Saturday Slight

 

It's a welcome pitter-patter morning. 

The mountains are socked in and the raindrops are falling steadily. 

Even the first drops dramatically enhanced the colors in the landscape. 

We can use this wash to clean things up, and those fighting the Sunset fire can use the help to douse that blaze. 

So, it's a welcome change in the weather, which, will last only part of the day. This afternoon and for several days afterward, there's no moisture predicted. 

So, every drop that comes from the sky this morning is precious and needed. 

Rain usually quiets things down.  Today is no exception, and that's okay with me. 

I have a story to work on and some class reunion items to do, so staying inside for part of the day will also be a welcome change.

All good on this Saturday halfway through August.  

Bridie did her work this morning with turkeys, and CB had a workout yesterday. 

Laurie lunged him in the round pen and then climbed aboard. 

Until this week, he hadn't been worked for more than a year. 

His work ethic is impeccable.  Even though he wanted to be in the pasture with Lily and Lefty, he tended to business, both in the round pen and for a short ride around the woods. 

Annie flew to Calgary last night.  She's attending a geocaching event there.  

The event is celebrating 25 years of geocaching.  Through many of those years, Annie has been associated as a lackey with the official geocaching headquarters in Seattle.

There's a Spokesman-Review story below focusing on one of the legends of the geocaching world, Jon Stanley. 

Annie and Jon have traveled the world a few times attending geocaching events in different countries. 

The sport has meant a lot to this family, not only with participation but also with pride that Annie plays an important role in promoting geocaching through actual participation in the game and with her interaction among the worldwide geocaching community. . 

In so doing, she has had amazing experiences that often remind her of how fortunate she is to have such a career. 

And, so we, as her parents congratulate all who have done so much over the past 25 years to create such an educational and fun sport, which appeals to people of all ages. 

Enjoy the story.  

From the Spokesman-Review

By Bonnie Matejowski

From the twisting sidewalks of Riverfront Park to the rocky forests of the Palisades, Spokane is filled with hidden treasure. But it’s not the kind that would attract a pirate.

Geocaching, the modern-day treasure hunt where users search for hidden containers using a GPS app, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

https://www.geocaching.com/

Though it now boasts caches on all seven continents, the activity had humble beginnings in the Northwest, with some of the first users and geocaches ever placed originating in Spokane.

In the early days of the platform, geocaching was confined to users with existing knowledge of GPS. Users would choose coordinates posted on geocaching.com, then head to the wilderness with bulky and expensive GPS devices that had limited precision.

One of those was Spokane’s own Jon Stanley, or as he’s known in the Geocaching community, Moun10Bike.

The Love family, plus Emma from Germany, accompanied Jon one Saturday a few years ago to his cache. 

Stanley is a “Geocaching Celebrity” of sorts. Besides being the 24th person to create a Geocache account, he created the Geocoin, which are collectible tokens with tracking codes so users can follow them as they move from site to site.

A mountain biking enthusiast, he picked up the hobby as another way to satiate his hunger for exploring the wilderness around him.

He decided to hide his first cache in a location dear to his heart: Priest Lake. That’s where his family had a cabin growing up, and where he met his wife.

“I wanted to hide it up there because it’s still to a lot of us, especially the old-timers, it’s about location. It’s getting to see cool spots like this,” he said. “I picked that spot because it’s the place I would always motorcycle with my brother and friends and my dad, and it had a beautiful view.”

Not only was it the first geocache he created, but it was also the first cache ever placed in Idaho. Now 25 years later, he’s still at it, working as a senior data analyst for geocaching.com and traveling to find caches around the world.

“I think there is something in our instincts that it appeals to,” Stanley said. “Like someone hid something, I want to go find it, or I want to go place something and hide it so that the normal person will walk right by, but this certain group will know about.”

Geocaching exploded in popularity in 2008 once the app launched, expanding access from just GPS enthusiasts to anyone with a cellphone. While there were spikes in 2016 due to the rise of similar apps like Pokémon Go and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the userbase has generally plateaued, Stanley said. Although there are more than 3 million geocaches around the globe, there are still a lot of people who are unaware the hobby exists.

Although it happens much less nowadays, Stanley has had his fair share of cops and bystanders approach him with questions about his suspicious snooping in random areas.

“There are frequent big events where people come together in the city and go caching together in the local area,” he said. “The original guy who organized all of those would actually call the police department ahead of time saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to have a bunch of weird people running around your town.’ ”

Happy Saturday.  I hope all who had to evacuate will be able to return home, thanks to  this rain.