A forced slowdown in my geocaching

Nano size

Nice bison near the sidewalk

Film canister size easy-to-get

During our recent Fall Family Weekend at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. I got in some fun geocaching. On Saturday lots of family came to join our daughter Rubi and see her campus as well as go to the football game. During the game I started experiencing pain in my right rib cage area and shortness of breath due to the pain. After the game Rubi pushed for me to go to the emergency room. Off we went. The attention was swift and efficient. To cut a long story short my problem was multiple bilateral pulmonary emboli, blood clots in my lungs. They started me on blood thinner medication immediately and gave me pain medicine. I was transferred to Virginia Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg where I spent the next three days. With my current medications I have to avoid falling, bruising, essentially anything that could result in external or internal bleeding. Since getting home from South America three weeks ago I've enjoyed getting out on the trails with my mountain bike in order to find geocaches. I've had a blast. Those are my favorite kinds of caches. Now it looks like I'll have to slow down. For the first week I'm to rest and thereafter continue a "normal" life as long as I do nothing that could result in cuts or internal bleeding. For now at least there'll be no more woods geocaching alone. I always come back with brier cuts on my legs and scratches on my arms. That won't do. Biking is out of the question as the risk of falling is there. So, thank the Lord for the park n grabs, the LPCs (Light Pole Caches) that populate the urban world. I'll have to focus there for a while. Thanks to viZZZ.com, laura*b and WordShore for the pictures.

Candler's Mountain Virginia Caching Run!

This past weekend was Family Weekend at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. We've been overseas most of the times this special weekend came up and have missed it. Our daughter was thrilled that we were able to come be a part of it with her. We drove the three-hours from High Point, NC and met her at the campus Starbucks! We went with her to several activities on campus and then she and her mother went shopping. They knew that I need a chance to get out and geocache. I was ready, having plotted out my path to get a handful of caches on Candler's Mountain. I drove up to the Snowflex Ski Slope where I parked the car and began my search for geocaches. The leaves were gorgeous on a warm, sunny fall afternoon. At times a jogger would come along so I was pretty much on my own. I hiked from cache to cache, finding about half the ones on my list and DNFing the others. The caches were a variety from large to micro. The hike around the mountain was the real prize in the day's activities. At one point I found myself hiking directly up one of the mountains. I was winded but considered it part of having gotten out of shape. One of my first caches was Monotrail (GC2D2PE). I looked and looked and then there it was, staring me right in the face when I stood up. My favorite cache of the afternoon was GW & RW's cache (GC39ZKC). It took me right up past the monogram on Candler's Mountain. Everyone all over the valley sees the big "LU" on the side of the mountain and from that vantage point you get a great view to the west of Peaks of Otter and the mountain ridge line where the the Blue Ridge Parkway runs. From the hill with the monogram I headed east down into the valley picking up a trail that was called "Psycho". I hiked up it and understand the name. I had to stop frequently to get my breath. I was worn out by the time I finished it. What a great day!

The Liberty University Monogram on Candler's Mtn

The view from the monogram

The Lodge at Snow Flex

Spoiler photo of one of the caches on the trail

Liberty University n the fall

The next day was filled with family and football. Two of our daughters were here, two grandchildren and we were having a good time until I started aching in my side and couldn't breathe. I made it through the game before going to the hotel to rest. Thanks to my youngest daughter, who is a senior at Liberty University, for insisting that we go to the emergency room. We did and within a few hours they determined that I had multiple pulmonary embolisms in both lungs. I spent the next three days hospitalized as the doctors began to thin my blood and medicate me for the pain. I'm so thankful for the good health care and for the many prayers from all around the world. I hope to be back out caching in the near future although I'll need to limit my caching to more urban and/or cache with a group of people if I'm going out into the woods like I always like to do.

