Coming soon...

With the rapidly approaching onset of Fall, I'm officially through my summer break, and the good news is that I did quite a bit of caching recently and have a lot more to write about!

Recent caching adventures include:

• A successful Geocaching event with the local Cub Scout troop.  This event was neat on several levels, but from the perspective of this blog I think the most interesting part will be how I made GPX files with my practice caches, and copies of the handouts that I made.
• My first Earth Cache, found on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
• Cache finds in Maryland and Virginia, bringing me up to 5 states.
• Several frustrating near-FTFs, and Jack's first actual FTF.

And more!

Step one will be for me to copy all of the pictures I took off of my camera, so once that's done I'll start posting again.  It's good to be back!

A year , and a summer break.

It's an exciting time!  We have already passed the one year anniversary of the Travel Bug that Started it All (pretentious capitalization intended) and rapidly approach the one year anniversary of my first "official" caching day in two weeks.  While I have taken a good amount of time off (hence the dearth of posts) I would like to give a shout out to some things this past year that have made this hobby so much fun:

• Geocaching.com - without this site, none of the rest of this would be possible.
• My Garmin eTrex 20 - while I did use Google maps for a while, this really sold me on caching.
• The geocaching subreddit - loads of ideas and conversations to keep me going, even when I can't get out and cache myself.
• My friends and family members who've put up with my obsession - you know who you are.
• All cachers everywhere!  As much as item #1, without such an active community, this hobby wouldn't exist.

Now that that's out of way, here's my standard "I've been too busy - catching up now!" post:

• Health is 100% back to normal, so that's a plus.
• We just had Jack's 8th birthday party, so I sank a month into making Minecraft props instead of going outside to cache.
   
  

  

  They look deceptively simple, but the creeper alone (green guy) took something like 8 hours to put together.

• It has technically been an "IT Emergency" at work since the first week of June, and since I'm the entire IT department it has really put a dent in my lunchtime caching runs.

I did manage to snag an FTF a few weeks back - King's Family Tree is located relatively close to work, and I needed to take a break after a few weeks of non-stop computer crisis issues.  I've also managed to go caching both alone and with Jack and Emily twice now over the holiday weekend, so things are looking up.

The other news is that I am going to be doing a short Geocaching event for my son's cub scout troop sometime in the coming weeks.  I'm setting up demo caches in Smedley Park; real containers, really hidden, but not posted on the website or anything.  I'm just creating GPX files and making handouts, to give the kids an idea about what caching is all about.  I'm going to be breaking quite a few rules, such as distance (I'm hiding 2-3 per spot, and the total distance for about 6 spots [12-18 hides] is probably 750 feet), and I may or may not have log sheets and trinkets in them... though I'm leaning toward doing something to make it a little more engaging for the kids.

I'll post details and pics when I do it, so if anyone else is into this kind of thing it can be used as a model for your event.

That's it for now.  As I start getting back into caching, I'll start making more posts. 

Later on!

Quick update.

Quick updates on the two missing caches:

1. The Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial cache has been moved to a new location.  The new spot can't handle a cache container of the same size as the last one, but I should be able to put something in place eventually.  For now, it's a boring old bison tube.
   
2. The new Video Game History #1 - Breakout cache is not done yet.  I bought my supplies last week but have been spending my time working on Jack's birthday party props (Minecraft!) instead of building the cache... or caching, come to think of it.

Since I'm going to be all spoilery and put instructions together for the Breakout cache container anyway, I may as well reveal that it was / is a street hockey ball.  The game Breakout dealt with a ball hitting a brick wall - my cache consisted of a ball hidden in an old ruined wall in the park across the street.

The nifty think about this container is that it's large enough to hold small trinkets, waterproof, and able to be camouflaged, so it's not just an orange hockey ball.  When done, the container ends up being waterproof (well.. I wouldn't make in an underwater cache, but it can be dunked underwater for a while with no ill effects) and hides well, so I'm kinda excited to write up instructions.  Well, maybe not excited. Mildly enthusiastic?  You get the idea.

Not one, but two caches missing...

