Geocaching:
The Sport Where YOU Are the Search Engine!
 |
Geocaching is a great adventure game for those who like to hike and use a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS). The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the Internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is to leave something if they remove something from the cache, sign the logbook in the cache, and then log the find on the Geocaching web site.
 |
This was our first cache in 2002. Our friend, Mary, knew that "gadget girl" (Jodie) had purchased a GPS in the fall for hunting; one spring day she brought an article from The Wall Street Journal about geocaching. The next weekend we (WoodsWoman and Geo-hubby) made our first find in northern Minnesota. Since then we have found many more. We try to take a photo of one of us at each of the caches we have found. This was #1.
The cache itself can be anything--an Altoids tin (micro cache), an ice cream bucket, a five-gallon pail, a plastic cake pan. Many are in ammo cans. We have bought several of them on eBay and we're sure the UPS guy thinks that we are survivalists or something because of the many deliveries of ammo cans to our house. Some caches are "virtual" caches--that is, a cache that one locates and then just answers question about it. We have found several of those in Las Vegas and along Route 66.
   |
Geocaching, 2011: We found several caches on our way out to Las Vegas and did some while we were there also. Left: On the way out, we picked up a Travel Bug that had been placed by an 8-year-old from Arkansas. We took that TB on our travels and shot photos of it in all of the states that we passed through. We finally placed it in a cache in California; it was a little sad to part with it. Center: On our way to a turquoise mine in California one day, we stopped for some geocaches: Homer, Gayle, Warren, Lee, Jodie and Sandy. Right: Lee found one that was hidden under this tank in the desert. She is a "tigress" when it comes to finding them--she does NOT give up!
  |
Canyon Diablo--Two Guns (just east of Flagstaff): We tried to find this cache twice in 2004 along old Route 66. We must have moved a ton of rocks looking for it then. We finally found it in 2005!
We haven't done as much geocaching lately for some reason. However, we do use geocaching to find some wonderful hikes and to take us to some very interesting spots. These are some that we found in 2008 when we were on our way to Las Vegas and while we were out and about in Las Vegas.
  |
On the right Sandy finds a very small cache behind the telephone at a convenience store. On the right, we found one along old Route 66. It was called "Bug Ranch" and the cache was hidden behind a rear light in one of the VW's. To claim the cache we had to sign our names in magic markers on one of the cars. What fun!
  |
One day we decided to go out caching with our friends, Homer and Gayle from Washington. Since Jodie's nephew and family are really into NASCAR racing, we headed over towards the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. There was no one around so we decided to look around. We spent most of the day just roaming around from one spot to the next. No one ever stopped us to ask what we were doing. We found several caches around the auxiliary businesses near the track. Above left, Jodie and Gayle found a micro hidden in the rocks and on the right there was one in the steps. This is an area we never would have discovered had it not been for geocaching! What a great day!
   |
We went to Caliente, NV, with our Las Vegas friends, Warren and Lee. In addition we headed to Cathedral Gorge. This was a cache that we had difficulty finding and even more difficulty in extricating. It had the most powerful magnet holding it to the stairway. After we located it, Jodie could not remove it, so Sandy tried his luck.
Left: I can feel it. Center: Perhaps I can pry it out with my knife. Right: Got it! Persistence paid off!
   |
2010: On the left we cached near Mesquite, NV, with Frank and Linda; in the center near Nelson, NV, with Warren and Lee; on the right in California with Homer and Gayle. Great times!
   |
We did some geocaching near Nelson, Nevada in 2005, which is a great spot. The one on the left was called "OU8alizzard." It was nestled in a rock near a small cave. When Jodie spotted it, she screamed and scared Sandy and Lee. The hider of the cache had put a very realistic looking plastic lizard on top of the cache container! In the center is a cache that we found in a pet cemetery. Years ago someone buried a pet in the desert and other people followed suit. It was a little eerie to open the cache container--didn't know what we would find. Right: That same day we hiked to a cache and noticed as we got closer that there was a 4WD vehicle parked at the top. Obviously, we were a little concerned about whom or what we would find. It turned out that it was Officer Bob and he was a delight. We ran into him one other time in the same spot with Warren and Lee.
  |
On the left is a virtual cache in Las Vegas at Caesar's Palace. We had to email a photo of the site to the cacher who had "hidden it." The GPS is strategically placed! We have found some caches in some very interesting places. On the right is a micro (small) cache that was right on the Brooklyn Bridge at New York New York. We could not believe the ingenuity it took to "hide it in plain sight!" It was really interesting to locate it when there were hundreds of people around who did not have the foggiest idea what we were doing.
The great thing about Geocaching is that it takes us to places that we might otherwise have missed when we travel. We try to look up caches before we leave on a trip to get us out and about for some exercise. We tend to leave hiking "gadgets" in the caches or mementoes from Minnesota's Iron Range.
  |
On the left Geo-Hubby at Natural Bridges in Montana. We found this gorgeous spot when we were on our way to Big Sky to go fly fishing and would never have known about it except for geocaching.
On the right is a view of Las Vegas that only hikers and geo-cachers see. We have encountered some of our most challenging caches in the Las Vegas area far from The Strip.
  |
We met Frank and Linda (on the left) at a geocaching get together in Las Vegas. Since then we have enjoyed some very interesting caching experiences, thanks to their expertise. They are the epitome of gadget folks--GPS's, radios, computers in the car! We have introduced many of our friends and family members to geocaching. On the right, Jodie, Sharon, and Homer watch Gayle signing the logbook in a cache near Lake Mead. They are all from Seattle and we have also had many geocaching adventures with them when we spend the winter in Las Vegas. All of them have gotten their grandchildren into caching.
  |
We introduced some of our Las Vegas friends to geocaching. On the left we are near Mesquite, NV, with Warren and Lee. It was a gorgeous hike and a gorgeous view of the mountains. On the right we are way UP with Maggie and Mike. We had quite a drive to this cache, which had been pretty much damaged from the snow and rain in the mountains--not much gambling up there!!!
  |
We introduced our great-niece and great-nephew to geocaching in 2011 and they have really taken to it. On the left, they hold up the two GPS receivers that they used when we went caching and she holds a Travel Bug that we found and then moved to another cache. The first day they found six caches with us.
Geo-Grandson (right) loves to go 'caching with Grandma and Grandpa. During the summer of 2005 we spent a day in and around Ely and found ten geocaches. This is one that he found with Geo-Grandpa (AKA "Geo-Hubby"). What a fun day for all of us! In 2007, his fourth grade science project involved geocaching--whether he could find something that "Geo Grandma and Grandpa" hid more quickly with his hew Etrex or with a map with the latitude and longitude. He received an A+ for the project and we are all so proud of him. Now Grandma has another geocaching buddy! He has also celebrated birthdays by geocaching with his buddies.
Jodie and her friends, the Walkie Talkies, have hidden many caches around the Iron Range in northern Minnesota--some of them in historical places. It has drawn folks to our small town--people who might not otherwise have driven here or, for sure, not stopped here at all. Check out the Walkie Talkie page.
It is a wonderful activity and is just one of the many things that now keep us busy and out of mischief!