I am bloggin this a day late because I didn’t have a moments rest the entire day.  For some strange reason I woke up without the aid of an alarm clock at 4am.  Maybe I was excited like a little kid on Christmas morning, but I willingly got out of bed and thought I would be able to use this time to ensure I had everything I could need for the hike.  I packed my bag that I had packed the night before two more times just to be sure and made some sandwichs.  Packed the car and made it there with coffee in hand with enough time to spare.

Once in the area I began to think that I was completely lost and almost turned stopped to double check the GPS, since I had used latitude and longitude to plot my trip which based on previous experience can take me a bit out of my way.  Then I saw a red prius in front of me and remembered that another GBA member Calipidder has a red prius and sped up to see if it was possibly her.  As I got closer I realized it would be impossible to see inside the car, but I got lucky, a california plate with a Michigan frame.  It was her.

I got to the location and started towards everyone then was hit with half a dozen names in ten seconds.  I was saying to myself “I am not going to be able to remember all of these names”.  The hike was about to start and everyone starting asking each other who brought GPS’s.  I thought this was a group of GPS enthuisists?  OK, maybe we are just doing the hike then and no caching?  We started off and it seemed like a long hike before our first cache.  One person pulled out an ammo can out and proceded to hide it.  So far this was an easy hike.  Nothing like the Army, I could do this all day!

The day pressed on and everyone was enjoying themselves.  I at one point got a little carried away and climbed to the top of a small peak thinking it was easier to get a cache, only to find the cache was 10 feet to the west and 100 feet less in altitude…, they signed my name for me.  Then shortly later everyone was having some discussion over where to go and stopped a couple of middle-aged ladies to ask them for directions.  It wasn’t until they were almost ready to leave that I realized, a group of 8 hardcore GPS users, which are representing the group “Geocachers of the Bay Area” one of the largest regional specific GPS groups in the world, were lost and asking for directions.

After we found our way again, we finished up some parted ways and went home, the rest went to go have “Gay 90’s pizza”.  I kid you not.  www.gayninetiespizza.com.  Shared some stories and brought our day to a close.  Hiked a total of 6.98 miles (11.23 km) and gained 1,305 feet (397 meters) in elevation change at the East Bay Regional Park Distribution in Sunol, CA.

After finally getting home, I laid down and instantly felt my mussles let out a feeling of relief.  I was sore and tired and didn’t even know it until that point.  The instant relief from laying down sent a slight burning feeling throughout my entire body and I had forgotten how it felt.  I loved it!  It has been too long since I have done a workout like that.  It didn’t last long though…

As soon as I was getting comfortable and unplugging the laptop so I could lay down, my wife called.  She was grocery shopping with her mother and the car wouldn’t start.  Claiming it was the battery I grabbed some jumper cables from my roommate and drove to Safeway.  I tried to start the car and it was the wierdest things I have ever seen.

The battery wasn’t dead, headlights were bright like normal, everything worked, but when I engaged the starter I peared out the door and looked for some bright lights in the sky as it gave me the impression that a UFO was flying overhead and I was about to be abducted.  I never seen anything like it, the started clicked like a dead battery but the guages flashed rappidly primarily the needles on the speedometer and tachometer.  Not knowing what else to do, I attempted to use the jumper cables, nothing changed though and I quickly gave up for fear of some possible electric issue in my Mother-in-law’s car damaging my own car.

My Mother-in-law has a brand new Toyota Camry that she bought only 6 months or so ago.  The car is obviously still under warrenty but being 7pm on a Sunday night there wasn’t much we could do to enact on that warrenty.  I tried calling some roadside assistance to see if they could help, but the 800 number I got from my insurance company is no longer active… ??? (USAA, now I have to see if they went bankrupt and if I have insurance).  Every direction I turned either said sorry or pay money.  We gave up and I instantly became their chauffer for the night.  No problem, I can drive them home…, um NO!

I had to drive them to Kinko’s so that they can wait for a fax, then make copies of some documents online, then mail them all to Korea.  They are doing this on a Sunday night, because its Monday morning in Korea and they are on the phone with them trying to get everything arranged.  It’s ok they keep telling me, Kinko’s is 24 hours…, I don’t think they understand what I meant by hiking!

Once they were done, it was nearly 10 and I was beat!  Mom decided to thank me by taking me to Nation’s for hamburgers.  I wasn’t hungry but my wife gave me a dirty look telling me to accept, she was hungry and otherwise wouldn’t of gone to Nation’s.  (I am also know understanding they are considereing buying one of these stores and want my opinon on how they are.  Great food, but open to 3am will draw a croud they don’t want to deal with).

Around 11:30, I am finally getting home and able to rest.  This little nitch inside me is telling me that I must check twitter, but 5 minutes and I am happy enough to call it a day and pass out.  4am until 12pm, I haven’t had a day that long in a while.  It’s not even noon yet today and my eyes are burning already, the worse part…, my latest class doesn’t get over until 10pm!

