A few days ago I put a post on my facebook page asking for ideas about what other activities I could do in this 30/30/30 challenge and a good friend suggested Geocaching. Now, if you're anything like I was three days ago your response is probably something like "WTF is Geocaching?!", well I have the answer to that riddle - it is amazing!!!
Geocaching is basically a GPS treasure hunt. Create a free (or premium) account at www.geocaching.com, punch in your zip code, and you'll be provided with an array of locations where people have placed tins or capsules full of goodies. The simple fundamental rule - sign the log then take something from the container but only if you plan on leaving something for the next geocacher. Once you get home go back to the site and log your experience! Its sooo much fun! The thrill of the hunt, especially when you have no idea what it is your hunting for, it is exciting. We were instantly hooked. So far, this may be one of the best days so far!
Gecaching tip #1 - the decimal point in the coordinates really does matters!
I went online and found three geocache sites near our house and wrote down the coordinates. The first one was: N 45° 23.345 W 122° 08.88. I got out the GPS my dad had given us some years back and found the option to punch this information in. But the formatting was off, instead of xx xx.xxx my GPS only gave the option of xx xxxxx. Being a bit of a directional whiz I once again went with my life motto of "fuck it" and typed in the numbers, leaving out the decimal. We were off, flying down the hwy toward Estacada, then up the Clackamas River and onto what used to be called Squaw Mountain Road but is now referred to as something like Talula Mountain Road or some such crap. Note - the name written here could be totally wrong as I refused to lock the new name into my memory because in my eyes it will always lovingly be called Squaw Mountain Road!!! Up the mountain we went.. up ... up... up.. until we got to the fork in the road where I distinctly remember parting at multiple times during my youth, the site of a still smoldering bond fire on the side of the road tugging at my nostalgic heart strings with one thought and one thought only - sweet baby jesus I hope Ana does not ever go to a mountain party!
Half a mile up the road it went from clear and dry to a foot of snow like there was an invisible line between spring and winter and we were standing on it. We were only 2.2 miles from our very first geocache, but with Ana in the car (asleep) and the explorer not being as sprite as it once was we held our heads low and flipped a bitch in defeat. I punch in the next set of coordinates only for it to tell me that it was up the same impassable road - WTF GEOCACHING BLOWS! I screamed inside me head so not to wake the baby in the backseat and that would be far worse then sucking at geocaching. That is when tip #1 came into play as I noticed a "formatting" button on the GPS that I swear to god was not there prior. I selected it and was given an array of coordinate formatting options, including xx xx.xxx. Thinking it wouldn't make much of a difference I selected the correct format and popped in the original location just for shits and giggles, but mostly to prove that my "fuck it" motto had once again prevailed. While on point 9/10 times my motto had done me wrong this day and I learned a valuable lesson - the decimal matters!
As I laughed uncontrollably and told Doc of my error we drove back down ... down... down the mountain, down the Clackamas river, back past Estacada heading toward Sandy... PAST our house and up Hwy 26 toward Hood.
Take a moment to laugh at this hilarious lack of navigational skills on my part.
We arrived at our first - REAL - Geocaching location, it was dumping rain but the thrill of the hunt had us out laughing and prancing in the rain. We looked and looked but had no idea what we were looking for. Up the road at the next location we did the same, playing where's waldo only having no idea what waldo looks like. The third location was a bridge over a babbling creek, we knew it was likely under the bridge so Doc took on the role of troll while I played the courageous billy-goat and we scoured the area both above and below only to come up short again.
All in all we were 0 for 3, but we have officially caught the geocaching bug! We had an amazing day filled with laughter and playing like kids again. The scenic drives to locations were so beautiful that they alone were worth the adventure. We have already started planning out which geocaching specific GPS system we are going to buy so we can continue to play anywhere and anytime we want!
So, if your ever bored and don't know what to do.. strap on some galoshes and get out your GPS! I promise you will not be disappointed!
The decimal does matter!
Our first geocaching adventure
trolling around - we never found the cache but have vowed to go back to this location to look again
He actually got into the water looking for treasure!
So pretty!
Nothing says a rainy country day like Geocaching!
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4 comments:
Too much fun!!
We've been Geocaching and it is a lot of fun. The cache we found was in a little metal box under a fake rock.
Awesome!! I can't wait to try it!
Love the photo of the tire tracks and the last two... got me giggling... and wanting to go geocatching in Sprite. and ya, never heard of it, but feel urged to participate lol
this was super fun day
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