Table of Contents

Cover Page

Caching in the San Rafael Swell

A Review of the Garmin GPSmap 60C

The Caches of American Fork

Regular Features

Updates and Notes

Chuckles

Credits

Writing mentors are famous for saying, "Write about what you know." And, since I needed another article for the magazine so that DeViDe's article could be published well before their Fun in San Rafael event this month, I decided to whip out a short article on what I know--The Caches of American Fork. I know about them because, with only a couple exceptions, they're all mine--don't ask me why. They are all easy to access but are varied in nature and difficulty. For the sake of some semblance of order I'll discuss them in the order in which they were placed.

That means we need to start with one that isn't mine. Lovers Lane was probably the second cache I ever found, and the first where I took LadyLeAnn and LordSteven along. I was hidden under an old building near the Star Flour Mill in American Fork. It is on a short little one-way lane that has abundant tree cover and parallels a small stream. It IS quite a cozy little corner of town. The cache container has gone missing often enough that it is now a virtual (according to the cache description) even though the official designation still shows it as a regular cache. If you come for this one the real draw should be a chance to visit the Star Flour Mill which is now a small museum/boutique affair.

Shortly after beginning my addiction with geocaching, I felt the need to "give back" to the community at-large and share my new activities with others by putting out a few caches of my own. However, I don't like the ordinary and mundane "cache box with a few trinkets inside". I've tried to make my caches more interesting and memorable.

The first cache I ever placed is called The Bookworm Cache and uses a paperback book trading theme. The cache is still available and still has people dropping by to trade books.

I then decided to place a virtual cache. I knew these had to be of special interest, so I picked an easy to find, but often overlooked, historical marker in a park downtown. This cache is called American Fork Fort Wall and commemorates the site of fort built by the original settlers of the city. On top of the monument is the bell that was originally housed in the first City Hall. Since placing this cache, I've added links on the cache page to two newspaper articles that have been written by a local author about the fort and the bell.

While I was in virtual cache mode, I ran across a couple of other interesting sites and decided to create another virtual cache: Tales From the Crypt. This cache added two other features--it is a multi-cache, and it requires you to build the coordinates to the next stage from information you have to find at the current location. I picked the name because the cache starts out at the burial plot of some of my ancestors.

It wasn't until September of 2002 that I placed the next of American Fork's caches. I had noticed a fun theme cache that SpiderTracks has out near Duchesne called Playing With a Full Deck????. I decided that a similar cache in Utah Valley would be fun and might even draw more action since there are more cachers in this area. After asking SpiderTracks for permission to copy his idea, I placed my cache and called it All Hands on Deck. It asks visitors to trade a single playing card from a deck of their own for one of the remaining untraded cards in the cache. To date, there are only 16 of the original 54 cards left untraded. When these are gone, the cache will be archived, so hurry on down and trade a card while you still can. The deck of cards in the cache is a special Riverboat deck designed to look like the cards used on the Mississippi Riverboat casinos. Each card has a sticker explaining that it came from this cache. So supplies are limited. First come, first servered. Don't delay. You snooze, you lose.

About this same time, LordSteven (now known as SheebSheep) decided he wanted to place his own cache and so the Hot Wheels Hotel was born. As the name implies, it had a theme of trading Hot Wheels and Matchbox type cars. It has since been lost and is currently unavailable. SheebSheep originally vowed to replace it but has yet to do so. We'll rattle his chain a little and see what happens.

I don't really remember what gave me the idea for my series of Burma Caches other than I was trying to come up with a fun and easy way to do a multi-cache. I remembered reading some of the original Burma Shave signs when I was a kid and converted that concept into my first Burma Cache which is in American Fork. It is called Burma Cache #1 and is the first of eight (so far). Instead of using a rhyme as the Burma Shave signs did, I decided to use some short humorous phrases. Beware, though, that you can't always tell what the complete phrase is by the first one or two parts. I like to add a twist to the more common phrases so that I can tell if you've actually found all of them.

My next cache was inspired by one that Blindman did in the Provo area. It more closely follows the basic concept of the famous board game, Clue, because to find the cache you need to solve the mystery of WHO dunnit? WHERE was it done? and with WHAT weapon? To avoid any copyright conflict with the board game, I purposely changed the spelling when I named my cache. It is called Cloo Game #1 - American Fork. There are 18 washers placed around American Fork, each with a code word stamped on it. Six of them are for possible people, six are for weapons, and six are for places. You need to find as many as it takes to solve the mystery. Each code word is used to access its corresponding webpage that tells you whether or not it is part of the solution. When you've found all three parts you will have enough information to access the webpage that will divulge the actual cache coordinates and the combination to the padlock that keep curious hands from plundering the cache should they happen upon it accidentally. As the name implies, this was originally intended to be the first of a series of similar caches. I have another in progress but haven't ever gotten around to finishing it. Maybe with some encouragement...

Finally, someone else placed another cache in American Fork for me to find. The Schmidt-Family placed The Bridge Tin Tin Cache in March of 2003. This is still available and was quite popular the day of my Luck o' the Irish / Springtime Event cache as it is easy to find and located quite close to the site of the event. The container is rather small (flat) so no bulky items can be traded. Most just sign the the log. This is the cache that UtahJean found by walking UNDER the freeway through a dry creekbed. I still get shivers when I think about that.

One last cache, AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, is located on the outskirts of town and is still available. It was placed by Jazzfan and Family and has a patriotic red-white-and-blue theme.

I only remember three other caches that have been in American Fork. One was missing when I first started caching and was archived shortly after that. Another was a Thanksgiving Day themed cache in the southeastern corner of town which has also been archived. The third, also archived now, was a fun multi-stage cache with "RIP" in the name (which I don't remember). The "RIP" stood for three different things: Rest-in-Peace, Rust-in-Peace, and Rest-in-Pipe, each of which related to that stage of the cache. I remember that because I thought it was quite clever.

All in all, American Fork still has a good variety of caches to offer. I'll have to see about adding some more. And there are several more in the surrounding area that also deserve your attention. But in the meantime, keep on caching wherever you are.