Attended/Found Logs From My CITO Event

As a measure of the success of my CITO, I am going to list the wonderful feedback I got on the logs for the event. I am very pleased with the turnout and the wonderful responses I got - and the great job everyone did!

GCTYHG Midland Trail CITO Sunday 4/23 CITO 2.0/1.0 Attended log: April 23, 2006 by 2/3 Marine (296 Found)

Thanks Witz Crew. You're real good at putting events together. Very nice to meet cachers for the first time and see ones I know.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by Happy Meadow (98 Found)

Had never been on this trail before. Hot day but had a lot of fun meeting new cachers and visiting with cachers I knew. Good job WitzAbouts'.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by Explorer99 (911 Found)

Excellent day for the event and I enjoyed meeting all the people whose names I’ve seen in the cache logs. I will leave my GeoCoins for the people who wanted to log them. Thanks for the cache.

Found log: April 23, 2006 by Team GPSaxophone (820 Found)

What a beautiful day for a cleanup! I had never hiked this trail before or been to this park. I think the best part of this CITO was the couple of people driving or riding by that yelled "Thank you" when they spotted our full trash bags. It's always nice to be recognized by the community for lending a hand. Maybe next time we'll have tshirts that identify who we are and why we're cleaning up. Thanks to the WitzAbout crew for hosting this CITO event. You did a good job.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by Hefe3 (152 Found)

nice day! Enjoyed putting names and faces together. Really big KUDOS to the Witz gang. Thanks.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by Dew Crew (33 Found)

It was very nice to talk with a few cachers, a lot I didn't know, and some I did. Also a lot from the forums! Saw a bunch of geocoins. Nice to talk with Sax. I recognized rustybeercan too. I planning on putting together one in Norhtern Michigan next year. Thanks WitzAbout! I don't think anybody got the tracking numbers for my coins. I'll grab them back.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by mtn_goat (232 Found)

I had a great time and met a lot of new people. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Thanks for putting this together!

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by hikerRon (1203 Found)

a VERy nice event, on a beautiful day. it was good to visit with friends and meet some new ones as well. thanks Witz, for all the time and effort you invested while putting this thing together!

Found-it log: April 23, 2006 by The Johnson 4 (55 Found)

We had a great time. Thanks for the effort in putting this event together.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by nursegirl (266 Found)

Thanks to the WitzAbouts for hosting another successful event. I had a lot of fun talkin' cache and pickin' up trash. It was a perfect day for it. Had fun seeing old friends and meeting new ones too.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by Geo Spy (228 Found)

I had a lot fun today. Someone should have brought a scale and a prize for heaviest bag. Oh the things you'll find out there. TNLN and again I had lots of FUN!

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by Bhob (2122 Found)

Great event, excellent crowd, flawless organization. I especially appreciated that this event was held on a day other than the one in Denver - it gave me a chance to do a little payback twice this year. Thanks !

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by MrCOgeo (128 Found)

A big thanks to WitzAbout and of course family for a great CITO event! (What's a great captain without his crew?)Really good work and even enjoyable at that. It's nice to be able to give back this weekend. Always great to see everybody.Thank you for the CITO event!

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by sparrowPI (380 Found)

Had fun seeing everyone today and it was a good thing to clean up...Mr/Mrs SparrowPI

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by RustyBeerCan (538 Found)

Great day to be out on the trail and meeting everybody. BIG Thanks to WitzAbout for hosting the C.I.T.O. event and to Everyone for pitching in on Earthday weekend. I have never seen so many Geocoins in one place before and was given some really great ones to add to my collection. Thank You!

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by Buzz Lightyear I (194 Found)

Thanks WitzAbout for organizing the CITO. We got there late but headed up the trail and meet Hiking fool and started picking up trash. Enjoyed seeing everyone and talking GeoCoin.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by gorillagal (138 Found)

I had a great time meeting new people, putting faces to names, etc. Thanks for organizing this event!

