Tag Archives: Geocaching

Winter Shadows – End and Beginning of the Year

The first day of the year is a big deal for hikers and geocachers. I went to a private park to find a first day geocache. And I got a “souvenir.”

I went looking for another geocache close by. The area it is in is a mess.

Lots of spray can graffiti. I hate it the colorful mess.

It is quite popular. I found the cache but I cannot count it.

It was way up in a tree. Do you see the black tube at the top of the photo. In year’s past I would go ahead and climb the tree. I could probably do it now but I am 69 years old and the penalty for falling could be bad. (Maybe I couldn’t climb the tree. My orthopedic doc says I need a complete new right knee. Soon, I am going to enlist my wife to come with me to go visit him and get it scheduled.) So I can’t count it as a find because to do that you have to open the container and sign the log. I’m kind of a stickler for that.

I went on a first day hike as well. I went on a one mile loop at Turkey Mountain. The trail was named by the Muskogee Creek Tribe. I am not sure what it means.

Winter is a time for either no shadows during long periods of heavily overcast days or long shadows. I love the long shadows of winter.

I went for a walk near the new Zink Dam and Williams Crossing Bridge on the Arkansas River. There was a long bridge shadow on the water. Don’t remember too many water shadows.

The playgrounds that are busy when it is warmer are empty in the winter. This looks like a fun place to play. The ground surface is ultra spongey to keep little ones from getting hurt.

I walked over the Gathering Place and checked the shadows out there as well.

I am wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year 2025!!

Shadow Shot Sunday

Skywatch Friday – First Day and More

I hope that everyone had a great New Year’s. 2024 was a year of blessings and also trials and tribulation for us and we got through it. Back when I started blogging, there was a friend of mine who also started and quit because she said people only put the positive parts of their life online so it was dishonest. So I guess I am dishonest. Sorry about that and I don’t feel bad about it all. I’m a blessed man, what can I say. I have this irritating trait that no matter what the situation, I think things will be okay. I couple that with a sense of realism about what okay looks like.

I have always loved New Year’s. It’s like a fresh start every year. We didn’t do much, stayed home, had a nice dinner, watched some television.

In late December after weeks of monotonous gray skies I saw that things were shaping up for maybe a good sunset so I got my drone in the air and captured a bunch of images. I put them in a video and here it is. It is only twenty seconds long so do not panic!

New Year’s Day morning I went with Heather to a class she is starting at a nearby YMCA. It is cardio drumming and twenty people showed up to take it. Not bad for a brand new class. She is already teaching it weekly at another YMCA here in town and monthly at our “home gym.” It is lots of fun, you have drumsticks and you drum on an exercise ball in time to music. She leads the different moves. It is lots of fun, she loves upbeat music and so do her students. She also teaches Zumba at two different gyms, and a couple water classes, aquazumba and aquastrength. I take both of those classes. She stays pretty busy. She has been teaching for years and is very good at “reading the room” providing alternative moves for those who need them.

Afterwards, I took off and found a geocache and hiked a short distance. If you are a geocacher, New Year’s Day is an important day to find one and if you are a hiker you should go on a First Day’s Hike. So I did both. Yeah me, hah!

And then we went home and had our New Year’s Day meal featuring chicken quarters and baby back ribs that I smoked on the day before New Year’s Eve. That red stuff on the meat is a very spicy rub use. It brings the heat.

Meanwhile, I did another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. Great way to stay busy while we watch our streaming shows. The one I am working on now is a Canyonlands scene with lots of tan colored desert and skies. Very challenging.

Again, I wish everyone a Happy, Heathy, and Prosperous 2025!

I am linking with My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday

Saturday’s Critters – Art on the River

In early December I was on Tulsa’s RiverParks trails working on an art themed Geocaching Adventure Lab. I posted about it earlier and saved the critter themed art for this post.

Wolves are always a good subject.

I’m thinking this is a great blue heron. These murals were not part of the cache project but they are also beautiful and animal themed.

