Adventures in Geocaching #1

I spent last Thursday night setting up and registering the Garmin eTrex Venture GPS unit the boyfriend bought me for Christmas. The Garmin site led me to the OpenCaching site, where I read their beginner’s guide to geocaching. While exploring their maps, I found a cache at the park where I regularly go walking! All excited Friday, I headed out with the coordinates downloaded into the GPS and their app downloaded to my phone.
My first geocaching attempt was a failure. In that I did not find the cache. However, I spent more than an hour out in the fresh air, clambered all over the hillside, got my heart rate up, broke a sweat, and found muscles I had not used in quite some time. I had a ball. And I’m pretty sure I circled the cache several times. Unfortunately, the light and my ankle finally gave up, and I headed down to the lake path to finish my walking.

Things I learned from the first attempt:

• Don’t go when the ground is saturated with snow melt! I was very proud that I left only one bum print in the mud.
• Take a walking stick! In my days of roaming the woods as a child, I always had a staff with me. The treacherous footing reminded me why.
• Take at least two bags, one for garbage collection and one for recyclables. People are pigs.
• Bring a camera and a pencil and if possible a second set of eyes.

It was also my first attempt at using either the GPS or the app on the phone, so I have more experience now for next time. It’s mildly amusing when the GPS says 20 feet to the north while the phone is saying 30 feet to the south. Not only was the ground saturated, but it was covered in inches of sodden leaves. I wandered off the trail without realizing it.
I was babbling to a friend about how much fun I had scampering through the woods looking for the cache, and she pointed me towards another website, GeoCaching.com. There are a ton more caches listed at this site, although to get the premium features, there’s a fee. Apparently OpenCaching started as a rebuttal to the money issues. There are caches in parks I frequent, birding sites I love, even in towns whose festivals I regularly attend.
I am going to have so much fun!