Hey, welcome to cashing in the Northwest.You know, this is the podcast from the birthplace of geocaching right here in the great Pacific Northwest.Now it's 9 p.m.Pacific, whatever Pacific time zone, this could be, you know, daylight or standard.
And they call me Chris of the Northwest. And we're going to talk about geocaches and geocachers from here and all around the globe.So why you're stuck between the Halloween and the Smiths.Decorations at Costco will be caching in the Northwest.
Oh, yes.Happy Labor Hall of Thankness.
Something like that anyway. Yeah, well, hopefully you're not stuck between those now at Costco, because it's 9pm Thursday Pacific and Costco's here locally are closed.
So unless you're maybe stocking the shelves, pushing the pallet jack around, and now they stock shelves right while you're shopping.Anyway, tonight, we're talking about echo, echo, echo, caching, caching, caching.
That's caching in a hollow canyon or maybe caching that you want to go back and visit again, again, again.And it's a
Oh, I misread.Tonight we're talking about eco caching.No H to there at all.Well, except in the middle of caching, because otherwise it would just be like casing or something.Sea acing?
Anyway, are you protecting nature while you're out exploring in it?Pop your thoughts and comments in the chat and we'll discuss it.All about eco caching.But of course we can't do that yet.We have to bring in our tidy tamarin.
Some say he makes trains take a dirt road, and others say he's creepier than a used car salesman.All we know is he's called Landmonkey.
Good evening, Mr. Muted Monkey.
He's never sounded better.The dulcet tones of Landmonkey may never be heard again.
I clicked unmute, and then somebody muted me.Not I. Not I. All right.
Well, good evening is what I say.Oh wait, not echo caching.Never mind.
Yeah, yeah, we turned the reverb off.Okay, we're not echoing.All right.Hey, you know, good to be here.Good to be here Thursday night, hanging out with my friends I missed last week.Oh, that's right.You weren't here.
We were on the road and maybe in the hashtag after show fatass.We'll I haven't mentioned it yet.They don't know what it is.Oh, okay.Well, when Chris explains what that is, that's somewhere where maybe we'll talk about our road trip.
We went down to the Bend cash machine with some friends and had an amazing time.I've never been to Bend before and it's a beautiful area.It is nice.I will be going back sometime.And there was more breweries than I had a chance to visit.What?
Shocking.Well, yeah, it happens.
Anyhow, I'll help you sometime.
Okay, deal.A quick reminder at this point in the podcast, as we all kinds of interesting things and echo caching that we appreciate the support of our patrons, patrons who help to keep this podcast coming each and every week.
Thank you very much to each and every one of you in all the different ways you support.And you know what?I'm going to throw out something that we don't have in the script.I'm going off script, Chris.Landmonkey, we've talked about this.
Just to prove that I really listen when you talk, I'm going off script.No, what I wanted to say is that absolutely patrons are the heart of what keeps this podcast going.But you know, there's other ways that people can help that are really important.
And that is subscribing to the podcast.If you don't, please consider doing that. Those metrics mean a lot.
And if you're watching this on YouTube, giving it a like, adding comments after the podcast ends, or even during the podcast, because I know lots of great comments come up in the chat, but those don't necessarily get captured, attached to the video of the podcast.
So if there was something that was really interesting to you, or really funny to you, or really disappointing to you that comes up during the podcast, put the comments in there.It's it's really helpful.And it is a metric podcast.
So yes, that's our Canadian content.And, but yeah, so there's all that kind of stuff.So the likes, and if you're watching on Facebook, you like there as well.
All that kind of stuff doesn't doesn't really cost you much except a little bit of time that you're already investing in our cast.And it makes a big difference for us.
So can you give it a poke?Yeah.Remember when I was a thing on Facebook, you could poke someone?
Oh, I forgot about that.I thought, yeah, I thought you meant like give it a poke and see if it's alive.That could be as well.Yeah.That's funny.
But, um, you know, uh, just wanted to throw that stuff out, but also a thanks of course, to our corporate Denali level sponsors and that would be land sharks.
l-e-n-d-s-h-a-r-k-z and um uh and cashly that's wow that just slipped my mind somehow all right so thank you very much to landsharks uh if you want to get anything you've seen on geocaching.com or anything they're promoting in their sales you can also buy it through official geocaching.com reseller l-e-n-d-s-h-a-r-k-z
And Cachely, of course, is the premier geocaching app for iOS version 8 with Cachely Pro features offline maps of the entire world so that you can navigate anywhere while offline.Just be careful when you're driving through the oceans.
Delorme and counties as well, so that you can finish those county challenges.We worked on that this weekend as well. So thank you, Cashly, for all of that.And wow, coming soon, we keep teasing it, but CarPlay support.
Find Cashly in the iOS app store or go to Cashly.If you want to know more about supporting this podcast in any of the various ways we described, well, you know what?Why don't you click on that Patreon link on thecashingnw.com. website.Well done.
Well, you wanted it creepier than a used car salesman.So I nailed it.Thank you.Hey, I'm going to take the rest of the podcast off now.
So, okay, go ahead.Thank you.Go ahead.Sit back.Enjoy your beverage.I'm assuming it's an, it's an adult beverage.
Actually tonight.It's not, it's a hot chocolate with a little bit of coffee.
Oh, look at you being sensible.
Rarely, but sugar and caffeine after 9 p.m.May not be the most sensible, but you know, it's okay.
I just wanted the coffee.
There you go.Hey, speaking of things that you want to do in the evening, let's glow, right?It's getting darker.We need a little more light.So it's time for the glow.And some may ask like SB Dave, what is a glow SB Dave? I really like that.
You asked that before the podcast started.
