Siksika Geocoin

Just testing the pictures, seem to have a problem loading.

As many of you know, I got a new toy Ok, new to me but a toy none-the-less. My new baby is a 1998 Jeep Wrangler Sahara that sports a nice lift-kit and BIG tires. I’ve decided it’s a “she” but I haven’t picked out a name for her yet. I’ve got a couple ideas, still sleepin’ on it though.

As usual, I can never decide what I want to do when it’s time for an adventure, I started out thinking I was going to head to National Bison Range in Moiese, Montana but with the weather being rainy and snowy, I did some researching which lead from one fun place to another. Before I knew it, I had spent 2 hours on the internet finding more places I needed to visit and no time getting ready to go somewhere. It’s tough having so many options so close to me, I always say the same thing; Montana is like an outdoor playground, there’s something for every outdoorsy person.

I narrowed down my choice to something close to home, Tower Rock State Park in Hardy Creek, Montana. It’s between Helena and Great Falls and about 40 – 45 miles from where I live. I’ve been by there hundreds of times and finally decided to check it out, heck I didn’t even know it was a State Park, although not a big one. I knew there was a geocache located there and much to my excitement an earthcache too (I love EC’s)! I downloaded the coordinates, grabbed my backpack, headed out the door and loaded up the Jeep.

Tristin and Sundance were running circles around the Jeep and I decided I’d let them come along too. This was our first trip in the Jeep together, they’re used to driving in the roomy truck. MISTAKE! I felt like a mom whose kids start acting up in the grocery store. I had the window down and both dogs were trying to sit in the front seat. Sundance is an angel when riding, Tristin is the monster. Poor Sundance was getting trampled by Tristin who was head out the window, then in the back seat, and back to the front squashing Sundance, rinse and repeat. Both were panting heavily and being spring shedding season, my seatcover was full of fur within 5 minutes. Needless to say, I pulled over at Gates of the Mountains where I let both dogs out to run around and do some sniffing. After about 10 – 15 minutes, loaded them up and headed back to the house and dropped them off, haha. There was no way I was going to have a peaceful trip with Tristin acting like a monster, I can’t take one and leave the other so they both stayed home. Ended up being a smart decision in the long run!

I can’t claim the weather was great but there was no heavy rain involved so I won’t complain. I took my time along Recreation Rd. which parallels Interstate 15 for the most part but runs along the Missouri river. I LOVE this drive, always have. It’s in the canyon, where you are surrounded by mountains and cliffs. At times, I’ve come across young black bears feeding on berries along the side of the road, I’ve watched a bald eagle scoop up a trout right of the river and fly right in front of my vehicle (that was awesome), I could see the trout’s detailing, plain as day. Lots of flora and fauna on this route not to mention some impressive homes.

When I arrived at Tower Rock, I gazed at the area I would soon be climbing and thought how beautiful it all appeared. I grabbed my backpack and headed over to the informational area where I did a little reading and picture taking. One of the signs said something about rattlesnakes but being cold out, I wasn’t too worried about them. Now putting one foot in front of the other, down the trail I went.

About 250 feet in, I would need to make a right turn into all the boulders if I wanted to grab the cache but I decided to wait until after my hike to grab it. So continuing on, I logged more steps towards my goal. I took in some gorgeous views (you can see a video I posted to youtube), I love Spring when everything is so green and wildflowers are blooming. There is something so refreshing about everything coming back to life. It makes you feel so alive and adds so pep to your step, that is until you round the corner and see the incline I’m going to have to make.

I admit, I’m not the fastest climber not do I have the stamina of a racing horse but I do have determination and a serious sense of curiosity going for me. What this really means is I may have to stop alot but I do keep going because I want to see what everything looks like from “way up there”. Plus I like the little surprises that Mother Nature gives along the way, mountain bluebirds, mule deer and watching a bumblebee searching for the perfect flower.

About .49 miles in there’s a sign that reads “end of designated trail” and now the hard part presents itself, which way should I continue hiking? I can see where others have gone before me so I follow that route, it bears to the right and towards the northern most tower. It’s a slow and arduous climb but I do conquer the mountain! It’s about 50 degrees, slight rain shower and I’m in a tank top and light cargo pants sweating like I’m in the dead heat of the Sahara desert. It’s about this time when I chiding myself for being really stupid, I left my water bottle with the Jeep because it’s not going to take me very long to get up here. It’s times like this when I have to stop and ask myself; “Stephanie, what in the heck were you thinking?” I was chewing gum so I was munching on that pretty good.

