Munzee Olympics

      Now that the Olympic games in Sochi are underway, Munzee has come up with a new game for us to get into the Olympic spirit. The Munzee Olympics are an interesting new twist to the traditional clan wars (which are also going on... see below). The basic idea is that you pledge your allegiance to a country and then enter into up to five events. As munzees are captured, they count towards your individual event goals and rankings. Should your country rank in the top three at the end of the day, your country gets points which count towards the overall country rankings. I play Munzee for Ireland and as a country we are doing about as well as the Irish figure skating team (Ireland has a figure skating team??). In other words, we aren't going to be bringing home any gold for the Motherland!

A more detailed description of the game can be found on the Munzee blog (here), but the various events are as follows:

Freestyle: Overall points for all activity during the Munzee Olympics

Greenies: # of Greenies capped

Academic: # of Quiz and Quiz virtuals capped

Social: # of Socials capped
Badge: # of Badges earned during the Munzee Olympics (includes ALL badges)
Visitor: # of Motels capped (sum of Motels and Motel Rooms)
Virtual Olympian: # of Virtuals and Mystery Virtuals capped (sum of both)
Ice: # of Diamonds capped
Grow the Map: # of Greenies deployed (may not be converted during Olympics)
Unicorn: # of Business caps
Level Up: # of Levels gained
Triathlon: # of times you cap a complete cycle of 1 green, 1 virtual, 1 mystery

Webbed: # of Virts and Mystery Virtuals deployed (sum of both)
Perfect 100: # of days with exactly 100 points
    Go For the Gold: # of premium caps (goldies)

I signed up for the events in red. I won't be competitive in any of these (stupid day job!) but the Olympics aren't about winning the medals, it's about the spirit of competition. Right? RIGHT!

   In addition to the innovative Olympic game Munzee is running this month, a more traditional Clan War is also active. The clan I've been a member of recently has not been very active, and several players were not really contributing at all.  So, I decided to leave the Mixed DohNutz clan and go to the free agent market (aka the Munzee Clan FB group). With only about two days between Clan wars to get on a clan, it becomes a crazy place! Clans are scrambling to get the required ten members to compete, and individual players are trying to get placed on a Clan that will give them the best chance of success to win the special Clan Weapon munzees. After a few FB posts, I wound up on the short list of several clans and it was an anxious evening waiting to see how the final rosters would shake out. With only a couple hours until the deadline, I got a request from a clan in Wisconsin, so I am a member of the Wisconsin Munzee clan. We have already secured the first weapon and are closing in on the Mace Munzee. So in the spirit of the Sochi games... Go Ireland! Go Wisconsin!    

Caching in Beeler Canyon

Trail head

This weekend's caching adventure did not take me too far from home. I had a couple of hours free on Saturday morning, so I drove over to Beeler Canyon to get some caches that were further out on the trails than where we typically go with our geopets. Beeler Canyon is between Scripps Ranch and Poway, and is below the community of Stonebridge. It's a strange area, with old houses and farms next to huge mansions and a Vulcan mining operation. The main road out to the trail head services the few houses along Beeler Canyon, but also serves as an evacuation route for Stonebridge in case of fire. Anyhow, I drove all the way to the end, where there is a trail head for miles and miles of hiking/biking/caching trails. Here (link) is a convenient cache to help you find it!

Troll was still asleep here

View from 'Scatological Warfare'

The goal for Saturday was to hike a mile or so into the trail (past caches I had done on previous dog walks) and do a loop of 'Beeler' caches. The first couple were fairly standard geopiles, but then I missed my turn and had to bushwhack to a cache called "Scatological Warfare" (here's the link). This cache was placed by Narfinsan back in 2011. In those days, there weren't many caches in this neck of the woods, and then shortly after that, the whole area was closed off for two years so the Sunrise Powerlink power lines could be installed. When that "No Trespassing" sign came down, it opened the flood gates! Narfinsan had recruited a new player, 3rd&Long, and together they started dropping caches like crazy here! Many of them had "Beeler" in the cache title, and they fancied themselves The Beeler Boys. Sounded like a bunch of flim-flam to me. Too much sizzle and not enough steak, as it were. However, Scat turned out to be a nice spot for a cache and as I came back down the hill to circle back around, I happened upon a lovely string of caches. Not all by the Boys, but many were and they were really fun!

Most memorable was a new cache called 'Beeler Braggadocio' (link) hidden by Voldemark just a few weeks ago. Here is part of my log for this one:

"This one was guarded by a giant wildebeest, who snorted at my approach. He protected a very nice geopile but from my years of experience caching in the wilds of central and south america, I knew that the beast would not be so bold as to show the true location. I played along, sparring gently with him in a half-hearted effort to search his geopile. Meanwhile, I took quick glances around and was certain I had spotted the hide site. I feigned a great injury and collapsed at the site, sweeping the cache under my body."

Here's another one by FlagMan (who, shockingly, was not FTF on this one!):

"Ever since I was a young boy,
I've sought those precious logs.
From ammos down to nanos
I must have found them all.
But I ain't seen nothing like him
On any power trail...
That deaf dumb and blind kid
Sure plays a mean cache game!"

And one by Beeler Boy narfinsan:

"Too late we realized that our decades of imbibing at Karl Strauss had given us a scent all-too-readily apparent to beer-guzzling Freems from the planet Zork, even thousands of light years distant. Voldemark was first to detect them, quickly bringing his gattling gun to bear. While he was pumping the Freems full of depleted uranium exploding rounds, 3rd wheeled around and started hosing them down with deadly dihydrous oxide from the camel pack he was wearing."

Old farmlands: RIP nano, muahahaha... 

I'm sure you get the idea. Much like the Liar's Cache near UTC, the log is almost as important as the find. In this case, the find was actually quite fun too. Without giving too much away, GZ was littered with geopiles and the first question on my mind was "How the hell do they have time to make all these geopiles?", I mean, it was "I wonder if the cache is really hidden in a geopile or if they are all fake and it is really a nano in a bush?" Followed closely thereafter by "If it IS a nano in a bush, and I find the damn thing, I'm flinging it as hard as I can throw into that abandoned field." It turned out that the hide was brilliant and no nanos were harmed during the search. This time...

Beeler Grove looking towards Mt Woodson

The final hide of the morning was 'Beeler Grove' (link) placed by 3rd&Long in February 2013. This was another one of those hides where you see something, figure it must be there, don't look well enough, then spend ten minutes walking around in circles. I'm sure you know what I mean! It was another in a string of unusual hide sites on the back side of this loop, and they were all most appreciated. Finally found the cache and was able to spend a few minutes in a lovely part of the trail. I don't know why all the vegetation and trees are located here, but it was a great place to spend a few minutes and rest. Kudos to the Beeler Boys and the others who have hidden such great caches so close to home!