Orienteering Training

Today I assisted with the training at Ernie Miller Park. As usual Dick Neuburger did a great job teaching the orienteering class. We had 19 students in attendance.

My Pedometer battery quite some time yesterday.

Mennonite Country

This afternoon we drove north to grab some of the caches in our hundred mile circle. We drove through Jamesport. A very neat town to visit made up mostly of Mennonites. As we drove out in the country we noticed hardly any of the houses had electricity run to them. No cars. Lots of horses and buggies. Quite different than the corporate world I left a couple hours ago at the Sprint Campus. The corporate world just gets more stressful as time passes. I don’t think these peoples lives have changed much in the last hundred years. We enjoyed our trip.

Today's Stats:
6 Geocaches.
6402 Steps Today – 3.03 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
293 Calories Burned.

2 1/2 mile walk around the Sprint Campus

I don't have the pedometer reading today, but we walked about 2 1/2 miles around the Sprint Campus. We took the outer cirle for most of the walk.

Mary Had Oral Surgery Today

Today I took Mary to the Oral Surgeon to have the remains of a root canal removed. They knocked her out. About an hour later I went in and she asked me if it was over. She missed the whole thing. I took her home and worked from home while she slept. She finally came around about 4:00 p.m. and seems to be doing fine.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
1519 Steps Today - .71 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
42 Calories Burned.

The Long Walk Around The Sprint Campus

Today at noon Andy and I were walking around the Sprint Campus when Andy said, "Lets go check on our caches". A couple months ago we had hidden a couple micro caches to help Lisa learn to use her new GPS. We left them in place for others to practice finding. We've had a couple other people find the caches. After checking our caches we finished the walk on the outside loop. It turned out to be nearly double our normal noon walk. Now we're talking about putting out a couple more caches somewhere on the campus.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
6252 Steps Today - 2.96 miles.
4719 Aerobic Steps.
280 Calories Burned.

Western Auto Boardwalk

This evening we met with Will Staller, the park director at Kemper Outdoor Education Center in Jackson County. He escorted me to a beautiful place. We both agreed on a location and name for our 87th cache.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4238 Steps Today - 2.00 miles.
2039 Aerobic Steps.
169 Calories Burned.

Caching in Wichita Day 2

We’re still in Wichita, Kansas today. We’re caching with Brian & Carlin. Mary and I got up a little late and we got a late start. We spent at least 2 hours at the Wichita State University looking for Bronze Statues. We found all but two of them and finally gave up. We did have a great day caching after that in and around Wichita. We arrived home about 9:00 p.m. tonight and we’re pretty tried.

Pictures of the Wichita Event

Today's Stats:
16 Geocaches.
15849 Steps Today – 7.5 miles.
5226 Aerobic Steps.
736 Calories Burned.

Caching in Wichita

This morning we woke up in Wichita, Kansas. We started early when there was still frost on the new grass. Brian and I located the 5 event caches for the Wichita Event by about 9:30 a.m. and started hunting other caches that we both had not found previously. At noon we attended the Wichita Event. We had a great time and met and lot of cachers from all over Kansas. After the event we went to the “Sitting On A Spider” cache. Brian had not done this one before. Mary and I had done it back in March 2002 when it first came out. We ended up with 16 people from the event out there. Some of us went across the Kansas Turnpike Bridge instead of wading the river to the cache. After a trooper watched us for a while retrieving the cache, we all decided to wade the river back across. We had a lot of fun caching with some of the folks that attended the event the rest of the day. We ended up caching with them up until about 11:00 p.m. tonight. We had a great day caching in Wichita.

Today's Stats:
12 Geocaches.
25384 Steps Today – 12.01 miles.
3588 Aerobic Steps.
1182 Calories Burned.

Caching in Wichita, Kansas

Today we had to grand privilege of traveling to Wichita, Kansas with Brian and Carlin Yonke. We located 8 caches on the way to Wichita. The afternoon was very windy. We plan to attend a geocaching event tomorrow here in Wichita and find so more caches around town.

Today's Stats:
8 Geocaches.
6166 Steps Today - 2.91 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
247 Calories Burned.

PTOC Map Repository

Today at noon we found a new home for our KCopoly #1 cache. At the old location they sawed the tree down and hauled it away with my cache. I guess it's just as well because the restaurant we were using for the monopoly deed name is also gone.

This evening it was my privilege to get the PTOC Map Repository working again. This time I have a copy of the code on my laptop.

I spent some time getting my waypoints ready for a caching trip to Wichita this weekend with Brian and Carlin. I have waypoints plotted on Street Atlas and Streets & Trips. I have the GPX file loaded in my PocketPC. I have the waypoints loaded in my GPSmap 76CS. I even upgraded my 76CS to the latest firmware version 3.8. I think I'm ready for the trip.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
10946 Steps Today - 5.18 miles.
1325 Aerobic Steps.
520 Calories Burned.