I previously mentioned that my Breakout cache had gone missing, and confirmed over the weekend that my Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial cache has gone missing as well.

Someone had emailed me about the condition of GZ at that cache, right in the middle of my pain / health issues, so I had never been able to check it out.  I had noticed that it hadn't been found since April, and there is another cache in the same park hidden in a similar way that has still been getting traffic, so I was beginning to fear for the worst.  Someone was kind enough to log a DNF saying that they found some possible parts of it, so I took a look over the weekend, and damn it, it's gone.

This is another opportunity for me to document this type of cache build... but wow, it took like 12 hours to make the first one, mainly due to all of the trial and error.  I found a new home for it and will start making plans to replace it soon, but this really sucks.  Oh well.

My Breakout cache has gone missing!

Just a quick update - about 10 days ago we had a cleanup day at the park across from where I live, and I took the time to check up on my two caches.  Frogger is fine, but Breakout is gone!  I found a little pile of trash near where it was hidden, soda bottles and the like, so I'm assuming that kids just up and took it or threw it somewhere.

Regardless, I'm going to redo it, and this time I will document the process for making the container.  Sure, it's kinda spoilerish, but since I've never seen a container like it, and since it's easy to make and is a decent size, I may as well show the process.

Until then, Breakout has been disabled. :(

Quick update.

I figured I'd give a quick update -

I'm still dealing with the pain problem.  Pretty sure it's a hernia, and have had two doctor visits so far and will be getting some sort of scan later this week.  Since it's been so hard to focus and moving around hurts, I have been spending more time playing Minecraft than I have Geocaching or blogging.

I did pick up a short multi the other day, and I took a short lunch trip to Skunk Hollow to take some pics.  Once I get more pictures later this week I'm planning on posting them, as it's definitely my favorite caching area nearby and I'd love to share what a neat place it is.

That's it for now.  Hopefully I'll get this pain issue worked out soon so I can get back to caching!

Yet Another NJ Caching Trip.

Wow, I seem to be great at not posting when I say that I will.   I actually have a reason, though - I either have a hernia (I blame the hike I took to get a difficult cache about a month ago) or some other similar pain type thing going on right now (kidney stones maybe?).  I have been to the doctor and we're figuring out what the issue is, but in the meantime I've been in a pain-filled fog and haven't felt up to typing in complete sentences.

Oh well - I'm going to give it a shot anyway.  Please excuse me in advance if my writing isn't up to my usual low standards.

I did end up having a great week off with Jack for spring break, and on Friday March 29th, we ended up heading over to my parents' house and spent the bulk of the morning caching.

There is a stretch of Rt. 130 from Cinnaminson up through Delran and Willingboro that is full of caches.  Mostly park and grab stuff (light pole skirts and the like), but a few interesting ones can be found along this route as well.  My dad works in this area and suggested that I bring Jack along with both him and my mother for a family morning of caching.

Seeing as we were caching with a 7 year old, my father wanted to make sure that we were finding caches that would keep him interested.  Jack loves old horror movies (well... he thinks that he loves them) so we picked up one from a local series - The Masters of Horror: The Shining.  Each of these is themed around a horror film, and the containers and locations all fit the theme.  I'm not going to give away any spoilers about the container, but this particular location was at a hotel, so you get the idea.

Jack actually made the find himself, so he was pretty excited to find some more. It was a short drive to Army Ducks - Torpedos, Tanks, And Mines...OH MY!, which was another neat one for kids.  I didn't think to take a picture, but the street view image should show you why:

Lots of hiding places, even with the hint!

Jack and I had actually found a cache last year near an old artillery piece in a memorial section of a park, and there are always a million hiding spots.  It took a few minutes but we did make the find and moved on.

To this:

You can't see it from this angle, but trust me, the cache is there.

This was at the site of an abandoned marina that closed down years ago.  It's basically a parking lot with lots of debris lying around.  My dad had (unsuccessfully) looked for this one in the past, and since it was on the way to our ultimate destination we wanted to give it a shot with more people.  It took about 10 minutes of looking, but we made the find and moved on.

