Our tips...tackle USMC during the Fall, Winter, and Spring when the weather is cooler. Heat makes it very difficult to hike. Always take lots of water, good hiking shoes, and snacks. Be aware of the weather! Be respectful of the critters...there are so many no matter what time of year it is. Pack some spare cache containers. The weather out here takes its toll on them and you may find that replacements are necessary. Pay attention to the roads. Some sections are pretty tough on low clearance 2WD. 4WD is the best choice if that is an option for you. Have FUN and take lots of pictures.
My posted logs are listed below:
10/18/14: What a day! It was gorgeous for starters...MojaveDiva and I headed down from Ridgecrest bright and early to do a trial run of a section of this series so we decided on South America. It appears we are the first ones out here since last May and the pill bottles are not holding up to the Mojave Desert heat. out of the 34 we found today, approximately 10 shattered in our hands despite our best effort to treat them delicately. A few were found on the ground with no wire in sight. Sadly, we were unprepared and had NO extra containers with us so we contacted the CO and indicated "Needs Maintenance" when necessary.
This did not daunt us! We had a great time and the hiking was awesome. The terrain kept changing from granite to quartz to tufa to other variations. We saw burrows of all shapes and sizes. We saw lots of ants and three tarantulas. The northeast section of South America has debris from some sort of accident so we had a good time looking at lots of pieces of something! We found a bird's nest.
Our final stats were: 34 caches in 3.5 hours, so approximately 10/hr. We hiked approx 4-4.5 miles. We think we were a bit on the slow side, but now we have some ideas about how to tackle other segments of this geoart and what kind of time it will take us. We will definitely be back because we have some work to do here!!
Thanks for all the effort that went into this. This is certainly not for the faint of heart and is NOT a one day project, that's for sure, but it is SO WELL WORTH IT!!!
10/25/14: Headed back out for this series with the Diva today to knock out North America/Central America (43 caches). We crossed paths with more tarantulas, which were really cool. The cache containers in this section were in much better condition than South America. We think we hiked about 6 miles today and we were tired and glad to see the Tahoe. One of the adventures today was climbing through a barbed wire fence. We were glad we were able to find a "downed" spot when we had to cross back through it! The Diva also forgot her walking stick at one of the caches and we had to backtrack to retrieve it. It was another gorgeous day. We were glad when the wind picked up in the late morning to cool us off a bit. TFTC!
11/22/2014: Crazy day today caching in 35 mph winds with the Diva. We knocked out 135-169 but boy, are we exhausted. With the wind at our backs, we moved along. With the wind in our face, it was like slogging through a swamp. This section appears to have been between 6-7 miles. We found two ammo cans, one of which had a TB that's been sitting there since May. Not too much wildlife out today. A few ants, birds, one small ground squirrelish thing, a dead tarantula, and some rodent bones in scat. Had a great time despite the challenges with the wind. TFTC!
11/24/2014: Let's see...today's adventure included hiking 192-225 with the Diva and my boyfriend, Bob. We spotted three cachers from a distance, but while we saw their signatures on several of the caches, we never crossed paths directly. It was a gorgeous day and we were so glad that there was no wind like the other day. As usual, we cracked a few cache containers but only replaced two. Looks like we hiked about 6 miles and went through patches of tufa, quartz, and granite...lots of open areas that were easier to hike in but there were more contours and ups and downs than that other sections that we have done so far. Somewhere in here I got my 5500th find. Very disappointed to see the tire tracks of a previous cacher who chose to drive off road instead of hiking. All in all, lovely day out on the Marine symbol. TFTC!
01/19/2015: Today's USMC geocaching segment involved 44 caches in the middle of the anchor. Out with MojaveDiva and my son GTEJames. We saw birds, a jackrabbit, some lizards, a few insects, and some rodent bones. It was a lovely warm-ish day. We replaced approx. 18 containers that had been broken by previous cachers. We also found a variety of "makeshift" cache containers at other sites. We hiked about 7 miles in 3 1/2 hours which is our best yet for this series. Still trying to figure out how to tackle some of the other sections...we WILL be back! TFTC!
