I swear Montana weather is so unpredictable that even the weather forecasters can’t get it right. Just a couple days ago the weather for Saturday (today) was suppose to be mostly sunny with a small chance of scattered thunderstorms. I was going to play outside and even break the kayak out. I woke up to the sound of tiny drops hitting the roof. It has rained all day today and I’m kind of cranky because of it. I guess I shoudn’t whine because it could be worse.
I accomplished very little today; a little cleaning, a little cooking and I took a shower and drove to the local gas station to buy a pizza and ice cream I stood at the front door while it lightly rained and watched a few sparrows gather underneath my truck to stay dry. I even saw a tiny sparrow fight well more like some serious squawking and a few mean pecks over territory under the truck. That was the most excitement all day at my place.
So, tomorrow is Father’s Day and I’m going to head up to my parents place and spend a few hours up there. If it’s not too bad, I’m going to try for a geocache on Canyon Ferry Lake by kayaking to it (although it’s suppose to rain all day) so we’ll see.
To all you great dads out there, I hope you have a wonderful day! I’ll share a quick childhood memory of my dad, post a couple of pics from earlier and than log off for the evening. I’ve always thought of my dad as a hero and kind of a superman as I was growing up. Much like other kids, my dad was the smartest and toughest and I expected everyone to love him like I did. Anyhow, my dad has always been a Harley man so my brother and I grew up on Harleys. Back when we used to live in Minnesota, we lived in a small town called Circle Pines. During the summer when my dad would come home from work, he’d always be on his Harley, if our friends were over, my dad would take time out of his day to give each of our friends (usually 4) a ride up and down our street. My brohter and I also got a ride too so there was usually a good 6 kids getting a ride. I remember how each kid would have this big smile on their face as they took off and came back. When it was my turn, I would hold onto my dad and I would have this huge grin on my face. I was so proud that my dad was the coolest dad in the neighborhood (at least in my eyes). How many dads do you know who had been flying all day (he is a pilot) and then come home and give all us kids a ride?
Now as an adult, I don’t get many rides around the neighborhood but I still get rides on the Harley. Instead of taking neighborhood kids for rides, he takes my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew for a short ride here and there and I still see the same look in their eyes as I on did my childhood friends. When it’s my turn, I still smile and I still think my dad is the coolest. I just appreciate these moments much more.
The Cache Hopper geocoin is in mass production as we speak. I expect the coins to arrive in early July. While I do plan to send out a newsletter, there won’t be a set day and time for the sale. Why? These coins were minted with the intention for cache release and I don’t want to create any sort of hoopla over such a simple design.
Now having said that here is the deal; There are 5 color versions being minted but each color version has 2 - 4 metal versions. I minted 30 coins of each color/metal version. For example; There is a black tranlucent cache hopper and it was minted in 30 gold and 30 black nickel as were the rest of each version. This wasn’t done to create scarcity but to allow for people to pick a couple versions that they like. It also allows me to be creative in my color/metal combinations. Every version is subject to being reminted BUT it would be a long time before I decide to remint a repeat of a color/metal combination. I want to be able to play with alot of color/metal combinations.
As mentioned in an earlier blog post these will be an “in stock” item at the store. When they start running low, I’ll order more in new color and metals. Don’t allow yourself to feel pressured to try and collect all the versions, just try and pick up what you like
As far as the other design; the Anasazi Geocoin Spirit Dweller’s final artwork has been approved and samples should be here in early July. I will post the samples here on the blog when they arrive. I’m still finalzing and tweaking artowrk for the other designs but they are all coming long nicely.
The above is a small picture and video clip of the Ophir Cave geocache I accomplished today. Now in order to complete the whole experience, I’m going to tell you a little bit about the adventure and post a few more pics of the entire trip.
I spent my Friday evening doing research on some geocaches and what was suppose to be about a half hour time limit turned into a couple hours as usual. I get so engrossed in reading about these remote or neat caches that I just keep looking at the next one and then I’m trying to decide which cache I should do. This Ophir Cache has been on my ‘to do’ list for well over a year.
There are a couple of really neat things I loved about this cache before I even got there. The first thing is it was published in July 2001 making it one of the oldest caches as far as geocaching is concerned and it’s not archived! Second it involves a cave and third it’s way out in the middle of nowhere up in the mountains. This is a tsun cache if there ever was one.
The geocache is located northwest of Helena. My GPSr says 26 miles but that is very misleading. The drive from my place is a good 45 minutes. The easiest way to approach the cache is head west out of Helena on Hwy 12. When you get to a very small town called Avon, you’ll take a right onto Hwy 141 that goes to Lincoln, MT. After about 2 miles, you’ll turn right onto 3 Mile Rd which is gravel and pretty nice for the first couple of miles. As you start climing the mountains it gets a bit rocky and rutted in places and it is best if you have a high clearance vehicle or 4WD.