Willingboro Lakes Park, formerly known as Olympia Lakes, was formed when the sand from this area was shipped to Philadelphia at the turn of the 20th century for use in the construction of the subway system.  The two huge resulting sand pits filled with water and this area became a recreation spot from the 1930s to the 1970s.  It is still a popular spot for fishing, and the county is working on plans to add hiking trails and docks.

It's right on Rt 130.

The park has changed hands from the township to the county (I think) and there are plans to spruce the park up a bit.

 

There are lots of remnants of the old recreation area here.  This paved path goes on for a bit.

I didn't realize it when I took this picture, but there are some folks fishing right past  that  "No Swimming" sign.

Sandy trails.  Reminds me of the Pine Barrens.

Jack and his grandfather.  We brought walkie-talkies and were having fun using them, even though we were never more than 100 feet apart.

Jack's grandmother fished this little shell out of the water.

Someone fishing in the distance.

More ruins.  We were guessing that this overgrown area was closer to the water years ago,  with fewer trees between the paths and the lakes.

There are 9 caches in the park, of which we found 6.  The standouts for me were I'm Logging for You!, which was a very cleverly disguised container, Olympia Lakes cache #3 -nice little spot, which was indeed at a nice little spot, and also had the local history in the cache description, and Just Another Brick in the Wall,  which was located near some ruins.  We didn't really try to find the remaining 3 because it was approaching lunchtime and Jack was getting punchy.

We drove back to my parent's house in Marlton, at which time Jack decided he wanted to hang out and watch movies with his grandmother.  My dad and I ended up going out again and revisiting the areas I mentioned in a previous post.  I managed to find the 1743 potter's field cache (the right coordinates certainly helped) before we headed back to Laurel Acres park to pick up a few caches there.

The standout cache there for me and my dad was Lone Tree, which is just a nano hide, but a very cleverly concealed one.  I had never seen one like this before, and it was totally worth a favorite point.

That's it for now.  I haven't been caching in the past several weeks due to my pain issues, but I'm supposed to be helping the local cub scout troop with a caching trip in the coming weeks and will document that if it happens.  A lot of new caches have also popped up now that the weather's warming up, so hopefully I'll be able to pick some up in the coming days and post about them.

I also have several tutorial posts in the works, but I really need to be able to focus a bit better in order to finish them.  No ETA yet, but I'll get them posted eventually.

Caches found on this trip:

• The Masters of Horror: The Shining
• Army Ducks - Torpedos, Tanks, And Mines...OH MY!
• Is It This One, G-Pirate?
• I'm Logging for You!
• Swans Revenge
• Olympia Lakes cache #3 -nice little spot
• Just Another Brick in the Wall
• Get your hand out of my hole!!
• Maybe It's This One, G-Pirate!
• 1743 potter's field
• Lone Tree
• Mechagodzilla's #2 cache

Catching up.

Two weeks ago I pinky swore that I would have a post of substance up by the end of the week. Seeing as I totally blew that deadline, I guess I have to sever a pinky or something?  Not quite sure if that's how it works, though...  I suppose I'll check with Jack.  7 year olds seem to know all of the rules about jinxing and swearing and stuff.

I'm taking the upcoming week off from work, as Jack is on spring break and I have massive amounts of unused vacation time.  The downside to taking the time off is that I have had to spend every day at work glued to my computer finishing projects, and have been too burned out to work on the blog.  Hence the delay.  I did manage to pick up a few caches in the last two weeks, though, so that's a plus.

I found a neat one this morning - Leiper Railway Cache II.  The Leiper Railroad was the first documented railroad in the U.S.  It was a horse drawn railway that operated from 1810-1828 that transported stone 3/4 of a mile from a quarry to a nearby creek.  It was eventually replaced with a canal and ultimately a branch of the B&O railroad (like from Monopoly).

I've passed the historical marker for the railway numerous times, but never had the time to go after this cache.  I ended up with an hour to kill this morning, so I decided to give it a shot.

