OT: Anyone heard of Geocaching?

Hellolost · **Joined:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:58 am **Posts:** 2120

I found a great new hobby!!!! it is called Geocaching. Basicly someone hides something and you use your gps to find it.
http://www.geocaching.com/about/

Here is what my friend and I did yesterday.
So today Saz and I went on our first treasure hunt. It was hot but that didn't stop us. We hopped in the car, entered the first coordinates and were on our way. First stop was a park. As we walked up there were muggles! (Random people around who you don't want to see you find the item) Lucky for us they left right as we arrived. We walked around for a bit and finally found the area the coordinates said we were suppose to be at. LET the search begin!! There we were searching in bushes and around trees. We were there only about 5 minutes when Saz said "Found it"
Hidden under a flower bush was a plastic tuperware container with the words Geocache written on it. We were so freaking excited. We opened it up. Looked around for muggles and then started pawing through the goodies. We signed the log book. We also found a traveling bug (a item with a tag attached to it that likes to move from location to location) We took that and left a wooden fish in it's place.
We hopped back in the car and went to the second location. A park. We were looking through bushes and around trees and not having very much luck. Saz warned me about bees. Then again Saz says "found it!".. Again we got all excited and started looking through the stuff inside. We signed the log book again. "Saz and Hellolost" We put Dill Pickle the traveling bug inside and I got my first swag. A skeleton keychain!
Boy were we smug now. We talked about how good we were doing. We put the coordinates in for the third location and went on our way. When we got where it said we were blocked by a locked fence. We drove around for a while and found a different way in.
"in between two trees are six bushes. rear left bush" was the clue. The thing is there was ivy everywhere. We spent quite a while digging through ivy. Getting bushes in our hair. Crawling around on our hands and knees. We finally gave up. We couldn't find it That is what being smug got us.
We hopped back in the car sweaty and dirty and disappointed. We decided to stop and get something to eat before we moved on to the next cache.
The next cache was in another park. After searching a while AGAIN Saz says "found it" (I was beginning to wonder if I was blind)This one was a magnetic box that was attached and painted to look like the electrical box it was stuck to. It had been muggled (broken into by those random people around) All the stuff was on the ground and there was no log book to enter. We put the stuff back inside and added a dollar coin. I let the owner know it had been muggled when I logged our find when I got home.
Off to the next one!!! First we turned into some industrial area and were blocked by a fence. So we got back in the car and looked for a different way to get in. We found a pathway and started walking for about a mile (if it wasn't a mile it sure felt that way in 99 degree heat). We had to go off road. So there we were walking through tall dry grass getting stickers all over us. Me in flip flops and we come to a creek. YUP coordinates say it is on the other side of the creek. So back we walk to the car in the heat begging the gods for a hole in the fence. We hop in the car and go to Starbuck and get a GIANT iced coffee while picking stickers out of our shoes and pants.
Back on the hunt! We drive around to the other side of the creek and walk along a nice path mostly in shade. We find a place where we need to go off road a bit and find the coordinates. We start the hunt. I find it!!!! YAY FINALLY!! It is a ammo box covered in camoflauge. we pull it out and open it. Inside is all kinds of fun stuff. Since it is Sazy's turn to pick something I hand her the box while I am looking through the log book. This cache has been there since 2003!!! There were many many entries. And I found one and Saz found one from other people who accidently went the wrong way too. Saz chose a glass fish bead thingy and we put in a candle. Back to the car we went.
By now we needed gas and another soda to drink. MY GOD it was hot.
We put the the next coordinates and off we went. Yup another hike. Sheesh. But it was fun actually. We found the coordinates and started looking... and looking... and looking again. We found the bird cage the person whose cache it was talked about but no cache. There were rocks moved all over the place so you could totally tell that there were people looking for it. We never did find it
Off we went for home.
In the meantime we started making lists of stuff we needed for our treasure hunting trips. Little back packs, water, bandaids. We also started planning our own caches for the future.
I had the best time ever today and can't wait to do it again!!!

Hellolost · **Joined:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:58 am **Posts:** 2120

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details ... ker=506790

Dill pickle

So you can all see what we found!