Standing on top of the world! That’s what it felt like when I peered down upon civilization, I love that feeling. I took a little video footage and moved along the ridge to the other tower rock. It’s exhilirating when you can see in every direction for miles, mountain tops in one direction and flat  prairie in the other. It always amazes me what our planet is able to accomplish. Mountains and prairie land remind me of a discussion I had with a couple of girls I work with. One is originally from Texas/Oklahoma and the other from Calfornia and they both don’t like the mountains, love the prairie and flatland. While I understand the beauty to be found amongst a place where you can see in every direction for miles, I just can’t comprehend how that is more appealing than rugged mountains and rivers rolling through canyons? To each their own, it truly does take variety to make the world go around.

Ok, so I reach the second tower (at least that’s what I call it), the one located to the southof the first tower. I have this really odd urge to just reach out and touch it as if it’s going to bring me closer to something. I’m hoping to tap into something, like a vision from the past. I can’t say I saw anything but I can only describe what I felt to be residual energy of days gone by. I believe this to be a special place, I am now standing where many American Indians were once standing. Not only that, these rocks are 65-75 million years old. I’m touching something ancient that I can’t even comprehend that time frame in my mind. This tower will be around many generations after I pass on, it will continue to record time in its own way.

Well now that I’ve covered the spiritual side of things, time to return to the physical torture, I mean nature of the hike. I do a little more video footage and start my trek down. Sometimes climbing down the mountain is much harder than climbing up. Knees, ankles and toes take a beating along with my backside. Being so steep, I had to come down side-stepping and at times to give my ankles a break, I did small switchbacks. I took a few breaks along the way and shots some photos of a Nothern Flicker, mountain bluebird and a towhee along with some flora. I noticed the sun was on the other side of the mountains and I decided I better wrap things up and get down. Dumb move #2; not paying enough attention to my surroundings when I climbed up to remember where I needed to catch the trail back down. Don’t get me wrong, when I am in an area that is completely unfamiliar, I mark it on my GPS and take good visual markings but since this wasn’t into deep forest, I thought it would be easy to catch the trail. Well it was until I relaized my trail was a wildlife trail that lead to only a dropoff over boulder cliff. This meant climbing back up (partially) and trying different routes, of course it was the last one I located. It takes talent to do that! I did make it down however. I took some more video footage of my conquered goal, said a little “thank you” and headed towards the geocache.

Of course in these moments when I’m getting close to my vehicle, many times my mind is wandering which is just about the right time for about 10 birds lying in wait, to spring out of the tall grass and startle the life out of me. After my heart started again, I chuckled and kept moving towards the geocache ground zero. 500 feet and a number of boulders to navigate. I was kind of wishing I has done the cache first since I was feeling pretty tired, thirsty and hungry at this point however I was not going to let any of those issues stop me from my caching mission.

I clumsily navigated the boulder and zeroed in within about 11 feet of where I thought the cache was. 15 minutes later after having looked in a number of places I thought it could be, I still couldn’t find it. This was supposed to be a difficulty level of 1.5! The GPS was a little jumpy but I walked away and came in from different angles, having walked many circles around one big boulder, I finally sat down and was thinking I was going to get skunked. I will admit that I was starting to think that the cache was maybe muggled although this area isn’t exactly high muggle territory. I decided there is no way I am leaving until I find this stinking thing. One more trip around the rock and I roll my eyes, it’s obvious now. Don’t you love it when that happens? I grab the cache, sign the log and leave a personal geocoin. Woohoo for me!

Now to navigate these boulders going down, I pick a route and make my over these monsterous obstacles, right about the time I am thinking I’ve got this made, I lose my footing and fall. Great, now I’ll have some bruises to go with my sore calves! It wouldn’t be a complete geocaching trip if I didn’t hurt myself in some manner, usually I draw blood but amazingly enough, the blood with all stay under my skin today. As I’m brushing myself off, I notice movement to my left. The sun is going down fast, I still have my sunglasses on (I say this for a reason), and I turn to see what just ran from one boulder to another fairly close to me. Holy crap! It’s a wolverine which in one second excites me and in the very next scares me, I’d rather chance just about any other wild animal than that one. My brain is just now registering this because it’s standing there staring at me. I start wondering if I might have to scramble alot quicker down the remaining boulders and possible jump in order to get away from this thing. Then I stop dead in my tracks, there is no way that can be a wolverine, it’s so rare to see one and this is not their normal habitat. I stop, look back and it’s still staring at me, I life my sunglasses and decide I am totally losing it, it’s a feral cat. I could only laugh at myself at this point, hey when you’re out hiking by yourself and your dehydrated and malnourished, you start to hallucinate, what can I say?

