Joe Thielen's GeoCaching Adventures
2001 News Archive
12/09/2001 - Visited a cache in Payne, OH while on a trip to Van Wert, OH. Was a pretty neat site. There was an old train car there, and you were able to enter it at will. And lo-and-behold, thar's a chache in there!
Payne Train.
12/02/2001 - Visited one new cache today, and did some cache checking on my active caches. Was a great day!
Deadwood Ridge.
11/19/2001 - No cachin' lately :(. But I do have a new e-mail address: joe@joethielen.com!
10/20/2001 - Visited two caches in the Wayne, MI area today. FOUND MY 50TH CACHE! WOO HOO!
Lower Rouge Parkway and
Chester Geenwood.
09/29/2001 - Visited four caches in the Ann Arbor, MI area today:
You're a Star,
You're a Troll,
The Cube, and
Bird Hill.
09/28/2001 - Visited three caches on the Lake Erie coast of Michigan:
The Big Bush,
LumberJack Jim,
Butt Scootin' Boogy.
09/09/2001 - Sorry for the delay in posting this.. been busy... Visited the following Cache in Corbin, KY while
on vacation. Visited another in the area, but site was closed due to logging :( Very nice area!!!.
Moon Mist,
08/25/2001 - I visited SIX geocaches in the Southfield, MI area on Saturday!! WOW! I've now found a total
of 40 caches to date! Woo hoo! It's certainly been a long haul... I think these caches were pretty neat,
especially for the suburbs of Detroit. You wouldn't think they had so many parks. I recommend them for all!
GeoCache,
Our Woodland Heritage,
Bell Creek Park Cache Stash,
Gary's Tree,
Jocelyn's Termite Dinner,
Raintree.
08/19/2001 - Visited three caches today, all in the Lambertville, MI area. Nice, easy caches. Very nice after all the
trailblazing I've been doing :).
Just Book It!,
Bring Your Blades!, and
New Life Hill.
08/11/2001 - Tried to visit three caches today, only found one though. Was in the Delaware-Columbus area today. Found
Thorny Resevoir Find, was a neat cache, neat area.
However, couldn't find
Twin Trestles for the life of me. I was way
unprepared for this one, and I'll leave it at that :).
07/20/2001 - I've retired two caches. 'Forest Cave' appears to have disappeared :(. Also, one of my other caches,
'Lil' Swamp Cave' has been playing hide-and-go-seek with itself. This cache vanished awhile ago, only to re-appear
recently. My guess is some kid took it, their parents found it, and they kindly returned it! I'm not sure if that's what
happened, but it's possible. In any case, the location I placed it in has REALLY grown over, and there are far too many
thorns there to really warrant going in there. Also, the 'entrance' has nearly vanished. So, I took what was left of the
cache, and I'm going to re-place it somewhere else as a 'refurbished' cache :). Maybe I'll get to go out this weekend and
find some more... I'm looking forward to 40!
07/20/2001 - It's been nearly a month, and I haven't found any caches. But I've placed some! I placed some earlier this month,
but haven't update this page yet... sorry! In other news, I contacted the Toledo MetroParks to see if there was any new developments
in regards to placing GeoCaches there. Unfortunately, the person I spoke with received very little support for it :(. It's not
likely to happen any time soon. He said to make contact directly with another person... I'll have to dig up that e-mail and post
that information. Sorry all! We'll just have to find other places to hide the stash!
07/20/2001 - I've added a new page for 'Metzger's Marsh Cache' on my site and put a link in my 'Cache's I've Created' section. You can find the page here.
07/20/2001 - I've added a new page for 'Veteran's Cache' on my site and put a link in my 'Cache's I've Created' section. You can find the page here.
07/20/2001 - I've added a new page for 'Watch Out For The Bird Poop!' on my site and put a link in my 'Cache's I've Created' section. You can find the page here.
07/06/2001 - New links & an error...
I've added a link to the GeoCaching Worldwide website
to my Links section. Check it out! Also, if you want more links, check out the general
Linkz page for JoeThielen.com. I've got links for GPS, GIS, GeoCaching, and more!!!
My error is that I used an old copy of this page to edit,
and now four of my new finds have disappeared from this page! Ugh. I will re-enter them when I get a chance!
06/24/2001 - Visited 4 caches today, between Detroit and Ann Arbor:
Groovy West Side Stash,
Rotary Tree,
7-Mile/Fairbrook, and
You'll Weedle In Your Pants.
I'm now up to 30! I tell ya, I really had to WORK for my 30th, too... 'Weedle' was hard (I made it VERY VERY VERY hard!!!).