The first thing I noted when I parked my car was that GZ was .4 miles from the parking area.  This was nice, in that most caches around here are parking lot micros and lamp post skirt hides, so I was in for a neat little hike.  I had scouted out Psycho Suburban Cache #1: Abandoned Springhouse (Street View shown below) across the creek a little while back and saw some people riding ATVs on a trail, so I had an idea about what sights I'd be seeing on my hike.

I can't wait to check this one out.  I'll need a caching partner (bigger than Jack), though.

The trail first parallels, then crosses under the Blue Route.  Lots of graffiti and trash (And car parts?  I saw enough parts to cobble together a mean little go-kart) but still pretty neat.  I drive past this spot daily, and it's neat to see things from the other side.

Looking south.  Blue Route on the left, Rt. 320 overpass crossing the path.

I've been under parts of the Blue Route like this before.  Smedley Park has several paths that cross under the highway.   Same kind of thing here, but nobody was around.

See the Pac-Man graffiti?  Makes me want to work on my next Video Game History hide.

Someone did some climbing to get that Skate! graffiti in place.

Once you cross under the highway, it's basically a nature walk.  The only "fun" thing today was that all of the tire tracks from the folks who ride dirt bikes and ATVs back here have flooded out, so there was a good amount of hopping around to find dry spots.

Tire ruts full of water.  There are fuel pipes and sewer pipes under this area, so those trucks just add to the ATV and dirt bike tracks.

It's actually a pretty little area back here.  There is a creek that parallels the trail, and the Thomas Leiper House (built around 1785) is right across the creek, past a little park.

Creek, then park, then house.

I left some abnormally large footprints along the path.  It's pretty obvious a large person with size 16s walked this way...

My nickname used to be "Bigfoot".

The cache itself was a quick find, and almost directly across from the Leiper House.

A short hike back to my car, and I got my exercise for the day!

That was all I was planning to do today, but I got a new cache alert in the early afternoon from the same park where I hid my Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial cache.  Since that park is only a few minutes from home, I grabbed Jack with the intent of letting him get his first FTF.

We arrived at Bird Castle / Hangin' Out At The park and almost immediately made the find... only to see that we were the second group there!  We missed FTF by about five minutes, but got to meet the cachers who made the first find.  This was the first time I have run into other cachers, and it was great to meet people who have the same hobby!  We got to speak for a few minutes before heading our separate ways, and while Jack was originally disappointed that he didn't find it first, he was thrilled to meet cachers as well.

When you think about it, I drag him around to participate in a hobby that none of his other friends understand, so I think seeing other folks doing the same thing helps him understand that other people do this, and it's not just his crazy dad doing some crazy hobby that nobody else knows about.

That's really it.  It's supposed to be sucky weather this week, so my original plan of hitting some parks with Jack will all depend on how wet things get.  If we do get out, we'll try to get a few caches and post about them.

Busy week.

Well, I did some caching this week, but mainly I have been working on a big project at work.  This means that by the time I've been getting home I've been incredibly burned out and slacking on my blog posts.

I have a few posts in the works, mainly tech stuff for the Garmin and GSAK.  I also have been taking some pictures of the nicer areas I've cached in, but since we're so freaking close to spring I think I'm going to end up going back and getting more shots when the plants are alive.

I will have at least one post of substance this week, though. Pinky swear!

Update on the trackables.

It's been a while since I reviewed some of my trackables, so here goes:

• Jack's Traveling Purple Dice - My first trackable, and what actually got me into caching.  This bounced around a bit when we first set it out, and then went missing for about 6 weeks.  It started moving around again and was picked up in October.  It hasn't been logged since, though I'm guessing that it'll start moving again once the weather warms up a bit.
• Flip For It Micro Geocoin - I picked this up right around my birthday and sent it out in late November.  It was picked up within days, moved once, and then picked up a few weeks later.  It hasn't been logged since, but like the dice, I'm thinking it'll show up again when the weather gets better.
• Jack's Travel Bug Game - This is the trackable I'm most excited about.  I put this out in Ithan Valley Park about two weeks ago.  Nobody has picked it up yet, though I'm hoping that someone gets it this weekend.  The cache I left it in is very difficult to get to in the warmer months, so this is the prime time to pick it up.
• Compass Rose Geocoin Micro - I just placed this earlier in the week.  The cache I left it in gets a good amount of traffic, so I'm hoping someone picks it up soon.