Laurel in Ely · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2008 4:13 pm

We were discussing geocaching on another thread a few weeks ago. I think it was Matt who shared the info with us. Bill and I plan to go treasure hunting this summer. (As soon as I get my GPS.)

Hellolost · **Joined:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:58 am **Posts:** 2120

I was shocked to find out I could use my car garmin!
Who knew that you could enter coordinates on that thing.

Matt Cowan · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2008 5:39 pm

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. We went to the state park near us today and found another one.

Tom Piccirilli · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2008 6:04 pm

David Morrell's SCAVENGER is all about this. If you're into it, try the book out and see how he turns the treasure hunt on its ear.

Matt Cowan · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2008 10:28 pm

johng · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2008 10:41 pm

SteveVernon · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2008 4:47 am

Both Morrell books are definitely worth reading.

I picked up a ghost story for WICKED WOODS from a New Brunswick geocacher I met online. It sounds like a cool hobby, only I don't have the time for that sort of fun.

Hellolost · **Joined:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:58 am **Posts:** 2120

We went on our second hunt. Here is Saz's description

Yesterday at 1:47pm, Hellolost wrote:If we end up shopping LMAO!!!!

that was the plan. Hunt for one before dark then go buy stuff. We..uh....just hunted.

Besides, two car wrecks and a fire along the roadway made me pretty late. We still packed in three hunts.

The first one was hidden across the street from the hider's friend Larry's house. "Larry can sit in his easy chair and watch cachers". Great. The coordinates led us to a school yard and near the center of the lot with a chain link fence. The fence had vines all over it. So we searched the vines and the neighboring trees, all along the ground and looked up where we couldn't reach. We decided being short people will not work to our advantage. Must think what to do about that. There was a guy washing his truck and I wondered if that was Larry. He didn't pay us any mind, certainly didn't tell us where to look. Larry's a bastard. We found it anyway. The hider used one of the M&M plastic tube container things, covered it in brown tape, and hung it on the fence in the vines. It was a good hide.

Then we officially blew off shopping, laughed at ourselved a bit, and headed to the next one. This was near a canal, along a chain link fence covered in vines again, and the ground was covered in deep ivy. The coordinates placed the cache either directly on the ivy side of the fence, or directly on the other side where the canal is. For about 1.5 seconds I considered hauling my ass over that fence.

But there wasn't much plant life there, bare ground, and I'm not 12, so it had to be on the ivy side. We couldn't find it, but didn't want to quit, so we were both head and shoulders digging in the plants. The clue said something like "you would find this in a leprechaun's mouth", and after all my dirtier thoughts passed ( ), I suggested we look for a pipe. Hello found it and examined it carefully. We were head and shoulders in the bushes again. I imagined someone driving by and noticing the asses sticking out of the bushes . Oh look! An ass bush! We tried our best, and we were in the right spot, but it wasn't there or we flat couldn't see it. So on we went.

Riding in the car to the third, I realize I have little scratches all over my hands and 100 leaves in my hair. I had gloves in the car, but I didn't want to carry them or carry my purse so I've got to get on the cachepack problem. Hello, didn't we see the little bags we want at Macy's? With a cute little monkey toy grabber thing? I've still got that gift card.

So we get to the third hunt. I figure why bother with gloves now and leave them in the car. We had more trouble finding the search spot this time, but we did get there. It's starting to get dark, and we are head and shoulders in the bushes again. It was a big group of bushes with a trail through them just the right size for a three year old. So I am crawling around on my hands and knees and the bushes are catching at and trying to rip my top off. The flashlight would have come in handy here, but my pockets carried only toys to leave behind. The flashlight was in the car. Must get a damn PACK! Hello finally found it. A green box in a green bush in the near dark!

She also got poked in the neck with a stick.

Then she pointed out that we were in the same park as one cache we could not previously find, so we decided to see if anything had changed. As we cross the park, half the sprinklers come on and I wonder if we are going to make it. We only take a quick glance because it's pretty dark now, and the spot is still ransacked, and we manage to get back without getting sprinkled.

Then we laughed at ourselves all the way back to Hello's and now I've got to comb leaves out of my hair and wash up. I see I picked up some spider webs, too.

Matt Cowan · **Posted:** Thu May 22, 2008 7:22 pm

OT: Anyone heard of Geocaching?

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