I was going to say, note the timestamp on that.We haven't even started yet.
You suddenly became my favorite listener.
Wow.All right.The competition's on, everybody.Chris is picking favorites from you now.
Oh, and I'm very fickle.I'll let you know that right now.I could have another favorite just like that.
Well, MDFio is my favorite.They're recognizing my self-care.
That's right.Steve Davis proud.There you go.Well, you should be.It's time for the glow.That's the geocaching log of the week.Now, whether you read it or whether you wrote it, we want to hear about it because great logs simply make geocaching better.
You can send an email, which everyone does, right?That's good.It's better to send a recording.You can email that to feedback at caching nw.com. The best thing you can do is to call into 25369.Wow, that didn't sound right coming out.253693-TFTC.
And show us.You make it very hard to mock you when you stop partway through.Yeah. I had to self-review and I'm like, the numbers are right, but I just didn't have the right cadence to them.So it didn't sound right to my, to myself.
And I shouldn't listen to what I say.I should just speak and move on.And that's, you know, how things work.We don't listen to what you say.Thank you, dude.Sometimes your words hurt.Okay.
So the cash we're talking about tonight is one that I really wanted to do.
Mm-hmm wanted past tense you don't want to know well.
I still do okay The travel is a bit more difficult Well, no the travel is a bit long to get there.I was in the area, but the timing wasn't right mm-hmm Landmonkey, the light came on.
So this glow is a little different because I wanted to read the cash description, a bit of the cash description ahead of time, just so you understand what the log is.So Witsand?Yes, sir.
Take it away.Aye, aye, captain. This is a borderline caching disorder.Not to be confused with cache derangement syndrome.That's an entirely different cache.Borderline caching disorder.That's GC9PAPA4PAPA9.A couple of PAPAs and some numbers in there.
I like the ring to that one.
Yeah.It's almost like 253693TFTC, but not.Oh. Let's see.As you requested, first we will start with the cache description.Thank you.
Stretching 12 and a half miles across Boundary Bay from Point Roberts to Blaine, there are a series of range towers protruding out of the bay which delineates the international border between the USA and Canada.
These towers are all topped with reflectors and lights and their designated letter identifier is emblazoned on a sign atop the towers.
Including the two range markers on the west side of Point Roberts between the West Beach and the Swanson Ferry Terminal, there are a total of seven range markers designated A through G, or Alpha through Gulf if you prefer.
Tower C is located at the end of Roosevelt Way in Maple Beach, which is a public swimming beach where people can swim in international waters so long as they return to the same side of the beach that they left from.
Okay, no practicing for that Cuba to Florida swim there.
This virtual cache is located at Range Tower D Delta, which is found 7 tenths of a mile east of Tower C. The tower can be reached on foot when the tide is low, which I think is what Chris is referring to timing, by an easy walk along the intertidal pools and sandbars.
Did the sandbars close at 2 a.m.?That's different.
More than likely.Yes.Okay.
So now the log, this was submitted by Trexor.Thanks Trexor.And the log says it was found by Bruce Lee.The log says, well, this was quite the adventure.Uh, Nick kitty one, two, three.
And I came up for the weekend from Vancouver, Washington to attend an event and decided that it would be fun to do this virtual cash due to the interesting DT rating, difficulty terrain rating.
We looked up the tide tables and made a plan to walk out exactly at the lowest tide.We got about two-thirds of the way there and it got too deep so we had to turn back.
There was a paddleboard rental place right by where we parked, but they were closed and didn't answer their phones.
I saw a gentleman sitting out on his porch nearby and went to ask him if he knew a place where we could rent one, and he instead offered to let us borrow one of his.We graciously accepted his kind offer and headed out a second time.
With two bodies and a phone that needed to stay dry aboard, it was nothing less than a challenge to keep our balance using anything less than 100% of our available brain power.Needless to say, we made it.
And boy, were we tired when we got our feet back on the ground.Thank you for the fun memories and the virtual cache.And thank you to the kind souls who allow us to complete our goals when the situation doesn't work quite in our favor.
That's awesome.There you go.Freiling says the tower can be reached on foot, but you'll be waist deep in the ocean at the lowest tide of the year to get the answers for this virtual cache.
And, and, and isn't it awesome how kind people in the Northwest are letting strangers borrow their, their, uh, watercraft, complete a virtual.
I mean, and you think about it, they loaned their, what did they loan?Paddleboard?And that could have been taken out of the country.Technically, it probably was.Theoretically, yes.
They probably at one point went beyond the international line and came back and made numerous border crossings.They had their nexus on them. Uh, yeah.You know, people are kind, I think for the most part.
Yeah, they are.And I, I, that's one of the things that stands out for me in this log is just the, you know, the fact that there was somebody who is just sitting there and was like, yeah, go ahead.So I thought that's, that's pretty cool.I like that.
He was probably filming for YouTube too.
Probably.Yeah.Just waiting.Oh, yeah. No, that's awesome.Yeah, what a great adventure.And it is a cool virtual cache for sure.
If you're putting this on your radar and you don't want to wade and swim to it, like Brylang says you potentially can, it best just bring your kayak and plan to put it in and paddle out for it.That's how we got it.
Yeah, Mrs. Monkey and I have the FTF on that one.And it was a fun and memorable adventure.
There you go.Um, kitty quest says it's a lovely walk in the summer when the air and water temps are just right.Good wildlife viewing in the water.
There is.Yeah.You can spot if you're lucky, some starfish and little fishies and all kinds of stuff.
Aren't there around there?Lots of crustaceans on the tower that itself.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.On the concrete block.That's what I was saying.Are crustaceans are the right word?Oh, well, there'd be crabs.Those would be crustaceans.
