Geocaching is something I heard about a long time ago and it was one of those things I had always meant to look into further but never got around to it…. UNTIL NOW! I took the plunge and went to geocaching.com, and a brand new world opened up to me! I read somewhere that geocaching is “The World’s Largest Treasure Hunt”, and it truly looks like it is. I read a few of the blog articles to figure out what the heck it’s all about, and then created a profile. I was ASTOUNDED to discover all the geocaches that are so close to me, like ones within walking distance of my home even. I had no idea! Geocaches apparently come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, looks like most in my area are of the micro or small variety.
So, with phone app in hand (like a true newbie I’m sure), I set off on my first walking hunt to see if I could find one. The first geocache location I headed to took me to a part of my neighbourhood I have never been to, and I figured I’d get to the general area before opening the app (save data usage)! The geocaching app displays your location and helps direct you to the precise locations of the geocaches. I won’t get too detailed regarding the caches because apparently that’s a big no-no, like a spoiler alert for other geocache hunters out there. But PS: The locations on my not completely precise map below are all visible on the free member version of Geocaching.
I ended up walking waaaaaaay past my first intended geocache find and ended up super close to the next one by the time I brought my phone out to take a look! The original one can wait for another day now, I pushed onward to the next locations, no back tracking this time around.
Upon reaching the second location, this was actually my first attempt to look around an area (a public area!) for a cache. I discovered VERY QUICKLY that I am going to look SUSPICIOUS in my search! There were people around and I love how the geocache community refers to them as “muggles”!! What are the chances??!! I am TOTALLY OK with this. If you don’t know what a muggle is, that’s it, Friends off!! Anyway, there wasn’t anybody walking nearby, but there were a lot of cars driving by and I’m sure at least one or two of them saw me duck into the bushes behind the big sign! Oh well, that was nothing compared to the next location I visited, stay tuned! But this one, as indicated by the smiley face on my map above, “I FOUND ONE!!” I have to quote the phrase because it’s a Noblegarden achievement in WoW, but I digress... So I found my FIRST. CACHE. EVER. Yay! Yes I’m displaying a picture of it but… IT’S MY FIRST ONE!!
So with some (most?) geocaches, they have a log book you are supposed to sign when you find them, so bringing something to write with is a must when geocaching. The app also has a log section which should be used whenever a geocache is found or even not found. This cache I found was a micro-sized one, real tiny! It had a minuscule piece of paper inside it but I couldn’t get it out so I didn’t get to sign it. Maybe I’ll go back again later in the year and try again. I did add a log to the app though. And when I log a cache as found, it TURNS INTO A SMILEY FACE on my profile, WOOOOOOO!!
Location number 3, talk about a public place, there were tons of muggles about! There is a parking lot and a transit bus hub and around the geocache location, some bushes and a TON of snow piled high… Too much information?? Well I’ll admit I felt real odd poking around the snow, I must have looked suspicious again… I shouldn’t care about these things, should I??? I could say I lost something if anyone asked, haha… Or actually tell them I’m geocaching and have them say WTF is that??? I didn’t give much effort on this one not just because of muggles, but for my safety as well. Didn’t want to upset the snow pile and also with the bushy area covered in snow, I wasn’t sure if there was solid ground underneath or not. Or maybe I’m just a WIMP! So I logged this one as “Not Found” and got a SAD FACE on the location in my profile, booooooo 🙁 This is great for tracking though because now I know which ones I want to go back to and turn that frown upside down.
Location #4 was similar on the muggle and snow front…. At first glance I didn’t see anything but also wasn’t sure if the cache was covered in snow or not. I want to search again for #3 and #4 when the snow is gone. I should mention too that the geocache entry in the app will sometimes contain a ‘hint’ to assist you if you are at a location but having trouble finding the cache. The hints on these last two didn’t help much, but I am totally blaming the snow for that!
So the hunt for geocaches in my area was only a small section of what is actually out there! The next time I’m out wandering, I’ll head to different areas to look for more. And that’s just my neighbourhood, when I look at geocaches all over my city, there are hundreds if not thousands of them, this image is just a small snippet near a couple parks with each green icon being a geocache! And I can hardly wait to travel to other cities and towns to see what I can find for geocaches there.
ADVENTURE AWAITS!!!
