More Geocaches found!

Today my friend Jessica called me and asked if I was going to be doing anything outside with the kids since it was a nice day. We decided to go geocaching. Jess lives in Cockeysville so I went to geocaching.com and searched for caches in her zip code. Since it was Jessica's first time geocaching and she was going to have her 15 month old boy with her I located two that were easily accessible and transferred the waypoints to my GPS.

The first cache we attempted was called Old Padonia Post. It was described as a park and grab and sure enough the GPS waypoint had us in a parking lot. We spent quite some time searching, maybe 20 minutes, when I found the cache. I won't give any spoilers but I'll say it wasn't at all where or what I expected. It was a very well-hidden cache. There were some muggles around here so I had to wait until it was clear to retrieve the cache. The cache itself is a mini Altoids tin so it only has a piece of paper inside for a log. We all signed it and set our sites on cache number 2.

The second cache of the evening was called Western Run washout. This is a multi cache in an industrial park near the Hunt Valley Towncenter. We were led to a small picnic area behind an office building for the first cache. After several minutes of hunting for this cache I found it. The cache's color gave it away. Inside the caceh was a scrap of paper with a new set of coordinates written on it. I created a waypoint for the new coordinates and was relieved to find that the second cache was only 440 feet away. The last thing I wanted to do was spent the evening driving in traffic on York Road.

My seven year old son found the second cache. Again the color gave it away. This cache had anoth piece of paper with more coordinates on it. I entered these into my Vista HCx and off we went. This cache led us off a path into the woods alongside the Western Run. We searched for about 25 minutes but none of us could find the cache. It was getting late so we decided to call it a night and come back another time to continue our search.

We ended the night with a find for Padonia Post and we found 2/x of the Western Run Washout cache. Not a bad evening.

Geocaching!

Today I had an hour and a half to kill before I had to take my daughter to Girl Scouts so her and I went geocaching. A zip code search on http://www.geocaching.com/ revealed several geocaches that were close to my house. A few mouse clicks later I had downloaded the .LOC files for these caches into my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and we were off.

What is geocaching? According to geocaching.com, Geocaching is:

"Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. 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 if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache."

Basically, people get small, waterproof containers and hide them somewhere. Anywhere at all. They use a portable GPS unit to note the coordinates of the container when it is hidden and then go to a website like geocaching.com and post the coordinates of the cache and give some clues or describe the goal of the cache. Most caches are filled with small trinkets and most people will take a "gift" from the box and then leave something of their own. The box also contains some type of log book, normally a tiny spiral note pad, that geocachers sign when they find the cache.

Some caches contain a special "travel bug" or a "geocoin". a travel bug (or TB) is a metal pendant like a dog tag. It has a picture of a bug on it, a serial number stamped in it, and instructions to log onto geocaching.com and enter the serial number to log the bug. The TB's are meant to be passed from cache to cache and the locations of them are tracked on geocaching.com. Geocoins are similar to TBs but are specially designed commemorative coins.

The cache that my daughter and I first set out to find is called "Okay, maybe in a million years". This is a very difficult cache to find. We ended up walking through a small stream, following the GPS unit. We were right on top of the location and couldn't find the cache. The creator/owner of the cache, Legendpilot, said the cache is hidden right out in the open. He said even though it is in plain sight the cache is difficult to find and you may have stepped on it. My daughter and I spent several minutes looking around and then decided to try the second cache in this area since we had a limited amount of time before the Girl Scouts meeting.

The second cache, "Definitely in less than five minutes" by VerySmartGirl, promised to be easy to find. It took me about five minutes to find this one. I was right on top of it again, still not really sure what I was looking for, when I noticed something that didn't look natural. Sure enough, there was the box. Our first geocache find! The box was small, a little bigger than a pack of cigarettes. It was made of clear plastic and had latches that snapped into place on each of the four sides of the lid. There was a label on the lid that read "Official Geocache" and had lines for the name of the cache, the name of the cache's owner, and point of contact information for the cache. We both signed the log book. I didn't have anything to place inside the box so we looked at the trinkets inside but didn't take any. There was an eraser shaped like a flower, some plastic army men, a guitar pick, a pin, a keychain, and a few other little items.

When I got home tonight after the Girl Scouts meeting i jumped on geocaching.com and posted my results. I was the 50th person to attempt "Definitely in less than five minutes" and the 49th successful finder. "Okay, maybe in a million years" had 34 finds and 26 did not finds.

Geocaching follows the same "Leave no trace" principals that I have been teaching my son's Cub Scout pack. There is a large "Cache in, trash out" movement where people carry trashbags with them when they are leaving or hunting caches and they carry out any trash they find along the way.

I think I'm going to enjoy geocaching. It's a great way to enjoy hiking, explore new places, meet new people, and practice navigating with a portable GPS unit.