Railing saw jellyfish.He's a jellyfish with crabs.I don't know what those jellyfish have been.
No.And it's amazing.He can make that medical observation.
Yeah.Just by looking at the jellyfish.
Yeah, they're probably swimming funny.
All right.Keith's a Spongebob.There you go.
Heather's watching from Wisconsin tonight.
Well, well, that's something that is something that's a heck of a drive.And thank you for staying up to watch.Thank you, everybody who isn't in the Pacific time zone.
Thank you. So tonight, if you want to join in the chat, why don't you use the hashtag Eco, E-C-O, right?No H. Jim.I don't know what you mean.I typed that several times.I never even thought of the word echo.That's why you have co-hosts.
And now it's stuck in my head.
You asked us to read more than was in the show notes.
You did say that.You're right, Jim. Yes.Yes.Thank you for adding extra letters.I was thinking extra words, but letters, you know, how do you have words without letters?I don't know.I haven't figured that part out yet, but I'm getting them.Yeah.Okay.
We're doing a really good job of adding extra letters.
Okay.Let's use some other letters.We can use the hashtag Fitas.That's F T A S. That's for the after show, which Landmonkey spoiled in case it was a surprise to you.This is, and if this is your first time watching the show, welcome, we appreciate you.
We hope you enjoy the show.And we're sorry.We're sorry ahead of time. Oh, so there you go.
Eco for the, the topic tonight for tasks, for anything you want to talk about, maybe it's an event you're going to, uh, you know, there's some possible events this weekend to earn your world postcard, um, souvenir.
And of course, leave your feedback and like, and subscribe, please, please do.But it's time to earn some souvenirs and there are a lot of souvenirs available right now.It seems.
There are.You know what?That's a good point.I think two or three episodes ago, Chris, we did a rundown on all the souvenirs coming out.And it was surprising.And then I'm watching the news feed from geocaching.com, and then another one comes out.
I'm like, oh my goodness, you guys.They're souveniring us.We're going to be clubbed over the head with souvenirs.
That's right.Well, it's a summer, you know, you go on a trip, you bring back a souvenir, right?It's summer's over.Now's the time to collect all your souvenirs and figure out what's going on.But that's right.
One of the things you can collect is the national or international earth cash day, 2024 souvenir. That's coming up October 11th, which is almost right around the corner through Sunday, October 13th.
You've got, if I count that right, 11, 12, 13, you got three days there.
So Friday to, Oh wait, they've expanded it because it used to be two days used to be Saturday, Sunday.This is the first year.I believe this is the first year that it includes Friday, which is fantastic.
Well, and if you read, uh, you have, uh, from 11 o'clock UTC on Friday, October 11th until 10. a clock UTC on Monday, October 14th.That's four days.
Since we all run our clocks on UTC, I get it.They're an international organization that they need to set something.It makes sense.
You got to pick a standard somewhere.Why not use the one the rest of the world is using too? Right?
Yeah, that's good.It's just so I always find it funny, you know, living in the Northwest and HQ is in the same time zone we are.But yeah, but yeah, there's cashers around the world.
So of course, they need to think about well, it always just lands on me funny.
Yeah.And if you're curious, it's currently 422 am tomorrow, the fourth.
Fun, fun, fun.There you go.I remember HQ used to share things in Pacific time zone.
You have, you know, you have from this time to this time, Pacific time zone to do it.
And everybody else just go figure it out.
Yeah, exactly.Well, if you do UTC, you know, most people I think that are into geocaching know what their UTC offset is.Minus eight.Minus eight for us, right?Yeah.Um, but anyway, let that go.Okay.No! I want to keep talking about UTC.
So you've got earth caches all weekend long.Make it a long weekend of earth caching.
Indeed.Yes.And, uh, you know, if you live somewhere where it is a long weekend, um, like the 49th parallel, um, it's awesome, but we, we would have the Monday off, but that's still cool.
Um, as long as you have until, uh, you know, 10 o'clock UTC on Monday.
Well, that's true.That's true.It's a nice long period of time to go get your earth caches.I think that's awesome that they've done that.It makes it a lot easier.
And then if that isn't enough souvenir for you, Adventure Day is coming up.Oh, do tell.Oh, yes.Adventure Day.You can earn a souvenir for doing just a single Adventure Lab location from October 18th to Sunday, October 20th.
Now, I am very curious, all wonderful listeners in the chat room, what your thoughts are about that, about getting a digital souvenir in your geocaching.com.For a digital find?
Sorry?For a digital find?
Well, yeah, like getting a digital souvenir in your geocaching.com profile for finding one Adventure Lab Location.What are your thoughts about that?I will reserve my own opinions, although you can probably read
Um, I think it's interesting simply because, you know, we are in an area with a lot of geocaches and a lot of adventure labs.
That may not be true for everyone.So, you know, having just, uh, setting the bar low enough to say it's a single location may be a challenge for some people.Right.So who knows?
Maybe they don't even have an earth cache nearby.
I'm not being a wet blanket.I said, I want to hear what everybody's opinions are.
Freiling wants all the souvenirs.
Well, yeah, most people do.
And Keith says it's super easy.
Yes.And you know what?There's another souvenir coming up.It's fall CITO season right now, as we speak, you have until November 30th.
Awesome.So get out there and help clean up the game board.Do your part.Um, boy have, has there ever been a souvenir of Palooza?
Sorry?Souvenir of Palooza.
Souvenir of Palooza, indeed.Has there ever been a rash of sea toes in the last year, year and a half? Um, I think it's, it's picked up in popularity and fantastic.
I mean, it it's always been a thing and it's been, you know, two or three, four, maybe a year.And now it's like, they're, they're coming out constantly.
