Recently, we have taken up a new past-time: "Geocaching." For the uninitiated, this is a form of real-world outdoor treasure hunting using GPS-enabled devices to navigate to a set of specific coordinates in search hidden containers ('geocaches'). Inside, there may be all sorts of interesting items, or perhaps only a slip of paper on which you can "log" your find. You never know what you might uncover, and that is part of the appeal. If you are interested, there is a (free) Basic Membership, and a Premium Membership for about $30/year.
I enjoy it because it is a good excuse to spend some time out of doors in the woods, amidst the quiet solitude of nature. For me, it is a good recreational past-time during the winter months when the sailboat is out of the water and the ubiquitous ticks are (mostly) dormant. Although it may be heresy to serious "Geocachers," finding the cache is really not all that important to me -- its more about the journey than the destination. Gotta get those 10,000 daily steps somehow!
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| Hidden geocaches in our area.... |
Of course, sometimes my competitive character gets hold of me, and I will doggedly pursue the search well beyond the patience and enthusiasm of others. Nevertheless, geocaching seems like a good way to get the kids out of the house and away from their omnipresent electronic devices. Ironically, you really need an electronic device with GPS capability in order to participate in Geocaching. Most "smartphones" can do this, and there are a variety of apps that you can download to your cellphone to display GPS coordinates. However,
caveat emptor: such apps vary in accuracy and reliability. I have discovered, for example, that my TowBoatUS app displays more accurate latitude/longitude data than a couple of the GPS apps designed for geocaching.
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| When you stumble upon several sticks laid tightly parallel to each other, it may well signal a hidden geocache. Sticks rarely lay that way naturally.... |
We did our first family geocache outing on December 30, when we took the kids out to the Hales Brook and Sippican River trails. This parcel of land, which includes 2.5 miles of trails through pine and oak forest as well as wetland habitats and cranberry bogs, is part of the much larger 75-acre East Over Reservation. We have hiked these trails before, and the kids are somewhat familiar with them. One thing we had not thought about, however, was hunting season. We arrived at the trailhead on County Road to be greeted by the sounds of shotgun and rifle fire, and none of us had any bright orange safety clothing! #parentingfail
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| Hales Brook and Sippican River Trails |
At the outset, our goal was to find four geocaches, but the sounds of shotgun and rifle fire (it was deer hunting season) and the thick prickly underbrush of thorny briars conspired to cut short our day. We did manage to find three of the four.
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| Yellow Smiley faces mark the geocaches we found. Green dots mark others, while orange indicates a "multi-stage" cache -- you first locate Stage 1 cache, which contains coordinates for the Stage 2 cache, where you will find the coordinates of the Stage 3 cache, and so on.... |
After a short hike along the trails, the GPS coordinates for the first geocache led us off-trail and into the thick tangle of underbrush and thorny briars. Such fun. But at least it was too cold to worry about ticks. Our first target was a relatively easy-to-find geocache named, "Squirrel Hides a Nut."
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| Description of our first target, from the Geocaching website..... |
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| Eureka! Finding our very first geocache!! |
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| Examining the contents of 'Squirrel Hides a Nut'..... |
From this location, we had to "bushwhack" through prickly brambles in search of our second geocache. After about twenty minutes of pricks, pokes, and tangles, my stepdaughter announced that she would go no further; she promptly sat down on the forest floor in teenage protest. Her younger brother pushed on, however, and his persistence paid off when he stumbled upon the aptly named "Green Box."
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My stepson finds "Green Box" nestled in the gap between three tree trunks.....
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Our last find was more challenging. Not only did we keep getting conflicting GPS readings on our different apps and smartphones, but also this was described as a micro-size geocache. Its name, "Grafting," provided a good hint, and the tiny (< 1.5") metal container was hidden in the nook of a tree. This find was credited to me.
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| It helped to know what "grafting" means, and to be a little taller. This 'micro' cache was the tiny green container strapped to the end of a stick that was placed in a manner to look as if it was a branch grafted on to the tree.... |
By 4:30pm, we were starting to lose daylight, and so we headed back to the car. Step-daughter was very pleased, as she was starting to get cold (she was dressed more appropriately for a day at the mall than for geocaching in the woods). Step-son, by contrast, was all smiles and "high-fiving" everyone for a successful treasure hunt.
"We will find even more next time," I assured him.
"What do you mean, 'Next Time?'" asked his sister....
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