Beware of Muggles

If you have never been Geo-caching, the first question you're going to ask is, “What is Geo-caching?” Well, according to Wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo-caching) it's “an outdoor activity in which the participants use a GPS receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches").

According to Geo-caching.com (http://www.Geo-caching.com/faq/), “Geo-caching is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geo-cacher can place a geo-cache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geo-cache’s existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS unit can then try to locate the geocache.”

According to me, Geo-caching is a good way to get lost with the family and not have to worry about asking directions.

The next question is usually, “How do you do it?” You can find caches online at www.Geo-caching.com. With a free membership, you can be off to finding geo-caches ANYWHERE in the world. And there are more than just a “few” caches lying around. Within five miles of my home there are 598 caches to be found! And if I'm willing to go ten miles, I could find up to 1,366 caches! Grab some coordinates, load them into your GPS, read the post (some times there are useful tips on finding these caches), load the family into the car, and use the GPS to guide you to the location. Note that these caches are generally expertly hidden (to avoid muggle curiosity, see below), so the GPS will get you to within five feet of the location—but from there, it's just good ol' fashioned common sense that will help you find the cache. Once you find it, sign the log book (you always have to do that—it's like saying, “I was here” officially). If it's a larger cache, and you've brought some treasures you can trade treasures with what's in the cache.

Couple of rules of the game:

1. Beware of Muggles. Don't let people who are not geo-cachers know what you're doing. In the craft, they're referred to as “muggles.” It's not bad to tell people about geo-caching, but it's forbidden to allow other people to witness you finding a cache. This sometimes takes great skill as some of the caches are literally located in the middle of the street.
   
2. Keep an accurate log. Always sign the log book, and then find your way back to Geo-caching.com to log your visit and mention if the cache has been “muggled” (what happens to a cache when a muggle finds it and either tampers with it or destroys it); or tips on finding the cache; or praise to the original hiders of the cache.

Be fair warned, there are some fanatics around that have hundreds or perhaps thousands of Geo-caching notches on their belt. I won't even try to brag about our cache list—it's not long enough to brag about yet.

Now that you know the terrain, here are some shots of some recent muggle-avoidance we've participated in recently.

Up in Washington, we went geo-caching with Grampa and Tim. Grampa thought it was cool; Tim loved it. Here we are in the woods of Washington. It looks like back country, but to anyone who lives in Washington, this is about 150 paces out of the parking lot. We stopped at this ant hill (3:00 to 5:00 in the photograph). It was swarming with an ant hive. Kids thought it was awesome.

But it was Robyn who pulled out the win on this cache. She's pointing to this AMAZINGLY well-hidden cache. It had moss over the top of it. It took a lot of looking to find this one.

Tim and I went to find several other caches. June and I found some other caches. One of my favorite cache's coordinates led us to a round about with a big eagle's nest bronze statue on it. Ironically, we didn't find that cache, though I'm told it has been found recently--so it must exist.

On another cache that we did locate, the girls and I hunted around for half an hours after arriving at the coordinates. There wasn't much to search through though, since there was just dirt, a fence, and more dirt. We searched a lot of dirt before we started feeling along the chain-link fence for any sign of something. Dad was lucky enough to put a hand down on the fence post cap and feel it shake a little bit. It was too loose to be held on just by gravity, unless there's a chain attached to it, hanging down inside the fence post. Awesome hide.