So you can pick and choose, go help either do like an invasive species removal, go do a planting, go just walk up a park or a neighborhood and clean up. It's fantastic.I really think that the current new enthusiasm around CTOs is great.And I get it.
There's different motivations why different people are doing it, but the net end result is still a positive for your community.So awesome.
And if the souvenir itself is a motivation for some to go out and do it, I'm okay with that.Yeah.Yep.
So, all these souvenirs got me thinking, we should be talking about the need for being responsible while we're out geocaching to protect the natural habitats that we wander about in.
Yes, indeedy.We should discuss that.
There you go.CRS98 says throw a CTO.
Yeah, you can host one.That'd be good.If nobody hosted one, nobody could attend one, right? That sounds heavy.Yeah.And don't don't hurt yourself now.Don't put your back out.All right.
Well, you could sit in your seat in the airplane in Montreal and log a whole mess of adventure labs with multiple choice questions and big geofences like some unnamed cashier may or may not have done.
But luckily, his name and picture are not on the screen at the moment.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.Well, and you know, that's a that's a great way to be eco caching and contributing to the the carbon count in the world.
There you go.I was going to say, other than that activity, whatever you do for geocaching or adventure labbing, you're going to have some environmental impact on some level, right?Maybe positive, maybe negative, but some impact.
How can we raise awareness about conservation efforts and the importance of, well, leaving that game board clean, leaving no trace, as the old saying says, so that the next cacher or adventure labber, is that even a term now, can enjoy the site as clean or cleaner than you found it?
Yeah, so that's a great question there, Jim.What exactly is echocaching?Essentially, I think what we're getting at is it's geocaching with, as you say, an emphasis on environmental consciousness.The idea being to find or hide geocaches
in a way that minimizes the impact on the environment.And I think the hiding piece is really important.I look forward to talking because I have some thoughts on it.
Well, and that is, you know, we're going to talk about being responsible stewards of the land, whether we're geocachers or not.I think we need to be responsible stewards of the land.
So that means using environmentally friendly materials, participating in cleanup efforts like CITO's that we talked about, um, being mindful of wildlife and natural habitats.And it's a way to enjoy our hobbies.
So we're giving back to the environment, trying to stack or strike a balance between adventure and conservation.
It's getting out there beyond the environment. we're not in a different or beyond the environment, right?That's right.Beyond the environment.
And it's, I think everybody first jumps to when you talk about the environment and being eco-friendly and everything, everybody thinks about the negative impacts, but you know, there's a positive side of this too, is it gets, it actually gets people out there enjoying the wilderness and the outdoors and the environment.
and you know how can you get out there and enjoy it but keep it clean for the next guy or gal for sure and that's i mean that's the the whole uh leave no trace yeah uh and those those related principles right if it's not weasel stomping day no it's not unfortunately okay that's only one day a year yeah so leave no trace leave no weasel trace hopefully
But yeah, it is about minimizing your footprint and obviously physical footprint.And we should talk about that whole idea as well.
And I think, Chris, you're going to talk about cache containers, but we should also be considering how things are hidden, right?
It's in the Northwest.It's very, very popular to hide caches and stumps, stumps, etc., because they're gigantic.They're everywhere.They're everywhere in the Northwest.Yeah, great.Hide a cache.
But the challenge becomes, and this is a little bit of a soapbox, not too much.But when you hide a micro in a cedar, Well, yeah, well, just like, you know, if you're going to hang a micro in a cedar, fine, fill your boots, whatever.
But if you're going to go to a big old nursing stump and you're going to somewhere in there, stick a micro, you're going to end up with people tromping all around on in tearing it apart.
You're by hiding caches in that manner, you're not eco-friendly.You're not being responsible to the environment because you're creating a situation where you're just asking for people to pull it apart.So I am against micros in nursing stumps.
I will say that, and then I will leave that where it is.
Well, this is a topic I wanted to talk about.So CRS 98 says, please stop hiding difficult to find caches off trail.Just stop.Um, one of the things I thought about were, um, social trails, right?So animal trails.
Um, when you're hiking along on a trail, you'll see a little trail off to the side and it's pretty narrow, but it's there and it's a clear trail.Well, the animals have created that in their path.
If you put a geocache at the end of that, have you created a, a barrier for the animals to continue to use that trail?Does the human scent on that trail then scare away the animals from using it in the future?Hmm.
What if the animals are geocacher?
Oh, well, in that case, no.But, you know, I thought about that.I go, if humans start using these social trails or game trails, uh, does that, uh, prevent the, the game, the, you know, the animals from using them again in the future.
So that's interesting.I've never thought about it from that perspective, Chris.
I just thought about it, you know, writing this up and I'm like, huh, I don't know that.
Yeah, I guess we got we also have to be careful the slippery slope argument, right?You get to a point of like, well, then you shouldn't hide any geocaches in the woods anywhere because well, you can go down that road.
And I would suggest we don't need to. I don't know if hiding a cache on a game trail is necessarily a bad thing.I mean, you know, people are going to follow deer trails for reasons other than geocaching.
People are just out exploring the park because like, oh, what an interesting little side trail.It's like, I don't think you're going to, I don't, I think it's a valid thing to consider.I don't think it's necessarily problematic, but I don't know.
I could be informed otherwise.
Um, and I have no problem using established trails that have been put there.Yes.You know, it, it does change the forest environment a bit, but it allows for human enjoyment along those trails.I have no problem with that.
And if they need to be maintained, you know, either by boardwalk or, or some material down there, be it wood chips or, or the little rubber, you know, Uh, I don't know what they call those floor mats.Yeah, basically.
