Now that the weather is getting cold now, I get less chance to go on longer caching hunts and the hikes that go with them. Since we had to go to the store anyway, we decided to grab a couple of park and grabs in the area of the store. Well, that 1 stop turned into 3 stops, 2 caches and getting my mom involved...
First off, we actually did get to the store that we went out for. (It would have been a bit awkward if we forgot that) We decided that we would go ahead and snag a quick cache in the parking lot of the store next to the one we just came out of. Well, after we logged that, we shopped around there, buying some cool holiday stuff.
As we were then heading home, we decided to snag the one that is behind a Home Depot. (As if we needed another excuse to check out stuff in there too) We drove around to the back and this time my mom got out to help look. Of course, I should have probably stayed back and let my mom actually find this one, since it has become apparent that I have a "sixth sense" when it comes to locating caches. I though I would just poke around the location and "hopefully" let my mom be the finder, just to spark her interest in our new hobby. Well, I should probably have stayed in the car then... I walked right up to it and with one single motion found the dang thing. I swear, within less than 5 seconds...
So now I get the label of *human GPS* and my mom can still grumble that I won't let her find one. I guess this means that we all get to go out and find some more caches together. I think she will get the bug, as long as I let someone else have some fun once in a while...
Since we are so close to our 100th find, I would really love to be able to snag that accomplishment before the end of the year.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Caching With A Friend
One of the best things that one can do is introduce another person to the joys of caching. Well, we got to do just that with a great friend.
JuliaDarling, whom I have known for years, decided to join us on a caching adventure. We decided to try something that would be fun and a little easier than some of the higher difficulty caches that leave you wanting to pull your hair out. So our first stop was a local petting zoo, Blue Bird Gap Farm. There were a couple of traditional caches and a puzzle cache there, so perfect place to start.
Well, we immediately found ourselves thick in with briars and generally painful thorns. After walking around in circles we decided to go on a hunch that Julia had from what she remembered from the description of the cache and low and behold grown zero!
The next cache was creepily near a small cemetery that I honestly never knew was even in the park and was a quick find. However, the puzzle cache that we were working on finding all the answers to as we went, proved to be a little more difficult... As in Brody figured out the correct coordinates as we were driving out of the parking lot! Nice, right? So we chose to hit that one at another time, we were NOT going to turn back.
Gathering a few more finds at another local park, we officially determined that we had made a convert as well as a caching partner. This will benefit all of us since we just had a blast being out there with her.
As the weather is turning cold, the amount of caches that we hit will probably be more sporadic but we know one thing... No matter what season, as long as we have a great friend with us, we are sure to have fun and maybe even cause a ruckus. After all, isn't that what friends are for?
JuliaDarling, whom I have known for years, decided to join us on a caching adventure. We decided to try something that would be fun and a little easier than some of the higher difficulty caches that leave you wanting to pull your hair out. So our first stop was a local petting zoo, Blue Bird Gap Farm. There were a couple of traditional caches and a puzzle cache there, so perfect place to start.
Well, we immediately found ourselves thick in with briars and generally painful thorns. After walking around in circles we decided to go on a hunch that Julia had from what she remembered from the description of the cache and low and behold grown zero!
The next cache was creepily near a small cemetery that I honestly never knew was even in the park and was a quick find. However, the puzzle cache that we were working on finding all the answers to as we went, proved to be a little more difficult... As in Brody figured out the correct coordinates as we were driving out of the parking lot! Nice, right? So we chose to hit that one at another time, we were NOT going to turn back.
Gathering a few more finds at another local park, we officially determined that we had made a convert as well as a caching partner. This will benefit all of us since we just had a blast being out there with her.
As the weather is turning cold, the amount of caches that we hit will probably be more sporadic but we know one thing... No matter what season, as long as we have a great friend with us, we are sure to have fun and maybe even cause a ruckus. After all, isn't that what friends are for?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
With everything going on in the geocaching community on 10/10/10, we had a handful of really cool event options this past weekend. We were lucky enough to be close to an event that garnered some ink on Latitude 47, Groundspeak’s official blog. A couple of our local cachers, Lord Vader of the MiniMartinWarriors and NozyRN decided to make an event cache out of their wedding ceremony, and invited anyone with a GPS to come join in the festivities. We drove across town to one of the prettiest parks we've ever seen in Norfolk, and met plenty of folks who, to that point, were just entries in a logbook. Not having any idea what kind of ceremony we were in for, it was quite by accident that we ended up more or less front and center for the ceremony. Suffice it to say, the last thing we expected was a bride in jeans, and a groom with a tuxedo t-shirt and lightsaber.
At 10:10 and ten seconds, on 10/10/10, the ceremony got underway, including swearing from the bride (Yeah, we caught that Nozy...), releasing fish into the park's koi pond, and a "you may kiss the bride" that lasted longer than anyone could keep track of. Afterward, there was a who's-who of Hampton Roads geocachers, to include the man responsible for our first DNF, ibwacko. Turns out, for the sheer evil he's capable of with cache placement, he's actually a very nice guy.