Now I’m not familiar with this area so I took a wrong turn on some dirt road and climbed higher into the mountains. Hey, my GPSr was pointing left and it said 1 mile to the cache, so I took the road. I drove about .30 miles and the gate was locked showing I had about .78 mile left to hike. Now I printed off the description and it said I should only have about .40 mile to hike. In my mind, I thought well this doesn’t seem right but I’ll hike it and see if I can find the trail. Well, I didn’t find the trail I was suppose to see and when my arrow started pointing straight up the mountain, I said no way, I must have missed something! Back to the truck after about a good half hour of hiking uphill already. I decided I’d get back on the main dirt road and head a little farther in to see what the GPSr would read.
I traveled about another .5 mile when I saw a road that said Cave Gulch, that makes sense right? I took that road and drove about a mile up to the locked gate and I saw the trail! On our hike up the side of this mountain, it was a moderate hike up a few switchbacks. There was a nice breeze and decent shade from the forest. The mountain flowers were in full bloom and Dakota and Tristin were loving life. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath, you figure at 6500 above sea level is enough to make everyone breath a little heavier.
I finally arrived at the cache and it wasn’t what I had envisioned in my mind at all. You know how you get an idea in your head of what something is going to be like? When I got here, I thought it would be the typical cave we all think of; kind of a u-shaped entrance into the side of a mountain but this was a smaller hole into the ground. This is probably more typical than I realized but hey, I like my little fantasies. So, now I’m at the cache and I pull out my cache description and it turns out I need to hike further up the hill over the cave to get the cache. I silently groan and climb the last 140 feet, sit down and grab the ammo can (Yeah an ammo can!). I read over some of the previous logs where most people mention being too chicken to go in. I root through the cache hoping for something good but alas people leave cheap junk. I’m going to admit I’m like a kid when I open an ammo can, I always hope to score something cool and 99% of the time I’m let down with stupid junk. I didn’t take anything but I did leave one of my Cowgirl coins in the cache and I left a nice log for the owner.
Back down the mountain I went and into the cave to explore. While the video gives you somewhat of an idea of what the cave is like, it doesn’t even come close to actually being there. Dakota was the first one in and if you look closely at the video when it first starts, you can see her kind of crawling in the beginning. The opening is kind small and it’s real slick and rocky and much more steep than it appears. I have a bad back so bending down and back up made me wince a bit in pain but once in, there was plenty of standing room. I had my camera in one hand, one headlamp on and another headlamp in my other hand because it was so dark once you got in a little ways. You can hear the water dropping in the background and other than that, it’s cool inside and very quiet. I admit as I climber further down I got a little creeped out. First off I was alone in a dark place, lol and secondly when I studied abroad in Belize, I went cave exploring with local experts. We went miles into these caves and some of them required swimming throughout the entire journey and going through very tight places. The Mayans believe ina creature called a ‘Dwende’ which is a small black spirit type creature and they supposedly hang out in the caves. If you are a bad person they can mess with you. Now I was privvy to a number of dwende stories and as you can imagine my mind kind of ran away with itself, lol.I didn’t see any dwendes in there or bats for that matter. Once I saw the first shaft than I decided I had went far enough and was more in fear of my dogs dropping into one of them and I wasn’t too keen on looking down one all by myself cause there may have been a dwende waiting to pull me down
The climb back up was tougher than I thought it would be. I had to stuff my camera in my shirts pocket, put my other headlamp on and climb back up to the entrance on all fours. It was much more slick going up and nothing to hold on to. I think part of the problem is the recent snow melt as there was a little bit still on the ground and the melt off was running down inside. Remember what I am about to say right now cause at the end of this story you’ll head something kind of funny but something more to consider; I was glad I left a message on my parents telephone letting them know an approximate area I was going to be exploring in.
After the exploring of the cave, if was a hike back to the truck and downhill the whole way! It was easier breathing but tougher on the toes pushing against the front of my hiking boots. Once to the truck, we took a water break and then were headed to the next cache about 2 1/2 miles away at the very top of the mountain. This drive was even rockier than the last and I got to thinking; I sure hope I don’t get a flat tire or my truck breaks down because I’m totally hosed if something happens.