But the, but the ground up rubber to put on there to get, you know, help you with your help with drainage and, and traction.Anyway, uh, I'm all for that.I think that is wonderful.Gets you out there, gets to nature.
So, um, but one thing I want to talk about is the, okay, so land monkey, you brought up the hard to find as did CRS 98, the hard to find cash. that's going to cause you to trample and, you know, dig around and disturb nature.
Somebody said, uh, yep, there's that.Uh, here, uh, Fear the Tuba said, agreed.It's very discouraging to see rocks overturned, moss ripped off and bark destroyed. Right.You go through the area and you go, well, it could be a fake rock.
Let me turn all the rocks over so that I can see.Yeah.
I mean, it's one thing putting a fake rock in a pile of rocks in like a drainage area in an industrial area.
Or in a roundabout in the middle of traffic.
Yeah.Which also I don't think is going to get published, but go for it.
Really?Yes.I spent a couple of
Um, days while my son was, uh, doing practice, sports practice that I went back to this roundabout nearby and just, you know, started taking, you'd take a rock and I'd hit other rocks because it's a fake rock that, you know, obviously sounds different.
And, uh, now I've learned to spot them better, but at the time I was like, Oh, this is annoying.
Yeah. That's why they make ignore lists.
Um, so this is interesting by Breiling.Don't use moss to hide a cache.Moss is delicate and can be killed just by moving it.
Hmm.Yeah.And if you did that, you'd be a moss murderer.That's right.
I hadn't considered that. Um, back to the, our game trail caching can't says, uh, what it's one thing to hide a cash 25 feet down a game trail.It's another to hide it 400 feet down a game trail.Yeah.Right.That.
So, but you know, in these hard to find caches, you, you end up walking in large circles, trying to find what you're looking for.And what you're doing is you're inadvertently you're stomping down all the vegetation.
in that circle as you widen your search to find it.So if you're out in the woods, do a large hide.I mean, you've got the space to do it.So ARC is fine to use.Apparently not Moss.
There you go.Yeah.No, this prompts another thought, another question.
Um, having recently done a lot of caching, uh, in, you know, as we were saying earlier, uh, in the Northwest, in the Northwest, so we were just out in Bend, Oregon and earlier in the year, we're,
in the high desert area, doing a bunch of caching south of Spokane. A lot of caches in that area are hidden a little bit off the road, off a dirt road or whatever, and like tucked into the sagebrush.
And to get to it, you got to kind of walk across what really just sort of feels like dirt and sand to go grab the ammo, plastic, whatever it is behind a sagebrush.
And so now are you harming, like creating a trail and harming the environment by walking through That area, I don't know.
I have no problem stepping all over sagebrush.No problem whatsoever.
It's definitely not as delicate as moss.
Yeah, true, true.All right.Well, fair enough.I just said the thought occurred to me as you were talking, because obviously the three of us are, well, maybe Jim isn't as much anymore, but more familiar with those green wet forests.Jim's now afresh.
I'm a sagebrush catcher now. I haven't found a moldy log book in a long time.
I bet.Yeah.Just the dry, crusty ones.I'll mail you one.
And watch out for those scorpions under the rocks too.
Well, there's that.We don't have to worry about that here.
Everybody's got their own challenges.Yeah, exactly.But anytime you're making your own trail through an environment, yeah, you're probably not doing the right thing.
Right.I guess that's what I was getting at, right?Because then you can sort of see where most people have gone, even though it's just like pounded down dirt.But I don't know.
I'm not familiar enough with the delicacies of the delicateness of the different biomes.
Well, as we talk about the biome some more, Let's talk about cash containers.You know, I've seen recycled plastic, biodegradable options.I thought that was interesting.
But it's, it's amazing how creative people can get while they're being, you know, eco-friendly.
Right.Yeah.You could even use some natural materials, perhaps, you know, that naturally occurring titanium or steel iron ore. Yeah, you know, mine this stuff out of there and naturally occurring Tupperware.
Sure.Yeah.You know, you find that Tupperware tree, you just pick some of the smaller ones.
And that's they're going to be harder and harder to find because they're not making those trees anymore.That's right.
Anyways, look for the ones with the tomato sauce stained into the Tupperware.
Yeah. But no, you could use some material that's already out there.Maybe there's an abundance of dead logs.You can take one of those logs and hollow it out and use that to hide it.It'll blend right in because, well, it came from there.
It belongs there.And we mentioned Tupperware.You can reuse old Tupperware. you know, you got that stuff with this spaghetti stained plastic, maybe don't use that.
Why didn't they?Listen, if you already got in trouble, because you put the spaghetti sauce stain in the Tupperware, while you may as well, you're not going to get in much more trouble by using that container.Now it's a geocache.
Like, why didn't they make Tupperware spaghetti sauce colored to begin with?
Now that would be thinking there you go.
But let's talk about this for a minute.Can we really use biodegradable containers?You know, Witzant, I'm sorry, we're going to leave you out for a moment.We're going to talk about the wet environment in the Northwest.
But you know, I'm sure the heat in the, um, on the, on the Eastern part of the state will also ramp up the, uh, the degradation of these containers with the hot cold, right?
Like you get, you get the heat in the summer and then you get the cold in the winter and they're all cracked up.
Well, I mean, even good Tupperware plastic has a hard time in eastern Washington's heat.Yeah.So, you know, one of the things that I read about was, well, use biodegradable.Well, I don't think so.
Isn't anything biodegradable if you wait long enough?
In theory, yes, but a lot of people aren't willing to wait that long.Yeah.
There you go.And, uh, as an answer from the guidelines for you there, Chris, the ideal container is waterproof, biodegradable.
So, I mean, you want something that's going to be out there and it's going to last for a while.Yeah.Right.
