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The Wild Adventures of the Game are Calling
This is my story..and I'm sticking to it!
The Wild Adventures of the Game Are Calling
This is my story and I am sticking to it! I stumbled on this sport in June of 2005 after reading an article in the Omaha World Herald. Very intriguing a scavenger hunt of sorts with a GPS. An electronic gadget that leads you to a set of coordinates where there is a treasure. Remember treasure is in the eye of the beholder. This seemed like it could be right up my alley. Now close to 5 years later I am still hooked.
How does this sport hook you? At least to begin with for me it was the hunt, it is like an adventure leaping off the pages of a book. I have not run into any lion, tigers or bears but I have stepped over a rattlesnake caching in Indio, CA. It is the journey taking you on the road less traveled. It is about getting back to your inner child. Who doesn't want to be a pirate or a world class adventurer. This sport encourages you to respect and keep your surroundings free of trash. With this sport you visit places you may have never have taken time to stop and see if it were not for geocaching. There are challenge caches that take you to every nook and cranny of a state and you see what that state truly has to offer. Take Nebraska who knew there was more to offer from this state than corn and the color red. This game provides exercise for the body and the brain. I have learned so much more about reading a map including topographic maps. Puzzle caches do make my brain hurt but as much as I may grumble I do enjoy the challenge of learning something new, and knowing that I did not lose all my brain cells after childbirth. I still despise math but I am getting a little better and willing to at least try the puzzles.
When I started I bought a blue etrex Legend for less than $100. it was on clearance. My first try was for Chalco Hills I, which has since been archived, I would like to say I nabbed it on the first try but that would be a lie. It took a couple of tries while I learned how to use my new toy. My first successful cache was Omahopoly 14, also archived, part of a really neat Monopoly series with an Omaha connection. I have since graduated through several other Garmin systems a 60Cx, Colorado 400T and now a Oregon 550T. I plugged along here and there until I met this flower child what was his caching name...oh yeah 8601delphinium. I think when we met in the Fall of 2008 I may have had about 400 caches found to my name then I decided in January of 2009 I wanted to try to get to that elusive 1000 caches found. As luck would have it I hit 1000 in enough time to earn my Golden Ammo Can at the Kearney Picnic. I hit my 1000th find with Andrew aka the flower child at Omaha History Series - Omaha Memorial. I give kudo's to Andrew in showing the fun of group caching and the fun that can be had in getting other cachers to a particular goal, not to mention the stories that can come out of those adventures. Two words....Geo Kittens!
I finished the year with 1598 finds. The best part of all the finds found that year was the camaraderie of group caching and the memories that were made. Events are a great way to spur adventures like the chili feed in North Platte, NE, or the Jesse James Cache Bash in St. Joseph, MO, and who could forget a Mega event MOGA 2009, or even a Summer College Caching Road Trip with my daughter (who is not a cacher but humors her mother), and the GPS Adventure Maze Trip where Geo Kitty was born, or the KC PIcnic run to get Rotorootie to 5000 finds. I have even had my first run in with an officer of the law while caching. I was with a group in Grand Island, glad he knew what caching was he even helped to retrieve the cache that was up in an unclimbable tree. One thing to keep in mind honesty is the best policy most know what geocaching is about. MOGA my first Mega event who could forget slogging up and down mini mountains in the pouring rain with the temperatures steadily dropping as we collected punches at the selected cache sites for our four man event. It took our four man group 2 hours to collect half of the required punches. We were soaked to the bone and our emergency ponchos were ripped to shreds from the thick underbrush. Crazy you say it is no different than sitting in a frozen rink watching your kids play hockey or getting rain drenched at your childs soccer game. Don't forget it is about the adventure.
Like the adventure I had while caching this past summer with my sister Renee7e in the desert of California, we hit the Pushawalla Power Trail it is a 5 mile hike through the desert there are 29 caches on this power trail. The trail takes you up to the top of a ridge line then down into an oasis then back out onto the desert floor. Average temps in the desert this time of year is 115 degrees. Don't worry it is a dry heat! We started at 6:30am to beat the June desert heat, we packed plenty of water and we did as recommended and started at the end and worked our way to the beginning. The views were incredible you could see the San Andreas fault line from the top or the ridge. We passed another morning hiker who told us to be careful of a rattlesnake sleeping as we went down into the oasis. I am sure I was looking everywhere but then I heard my sister tell me quietly to keep moving. She took pictures to prove I stepped over the snake then we debated asleep or dead and should we poke the snake. We thought better of the latter idea. We kept moving and kept our eyes open for any other desert dwellers which we did see plenty of lizards and mice. Note to self to look for snake gaiters for next year. Walking into the oasis was like walking into an air conditioned room. We spotted an owl up in the Palms, got some great photos in the oasis then started our trek back out. We found 20 of the 29 caches we did cut our hunting short as we approached the 10:00 am mark the heat was a good 100 degrees and we were down to our last water bottle. The cache containers were a variety of matchstick holders, decon containers and ammo cans. A few of the decon containers had been nibbled on but for the most part the caches were in good shape. We passed by the last four or five caches vowing to save them for next year. Once we made it back to the car we pulled 2 more water bottles from the cooler downed them and headed to grab some lunch for my daughter who stayed behind to babysit her cousins.
Yes, that is a rattlesnake, you be the judge sleeping or dead. I went with dead. Did you know rattlesnakes can strike twice their length.
Map of the power trail. There is a visitor center a quarter of a mile up the road from the trail head it is recommended to park there as there has been vandalism to cars parked at the trail head parking.
story contributed by jlondon1963.