To Visit or Not to Visit: That is the question

So, as usual things have been crazy busy thanks to work, two new foster puppies and my son's music lessons and concerts. I try to chip away at my waymarking backlog by attempting to find time to post 3-5 waymarks each day and typically, as the approvals come in, I log visits to the marks. There are mixed views on logging visits to your own marks, and different reasons to do so. Back when I started waymarking, I would log visits to everything and then do simple substraction of my total waymarks posted from total waymarks visited to figure out how many visits that I had posted to other folks' waymarks. Why I felt the need to know this at that time is beyond me. Other waymarkers who I looked to for mentoring did it and so I decided I should too.

Now though, with the awesome filtering functionality that the Website has, this visiting doesn't seem necessary any longer and it is growing increasingly cumbersome for me to get around to. I usually let the approvals sit in my E-mail inbox for several days, until there are so many that it becomes overwhelming. Why? It seems pointless. Can anyone think of another reason that I should keep this up? It's a total pain in the butt and now seems like a waste of time.

Although it's fun to reach milestones in total waymarks, I don't really care about the numbers and rarely could give you a guess within about 150 waymarks or so as to how many I've posted. The only reason I'm watching numbers at this point is that I want to see which waymark will be number 2000. Geocachers who are just starting out often will assume that the self-visits are all about pumping the numbers and that always pisses me off because they are looking at waymarking from the "I have more icons than you do" perspective that is oh so common over in geo-land. I mean, most hardcore waymarkers could care less about their visit numbers. They are focused on their "posted" count if they are into numbers.

The photo above is from the gallery of one of my recently posted waymarks that is in my backlog of waymarks needing "self-visits" posted, Coupeville Wharf and Warehous, Central Whidbey Island Historic District. It would be cool if the Waymarking site put the check mark next to the waymarks that you yourself posted instead of having to visit to see the check. It helps when you are doing searches to see those checks and quickly know which waymarks are yours.

Another fun sticker-seeker visit

Although we were sad to say goodbye to our foster dog Suki, we are so happy that we she has joined Team Mindawg and will spend the rest of her life being as spoiled as she deserves to be. We had an awesome weekend exploring some of Seattle and Tacoma's best spots and thanks to the 85 degree weather had a chance to hike up so Team Mindawg could find the Washington Ape Cache. This photo shows Suki standing in triumph atop the cache. Most of the trail was still in 2' plus deep snow, so we were pretty wet after hiking, but it was worth it.

We even managed to find a waymark for a new category and will log visits to some of the many waymarks within the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. (Dang you US.Globetrotters for waymarking the news stand!) The yearly cheese festival was going on in the market, which was fun (I'll try to waymark it in the festival category soon) and Team Mindawg was able to meet up with a friend at the Pike Place Starbucks location (first Starbucks store).

Hopefully they will come back and visit us soon and we can take them to some of the other awesome spots in Washington.

Dog-Marking

No, not that kind of marking!! Waymarking with dogs, silly. My two blogging worlds are colliding today and an online waymarking friend, Team Mindawg, is flying out to Seattle to pick up one of our rescue dogs that she is adopting. They have been waiting patiently for Suki to heal up from her mange so she can be spayed and after 5 months of treatment, Suki is now spayed and ready to head to Denver to join Team Mindawg on their waymarking and geocaching adventures.

Team Mindawg will be staying with us for a couple days of waymarking and geocaching in the Seattle-Tacoma area before flying back to the Rockies on Sunday. And after months of gray skies we will be having our first warm weekend with temperatures reaching the mid 80's. Yahooo!! I can just feel my waymarking backlog growing as I type.

Anyhow, the photo is of little Suki, the newest Team Mindawg member, who will have many happy years of waymarking and caching ahead of her. When she was first flown to us she was such a sick little girl covered with mange and fighting an intestinal infection, but now she's a typical, spunky little terrier. She was going to be put to sleep because she had mange and wasn't considered adoptable! Can you imagine that! Now when people at the off-leash park find out that she is a foster dog they are ready to take her home and I have to let them know that, nope, she's already got a family waiting.

