A View from 14: October 2009

This summer I discovered geocaching! I had heard of it before, but didn't know what it was, who did it, how you did it, etc. My college sorority sister Laurie Nichols talked about it several times on Facebook and it peaked my interest.

A few things you will need...

1) a GPS (not the car kind). I started our using a car GPS thinking I didn't need to spend the money. Hint: it doesn't work : ) After several attempts at finding caches with the car GPS I decided that I needed a REAL GPS. So, I headed to REI and chatted with the nice fellow at the Bend REI and he suggested the Garmin eTrex Vista HCX. It has all the features I need for geocaching and when we hike. I've had fun trying to figure out how to use it. The manual that comes with it has been pretty much worthless.

2) a love of the "hunt". There is something really fun about looking for a "treasure" that no one but you knows is there. While hunting for geocaches, you always need to be on the look out for "muggles" or non-geocachers. It would spoil it for everyone if a non-geocacher got ahold of the cache and removed or destroyed it. So, part of the fun is being secretive.

3) a good partner. You don't really NEED this, but it makes it a lot more fun to do it with someone. Mark had no idea what he was getting himself into when he agreed to go along the first time : ) Several times when I have been ready to give up looking, he has inspired me to keep going and we find it! The joke is that he is usually the one to actually "find" it when we go looking. I'm usually fiddling with the GPS while he is actually looking. Here he's holding a cache we found off of Road 12 in Rhododendron along the Zig Zag River.

4) a love of solving a mystery and attention to detail. Geocaches have clues that help you find them. Some of them are more helpful than others.

5) a love of being in the great outdoors. Most of these are hidden outside. This is a great match for me because we spend so much time outdoors biking, hiking, walking, etc. It helps me to have a goal when I head out to exercise!

So far, I have found 32 geocaches in places like Bend, OR; Ocean Shores, WA; Pendleton, OR; the Wallowa Mountains; Joseph, OR; Mt. Hood; and good old Portland. Every time I go out I learn something new about the place I'm at: whether it's noticing nature or learning a bit of history. We saw this deer on a walk by our cabin on the way to get a cache on Flag Mountain.

Here's how you start. Get a GPS and go to www.geocaching.com. Set up a profile (you don't have to be a premium member to use the site, but I became one recently). Look for caches in your neighborhood to start by entering your zip code and then clicking on Map It to zoom in on the area you want. The icons are geocaches! When you put your cursor on them it will tell you the name of the cache and if it has any trackables in it. More on that later...

Some caches are micro (very very small) and may just have a piece of paper as a log, others are ammo boxes. You can bring nick nacks to trade. Some are pictured below we found in a cache at a rest stop on I-84!

There are several different kinds of caches. Start out looking for a basic cache. The icon on the geocaching site is a gold box. There are multi-caches (ones where you have to go to several locations), mystery caches, and virtual caches to name a few. All fun. To start, pick a cache by clicking on it. You can then send the cache info to your GPS. Next time you turn on your GPS the cache icon will be there and you just click on it and start navigation! Easy as that.

Some etiquette...Be stealthful and don't let "muggles" see you find or re-hide a cache for obvious reasons. Sign the log book in the cache. Return it exactly as you found it so the next geocacher can enjoy it just like you did. Don't take a trackable unless you intend to move it to another cache. Take a garbage bag if you can to pick up any trash you find.

Trackables: These are things that are hidden in some caches that people are tracking. You can pick them up and then move them to another cache. You can log your trackable on the geocaching website so the "owner" of the trackable can track it's progress. Each trackable has an ID#. Some trackables have specific goals which you can see when you are looking at the cache on the geocaching website. I've found a couple and it is fun to watch where they go after I drop them in another cache!

Once you've found a cache, go back to the geocaching website and Log your Visit. You can also check out other geocachers' comments as well. Sometimes it's helpful to look at these comments before you head out in case the cache has gone missing, or there might be a helpful hint.

That's all there is to it!

This past weekend, Mark and I spent the weekend at the cabin and spent all weekend (almost) geocaching. We had a blast participating in the Mt. Hood Territory Geocache Contest and found seven caches hidden all around Clackamas County. Learned a lot about the county's history and saw some beautiful places.

Here are some pics from our geocache adventures!

On the Oregon Trail east of Pendleton...