Geocaching

M. and I went on our first geocache adventure yesterday. I only recently discovered this past-time myself and have since been chomping at the bit to get out and partake of it. In researching our proximity to geocaches, we found that there are numerous caches within a mile of our condo, so we hiked out to find a couple of them yesterday.

This was the first of the two, which M. spotted. I won't divulge the exact name or coordinates, in case any of you are inspired to become cachers yourselves, but it was little ways off the trail (not more than 10 yds. or so). Basically, we didn't bring anything that we could leave, so we just took stock of the contents of the boxes, took some pics, and left a note in the log books. The general rule seems to be that if you take something from the cache - usually something kitschy, a little dollar store bauble or similar - you should leave something behind. Although, I did think that for future outings, I might bring weatherproofed (laminated or bagged or somesuch) copies of favorite poems to leave for others to find.

Me hiding behind cache #1

After our first cache, we weren't exactly bent on finding another, but M. fiddled with his GPS-enabled phone (jealousy ensued, as my phone is from the stone ages, comparatively) and discovered a second cache within a 1000 meters. Of course, 1000 meters as the crow flies can be vastly different from the constraints set upon us by trail design. That was a huge part of the fun, though! We almost gave up on the second cache, as our GPS pointed us 350 meters into dense woods with no obvious sign of a trail on the map or before us. Upon backtracking, however, we ran into a promising path and decided to give it another go.

And we were rewarded with cache #2 (which I spotted)! (Man, I really wished I could have taken that Spider-man sandwich caddy.)

M., surveying the log book of cache #2.

In all, I found my first geocache outing to be a really rewarding way to interact with my new sub-alpine environment and quite possibly my new favorite obsession. Next time, we might try and find some of the caches hidden in town - there's apparently one at the Dillon ranger station and another at the outlet mall! It's truly inspiring what can be found in plain sight, if one only endeavors to look.