A FLAC IT!
Welcome to my new obsession! It was introduced to me by a friend from Connecticut who has been doing this for years. It's called Geocaching! For those who don't know it is scavenger hunting by GPS (Global Positioning System). You punch in coordinates which you get online. Occasionally you have to figure them out by deciphering clues and hints. The GPS guides you in the right direction. Once you get within feet of the "stash" that is when the searching begins. And it ain't always easy! Here is a story about one hunt we went on!
What started out as a drive to Lake Bomoseen, turned into a great adventure! Driving to see our friend Bill at his son's new place on the Lake, Planet noticed on her GPS that there was a "cache" not far away. Well, being the wonderful navigators that we are (with GPS and all) we accidently passed Bill's house. Knowing we had to turn around somewhere we stopped to turn around at the Lake House Restaurant. Of course, after the rough journey we just had we needed to stay for a refreshing beverage.
Sitting at a table next to the water, Planet noticed the ducks in the water next to us. At the same time I noticed the first Entree on the menu was DUCK!!! Can we pick our own? As we sat discussing the fact that we KNOW Bill will take us out to the point we need to go across that Lake to find the cache Bill pulls up in his boat, scaring away our water fowl friends! 86 the Duck!
Bill joins our party. We ask our friends to tell our server not to touch our drinks we would be right back. Bill, Planet, Bryno and I jump in the boat and head to the "Slate Slide". The water was beautiful. Nice and calm. The sun was just setting and added to the perfect ride across to the west shore. Upon our arrival, we realize there is no way we can get out of the boat and find our treasure in the dusk. We turn the boat around and rejoin the rest of the gang at the Lake House.
Planning to meet up first thing in the morning to search again. Our night certainly was not over but Geocaching for the day was.
At first light I jump in the shower and head north to meet Planet and Bryno. We got into one vehicle and headed to the Lake to catch up with Bill and his boat. We waited a little while before resuming the search because it was a little foggy on the Lake. (The whole time I am wondering why I agreed to meet them at 8am!) Once the haze lifted, from the lake and the humans, we prepared for our ride across. Of course Bryno and Bill brought fishing poles. It took only minutes to reach the point we needed to climb off the boat and onto the land. Note to self *SLATE IS SLIPPERY WHEN WET*. Yes I went into the water unintentionally. All the while laughing about all of our "Duck" puns from the night before. Now I was at one with them! Knowing I am a klutz and we were going to be on water I brought a full change of clothes including dry sneakers. Planet and I climbed the Slate Hill and began looking into holes, turning up rock, etc. Low and behold! There was a Blue Tupperware container. It was the perfect cache for me to find. It was full of little toys and a logbook. I logged our "Geocaching names" and then we went to the bottom of the slate slide without incident and waited for the two fishermen to come back and get us! "Hey guys we found it you can come back now!"
When you find a cache that contains items you can take one ONLY if you leave one. We decided not to do either at this one. The boys still wanted to fish so we went north on the lake to another spot that was said to have a cache. They fished. Planet and I hunted. This one we didn't find... BUT WE WILL! We plan on going back while we can still reach it by boat! We decided to give up the search for the day and get more info on this one online.
What a beautiful evening and day we had searching and boating and fishing. Laughing the whole time about the ducks and the Lake House. This is an activity I highly recommend. The cost is minimal. You can get a GPS for $100-$500 dollars. (The $100 is fine for this) Some palm pilots have it. Phones that have it generally do not have enough options for Geocaching though) But that is the only real investment. Then only other expense is the gas you will use to search for the caches. You can look areas up online that you know you will visit and see what caches are out there. There are approximately 500,000 in North America. We actually found two on our way to the Lake house and one on our way home. (Not including the two at the lake)
The END!
What started out as a drive to Lake Bomoseen, turned into a great adventure! Driving to see our friend Bill at his son's new place on the Lake, Planet noticed on her GPS that there was a "cache" not far away. Well, being the wonderful navigators that we are (with GPS and all) we accidently passed Bill's house. Knowing we had to turn around somewhere we stopped to turn around at the Lake House Restaurant. Of course, after the rough journey we just had we needed to stay for a refreshing beverage.
Sitting at a table next to the water, Planet noticed the ducks in the water next to us. At the same time I noticed the first Entree on the menu was DUCK!!! Can we pick our own? As we sat discussing the fact that we KNOW Bill will take us out to the point we need to go across that Lake to find the cache Bill pulls up in his boat, scaring away our water fowl friends! 86 the Duck!
Bill joins our party. We ask our friends to tell our server not to touch our drinks we would be right back. Bill, Planet, Bryno and I jump in the boat and head to the "Slate Slide". The water was beautiful. Nice and calm. The sun was just setting and added to the perfect ride across to the west shore. Upon our arrival, we realize there is no way we can get out of the boat and find our treasure in the dusk. We turn the boat around and rejoin the rest of the gang at the Lake House.
Planning to meet up first thing in the morning to search again. Our night certainly was not over but Geocaching for the day was.
At first light I jump in the shower and head north to meet Planet and Bryno. We got into one vehicle and headed to the Lake to catch up with Bill and his boat. We waited a little while before resuming the search because it was a little foggy on the Lake. (The whole time I am wondering why I agreed to meet them at 8am!) Once the haze lifted, from the lake and the humans, we prepared for our ride across. Of course Bryno and Bill brought fishing poles. It took only minutes to reach the point we needed to climb off the boat and onto the land. Note to self *SLATE IS SLIPPERY WHEN WET*. Yes I went into the water unintentionally. All the while laughing about all of our "Duck" puns from the night before. Now I was at one with them! Knowing I am a klutz and we were going to be on water I brought a full change of clothes including dry sneakers. Planet and I climbed the Slate Hill and began looking into holes, turning up rock, etc. Low and behold! There was a Blue Tupperware container. It was the perfect cache for me to find. It was full of little toys and a logbook. I logged our "Geocaching names" and then we went to the bottom of the slate slide without incident and waited for the two fishermen to come back and get us! "Hey guys we found it you can come back now!"
When you find a cache that contains items you can take one ONLY if you leave one. We decided not to do either at this one. The boys still wanted to fish so we went north on the lake to another spot that was said to have a cache. They fished. Planet and I hunted. This one we didn't find... BUT WE WILL! We plan on going back while we can still reach it by boat! We decided to give up the search for the day and get more info on this one online.
What a beautiful evening and day we had searching and boating and fishing. Laughing the whole time about the ducks and the Lake House. This is an activity I highly recommend. The cost is minimal. You can get a GPS for $100-$500 dollars. (The $100 is fine for this) Some palm pilots have it. Phones that have it generally do not have enough options for Geocaching though) But that is the only real investment. Then only other expense is the gas you will use to search for the caches. You can look areas up online that you know you will visit and see what caches are out there. There are approximately 500,000 in North America. We actually found two on our way to the Lake house and one on our way home. (Not including the two at the lake)
The END!
posted by B Kiddo at 9:36 AM
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