caching tales

It has been way too long since my last post. I know all my readers (guessing 2 or so) have been waiting in anticipation. Wait no longer my friends. So to catch you up, I wanna gab about 3 things real quick.

#1 – My #2000 cache find was –wait for it – waaaait! C.I.P. Palmetto http://coord.info/GC2N6GA it is a great series by Oraclebennett that requires a lot of work. Oh and it was an FTF.

#2 – Completed the North Florida Challenge http://coord.info/GCTVT3 and the Final Challenge http://coord.info/GCTVTE - with BabyRuthie and Jes0531. A-MAZE-IIING. Check my logs! North Log http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=fbb6ab9e-11bb-4e51-95bf-7e609f14... Final Log http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=d03eccdf-7043-453f-8b5a-d6e1b8c9...

#3 – I created my first wherigo cache http://coord.info/GC32G5A and had a blast doing it. The feedback I have received has certainly given me the motivation to create another. These are a lot of fun to make and find, not sure why there are so few of them. I guess cause it is time consuming. Took me a few weeks to create this one.

That’s a wrap.

I had a whole blog written about caching. I went into detail about some of the great caches I have found and bragged about some of my favorite hides. I delved a bit into the types of caches I thought were better than others based on difficulty, terrain, mysteries and so on. I ended up deleting the whole article because it didn’t quite seem to grasp what it means to be a cacher.

A while back I heard or read (exactly where is not important) Auyantapuy’s classic line, “It is not about the cache but the adventure”. I thought how insightful and often overlooked of a characteristic about geocaching that became. I wondered how geocaching morphed into such a status hobby. There is no tier to this hobby and no one cacher is better than any other. I believe we all start on a level playing field and remain on that same field.

Adventure? I began thinking about all the challenge caches that have taken cachers on extreme adventures.  To name a few…

The Iconic Multi-State Challenge - Mafia Style

I-95 Interstate Highway Challenge

Terrain Challenge Lite

Busy Day Challenge - South Florida 

100 "?" Puzzle Challenge

And who could forget the Florida Challenges from our very own Florida Reviewers. There are a ton of challenging caches out there. You just have to look and choose the challenge you feel capable of tackling.

Something is still missing from Ata’s definition. So I sat down in front of a blank Word document and started typing out words to describe geocaching to me. Hobby, Treasure Hunt, Friends, Exciting, Cachers, Get Togethers, Family outings, and the list goes on. It got me to thinking about fun times I have been lucky enough to be part of. I began remembering special events, embarrassing moments, and places I never would have been afforded if not for caching. I thought about how I try and explain caching to muggles. I could see the confusion in their stares because they had yet experienced it. I kept circling back to one common theme.

Friends!!!! We all do the PnG’s to kill time and fill the gaps between our milestones that we want to share with others. Can you imagine doing Mafia's Torcher solo? How about hiking/biking Bluegill Series alone? I did the 95 challenge alone and thought how much better of a time it would have been with friends that understood me. I can’t remember a single hike, paddle, campout, or event that I would have enjoyed more without the cachers I have met along the way. You all are what make caching for me so great not the Tupperware containers hiding in the woods. There are a million of those and only 1 each of you.

Ata was on to something with his definition of geocaching but to me:

“It is not about the cache but the adventure shared with friends.”

 

It has been a long road full of twists and turns. It seems like just yesterday I was signing the South Florida Challenge for find #981. Not too long after that I went on a fantastic journey with a great bunch of cachers at Mafia's Torcher where they claimed there milestone caches. I decided to let them have their glory on a great cache and opted to claim my #1600 on a FTF at The Iconic Multi-State Challenge - Mafia Style. And how could I forget my accidental milestone find #1700 on the I-95 Interstate Highway Challenge.

Well a lot of caches have been found in between each of those milestones and yes those are my only milestones to date. I am here sitting on find #1999 wondering what 2000 will bring. Curious? Guess you will have to wait and see.

Driving to our old apartment today and remembered a cache was at the corner. What is a cacher to do? so I jumped out of the car and had Angel meet me at GZ. searched the rocks for a while. We went up and down the canal, under the bridge, and even made my way over to the tiny cliff. It is moments like these that tell a lot about a person - i would not survive a climb of Mount Everest. All of our searching netted no cache but we did enjoy our short time at this location. As you can see it is home to some huge iguanas (assuming there is more). Ethan launched rocks into the canal and Angel feared the worse for us being so close to the edge.  The Cache

We logged our DNF and this topic of logging DNF's should be explored more but for a later day.

Spent the day with the family and Brandee on the Rocks clearing out all the caches in the park on 6/18/2011. It is a beautiful park with great hiking tails, observation tower, nature center, and the usual facilities. Plus, there are about 10 caches in the park including one multi. Highly recommend grabbing the kids, pets and a hiking stick or bike and check it out. The park is located at the corner of griffin road and Nob Hill. You can thank me later!

Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device^[2]and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (tupperware or similar) or ammo boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek," sharing many aspects withbenchmarking, trigpointing, orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing, and waymarking.

Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.^[3] After 10 years of activity there are over 1.3 million active geocaches published on various websites. There are over 5 million geocachers worldwide.