Geocaching

That's cool.
We didn't search for caches today.
It was wet and cold.

I went out for a day of geocaching yesterday with the young man who used to be in my youth group.  We found 23 caches in all.  We did a lot of hiking in the hills.  We ended up walking 11 miles!  I was able to drop off 3 trackables I had and found another.

We made a walk on Sunday and guess what .... there was a cache.
Again one found.

I have cached very little this year.  Until today, I have found only 69 for the year.  I just got out of the habit of going.

Well, I decided that since I am on fall break and that the weather was just too nice not to play.  So, I loaded up the trusty GPS and headed out for a few hours this afternoon.  I managed to find 12 out of the 12 I searched for.  Not bad for a rusty old man!

Certainly not bad for a rusty old man.

My husband has found one more 3 weeks ago.

Sometimes I don't have enough patient to search for caches.
You have to load and search for a cache.

There is that, but knowing you stuck with it to find it is kind of empowering.

It's not the end of my geocaching, but I don't quit geocaching.
I need a geocache break.
We've found in the vacation for caches too.

I actually went one afternoon after work last week.  I had some training I had to go to for the school system in another city.  So, I picked up 7 before it started getting dark.  It was fun!

I did another one today on the way home.  It has been out for over a year and I just never went for it.  Well, today I crossed it off the list

I really do need to get out there, especially when the snow melts. There are trails in town with some caches along the way. It's tricky, because I don't want to drive just for the sake of geocaching, but some of them, I'd have to drive to the area and get a lot of them from there. Or I could just bus in…

I have literally driven hundreds of miles just for geocaching.  I was a total caching nut.  I want to get back out there, though, as I just loved it.

For the longest time, I didn't have my own car, and I told myself I needed the exercise anyway. Now I have my car, but don't want to drive and pay for fuel and pollute just for the sake of finding things. I could probably let myself off on driving to an area and finding several. This summer, I should have some time.

We found 4 caches on our quick weekend getaway to Pigeon Forge, TN.  We love the mountains this time of year.

I remember being surprised at how mountainous it was in that area, when I went down to TN. I had a preconceived notion of the South being fairly flat, but I forgot the Appalachians are a long range of hills. I remember it was something like driving through LOTR.

All these years later, and I'm still at 151 finds. I haven't found any in 2 or 3 years at least.

Cool you are back to find geocaches Chris.
Maybe we've to pick it up again.
I've always enjoyed it to search for caches.
But at one day I didn't like it anymore.
Yep, I needed a break.

It's a good idea to come back and see if we can g\find some caches.

I won't go into all the details as to why I stopped.  The short version is that I started making guitars and didn't have time for both.  Ok, I didn't make time for both.

I want to get back into geocaching, but without having to worry about filling in my calendar or my D/T chart.  I've done those types of challenges, but I just want to do it for fun again like I did when I first started.  There were no goals--just new things to search for.  That was thrilling to me.

Quote :

I remember being surprised at how mountainous it was in that area, when I went down to TN. I had a preconceived notion of the South being fairly flat, but I forgot the Appalachians are a long range of hills. I remember it was something like driving through LOTR.

Tennessee starts off mountainous in the eastern part of the state with the Great Smoky Mountains.  As you move westward, the hills start off as great rolling hills which change to more gentle slopes as you move through the middle section of the state where I am.  By the time you reach the western side where you can cross the mighty Mississippi, it is as flat as a flitter.

Geo What?
Lost me with this post. Looking it up.
Wikipedia says...

"Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers"


So now my question is "Why do you hide containers and what is in them?" A reward of some kind? A clue to finding another container (like a giant scavenger hunt)? I have a feeling this is another example of my living in the world, but not living in the world. Is this a popular activity?

In the containers you can find the log roll.
You have to write on your geocache nickname, the time and the date you have found the geocache.
Sometimes people put some stuff in the box like things kids like, geocoins and travelbugs.

The reward is that you've find the geocache.

A lot of people world wide are searching for geocaches.

Ah, so it is like a giant scavenger hunt. Cool

It is a WORLDWIDE scavenger hunt with over 20 MILLION participants.

We hid different size containers anywhere we can.  There are local, state, and federal laws that prohibit some places.  Property owner permission is required to place a geocache.

What goes inside them?  On the smaller ones called micros, there is just a log to sign your distinct user name.  If you didn't sign the log, you really didn't find it is the rule.  In larger caches, people will place all sorts of trinkets.  You can take one out if you want it, but you are supposed to place something back inside of equal value if you do.  So, it is a swap.

If you wish to try it, Jen, sign up for a basic account at www.geocaching.com.  You can buy a handheld GPS if you choose, but most folks just use their smart phone.  You can get the official geocaching.com app, or there are a host of others.  I don't like the way the official app is set up, so I use C:Geo.

Give it a try and see if you like it!  Just stay away from crocodiles.

Cool. Thanks Chris

No crocs here (unless you're talking about the shoe brand). Weird fact...the only native mammal in NZ is a bat. Every other mammal (possums, rabbits,  stoats, weasels, ferrets, hedgehogs, pigs, deer, wallabies, rats and mice, plus farmed animals) were introduced. The possums were brought over to start a fur trade and the rabbits were brought over for food in the 1830s but they took over because there were no natural predators. The possums decimate the forest (we've got 30 million possums -- I kid you not) and the rabbits destroy farm land and native grass lands so the idiot settlers decided to bring in predators (stoats, weasels, and ferrets) which then learned that NZ's native flightless birds were an easier target. They brought the native flightless birds near to extinction and some (50 species) are no longer seen. People are stupid. Glad they didn't bring in crocodiles though

I went out today with some old caching friends.  We wentnup to Kentucky and made a day with a lot of miles.  We found 38 caches and had two DNFs.

That's a good amount of find caches.
I never like DNF's.

I've never worked on my calender.
It's cool to find caches, geocoins and travelbugs.

rockerVu2 wrote:

That's a good amount of find caches.
I never like DNF's.

I've never worked on my calender.
It's cool to find caches, geocoins and travelbugs.

I didn't really work on the calendar until after I really got most of it filled in.  Once you start seeing almost every square in a month covered, it became easier--and harder.  I had to then be deliberate in going every day to find a cache.

The difficulty & terrain chart was much harder to fill in.  That takes a lot of effort.

That's the problem here too.
To find enough geo caches in your neighborhood.

My goal is to find from all the types of geocaches at least one.