I believe this also is a great blue heron.

And this sculpture. I see lots of great blue herons while out on the trail. They are beautiful animals but they make the most awful squawk as a vocalization.

And right near the sculpture is a real life great blue heron.

And an American White Pelican. I see them sporadically. They are kind of touchy about people. I’ve learned I’ve had to sneak up on them.

Geese are everywhere, all year long on the RiverParks, and the whole town for that matter.

So yep, I completed the cache and got the coordinates for a nearby physical cache, and found it, so yep a good time.

If you want more information about geocaching check geocaching.com.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Adventure Lab Geocaching on the RiverParks Trails

Earlier this month a nice cold, sunny, windy day, I went to Tulsa’s RiverParks trails to look for an Adventure Lab Geocache. Adventure Labs are a specialty cache where you have to visit a site and find information there. No physical cache is involved so it is appropriate for areas where they don’t really want you hiding stuff. Check out geocaching.com for more information. So this Adventure Lab involved going to several sculptures and getting information from the sculpture or accompanying plaque.

I ended up walking about two or three miles and had the parks trails to myself. At the end of the Adventure Lab you get coordinates to a “real” geocache and I found it as well.

And I took photos of all sorts of other stuff. We still had lots of fall color and the skies were really blue.

These are some sort of infrastructure and artists had painted murals on them and I really liked them.

And RiverParks installed this little musical drum for little kids and immature 69 year olds geocachers.

And I got this certificate!! I am not sure what you do with certificates. I am now up to 2287 geocache finds. But who is counting, right?

I am linking with My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – This and That Edition

We try and walk our dog every day. It kind of smooths him out and reduces his anxiety. I captured this sky on such a walk. A photoblogger always has at least his phone him at all times in all places is my motto.

My other motto is try your front and back porches first for sky shot.

This one I actually walked from my front porch about a100 feet to the street. No need to drive all over the place if you do not want to do so.

In November I ventured up to the suburb of Collinsville for geocaching meet up. The host had a bunch of caches for us to find. I got stuck on this sculpture. Nothing to do with geocaching I tried all sorts of different angles.

So we found nine different geocaches of several different types at the park. It only took about an hour.

A group pic that I stole of facebook. That’s me with the black hat off to the right. Note the lady holding her “geodog” off to the right. Everything is geo with geocachers, geodogs, geocars, geowifes, geotents. Also nobody calls anybody else by their real name, it’s always their geocaching handle. So I’m yogiabb. The two other guys and the other lady have each found over 20,000 geocaches. I’ve been at it for twenty years and only have about 2300 or so. Amazing. The lady to the left of me said she only slowed down finding them once after getting bit on the hand by a copperhead. I’ve never been snakebit but I have been bitten by wasps, bees, hornets, chiggers, fire ants and ticks.

And this is another online jigsaw puzzle I finished on my ipad. A rustic western scene with a little bit of sky.

And that is a wrap for this week. I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Saturday’s Critters – Wild Mustangs of Tulsa

Through my geocaching hobby I found out about a herd of wild mustangs that formally roamed the American west that are now pastured in a field northeast of Tulsa. So I grabbed my camera and headed out to find the geocache and take photos of the horses.

There is a viewing area right off the road where one can see some of the 2000 horses in the herd on private land. The area is next to a busy turnpike but that doesn’t seem to bother the animals.

They are originally from the western states and the BLM manages the population via adoption and relocation. You can read about the program here.

And here is an interesting blog post about the herd. The horses are feral and will live out their lives on this land. There is plenty of grass for them in the spring and summer and they get hay in the winter. The cost is subsidized by the federal government.

And hey look, there looks to be another herd on the other side of the turnpike!

So I got to see the horses and I found the geocache. I had to wait about 30 minutes because there was a Highway Patrol trooper parked there waiting to catch speeders coming off the turnpike I guess. So when he left I walked up to where he was parked and found the cache quickly. So win/win for that day.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Skywatch Friday – Turkey Mountain Hike

The other day I grabbed up my hiking gear and headed out to Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. I took my “grabbers” and a small grocery bag to gather trash. People are pretty good about picking up after themselves so I used to take a small garbage bag but I usually only find an item or two during my hikes.