PTOC Web Site Is Down

Our PTOC.org web site was down for a while yesterday afternoon. I don't know when they got it back up last night, but this evening I learned that all my work I did for the new Map Repository is lost. This was very distrubing news. I really put a lot of work into making this process work. I guess I get to do it again.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
1872 Steps Today - .88 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
71 Calories Burned.

Fixed The Refrigerator Again

A few days ago our refrigerator quit again. The problem seems to be that it does not defrost. The cooling coils were one big block of ice. Mary picked up a new defroster heater with thermocouple today. I installed it tonight. After cleaning things up and plugging it in, it was making ice in a couple hours. I hope it's good for another year or two.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4399 Steps Today - 2.08 miles.
2612 Aerobic Steps.
200 Calories Burned.

Added A New Page To PTOC Web Site

Since detailed color maps are a big resource for the club and we had a need to assymbol all the maps in a secure place, I wrote a new page for our club web site to allow the Map Administrator to grant permission on a per map per person basis. I put it into production mode this evening and it seems to be doing it's job.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4243 Steps Today - 2.00 miles.
3030 Aerobic Steps.
177 Calories Burned.

Orienteering FAILURE

I've been orienteering since 2001. Today was my worst orienteering failure ever. I started the Green course (5.4 km) at the Rockwoods Range near St. Louis at 10:10 a.m. I thought I was working with a 1:15000 map. Later I learned it was a 1:10000 map. My first mistake. The first control seemed easy but I overshot and it took me a while to find it. Control #2 looked like a real challenge, but I had a plan. Go back to the top of the hill and follow the trail around the long way which I thought was the sure way. The trail at the top of the hill didn't look right. It was too dim, but I followed it west none the less. After a while it played out so I knew I was not on the main trail. I thought, no problem, I think I know where I'm at, so proceed on. In a little while I knew I was lost. After relocating twice I found control #2 at 11:15 a.m. By this time I was pretty upset with myself, but at least I knew where I was. I had no problems finding control #3. I thought I better use the trails to control #4. Simple I thought, just take the 3rd right on the trails. That didn't work. I came to a "T" in the trail that was not on the map. I had to go left or right. The map showed straight. I choose left. Somewhere along here I just gave up. It was approaching 12:00 noon. I headed to the start and called Mary to pick me up. WHAT AN UTTER FAILURE. I'm really upset with myself. Is there any hope that I'll ever learn to orienteer?

We stuck around at the finish for a while and I was so upset with myself that we just headed home. Mary got us home in 4 hours at 4:30 p.m. I'll be hard pressed to try this again.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
10292 Steps Today - 4.87 miles.
3553 Aerobic Steps.
482 Calories Burned.

First "A" Meet

Today I participated in my first "A" Meet in St. Louis. I did the Green 2.7 km short course this morning. I had a lot of trouble with control #11. I had to just completely relocate and start over.

This afternoon I participated in a 3 person team relay with Nancy Neuburger her friend Fran. I did loop #2 which was 4.3 km. I did my loop in under an hour. It was a lot of fun.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
19355 Steps Today - 9.16 miles.
13758 Aerobic Steps.
905 Calories Burned.

Orienteering in St. Louis

Today we traveled to St. Louis to attend our first "A" Meet. This an orienteering event sactioned by United States Orienteering Federation (USOF). We arrived early enough that I could go out to Emmenegger park and run the model course. This is suppose to give you a good idea of the mapper's style and give some practice before the competition tomorrow.

Today's Stats:
2 Geocaches.
13242 Steps Today - 6.26 miles.
4750 Aerobic Steps.
611 Calories Burned.

Arm Chair Orienteering

Today and this eveing I've spent a lot of time studying symbols and maps trying prepare myself mentally for the event at St. Louis this coming weekend. I'm having a hard time making the right route choice when there are so many.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2036 Steps Today - 0.96 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
66 Calories Burned.

Orienteering at Shawnee Mission

I spent a couple hours Orienteering at Shawnee Mission this evening. I'm really worried about the competition at St. Louis this coming weekend. I decided this would be the best practice I could get before going to St. Louis. I grabbed the Shawnee Mission Cliffhanger while we were there. I located 10 Trim Course controls and spent a lot of time comparing the terrain with the map.

Today's Stats:
3 Geocaches.
10298 Steps Today - 4.87 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
474 Calories Burned.

Geocaching & Orienteering

This evening I went after the Cropperz Stickup cache in Longview Park. I figured it would give me a couple miles in the woods and would help me get ready for the big orienteering event in St. Louis this coming weekend. I really enjoyed the woods this evening. The creek was almost a roar of water rushing over the rocks. The different shades of green was just beautiful.