That's all of them.  I'm hoping that these see some movement by the end of March, as I have a week off with Jack for spring break and he's way more into caching when he can follow what's going on with the trackables.  If these are moving around a bit by then I'm sure he'll be willing to check out some of the locations where they have been logged, and that will get us out of the house a bit.

A milestone, and a list of caches.

I actually managed to reach my 200th cache earlier than predicted!  I was able to get to 199 on Monday, and picked up #200 - Support Your Local Parks on the way in to work yesterday.  I also managed to take a late lunch and pick up a few more, bringing me up to 203.  Since I'm running out of quick local hides I'm less able to just spontaneously get out there and cache, and actually have to plan things a bit.  There are quite a few hides past Wayne, near Devon and Tredyffrin, which are right on the edge of what's practical, so that's my current go-to area.

I'm also keeping a bookmark list of caches that I have found with some sort of local historical interest.  For example, one cache I've picked up is at the site of a fireworks factory that exploded back in 1930,  There are several caches in Ithan Valley Park, which is what remains of an old estate and mill from the 19th century.  You get the idea.

I'm just keeping this as a regular old Geocaching list, so you can check it out here.

Jack's Travel Bug Game is live!

I finally had a chance on lunch break today to drop off Jack's Travel Bug Game.  If you happen to be in the vicinity of Ithan Valley Park in Bryn Mawr, PA try to pick up Spectacular Crash II.  You may end up being the first person to play the game!

63 days 21 hours and 23 minutes

I finally broke my nearly 64 day cacheless streak!  I had to run to Micro Center on lunch break yesterday, so I picked up the nearby Last Minute Holiday Hustle & Bustle.

178 caches, 63 days since the last find.

Yes, this picture is from the "phone".

179 caches, and the icon changed to "found"!

I am so freaking glad to be out of my slump.  Everything is more or less back to normal, so I'm going to be picking up caches on lunch break again in the coming weeks. Woohoo!

All caught up!

I'm officially caught up!  I created six months' worth of posts over the past two weeks.  I have a few more draft posts in the works, but nothing that's associated with any particular date.  All future posts will be "live", though I have a few edits and minor additions still in the works for some of the existing ones.

I'm still probably two or three weeks away from being able to get out on lunch break to go caching again, but I'm not too bummed about this as it's been freaking freezing anyway.  In the meantime, I'm working on a few more tutorial posts: a basic one about setting up free maps in Garmin eTrex GPS handhelds, a second post about Pocket Queries, and one or two about GSAK.   I also have a few more sites to add to the Great Local Parks post, and will be adding info on some parks in NJ pretty soon.  After that I'll be focusing on the Garmin tips for a bit.

Catching up / backfilling

I'm in the process of creating the blog posts dating back through August 2012.  I am using my cache notes, as well as a journal I kept at the time, to generate the logs for the appropriate dates.  My comments at the time were based on what I knew then, not what I know now, so while it feels a bit odd to write about LPCs or guard rail caches like they are new things, that is indeed what I noted back in the day.

Over the next week or so I intend to complete as many backdated posts as possible, and then I'll be all caught up.  Going forward from that point, everything will be live and accurate.  I commented on this in my first post, but I want to be clear that the backdated posts are being created off of original notes and my journal, and I'm not just making crap up. :)

I'm also tinkering with the layout a bit, so don't be surprised if you find that things look different if you check back later.

UPDATE #1 - I'm about halfway through October now.  I did post a quick tutorial on how to use Google Maps to search for caches, and should have quite a bit more up here soon.

UPDATE #2 - I'm through October and into November.  I didn't get a lot of caching done over the holidays (and since), so I'm almost caught up.

UPDATE #3 - I'm pretty much caught up.  I have one more backdated draft post, and then everything going forward is live.  The backdated post is a fairly comprehensive and may take a day or two to put together, but that's it.