I took a little side trail pretty soon after the trailhead to find a geocache.

And yep I found it. Another use of grabbers is to grab into places you can’t see so that mr snake doesn’t clamp down on my hand. That would ruin my whole day.

I didn’t see too many critters. A few squirrels maybe, no big critters. I took along my Merlin Bird ID app on the phone. It’s amazing. Turn it on audio mode and it identified:
Red-eyed vireo
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Northern Cardinal
I didn’t see a one of them!! I glimpsed small birds flitting around in the thick woods but I couldn’t vouch for any of them. One I did get a good look at looked like a small woodpecker with a redhead but it wasn’t making any sounds. I don’t know what it is though. It’s kind of frustrating but kind of fun as well. I think being able to spot and ID them will come with practice and patience.

I came upon a fallen tree on one of the small legacy trails. I took a photo of it with my Solocator app which puts the coordinates on the photos and posted it on Turkey Mountain’s facebook page and they had it cleared before I ended my hike. You gotta have the apps folks.

I got to Pepsi Lake and looked around.

I found a mess that somebody left, including a styrofoam cup and some fishing spinner bait packaging. Why can people not haul out what they haul in?

And a Pepsi can, at Pepsi Lake! All the trash fit into my shopping bag that I brought.

I kept heading north and heard some construction type noise. Excited that more trails might be under construction made me hurry to find the source.

It was pipeline construction going on. Ironically my former employer is having to relocate a line because of some highway construction and they cut a deal with my employer before that to lay in their right of way.

That’s not the way the energy industry typically was back in the old days. You had to have sharp elbows to survive. We didn’t spend too much time holding hands and singing Kumbaya with competitors let alone helping each other out. So maybe it is a kinder and gentler industry now?

So I followed the construction from a distance just to make sure that they are doing it right. I guess they are and I was getting tired so I headed back to the parking lot.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

Riding the Arkansas River Loop

The other day I went on a bike ride on the RiverParks Trails around the Arkansas River in Tulsa.

I always check my weather app to check the prevailing winds. I like to go against the wind on the outbound leg and with the wind on the inbound leg. So today I started on the south end because the wind was from the northwest. I crossed the 71st bridge. It is always nice when the river has water in it.

Got across the bridge and hung a right onto Elwood to pass through Turkey Mountain.

I love riding the west side trails. I haven’t done it too much since the last several years since some of the trails have been closed for construction of the new Zink Lake Dam.

This fully enclosed bridge over Mooser Creek always tickles me. Why is it enclosed?

I got up to the soccer fields and checked out the detour map. The trails are opening back up on Labor Day Weekend. They are having a Big Dam Party to celebrate the completion of the Zink Lake Dam, construction of the new Pedestrian Bridge, and reopening of the closed west side trails. I’ll be celebrating, at home, and I’ll check out everything when the hubbub dies down. That’s how I roll.

Oh, yeah, I found a geocache near the sign.

And a guy passed by on this recumbent three wheeler complete with flags. Thankfully, they were right side up.

I deadheaded up the trail past the old PSO Power Plant. I love old infrastructure, even when it doesn’t run.

And go to the sign, “No Public Access” one sign says, the other says “No Bicycles or Scooter.” If you look to the right of the gate, it is propped open and there is a well worn trail there.

I had been wondering how these folks were getting to the river to go fishing. Now I know!! I don’t have a problem with it. These people have had to walk about a mile to get there and by gum. They deserve to fish!! (I am not being sarcastic. I love it when rules are bent to the will of the people, unless it is an insurrection of course.)

So I turned my bike around and headed back down to the soccer field and headed out on the trail detour.