Here are the pictures I took in Sunol yesterday.  While mine are geo-tagged (you can look at the map and see where they were taken) they were also taken with a cheap camera compared to the other cameras that were out there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adium/sets/72157609252051941/

Friends pics, if you can’t make it out I am the one wearing a red t-shirt.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffreypierce/Sunol2008_11_16#
http://flickr.com/photos/53807584@N00/sets/72157609255635069/
http://calipidder.com/zenphoto/bayarea/Sunol08/

Thanks to everyone for the amazing hike.  I hope to do it again soon!

Today I went to an annual event in San Jose called “Little Shop of Horrors”  (GC1FPJ4).  I met Marky & Joani (Charter members to Geocaching.com), digitalfish (Creators of geofish.net one of the most sophisticated tracking systems for geocaching, as well as TheGBA.net and some other sites), Team Alamo (Number 1 cacher in the world), DavidT21 & Fisherwoman (Number 5 cacher in the world).  I also met one of the California reviewer’s and some other people that make every other cache event I have been too seem petty.  The coolest part about all of this though, they all knew me.

Team Alamo grabbed my GPS from me and told me to throw it away and get a new one, after having issues trying to find a recent hide of mine that was over 50 feet off.  Marky slowly offered his hand asking me if I was going to delete his logs if he didn’t shake my hand.  (inside joke).

I knew most of these names from New York but I never thought I would meet them and then never thought that they would know me personally like this.

The whole event gave me a different perspective on California.  I am not sure if it was the group of mid-aged adults shooting a potato gun 500′ down a heavily residential street in broad daylight, (landing feet from my car) or if it was the intensive workshop that had me re-thinking some of my own caches and feel that I need to go through and drop everything down a star.  They gave evil a new meaning today.

It was a very fun, very friendly day.  Gave me a better look on life here in California.  Now if I could find a way to get my wife to feel the same way.

I got this e-mail today, and I can’t believe that they have delay issues again with this magazine.  It has to be the worse magazine ever!  If it wasn’t the only magazine on this sport I would definitely cancel and try a different one.  However they have basically monopolized the market on this one.

Greetings fellow cachers & GeoMag subscribers!

This email is to advise you of a few changes we are undergoing and to keep you Up To Speed on the current status of the publication.

We have had to relocate our offices on short notice including rerouting phone service, utilities, mail, internet, etc.  During this transition, we have also sadly lost a key member of our staff, our much valued editor, Elisika Arango.*

* You can read her farewell blog posting at http://www.geocachermagazine.com/blog

As a result, the content for the July / August issue did not go to print on time and is now out of date.

We are working with some new staff members and plan to get the next issue to print in the very near future.

Every subscriber will receive their full subscription, but not quite as timely as we had originally planned.

Please continue to send us your wonderful stories, ideas and suggestions and more of those great photos of you, your friends and your family out caching!

Send to: http://www.geocachermagazine.com/about_you.php

Thank you very much for your continued patience and support of Geocacher Magazine. Keep an eye out for an email notification from me with the production date of the next issue.

Cache On!

Michael Jacobus - Publisher

Geocacher Magazine

550 West Plumb Ln., Suite 444

Reno, NV 89509  U.S.A.

http://www.geocachermagazine.com

A lot of people have asked me lately how I am able to know about new cache’s so quickly.  I don’t live in front of the computer watching my e-mail.  Instead I have it setup so that the notifications go directly to my cell phone.  Since no matter where I go I always have my cell phone I always get new notifications instantly.  I rarely get text messages, and don’t get any e-mail sent to my phone with the exception of these notifications so if my phone chimes 99.9% chance its a new geocache being published.

The other nice thing about this method is when using your regular e-mail client it either only checks for new mail when you refresh the page manually, or if you are using a software program like MS Outlook it only checks every 5-30 minutes depending on what you have it set for.  Either way, for most people it doesn’t alert you and you have to be sitting in front of the computer or check it regularly in order to receive the notification.  With a cell phone, its almost instant.  If I have new mail on my phone, it is chiming instantly.  I immediately transfer the coordinates to my GPS, print the cache page with clue decrypted, grab the pre-packed bag by the door, and off I go.

For you to setup these notifications here is what you do.  (Premiere members only)

If you don’t have a plan or option with your cell carrier to receive text messages you may receive an additional charge for each and every text you receive.  It is always best to check with your cell company first if you are the slightest bit unsure before attempting this process.

Obviously I only have service with one of these companies so its possible I could be wrong with one or more of the other ones.  If I am wrong let me know so I can update this list for everyone else.  (Check with your phone company first they are better technicians than me, and getting paid to help you).

After spending the day up in the Clay/Baldwinsville area I managed to grab my 99th cache. But hungry and wanting to meet up with my sister later at the mall to see how she was after our walk through Green lakes yesterday I called it quits for now and headed out.

On the way home from the mall I was wandering around Syracuse trying to find a car wash and basically got myself lost. I came across this beautiful park with a big fountain in it. I had to stop and pull out my GPS. I knew that with a park like this there had to be a geocache in it. If there wasn’t that would be fine too cause there was about to be.

I grabbed my bag and started throwing my camera, compass, and a few other things that I always have with me in my pockets. The GPS was all loaded and when I did a search for the nearest geocache it read 0.04mi.

“I KNEW IT!” I exlaimed.