I have a few other drafts in the works, but they are not related to any particular date, so I'll just post 'em as I make 'em. Woohoo!

My third cache is live!

Cache number three is officially live!  Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial has a new home in what's officially known as Recreation Park, but what everyone actually calls ABC Field.  This cache commemorates the time spent in 2011 filming Silver Linings Playbook in the area. This movie was filmed in and around Ridley, Upper Darby and Lansdowne, among other places.

Google view of ABC Field.  I should try to take a kite aerial photo here.

I learned a few lessons with this cache.  My original site was located near where this picture was taken by my cousin-in-law:

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

Unfortunately, the walkway they are standing on overlooks the local freight rail line, and a cache placed in that area would be in violation of Federal law or something.  I took great care in selecting an area that was safe, but getting local cachers in trouble with the feds would probably diminish this hobby a bit, so I moved it.

I have run into plenty of caches near train tracks, but when I thought about it a bit I realized that those were all near local passenger lines.  I'm not 100% sure that it makes a difference, but it was a no brainer for me to just move this to another park that had previously has no caches in it.

My wife played a huge role in the creation of this cache, as she spent the weeks that they filmed here stalking Bradley Cooper.  She denies it, of course, but if you describe what stalking is without actually using the word "stalking", she totally agrees that that's what she was doing.  I'm not going to argue with her about this one, because deep inside I think she knows that I'm right, and she did stalk him.

The cache container I made for this one is like nothing I've ever seen before.  Internally, it's nothing more than a Bison tube, but it has been crafted into something totally unique.  I had previously run into some waterproofing issues, but quite a few more coats of a few different types of varnish seemed to do the trick, and my location is at least slightly protected from the weather.

All in all I'm happy with how this came out.  It's different than what I've been working on with the Videogame History series, and 98% of it was inspired by my wife's suggestions, but I still enjoyed making it, and I hope that plenty of local cachers enjoy finding it.

Cache in this post:

• Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial

Two notable caches, and getting close to personal goal.

I was able to take another crack at the Springfield Trail today, and found the next cache down the trail - Cobras Rock!  Just like before, it was a scenic walk to ground zero, and this one was actually close to a little picnic area near a rock wall.  As I had no clue that anything like this was back here, this was pretty exciting.

Rock wall.  Not sure if that's the correct geological term for it, but oh well.

Nobody had found this cache since February, and there were a few DNFs logged by others, so I wasn't sure if it would even be here.  After a few minutes of poking around, and after needing to break out my pair of work gloves, I found it!

I was the first person to find this in 8 months,.

I'm totally going to take Jack and Emily back here soon.  He'll like the area back here, and this cache was places as part of a boy scout project, so he'll appreciate that as well.

On lunch break today I took another crack at another one of my non-logged DNFs that has been driving me nuts - Addendum.  This is a short drive from work, in a little park off of a little street, and I have already been here twice before looking for it.  It has quite a few favorite points, and the logs imply that it's tough, but now that I found it I have to say it was more of a lateral thinking puzzle than a difficult hide.  When you arrive at GZ, there are so many possible hiding spots that it's almost overwhelming.  I was actually walking back to my car today when I had my "Aha!" moment and turned back and immediately found it.  It wasn't what I expected, but in a good way, and it was totally worth a favorite point.

Speaking of favorites, I've reached a point where I need to go through and reevaluate what caches I logged as favorites when I first started out.  My whole view on caching has evolved quite a bit in the few months that I've been caching, and what I like now is nothing like what I liked then.  I like the favorite point system, but damn, I'd like 30 points to spend, rather than the 10 or 11 I have now.

Personal Goal

I'm almost at 14 consecutive days of caching!  I know that this is not a big deal, compared to the people who go at least a cache a day for over a year, but considering that I work full time and am busy most weekends, this has been quite a challenge.  I seriously hope that I can pull this off!

Caches in this post:

• Cobras Rock!
• Addendum

Who IS buried in Wayne's Tomb?

One of the great thing about living in this area is the history.  Philadelphia and the surrounding area played an important role both during and after the Revolutionary War, and many famous historical folks from that era have local ties.

