Local Residents, part 1

Today my family and I decided to geocach at a local Huron-Clinton Metro Park.  As the quote above mentions, the joy is in the journey, and boy did we have fun with this particular trip.  This was not a locate cache, log and move on...it was a "hey did you just see that?!?" kind of experience.  Although we have a TON of assorted photos, I wanted to share with you some of the pics from today.

This first picture was taken about half way through our trip--

My dear husband came within 10-15 feet of this beautiful creature, while searching for a cache that was no longer there (discovered that a bit too late though, lol).

While searching for the next few caches, we had a few firsts: Jeremy (DH) located a geocoin, an item with its own tracking number, so the owner can chart the progress (discovered that this particular item had already traveled 1500 miles!). And, the second, was taking on an earth cache, a unique way to see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes (geocaching.com). We obtained a few questions about this one pond located behind the nature center, and got some pretty amazing photos too!

It was fun to take some time out and really focus in on what we were looking at. I throughly enjoyed doing this earth cache, and hope we search for another one soon. We have about two weeks to find a new home for our geocoin, and are already pondering where the coin should rest.

I hope you enjoyed this trip with me!  As the title said, this is just part 1. I hope to have part 2 up shortly.

Happy caching!

Robyn

First cache

Okay, I am not the techie type, but I have been having a blast geocaching that I decided to try blogging our stories.  I hope you enjoy our adventures, as well as share your own.  Everyone I've spoken with has had a funny story to share.....

But, I guess I should give a brief explanation as to what exactly geocaching is:

To put is simply:  geocaching is an electronic scavenger hunt game (or sport, depending on how you play).  Players use coordinates to locate hidden containers, called caches, that are found locally and globally.

So, my family and I are at a Cub Scout event, and one of the activities is something called geocaching.  We decided to give it a try,  I mean, how difficult can it be?  We borrowed my father-in-laws handheld GPS unit, so very trusting on his part, and got the first coordinates to start the game.  Now mind you, this is our first scout event, it's snowing and, they didn't explain what we were looking for(the size, ect.)  So, we were heading out into the woods without a clue.  We somehow managed to get near the spot where the cache was hidden, and after 20 minutes of looking, finally found where the cache was hidden. The cache was located in the support pole of a totum near a firepit.  The support pole was a hollow metal tube, and attached to a screw was the cache.

My dear husband places his father's GPS balanced on the edge of the support pole.  Unfortunately, or over zealous 7 year old wanted to be "helpful" and get the cache for his dad. Can you guess what happend next?!? If you said, my dear son knocked the GPS down into the hollow metal tube, you would be correct!  We attempted to retrieve it with several willing cub scouts and boy scouts, but we had no luck.  It took several hours, and some very nice scout rangers with really big moving tools to get our GPS back.  Of course the battery was dead.  It was than that we knew we were going to LOVE geocaching, lol.

The following year, I got my husband his very own handheld GPS, and we have been having a blast finding caches, and all the adventures of looking for them (including sliding down a muddy hill, wearing beige capri's!).

I hope to share more adventures with you, including geocaching at some historic spots here in Michigan next month.  Hope you come along and see what awaits us, and see some really neat sights of the local Metro Detroit area! I promise to have pictures so I do not ramble on:D

Happy caching!

Robyn