Camping with the Dad

Dad invited me to help out with a Fall Camporee in Farmington last weekend, it was supposed to be a little cold.. it was super cold and it rained all night! It was actually very awesome. There is nothing like rain on a tent.  I took the boys and we had a blast. I got to help with geocaching and learn more about being a man from my Dad. He is a responsible and hard working guy. Every body's go to guy. Need to be more like him. Check out all the pics.

String Cheese as a fashion statement!

Makin' camp

"Glorious" or we weren't that lost.

So, let me first say; We were not lost, more temporary misplaced.  We went looking for a newly placed cache in the northern part of the Cibola National Forest. It was in one of the most beautiful places I've been here, always surprised by the "new" places we find, and the interesting spots I have never been to after living here all my life. It is the perfect time of year, fall, my favorite. Everything is changing and the light of the afternoon sun lights it all up:

Got to really break the Jeep in:

But totally worth it:

Finding the cache(kinda long and I'm no camera man)

So after finding it, we headed out, but not the way we came in, and I had a bad feeling about it, but we did. We hit the edge of the National Forest and could proceed no further:

(we're the blue dot)

So it was dark by the time we doubled back and started to head out. We ended up missing our original road in the dark, and took a very long bumpy road out. We ended up going way too far South East,

 and got home about midnight. Not without scaring the kids a little and having to stop and make a good action plan for getting out. Good thing our GPS had full charge, and TOPO maps with roads, so we plotted a course that would lead our to the main road. This helped calm the kids calm, letting them watch as we got closer t the waypoints. 

  

Lessons I knew but forgot:

1) Always turn on Trails at the beginning of the trip, for obvious reasons: Good to look at your whole trip afterwards, and of course to get back out., I had mine off for purely aesthetic reasons, and that was stupid, epically when you can hide them even when on.

2) Always have a spare set of batteries. Mine were fully charged, but still.

3) Don't rely solely on your GPS, take a map.

Lessons I became more aware of:

1) Don't panic, your only as lost as you think you are

2) Be prepared to stay put if you have to. Daylight is very refreshing.

3) Take lots of water, always.

This was one of the funnest adventures I've been on in a while, here are all the pics. Want to go back to and remark the road...

Caching

So while in Utah last week and a little this weekend  in Ramah,we did been doing some major geo-caching, so much it seems that I'm making the boys tired of it. Not Tianna, she loves it. She has been up for any cache we have gone to find. 

So on this last trip we fond no less than 9 track-able items, some travel bugs and some Geocoins. One of the coolest (and first) we found was the "The Amazing (Duck) Race - Daddy Duck". Turns out this little duck is racing other ducks, Travel Bugs have a specific mission..., well you can click the link, but the kids found it to be fascinating. The Maps of each travel bug are the most compelling. Well I lie, the Google Earth file ( View in Google Earth) that you can open make Travel Bugs both fun and educational without making it known its educational. This weekend we were down in Ramah and it RAINED! Hard Core. After is stopped the kids and I went to find a cache that was close, a bonus find was an awesome frog pond, a loud frog pond. Click the small pic for video and audio!

From Geocaching

Dakota 20 Update

 Got a GPS for Fathers Day! A Garmin Dakota 20. Looking for one(cache) as I'm typing. Pics and thoughts to follow. We actually found 3 out of 5. Click on my goecacing.com profile to check it out.

So this is the coolest. Truly. I have been geocaching on and off for the last three years. Always with someone else's GPS. The unit is sturdy, and seems almost water proof. The touch screen is fast and responsive. But there are more in-depth reviews out there. What I want to talk about loading maps. Garmin sells great topographical maps, for a pretty penny. And one thing I find most GPS's lacking, software for your pc to manage way-points and maps. Also available for purchase.
Unless you use this site, follow these directions(do each step, I skipped #1 first time) and download any map file you require. After that follow these steps, and you go from the basic map to killer topo maps!