BIG BEAR at Firestone GC78

GC78 Firestone by Scott Hinds

BIG BEAR’s birthday wish was to do this cache, it was published 10/02/2000 called Firestone.  It is located near Bodega Bay, North of San Francisco. So after biking the Golden Gate park earlier in the day, we jumped in the Jeep and headed north up Hwy 1 to the cache location.  The road into the cache was winding but it was a beautiful drive.

This was rated a 1/1 but we parked at the closest point and walked over, looked down and thought no way this is a 1 terrain.  We did see a trail though and later found out if you parked at the Trail Head (which we passed on the way up to the cache) that you could have an easy hike into this cache that was a terrain of 1.    Since we were at the closest point we through caution to the wind and started our way down to the cache, our terrain was about a 4.  It was very steep, but the views were extraordinary… it was beautiful.  There was no fog and we got there just about Sunset to witness one of the prettiest views of the ocean.

Sunset at Firestone

the view from Firestone

the view from Firestone

Watching the Sunset from Bodega Bay

going through the tunnel

Sunset

BIG BEAR and Tru2Cntry at Firestone

Heading up to Bodega Bay – the tunnel

BIG BEAR on his way to Firestone

BIG BEAR and Tru2Cntry watching the Sunset from Bodega Bay

There aren’t too many of these old caches left and this one filled in a spot, or rather a date on our “Finds by Placed Month” calendar.  The caches with the older years for 2000 and 2001 are few and far between.  They were published when Geocaching was just beginning and now are very sought after caches.  On Firestone at the time there are only 260 finds for the cache.  For being published 11 years ago you would think there would be a lot more finds.  I hope this cache stays active, the owner has stated on his cache page that he has moved and it is difficult for him to maintain it, the Geocaching family is pretty good however at helping to maintain caches if they know that the owner can’t do it himself.  Trying to fill in the Jasmer Challenge Calendar: GC1GBC1 The Jasmer Challenge (Northern California Edition) by jasmerb

This cache for me will be remembered for not only the numbers it fills in for me but the memory of one of the most beautiful spots I have ever been to, and we ended the day by watching the sun go down. Perfect ending to a perfect caching day and it was a great way to honor my best friend’s birthday!

Happy Birthday BIG BEAR!

BIG BEAR’s Birthday Caching Weekend

BIG BEAR and Sean strategizing

It’s BIG BEAR’s Birthday and what does he want to do? You got it, Geocache!  We met up with our good friend Sean Stafford at San Francisco Golden Gate  Park to cache the park on our bikes.  We are off at 9:30 Sunday morning with what looked like a perfect day in front of us.  Starting cache: GC256C6 Crossroads by irwinSports and then heading East staying on the bike trails and walking our bikes in areas where bicycles were not allowed.

BIG BEAR and Sean

The caches are varied for the most part, some were just baggies with logs in not so great shape, and then some were lock n locks that have been replaced or are showing their age.  It seems to be very hard to maintain a cache in the park because of the homeless and just the non stop visitors with children and dogs.  Caches have to be hidden well to not be a target for a muggle.

We found all but  a couple of the caches we set our GPS‘s on, and the different locations were all fun places to visit in the part.  Some of the caches offered up some history, while others were memorials to War Heroes or Aids victims, but all were great fun to track down.  It was a great place to take the bikes and ride to cache and also get to visit one of the most beautifil places in San Francisco.

I had never been to Golden Gate Park and while we rode most of the day, quitting at 2:30 only allowed us to ride and cache half of the park, we still have another half of the park left to see for a future Caching Adventure.   It was a great way to spend the day with BIG BEAR and Sean, caching and biking in a beautiful park to celebrate BIG BEAR’s birthday.

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Honoring a Fallen Soldier: Chad Regelin-Earned 16 medals; Anderson High grad was Sailor of Year

Shampoodles called me and asked me if I wanted to stand on horseback with the Redding Rodeo group for Chad Reglein’s funeral procession… would I? Absoulutly!!

Tru2Cntry, Shampoodles, Ponytails & Heather

We were honored to stand by on horseback with flags held high, while the funeral procession wound it’s way from Anderson to the Igo Veterans Cemetary where Chad was laid to rest. We stood by with hundreds of people who lined the streets to honor this amazing young man that gave his life for our Country. We waived to all who were taking part in the line of cars, some were very decorated Military Officers, some were family in black limosines, and some were just part of the many friends and family that knew him and grew up with him. Most waived back and gave us a thumbs up too, some waived their kleenex and even some saluted, we tried to hold back our tears but they came anyway. Such a privilege to honor this young man and the life he gave up for me so that I have the freedom to live in America. Thank you Chad Reglelin, I did not know you personally but I wish I had and thank you for all you did for our country: The United States of America, may God Bless America!

More on Chad Regelin via Redding native Chad Regelin earned 16 medals; Anderson High grad was Sailor of Year » Redding Record Searchlight.

