I’ve written about my adventures in geocaching recently. There’s a great article in the most recent version of The Costco Connection, which basically describes Geocaching, what it is, how it works and why it’s appealing. Click here to read the article about Geocaching.
Recently my buddy (wilsontribe) and I headed out geocaching once again — the eternal quest to not get lost looking for hidden objects.
Although we did only hit two caches, I did snag my first geocoin (see picture). Geocoins are cool and come in all different designs. This particular one, the redhanded geocoin, has a couple goals: travel to all 50 states, all countries and continents and then return to the US.
After looking at the travel log of this coin I see that it has traveled a total of 77 miles between Utah County and Salt Lake County. So, for my part, I will be taking this coin back east with me in a few weeks to plant it in a cache beyond the Utah state line.
Our second cache was a virtual cache. This is usually a non-traditional cache that has some sort of historical significance or is designed to educate. This one was a memorial to a fallen Utah Highway Patrol Agent. Interesting, but I have to admit, not as fun as finding a little box hidden with trinkets or goodies in it.
Although my second geocaching trip didn’t prove quite as fruitful on the cache side I did learn some valuable lessons about going geocaching and how to make the most of the outing.
Doing these beforehand could save you an hour or two before you get going, or, in other words, you could find a handful of caches or just two!
So my neighbor introduced me to, and subsequently got me hooked on geocaching; the ultimate game of hide and seek. Being the gadget guy that I am, I just love these little GPS units. My neighbor has a Magellan eXplorist 210 and that thing will tell you how fast you’re moving, sunrise & sunset, moonrise & moonset, phase of the moon, in short, it tells you everything! For $10 more it will tell you your fortune — kidding!
So as a new geocacher I set out on an adventure (well, we were close to home and went in the car so maybe not much of an adventure, more of an outing) with my buddy, wilsontribe, and my son, little beldog. The great thing, for us men, is that with a GPS unit I don’t need to ask directions, just give me the coordinates and I can call in an airstrike anywhere in the world. Now, given we were staying local in Midvale, getting lost wasn’t a real concern. So after downloading some cache locations (hidden stashes are recorded on geocaching.com where one can download them and then sync the coordinates into the GPS unit to go out and find them), we set out to find our first cache.
This weekend was the 2008 Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships at Deer Valley and Shelly was back in town. David and I were lucky to have met Shelly several months ago on a flight back from a client meeting. A couple months later, Shelly came to Utah for the Visa Freestyle International and I had chance to go to breakfast with her the Friday before competition.
The next day my wife, Debbie and I went to Deer Valley to watch Shelly compete, but an ill-timed exit from the chairlift made it so we missed watching Shelly win! (Deb and I were riding the chair down from the race course to get warm, didn’t have skis on and had to sprint out of the way of the chair and Deb didn’t quite make it. The chair hit her, knocking her to the ground. She felt a little loopy, so we went home.) David was there for Shelly’s win and has been meaning to blog about it for awhile.
This time Shelly was in Utah to compete for the national title in individual and dual moguls. She’s been the Duals National Champion for the last three years straight. Deer Valley’s Champion run, where the course was set, is one of Shelly’s favorites. It’s one of the steepest on the circuit, which makes it a very technical course with lots of speed.
It’s been a busy week for SOAR and Interbike staff. Last weekend, David and Maura attended the Bicycle Leadership Conference (see David’s posts below) and yesterday I went up to the Outdoor Retailer Backcountry Base Camp outdoor demo at the Snowbasin ski resort and walked the exhibit area with Rich Kelly of Interbike fame.
As of a few months ago, Rich’s job has became a lot busier. He now oversees marketing communications for not just Interbike, but also Nielsen’s Outdoor Retailer (OR), Action Sports Retailer (ASR), FlyFishing Retailer and Health+Fitness Business (HFB) trade shows. Rich has been really busy getting ready for last weekend’s BLC, the OR show that started yesterday and the ASR show that starts Thursday. He even had a chance to write a post about his exploits on InterbikeTimes yesterday in Snowbasin lodge.
Similar to Interbike’s OutDoor Demo, the OR Backcountry Base Camp gives retailers a chance to try out upcoming products. There were more than 50 exhibitors there. The majority of the products there were more for backcountry use rather than resort skiing, but Snowbasin was a perfect venue. Retailers could ride the lifts up to try out telemark skis and boots, head up into the hills on snowshoes or cross country skis and even slide down the hill on sleds.
I don’t know how Rich finds the time to blog, but he does. As I‘m writing this the indoor portion of the show is going on and I need to get over there (It’s at the Salt Lake City Convention Center, about 5 miles from my house). One of our other clients, Delta 7 Sports has a couple of its Arantix IsoTruss carbon fiber mountain bikes in the Miōn Footwear booth connected to generators that when pedaled generate electricity for the booth, making Miōn’s booth the first human-powered booth in the history of the OR show.
Stay tuned for more pictures.
Chip
She looked a bit harried, standing there, waiting for the crush of travellers in front of her to finish boarding the 757 so she could collapse into her seat in 20A.
She was cute in an outdoorsy sort of way, her sandy blonde hair pulled up on the back of her head. As she stood there waiting for the line of passengers to finally move forward, I noticed her patterned plum and white parka, a design I’d never seen before.
Just another college kid traveling home for the weekend, I thought. College kid? Probably. And as it turned out, she was about to wrap up her degree at the University of Nevada Reno; but she was also a lot more than that too.
Meet Shelly Robertson, nine-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team (freestyle) and world-class moguls skier.
Media now have easier access to suggested retail prices, product images (low and high res) and spec sheets for Scott USA merchandise as a result of a newly launched marketing/press only Web site and portal.
Scott USA marketing team members say they hope the site will help on-deadline media get a logo or product fact quickly without having to rely on a member of the marketing team. (See today’s BRAIN article)
From my perspective, this Web site is yet another example of bike industry leaders showing the importance of using the Internet to better communicate with media and how better business practices can improve the industry’s environmental impact, one company at a time.
A few years ago, the Interbike Expo announced its Green Steps program. The program offsets energy used to operate the show by purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (REC), recycling aisle and booth carpeting and increasing electronic communication with exhibitors, attendees and media.
New this year, Interbike provided downloadable press kits of more than 40 participating exhibitors for the media to cut down on the amount paper used in the press room.
My hat goes off to these two companies who know how to work with the media and protect the environment as well!
I’ve been putting off writing something for our blog for a couple of reasons. One, life here at SOAR has been incredibly busy. Our biggest client, Interbike, is having their annual bicycle tradeshow in Las Vegas in 4 days and we have spent the last couple of months ramping up for that. The other reason is, I’m new to blogging, and I wasn’t sure I had anything interesting or significant to post. Now I do.
I’m bummed. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found Landis guilty of doping (see AP story here). I haven’t ridden regularly in a while, but I’m still an avid fan of cycling and racing. My wife and I cheered loudly at the TV during Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour, only to stare silently again later while learning that Landis was accused of doping.
I’m not even going to pretend to understand the facts surrounding the case and spout my opinion here in this post. I’m just bummed for Landis, racers in general and for recreational cyclists and potential recreational cyclists who might think twice about participating in a tainted activity.
The news about Landis will make for an interesting next few weeks, especially with the industry’s largest trade show, Interbike, and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Championships taking place at the same time. I’m sure everyone will be talking about the verdict and will have an opinion.
So we’re on the downward slide of Summer and it’s been a hot one here in Salt Lake City. And although I don’t like snow very much, I just thought putting up this video would be just a little reminder of cooler days.
This is extreme outdoor sports for sure!
Oh yeah, and just a reminder that we have great skiing in Utah.