As I got about a half mile from the cache and closing in on the top of the mountain, I could see snowdrifts in places. Yet everything was lush green and the meadow was full of various purple flowers in full bloom. I could see the snow-capped Garnet Mountain Range and I hadn’t seen a soul or another vehicle all day, it was heaven! At about .30 of a mile from this other cache, the road was blocked by a huge snowdrift that I knew I couldn’t get through, so I decided to save that cache for another day. The dogs and I got out and walked on the snow and I just took in the sights and smells of a beautiful summer day. I snapped a couple more pictures and decided that saving the cache for another day was a good choice because I could see the thunderstorms being made about the Garnet Mountains and I don’t like being on mountaintops where there’s lightning involved.
We made he long trek back to Helena, the dogs were completely out not long into the drive. Once I got back into town, I stopped to grab a bite to eat prior to heading home. While I was in the Arby’s drive-thru, my mom calls me. She say’s; “What was the message you left? I accidentally erased cause I thought it was an old message.” I think I thanked God right on the spot for getting me home safely cause no one would have any idea where to even start looking for me. She apologized and I told her I was going to start leaving other instructions when I head out because she scares me, lol.
So in the end it was a wonderful day and here are some additonal photos for you to look at. Enjoy and I hope you had a great weekend! ~ tsun
I think a little progress report is due, what about you? How about some pictures? Ok, I’m going to give you a little more insight to the geocoin design going on’s
Cache Hopper: I approved the artwork, sent in the metal and color combinations and have asked the factory to go straight into mass production. I didn’t even ask for samples. The last time I did that the color wasn’t what I thought it was suppose to look like, haha. I’m pretty confident these will be fine since it’s pretty much color schemes I’ve used before. So, I’m thinking these shoud be available about very late June but probably closer to early July. While I am making small runs of the versions, I’m making quite a few different combinations and they are subject to remints but I’ll be playing with alot of different color and metal combos. I’m even considering taking special requests for metal/color combos for peoples own use; say you can order 20 coins and you pick your color combo. I haven’t decided for sure but I will think about it if people are interested after seeing the coin. These will be carried in my store as an in stock item. I have yet to be able to keep anything on hand so these should fill that need. The initial run is 330 coins. I’ve bought the tracking numbers and I’ll add the icon portion a bit later. Below is a teaser pic
Anasazi Geocoin Spirit Dweller: I approved the final artwork tonight and also submitted the color/metal combos. I’ll be getting samples of these. I’m always amazed that the factory is able to take my artwork and make it just like I drew it, even the letters/printing on the coin are in my writing. Once the design is revealed, I’ll post my artwork and the full mint artwork so you can see the whole transition. Anyhow, here’s a sneak peek teaser and I’ll post more on this design in the near future.
Libelula: I forgot to mention this coin earlier. I have actually been sitting on this design since January. I went back and forth on part of the design and just couldn’t decide what I liked best. The mint artwork is done as well as 2 color/metal choices but I need to wrap up some more choices this weekend.
Last but not least, I have the Armadillo geocoin designed by ble68 going in next week along with Pax Baby Dragon Cache Slayer and a coin I’m calling HooDoo for the time being. Plus remints of Neptunes Compass and Earth Turtle. As you can tell I have my plate full, so to speak. The amjority of these designs are debuting at Geocoinfest in Salt Lake City and when I come home, I’ll start minting them for regular release but not all at one time cause there is no way I could afford to do them all in one mass minting nor do I think most of you want me to offer 6 to 8 new designs all at one time but then again maybe you would like that?
Have a great weekend everyone and maybe I can get a caching trip in this weekend! ~tsun
If someone would have toldme months ago that I would be posting on You Tube, I would have said, “I don’t think so!” but here I am about to tell you I went live and posted my first ever video. I only did it be because I couldn’t figure out how to download my home video direct from my computer so You Tube seemed like an alternate plan although I am about to find out if I can get this video to post here. Worst case scenario I can just post a link to the video.
My plan for all this is to showcase new geocoins and scenery of my exploits around Montana on my blog. I’m still working on how to use my camera as you’ll see but hey I don’t mind looking or sounding like a complete nerd in the process.
Fortunately I have Tristin the Mini Aussie to test my skills on and he’s cute to look at. Just try to ignore my commentary as I am easily amused by my lack of knowledge. I think I was able to edit out laughing at myself but if it’s still on there, forgive me
I admit, I’m not very tech savvy when it comes to gadgets, software and anything else that requires knowing my way around computer software. Why do you think I draw all my designs? Because I don’t know how to use Photoshop and any other computer program. Actually drawing is good for the soul and it forces me to be more original in my coin designs.
So the reason for this post? I bought a new camera for myself about a year ago and I just haven’t taken the time to learn how to use it. Well today not only did I attempt to take a video but I even tried to edit it a little bit. Quite honestly I’m very proud of myself, lol. So here is the debut of tsun the videographer’s first video with Kody the cat. It’s not worthy of an Oscar but hey it’s a start!