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by team w-bar-v (278 Found)

We had a wonderful time helping with the trash out and seeing old friends and meeting new friends. A gentleman who lives in the area told us he appreciated our cleaning the trail up, also half of the bicycle people said Thanks too. Keith, you and your family know how to set up an event. Job well done. Enclosing some of my favorite pictures.

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by cache_venturers (169 Found)

Thanks Witzabout for setting this up! Very well organized! Great day for picking up trash...thank goodness for the breeze!

Attended log: April 23, 2006 by doc4001 (445 Found)

Caching provided another "feel good" day for us today, happily doing our part for Earthday. Good project, good social event, gathered a few hints on my DNFs. Chuck & Pegge

Attended log: April 24, 2006 by 4krejcis (184 Found)

We had a great time too while giving back a little. Thanks so much to the WitzAbouts for setting this up. We appreciated the geocoin prize too!

GCTYHG Midland Trail CITO Sunday 4/23

During my event back in February, there were some who asked for a Sunday clean-up event instead of on Saturday, the main day. So I set up this event for Sunday, the day after Earth Day - but still the same weekend.
The event started at noon at a local resturant. We had maybe a dozen people.
Then at the park we had about 16-20 people.
I was talking with one of the other geocachers about having a contest for the event - and he talked about hiding a special piece of trash. I liked the idea, but went a little further. I made up icons - of the geocaching clean up 'CITO' icon. I printed out about 12 to a page - 4 pages. I wrote different values on the back of each paper: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20. Then I taped the papers to bits of trash. Most of them were on soda cans I brought home from work. But I attached a few more on other trash already on the trail and on a few objects on the trail. Unluckily, I did not get to the trail ahead of time. So instead I set up while everyone was meeting up and driving to the end of the trail. I finished taping on the cans, got my bike out of the car, and headed down the trail. I had put the gear needed for the clean-up in the back of my wife's car. I had fun littering my way up the trail - tossing cans every few hundred feet.
I stopped a few times to tape up icons on spots. As I was about 5 mintues away, my wife calls and asks about the trash bags. Talk about a moment of panic. Then I remembered they were in a cardboard box in a bin. I finished up and got to the head end of the trail right on time at 2:00pm. I saw a few people already gathered around. Then I looked up the street and saw a huge number of people heading our way. I was amazed at the fantastic turnout.
I wound up staying behind cleaning up the trail head. Most of the group went ahead. Just one or 2 others stayed to help. There was a huge amount of cigarette butts to clean up there. After a while I headed off. My wife decided to drive back with our youngest. The other 2 boys had headed off with the group. I had a large amount of water bottles, extra bags, and hand cleaner. So I figured that I should try to catch up.
I caught up with a small group of 4 who were really doing a good job cleaning. I stayed with them for a while. Then my middle son showed up, leading another group heading back for cars. I was surprised to see him without my eldest. But I didn't make a big deal of it. I was glad to have him along. We worked our way up the trail, doing some more cleaning. I had a few of the icons left, so I seeded a few for the follow-up group. After a while, I decided it would be good to get to the end of the trail. I got back to the pavillion at 3:29pm. One minute ahead of schedule. Someone was playfully complaining about how long I took - so I playfully retorted that I was one minute early, and if they hadn't been in a rush, they would have been right with me :)
There was some car pooling back - I stayed with the boys and visited a bit more with other geocahers.
I was feeling a little guilty about being a little behind schedule getting everything set (again - happened at my first event too) - but the people at lunch said I was the most organized that they knew. That was a nice compliment.

