Archive for May, 2011

As geocachers, we spend our fair share of time out in the wild, hiking. And sometime during our adventures we’re sure to run into one of the great sticker-plants: a cactus! In researching this article, I’ve heard that there are wild cacti in all the contiguous states except Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

 

 

Glad to know that us desert dwellers don’t enjoy a monopoly in these mild forms of torture!

(Hey you Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont people: is it true? Are there REALLY no wild cacti there?)

So I wanted to share with you two tested and proven ways of removing cactus spines.

Removing Big Cactus Needles

Here I was, honestly minding my own business doing some caching in Southern Arizona. Up this super steep hill I go, sign the log, come back down and as I get ready to climb back into the truck I look down to see:

A Hitchhiker!

This is a whole joint from a nasty cactus called a jumping cholla. It doesn’t really JUMP but it will stick to just about anything!

The best way to get rid of a joint of cactus is to gently work a comb between the joint and whatever it’s stuck in. Then FLICK!

Of course, you need to be sure not to flick it back at yourself or at anybody else! And I recommend having a buddy do it because the last thing you want to do ANYWHERE near a cactus is to sit on the ground!

You can continue to use the comb to get rid of any remaining groups of cactus thorns. Then follow up with a pair of tweezers. We always carry a comb AND a pocket multi-tool for just these things.

Removing Little Cactus Needles

The tiny, nearly invisible, oh-so-terrible, hair-like cactus spines are called glochids. Not ALL cacti have glochids but if you have them stuck in your fingers, that fact is small comfort.

Last Saturday, ESP Boss & I drove to Tucson to visit my grandparents and pick up a kayak my grandfather had bought for me. He got it for a STEAL ($60!) because a packrat had made a nest inside the kayak and the large sections of foam inside were COVERED in glochids.

We had to totally take all the inside parts out of the kayak so we could clean it enough to load it onto the car. And I learned two things:

1. Packrats are really gross creatures who line their nests with cactus spines
2. No matter how careful you are, you WILL get glochids in your hands!

Poor ESP Boss ended up with a half-dozen that he just COULD NOT GET OUT.

 

 

Removing Glochids
Tweezers are a good bet but they can shear the glochid off at skin level. It won’t stick out enough to grab it with anything but it will stick out enough for you to brush it against EVERYTHING and generally make yourself miserable.

What we found that worked was covering the area with white glue (Elmer’s is perfect) then pressing a small section of gauze over it. Allow it to dry COMPLETELY and then peel the gauze off.

 

 

It might take several tries, but it really does get them out.

ESP Boss likes to do it once with the gauze and then once with just two layers of glue (let it dry completely between) and peel.

 

 

Here’s the good news:

• Cactus spines aren’t really poisonous. They’ll just make you miserable.
• They WILL work their way out of your skin. Eventually.
• Most of the time, they’ll be large cactus needles that are easy to deal with.

Here’s the bad news:

• Sooner or later you WILL encounter (and be stuck by) a cactus in your geocaching adventures.

 

Readers Weigh In:

• What tips and tricks do you have for removing cactus needles? From skin? From gear or clothing?

I’m lucky enough to spend a lot of time with a brand-new geocacher. This gives me a lot of perspective on what the newest of the new cachers know and what they don’t know. (And sometimes that is surprising!)

So when I was chatting with Code Wolf today about today’s geocaching article, the subject of a “power trail” came up and he asked me to write an article about it.

Now, there are people who love power trails since they can rack up a bunch of finds in a short amount of time. And there are people who think that scooting down a 10 mile long road grabbing a cache every quarter mile is just silly.

A power trail is loosely defined as a series of caches laid out along a roadway. They are usually a series of PNG caches with cache sizes being small or micro. There are some power caches that are 50 or more caches along a single route!

An example of a 50+ power cache series is “Hang’m High On Hwy. 51 #1″ GC20GR1 in Louisiana.

For me, there’s a big difference in a power cache series like this versus a road that has lots of caches along its length but each cache is hid as if it were a stand-alone hide.

Way back in 2009, I wrote about caches along a trail. But I wasn’t thinking of anything like a “power trail”. I like hiking along a trail or a loop and finding a cache on a regular basis, like the caches along the trail that lead to my “High Gear” GC1PN22 cache.

Somewhere between caches along a trail and a power trail are caches that are one right after another BUT you have to walk or bike to get to them. There are two trails like that here in Prescott, both Rails to Trails, that I have been itching to go after: the Peavine National Recreation Trail and the Iron King Trail.

 

 

 

I don’t think I’d make power trails by caching bread and butter, but just once I think I’d like to try my geosenses against a true PNG power trail. Just to say I did it!

Readers Weigh In:

• Power trails, yes or no?
• Do you think that power trails add to or detract from the geocaching experience?
• Is it still a power trail if you have to walk to get all the caches?

My friend, Kris, was lucky enough to pick up a new GPS a few weeks ago: a Magellan eXplorist. Since I’m a die-hard Garmin fan, I asked her if she would write up a review of the eXplorist for the Find Your Geocache blog.

If you’re ready to buy, or want more info, here’s a link to Magellan eXplorist on Amazon.com.

Here it in, in Kris’ own words:

 

Paperless Geocaching

 

I have been talking for years about geocaching and my family. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting that my girlfriend Kim of TheOutdoorPrincess.com introduced us to many years ago. With geocaching, you use a GPS, enter in the coordinates and search for a hidden treasure.

 

 

Sometimes those treasures are as simple as a piece of paper that you sign your name on, other times there are little trinkets that you can exchange with your own. Some of the neatest geocaches that our family has found contain travel bugs or geocoins that you can take, move to another location and track online.

There is a local cache just down the road from us that has a history lesson in it that includes a newpaper article. We use geocaching as part of our PE for homeschooling.

Last month, our family researched new GPSs and came across one by Magellan. The eXplorist GC is specifically made for geocaching and you can load on caches that you want to find right from your computer and the geocaching.com website. It is waterproof (perfect for our family of 7) so that we can take it on our camping trips and not worry that the 5 year old is growing the drop it in a stream, after all 5-year old boys are addicted to throwing rocks into water!

 

 

To get started with this GPS, you will need to download the driver to your computer. Visit the geocaching.com site and look for local caches. On the individual cache pages, there is a download to GPS button. Click it and follow the directions. (Here’s an article on Loading Caches Directly to a GPS) It’s that easy!! The geocache coordinates are now on your GPS!!!

With the eXplorist GC, you can mark the ones that you have found, add comments, view the entire file, including comments, hints and description right from your GPS on location. Then you come back to your computer and download the file and it updates your finds and comments online!

NO MORE PRINTING!!

And it is easy enough for a 9-year old to figure out! We are thrilled to find this GPS for our family!!

(Just recently in the news – a local Prescott Geocacher found an INTACT Yavapai Indian pot – check out the post on The Outdoor Princess’ Find Your Geocache tips and tricks blog)

Remember too that Geocaching in a low-cost FUN activity for your family. You can find GPSs on craigslist for inexpensive. Found mine online on AMAZON.com for less than $150. We pack a picnic lunch and plan our caches in order to save on gas money. And you get to SPEND time as a family OUTSIDE!

Readers Weigh In:

• Garmin or Magellan? Why?
• What is your favorite GPS unit?