This is why I find so much joy in my adventures, I get to make fun of myself. Life is so much better when you can laugh at yourself and enjoy mother nature along the way.

I made it back to the Jeep safe and sound, lived to tell my story another day. I took my time heading home to enjoy what was left of the daylight and Montana grandeur. Upon arriving home, I had two pups who were very excited to see their mommy. It was a good day.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the journey. 

tsun

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq9I69zPuLY

There was a bell boy standing at the elevator when I was getting ready to get in and he let me have the evelvator first as he had a huge load he was moving for someone else. I got in and pushed #12. The elevator didn’t move, I pushed #12 again a couple times and nothing. The elevator doors opened and I smiled at the bell hop. The door shut again and I pushed button 12 again and it didn’t light up (again). I honestly thought the elevator was broke and was a bit worried I might get trapped inside. The elevator doors opened again and the same bell hop was there waiting for an open elevator. I smiled again and said I think the elevator is broke, room 12 won’t light up when I push it. He smiled and told me that I needed to use the key card to get to my room. He took the key, stuck it in the slot and pushed the 12 button and off I went

I got to the 12th floor and started looking for my room. I had #1204 and wouldn’t you know it, mine was the very last room. YOu have got to be kidding me, I”m never going to make the Meet and Greet before I get my stuff to the room. I elected to just go back down the to event and worry about unloading the truck later. So off to the meet and greet I went. I got down there and it was pretty well attended. I saw people I knew and met lots of people I had only seen on the Groundspeak forums. I got a chance to sit down and chat woith a couple people and that was nice.

I was also fortunate enough to get some help from some special cachers (about 9 of them) who helped me lug all my junk up to my room! Thanks so much my little helpers!

I also got a chance to set up my banner display a bit early. I built mine and Yime’s banner stands so we could hang our banners. Pabloturtle made it his priority to oversee my setup skills and give me a hard time. Redwing Dave and Yime helped me haul the wood stands in and it gave me a change to see these two in action. I can say they were feeling good, haha. Yime makes a great human parking lot arm.  It’s one of those “you had to be there” moments.  I got a good laugh out of it all.

Some of the things I liked about the Meet and Greet: The set up was nicely done and it was organized. Plenty of room for cachers to mingle and we didn’t have to worry about other groups being around. I wish I would have taken pictures but I honestly was just busy enjoying myself. I thought the setup of the actual event room was pretty decent and easy to navigate.

There was only 1 thing about Friday night that I wasn’t impressed with and that was learning that a couple of vendors/people were selling their coins openly. 2 of them did not vend at the event. I thought that was disrespectful to those of us who paid the full $200 to be a vendor. I know a few other vendors were not happy about this but no one ever wants to rock the boat by saying anything. This is not allowed and according to the rules for the event, they are suppose to be asked to leave.  It was “overlooked” by the event staff because again no one wanted to cause problems. I could talk a bit more about this but what’s done is done and I’m sure I’ll receive a couple nast emails for even opening my mouth about this on my blog. However, I am just calling it like I see it and if you’re going to engage or allow certain behaviors than I suppose you should be open to accepting the heat that comes along with it.

Ok, I’ll sign off for now and post again later.

I hope you all had a nice weekend.

tsun

What a very interesting experience. If any of you have read the Groundspeak forums, you’ve pretty much got a good idea of my experience from beginning to end. I suppose this will just be a bit more detailed and some thoughts that I didn’t feel necessary to post on the forums.

Winter struck early in Montana, a blizzard the night before I left and icy, snowpacked roads my entire ride through my beloved state. I pretty much used 4WD the entire ride until I got to Idaho where I saw green grass and leaves still on trees. How unfair is that? I did manage to time part of my drive just perfectly as I was headed over and down Boulder pass which was a sheet of ice, I was right behind a snow plow and he was also laying gravel down. It’s just sad when that’s the highlight of your drive, haha.

Idaho was easy driving and so was Utah for the most part. I didn’t do any caching on my way down because I knew I was going to be arriving just at the Meet and Greet was starting. Before I left, Georgia (the head cheese for the event) sent me directions on what exits to take as I was headed southbound on I-15. In my rush to leave the house, I couldn’t find my atlas and I didn’t bother downloading any coords. to the event. I figured how hard can a hotel right off of I-15 be to find?

First mistake, never mistake yourself as having a photographic memory if you really don’t have one. Second, probably best to load the coords. just in case. Once I started getting close to SLC which was probably about 30 miles north, the traffic started getting heavy. In Montana, we have a 4 lane Interstate, 2 lanes each way. There’s never a problem with hoards of traffic. The Interstate turned into 6 lanes going southbound only and there were alot of cars going the same direction. I looked at my clock and I was hitting Friday rush hour traffic. Oh great! The closer I got to SLC, it became bumper to bumper and stop, go, stop, go. They also had road construction and I started getting confused as to what lane I should be in just in case the exit I was looking for should suddenly appear.

