Geocaching 101

Today we did our first geocaching. It's like the TV reality show 'Amazing Race' and Hide and Seek and a crossword puzzle all rolled into one activity. Using a handheld GPS (we used the Garmin HC) you download waypoints and clues and then using only the coordinates, head out into the wilderness...or not....and try to find the 'cache'.

The first one was right across the street from Fry's food store and was hidden in a loose metal door at the bottom of a pillar near a quail statue. It was a tile setter's spacer and the clue we had was 'Contact us if you need one'...guess the person who hid it was a tile setter???

The next one we never did find...it was by another statue and try as we might, we couldn't find it.

Then the next few we did find after various amounts of searching. People stopped out of curiosity to ask what we had lost or what we were looking for. Some had heard of geocaching but others thought we were nuts. I think we should carry a card in our pocket with the website on it so that should someone thing we are nuts, we could say 'oh no..LOOK! We are Certified Geocachers!'.

The second to last one we didn't find after hiking in the desert for 1/2 mile through a wash that no doubt last nite was full of water from the rain. The clue was 'Scheme changes after Step 4. Step 5 is 'lean on me'.' We were stumped....we were under a high voltage wire wooden poles but the rest were cactus, bushes and some discarded car parts. Nothing was leaning. We took 4 steps and thought the 5th step would be something but nada. The name of the clue was 'Superstition Chain Yank' so if they were 'yanking our chain' then maybe the clue was bogus.

We found one more and then decided to turn the GPS towards the IN-N-Out Burger joint and find our way through a cheeseburger and fries.

A great way to have exercise, see new places and use some fuel...maybe geocaching was started by the oil companies to get people off their duff and out driving again! Good fun.