International Earthcache Day Celebration on Deep River, central North Carolina

 The second weekend back in the USA (14 October) proved to be as much of a geocaching adventure as the first (last week's report on caching and camping in the Uwharrie National Forest). Soon after arriving in North Carolina I received Groundspeak's weekly notification and saw a geocaching event only 16 miles from home. I looked it up and saw that the theme was one that interests me - Earthcaching -- and that the host was someone I'd met in December hosting a Christmas event near my home. I had to participate. 

markcase teaching a geology class

sumajhuarmi preparing an avatar

Deep River

sumajman, MasterYoda1 and sumajhuarmi on Deep River

On Sunday morning we had our picnic cooler packed, our change of clothes neatly hidden away in the car and our Bibles with us as we headed out to church. We attended the Baptist hispanic church in Greensboro, NC. It is called La Iglesia Internacional and it is where two of our three daughters attend along with their families. We had a great time seeing old friends we've not seen for a while and making some new friends. After church service there is the usual conversation outside the building. This time we had another mission. We had to get in the car and hit the road for Randleman, NC and more specifically, for the Deep River Park where the event was to be sponsored. On the way we picked up a few caches. Upon arrival at Earthcache Day! (GC3XJBH) we did all the preliminary things such as signing the log, registering for prizes to be given away in the drawings, and making our little avatars to be placed at what we each believed to be ground zero for the event. We then broke out the food and began to share with the rest of the geocaching community. I learned that we were one of less than 20 such events worldwide on this day. That made us rather special I thought. Our host markcase challenged us with some great lessons on local Piedmont geology. He explained how the Deep River came to be 10,000 years ago and how the worm holes formed in one of the large rock formations in the river nearby. It was very interesting. My grandson, MasterYoda!, was really tuned in to all that he said. Then we played our games. None of our ground zero avatars was close enough to win. When it came time for the prize drawings both MasterYoda 1 and sumajhuarmi (my loving wife) won prizes. They were content. One of the blessings of the day was getting to meet up with some old friends. In this case we introduced them to geocaching some years back. See the blog entry for 9 August 2009 related to that funny experience. We also made some new friends who came from the surrounding area. We had a blast! I really appreciated several things about this event: 1) The host was sensitive to the fact that a number of the likely participants would want to go to worship service in the morning so he hosted the event in the early afternoon. 2) The time he took to prepare to teach the geology lessons. 3) The new earthcache that we all got to partinicpate in giving birth. That's right. As we walked along Deep River markcase pointed out some interesting geological facts. We decided which of them we would turn into a new earthcache. Keep an eye out for the new earthcache in Randleman, NC. When the event ended we headed out to pick up a few more caches around the area. We must admit that we had several DNFs. It seemed that two well-known geocachers in the area had hidden some difficult caches with names like Tadabailey's Revenge (GC14AWB) and so forth.Clearly Tadabailey was striking back at another cacher for a particularly difficult cache. We rounded out the situation by DNFing both caches. Maybe someday we'll find them. It was a great way to spend the day! I hope your Sunday afternoon was exciting as mine was!

Camping, hiking, geocaching in the Uwharrie National Forest in central North Carolina

Caching the coast of Badin Lake!!!

