2013 Where Have You Gone?

So.... I am still alive, and I am still interested in continuing with this blog. But I hit a roadblock this year that made it hard to motivate myself to sit down and write anything. Work has been really rewarding but also much busier than normal. That's a good thing, in the past I have become incredibly bored with my career. Back in school I had the same issue, if I didn't feel challenged I could not bring myself to do the tasks I needed to complete. Even to this day trying to get me to do something more than a few days before it is due is like pulling teeth. I do not consider myself a procrastinator, I just like to be challenged.

Caution: Do not wake ZSandmann

Geocaching is still very fun and important to me as my number one hobby, but I have found fewer caches this year than any since I started. I have attended many great events and hung out with my caching friends though. And a good event is more rewarding than a hundred park and grab caches. I'll certainly up my numbers some when we go home for Christmas and with our impending move... More on that in a minute.

I made my 6,000th Geocache "Find" at the Texas Challenge

My biggest regret in terms of geocaching this year is that I didn't get to explore more places in Texas. It's a massive state and our three years here just have not been nearly enough to see all that there is to see. We are going to try and make a trip to El Paso over Thanksgiving, and if we get our passports in time we might even jump over to Mexico just to say we did. The passports are for a cruise we have planned in February for our ten year wedding anniversary. Ten years!  That's just awesome to me.

Pandora: No context to this post, but... this picture, ha!

Ok, so the move huh? I've been transferred to Covington, Louisiana effective January 1. We are excited and also a bit overwhelmed by the process. But in the end it will be great to be back closer to home. Hopefully there will be new adventures to blog about once we are there. Which leads me to my last point, I think I will try and open up this blog to more than geocaching. That gives me more ground to cover and I'll likely get more stories to tell. One such story is the antique dresser set we recently got from geocaching friends of ours. We've been stripping it and sanding and all the fun things to try and get them in shape for a place in our guest bedroom. When that project is completed I'll post it here.

GC62: Tombstone - The oldest active geocache in Texas. I found it earlier this year.

Until then, Cache On!

 

A Fairy hole or a geocache? You decide.

Labor Day Weekend: Davis Mountains State Park & McDonald Observatory

Sorry to delay posting the rest of our Labor Day trip. Sometimes RL "real life" gets in the way.

After a day of swimming at awesome Balmorhea State Park we had to cover some ground to get to The Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park where we had a reservation for the night. Now the funny thing is I never intended to go to the Davis Mountains on this trip when I booked a room I thought the Lodge was in Balmorhea, oops... But happy accidents and all that, and we found ourselves there in the late evening. It was more than we had expected having stayed in many state park lodges in many states, the Indian Lodge is a beautiful adobe conglomeration of loosely connected rooms, breezeways, and different levels with great views of the valley. It was one of many structures built by the CCC in the park and we would highly recommend it. We ate dinner at the on-site restaurant which serves diner style Tex-Mex, it is reasonably priced and while it isn't the best place I have ever eaten it was certainly palatable after the long hours of swimming.

Courtyard at the Indian Lodge

Later after checking in and having dinner we decided to drive the Skyline road to grab a couple geocaches, but more so to see the fire damage and great a better look at our surrounding in general. The day was warm but a stiff breeze made it pleasant enough to drive with the windows down. From the crest of the road the 360 degree views are quite amazing. What shocked me most was that although the fires were widespread and devastating here there is new green growth to be seen everywhere. There hasn't been much more rain since the fires, but burned-out yucca and mesquite have new green sprouts and the ground is covered in little flowers. Even the pinons have new green needles it seems! The worst we saw of the fires was the destruction of the historic picnic area at the overlook. It has lost its roof and been cordoned off. Also, there are many antenna array up top that I assume are weather stations and temporary cellphone towers. Cell reception is poor at best and absent except on the highest points.

Wild Javelina in Davis Mountains State Park

As we walked a nature trail to find the Davis Mountains State Park Geocache we spooked a young whitetail deer and watched her easily pick her way through the desert foliage and down into the valley. She then leapt over a burned barbwire fence and made her way up the hill on the other side of the valley. This was the first but not the last major wildlife we would see in the park. Thankfully this must mean there is still enough food and habitat for them even with the fires destroying so much.

Historic Picnic Area on Skyline Drive

Greenery and life returns to the Davis Mountains

Dusk was falling, quick as ever when you are in mountainous terrain, we could see the McDonald Observatory in the distance from Skyline drive and decided on the fly to go check it out. Neither of us had ever been to a star party before, all I knew is I shouldn't drink any Kool-Aid offered by the host. It seemed to take a long time to get to there even though it was just over six miles as the crow flies because the road does anything but go straight between the park and the observatory. First we headed west, the north, and lastly we almost passed the observatory before turning off the highway and looping back around to the visitor center. We bought our tickets for the star party and sat outside watching the hummingbirds fly around in the waning light. As it turned out the clouds did not blow off as much as we would have hoped so they gave a "virtual star party" presentation in the theater and then let us take turns looking through the many telescopes behind the visitor center looking at fleeting star clusters and galaxies, nebulae, etc. peeking out of the clouds. The highlights of the evening were seeing the International Space Station pass over head and seeing several shooting stars. The moon was also visible as a waning crescent. My take home though was that I really want a green laser pointer, those things have amazing range!

