Our Very First Geocaching Adventure

A year ago we had no idea what the word "geocache" even meant. My best guess probably would've been the name of a French car. Then I began reading photo essays and looking at images by Gather's Marianne R. about a hobby she enjoys, geocaching.

The concept of Geocaching is pretty simple. A GPS (global positioning system) is used to find caches, or, as I think of them, treasure boxes, hidden in woods, city parks, fields, hunting preserves, campgrounds, state parks and just about anywhere else that people can access without trespassing. There are sites on the web that give the GPS coordinates for caches in the area where you'd like to search. These coordinates are entered into the handheld GPS gizmo. In our case, with our Garmin MAPGPS 76CX, the information about the cache is transmitted from the website via a USB cable. One or two sites can be loaded into the machine or all the caches in a given area.

For our first try at geocaching, we decided to stick close to home. There are a couple dozen caches hidden right around our home, in parks, along bicycle paths, and some in downtown Hannibal. We loaded all the caches within a 25 mile area into the GPS gizmo and took off.

What were we looking for? Some caches are sandwich size Lock 'n' Lock boxes. The larger ones are water tight steel ammo boxes, small metal lock boxes or well sealed Tupperware cylinders. Inside is always a log notebook or at least a piece of paper on which to log your find. Take your own pen or pencil with you, though, because not all caches have one. Signing the log book proves that you did indeed find the cache, and it's interesting reading the past entries. Some caches have been found over a hundred times by people from all over the world. Other things in the cache box will be small, cheap toys. When you find a cache, you can take a toy and leave a toy you brought for that purpose. You can enter on the log what you took and what you left. Some geocachers have custom wooden or metal coins made with their name and address stamped in to leave in caches.

Using your GPS system, you choose the first cache you'd like to find. The GPS will tell you which direction to go, and if you near a road you should turn onto, the GPS's indicator will tell you to turn. When you get close to the cache, the GPS system begins to beep. This is when we usually parked the truck and began searching on foot. On foot it's almost like playing a game of "Hot and Cold" with your GPS system. If you take a step, the screen will indicate if you are going in the right direction, in other words, "You're getting warm, warmer, ... HOT!" When the GPS screen shows that you are ON the cache, it's time to peel your eyes and start really hunting both by sight and sometimes with your hands. The cache might be hidden in a hollow log or stump, stashed under some bushes, tucked into the "Y" of tree branches or taped under a picnic table - just about anywhere a cache could be concealed.

Our very first cache was in Hannibal's Riverview Park. It was a Lock 'n' Lock box concealed in a hollow tree stump. There we were, in a drizzle, stomping through tall grass full of ticks and when we discovered this plastic box with paper and $1 worth of tiny toys inside, we were so excited anyone watching would have thought we'd just found The Holy Grail.

Here's our very first find!

Can you see the Lock 'n' Lock box in the tree stump?

This was a "virtual" cache. There is nothing hidden here. To claim this cache, you must use your GPS to find this sign, have your photo taken beside it, and email the photo to the cache owner.

 

Our next cache hunt took us to The Old Baptist Cemetery in Hannibal. Some say this was the first cemetery in Hannibal. It's a beautiful place but I wouldn't want to wander around there in the dark!

We had a little tougher time finding this one. There were lots of good hiding places to check. It was in a hollow tree stump:

Here I am, checking the log notebook that was inside the cache box:

Our next stop was the city swimming pool. We had to play "hot and cold" with two dozen bushes.

Here's the small cache that was inside the bush and our GPS handheld beside it.

 

We found two or three more caches that afternoon, all here in Hannibal.  One was a tiny magnetic box stuck underneath a metal bench at the end of a one mile hike down a bike trail.  Not only did we have fun driving around looking for our treasure chests, getting a thrill when we found one, but it was good exercise for both of us, too.  We will probably go geocaching again this weekend.  We enjoyed ourselves so much the first time that I'm willing to bet this becomes a new "together" hobby.  Now we can't wait to go camping again and geocaching in the woods and hiking paths at Mark Twain Lake.  If you've ever wondered if geocaching is fun, there are two people here that say, "Yes!"

Many thanks to Marianne R.  I hadn't the slightest idea of what kind of unit to buy and she made good suggestions and answered lots of questions.