06/17/2001 - I made it to four caches today, all in the Ann Arbor, MI area!!!
As Near As It Gets,
$ Cache Fast,
Huron The Right Track,
Old Lindley Road.
What a day, holy crap! The bugs were NUTS. Luckily I brought a can of OFF insect repellant. I would not
be alive today to tell the tale if it weren't for that :).
06/16/2001 - I finally got a chance to visit another cache...
Emerald Island Cache, in/on Kelley's Island, OH.
This is a pretty awesome cache location! It kind of looks like the surface of Mars!!! I recommend this to anyone who can affort the crazy ferry fee :). I'm sorry I didn't have my digital camera on me to take a picture!!!
05/25/2001 - Hey all! I've been VERY busy lately on the weekends (the weather hasn't helped...), and haven't been to any GeoCaches recently. However, I've found a KICK-ASS mapping utility (for Linux ONLY) that takes USGS DEM (Digital Elevation Model) and DLG (Digital Line Graph) files (freely available in some states... like Ohio) and can create 3D-looking, shaded-relief topo maps!!! It's awesome, and it's FREE! It produces .SUN raster files which can be converted to .GIF format with The GIMP (I was unable to produce a JPEG image for some reason...). In any case, check out my main page entry for 5/25/2001 for some samples!
05/08/2001 - A little too chilly/windy this weekend. Only made it to two caches:
Not Causing a Splash, in Tiffin, OH, and
Petersburg Purple, in a state gaming area near Petersburg, MI.
Both were pretty neat, but the Petersburg cache has BUGS and THORNS galore! Take some long pants and long-sleeved shirts with you! We wore long pants and jackets, and we still got pretty tore up! Those thorns are a bitch man. And be sure to check yourself for TICKS afterwards, too! Those little bastards are bad man!
I wanted to make it out to Kelley's Island this weekend (there is a cache there, too), but it was too windy/chilly to bring the bikes out there.
04/30/2001 - I've added a pic that RyckZ sent me a while ago of some of the first cachers to find my first cache on the East_Side_Docks_River_Run_1 page.
04/30/2001 - I've added some cache pics in the Other Caches I've Found section. I've been taking some, but haven't posted them. I'll see if I still have some of the past ones (I know I used some for my website cam pic... will dig through my archives). The pics don't give away all that much. They aren't wide pictures, and just focus on the cache, not really the area... so they shouldn't give away too much :).
04/30/2001 - WOW! What a weekend. I've gotten more exercise in the past two days than I have in the past month! On Saturday my girlfriend and I visisted FOUR GeoCaches in the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area --
Blossom and
Blossom 2 (I said I'd be back!),
Brecksville Reservation, and
Columbia Run! What a trip! Many thanks to by buddy Jim (PilotGuy) for his help with the last two!
There were some TRULY amazing sights to see there. We walked some ridges that went up 30-50 feet, and were STRAIGHT down on both sides. Just amazing views. And that's not to mention
the streams and things. Wow! In any case... I'm up to 19!
04/18/2001 - Hey all! I've been contacted by someone from the Toledo Metroparks! He said he was very interested in GeoCaching. We had a long chat, and I gave him my views on GeoCaching, and I told him how it got people like me out of the house, and into these places. He said it sounded very cool, and he was going to do some homework on it, and try and advocate it so they could maybe endorse it! I think this would be great, for Toledo especially! If the MetroParks publically endorsed placing GeoCaching on their land (following certain guidelines, of course), GeoCacher's, and Toledo as a whole, would benefit! :) I will let you know how this progresses!
04/15/2001 - Hey all! I've been VERY BUSY over the past few days, eh? I've planted 3 GeoCaches in the Toledo area, and have visted four! I'm up to 15!
04/13/2001 - Visited Three Ponds Causeway.
04/13/2001 - Visited The Sisters.
04/13/2001 - Visited Observation Deck.
04/13/2001 - Visited Simply Elizabethan.
04/12/2001 - I've added a new page for 'Wasteland' on my site and put a link in my 'Cache's I've Created' section. You can find the page here.
04/12/2001 - Created YET ANOTHER new cache (number 4)! Check out Wasteland.
04/12/2001 - I've added a new page for 'Forest Cave' on my site and put a link in my 'Cache's I've Created' section. You can find the page here.
04/12/2001 - Created another new cache! Check out Forest Cave.
04/11/2001 - I've added a new page for 'Lil' Swamp Cave' on my site and put a link in my 'Cache's I've Created' section. You can find the page here.
