[Az-Geocaching] Our Adventurous Weekend!

[Scott Nicol]

Howdy fellow Geocachers!

Wanted to share our first big day of Geocaching with yall!

Intro:

I found out about geocaches just a couple of weeks ago on the Garmin.com web 
site. I had just recently purchased my 3rd GPS unit... a Garmin Etrex 
Legend. Nice little GPS that is great for hiking and stuff like Geocaching. 
Well, saw the link to geocaching.com and was pretty muched hook just by 
checking out the web site.

Well, me and my friend Brent went out after our first geocache a couple of 
weeks ago... it was the Junk Drawer Junkie cache out near Tortilla Flats 
area. We were a very close 2nd to the cache. As I walked up the ridge there 
was the Wyle E team searching for that cache. Met them. Very nice folks. 
Glad to have had the opportunity to meet them! What a cool 'yellow jeep' 
that is! :) Signed the log book and closed the book on our first geocache. 
Brent was a little worn out and kinda kicked back over the ridge and didnt 
get to see this first cache. But, he would this past weekend! During the 
course of that week I alone went for a few urban caches near my home in Mesa 
and got 2 one day and one the next. Makeout Mnt, Cable Girls Toy Box and 
Cheaprock.

On to our first big adventurous day of geocaching.......

This past Satuday me and Brent headed out early to go after the Mt Ord 
cache... ORDinary Cache. It has been posted since Dec. 24th and no one has 
gone after it. So, thought we would try and be the first and get our first 
1st log in. I had watched the cache since early that week when I first saw 
it on the web site and just hoped no one would get it before we had the 
chance to get out Saturday morning. We headed out  right about sunrise from 
Mesa and hit the road for Mt. Ord. I have never been on top of Mt Ord (Or 4 
peaks either) and always wanted to. We have driven by it many, many times 
and never went up there. Geocaching gave us an excuse to do it!

The road up was a nice drive. Rather steep, but, not too steep and not to 
bumpy either. A nice forest route all in all. We went from high desert to 
pine trees and about 30 minutes of driving or so. Up on top at the parking 
lot... we hiked out into the pine covered woods in search of our first first 
find. I got within about 30 feet according to my GPS and Brent started 
searching while I walked and tried to '0' in on the exact spot. Brent jumped 
up and yelled "LOOK, I FOUND IT!" He was pretty stoked to have found his 
first cache box! There it was. My GPS got me to within a couple feet of it 
when I walked over there! Well, opened the log and we were first!!!!!!!! 
YEHAW! No yellow jeep waiting in the parking lot when we arrived this time 
either! :) LOL Signed the log book and took the christmas bulldog doll and 
left the Sable the Tiger doll I got from the Cable Girls Toy Box cache. The 
tiger is now on top of Mt. Ord if anyone wants to give him a new home! The 
bulldog must have been pretty lonely up there all these weeks! We then had 
an awsome hike of about 1 miles to the summit of Mt. Ord where all the 
towers and ranger lookout are located. What a spectacular view! We could see 
the entire Tonto Basin and valley area below to the east and Roosevelt lake. 
We could see the small community of Sunflower below to the SW and beyond we 
saw the Fountain on at Fountain Hills. Very clear day. The entire metro PHX 
area was visible. Looked out across the Mazatzal Divide and eyed 4 peaks and 
thought about the cache up there- Lone Pine. How cool it would be to 
conquere the two high peaks along the Mazatzal range (actually, I beleive 
Mazatzal Peak is the highest?). After staring in amazement at the view we 
made the 1 mile or so hike back down the mountain to the parking lot and 
headed off the mountain. We hiked about 2.5 miles during the stay up there. 
We headed down around 11:00am or so.

Along the way back south on Hwy. 87, we seeked out the Dead Car Cache. Drove 
within 1 kilometer of it and hiked on in. Quick, Easy find and a fun little 
hike. Put on another 1.2 miles of hiking here. Left the christmas bulldog 
and took the little green matchbox truck. Now we headed to 4 peaks road and 
seeked out the first cache there, 4 peaks road #1. There is another one 
close to the highway, figured we get that on the way out. Never did though. 
We did get the 4 Pk #1 cache though. We took the little world globe ball and 
left the truck! I figured the world globe ball would be a 'symbol' of sorts 
to put in the Lone Pine cache.... at the top of the world! We were only a 
mere 20 minutes behind Offtrail, who had logged in at the 4 Peaks #1 just 
prior to our arrival there and was seeking out a new cache stash that day. 
Turned out he placed a cache (or the start of one or something) near were 
the Dead Car Cache is or somewhere in that general area. Bummer! Could have 
went after that one! Now around 1:30pm, we headed for Lone Pine. First time 
on that road. We were using my 2x4 1974 GMC pickup. It could pretty much 
handle 4 peaks road, no problem. One problem though.. this engine can run 
hot if it isnt moving! I dont have a radiator shroud and the fan is a tad 
bit too far from the radiator (hey, its not easy stickin' a Olds 455 in a 
pickup truck!). But, it never is a problem. usually runs very very cool. 
Well, about 5 miles or so from the top.. the roadway gets VERY VERY ROUGH. 
All rocks. Kinda like driving in a small riverbottom of rock and climbing on 
a very steep incline. The truck handled it no problem but due to the slow 
driving... the engine started heating up. No problem. We stopped and waited 
for it to cool (does so very quickly). But, another problem... a started 
wire cought fire!!!! Quickly took care of that and re-manufactured the wire 
and taped it up and the engine cooled and we were on our way to the top of 4 
peaks! The rest of the way was great. No temp problems and we reached the 
top at about 4:30pm. We hiked to the cache and quickly found it. Left the 
world globe ball and took the owl doll (I must really like animal cache 
finds!) We have always hike the Browns Peak trail... but daylight was going 
away quickly and we started down. Went down the backside as it is MUCH less 
bumpy and much quicker. Took only about 30 minutes to get off the mountain 
and down to Hwy 188 and Punkin Center area. We headed back around to Hwy. 87 
and headed home.

It was now dark. We hit up the ParkandCache Cache on the way home in north 
Mesa. I went to that one last week during the week and found way to many 
people to not be seen. Too close to the road as well. So, figured it would 
be best seeked out at night! We went in and quickly found it. Actually, 
walked past it the first time! Pretty good job of hiding a cache! Left the 
owl doll and took the pig doll! The pig is now in my posession and awaiting 
a new home!

What an adventurous day! 5 caches found! Our personal record! We now have 9 
caches found to start our new hobby! We are both hooked! I have a few other 
friends that enjoy the outdoors that want to come out with us... Team 
Ropingthewind.

Look forward to showing them this fun new sport. It is a great way to see 
Arizona and to go places I probably otherwise would never go.

Thanks for letting me share our first big day of geocaching!

Scott N.
Team Ropingthewind

Here is my home page on the web.. has nothing to do with geocaches.. but 
this is my other hobby (I also do it for a living!) and another great way to 
explore Arizona!) I might have to add a geocache page to it in the near 
future!

Scotts Adventure Flying Web Page
http://www.geocities.com/safwp


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