After the ceremony, we were in for a bit of a surprise at the travel bug table. On our recent trip to North Carolina, we picked up a travel bug in the form of an alligator. Earlier in the week, we went caching in Huntington park, and left the little guy under a log in a little patch of swamp, which was perfect for out little gator. Imagine our surprise when we came across him, fresh from his swampy abode, waving hello from the table.
We decided to pass on an event out in Virgina Beach later that day, and came back to our side of the water, where we spent the rest of the day caching. Among the many finds logged that day was a cache that required fishing line and had no log inside, a quiet stroll through a beautiful part of town, and 2 puzzle caches, the first of which required knowing binary. The second, encrypted in morse code, was probably the toughest find so far. Lesson learned that day: a 4.0 terrain is NOT to be taken lightly.
All in all, we were honored to be able to share an amazing day with some great people, and devote an entire day to what's become an awesome hobby.
~Brody
At 10:10 and ten seconds, on 10/10/10, the ceremony got underway, including swearing from the bride (Yeah, we caught that Nozy...), releasing fish into the park's koi pond, and a "you may kiss the bride" that lasted longer than anyone could keep track of. Afterward, there was a who's-who of Hampton Roads geocachers, to include the man responsible for our first DNF, ibwacko. Turns out, for the sheer evil he's capable of with cache placement, he's actually a very nice guy.
After the ceremony, we were in for a bit of a surprise at the travel bug table. On our recent trip to North Carolina, we picked up a travel bug in the form of an alligator. Earlier in the week, we went caching in Huntington park, and left the little guy under a log in a little patch of swamp, which was perfect for out little gator. Imagine our surprise when we came across him, fresh from his swampy abode, waving hello from the table.
We decided to pass on an event out in Virgina Beach later that day, and came back to our side of the water, where we spent the rest of the day caching. Among the many finds logged that day was a cache that required fishing line and had no log inside, a quiet stroll through a beautiful part of town, and 2 puzzle caches, the first of which required knowing binary. The second, encrypted in morse code, was probably the toughest find so far. Lesson learned that day: a 4.0 terrain is NOT to be taken lightly.
All in all, we were honored to be able to share an amazing day with some great people, and devote an entire day to what's become an awesome hobby.
~Brody
Sunday, September 26, 2010
We decided, mostly on a whim, to branch out a bit and do a geocaching road trip. Up to this point, the furthest cache we had found was no more than a ten minute drive from the house. We grabbed our supplies, loaded the cooler, and hit the road to go south of the border. Okay, okay, so we went south of the Virginia/North Carolina border, but it was still an adventure.
This wasn't exactly our first trip to the Outer Banks, so we've come to follow a bit of a routine when making the trip. We stopped, as usual, at the Border station, a gas station and gift shop that straddles the border. We came across a micro with about 5 feet of Virginia left, then crossed the border for a couple of firsts. We've come across plenty of micros, but this one was our first bison tube. This also made our first find in another state.
A few miles down the road, we decided to detour for a spell. We had seen that there was a travel bug hotel about a mile off the main road. Having never found one before, we thought it would be a worthwhile trip. What we found was an ammo can on steroids, complete with what we thought was a really cool idea for cache swag. We found a disposable camera with 9 photos left. Well, 8 now. We snapped a picture of the two of us with the monster cache, and placed it back in. We traded geocoins, and were promptly on our way.
The ultimate purpose of this trip was for, of all things, a travel bug. If you've been following from the beginning, you've seen the TB that came all the way from Hagenhill, Germany. We thought that if it wanted to see some beautiful places, Cape Hatteras was a great place to take it. We discovered a webcam cache, and added that to our experience before heading back.
We thought it would be only fitting that we dropped the travel bug in North Carolina instead of bringing it all the way back home. On the way back, we booted up the GPS and decided to try to find little Hagenhill a fitting home. We found what we thought would be a decent spot, and trekked a little off the beaten path. Even before getting out of the car, the mosquitoes were swarming through the windows.Poor Kesara made a whopping 30 feet before deciding this would be a good time for me to sharpen my caching skills and find this one solo. After the fastest log signing in history, a mad dash, and half a gallon of blood loss later, we decided to find a better home for him. Our next three decisions all turned out to be caches that were DEFINITELY not made for night caching, so we ultimately decided to pay another visit to the travel bug hotel we hit earlier today for a quick little drop-off.
We've been coming to find more and more that one of our favorite things about geocaching is the thrill that comes with going to a place that you may have been a dozen times before, and finding these amazing little places you didn't even know existed.We can't tell you how many times we've been to the outer banks and driven right past some amazing places, simply because we had no idea they were there. That won't be the case anymore...