After an hour of fighting traffic, I made it to SLC in jammed packed lanes. I knew my exit had to be coming up, I could see all these really tall building off to my left and I remember thinking; “I wonder if it’s in the middle of the city?” and getting kinda freaked out. BUT, I had Georgia’s good directions, so I knew I’d be ok.

Let’s see, an hour and a half later and no such exit and I started to get the feeling something was wrong. Not having a map, I had no clue if I was no longer in SLC or in the next big city as it all seemed to be packed with homes and businesses. Here in Montana, we don’t really have close towns. YOu know exactly when you have left a town because there just isn’t anything around. I keep driving until I see American Fork and some other names I recognize to be in Utah but knowing they aren’t close to SLC. I decide to stop and try and find out where I am exactly, haha.

I had calle The Mopp Along to try and get better directions but he was pretty much worthless in that department. He said he followed his GPS coords., well I wasn’t smart enough to do that now, was I?

As I’m exiting the Interstate to try and have someone tell me where I am, I get a phone call. It’s bluemotmot who is going to help me vendor. I’m so riled up and upset by now, she thought she’d dialed the wrong person. I know I was totally rambling and was probably incoherent, lol. What I do remember from that conversation was asking here to text me the telephone number to the hotel so I could call and get new directions. Oh no, I didn’t bother printing the hotel information either. Why would I need to call them? They knew I was coming. I received her text about 5 minutes later and I called the hotel.

The gentleman I spoke with was very polite and kindly stated that the directions I was given were for people headed northbound on the Interstate and there is no such exit from my direction and I would have had trouble finding it without the proper directions. Well on one hand I felt better and on the other, I was still mad. I headed northbound this time and it took me about a half hour to get back to SLC. The traffic was a little less congested since I managed to hit it all when I was passing through the first time. I think it took me almost 2 hours to get from one end of SLC to the other. A little tricia there for ya.

Now, I knew when I found the hotel that I could take a authorized u-turn to get to the parking garage. Well, as I am passing the hotel, I can’t find that “authorized” u-turn. Now I’m mad again. I can see the parking garage but I have no clue how to get to it. As I’m making  way around the back side of the hotel, I see Marky and rivercity walking down the side walk. I roll down my window and yell. I asked how to get to the parking garage and they yell, it’s on the other side. WEll ya, I already know that but I didn’t have time to converse while driving down a one-way. I yelled back; “I hate this city” and rolled up my window while I saw them both laughing.

I managed to make it back to the street that goes by the front of the hotel and at this point, was like screw-it. I’m turning here and I don’t care. I swung a u-turn (probably in the wrong spot) and made my way to the parking garage.

I made it! The relief was overwhelming and I was 2 hours late to the event. But better late than never huh?

Part 2 coming up later

I wonder if anyone still reads this thing, I haven’t updated it for almost 2 months. I suppose I need to do that huh?

I think I’m just going to do a small series of entries. I want to talk about Geocoinfest now that I’ve got some time and I’ll probably break that down into sections. I think I’ll talk about what is in the future for Tsunrisebey Designs and probably just some regular chit-chat type stuff.

I’m currently taking a break from the Groundspeak forums and Facebook. There just comes a time when you need to step back, take a deep breath and take some time for yourself. My regular job has been very time-consuming and chaotic plus I’ve been working over-time and through lunch breaks to try and keep on top of things. I think I’m finally worn out

Dakota, Tristin and Sundance are all doing great. There’s alot of playing and rough-housing going on. Sundance is at the center of it all as he is now a 4 month old puppy who’s finally bigger than the cats and is giving every other animal in this house a run for their money, including me

Weather in Helena, Montana is fluctuating as usual. One day it’s snowing like it’s January and the next it’s in the low 50′s and I’m ready to put shorts back on. Fall is my favorite time of year, great outdoors weather, I’m on football overload and so much to get done before it really does get super cold. I think it’s a time when we all start to slow down and start preparing for hibernation or at least those of us who truly have a winter. I’m sure I’m in for a real treat when the dogs are relegated to the house due to weather and they really start ganging up on the cats. I suppose I’ll worry about that when the time comes.

Ok, I’ll get another post or 2 up by this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday and Sunday!

tsun

My dream for many years has been to move up to Whitefish or in and around that area. There is just something about the mountains up there that I have always loved.

Anyhow, I took Tristin and Dakota with me, we loaded up the slide-in camper and had a great time wandering around and geocaching.