Today's Stats:
1 Geocaches.
6795 Steps Today - 3.21 miles.
2630 Aerobic Steps.
317 Calories Burned.

Caching In Topeka, Kansas

Since we have not been caching for a while waiting on Mary's knee to heal, 6 caches have popped up over in Topeka. We were only able to grab 4 of them before dark this evening. Our favorite for the evening was "Old Prairie Town at Historic Ward-Meade Site". We thought this was a very nice find. We enjoyed walking around the little Prairie Town.

Today's Stats:
4 Geocaches.
8948 Steps Today - 4.23 miles.
3445 Aerobic Steps.
414 Calories Burned.

Third Place - Geocaching Hard Course

This morning we attended the awards ceremony where I received the 3rd place award for finding 15 punches on the Geocaching Hard course. Come to find out I actually tied for 2nd place but Bruce S. came in a few minutes before me. We both had 15 finds.

Today all I wanted to do was nothing, but there were lots of caches close to the highway on our return trip. We traveled with Brian and Carlin from Sullivan back to Kansas City. We decided to get a few of the Event Caches in Meramec State Park before leaving for home. I think we found 6 in the park and another 8 on the route home. I was really feeling low before we got home about 9:30 p.m. I was just not ready for this much physical activity yet. Maybe this will help get me ready for the Orienteering competition next weekend.

Today's Stats:
14 Geocaches.
10946 Steps Today – 5.18 miles.
1325 Aerobic Steps.
520 Calories Burned.

MOGA 2005, Sullivan, Missouri

Today was a very hard day for me. At 9:00 a.m. I entered the Geocaching Hard Course. It was 3 hours of find as many Orienteering Style Punches in very hilly terrain in Meramec State Park. I got too much sun and was exhausted when I finish the course. I found 15 punches and came in on time.

This afternoon I teamed up with Brian Yonke to do the Easy Couples Course. Carlin is still recuperating from a sprained ankle and not up to helping Brian with the course. This was another 3 hours too much sun and I think the caches/punches were harder than the hard course this morning. We also came in about 8 minutes late so we lost a punch for every minute we were late. I was really dragging low when we finished this a little after 5:00 p.m.

We met a bunch of cachers at Buffalo's Southwest Cafe and enjoyed a great meal together. After diner we returned to Shelter #1 and enjoyed a great presentation put on by some of the park people and some cachers. I bet I sleep well tonight.

I think I broke my step count record today.

Today's Stats:
1 Geocaches.
24113 Steps Today – 11.41 miles.
11299 Aerobic Steps.
1155 Calories Burned.

Trip To Sullivan, Missouri

This afternoon we made out way down to Sullivan, Missouri to entry the MOGA 2005 completion. (Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure). We met Brian and Carlin Yonke down in Jefferson City at a geocache and traveled with them on down to Sullivan. We caught several caches on the way down. It got dark on us after we found the "Little Caboose" in Cuba, Missouri. We enjoyed a nice meal together before going to Meramec State Park where we spent the night, ready for the big competition tomorrow. I wish I could have done more to get ready phyically, but I have just not felt like it.

Today's Stats:
4 Geocaches.
3676 Steps Today – 1.74 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
147 Calories Burned.

Getting Ready for MOGA 2005

This evening we're getting ready for our trip to Sullivan, Missouri to attend MOGA 2005 (Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure). I've downloaded 324 waypoints and loaded them into GSAK. Batteries are charging. I guess I'm ready except for being phycially fit. I plan to compete in the Individual Hard course.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2102 Steps Today – 0.99 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
77 Calories Burned.

Still Moving Slow

I went back to work today, but I'm still not up to par. This being sick thing is tough. Mary's doing much better with her upper respiratory infection.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2490 Steps Today – 1.17 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
101 Calories Burned.

Head Cold - Work from Home

I feel bad. I stayed home today. Nose running and sneezing all day.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
236 Steps Today – 0.11 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
11 Calories Burned.

Back To Work After Staying with Mary 3 Weeks

Mary's knee seems to be doing very good. Her biggest problem lately has been this upper respiratory infection. Today she actually beginning to feel better. I have not felt good all day. This evening I sneezed my head off for hours. I took a big dose of Night quill and went to bed early.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2381 Steps Today – 1.12 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
96 Calories Burned.

Sunday the Day After

I feel like a big burden has been lifted. I just kind of crashed today and did not do much. I've been on antibiotics for the past 5 days for upper respiratory infection. I've been doing much better than Mary but I just don't feel good.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
1698 Steps Today – 0.80 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
79 Calories Burned.

Prairie Center Geocaching & Orienteering Event

I got up this morning at 5:30 a.m. to start getting ready for the Prairie Center Event today. Following is my offical meet report:

The weather today could not have been nicer. The skies were clear with temperatures in the 70’s. We had a great turn out. There were about 70 folks participating in the Geocaching 3-Hour Score O event and about 50 participants in the regular Orienteering courses. We had folks from St. Louis, MO, Manhattan, KS and Nebraska as well as lots of folks from the metropolitan Kansas City area attend this event.