GCTYHG Midland Trail CITO Sunday 4/23 CITO 2.0/1.0 MrWitzAbout Mrs.WitzAbout Pirate #1 #2 #3 Attended log: April 23, 2006 by WitzAbout

The whole WitzAbout crew attended - and hosted :) It was a fantastic turn out - and a wonderful effort! Thanks everyone who turned up to help with the clean up! This should put us in a much better place with the parks department - we have shown them very nicely how we give back to the community! Looking at the logs entries so far, see all the thanks - you are most welcome! I was glad to see so many I've met show up and was really glad to meet some new faces too! As always, there is never enough time to visit and talk geocaching - but I was happy to have a chance to talk with some of you. I really big thanks to those who hung back and scoured the trail for as much trash as they could! I was really proud of the extra effort you put into getting the trail really clean. I also have to add an extra thanks to Mrs.WitzAbout for helping me get everything done - she was fantastic! 5:39 Mr.WitzAbout - I will be posting pictures from this event to this log now :)

Meeting at the Park's Pavilion Large Group Heading up 21st for the CITO Getting ready to clean Lagging behind - clean trail Cleaning the Trail, Pikes Peak in the Distance 79 Degrees, Not a Bearing - Warm Day! Mr.WitzAbout Lugging Water and Supplies Pirate #2 wanted to take some pictures - so I have a picture of myself to add to the gallery :) Post Event, Back at the Park Post Event Group Picture 1 - Not as Good Geocaching Group CITO in Colorado Springs CITO cleanup Midland Trail to America the Beautiful Park in downtown Colorado Springs - Generating Plant and Cheyenne Mountain as our backdrop Main pile from clean up at the end Geocachers, Post Event Time

GCV8E3 Simon's Salute

Second time trying this one. The first time I tried this I was on my way to work. I didn't have my GPSr, but thought I could do it from the location on the map. I was wrong. I had tried for about 40 minutes the previous time. This time I had my youngest pirate along - we spent maybe 5 or 10 minutes and I found the altoids can well hidden.

GCV8E3 Simon's Salute Small 1.0/1.5 MrWitzAbout Pirate3 Found-It log: April 16, 2006 by WitzAbout

5:47pm - finally found it! Yay! Pirate #3 was along with me. I had my GPSr with me and it made a difference. Yet it had me going on different levels. First down. Then up. Then down. Then up. Then up. Pirate #3 was examing some bushes when I finally found the correct spot. It seemed like a spot I had looked at when I was here the first day - but I don't think I checked that spot quite well enough. This was a nice find, and a fun follow-up from this afternoon's meeting. SL - Pirate #3 took a butterfly. I left 2 ladybug type toys - one red, one yellow. Nice hide! Thanks for the cache!

Somewhere up there Could give a hint

TBGWPJ M&M Bug Mobile

Cute punch buggy with an M&M theme! And it has a bunch of stuff inside. We added an M&M character inside. :)

TBGWPJ M&M Bug Mobile retrieved it log: April 16, 2006 by WitzAbout

Picked up this neat travelbug from the event today. This is a neat container and a neat idea. I have taken a picture of the current inventory. Glad to move this bug along!

TB PunchBug Inventory 4/16/2006 TB PB Side Top View TB PB Top Front View

GCTZD4 C.A.C.H.E.South April Meeting

This is the first meeting I've attended of the state's local sub-group. My event at REI in February had displaced the possibility of the official group's meeting time - unintentionally. I've been to 3 Denver meetings and a semi-local meeting in Castle Rock before. This turned out to be a smaller meeting, but it was nice. I tried to help out with the meeting, getting my foot in the door as a co-organizer. I'd asked about doing a raffle for the local group - in part to help fund the prizes I wanted to give out at my geocaching clean-up event next week. I got raffle tickets, that can be used for the group for quite some time. Sax, the local head and the event organizer, provided the ammo box. I provided a bunch of swag. One of Sax's daughters picked and packed the cache. I also brought along name tags that we well recieved, and a bucket for holding the small collection of travelbugs.