Here are the 3 videos I managed to get done. I still have a couple more I need to do but you get the idea

I have been keeping my Facebook pages updated but not everyone has a FB account, so here ya go

Most people didn’t know that this fire was relatively close to my place. It was directly north and my area was under evacuation. I was heading home after work when I saw smoke coming from the area in which I lived which is north of Helena.

As I got closer I started get that “sick to my stomach” feeling when I noticed that it was just north of my house. Law enforcement wasn’t going to let me back to my house even after I said I had dogs that I needed to get (I had a back-up plan in place – that’s why it’s good to have a truck and 4WD) I actually knew one of the MHP troopers working the roadblock and he told me to hurry up and get my dogs.

I did go home and get them, I also ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to grab some important stuff and throw it in the back of my truck. The problem with a forest fire is the smoke is every where and you just can’t see exactly where it is. You don’t know which direction it’s moving, you see helicopters and a slurry bomber working feverishly and every fire truck from miles around headed your direction, it’s a scary feeling!

I can tell you that after my adrenaline rush wore off, I was ready to throw up for about 3 hours afterwards. I did not feel well and the smoke doesn’t help that any. It took about 4 days for all the smoke to lift from the area and for me to feel comfortable that the fire wasn’t going to explode again.

Without going into more details, here’s the You Tube video I posted back then. I took alot of footage but put a few clips together so you can get an idea of what went on. You couldn’t see any flames because the smoke was blocking them.

I have been so busy getting ready for Geocoinfest, I come home from work and try to get a little bit done each night plus household stuff.

The webstore cart issue is still being addressed. I’m at my wits end with that. Come to find out the last 2 sales that were announced, products oversold because the webstore was being tweaked while the sale was running. Everyone thought things couldn’t get worse but on my end, it has when it comes to the store. I’m tired of the whole mess. When GCF is over, there will be 1 last sale in an attempt to see if the programmers can nail down the last issues. I’ve been told it’s only minor stuff now (what is minor?). If that sale does not work, I’ve let the company know that I’m done with this working on issues. I think 5 months of stress is enough, in the end, I’m the one who has had to deal with all of it and the ramifications of things not working.

What does this mean? I’m not sure. I decided I’m not going to worry about it anymore. I will worry about it the day of the sale after i get home from GCF. I’ll see what happens and make a decision based on results. I can only say that what was once something I was very proud of and so excited to offer my customers ( a pleasant shoppping experience) has turned into a lengthy mini-nightmare on my end. Most people have been very patient which I appreciate but some people have let me know that their patience has ended.

So there you have a webstore update although there wasn’t much to say in the way of here’s what’s going on. It would appear it’s just a decision on my end to call it quits with “fixes” and get back to a point where this is fun again

tsun

Hello Everyone!
 
I will keep this email short. The 2nd minting of the Earth Turtle Oceania coins; Bora Bora, Fiji Islands, Maui and Australia will be available for sale on September 1st (tuesday) at 4:30 pm Montana time (MST) which is also the same as Denver, Colorado. There is a tsun version and additional Tahiti coins but those will be coming with me to GCF. The tsun version will not be for sale at GCF, only for trade.
 
The Cache Hoppers will also be available for sale; Golden Poison Dart, Blue Poison Dart and the Albino. These were supposed to go up for sale last time but due to web site issues, I could not list them in time.
 
The webstore has some new programming and we are hoping that this is the final fix. The programmers made some adjustments to the real-time cart system and we’re hoping that this will allow the webstore to stay available. This is our last effort to fix this cart system. If the store crashes, I will be changing shopping carts or looking into a different option on how sales will work.
 
If the site crashes during this sale and is not up and running with a half hour of crashing. Please consider the sale closed. I will then list the coins unannounced – meaning after the website is back up and running, I will put the coins up for sale at a different date and time only known to me. I will then send out emails to everyone letting you know the coins are up for sale. This will allow the coins to be sold and it will not overload the system. After 24 hours, if there are still coins available, I will announce the sale on the Groundspeak Forums.
 
Time conversions:
Eastern: 6:30 pm US, Central 5:30 pm US, Pacific 3:30 pm US
World Conversions:  Austrailia, Tasmania September 2rd, 8:30 am * Lisbon, Portugal September 1st, 11:30 pm * London, England September 1st, 11:30 pm * Zurich, Switzerland September 2nd, 12:30 am.

If you have any questions, please send me an email by some time tomorrow. I work during the day and on the day of the sale, I will not be able to answer your questions after I come home. This information will also be posted on my blog and on the Groundspeak Forums.
Thanks! tsun