The Official E-Zine of the
Utah Association of Geocachers
Issue 2 -- February 2004
Table of Contents
The January Snowshoe/Cross-Country Skiing Event
Regular Features
UTAG Home
Getting to Know UtahJean
by Cach-U-Nuts
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My first recollection of Utah Jean was when she got involved with the Utah Megacache in the Summer of 2001. The Megacache was the brainchild of BunkerDave. He organized several of us hardcore geocachers to place a series of 8 caches placed throughout the entire state. The grand prize was a new gps that had been donated by one of the cachers. The first finder got the most points so it was important to be first. Final score from all 8 caches would determine the winner.
July 28, 2001 by antloumc (59 found) I just had to do this one. Just this week my husband surprised me with my own GPS. Alright, no more borrowing! My son lost his hat today (he took it from one of the Junk Caches where bunkerdave had left it)so when we reached this cache and it had a hat in it he had to have it. We also took one coded item. We left a radio headset and a President coin. Now I'm ready for the next cache. Antloumc, Nickdanger and friend
July 30, 2001 by UtahJean (963 found) Don't know if I'll be in the top four or not because others were there before me. Didn't get an early start because of a dental appointment. Bummer. Long drive, but scenic, at least until I got there. Had to hustle because a big dark thunderstorm was just getting to the cache site. Spooky forest when it's dark with thunder and lightning. I took my picture (flash didn't work)and the secret item and wrote down the code and high-tailed it out of there scaring the bejees out of a cow elk who startled me just as much. Beautiful rainbow touching down right at the cache site as I broke free of the storm clouds. Cache on, folks! Utah Jean July 30, 2001 by antloumc (59 found) This is a great area, I'll have to remember it for future use. Traded some sun screen for the code item. Enjoyed the cache, thanks.
July 31, 2001 by antloumc (59 found) I'm glad I didn't have any car problems, didn't see a soul. I made a bad choice when picking my roads and had to back track. I could see where I wanted to be but couldn't get over there. I took the code item and left a small chapstick, the cache box is full. July 31, 2001 by internetjunkie (17 found) You guys can be relieved now, we took our time to get to this one. We thought we'd give everybody else a chance this time. We passed about 10 antelopes. We did stop in Wendover on the way home. This is great fun, hope it is for everyone else too. We left a refrigerator thermometer and took the mouse pad. Greg, Marie, and Scott (internetjunkie) August 1, 2001 by Gadgetman7 (23 found) User's web page Pilot Zeros... cool. I was with the internetjunkie team, saw lots of antelope, took the Nevada rollercoaster road on the way there, but took the Utah pipeline road on the way back (shortcut). We drove right to the closest location possible by looking at the active topographical map on my laptop (with one of the many GPS's feeding the PC's topo map with NMEA), and walked over to the ZEROS. Nice stash, you guys do good work. Scott.
August 4, 2001 by Gadgetman7 (23 found) User's web page I had a great time findin’ this cache. Long drive from Ogden, but the view was worth it in the end. Now Marie and UtahJean are not really into the “Rubicon Trail type” of driving conditions, but “I LIVE FOR IT!!!” So I’ll have a slightly different opinion of the trail to get to this cache than they’re opinion of the trail. Marie and Jean both mention in their postings about how bad the road was… difficult terrain, scary, trash your vehicle etc…. but I was in heaven! I loved it. I’ve always pounded my various rigs off-road all my life, and always wanted to do the Rubicon Trail in California (or the Lion’s back in Moab, where I lived as a kid) while driving an extremely modified suspension CJ-5 or something… which would have been better on this trail than the ’99 Ford F-350 Crew Cab long bed (172.4” wheelbase) that I drive, but I did have my Polaris 4x4 ATV in the back of my truck if the trail got bad. The 5” lift and 35’s helped to offset the extremely long wheelbase of my truck, and increased my approach and decent angles. UtahJean had a 2 hour head start on us (I’m actually part of the “InternetJunkie” team in this series) but my “Mickey Thompsen” off-road racing driving style helped us to make up that lost time, and we ended up being there first. The short chat we had with UtahJean and MailboxMan was pleasant, they are very nice. The 7-year cycle for the rabbit population must be at it’s peak… tons of those critters out there, and I almost hit a BOBCAT running right in front of me also… beautiful sight that was too. We took a couple of lifesavers, and the coded item, and left a CD and a floppy and some index cards. The Bryce Canyon scenic view was a bonus also. Well done cache stashers… keep up the good work. Scott. (KD7EKO, transmitting APRS from the GPS also) August 4, 2001 by UtahJean (1018 found) I know I'm not first--the Internet Junkies passed us by on the way in and then stopped to chat with us on their way out. We really enjoyed meeting them--a couple of nuts just like us. Yes, B.Dave, it was an ordeal. MailboxMan and I took off just after the posting and drove all night arriving about 4.5 miles (GPS as-the-crow-flies) from the cache location around 5 a.m. Not having the fancy rig that the Junkies have, we opted not to trash our vehicle and began walking before daylight. This part was really beautiful, with Jupiter and Venus in close conjunction leading our way to the east and the surrounding Ayers-Rock-type cliffs and mounds glowing in the bright moonlight. As daylight began to reveal our route, Mailbox Man stated he wasn’t this nuts and decided to drop back and wait for me. The real distance turned out to be much more than the GPS reading. I thought I would NEVER get there, but finally did just after sunrise. I knew I had to hurry to beat the heat once the sun climbed into the sky, so I logged in quickly, collected the needed