DNFs came on the same day and are part of the Headingley Co-operative power trail. March 24, 2014. Almost five years of having these blue faces taunt me. I just wanted to go out and find a few caches to get the new year started as I haven't found anything yet.
I wasn't even sure where I was going to go to find caches. I have a good chunk of the city cached out. To go searching will mean driving to the other end of the city. I checked on a pocket query that I run daily to see what has been found in the past seven days. In the Winter, this pocket query is very handy. I can go after caches that have been found so I'm not wasting my time searching for something that may not be Winter friendly or missing. That risk is still there, but it's greatly reduced. That's when I noticed the few caches I didn't find on that power trail were recently found. Two of those DNFs are on a part of the trail that was recently adopted by local cachers MarcoIslandGuy and his wife MarcoIslandGirl. They did a maintenance run on all the caches they adopted and fixed everything up. Two had been archived, so they replaced those ones. One of those to be replaced was a DNF for me as well back then too. Since it was archived and a new listing in it's place, there would be no actual avenging for that one, but it still felt good to get that smiley.
I set off to see what I can do. Knowing where I was going and the terrain I'd be encountering, I made sure I was wearing my boots. I've been bad this Winter for going caching in my runners. I always come home with wet feet. The first find is actually part of another power trail and just happen to be slightly off the road I was driving down towards my intended targets. The HGTT power trail runs along an old rail line. It crosses the Headingley Co-operative close to the Northern most point of the co-operative trail. You are in the wide open when doing some of these trails that wind through the South Headingley area. It was very windy and that wind was cold, even though the car said it was only -8C (about +17F). That was a quick find and a good start.
The first two that I would get on the co-operative trail were the newer replacement caches. I had heard that the ditches were deep and can be filled up to your knees with water in the summer. But that's in the summer, it's early January right now, so I don't think I have to worry about water. Deep snow maybe. I'm hoping that the snow is crusty enough that I can walk across with minimal sinking. It was crusty to an extent, but not crusty enough. I did sink to my knee on the second of the two newer caches. It wouldn't be a productive day if I didn't sink in snow and have it up to my knee. Fortunately, none got in my boot which usually does happen.
With those two out of the way, it was on to the DNFs. The Winter that I did attempt this power trail, we had a lot of snow. I remember the snow being so deep and piled up high that I had to pull myself up onto a snow bank to retrieve a couple of the caches on this county road. One in particular had snow piled up at GZ. I found the hook that day, but no container. No deep snow at GZ today and another quick find. Two DNFs avenged. One more to go. I checked the log history to see what I might expect when I arrive. This section of the power trail is owned by another cacher, bergmannfamily. He is very good at quick maintenance when there's an issue with his caches. This one had been replaced but I never came back. Today, I saw that it was replaced at the end of October. No activity since. This stretch of road you don't want to drive on in the Spring as it's normally a dirt road. Dirt roads in the Spring equals muddy and a good chance of getting stuck. Again, this is January so the dirt is frozen and easier to navigate. I arrived at GZ and made the easy find. My third DNF avenged and I now can say I have found the entire Headingley Co-operative power trail. Almost five years later, but it's done.
My 2019 is off to a reasonable start. I hope it can continue over the next 300+ days. Until my next frozen adventure, be safe, be happy, have fun, and enjoy. Peace out.
One part of this game that every geocacher will experience is the dreaded Did Not Find (DNF). The blue, unhappy face on your geocaching map. Avenging that DNF, finding that cache you couldn't find before for whatever reason, makes that find just that more special. That feeling of exhilaration like you just made fire by rubbing two sticks together. Success. You've conquered that nagging blue face on your map and turned it into a happy face. I was able to do that with not just one, or two, but three DNFs in a single day. It wasn't my plan to avenge these age old DNFs. All three DNFs came on the same day and are part of the Headingley Co-operative power trail. March 24, 2014. Almost five years of having these blue faces taunt me. I just wanted to go out and find a few caches to get the new year started as I haven't found anything yet.
I wasn't even sure where I was going to go to find caches. I have a good chunk of the city cached out. To go searching will mean driving to the other end of the city. I checked on a pocket query that I run daily to see what has been found in the past seven days. In the Winter, this pocket query is very handy. I can go after caches that have been found so I'm not wasting my time searching for something that may not be Winter friendly or missing. That risk is still there, but it's greatly reduced. That's when I noticed the few caches I didn't find on that power trail were recently found. Two of those DNFs are on a part of the trail that was recently adopted by local cachers MarcoIslandGuy and his wife MarcoIslandGirl. They did a maintenance run on all the caches they adopted and fixed everything up. Two had been archived, so they replaced those ones. One of those to be replaced was a DNF for me as well back then too. Since it was archived and a new listing in it's place, there would be no actual avenging for that one, but it still felt good to get that smiley.
I set off to see what I can do. Knowing where I was going and the terrain I'd be encountering, I made sure I was wearing my boots. I've been bad this Winter for going caching in my runners. I always come home with wet feet. The first find is actually part of another power trail and just happen to be slightly off the road I was driving down towards my intended targets. The HGTT power trail runs along an old rail line. It crosses the Headingley Co-operative close to the Northern most point of the co-operative trail. You are in the wide open when doing some of these trails that wind through the South Headingley area. It was very windy and that wind was cold, even though the car said it was only -8C (about +17F). That was a quick find and a good start.
The first two that I would get on the co-operative trail were the newer replacement caches. I had heard that the ditches were deep and can be filled up to your knees with water in the summer. But that's in the summer, it's early January right now, so I don't think I have to worry about water. Deep snow maybe. I'm hoping that the snow is crusty enough that I can walk across with minimal sinking. It was crusty to an extent, but not crusty enough. I did sink to my knee on the second of the two newer caches. It wouldn't be a productive day if I didn't sink in snow and have it up to my knee. Fortunately, none got in my boot which usually does happen.
(An easy to find preform hanging on a hook that local cacher Shop Crazy designed)
(Another quick find with my footprint to the right)
(leaving a geo-trail. I sunk up to my knee on this one)
With those two out of the way, it was on to the DNFs. The Winter that I did attempt this power trail, we had a lot of snow. I remember the snow being so deep and piled up high that I had to pull myself up onto a snow bank to retrieve a couple of the caches on this county road. One in particular had snow piled up at GZ. I found the hook that day, but no container. No deep snow at GZ today and another quick find. Two DNFs avenged. One more to go. I checked the log history to see what I might expect when I arrive. This section of the power trail is owned by another cacher, bergmannfamily. He is very good at quick maintenance when there's an issue with his caches. This one had been replaced but I never came back. Today, I saw that it was replaced at the end of October. No activity since. This stretch of road you don't want to drive on in the Spring as it's normally a dirt road. Dirt roads in the Spring equals muddy and a good chance of getting stuck. Again, this is January so the dirt is frozen and easier to navigate. I arrived at GZ and made the easy find. My third DNF avenged and I now can say I have found the entire Headingley Co-operative power trail. Almost five years later, but it's done.
(that blue face has been there since March 24, 2014)
(looking West on this stretch of the power trail that's on a frozen dirt road)
(Victory!! Third and final DNF avenged.)
My 2019 is off to a reasonable start. I hope it can continue over the next 300+ days. Until my next frozen adventure, be safe, be happy, have fun, and enjoy. Peace out.
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