And you don't want it to, well, degrade or to start to, you know, fade away to nothingness, especially if you're sticking it in a guardrail, which isn't naturally occurring to begin with.
from the guardrail farm yes well and definitely yeah so i guess we talked a little bit about the biodegradable containers uh a a nice thought but not practical and not recommended so there you go and i i don't think it would matter really what environment you're in um biodegradable containers probably aren't a great idea because definitely anywhere in the pacific northwest whether you're in the high desert or the
The rainforests, those containers are going to be lucky to make it a year.Yeah.Rainforest.Tropical rainforest.Yes.Except for the temperate rainforest.But what do we got here?
Habus says, I found an old May 20 or 2001 cache today.Unfortunately, the container was broken in many pieces and its contents strewn around.Eventually, I found the log in its baggie, gathered up the pieces and re-hid.
That's always disappointing when you find what should be a great cache and the container just hasn't held up and hasn't been maintained.Because that's the other thing, right?
I think, as you were saying earlier, Chris, any plastic container is eventually going to succumb to the elements.And therein is the importance of performing maintenance on your cache. Cause we can't all hide steel ammo cans all the time.
That's right.And Kate says, just say no to that cardboard geocache.
You know, okay.So, so let's, let's spin off that for a minute because I wonder how that would work in Eastern Washington, right?Yeah.
Um, but, uh, one of the things that I have learned, um, you know, the cute little bird houses that you can buy at the dollar store or, you know, other places made out of like that thin plywood, like layered press board. pressboard material.
They're super cute.And people will paint them up and they'll hide them.And I've done it myself.And within a year, it's garbage.
It just- It's the equivalent of a wooden sponge.
It sucks the water in, it expands, it falls apart because it's made with glue.Everything, it just falls apart.But I'll share a tip, pro tip from Landmonkey, coming up.Hold on.
I have used those containers successfully as geocaches.What I do is I get the little birdhouse and then all of the seams.So anywhere where there's like an edge or a joint, I put a smear gorilla glue on all of those.And it basically seals that up.
And then I will paint it with primer and then two coats of like, usually like a green or, you know, to make it fit into camouflage type thing. two coats of paint over top of a primer.And with that, those little bird houses will last years.
But it takes a little bit of effort.Right.
Got to glue the gorillas to the seals.There you go.Anyone else see the irony in the monkey using gorilla glue, says Bryline?
I don't think that's necessarily irony.
Waterproof sprays, Keats94 asks.Do they work? haven't tried it.Encourage somebody to give it a whirl and let us know.I would suggest take the time and make your house out of cedar or walnut, you know, a good quality wood to begin with.
Or let me say a naturally occurring wood rather than whatever this, you know, sawdust holding hands together is.
Indeed.But you know, that's that's a good point.Start with a good quality container that's going to hold up.You know, you could probably do those cute little birdhouses if you could put them in a larger container as well, right?
I have seen that done.Yeah, there's a fantastic cache.I want to say at some point, Roberts,
where it's a large plastic container and inside, when you open it up, they've got the cute little birdhouse and everything in a little, almost like a diorama setup.Super cute, really fun to find, and it's going to last a lot longer.
So that is a really good suggestion, Chris.
And that keeps all that litter out of the environment, right?
Yeah, as Heather was saying earlier, right?When you go to find what should be a great geocache and what you end up doing is gathering the rubbish and signing the log.But you know what?
Gathering the rubbish is a good segue to CTOs, which we talked about a little bit earlier. But, you know, this idea where geocachers come together, clean up parks and other natural areas, search for some geocaches while you're doing it.
But all kinds of different types, though it doesn't have to be a cleanup, all kinds of different types of sea toes that go on.Definitely those who are geocachers in British Columbia and subscribe to the BCGA newsletter.
I'm sure the WSGA newsletter does the same thing. highlights a lot of the successful CTO events that go on in the Northwest.And definitely, you can find advice for organizing your own.And here's a thought.
Next time you go geocaching, bring along a couple of garbage bags included with your geocaching kit.You may not get a CTO souvenir, but you'll do a good thing.Yeah, I got to point out one of our geocaching friends, GeoNav Pro.
He is very good at CTOing when he goes caching.I know that's something that has stuck in my mind of someone who often is thinking about, how can I contribute?How can I reduce my footprint when I go geocaching?So good for him.
You know, it's something I often think about, but they usually don't have the bag with me and you're walking, you go, Oh man, I wish I could pick that up.
And, you know, I don't want to touch it and carry it with me for the next hour as I hike, but I would like to, to take it out of here, but.
He appreciates the shout out.Thank you.
Yeah.And yeah, like you say, CTO is a philosophy, not just an event in a souvenir.
You're right.Oh, it's more than just a souvenir.It's more.It can be.I thought we were talking all about souvenirs tonight.
Among other things, yes.One of those other things could be, well, seasonal awareness, you know, it's important to take note.The seasons change.I don't know if you've noticed that.And different types of wildlife.
Well, they, uh, they do different things in different seasons.Bears hibernate in caves and bats, uh, you know, seek shelter in caves during autumn, winter and stuff.So you,
use your head, go be prepared, bring that trash can, know what season you're out there and what the, well, local residents of the wilderness area that you might be invading or catching are doing there.So it's important.
Well, and you bring up a good idea that, you know, if you're in the spring, be careful of when you go trampling through the fields with all the, you know, the fragile new growth coming up.Yeah.In the fall, you know, leaves can cover the cash.
You might have to dig a little more.Well, don't dig too deep and too hard to really, you know, churn things up.And in the winter, the cash may be covered by snow and ice. or frozen shut, or frozen in place.Right.