This part used to be scary on southwest boulevard. The road was all torn up and with gravel and such. Plus they had four lanes which made for a tight bike lane especially with tanker trucks going to and from the refinery, dump trucks and other big vehicles that are part of Tulsa’s industrial west side. Then they had a long construction project to redo the road. That was a disaster. No bike lanes, no nothing. The one time I rode it I had to ride on the west side business parking lots cuz I didn’t dare get on the road. I drove the section last week and noticed construction was over and that is why I was riding the bike lane today. I felt pretty comfortable in the bike lane.

So I got up to Route 66 and went across the bridge.

And headed back down south to the car. Didn’t take too many photos. I took some photos of some critters and you can check those out on my post Saturday.

Anyway, almost 18 miles, going slow, stopping and taking photos plus found one geocache. My longest ride in a while.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

My Corner of the World – Route 66 Geocaching

Sunday morning I went geocaching in midtown Tulsa roughly along Route 66. I found this cute Little Free Library during my search. A couple of other searches took me to church parking lots. I avoid church parking lots on Sunday mornings. I avoid church also. (Just joking, I haven’t been since covid and have turned into a total heathen since.)

Parks are always a good place for geocaches.

And parking lots, if nobody is around.

A fellow geocacher maybe trying to get a hint on where to look.

Stopped by Route 66. A local business put up another muffler man, only this is a muffler girl. Stella Atom, the Space Cowgirl.

I love the kitschy Route 66 attractions. I don’t like driving Route 66 that much. It sure makes for slow going. Why do that when you are paralleling a nice freeway?

And I finished up at Oaklawn Cemetery. It is the oldest cemetery in Tulsa. The city has spent some considerable time and money excavating some old graves that were suspected to be those of Tulsa Race Massacre victims based on eyewitness accounts. I don’t think they have found anything conclusive yet. They have recovered genetic material and have encouraged local residents who think they may have relatives who were massacre survivors to report any DNA information they have. This past May the city reported that they have determined numerous people who have genetic ties to the bodies that were exhumed. Interestingly, none of the people contacted had any idea that they had relatives buried at Oaklawn or could have possible ties to the Tulsa Race Massacre.

There are other old graves there including several veterans of World War I, like the one above. The 804 Pioneer Infantry was a unit that did construction and maintenance work during the war. The enlisted men were almost all black serving under white officers.

And that was my Sunday morning!

My Corner of the World

Skywatch Friday – Geocaching, Baseball, and a Mystery

Nowdays I do my geocaching on Sunday mornings. Nobody else is up for hours so I am not missed when I leave. I was chasing one at a children’s playground. I love the tree I found on the way.

The playground was a no go. I think I know where it is but I am not going to look for it when there is even one kid anywhere close to the playground. Time was, when my son was little I would turn him loose in the park and look for the cache. He’s 26 y/o, hates geocaching, loves sleeping in, and doesn’t like playgrounds any longer.

I went to the County Fairgrounds and found a cache associated with this train engine. It was my third try.

I found another one at a church where they had multiple “Little Free Libraries.” They were not just about book but things like petfood, snacks, toys, etc. I thought the concept was pretty cool. Pro hint, the cache was close to these but not in any of them.

And I found a cache associated with this Little Free Library. I have never seen a Midcentury Modern Little Library before. Have you. It was in a section of Tulsa dominated by MCM houses.

And hey, we had Flag Day recently so I got up early and flew my flag. There was only one other person in the ‘hood who flew his flag and it was upside down, on purpose and he flies it every day. I am not sure what that honors.

And for Father’s Day Heather and Logan took me to a baseball game. I am down with that any time.

Nothing better than live baseball. Nothing worse than televised baseball. Do you see a baseball and Civil Rights legend out in left field?

I’ll make it easier on you! That’s Jackie Robinson. One of the benefits of the Tulsa AA Minor League team being associated with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And hey, I promised you a mystery!! Here it is. A herd of blue and grey plywood bison out grazing in the Osage Hills north of Tulsa. More on this to come.

That’s Skywatch Friday for this week!!

YogisDen.us

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