My own version of being a treasure hunter

Today I went on my first every GEOCaching hunt and it was totally cool and fun!! I think everyone should do this at least once!

I'm certainly no expert at all but here's what GEOCaching is: people hide treasure and post the longitude and latitude online (and sometimes some clues) and other people can go find it. There are web sites dedicated to this. If you find the "treasure" you usually write your name down on the paper provided and if they left loot, you can take it. BUT if you take something, you should leave something! And don't destroy the cache site and return it to the exact spot so others can find it. And here's the official web site if you want to hear it from the experts!

There are a bunch of other suggestions, rules, and "how to's" to follow to go about this, but those are the basics. A sorta new guy in my life and I headed out this afternoon to see if we could find 1 or 2 treasures. Here it is in picture...


I first started out with sustenance- breakfast and coffee at a diner! (and the edge of the plate that you can't see is full of biscuits and gravy! No way did I eat all that!)


So we followed the coordinates and we arrived at a historic landmark, a cemetery! Oh cool. (Yes, I blanked the name because I don't want to ruin it for you if you happen to decide to find it yourself!)

We had to figure out how to make the longitude and latitude part of the GPS work so we walked around for a bit. We had used the driving directions aspect to get us there so now we had to get to the specific spot to find the cache. We started wondering around, back and forth.

It wasn't here, but this was a clue... or I thought it was because this same stone was on the web site. We found the same stone but no cache.

The cache wasn't here but I thought this was a unique headstone... sad and haunting.

We headed one way and down a fence line and I slipped in the mud.

I think I walked passed this view about 3 times. Hey, I said we were LEARNING how to do the longitude and latitude thing. We had a nice walk and a cool view. And still had treasure to find!

See the wind turbine? I really, really was hoping we figured out the readings before we walked all the way over there!!!

Nope, not here either!!!!

Where the heck is it????

But wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But wait yet again!!! The reading worked! We figured it out!!! And look! In that tree! Can it be?!?

WE FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This cache was placed by a group who only places at historical sites. And while there was no treasure for us to take, we did sign this list and date it.

Then we sealed it all up in the plastic and put it back; I made the guy do it because I already crawled all through that thorny stuff. And we left a treasure for the next finders- we put a spinning top in the bag that came with my McDonald's happy meal (that I ate the day before!!)! I hope the next hunters like it!

Here is the view of the cemetery from the from the cache site.

Well, we figured it out and had a good time. And since we had so much fun, we decided to do one more! The next one was in a historic downtown place! This was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again (Lilith, we are so doing this after your test!!!). I hate that we didn't get a cool treasure but I'm glad we tried it. And I can't wait until I do one with a treasure.

My friend Gulo loves to do these so I bet she'll be shocked I actually went out into the caching world. And now I know why she loves it!!!

Maggie the Huntress