So one thing I have to learn, it's okay to DNF.I don't like it.Yeah, it's no fun.
But you know, I agree.I have plenty of data. No, just just saying that, please, please continue.But I was just saying very, very much.I agree.It feels when you first start doing it, it's like, oh, I'm admitting failure.I'm publicly shaming myself.
You're not.And there's a lot of reasons why it's good.But please continue.
Well, when you've searched all the obvious places, you know, and you I I start out in that, you know, spiral search pattern.Right. slowly expanding out, um, you know, that's not necessarily good for the environment.
We've already touched on that, right?That way you're, you're trampling down a larger circle than you normally would.
Um, but yeah, don't keep searching, turning over every stone and, and log and rolling that log completely out of the way going, well, I don't think they hit it under here, but let me move this big log just to find out.
And that's where all the wood bugs are and earwigs.
Yeah.And they don't necessarily like sunshine. That's right.CRS 98 through a community celebration event to celebrate his 10th or his thousandth DNF.That's awesome.I love it.That's a great idea.
GeoNavPro shares a great tip, you know, since he's always ready.An old shopping bag rolled up is always in my caching bag and gloves, but that's a different episode.
What's in my caching bag?
You know, maybe we should do a GeoNav Pro what's in your caching bag.There you go.
Hey, one thing though on that and something that I've found a few times is kind of a neat idea.I have seen trackables.So you have a trackable tag and it's attached to a small container of some sort, whether it's a
a large pill bottle or something like that.And in that container is shopping bags stuffed in there.And it's called a CTO trackable.And so it goes from cash to cash.
And then you can take the bag out and pick up some garbage, whatever, and then put a different bag in and move the trackable along. Just kind of a fun way to do that.I've seen that a couple of times done.I think that's really neat.It's a good idea.
Cash and Cat says they've sent out two like that.Nice.Dog poo bag dispensers.There you go.That's a good option.I struggle with that because here in Western Washington, they have outlawed plastic bags.
Well, not only that, but I mean, here's the thing.
Um, walk down any trail in, in what the Pacific Northwest and, and what, what do people do with the plastic dog poo bags after they drop them on the trail or throw them into the bushes where you need to go find the geocache?
It's like, no, like if you're going to do that, then just kick the poo off the trail.Like you haven't done anything except make the poo last longer. I'm in a weird place.
I don't want the poo on the trail.I don't mind the poo off the trail.Yeah, it's it's natural.The animals are doing it anyway, right?
Um, but there's soapbox for me.
I know I, I, I, I can be all over on this one.Just like the poo, but picking it up in a plastic bag and then setting that plastic bag on the trail because you don't want to carry it because it's disgusting.
Now, once in a while, um, I believe people are doing that because they're doing an out and back and it's the, I'm going to set this here and I will pick it up on my way back.
And that very well could be the case a number of times, but not, not always.Right.
Thank you.That, that puts a positive spin on it and I feel better with that.
You just happened to be passing while they're ahead of you on the trail.
But yeah, so eco-caching, lots of difference.
So I think the obvious thing when we started talking about eco-caching was CTOs, but Chris, you've brought up a lot of really great points for us to discuss this topic and lots of great feedback from the live audience as well.
Uh, one thing I forgot to mention is, you know, when you go tear up the, the ground zero looking for the cache, you could be tearing up possible nesting sites for smaller animals.So just be careful.
Well, rolling over that log may not seem like a big deal, but it could be for that environment, poor little bunnies inside or something, but he's rolling around.
What a great visual.Rolling down the hill.So that was our thoughts on ecocaching.Let's just end on that thought.On the bunny rolling down the hill.Inside a log. I think I've seen that in cartoons.
Thanks for listening.We hope you enjoyed this episode of cashing in the Northwest.
Indeed.Um, and, uh, Jim, did you want to take a turn?
No, I, I fill in when you're not here.So, okay.I saw your double.
It's hardly distinguishable for sure.And I appreciate you stunt doubling.It saved me many an injury. All right, I want to take a moment to thank our corporate sponsors.That would be Landsharks and Cashly.
Landsharks.ca is the outdoor adventure geocaching store.Check them out online.And remember, they're shipping those online daily.And Cashly, well, Cashly is the geocaching app for iOS.
Go check it out at cashly.com and download it off the iTunes store for you.We want to thank all of our Faithful Denali level sponsors, of course, Landsharks and Cashly, but also Cool Cow Cachers and Hawaiian Mile.
Folks, if you want to know more about supporting this show, remember to click that Patreon link You know, eon, eons in or on, in and on the, uh, caching nw.com website.Like Antaeus did and just finding our way and peach of nearly everywhere.
It's rich and probably out enjoying nature.Geo birder.How about MNIRF?JCAR?Just Carlo.
Terrible teas.Terrible lunch.Gas station tuna.
Nice segue.I love that.Cleaning up as he goes.It's GeoNav Pro.
LIMAX UDAC KID VEGAS-19 FLAGMAN SUBWAYMARK SKYHAUKER WETCOASTER HACKERDOCK SEABECK TRIBE GSM TIMES TWO U TALKS TO ROCK
BC Rockcrawler, Team Noltex, Nervous Energies, Genies, Segahove, Geocaches, Green Words, Trexor, Whidbey Island Gal, Railroad, MC3Cats, LG9000, Mountain Bike, Dora more butterfly girl, the camp clan, CRS 98 B pen dragon.
And last but certainly not least log work.
Well, last this time by chance, by the randomness folks, thanks for taking the time to listen to this episode of cashing in the Northwest.Your support helps keep the quality shows coming.
If you like the show, please click the Patrion link on the caching and w.com website. If you didn't like the show, let us know what you want us to talk about.