Sunset at the McDonald Observatory

Product Review: Vibram FiveFingers Komodo Sport LS

I have heard a lot about Vibram FiveFingers over the last few years. At first I only knew one person that had them, but now I know several and see them around quite often especially in the geocaching community which tends to have a larger proportion of outdoor types than the general populous. For mixed outdoor use the KSOs have always been the tried and true model, but there are a new line of FiveFingers that claim to offer the unique ground feel of a individually pocketed toe shoe while providing even more traction and control. Enter the Komodo Sport LS.
I walked into the only store in Midland that sells FiveFingers, Run this Way, with only a vague idea of what I wanted. I had never tried on these shoes before, so I had to be sized as they run according to European sizing. According to the guide my 11.5 US sized feet fit a 43 EUR. I tried on the KSOs first and while I liked the general fit they only had bright red ones left as they are being discontinued. I wanted something a bit more muted; they tend to draw enough attention without the addition of bright colors! Next, I tried on the Trek boots. Instead of the lightweight fabrics most FiveFingers are contructed from, these are made of a thin leather material. The soles are a bit thicker which allows for more heavy terrain handling, but the downside is that the toes are  much stiffer. I could not get my stubborn little toe into its compartment despite many tries.

Lastly, I found the Komodo Sport LS in Castle Rock coloring. I like the light weight of the shoe and the raised tread on the sole. The quick lacing system secures the shoe against grit and stone while the velcro fastener keeps the laces from flopping around and collecting debris. Once you guide your big toe into the first spot all the others find their way with little manipulation. But the true test came later on in the Davis Mountains when I was able to get on trail in these unique shoes. The retail price for the Vibram FiveFingers Komodo LS is $110.

I had worn my Komodos around town a bit to get the feel of them. I am very flat footed so I was worried my feet would really ache after a little while with the thin and mostly unpadded sole. However I found them comfortable for the most part. One thing I noticed was pressure in the middle of my foot after standing still for prolonged periods of time on level terrain. The Davis Mountains were a different story though. Once I left the parking area behind the Indian Lodge and started up the trailhead everything I thought about these shoes changed. I could feel every rock and pebble beneath my feet like being barefooted but there was no discomfort. I walked over a few boulders and felt the soles of the Komodos grip the rock. I even climbed a live oak looking for a geocache.
 

The shoes respond to what you are standing on while allowing you the foot feel to know its there. The last thing I wanted to see was how these shoes handled a little bouldering. There was a cache on top the bluffs overlooking the Lodge that had gone unfound for months. With few clues to go on me and another cacher I met on the trail started searching. I searched high while he went low, and after fifteen minutes or so the cache was found on a rocky outcropping part way down a close to vertical cliff face. Stepping from one rock ledge to another I could feel the rock with my tiptoes and actually curl my toes around the ledge. This is something that is impossible with any other shoe I've ever worn. At the end of the day despite several miles of hiking with no socks and thin tight fitting shoes I had no blisters at all.

I love these shoes, I want more already, maybe giving the Treks another shot as I would love a thick soled version for true off trail hiking. The only test I haven't done is to see what happens when a mesquite thorn finds its way into my sole. I'm not eager to see or feel the result. Also, I don't recommend  these shoes for casual wear in town, the sheer flatness does start to ache your feet after standing around for extended periods.

The Texas State Parks Geocache Challenge

This past weekend I found myself in Big Spring, Texas for a Geocaching event. A while back I attended an event in Austin where the Texas State Park Service had a booth talking about this great geocaching passport program they would be starting up. I knew it was supposed to begin in June but not much else. As I began to plot the caches I wanted to find in Big Spring I ran across this Big Spring State Park cache. The park is small, and nestled in center of downtown Big Spring. Arriving at the front gate you find a small kiosk that mentions that there is no longer any overnight camping allowed in the park. It is strictly a day-use park! I found no place to pay an entry fee so I began a slow winding drive up to the top of the mesa on which the park is located.


To access the geocache you park in the small lot for the Nature Trail and bird observation area on your right as you drive into the park. From here it is about three tenths of a mile to the cache with a gradual elevation gain and occasional steps set into the trail. Although it was already about 90F at 10AM I found the walk very nice and easy on the legs and knees. The cache itself is an ammo can with various swag, a log book, some nice color illustrated fact cards about the state parks, and lastly a tethered orienteering punch. To complete the "Big Sky" State Park Challenge you need to find the appropriate geocaches in ten of the twenty parks in this region that includes North and West Texas. There are similar challenges for other regions in the state. There are handy passports to print out on the Texas State Parks website. Just find the cache, answer a question based on the information on the collectible cards in the cache and punch your passport with the orienteering stamp. It's that easy!

A few joggers passed me as I was checking out the cache, but they paid me no real attention. I like the location chosen for this cache as it is not a park and grab and requires a little effort to attain but I wish the container were a little better hidden. I fear it may disappear even though it is clearly marked because it is visible from the trail. Now that I have found my first GeoChallenge cache I am eager to visit more Texas State Parks. When you complete your passport you mail it to the park service for a certificate and a chance at various prizes.

Lastly I hiked over to the observation rim on the north edge of the park and took in a vista of Big Spring and the wind farms out in the distance. It is far from the best vista I have ever seen, but it is amazing how far you can see over the surrounding flat flat terrain. I completed my visit by doing a few of the new Geocaching Challenges. These involve no physical containers to find but rely on you going outdoors and recording yourself doing various activities. There is even a free app for iPhones to keep up with your challenges.

Here my task was to take a photo of local landmarks with my finger on top of them. This was ackward to do alone but I took a photo of a large wind farm on another mesa to the east.


And here I was tasked with spelling out my Geocaching handle "ZSandmann" with native materials. I chose the abundant mesquite beans to leave my mark.

My wife and I are planning a trip to Balmorhea State Park for Labor Day. So look for that post soon!