Lunch in the park, and an evening run

I used an Arby's coupon, and got it to go. A boring little park had a picnic table barely shaded, and I ate lunch enjoying bright blue skies and a cool north breeze.

And of course, took some pictures.

This grand tree was massacred by the ice storm a few years ago, but if refuses to die. It might just be my favorite tree.

By the time I finished my second potato cake, I started running out of shade. I needed to get back to work anyway.

I felt like running trailz instead of roads this evening. There also was a geocache that had 4 stars for difficulty and terrain where I was running, so I looked at that as extra gravy.

There was some pretty serious climbing and scrambling involved.  Some ducking too.

Loose leaves, loose rocks. Stuff I like.

My climb brought me atop these 40' bluffs. The instructions said this cache was not a good place to bring kids. Ya think?

I'm not saying where the cache was, but here are the coordinates. This cache was last found and logged in May.

And since this LOOKED like a Deadman's Crack, I zeroed in here.

The coordinates were right on target. A tupperware box, with lots of stuff, but it had been wet sometime back, and was moldy. The log was in pretty good shape though. It looked like some non-cachers had found the box and signed the log. I'm cool with that.

I wanted to go back down to walk around at the base of these bluffs. I found this slot which made a nice easy passage to the lower level. Several of the slots did not look like I could squeeze through them.

There were tons of great rock formations, and I took over 60 pics. This was one of the best.

I was trying to take a pic of me hanging over the edge of the cliff. Really, all I can say here is that my head appears LARGER than the huge rock.

Taken from the bottom looking up. I love running here, and will take a few friends here in the coming weeks. I'd like to take a geocaching trip here, as there are several toughies besides this one.

On a side note, I ran into Aaron Ochoa and John Nobles running here. I wanted this to be my secret playground, but I'll share. The secret is leaking out about these awesome trailz.

53 things

Each year, I celebrate my birthday doing 53 somethings. It's usually running. Miles, Ks, and last year, it was trips across the pedestrian bridge. This year, my birthday fell on the same weekend as a home and garden show, so I worked for 53 hours at the show. GRRR!!!! I NEEDED something else to mark the aging process. (Actually, I decided a few years back that I would get younger each year. Why not? I have never really matured, and as I age, the mind is sure to go. Find any OLD person in their 90s who do not pee their pants just like they did as babies.)

But this year, I decided to find 53 geocaches in one day. Could I do that? Was it even possible? 
After an easy 9 miler, and breakfast with friends, I set out. I first found an easy one to get on the board--one that I had located a few days earlier, but could not retrieve since there was a pick-up truck parked right in front of it. Might have been another geocacher.... Good Day Tulsa was find number two.
It was an ammo box, and had lotsa stuff to trade. I usually do not get into trading silly stuff though.
But signing the log--YUP! I am all about that.
Once found, I log the find on the geocaching sight, and put some sort of message. My message here was: Nice Buncha Swag.

At the next cache, I had a helper. This little guy was helping me dig. The cache was at the base of a tree, and while pulling it out, This guy was doing his best to get out of the way. I have heard that there are far worse critters who interfere with this hobby. Snakes, spiders, mad raccoons....

Caches come in all sizes, shapes, and various containers. Lotsa rubbermaid containers, steel army ammo boxes, pill bottles, peanut butter jars, altoids tins, and a few off the wall secret ones which I won't disclose.
There is a geocache in plain sight at the old cave house. Can you see it?

Caching takes you a lot of neat places. And a lot of historic places as well. The picture above is an old Indian cemetery--right in the middle of a parking lot in a strip shopping center. To show "reverence" the developers erected a steel fence around the sacred burial ground. In my thinking, this should have been national news. Of course, I guess it is a lack or reverence putting a geocache here as well. It was a magnetic micro hidden somewhere in the fence. This was my first DNF (Did Not Find) for the day.

I ended up with 28 finds out of 32 searches--a very good outing for me--but far short of my goal of 53 finds. So, since there are TWO days in a weekend, the search resumed Sunday. I ran with my friends on Turkey Sunday morning, ate breakfast, and then recruited Russell to get the rest of my haul.

