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)

Our first (sort of) day Geocaching

Today was our first day looking for caches, though to be totally honest, these were not the first caches that we have found.  I had signed up for the Geocaching web site over 6 years ago, but as I have no GPS I never really intended to go looking for anything.  Back in April of 2011, I took a look online and saw that there was a cache within walking distance of our house, and when I popped the coordinates into Google Earth, it was pretty obvious where it was hidden.

Jack, Emily and I took a walk over to to the nearby park and found View of the Lake within a few minutes.  I didn't quite know what to expect when I opened it, and I had no trinkets or anything to trade, but I signed the log and that was that.

Near "View of the Lake".  Picture from 2008.

January 2013 Update - The area as it looks today.
 The boat house was damaged in Hurricane Sandy.

I'd say I was hooked, but I really wasn't.  I'm all into technology, but don't have a smart phone (work gives me a phone, but it's something that Alexander Graham Bell would be comfortable using) or a GPS, and part of the whole idea of Geocaching for me, at least at that point, was using the GPS to find the hide.  It was neat to find one so close to home, and Jack and I checked up on it at least twice a month, but I had no interest in looking for more.

That all changed today.

We have been trying to find cheap family activities to get us through the weekends over the summer, and since my dad got Jack the Travel Bug a few weeks back, I have been spending more time on the Geocaching web site and have found quite a few that are within a mile or so of the house.  Caching could kill a little time and let us do what amounts to a treasure hunt, so it would be well worth trying out.  I still don't have a GPS or smart phone, but the satellite images on Google Earth are good enough that I figured we could find a few.

The first one we went for was "Railroad History Part Deux".  I'm all about local history, and this cache is on the site of what used to be the Baldwin Locomotive Works.  As it is a Sunday, the parking lot was empty, and we parked nearby and scoured the area we printed from the Google satellite map until we found it.  Success!

The lesson learned here is that Jack really wants to be the one to find the cache.  Wow, was he pissed off when I found it.  Seeing as it was several feet off the ground, there was no way that he could find it, but that didn't matter.

From there we found two more - "Employees Only" and "Lets Play".  "Employees Only" was hidden in the square boxy part of a light pole, and we actually got to meet the person who set out the cache, as he lives nearby.  A young man shouted "You found my Geocache!" from about 75' away, after we had spent about 10 minutes stumbling around until I thought to look in the light pole box.  We spoke for a minute or two before he went off.

"Lets Play" was in another local park, and this one was a magnetic keyholder.  As before, I found it and Jack was pissed off, but hey, he'll learn how this works eventually.

The last one we went for was called "Sittin' and Watchin' the Traffic Go By".  We got to the right area and I looked around for a bit, but this must be someplace that kids go to drink beer and smash bottles.  There was a good amount of glass around and I didn't want Jack climbing all over it, and about 2 minutes after we got there a local stray cat wandered over and started eyeing Jack up like he was a snack, so we left.

We ended up spending a little over two hours out and about and had a lot of fun, so yes, I'm officially hooked!  I spent a little while this evening familiarizing myself with some of the concepts, like LPCs (light pole caches) and terms, like DNF (did not find), so future posts will hopefully sound a lot more like I know what the hell I'm talking about.

Caches in this post:

• View of the Lake
• Railroad History Part Deux
• Employees Only
• Lets Play
• Sittin' and Watchin' the Traffic Go By (DNF)

The Travel Bug that started it all

Yesterday, my father gave Jack a Travel Bug for his 7th birthday.  We have named it "Jack's Traveling Purple Dice" and have given it the goal of getting to Japan and back within a year.

Seeing as this is a single die and we named it "dice", I'm having all sorts of issues with it... but hey, "Traveling Purple Dice" rolls better off the tongue than "Traveling Purple Die", so I guess I'll live.

Jack has been obsessed with Godzilla, so Japan seems like a natural choice for the destination.  Seeing as we live relatively close to the Philadelphia Airport, and also seeing as there is a great cache nearby, it was easy getting this out into the wild.  We can't wait to see where it ends up!

Welcome to my blog!

This blog documents my adventures in Geocaching.  While I'm relatively new to caching, I have been involved with technology and computers for most of my life, and am hoping to pass some of that knowledge on via this blog.  I also would like to share pictures and notes from my adventures, as the more people that get involved with caching, the merrier!

If you are unfamiliar with Geocaching and would like to learn more, here is a handy guide.  If you are familiar with caching, I hope that you find this blog interesting and informative!

A little bit about me:

• I'm abnormally tall - 6'8" to be precise.  This really doesn't mean anything except that it makes tree hides a bit easier for me to find.
• I often cache with my 7 year old son, and occasionally cache with my wife.  She's 4'11" tall, so I find the high stuff and she looks under rocks and bushes.
• I grew up in South Jersey, and currently live in Delaware County, PA.  Most of my caching (so far) has been in Delaware and Montgomery counties in PA, and Burlington and Camden counties in NJ.
• I use a Garmin eTrex 20 for caching, though my first 20 or so caches were found with Google Maps.
• I have known about Geocaching since 2005, and actually signed up for my account in December of that year.  I did not actually go Geocaching until 2011, and only looked for one that year.  In 2012 I started caching as an official hobby, and racked up over 170 finds from late July until late November.

A few other things:

• I will never divulge the location of a cache in situ.  I may show the sights on the way, or the cache container (if it doesn't impact the clue), but I will never show you a cache in its habitat.  This is a rule right from the folks at Geocaching.com, but I want to explicitly state that I think that part of the fun is finding the cache, and this blog will be as spoiler free as possible.
• That being said, if you need a hint finding a cache that I have placed or found, or want to schedule a meetup, or are in the area and want to go caching, feel free to contact me by sending a message via my Geocaching profile page.
• Just so things are transparent - I am setting this blog up in January 2013, but am backdating my first posts to dates appropriate to when I found the caches.  Once I am caught up, things will be posted on time.  I'm not trying to be deceptive or anything, I simply have finally collected enough material to make this an interesting blog to visit.  I'm going off of my original notes, so you can read this in sequence and see how much I have learned in the short time I've been doing this.

This is far from being my first blog, and like many other folks, I have started and abandoned a few others along the way.  Geocaching is the first hobby in years that has interested me enough to want to write about it, and it's only now, after I have collected several months worth of content, that I feel that I can commit myself to doing this.

Well, that's it for the intro.  Please feel free to leave comments, or contact me by sending a message via my Geocaching profile if you have the need to send a longer message.