We’ve started a brand new hobby called Geocaching (pronounced gee’-o-cashing).
Above: Gary has found an ammo box, inside is a log for anyone who finds the cache to write their nick-names into and the date. Also in this one there were 20 music CDs. We swapped a copy of Peter Paul and Mary for something classical. In some caches there is what is called ‘swag’. Swag is simply stuff that cachers drop into it. You are welcome to take something from the cache if you leave something. Or simply sign the log without trading. We carry some cheap girls rings, and some wooden nickels that we got in a museum in Kansas. Of course we mix that up with what we take from caches.
What follows is an example of the computer printout of a cache we found called Wicked Sister. Its official name is on the top right: GC1GXDZ. It shows the coordinates, shows the difficulty and the terrain. The coordinates are automatically downloaded into your GPS, no need to manually type in the coordinates. Also included in the page is a description of how to get to the cache area and sometimes some history about the vicinity. You can view comments by everyone who found the cache to date, and see when it was last found.
A simplistic description of the hobby is “Treasure Hunting by GPS”. There are more than 800,000 caches hidden around the world. I’d bet there were some right near you. If you want to check go to WWW.geocaching.com and enter your zip code. It will come up with any that are in your vicinity. Each cache is rated for difficulty of terrain, and for difficulty to find it. That lets beginners like us to pick only the easier ones, until we are seasoned. Today, we have discovered over 20. Some people have found several thousand! The web site is free, however a paid version is available that provides more flexibility and access to more caches. So far we are on the ‘free’ version, but considering signing up for the paid version which costs $30 a year. That’s a pretty cheap hobby compared to say, golfing!
Caches come in all sorts of sizes. Some like these are in film canisters.
It is tied onto the post with a plastic wire tie. This kind only have room for a rolled up paper to log your visit.
This above one sort of threw us for a while. It’s plastic wire tied to the tree limb…can you see it? It was about head height. The GPS said we were very close, but everywhere we looked (which was on the ground) no evidence. Then we started to look upwards around us and found it.
The thing is, the GPS only gets you within about a 20 or so foot radius of the target. It’s up to you to actually spy the hiding place by using experience and possible clues in the worksheet.
Here are some other examples of caches we’ve found:
Eloise is showing where a small cache was hidden at the base of a light in a parking lot. The ‘skirt’ lifts up…there it is! This one had us going for a while too!
The next cache was titled “One Flew Over The Cookoos Nest”.
Notice all the ‘swag’ inside this one.
One of the great things about this is the opportunity to get to places nobody would normally go to or get to see. In the next pictures you will see where the CCCs have created stone steps up the hill. What you won’t know, is that there is absolutely nothing that would indicate there was anything on the hill. Only because somebody hid a cache there was the reason we could enjoy the view from the top of the hill:
This panorama was a real spectacle!
Of course along the way you see some unusual things. We drove up a long drive way to get these two photos:
Notice that not only did they install the better part of a VW bus to the top, but they added a slide out to the driver’s side. Wouldn’t have seen this if we hadn’t been out looking for a geocache!
Not all of our pictures turned out the way we would have liked, the next are examples of some that should be deleted…I’m showing them here only because the cache was pretty unusual. Please forgive. It was in a peanut butter jar, with camouflage material on the outside, and a rock tied to it for heft. Then a dark cord was strung from it, over a limb, and across several trees about 30 feet high, where it came down in a well hidden tree crotch. You had to first find the jar, then follow the cord to the tree where it was tied, then let the cache down to open it, and put it all back. It was a fun one:
In the bottom picture, the cache is shown hanging to the right of the center tree, just a dark spot.
There were other interesting things along the way to the caches. Here Gary follows a good path alongside a creek. Later, the path sort of peters out, because it is the WRONG path:
South Dakota has some pretty remarkable scenery!
Eloise returns from a find:
These gate columns are unique. Ugly, but unique!
Eagles built nests on both sides of the power pole. The cache was only a little way away.
We passed by a company that offers first class receptions and etc., we drove in and took these:
Pretty neat petunia tree.
Cinderella’s coach.
That’s what we’ve been up to largely these last couple weeks, and throw in some square dancing. If this somehow gets your interest in geocaching you won’t regret it. Send an email if you need questions answered. We’re obviously pretty green, but we know where to get answers on the hobby. Thanks for staying to the bitter end!!!