items and snapped a few pictures of the area, including one of a motor boat cruising up the inlet far below me--fantastic view. Left a necklace with a grinning Mr Sunshine which represented my enemy for the walk back. I drank every drop of the two liters of water I carried and was dragging by the time I reached the heavenly air-conditioning in our vehicle. The bad spots we had to go back over were a bit easier in the daylight, but still UGLY!! I can't comprehend how Scott and Marie got their truck through in one piece. So, hey, I survived, got the email sent and just got home and am waiting to see how we all placed. When I recover I might even decide it was a lot of fun. Be careful any of you who go there. If you get stuck, passersby to help you out are rare. You need a lot of motor and super high clearance and a lot of common sense and plenty of drinking water. Now for that shower and some sleep......what a day! Cache on, everybody. UtahJean Mega Cache Number Five
Finally Meeting Jean at The Stumpy Pot Luck EventThe next day was our chance to finally meet the elusive UtahJean. BunkerDave had arranged a geocaching picnic at a small park in the Salt Lake valley. It was called Stumpy's Jack-Pot-Luck . Not a single picture was posted at that event. Back then the only people who had digital cameras were the Gadgetman and InternetJunkie and they were not at the event. We were so busy running a caching poker game that we didn't have much of a chance to visit with or get to know UtahJean. What does stand out is that she brought some terrific pies to the event. Here are some of our logs from the event. And I also remembered that she drove a white Ford Explorer. This would come in handy a few days later.August 9, 2001 by UtahJean (963 found) Ooops. Accidently logged the following as a find: Hi BunkerDave et al, It really would be great to come and meet all you caching folks, and I want to say I'll be there along with Mailbox Man, but....what about the MegaCache game? Who knows where the heck you're planning to send us this time. If it's way off in the hinterlands with more of that all night stuff, I don't know where in the world we'll be by Saturday. Can't decide which of the two events I'd rather do. The picnic sounds fun and lazy--nice. That last megacache was fun too, but absolutely not a picnic. Hmmmm....will ponder this and get back to you. UtahJean August 11, 2001 by bunkerdave (347 found) This was a fabulous gathering. The food was far better than I could have imagined it would be, and we had a great turn-out. I enjoyed meeting so many of you, though I was a little disappointed to not get to spend more time with all of you. The Cach-U-Nuts provided a great game, chasing the little Bug-Nuts all over the neighborhood. Very appropriate and enjoyable. We discussed the BLM issues briefly, along with the cache in, trash out program and the possibilty of a Utah Geocaching website. Also discussed among smaller groups was an adopt-a-highway effort, to get us together more often and to increase our visibility. All good ideas. Thanks to all who attended, I had a wonderful time, and believe you did, too. Let's do it again soon - Elwood mentioned it was about time to have one up North in his neck of the woods, so maybe we should let him do that. I will be there, wherever it is held. August 11, 2001 by Cach-U-Nuts (583 found) I'll go ahead an log this as a find like the others decided to do. We had a marvelous time meeting and talking with our fellow Utah geocachers. We haven't really met a geocacher that we didn't like. We are amazed at what a bunch of generous, fun loving people you all are. Especially enjoyed talking with Utah Jean and Aunt Lou about their experiences with the Utah Mega Cache. It was great to talk to Lone Wolf who had called us earlier in the day from the top of Zeus's Roost on his cell phone. Congratulations to JJS1411 on winning our little game. My only regret is that I forgot to take out my camera and take pictures! I really wanted to post photos of the people who came to the picnic for everyone else to see. I'm sure everyone in Utah wants to see what our legendary lady geocacher (Utah Jean) looks like, who hiked 12 miles through the Southern Utah desert by herself in the middle of the night to find the hole in the head (I mean Rock) mega cache. Looking forward to our next get together. Cache on! August 11, 2001 by UtahJean (963 found) Glad you enjoyed my pies. I thoroughly enjoyed you....and the cache game and I love my little cachu-ant! UtahJean Our First of Many Encounters Out Caching
A week later there had been several logs stating that the cache must be missing. So on my lunch hour I decided to drive back out there to see if it was really missing. As I drove up and parked I noticed a white Ford Explorer and thought "Wouldn't it be funny if that belonged to UtahJean?" I'll just let our logs tell the story. August 15, 2001 by Cach-U-Nuts (583 found) After reading all the no-finds in the logs I decided to come see if it was still here. I also wanted to get Yogi Bear from the Pink Floyd cache which I did successfully. Unfortunately, the Dolphin Lover's cache is not where I found it previously. It seems to be gone lock, stock, flippers and all contents. But I did find an original treasure of a different sort. The legendary Utah Jean. We had quite a nice chat. We were both disappointed that the cache along with a cach-u-nut has disappeared. I wonder if one of those railroad workers I saw the other day came over and found it. I guess we'll never know. Well, all we can do is cache on. (But not here.) August 15, 2001 by UtahJean (963 found) Thought I was going to nail another Cach-u-nut today. Instead I ran into Mr. Cach-u-nut himself which was a surprise. I had unsuccessfully been looking for the cache and was heading back to my car for the printout. Apparently, someone had notified him this cache was MIA and he came to check on it during his lunch hour. Yes, it is gone--we couldn't find it. Rats! Nice talking to Craig again though.
Jean you are an amazing woman and we all love and admire you!
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