Our first caches in NJ

We spent yesterday with my family in NJ, and Jack and I spent a few hours caching with my dad. He's an avid cacher with about 18 months' experience.

I learned more in two hours with him than I learned in a week on the Geocaching web site.  I definitely see the value in spending time with an experienced cacher, and can't recommend it enough if you are just starting out.

We also were able to use my father's iPhone and iPad, which made a huge difference in the experience.  I like the challenge of using Google Maps, but I would never have found today's hides if I was going with a paper map.

There is a series of caches in his area that are based on Godzilla, so you know that Jack made us check them out. All told we found four caches (listed below) and couldn't find one.  This tied us for the most amount of caches that my dad has searched for in one day, and the three of us were able to cover much more ground as a team.

We managed to get soaked, as it poured rain for quite a while, but I didn't really care, and Jack spends every waking moment looking for water or mud to get into, so he was thrilled.

We found our first pill bottle sized cache (well, Jack and I did, my dad has seen lots of them), and learned that those little metal containers are called Bison tubes.  The "KriKat" cache was also pretty freaking sweet, as the container was like nothing I have ever found before.  When I get to the point where I set my own caches out, I'm using this one as inspiration.

We couldn't find the first one we went for - "Biollante's cache".  This was in a little patch of woods, and I honestly had no idea what too look for.  The rain really started coming down when we were there, and while that wouldn't have been too bad, but there was a good amount of lightning.  At 6'8" tall, I have a healthy respect for lightning, as I'm usually the tallest person in the area and essentially a human lightning rod.  We went back to the car and then went to find the other caches when the raid died down a bit.

Lessons Learned:

• A little time with an experienced cacher is worth a ton.
• Teamwork helps.
• Use the clues!
• I like caches that are different.
• Coordinates get you close, but are not exact.

Caches in this post:

• G-ZILLA!!!
• Mechagodzilla's #1 cache
• KriKat
• Shoppers Delite 2
• Biollante's cache (DNF)