On lunch break today I found my first Virtual cache - Who's Buried in Wayne's Tomb(s)?  A 10 minute drive from work got me to the St. David's Episcopal Church in Radnor, where Revolutionary War General "Mad Anthony" Wayne is buried... sort of.

The coordinates got me to the church, and then I spent a few minutes wandering around until I found the grave.  Seeing as you need to take a picture of yourself at the grave in order to get credit for the find, and the cache logs are full of these pictures, I knew what I was looking for.

The grave, and my hand holding my Garmin.

I love caches with a little bit of history to them, so I was as giddy as a schoolgirl while looking for this one.

If you're in the area, I highly recommend checking this one out.  It's a quick find at a beautiful location with a nice bit of history thrown in for good measure.

Update on the Travel Bug

I have to say that watching Jack's Traveling Purple Dice has been both fascinating and stressful.  The second person who had it visited a bunch of caches in NJ and then placed it in a cache in an area that I'm very familiar with.  I was half tempted to swing by and pick it up, but my father decided he wanted to get it and move it to a bug hotel that he has used in the past.

Sure enough, when he went there, the bug was missing.  I figured that this might happen, but Jack was pretty upset when I broke the news to him.  Not crying upset or anything that dramatic, just disappointed.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when I get a text message from my watch list saying that someone logged the TB!  Apparently someone had picked it up over a month ago and never logged it, so now they are planning on moving it around again.  Jack was thrilled, but I'm trying to play it down a bit as I am beginning to understand that many trackables don't survive long in the wild.

I have managed to find some Travel Bugs, Geocoins, and the like while out caching, and it's always fun to bring them along for visits until I find a home.  I've noticed that many people don't really follow the goals... but unless you print the goal on a tag and attach it, you may never really know what the goal is.  I'm planning on getting some trackables in the next few weeks, so I'll see if I can develop a way to come up with a goal and securely attach it.

Cache in this post:

• Who's Buried in Wayne's Tomb(s)?

Caching with a 7 year old.

I mentioned in my last post that I had an update on Lincoln Log - I'm thrilled to say that with help from Jack, we found it!  I had been right about the clues and my need for a second set of eyes.  When we approached GZ, I directed Jack to where I thought the cache was hidden and had him look on his own.  Wouldn't you know that he found it within 3 minutes?  This was a great hide and the hardest one I've found so far, at least in terms of official difficulty level.

Jack was also able to help me locate another previous DNF - The $1 School.  This time, it was more a matter of helping me think outside the box.  A fresh set of eyes and a suggestion from him was all it took, and the cache was in hand.

This has gotten me thinking a bit about the pros and cons of caching with a child.  I've seen enough logs from people who either mention their kids or post pictures of them finding caches, so I know it's pretty common, but there are definitely ups and downs to bringing a child along.

The kid in question.  He thinks the mustache makes him look more mature.

PROS

• You get a free pass where you would otherwise look suspicious investigating a hide, e.g. - light pole skirts.  I have gone for a few of these in crowded parking lots and have wasted a lot of time just waiting for people to go away, as I don't want them to think that I'm up to anything nefarious.  With Jack around, I simply pretend to make a fake phone call (sometimes I even pretend that the Garmin is a phone) and look like an inattentive parent.  He can check the light pole skirt without a second look (he's shorter than me anyway) and the worst I get are the occasional dirty look from someone who thinks I'm not paying attention to my kid.
  
  The best part of this method is that he's in on it with me.  He knows that we're messing with people and thinks that it's fun.


• Related to the above point, it opens up parks where I would otherwise look "creepy".  Let's be honest - I'm a very tall, balding, semi-intimidating looking dude.  I can see how it would look "off" if I was checking a playground swing set for a magnetic hide while kids are around.  When I have Jack with me I can wander wherever I want without a second glance, and he gets to play on playground equipment or help me cache, which is really a win/win situation.


• Not only is a kid a great set of young eyes, they also are closer to the ground and can find the lower hides.  This may not be an issue for those of you who are more normal sized, but in my 6'8" case this is a big deal.  There have been several hides that would have been very difficult to spot from my altitude that Jack found in seconds.