Russell needed 25 finds to reach his 100 find milestone. I needed 25 as well to meet my goal. In this videwo, we were hunting our 5th find for the day. It was at the top of a hill between Tulsa and Sapulpa. The previous finders had logged reports of this hill being brutal. That the oxygen was thin at the top--stuff like that. It was an easy one. Not all geochachers are trail runners.

You find all kinds of weird stuff while caching. I have found unknown trailz, money, skeletons of animals, meth labs, and at this sight--PORN! There was a large box that had this note.

I won't post any pics of the contents. It was that of a different "preference." I logged the cache, but declined signing the log, of rifling through all the "goodies." I'm no prude, but it was really in poor taste, albeit a little funny.

Several of our caches were in cemeteries this day. This old cemetery was in northern Sapulpa, and was a peaceful place.
I posted this pic to Facebook with the caption "I see dead people." Comments like "And the dead people see you", "zombie land", and " Are the dead people talking to you?" gave me chuckle.

This won my award for best cache of the day. The description said you could see it form the parking lot, and after we found it, I agreed that it could be seen. Getting it was insane. We had to walk almost a 1/4 mile up a creek bank. Then, after long search, I spotted a cord, and the camo pill bottle suspended about 20 feet above the creek. There were some steel pipes welded as supports to this pipe wall which reinforced the steep banks of the ravine. walking across one of these pipes, and keeping balance by holding on to dead tree limbs got me close enough to grab the bottle. Russell and I signed the log, and then repeated the balancing act to put it back. Fun Fun Fun. But falling would have been a disaster.

We ended up visiting seven different cemeteries. This one is in Mounds--well in between Keifer and Mounds. These would be pretty scary to find at night.

The next-to-the-last cache was at Childrers Creek. I fixed the "mis-spelling." Sunday, I got 27 finds, ending with one at Ollies Restaurant after I dropped Russell off. Russell got 28. It was a good couple of days. I sweat a lot, burned maybe 10s of calories, and had fun.

Tuesday Heat

Maybe tonight will be our last stiflingly hot Tuesday trail run. While is WAS a mere 106 instead of 112, the humidity was dialed up some. Any kind of breeze helped me out, but I was sucking air and iced Gatorade liberally as I led 35 runners around the mountain.

Someone said I was moving faster than normal. I had my bum ankle strapped up, and felt confident running on it. The lo-chi trail is mostly downhill, and gravity assisted me. I marched right up I-Want-My-Mommy Hill, but from there on, I was shuffling.

I think we started with 36 runners, and a few decided to make their route an out-and-back instead of climbing the big hill.

I was behind the camera, and Kristina was being camera-shy. We ended up with a little over 4 miles. Instead of hanging around and socializing (beers), I went home and took a cold shower. Thinking about hitting the trailz early in the am.

Tot stuff

Tot running is alive and well. Last Tuesday, the heat was back on. Not 112°, but triple digits all the same. We still consistently have 50+ runners out, and 25-30 in the zombie group.Turkey miles are a little longer than road miles. Factor in the ascent and decent, and you can add on a percent or two to your totals.
Sunday, we all stayed together in one group. A small group splintered off, , but the rest of us ran a five mile loop, led by none other than JAKE. Jake was bashful come group picture time though. He ran off leash for most of the way, and led us on his favorite route by a couple of his ponds. He NEEDS a bath now.

What's new for the TOTs? A FIELD TRIP to PUMPKIN HOLLER in two weeks. Keep an eye out on Facebook for details.

Coffee

I don't really drink all that much coffee, although people seem to think I do.
I like a cup when I wake up, and I like really good tasting coffee, so sometimes it's 3 cups before I leave the house.
From that point on, it's only maybe 2 or three more cups during the day (my 16 ounce Starbucks stainless steel cups.)
I sometimes have a cup after dinner, but not always.
SO, if I average out what I drink, it's usually ~64 ounces a day--during the warmer months.
Maybe a bit more during the winter--so lets just say an even 96 ounces a day for an average.
See that's not really that big f a deal.
Just a tad over 150 gallons a year, but COME ON!!
That's over a whole YEAR!
That'd only fill up THREE 55 gallon barrels--and leave enough room for cream.

just pictures

slipping away

I saw you as I got into my car to drive home. You were walking away but I chased to catch you. I caught a glimpse of you downtown between the tall buildings and I hurried but by the time I got there you had went away--over the edge like a coin dropped into the ocean.