Saturday, November 15, 2008

We struck out on our first one!

I made a newbie mistake (which I didn't realize it was until later), when I chose which caches Hunter and I would seek out first. The website my sister shared with me listed hidden caches in increasing order; nearest one to my zip code and out. I printed the information for the first four and put them in our journal. Hunter deciphered the hints and we packed the journal, GPS, digital camera, some water and a garbage bag into a back pack.

At the top of each infomation page about a cache you want to seek out are some images. There are pictures of the type of caches you'll be hunting. This one was a Regular, but there are also Multi, Earth and Unknowns. The other symbols are the size of the cache. They can be micro, small, regulare and large. The last symbols are ratings for difficulty and terrain. These are measured by stars and the more stars filled out in orange out of five, the harder the cache is to find.

The first cache I chose for Hunter and I was the first one listed on my search page. There is room for a description and other information on the search page. The creator said it was inside an old historic cemetary and at the top, or so I thought, of a park with cliffs and waterfalls.

When we woke this morning, well, it wasn't exactly the best weather to be outdoors! The weatherman had predicted 100% chance of rain and it was already raining when I looked out the windows about 8:00 AM. We waited and we waited. Finally about 2:00 it was only a sprinkle so Hunter and I grabbed our bag and got in the van.

Hunter entered the coordinates into Richard. We had to disobey at first because this darn detour is still going by our house! Richard finally caught on that we weren't turning around, so he recalculated and stopped repeating himself.

When we reached the road I beleived we'd be turning on, Richard hadn't given me a heads up yet. I was confused and dialed my hubby as I complained to Hunter that I should have written down the alternate GPS coordinates that were on the website. Even with the new ones I got from that conversation, Richard still told us we should keep going. Oooookkkkk.

So we continued on another mile and a half and then he told us to turn right. We did and he almost immediatley said we had reached our destination. I saw a house a little bit further on the right, but on the left we spotted grave markers. Have faith in Richard!

We pulled into the small area next to the cemetary. I grabbed my camera and Hunter put Kit on her leash. I thought we'd be going to a different area that dogs were allowed and didn't think about keeping Kit in the van while we walked through a cemetary. I realize now we were being disrespectful, but at the time we were eager to find our first cache.

It had stopped raining on the drive, but once inside the cemetary and its outline of thick trees, the wind blew rain down on our heads. The ground was wet and sticky with limp leaves, but we started our search. Many of the grave markers were unreadable. The last date we found was the late 1800's. Some headstones were so low to the ground and faded, they appeared as small boulders. Only the worn corners and their symmetrical placement hinted of their story.

The clue Hunter and deciphered earlier in the week said, "Centrally located oak". There were two clusters of six trees, three in each grouping, in the middle of the graveyard. I can't recognize a tree by its bark and with all the leaves gone from these particular ones, I could only guess they were what we saught. Being the only trees in the middle we focused on them. Hunter and I hunkered down and picked through the leaves. We looked for holes covered by loose wood, stones in a pile, and for anything hanging on the bare branches. We saw nothing. We looked at some of the trees along the outline of the grounds, but after just a few minutes we agreed they weren't centrally located.

Last weekend I had sent an email to the cache owner and said his cache, Ledgetop on the Spirit Trail, was going to be our first. I asked him for any helpful info on caching in general. He shared a lot of information with me and even passed on his cell phone number to call if we needed any help. So I went back to the van and took him up on his adventure. I know it was cheating but I didn't want to go home empty handed and the wind was picking up. With it being our first one, we weren't sure what we were looking for.

He didn't answer his phone so Hunter and I looked a little longer, spreading out from the central trees, a total search time of about 30 minutes. In the end we didn't go home empty handed! We headed back to the van in a head on wind with a couple beer bottles in our garbage bag!

I have since searched through the forums about geocaching and have found that Micro (the size of a film canister), which this cache is described to be, aren't easy for newbies to find, especially when they are concealed with camoflauged tape! I also read that some cache hiders position sticks in a teepee foundation to mark their hiding spot. After reading that I remembered the right group of trees did have four or five thin, broken limb, leaning against each other in the center of the cluster. Hmmm. Maybe Hunter and I will return this week. It won't matter that Dev and B are with us. They can stay in the van while we walk the twenty feet or so to that potential marker.

Hunter and I discussed how geocaching is like learning a new game. There are new rules to remember and new skills to learn before we can earn the congratulations and check off a cache find in our journal. As with everything Hunter does, he needs a bit of coaxing. I have faith that once he finds his first cache and discovers the small treasures inside he can leave or exchange, I think this just might be something he and I can do together over the years.

Yolanda

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