02/21/2015: Another great day on the USMC with MojaveDiva! This was our 6th trip out. The wildflowers were in abundance today and it was like there was a green carpet on the ground. Beautiful! We saw birds, a jackrabbit, a horned toad, lots and lots of black beetles and butterflies. We could hear gun fire in the distance for most of the time and at the end of the day found the shooters group towards the 395. Lots of container replacement again today. We completed the Eagle's head (358-376), the right foot (311-319), the left foot (411-419), and part of the globe (47-54). It was nine miles of walking and took us about 6 hours with temps in the low 70s and a nice breeze in the afternoon. TFTC!
04/06/2015: Today's totals: 12.2 miles, 67 geocaches, 25 mph winds, 6 hours, one adult jackrabbit, one baby jackrabbit, one snake (not rattle) and any number of lizards, birds, beetles, and butterflies. There are still many beautiful wildflowers to be seen. MojaveDiva and I replaced caches like crazy with replacement containers from Ginny & Stevecat. Found a few in black test strip containers from someone else and left those in place. At least 20 had been replaced by Not Tom and Larry the Pool Guy (hurray!). These two girls (aged 49 & 50) were a bit tired and hobbling by the end of the hike, but we knocked out another section...woot, woot! TFTC!
Additional fun fact...due to roads closed by BLM, it took us an hour to drive from the 395 to the road by #88. It was quite the circuitous route, that's for sure!
04/18/2015: Today's episode with MojaveDiva: We parked near 404 and did 404-410 then hiked north to 377 and back around to 403. The left wing is complete! It took us about 3 1/2 hours to walk 7 miles. It was hot out there today so we were glad to start early and end early. We were also glad to see all of the maintenance that's been done by previous cachers, especially Not Tom and Larry the PG. We only had to replace 3 caches today. We saw two jackrabbits, tons of beetles, butterflies, birds and lizards. We found a tortoise shell, a bird's nest with 4 small blue eggs, and a snake skin in our travels. We have decided, having now done hundreds of caches out here, that we appreciate the terrain with few scrub bushes. We walk twice the distance when we have to dart around all those little bushes. We much prefer the open space! LOL! The silence was amazing, only broken by birds chirping and a short time of dirt bikes in the distance. Thanks for another great day out in the desert!
04/25/2015: Out again with MojaveDiva to tackle another section of the symbol. Today was all about the right wing of the eagle. We parked .4 miles West of #357, hiked .9 miles to #320, and started the loop. The winds were 30-40 mph and got worse as the morning progressed. Despite the wind, it was a lovely day's hike (for me...the Diva highly dislikes wind) with nice cool temps, but not too cold. We had a mix of sunshine and clouds.
It took us 4 hours to hike the 8 miles and find 38 caches. This was one of the easier loops we have done because there is lots of open spaces between the creosote bushes which makes the walking much straighter than some of the other sections that have tons of little bushes to dodge around. One bit of silliness...we somehow missed that the tip of the right wing was numbered 420, although the rest of the wing was 320-357, so we nearly skipped it going from 335 to 336. Glad we caught the mistake and we were happy to find an ammo can at 420. Had some lunch and rested there for a bit.
One more tidbit...hit my 6000th cache at #333!
Due to the wind, we only saw one beetle, one jackrabbit, a couple of birds...but for some reason ants were everywhere. We found an old tortoise shell, and the terrain along the top of the wing was geologically interesting with rocky patches of all types.
We were very grateful for the maintenance done by Not Tom and Larry the Pool Guy, although some of their wiring had already worn through in the two weeks since they had placed them (wind damage) and we found several on the ground. We rewired them with the original wiring as best we could.
We are winding down with about 80% left of the globe to complete. Thanks for the enjoyment you have given us! This has been such a great series to work on...
5/2/15: The Diva and I headed out this morning, hopeful to finally complete this series, which was most of the globe. This was our tenth trip out here over 7 months.
We parked a vehicle by #51 (top of globe) and then drove down to #18 (bottom of globe). We hiked 18-51 (east side), got to the vehicle, and drove to #46 and ate lunch. Then we hiked 46-19. While the temps were cool at 7:30am, by mid-morning, the heat turned on. By 1pm when we finished, we were literally limping along. It took all we had to make it to the car and AC never felt so good. (12 miles today)
Today we saw two new types of bugs, replaced a few caches, saw 7 jackrabbits (new record), lots of grasshoppers, birds, and lizards, and packed out three lost mylar balloons.
This has been a great series and one we recommend to anyone with gumption. It is not for the faint of heart...