04/11/2001 - Created a new cache! Check out Lil' Swamp Cave.
04/09/2001 - Found the cache Wild Skys, an aptly named GeoCache in the Wildwood Metropark Preserve in Toledo, OH. This is one of the most innovative things I have ever seen in my life (well, my short GeoCaching life). I urge anyone and everyone to seek this cache!!!
04/03/2001 - Hey all, I've added a 'Links' section to my page. This section now has links to two local fellow GeoCacher's web pages, as well as a new Yahoo WebRing link to the GeoCacher's webring! Check the links out!
04/02/2001 - Went back to My Old School, found it! 04/02/2001 - Went to Blue Hole and Fish in Castalia, OH. Found it! Bearly got in and out. Found the cache at 3:17PM, it closes at 3:30PM! Cool! 03/30/2001 - Drove all the way to My Old School near the campus of U of M in Ann Arbor, MI. Was quite a drive during late rush hour coming from another cache. In any case, by the time we found a parking spot (not the recommend one, which required a permit, we parked across the river in a large open parking lot near a baseball/football field), it was so dark. We walked all the way back there, climbed the hill, but Nicki got tired and went back. I walked the rest of the way, and by the time my GPS said I was at ground zero it was SO dark I couldn't see the ground good enough to even try and hunt. Shit! I walked back because I didn't feel like leaving Nicki there all by herself :). We drove all the way back to Toledo. Argh. I'll be back! 03/30/2001 - Went back to Rocky Recluse earlier this time. Found it! Was cool climbing down the rocks. Nice location, was a very cool breeze coming off the lake though! 03/36/2001 - Went to Rocky Recluse. Didn't find it! All the gates were locked at around 6:30PM, but it was still daylight. Shit! 03/23/2001 - Went back to Tory & Drew's Riverview AGAIN. Found it this time!!! A BIG THANKS go out to Ryck Zarich!!! I had to call him up on his cell phone to get some clues. He found it after getting some more clues and a new set of coordinates. I went back using these coordinates, but it seemed to me they were still off. I think there maybe a cellular tower somewhere in the area causing GPS readings to be wack :(. Or maybe it's just me. In any case, I came, I saw, I conquered :). 03/11/2001 - Went back to Tory & Drew's Riverview for THREE HOURS. STILL COULD NOT FIND IT! I'm convinced it's not there. Maybe some kids took it. I tried to look for covered foxholes, but to no avail! I used BOTH my new GPS, and my trusty DeLorme Earthmate! Wow! 03/10/2001 - Tried to visit Tory & Drew's Riverview, in the Side-Cut MetroPark (Maumee), but was unable to find the cache. I used my new GPS to find the coordinates, but no cache could be found. I stayed until dark!!! 03/10/2001 - Got a new GPS, a Magellan 315. I got this baby for $158 WITH the serial data/auto power cable AND 3-year Best Buy warranty. That's tax, too! It had apparently been taken back to Best Buy for some reason. I didn't get a box, but I got the manual & carrying cable. Works pretty good! My PocketPC found it with no problems. Awesome! 03/07/2001 - Visited NovaNikki, in the Swan Creek Toledo MetroPark. Pretty cool location. No BIG hills to climb :) 03/04/2001 - Visited the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area (CVNRA) today. Man oh man was it different than around Toledo & Michigan. Around here it's totally flat. Out there, it's three dimensional! Very large hills. In any case, we visited the Boston Run and Virginia Kendall Ledges caches. Thought both were pretty good, although the Boston Run cache had some hills and streams to cross (not deep, was able to cross in shoes). But upon trying to locate Blossom and Blossom 2, we failed miserably, and ended up walking for MILES and MILES. I probably lost 20 pounds, though :). If you plan on visiting the CVNRA, and have never dealt with hills before on your journeys, GET SOME TOPOGRAPHY TOOLS AND USE THEM! I had a topo map, but failed to utilize it. I won't make that mistake again, ever! 02/28/2001 - Visited the cache Squirrel Nutkin, near Flat Rock, MI!!! 02/25/2001 - Am current planning on visiting the Cleveland, OH area next weekend with girlfriend to checkout the 10+ stashes there!!! Am going to go Saturday night, visit Cleveland, and (hopefully) get up early and check out the stash man! 02/25/2001 - Visited Power Lady near Erie, MI. Pretty cool location! Especially at sundown!!! 02/25/2001 - Visited Marblehead Quarry. A very nice place to go on the weekend. Also a nice little trek. 02/24/2001 - East_Side_Docks_River_Run_1 cache hidden! 02/24/2001 - Page first posted