Thank you Shampoodles for asking me to be a part of such an amazing morning and thank you for letting me ride Goldfish, what a beautiful horse! I was honored to stand with you and Ponytails to salute Chads funeral procession

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After the funeral procession Shampoodles & Ponytails loaded up the horses and we all headed out to the Jelly’s Ferry area for a great afternoon of horseback riding and geocaching. The days are still short but we managed to get 5 Geocaches before heading back to the barn… Thank you Shampoodles was a great day!

GC1PKPC Moose Rides Again by Rocky, Bullwinkle & Moose
GC2AAKZ DBMC-Water- by denihike
GC1N7DW Lava Stronghold & Pool by Biojava
GC2AAKM DBMC-Air-by denihike
GC39Q17 Ponytails & Shampoodles Go Riding by ponytails

Related articles

• Fallen But Not Forgotten – Petty Officer 1st Class Chad R. Regelin, 24 (thecommunicatorwv.wordpress.com)
• RIP PO1 Chad R. Regelin (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• Chad R. Regelin (americanheroesmemorial.wordpress.com)

New Year -> New Bike -> New Caches!

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BIG BEAR got me a bike for Christmas! I haven’t had a chance to get out and use it until today when we went to Anderson River Park to get some more of Shampoodles caches that she has placed down there. I also purchased a couple of Garmin 60csx mounts for our bikes and wanted to see how they would do out on the trail. After church we loaded up the bikes and headed out. There are several trails that criss cross throughout the park and some of them dead end with a river that is way to big to cross, we headed towards the closest one and all went well, we had to walk the bikes several times when the cobblestones became the size of cantelopue or the river washed sand was just too fine and deep you sunk, otherwise we had a great little bike ride to the first 3 or 4. Well then it got tricky, headed down a few of those trails that ended with the river right in front of us, so we turned around and tried the next trail. We just kept on moving, and my new bike did very well.

Caches we did on the trail today included:

GC395YN #1 Shampoodles Remembers Her Horse by Shampoodles
GC38HTW #1 Shampoodles Rides To Hide Again by Shampoodles – 4 in the Series
GC39N4M #3 Shampoodles Rides To Hide On Christmas by Shampoodles
GC39N4Z Shampoodles Plays Frisbee Golf by Shampoodles
and one I’ve been meaning to get for a very loonnnng time:
GCZZ92 CHRISTMAS CACHE crowshoot/floflower

Before I rode it today we installed a much softer, wider seat, the seats that come on some of the new bikes hurt your buns after awhile. My new bike seat worked out well too, as did the Garmin 60csx mounts that we put on the handlebars, we had a great afternoon biking the trails at the park in 73 degree weather! The moon came up as we grabbed our last cache, loaded the bikes back onto the Jeep and headed to the grocery store, BIG BEAR said he wanted to make a big pot of chili with cornbread, sounds good after a good bike ride, well that was the plan anyway… the iPhone started going off… THERE IS A NEW CACHE 9 MILES AWAY!!

Reconfigured the Nuvi and we are on our way to get GC3AJCY Another Easy Hanger by Cable Cache 1 – we scored the FTF!! Whoo hoo!! Ok, NOW its time to head to the grocery store and get the Chili fixins, yummmm can’t wait for a nice big bowl of Chili and some cornbread to end the day. By the way it was really good Chili and I made the cornbread which was really good too! 😉

New Year – New Caching Adventure!

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New Years day typically starts off with getting together with friends and family and watching football,  or just relaxing after a hectic Christmas season.  This year we fired up the Jeeps, called our Geocaching Friends and said the weather is perfect lets go off road and grab some 5 star terrain Geocaches!  5 Star Terrain ususally means you need a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle which is why we all have Jeeps!!  What a blast this was, 7 Jeeps, 12 Geocachers: BIG BEAR, Lookout4 and Anna, Teco_mac, Cantseem, Playcache 1&2, JeeperJones 1&2, Crowshoot & Floflower… oh and Tru2Cntry,  2 non Geocachers (hey they have a Jeep, they qualify!) Lets all meet at 12:00 at the OHV4 Staging Area.

Ok, we are all here… let the fun begin!

Playcache

Teco_mac & Cantseem in my Jeep

Don & Liz

Crowshoot & Floflower

Now that we all made it up the gnarley part of the road, lets get to the Geocaches!!

GC2T00Z dakotas wreck site by cheater rick.

GCQEDE Route 4 – Most Difficult by dzdiver

GC2QADG T2C Hits 3000 by BIG BEAR.

GC396G7 WELCOME TO 5000 TRU2CNTRY by BIG BEAR.

GC396G1 HANG GLIDING by BIG BEAR.

The off roading continued up to the Hang Gliding Cache where we all broke out the food and had a picnic, the view from here was incredible and we were blessed with a beautiful day, great weather and the chance to share it with great friends!

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The road back…

Larry’s trying to find another way out…

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