In January I came up with the idea of making this a high tech event for GPS users in addition to the normal orienteering courses. I decided that by using all the control flags for the orienteering courses plus some extra containers and punches, we could have an extra Geocaching Score O course. It seems that since January this event has occupied most of my thoughts. I have plotted and planned and re-plotted and planned day and night for many weeks. This has been a lot of work, but a very fun learning experience.

I could not believe how many folks volunteered to help with this event. I really hate to name them for fear of missing someone, but I will try. First is Brian & Carlin Yonke (byonke) and Jim Shilt (webscouter). They have spent many, many hours vetting, helping me set the courses, printing maps, working registration, start/finish and you name it. They have been there to help and then there was the wonderful lunch Carlin prepared for the workers. It was outstanding. Thank you Carlin.

Jim Shilt said the worst part of being the start/finish manager was the loneliness. This is typical for the job of start/finish manager. I know the times that Mary and I have served as start/finish manager we felt separated from the action of the meet. Never-the-less Jim and Reta Roe stayed with the stuff and did an outstanding job running the start/finish line. Thank you Jim and Reta for your many hours of service down at the start finish line.

Then there was Reta Roe. She has given and given and given this season to help in every way she could to make the events more enjoyable. This meet was no exception. She served as assistant course setter using her GPS to layout her courses and hang the flags. She did the White and Yellow courses. She brought refreshments. She worked the Finish line chute to collect punch cards and help calculate the scores. She and her husband Bob furnished a Honda Generator and laptop computer that really contributed to the success of this meet. Thank you Reta for all that you did. We really appreciate it.

Nick Hockman has helped in every way possible this season. He has gone out of his way to make sure there were road signs placed to the meet location and provide the refreshments. He has used his own camp stove to provide the hot water for drinks. Nick has really done a bang up job making sure we had great refreshments at the meet. Thank you Nick.

Oh yes, there’s Dick & Nancy Neuburger. They work untold hours making every meet a success. They were out this morning at 6:30 a.m. running the courses and making sure everything was A-OK for the meet. Dick and Nancy serve in so many ways it’s impossible to name everything they do to promote orienteering in the Kansas City area. Thank you Dick and Nancy for everything you do. I for one really appreciate it.

I truly don’t want to forget those wonderful folks who picked up the controls after everyone had gone home. I would sure hate to forget someone here. Dick Luckerman, Tom Hanley, Cindy Kuenzi, Brian Yonke, Jim Shilt and Dan Welch all helped to collect the controls for the meet. This is always such a relief to the course setters who have spent weeks planning and placing the controls. Thank you guys for volunteering for this very important job. I appreciate it so very much.

I should also remember my two sons, Scott and Robby, and 4 grandkids, Bradley, Ashley, Preston, and Drew (ages 6-9) who all walked nearly 6km helping me put out the geocaches a week before the event.

One of the harder jobs to get a volunteer for is Photographer. Mark Roodhouse volunteered again to take pictures of the meet. He always does a very good job taking digital pictures and posting them to the PTOC Photo Gallery. If you have not viewed them yet please take a look at http://ptoc.org/gallery/index.php Thank you Mark.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen as many people hang around after they finished their course as today. It was great to see people visiting and just enjoying themselves. There was quite a crowd still on hand a couple hours after they had finished their courses. When the awards were given out we had a very nice crowd available to share the moment. Dick Neuburger did his usual terrific job giving out the awards to the Score O winners.

Speaking of Awards:
Geocaching Group:
• First Place Sumpter Etc.
• Second Place Sniffy & Friends
• Third Place Delta Kiowa

Geocaching Individual:
• First Place Eddie McLiney (ajayhawkfan)
• Second Place Wendell Smith (WSmith)
• Third Place Karl Knapp

Prairie Center holds a special place in my heart. I have learned so much about orienteering from this park. I have participated in the events at this park for the past four years. I have worked with Lou Betros, Kevin Shipley and Dick Neuburger field checking, course setting and learning OCAD. They have all been so helpful in my learning so many aspects of orienteering.

Steve Brown
Course Setter

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
6127 Steps Today – 2.90 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
246 Calories Burned.

Hanging the Orienteering Flags at Prairie Center

I took a vacation day today to get ready for the geocaching and orienteering event tomorrow at Prairie Center Nature Reserve. I met Reta Roe at Prairie Center at 10:00 a.m. this morning and together we hung all the flags for the event. This evening I loaded the van with all the supplies and equipment that I need for in the morning. This is very nerve racking. Trying to make sure everything is right for the event.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
8221 Steps Today – 3.89 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
343 Calories Burned.