But if you like the vibe, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and leave us a review.If you were in a restaurant, you would tip.If you were on a, in a live audience, you would clap.
But since you're on a podcast, leave us a free fast, fabulous, fantastic five-star review.And of course you can call us. at 2 5 3 6 9 3 T F T C and leave us a glow, a comment, or anything else you want to do any time of the day or night.
And of course you can email us at feedback at cashing in w.com.Join us every Thursday night at 9.P.m.Pacific for a live show and chat.This show is produced by Chris Humphanour, Jim Pollitz, Jay Kennedy, and Brian Ling.
It's licensed under a creative commons attribution 3.0 license copyright 2024 by Chris Humphanour and I ask you to stay tuned for the after show.That thing.
CRS-98 says, I do the out and back poo bag thing.It's a thing.It's a poo bag thing.I put the sack in an inconspicuous place and mark it with a waypoint.
Oh, well, that's a good way to do it.
That's very well done.Yes.I like it.
I was wondering if I said yawn.It did sound like yawn when I said it didn't it? Yeah.Are we done yet?All right.Well, I think we've got, uh, probably got a fair bit of a task.
We have some fatassifies.Yeah.
We have, um, Oh, there we go.Hey, I believe it's pronounced.Hey bus. Habus habus habeas corpus.Oh, yeah, it's just going there.
Yeah My husband is in a conference this week in Wisconsin So I came along to go geocaching and found several high favorite points and old caches in southeast, Wisconsin in northern, Illinois including one that was scattered around Nice.Yeah.
I think using the geocaching app and doing high favorited caches is going to give you a great tour of the area.It's going to take you to points that people are interested in.
All right.Well, speaking of points, big points to CRS98 in my book, finally got a new earth cache published near Deception Falls near Sins Pass.This has been over a year in the making.
It is GC alpha alpha Bravo tango Quebec and the FTF is How about that Or did he not do it and it's near a truthful Falls Could be What else we got?
CRS 98.I'm sorry.No Keats 94 one of those numbers difference Had a great time exploring Morocco with a tour group.Very few geocaches there, but managed to find a few.Morocco is a beautiful country, putting together some episodes in the near future.
Wonderful.Looking forward to that.Looking forward to seeing Keats again and hearing from him about his adventure.Saw some amazing photos on Facebook.So good for him.That's a big adventure. All right.
And yeah, I said earlier, I was going to talk a little bit about in the after show.I know we're running out of time here, so I won't be too verbose.But Bryling, our chat lackey, came along.
I saw Annette had made a comment about seeing us at the event, which was a lot of fun.Yeah, there you go.
um peach of peach of everywhere uh it was great to see the land monkeys and the chat lackey from caching the northwest and bend this past weekend many great caches were found and cashers and a good time was had by all indeed were cashers lost and then found yes as they as they normally are yeah it was great to see her uh and and skyhawker and a number of other folks um uh love that jeep love that jeep they travel in it is nicely kitted out and
As I walked past the Jeep, I did notice the phone on the dash had a caching on the back.Oh, how about that?And Chris, I sent a picture in a chat that I think you saw.We went out and found a geocache, a little TV hotel that had a caching.Nice.Yes.
It is always so fun as a podcast host when we go somewhere and see a sticker from the podcast on a cache, in a cache, on somebody's gear. It's so cool.It just really feels, you feel the love, right?That's cool.It's like, wow, people appreciate us.
I'll share a little bit about myself.Sure.I zoomed in really tight on that photo to see the edges of that sticker to see, oh, that's brand new.And you just put it up there and took a picture of it.Or has it been there a while?
And I determined it had been there a while.
Yeah, the one on the cache looked like it had been there for a little while.I don't know who had put it on there.I looked at, oh, who's the cache owner?Will I recognize their name from the chat or from the patrons?And I didn't.So cool.That's awesome.
I don't know who put it there, but that's fun. But yeah, great, great trip to Bend.Never been there before.What a beautiful city.Just felt like quiet, clean, great place to visit.Highly recommend it.We kind of did the cache machine.
We kind of just sort of picked and choose the caches and the cache machine we wanted to do. but attended the events.It was great, met a lot of fun friends.And yeah, as Bryling says, Bend has volcanoes you can drive up, which is pretty cool.
Extinct volcanoes, but yeah.Volcanoes nonetheless. A highly, a highly volcanically influenced landscape in Vance, that is for sure.Lava fields, lava tubes.Yeah, just a really interesting, unique place to go.Had a fantastic time.
It's a heck of a drive from the Metro Vancouver area down there, but we broke up the drive and just had a really fun time. To the organizers of the BEND, I was going to say GeoTour, but Splash Machine, kudos, an excellently done job.
And I spoke with Geocaches and JTCoffee, and they're interested in the podcast to talk about their experience as well in the future. Fantastic.Well, let's get feedback from them.
And, you know, if folks haven't done a cash machine before, check it out.It's, it's, it's, it's a fun thing.
They can be fun for now in the future, if somebody tells you to go get bent, you'll say yes, I like it there.Yeah.Good breweries.Yeah. Um, one more thing, Jess, where is it?A fatass.This actually came from Briling, I believe.
A starfish is not a crustacean, but it's an invertebrate.
Oh, a condoderm.That almost goes with our theme of echofish.
It's an echoderm, meaning it's good.
It is good for the environment.
There's an in in the echo term.
Too fun.All right.Well, whoever contributed that, thank you.
There you go.And that's, that's what I was trying to think of.I go, no, they're not all crustaceans, but that's all that came to mind.That thing.That thing that they do.That's awesome.
Well, thank you so much for joining us and until next week, get out, take care of the environment and go caching in the Northwest.
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