Digging out of a backlog

My backlog is tiny in comparison to some that are out there. Personally, I try to keep up so that my backlog is never more than 25 or so waymarks. Of course, I said TRY. Sometimes you visit a place that is so spectacular that you come home after the weekend with about 75 waymarks and no time to post them. Such was our incredible weekend in Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve on Whidbey Island.

I've managed to post almost 30 waymarks from the reserve, our incredible, inaugural camping trip of the season, but still have over half of the marks to post and don't know when I'll manage to finish them all. In the meantime, the grid continues to grow like some out of control monster and I don't know when I'll have time to check out the new categories.

In fact, my grid mania is starting to fade. Not completely - I can't avoid a compulsion that well - but there is less of an urge to run out and find a Disney or Lego store just to get a box on the grid filled. I mean, who really wants to be hiding from a mall security guard, trying to take photos for some business/commerce waymark when they could be waymarking a piece of sculpture, a scenic hike, a park, a neon sign or a historic building? Not me, that's for sure. So I'm not saying I will stop waymarking the commerce categories, but I'm no longer going to make the effort to fill those boxes. If I happen to be at a mall (a rare occurence) I'll take my camera and GPS in with me, but until then I won't worry about it. Life's too short.

For now I'm going to continue to plug away at that backlog and ignore the new categories. Team Min Dawg will be visiting this coming weekend and I need a clean slate for all of the waymarks that we will be finding when we visit Seattle and also hike up to the Ape Cache on Snoqualmie Pass. The weather is supposed to jump 15-20 degrees on Thursday and hit the mid 80's. Let the waymarking season begin.

So here are a few photos of our camping trip on Whidbey Island. The photo above was taken from Ebey's Landing and shows Admiralty Inlet and the beach of Ebey's Landing to the left and the bluffs and Ebey's Prairie to the right.



This is a view out to Admiralty Inlet and the islands beyond from the historic Coupeville Wharf. I highly recommend the cafe and gift shop at the end of the wharf featuring products of Whidbey Island artisans.






Fort Casey was one of three forts designated as the "triangle of fire" and charged with defending the entrance to Puget Sound. It is now a state park and all of its old batteries can be explored. Great spot for flying kites. Also, be sure to visit the historic Admiralty Head Lighthouse, near the battery area. The top photo shows several of the immense batteries, the inlet, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. The bottom photo shows our waydog, Frodo, peering anxiously from Battery William Worth's watchtower.




And finally, a shot of the Olympic Mountains, Admiralty Inlet, and the paragliding field at Fort Ebey State Park from battery 248. Fort Ebey was built specifically for defense of the Puget Sound during WWII when there was worry over the threat of Japanese submarines entering the Puget Sound to destroy the Bremerton Naval Shipyard. The views from the park's bluff trail are incredible and I highly recommend their campground over the campground at Fort Casey, especially for tent campers. Make reservations though, because the island campgrounds book up fast.

Happy waymarking!

Playing Catch Up

I promised I'd post about our awesome camping trip, but life got ahead of me and I've been trying to catch up all week. Each day I promised myself I'd get around to posting in my 2 blogs, but was unsuccessful. Heck, I haven't even finished editing my photos from the camping trip, let alone posting a few waymarks. Right now I'm trying not to think of the backlog or I'll get overwhelmed.

A waymarker and I were exchanging a bit of brief e-chat this week and she was talking about how she wasn't waymarking as much because she gets overwhelmed by the steady stream of new categories and can't keep track of them all. She had this awesome idea - a monthly Groundspeak LoBot with links to all of the new categories that have been approved within that month. When a bunch of new categories come through it can be easy to miss a few and this doesn't seem like it would be too tough of a solution. All the new waymarks in an area would be overwhelming, but new categories would be really helpful. Just a thought.

Okay, time's up and I have to get back to my crazy, hectic life. Just thought I'd check in and throw out the above idea. Hopefully I'll get the Whidbey Island photos edited this weekend and will get a chance to at least get them on Flickr, and maybe even get a few waymarks posted.