Posts Tagged ‘geocaching story’

The first International Geocaching Day was celebrated on Saturday August 20, 2011. Geocaching.com says that this will be an annual affaire held on the third Saturday of August each year.

If you found a cache or attended an event on 8/20/11 you will get a special souvenir on your profile on geocaching.com. (Souvenirs will be awarded soon but as of today, nothing has appeared yet!)

jeananjoe's EVIL NASTY micro cache is actually hidden in my hand in this photo.

Not only did I drag ESP Boss and The Queen Mother out for a “quick” cache on Saturday, I also celebrated my 100th find. I had been “saving” lucky number 100 for a special occasion…

Okay, not really. I tried to get to 100 two weeks ago when I was caching with Sandy but struck out.

Anyway, not only did I get my 100th find on a very neat day in geocaching history but it was also the first ever micro placed by local caching couple jeananjoe that the EatStayPlay.com “Royal” Family successfully found.

Very cool!

I know every caching area as “THAT ONE” cache hider who is so mean, ruthless, and nigh impossible to find their caches. Well, the micros of jeananjoe are my cache-placing nemesis.

And we found it!

Readers Weigh In:

• Did you participate in International Geocaching Day? What did you do/find?

Last week I wrote about planning the big geocaching adventure for Sandy. It was her very first time ever geocaching but she’d been hearing about it from me all summer long.

Sandy's First Cache Find!

I decided that we should head to nearby Willow Lake. I chose Willow Lake for three reasons:

1. There was a high concentration of not-too-difficult caches around the lake. I wanted an area where we would have multiple caches to go after so if we couldn’t find some Sandy wouldn’t get discouraged.
2. Heritage Park is pretty busy every day of the week. Two women out alone — well I wanted to be someplace where we wouldn’t be isolated.
3. It a GORGEOUS area! So I knew that even if caching was a bust there would be plenty of scenery for us to enjoy.

And my bonus reason was that I hadn’t looked for any of the caches there!

We left right after work and of the 7 caches we looked for, we found 6! That’s not too bad for an early evening of caching and especially great for Sandy’s first caching adventure.

By the end of the trip, she was already asking me how much my Garmin cost! Prices have come down quite a bit since I got mine: Garmin Venture HC. That’s a link to Amazon.com

Readers Weigh In:

• What was your first geocaching adventure
• How long did it take before you were hooked?

ESP Boss has had a great girl working for him this summer. Sandy is a local girl who has been attending ASU pursing a degree in accounting. So, this summer we’ve hired her at the tax office to help out.

In addition to working on a MASSIVE project for a client, she’s also been doing some back-fill for EatStayPlay.com. Mainly, Sandy has been researching the state parks in Utah.

She’ll be heading back to school in a couple of weeks but before she goes back to Tempe, she asked me if I would take her geocaching. Yeah! I love nothing more than introducing a new person to the great game of geocaching.

We’re planning on heading out tomorrow evening, after work, to find some local caches. I’ll be planning the outing tonight (hence the shorter post). Here are some things I’m taking into consideration as I plan this:

1. Size of the cache
Let’s face it, the exciting part of getting started in geocaching is the swag. Every new geocacher is convinced they’re going to find something super cool in a cache. So for Sandy’s first caches, I want them to be large enough to have some good swag.

2. Difficulty
When you’re introducing a new sport or game to somebody you want them to “win”, right? Well for a lot of geocachers, the “win” is the find. I’ll be concentrating on caches that aren’t too difficult to find so she can start to build up her geosense.

3. Letting her do it
When I was camping with my friend Nicole last August, we went after a geocache. And I made a BIG mistake when I was introducing her to the game: I didn’t let her do it. It was a cache I had hid and I was in “maintenance mode” not “encouraging a new geocacher mode. I didn’t let Nicole hold the GPS or make the find. Tomorrow, I’ll be sure to let Sandy do it herself.

Some other things I’m planning are to have the caches pre-loaded into the GPS and the cache pages pre-printed. I know a lot of people do paper-less caching, but I’m not one of them. Also, before we head out, I’ll have her register for a free account on geocaching.com.

Readers Weigh In:

• What are your tips when you’re taking somebody geocaching for the first time?

Geocaching via the Pony Express Trail

By Steve Allen aka MO PIRATE

By now, I believe most folks know about the worldwide treasure hunting game called geocaching.

Using a GPS receiver and the satellites that transmit the signals to them, geocachers can get a “fix” on the location of over 1.3 million hidden containers around the world.

I’m sure the Pony Express riders from days gone by would have loved to have been able to use the GPS technology to help them in their trek across the Wild West.

Now, a new Pony Express Adventure can be had by trying your skills on the “Pony Express Trail Challenge” (GC1PRHM) geocache. It is a puzzle-type geocache by MO PIRATE where you need to “ride” the trail to find 10 traditional geocaches hidden by folks at or near Pony Express Stations, ruins of stations, statues, markers, or signs along the original trail of 1966 miles from St Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA.

One geocache must be found from each state that the trail crossed and any two additional geocaches so long as all 10 are at qualifying sites.

A bookmark list of over 85 eligible geocaches is provided on the challenge website. Others may exist along the trail and could be counted as long as you check with the cache owner first.

Once you find a qualifying geocache, log your find and take a digital photograph of yourself at the site. E-mail all 10 of the geocache finds along with the pictures to the “challenge” owner (MO PIRATE). Once verified, I will send you the coordinates to the Grand Finale of this challenge (in St Joseph, MO) where you can sign the log and also get your username inscribed on a nameplate for the “Challenge Wall Plaque” which hangs proudly in the lobby of the Pony Express stable Museum in St Joseph, MO for all to see and enjoy.

For more information on this adventure, go to GC1PRHM. You’ll find all requirements and helpful hints to aid your travels.

If you want to ask any questions about the challenge just e-mail me Steve Allen aka MO PIRATE at packerbacker31@hotmail.com.

Way back in June, I wrote an article about non-traditional geocaches. The type of cache where it isn’t just a box of swag hidden in the woods.

And I had mentioned, under virtual caches:

I’ve run into a few virtual caches but I never participated — I wasn’t sure what the ghostie meant and it made me nervous!

Then, blog reader Don_J left the comment: “Don’t be afraid of the Ghost.”

Well, Don_J, I took your advice and went after my first ever virtual geocache.

There’s only one geocache (virtual or otherwise) along the Black Canyon stretch of the Colorado River. Before I left, I used geocaching.com’s map feature to locate the cache: GC69E0 ‘Tale of Two Signs’. Since I’d never gone after a virtual before, I was careful to not only PRINT the cache description, but also to put it in an accessible spot in my kayak.

I think the hardest part of this particular “find” wasn’t so much the kayak OR having the GPS in the kayak (I’ve found caches with my kayak before) but that there was a current. It made it really difficult to figure out just how quickly I was moving and to plan when I should get my camera ready to snap the “proof” photo.

I emailed a better pic of the sign to the cache owner for proof I had found the cache. But I'm posting THIS photo to keep everything spoiler free!

But that’s why I take ESP Boss with me! I was paddling and watching the GPS and he was about 30 feet down river from me watching for the clue. It was a good thing too! If I had gone strictly from the coordinates, I would have missed snapping photos of the signs.

The current made it tough to get a good photo for "proof" for this cache. That little white dot? Yeah, that's the sign!

As it stands, ESP Boss and I both got our first ever virtual geocache. Don_J, you were right! And I’m not afraid of the Ghost any longer.

Readers Weigh In:

• What do you like best about virtual caches?
• What’s your best caching story involving a virtual? (Or waymark!)