Holt's Hideaway

King's Mountain Point

MasterYoda1

MasterYoda1's campfire

After about 24 years overseas (not counting three years of military time in Germany) sumajhuarmi and I have finally come home. Sure, we've visited over the years but this time we've made the move with plans to settle down in High Point, NC. We arrived nine days ago. As promised I packed up the borrowed mini-van and headed off on a camping/geocaching adventure with my 11 year-old grandson. The trip down to the Uwharrie National Forest took about an hour. Along the way we picked up a handful of caches . We had a beautiful day, almost like late summer. We parked the van at a road intersection in order to unloaded the mountain bikes. Soon we were on our way. We cached all along Badin Lake, finding a combination of micro, small, regular and an earthcache. After living in a tropical environment for 1.5 years it was refreshing to ride and hike through the pine and oak forests along the lake. The leaves were just starting to change colors. My favorites for the day were Holt's Hideaway (GC1N52N). We parked next to the picnic area to have our lunch. We then walked into the woods behind some campsites to find the cache. Just before reaching the GZ we walked up on some young girls who thought that this part of the woods was a safe enough place to change their clothes. I'm not sure who was more surprised. We averted our eyes as they ran away hollering and laughing. We got the cache and cleared out. We then worked our way down to King's Mountain Point (GC1N69C) The view of Badin Lake was great. Not far from this cache was an earthcache worth visiting. It is called Don't Fall in the Lake (GC3NYE0). You'll get a chance to see how the coastline is eroding away and to calculate how much longer until the trail has to be moved.  Once we completed our geocaches for the day we began looking for a place to camp. The park has reserve campsites. It also allows for primitive or dispersed camping throughout most of the park. The caches we hoped to attack the next day were in a section of the park which allowed All Terrain Vehicles. We searched and finally found a place where we could pull off the road to set up a nice camp. We got our tent into place and built our campfire before sunset. We had a great early evening with a meal and the traditional roasted marshmellows over the fire. It was great! What 11 year-old says I am tired and ready for bed before 8 p.m. on a Saturday night. MasterYoda1 hit the sack. This gave me a time to sit and relax by the fire and contemplate all the good of the day. I love being home! About 8:30 pm. I turned in. An hour later the first drops of rain began. These continued to increase accompanied by lightning and thunder which eventually drove us into the mini-van. After an hour the rain stopped and the temperature dropped 35 degrees. Since sleeping in the van wasn't working and since the tent was pretty wet now, I packed it all up and we headed back towards home. We didn't want to wake everyone up early in the morning so we found a Waffle House in Thomasville where we had a nice breakfast. The nightlife at Waffle House in Thomasville proved pretty interesting. It included some pretty crazy people who ended up in police custody. The food was ok for 4 a.m. Although our weekend was cut short we had a great time caching the Uwharrie.

A little rant: Replacing someone else's geocache - is it right?

My grandson hid a micro-size cache several years ago. I have it on my watch list. Recently finders are surprised when they find two caches at the same location. What is going on? Someone who didn't want a DNF simply dropped a replacement cache instead of admitting that they couldn't find the cache. Having someone replace your cache can be either a blessing or a curse. In this case it was the latter. Had the cacher written to request permission to replace the cache and had he/she received permission from my grandson it would have been different. It would have been a help.But in this case the drive for the smiley was more important. Now the cache the cacher couldn't find is being found along with the intrusive cache left by a numbers-hungry cacher. I strongly feel that cachers should get permission from the cache owner before doing anything beyond finding and logging their find or DNF. Thanks to dream4akeem for the picture.

The Oxbow - Yarinacocha, Central Peruvian Jungle

Along the shore of the Oxbow

Shipibo dance during worship at an evangelical church

Majas - in the little zoo along the Oxbow

Fun at the zoo

Airport promotion of shamanism

One of our favorite things to do when we visit Yarinacocha in the central jungle of Peru is take a boat out on the Oxbow. Yarinacocha was formed as the Ucayali River shifted its path as it winds its way north towards the Amazon River. As we fly over the jungle in a small Cessna we have the opportunity to see numerous oxbow formations. It's not all that uncommon. The shores of Yarinacocha is populated by the Shipibo people. Their jungle fishing and yucca cultivating traditions have given way today to the production of artisan work which the women sell on the streets of Pucallpa and Yarinacocha daily. Some have developed tourism centering around their shamans and the use of plants grown in the jungle that produce hallucinations. Tourist come from many places to "find themselves". They pay a pretty penny to spend a couple of weeks "drinking the kool-aid" (so to speak), hallucinating, being incredibly sick to their stomachs and then having a shaman interpret their hallucinations so that they can determine where the spirits are guiding them in life. In our quest to help the people develop tourism we've steered clear of this particular activity and have focused more on geocaching associated with eco-tourism. Thankfully there is a large population of Shipibo who call the shamanism tourism industry a deception; completely rejecting it. They tell me that in their past only the shamans took the these drugs and that it was never considered a source of economic income until it recently became popular with gullible tourist. Sad! If you come to Yarinacocha be sure to rent a boat in the small port and take a trip up the banks of the Oxbow Lake. You'll see lots of fauna and some wildlife (birds, sloths, fresh water dolphins, etc.) along the way. One of our favorite stops is at the privately-owned zoo that is only accessible by boat. It's a small time operation but worth the time. The boat ride and the zoo trip are inexpensive. If you rent the boat you can direct the operator to take you to visit The Oxbow (GC3A7G1). The cache is just a short walk from the bank of the lake in small little public park-like area. Be sure to check out the other caches in Yarinacocha and Pucallpa while there. I hope you enjoy your visit to Yarincocha.