Ok, I just can’t figure out how to get the video posted on here, lol.
If any of you follow Facebook, you’ll know winter weather decided to come back to Montana over the weekend. Those of us who live along the Rocky Mountain Front were under a winter weather advisory (almost hard to believe but I’ve seen it snow in August in Montana). So no geocaching for me today I did get some snow up at my place but it has melted and now it’s just really windy, cloudy and snowing in the mountains.
I always try to force myself to wait until June rolls around before I start buying plants because we always seem to get one last frost. I got a little carried away last weekend buying and planting stuff from the nursery. So when this weather rolled in, I ran outside at 11:15 pm Friday night and picked up every pot and planter and loaded it into my shed and threw blankets over newly planted goodies. I really didn’t want to see my plants die only a week after I bought them.
So I spent this weekend cleaning house and paying bills, don’t you just love doing that? Tristin and Dakota spent most of their time napping or getting in my way. They weren’t much on being outside in the nasty weather either. Saturday morning I was awaken by the sound of cat hissing and my bed shaking. Good ole’ Tristin decided he was bored and wanted to play with Joe my really old cat. Not two seconds into the “playing”, my other cat, Kody, got scared and decided to use the path of least resistance and get off the bed by running over my face. I didn’t even open my eyes as I felt the blood slowly trickling down my cheek onto my pillow. Which animal should I murder first? I opened my eyes to see Tristin in full herding mode which consists of snapping at Joe’s paws and darting back and forth (on the bed) and Joe doing everything in his power to remove a piece of Tristin’s body. I sat up and Joe jumped off the bed and I swatted Tristin on the hinder and telling him no (which doesn’t work anyhow when it comes to the cats). I guess that was my signal to get up and start my day and a quick look in the mirror revealed a nice scratch down my left cheek to my chin. I live with fur monsters I tell ya!
So that is my tale for this weekend, the whole of my excitement up here on the tsunrisebey ranchette I did get some drawing done too and hopefully I’ll get some artwork back from the mint so I can start picking and choosing colors for new coins!
One last thing; thanks to those of you who read the blog and who take the time to leave a comment. I usually check twice a week and then approve them so they can be seen. If there is anything you want to hear about, see, know, etc. let me know and I will see what I can do about blogging about it.
Hope you all had a great weekend and meet you back here real soon. ~ tsun
Figured I’d use my blog for a little geocoin design update. I took a few weeks off after the sale of the Earth Turtle Oceania and Neptunes hoping that my webstore would get fixed but sad to say that no progress is being made or at least I haven’t been told of any. This has been a disappointment to say the least but I am hopeful that this will get worked out before the next sale.
I have completed 2 more designs (new). I am also working on working on additional metal/color combos for the ET Oceania coins and Neptunes. I hope to have some of these available for sale in July.
The new designs are called; Cache Hopper which is actually very similar to the Rainforest Jewel. The RFJ coin was always one of my favorites and I had always wanted to use the frog itself as a separate design. So I am bringing it back in shape only. It will be a slight bit smaller than the original, no jewels, and a hole to use for attachments. The purpose behind this coin is to hopefully stimulate people to release some geocoins into the wild. This will be a coin that I plan on keeping in stock throughout the year in a multitude of colors and metals at a very reasonable price. The design itself isn’t as fancy as the original but it’s still fun and can be used for a number of purposes like a trackable necklace pendant, attachment for a backpack, geocaching event prizes and actual cache placement!
The other design will actually debut on ebay and then at Geocoinfest in Salt lake City. There are a few special versions being made to help raise funds for the event and my travel and vendor expenses. It’s called the ‘Anasazi Geocoin Spirit Dweller.’ A little bit of research and imagination would probably give you an idea of what this coin design may be, don’t ask me though because I’m not telling for right now. You know me, I love to be a big tease.
I’m also working on several other designs with the intention of debuting them at GCF in SLC. As I move along in my process, I’ll be updating here so make sure you check back so you can see the drawings and pictures. They won’t be showing up in the Groundspeak forums until they are actually ready for sale so here is the place to be if you want the inside scoop!
Have a great week everyone and for those of you wondering about Pax: Baby Dragon Cache Slayer and the Armadillo coin, they are being worked on too! ~ tsun
I stood at the front door while it lightly rained and watched a few sparrows gather underneath my truck to stay dry. I even saw a tiny sparrow fight well more like some serious squawking and a few mean pecks over territory under the truck. That was the most excitement all day at my place.
I did get some snow up at my place but it has melted and now it’s just really windy, cloudy and snowing in the mountains.