• Kids also bring a fresh perspective to things.  They can be brutally honest and see right to the heart of a situation.  This can be entertaining/terrifying around difficult family situations, but can also be incredibly helpful when you're caught in a loop over-thinking a well hidden cache.  I've had a hide or two where Jack has walked right up and guessed immediately where it was, after I had spent a long time trying to get into the head of the CO (cache owner) and develop some sort of mental profile.  Kids can see right through the BS sometimes.

CONS

• "It's too hot outside", "I'm hungry", "I'm bored", "I want to go home".  If Jack's not in the mood to cache, everyone within 30 feet knows about it.  This is a combination of short attention span and lack of patience, both of which improve with age.


• It can be difficult balancing his desire to find a cache with his ability to find a cache.  There is no way he would spot a hide 12 feet up a tree or under a heavy rock (I found one like this once).  Jack tends to get incredibly pissed off if someone else finds the cache when he's looking for it.
  
  Jack also always wants to use the Garmin, and while I totally support that and let him use it as much as possible, he can get frustrated if he pushes the wrong button and changes the display to something unintended. This can lead to complaining, like the point above this one.


• Trying to find a cache while also trying to keep him from exploring the big patch of poison ivy or sticking his hand in a hole with a snake (almost happened) can be exhausting. It's a balancing act between letting your kid explore the world for themselves (which is a life lesson kind of thing) and keeping them out of danger (which is a parenting instinct kind of thing).

My solution so far has been to involve Jack when he either actually wants to go caching and suggests it himself or when we're going to a location that also has a playground.  Caches in parks near playgrounds are great, as it wears him out (always a good idea) and lets me find a hide that I wouldn't get to check out without a kid in tow.

I'm actually planning a future blog post about good local caches for people with little kids.  There are a lot of hides in some really neat parks, and they turn into cheap/free little day trips, which is always a plus.

JANUARY 2013 UPDATE - The post about good local parks for caches is now live.

Caches in this post:

• Lincoln Log
• The $1 School

Persistence pays off!

It's been over a month since my first real day out Geocaching, and I figured I'd give Sittin' and Watchin' the Traffic Go By another shot.  I had previously logged this as a DNF (did not find) on that first day, and since I had about an hour to kill today while Emily and Jack were out shopping, I drove over to the shopping center near where this was located and gave it another try.

This particular cache is located off of a covered pedestrian walkway right next to a main road, near the entrance ramp to the Blue Route.  GZ (ground zero) is definitely a CITO opportunity, and last time we were there a feral cat wanted to eat Jack.  With the two of them out of the picture, I was much more comfortable navigating the rocks and keeping an eye out for broken glass.

While I've only been caching for a month, I have learned a ton compared to what I knew when I started out. It took me all of 30 seconds to find the cache this time, and the feeling of succeeding at something that I had previously failed at was awesome.  Sure, this is really only a kinda/sorta nerdy GPS game, but it was great realizing that I had learned so much in the past month that something I had found impossible was now a piece of cake.

I have two more non-logged DNFs that I want to check out in the past few days:  Lincoln Log and The $1 School.

Lincoln Log is a 4.5 star difficulty hide that seems to cause trouble for a lot of people, but the cache description is dripping with clues.  I am 90% sure that I know what and where the cache is, but I spent about 10 minutes there last week looking for it and came up empty handed.  I think a second set of younger eyes will help, so this is one where Jack will not only be helpful; he'll be bouncing off the walls if he ends up being the one finding the cache.

The $1 School is one that I come pretty close to on the drive to work.   I found another one nearby and tried for this one the same day, but was unsuccessful.  I stopped by here again on lunch break a few days ago, but the area is full of potential hiding areas and I came up empty handed again.

In the meantime, I will continue to search for more caches.  I'm up to 56 finds in just over a month, and each hide teaches me something that could be helpful in finding the next.

Caches in this post:

• Sittin' and Watchin' the Traffic Go By
• Lincoln Log
• The $1 School