GCTZD4 C.A.C.H.E.South April Meeting Event MrWitzAbout Attended log: April 16, 2006 by WitzAbout

Mr.WitzAbout (only WitzAbout) attended. Helped out with the raffle - added one of my left over Easter-egg sized micro caches to the raffle pool as well. Turns out Grand High Poobah visiting from Denver won it. The Ammo can cache went to a lucky Kattrax. It was a pretty small meeting, probably due to the holiday today - but that made it easier to visit with everyone. We visited inside for a while, and then moved outside so that the resturant could clean up. There was talk about geocoins and hiding caches, and interesting night caches. Afterwards Sax went to check his new Saxy's Place cache. Our Denver guests decided they needed to do this one next - having tried it before the meeting. So I followed them to take a few more pictures and visit a little longer. A nice day and event. A few pictures to follow. Thanks Sax for putting this on! I look forward to seeing many of you at the Midland CITO next week! :) And at future events, including the CACHE-South meeting in Pueblo. Picked up an M&M Punch Buggy TB

Filling the Raffle Cache Meeting Table Meeting Table CACHE-South 4/16/06 Smiling at the Meeting GPSr located a doggy bag! Announcements Sax - Our Host Happy about the meeting View down the table Checking a devious cache Chatting as we worked our way out Outside the Resturant Checking out coins Takin' Cache Rare GC Icon Geocoin Grand High Poobah Relaxes I even got myself in the reflection - not even looking at what I was taking a picture of! :) Extra Hairy Geocacher Afterwards - Saxy's Place It has to be here somewhere! Sax is happy his cache was found! We stayed and talked while they searched. Sax wasn't giving much in the way of clues except that it was within about 20 feet. :)

GCT7XZ Tiny Tooshie's Tokens

We road bikes from our house. Other than losing our chains downshifting a few times, things went pretty well. I noticed how much the tag-a-longs for the kids could sway. And any time the kids swung their weight, the whole tag-a-long swayed hard, pulling the parent a little off course. I wonder if it was something about our model - or if it was something about tag-a-longs in general.
We go to the bottom of the hill on powers where it crossed the bridge. But I was pretty sure we needed to approach the cache from the Northern side of the creek. So we had to cross over to the powerline trail. This meant crossing a sandy hillock that required pushing the bikes. Not very comfortable when you don't get off. :) But we made the approach. I may have to invest in a GPS holder for my bike, and riding and looking for a cache on the GPS while holding the GPS was a little shakey. But this was fun! It was nice to find an easier cache.

GCT7XZ Tiny Tooshie's Tokens Small 1.5/1.5 Pirate3 Pirate2 MrWitzAbout - MrsWitzAbout standing guard Found-It log: April 14, 2006 by WitzAbout

We were out for a bike ride this afternoon. Mrs.WitzAbout is in training. We each had a Pirate on tag-along. I checked Google Earth for the location of this cache - seeming to be near our route. I took us a little off-road as we were going along powers. We got to the general area, and realized we needed to hoof it the last 175 feet. I looked for a good spot to head down - it was back about 20 feet from where we stopped the bikes. I headed down. I was followed a minute later by Pirate #2, then another minute by Pirate #3. We crossed over a micro-stream which required a small hop. Pirate #2 decided he needed to take a long running jump at the creek, it was cute. I went back and helped Pirate #3 cross. We headed down. I'm glad the steep parts didn't last too long :) The GPSr got us to the general area. It kept pointing in as I circled the spot. I figured this one would be similar to the last one of this type by this team. I was right. I spotted something that I thought was the target. I just realized now that this is the most accurate my GPSr has been in a long time. I held my place about 5 feet away to let the Pirates catch up. Without having to give any clues, Pirate #3 moved in and got the offical spotting for this cache. We opened it up - it took surprising bit of force to get the lid off. The Pirates quickly found trade items that made them happy: Pirate #2 took the Darth Vader figure and Pirate #3 took the flower thingy (technical term :) ). I signed the log, and we left a tiny Uno game, an ornage plastic toy and a mini-Narnia snow globe. Thanks for the cache - this was a fun and rewarding find! The kids really enjoyed playing in the nearby playgorund for a little while afterwards. I even made a quick sand mountain for them to crush. We took some turns on the swings. I plays the rollercoaster swing game and the how-did-you-get-away game. Then we decided to return home via the Eastern secret path, going back through the Fairfax development.

Nearby Powers Road Bridge Deep Gully near the Tokens Cache