Lies!

The weather man lied! It turned out to be nice and sunny today. A fine day for me to mow the lawn and check out the view of the Kin power plant (with coal ship alongside for offload). It was a little hazy, but still a neat view from southern Kin/northern Yaka. No caching today, just some errands to run. As usual, you can click the pictures for the full size versions.


Ship offloading. Taken from Kin Red Beach

The power plant as seen from northern Yaka Village

Power plant from Kin Red

Okinawa Weather

Now that the weekend is upon us, the weather forcast (and the gathering dark clouds outside) tell me that my chances of getting in any geocaching this weekend are a little slim. Seems like most weekends are raining, with beautiful weather on Monday. There is, however, a silver lining: I'm off of work on Monday and Tuesday!

These were both taken behind where I work today

Travel Bugs

A Travel Bug is any object that you want to send out into the Geocaching world. You simply attatch a Travel Bug Dog Tag to your object of choice, register it on the Geocaching website, and then place it in a geocache.



Once you "release" your bug, you can track its progress on the website. Activating the tag creates a web page just for that item. You can post a picture of it, a description, its goal, and view the log entries of those that find or move it.



I have activated my Travel Bug for the "geochallenge" that is mentioned in the below post. It's actually an old electrical connector from a guided missile launcher. This is the umbilical connector that makes the electronic connection between the launcher and the missile. Here's to hoping that its next "launch" will carry it for many thousands of miles!

My Travel Bug

Sticks and Stones

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but some of those plants out there can really draw blood!

My son and I went after three caches today. One cache was near the Hija Bridge (a little north of Kadena), and we couldn't find it. We found a nice little trail that headed off into the jungle though, and it appears to be a great spot to dump a stolen vehicle and strip it...

The second cache ended up being a "nano" size container, and it was at a freakin' Starbucks! My son actually made the find, and we successfully avoided the locals.

The third cache was the most fun, and the toughest. It was a "multi-cache," or a three part cache that required us to find two caches in order to come up with the coordinates of the final cache. This was one of the most unique containers I've seen yet, but I'm not going to post a picture of it, just in case any local cachers stumble upon this blog. It was located at the Kadena Marina, and one leg of the multi was atop a coral outcropping that was covered in very painfully sharp plants.

My son and I had a great time, and we managed to eat up half of a day. I even hid a new cache, and I'll be eagerly waiting to see who finds it first! After it's been found a couple of times, I'll post pictures.

(Click the pictures for full size versions)

Near the Hija Bridge

Tropical fruit, free for the pickin'

View from the Kadena Marina

A Challenge Issued

The gauntlet has been thrown down, a challenge has been issued. P.J., from Hoohaaa Blog has set forth this challenge. Here's the details:

Each participant must "release" a trackable Travel Bug in a geocache near their home. They can't touch it after that. The person whose TB travels the most miles in one year wins. Simple as that.

Many of my fellow geocachers are in the Air Force. Several of them are pilots...Do you see where this is going? I may have an "unfair" advantage. Then again, if some well-meaning cacher moves my item to some obscure spot, it may never move from there. Always a gamble.

I look forward to the challenge, and being able to track my item's movements online. I'll issue updates as the challenge progresses. Oh yeah, P.J., what's the prize for winning?

Kenmin No Mori

I was able to go to a neat park this evening after work. It's actually north of where I work, so it's not really "on the way" to my house. It's a little off the beaten path, and it's huge. The road that I took to the park ended at what looked to be the back gate to the park, and it was closed. There were paths on either side of the gate, making the gate appear to be there for the sole purpose of keeping vehicles out. The adjacent sign showed the park hours, and I was there in plenty of time.

After about a half mile walk, I got to the "park proper." There wasn't a soul in sight. I had this entire, very large, park to myself. It was a bit eerie.

There is plenty of room to roam around, several miles of hiking trails, and a huge "roller slide." A roller slide is a long, narrow slide, with conveyor belt type rollers on it. Kids will bring a piece of cardboard with them, and ride down these large slides. This one appeared to be well over 100 yards long.


We had a nice tropical storm come through about a week or so ago, and it brought heavy rain with high winds. The cache itself wasy laying out in the open, but it was far enough off of the trail that it hadn't been disturbed. It probably looked like a piece of trash to passerby.

I signed the log, pulled the trackables out, just in case it was kids that had found it, and left a trackable that has dozens of replicas here on the island.

I had no trouble finding the correct spot, and I re-hid the cache in what seemed like the best spot, with plenty of natural camouflage. It was a fun way to end the work day. This one officially exhausts those caches that are even remotely located close to work!

It wasn't until I arrive back at home and re-read the cache description that I realized the park is closed on Mondays! I'm glad that it's in a very rural area, and nobody noticed me poking around!

Nice View of Foster

I stopped at a cache on my way home from Camp Foster today, and it is at a new library, campground, and park.

Those that have been to Okinawa before will remember the large building on the top of the hill near Foster that has an airplane on top of it. This new facility has been built right next to it. The view is great, and I DNFd the cache. After talking to another cacher later, I realized that my daughter and I were right on top of it (my new GPSr is awesome like that), but simply failed to move enough of the rocks covering it.

We still got to enjoy a nice view, and a pleasant afternoon between rain storms (another typhoon to the south of us).

As always, you can click the pictures for the grownup version.