Leishmaniasis - Poison Ivy isn't the worst of it for this geocacher!

The pimple that wouldn't go away

Friendly sand fly

Thankful for these folks

Nurse Rosita giving me the daily injection...don't make me look

Where I spend part of my mornings

Probably the worst thing geocaching got me into was a patch of poison ivy. I remember when I went after a cache in Greensboro, NC called I Am Mrs Ego (GC1JQAG) during the summer. My wife said, "don't go in there" but I didn't listen. Well, I found something worse! Recently I published a blog about the Utuquinia River in Peru. I had a great time surveying for possible locations for a geocache series that might be combined with eco-tourism. Along with my partners on this trip I explored rivers, hiked jungle trails, camped and generally had a great time. We covered up in bug repellent but the bugs found their way through it all. One particular silent and painless biting bug that got to me during the course of this trip is known locally as the Mantablanca (the white blanket). It's official name is Lutzomyia. In plain English it is a sand fly, frequenting sandbanks along the rivers and streams in the jungle and in the mountains. The trip took place in the first week of May 2012. In early July I started noticing what looked like a pimple above my right eye near the hairline. It simply wouldn't go away. I went to see a doctor and was referred to a dermatologist. After several weeks of antibiotic treatment the doctor did a biopsy. Within the week the results indicated that I have Leishmaniasis, also locally known as Uta. Apparently an infected female sand fly enjoyed a blood meal and deposited the protozoa in the bite area. After several months the protozoa formed the leishmaniasis parasite under the skin and began to form a boil. I was fortunate to have access to good medical care in the capital city and received a quick diagnosis. I'm away from my geocaching activities in the jungle to get this treated. Cutaneous leishmaniasis, if untreated, will usually lead to disfiguring ulcers in the location of the bite. It can also progress to a more serious type that attacks the internal organs. My dermatologist introduced me to the head of the leishmaniasis department at the Institute for Tropical Medicine at the Cayetano Heredia Hospital in Lima. They began the treatments. They consist of a daily injection of sodium estriboglucante directly into a vein in my arm or hand. The side effects make you feel worse than the disease. Nonetheless I stayed in the capital city to take the three weeks of treatment. I was their "gringo" case study and they took pride in showing me off to the doctors that came through from numerous countries to study tropical diseases. I'm an anomaly too. They've never seen leishmaniasis on the scalp. I currently have three lesions healing up slowly and nicely thanks to the good doctors at the hospital. Thanks to the Peruvian government there are no charges for the treatment. Yes, it's all free. Will I go back out to the jungle. You bet! There's more work to do, caches to hide and tourism to organize before I retire! If coming to the jungles of South America, particularly in Peru and Brazil be sure to wear long sleeves in the jungle and spray all your exposed skin with a deet-based insect repellent for protection. I learned that there is a strain of leischmaniasis that is readily available in the mountains too. If you are anywhere around sand take these precautions. I've met lots of folks who come from all over the mountains and jungle of Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador for treatment here. Many are poor and live far out into the jungle where medical facilities aren't readily available. They contract the disease and don't seek treatment until their skin ulcers are quite large. Not a pretty sight. Thank you for praying for me. I have to have regular check ups over the next year to make sure that the parasites are gone and don't start their mischief again. Thanks to Gustavo for the sand fly photo.