Jennie now has an iPhone and Will and I have Droids. It's like carrying around a mini computer. I have thought that it would be fun to try Geocaching, but never had the hand held GPS. Our phones give us access to the website to look for caches in the area as well as a GPS and compass. This weekend we were equipped and somewhat ready to give it a try. For those of you not familiar with "Geocaching it is a high-tech treasure hunting game played world wide by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment." http://www.geocaching.com/ . So, we chose a cache to look for and off we went. Will and I are checking our coordinates as we think we are close to our first destination, but we can't find it. We later learned that we were looking for an "earthcache", which is a location and not a container. We are actually standing right where we were supposed to be. See the signs behind us? There are 3 of them that give some history of the Keystone Spit area. Hurray, we found our first cache!
We found our next geocache and as you can see flashlights are sometimes needed. This was a special coin cache and you were supposed to leave a coin that had some importance in your life. For example one with the year you were married, or a child was born. We just left a coin as we hadn't come prepared to leave one. Jennie is reading the log. This geocache has been in this location since April 11, 2004. I have no idea how many times we have been here and had no idea there was a treasure hiding within easy reach. That's actually the way it is supposed to be. If you aren't looking you are not supposed to be able to see them.
Here is a close up of the log Jennie was reading. It's the 8th log for this location and has been in place since Feb 8, 2009. It's really getting full, but Jennie did find a small place for us to sigh.
Our next stop was quite a challenge. I'm not going to tell you where we were, or how we found it, as I don't want to spoil your surprise if you should go looking. We think the coordinates were off, but we did locate it after a bit of looking. As you can see Jennie is down in a dark hole and that flashlight came in handy again.
Though this tin is right out in plain site it could easily be missed as it blends right in with the other rusty metal.
When Jennie opened the tin we found this was actually a "multicache". Some people are so clever. The note gave us the coordinates to the next location. It also tells anyone finding the tin that this is part of a global treasure hunt and to please leave the tin right where they found it.
This was our last and biggest find. I am amazed at how cleverly the caches are hidden and that people actually leave them there for others to find. Jennie has moved a piece of driftwood so we can see the geocache, but see how cleverly it has been hidden under the cement slab? It's important to leave them just as you found them.
This cache was full of treasure. You can just look at the treasure, you can leave something, or you can also take something. If you take something you must leave an item of equal or greater value. There are also some traveling items that may show up and you can move them to other caches and make note of their move. There is a lot going on here and we are just beginning to learn about it. It sure added to the fun of our weekend.
We found our next geocache and as you can see flashlights are sometimes needed. This was a special coin cache and you were supposed to leave a coin that had some importance in your life. For example one with the year you were married, or a child was born. We just left a coin as we hadn't come prepared to leave one. Jennie is reading the log. This geocache has been in this location since April 11, 2004. I have no idea how many times we have been here and had no idea there was a treasure hiding within easy reach. That's actually the way it is supposed to be. If you aren't looking you are not supposed to be able to see them.Here is a close up of the log Jennie was reading. It's the 8th log for this location and has been in place since Feb 8, 2009. It's really getting full, but Jennie did find a small place for us to sigh.
Our next stop was quite a challenge. I'm not going to tell you where we were, or how we found it, as I don't want to spoil your surprise if you should go looking. We think the coordinates were off, but we did locate it after a bit of looking. As you can see Jennie is down in a dark hole and that flashlight came in handy again.
Though this tin is right out in plain site it could easily be missed as it blends right in with the other rusty metal.When Jennie opened the tin we found this was actually a "multicache". Some people are so clever. The note gave us the coordinates to the next location. It also tells anyone finding the tin that this is part of a global treasure hunt and to please leave the tin right where they found it.
This was our last and biggest find. I am amazed at how cleverly the caches are hidden and that people actually leave them there for others to find. Jennie has moved a piece of driftwood so we can see the geocache, but see how cleverly it has been hidden under the cement slab? It's important to leave them just as you found them.
This cache was full of treasure. You can just look at the treasure, you can leave something, or you can also take something. If you take something you must leave an item of equal or greater value. There are also some traveling items that may show up and you can move them to other caches and make note of their move. There is a lot going on here and we are just beginning to learn about it. It sure added to the fun of our weekend.