~Brody
This wasn't exactly our first trip to the Outer Banks, so we've come to follow a bit of a routine when making the trip. We stopped, as usual, at the Border station, a gas station and gift shop that straddles the border. We came across a micro with about 5 feet of Virginia left, then crossed the border for a couple of firsts. We've come across plenty of micros, but this one was our first bison tube. This also made our first find in another state.
A few miles down the road, we decided to detour for a spell. We had seen that there was a travel bug hotel about a mile off the main road. Having never found one before, we thought it would be a worthwhile trip. What we found was an ammo can on steroids, complete with what we thought was a really cool idea for cache swag. We found a disposable camera with 9 photos left. Well, 8 now. We snapped a picture of the two of us with the monster cache, and placed it back in. We traded geocoins, and were promptly on our way.
The ultimate purpose of this trip was for, of all things, a travel bug. If you've been following from the beginning, you've seen the TB that came all the way from Hagenhill, Germany. We thought that if it wanted to see some beautiful places, Cape Hatteras was a great place to take it. We discovered a webcam cache, and added that to our experience before heading back.
We thought it would be only fitting that we dropped the travel bug in North Carolina instead of bringing it all the way back home. On the way back, we booted up the GPS and decided to try to find little Hagenhill a fitting home. We found what we thought would be a decent spot, and trekked a little off the beaten path. Even before getting out of the car, the mosquitoes were swarming through the windows.Poor Kesara made a whopping 30 feet before deciding this would be a good time for me to sharpen my caching skills and find this one solo. After the fastest log signing in history, a mad dash, and half a gallon of blood loss later, we decided to find a better home for him. Our next three decisions all turned out to be caches that were DEFINITELY not made for night caching, so we ultimately decided to pay another visit to the travel bug hotel we hit earlier today for a quick little drop-off.
We've been coming to find more and more that one of our favorite things about geocaching is the thrill that comes with going to a place that you may have been a dozen times before, and finding these amazing little places you didn't even know existed.We can't tell you how many times we've been to the outer banks and driven right past some amazing places, simply because we had no idea they were there. That won't be the case anymore...
~Brody
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
When asked what she would like to do on her birthday, it was really no surprise Kesara said that she wanted to go caching. We grabbed our usual supplies and hit the road. Our first find of the day parked us in a quaint little church, then sent us immediately bushwhacking. A short hike, some greenbriars, and a very close encounter with a spider that Kesara swears up and down was day-glow yellow, we made our first find of the day.
We made a quick pit stop at a local playground for a quick micro grab, then made our way down the road to what turned out to be a really cool cache. We made a trek into a little patch of forest by a nearby shopping center, and came across a treehouse built in the middle of it. Of course, we both thought "Wow, what an awesome place for a cache!" Turns out, though, that we may have to place one there, because the cache we set out for was sneaky enough to make us blaze right past it on our way to what we thought was obviously the place for it... When we did eventually find it, we found a travel bug that started all the way in Hagenhill, Germany. This little bug is trying to see as many pretty places as possible, and we had an upcoming trip that sounded perfect for him. More about that in a few posts.
We managed to log our very first Virtual Cache on this trip as well. Being a native of the area, Kesara had been to this spot dozens of times in the past. Headed back, we hit a micro along the way. We parked and I jumped out to grab it. Perhaps I was a touch too excited to find a micro that was something besides a nano or hidden under a lightpole skirt, because upon re-entering the car, I proceeded to hit my ear on the car door and pinball the other side of my head into the door frame. Once Kesara stopped giggling long enough to get something for my now throbbing noggin, we set out for the last find of the day.
Fighting through a headache to play navigator to one more find, we pulled off the main road to hit a themed cache. After a simple enough hunt, we tracked down the "public safety" cache, and traded out a traffic cop playschool toy for a piece of crime scene equipment. (Okay, so it was a ruler, but it was a really snazzy one...) Not a bad way to celebrate another year.
~Brody
We made a quick pit stop at a local playground for a quick micro grab, then made our way down the road to what turned out to be a really cool cache. We made a trek into a little patch of forest by a nearby shopping center, and came across a treehouse built in the middle of it. Of course, we both thought "Wow, what an awesome place for a cache!" Turns out, though, that we may have to place one there, because the cache we set out for was sneaky enough to make us blaze right past it on our way to what we thought was obviously the place for it... When we did eventually find it, we found a travel bug that started all the way in Hagenhill, Germany. This little bug is trying to see as many pretty places as possible, and we had an upcoming trip that sounded perfect for him. More about that in a few posts.
We managed to log our very first Virtual Cache on this trip as well. Being a native of the area, Kesara had been to this spot dozens of times in the past. Headed back, we hit a micro along the way. We parked and I jumped out to grab it. Perhaps I was a touch too excited to find a micro that was something besides a nano or hidden under a lightpole skirt, because upon re-entering the car, I proceeded to hit my ear on the car door and pinball the other side of my head into the door frame. Once Kesara stopped giggling long enough to get something for my now throbbing noggin, we set out for the last find of the day.
Fighting through a headache to play navigator to one more find, we pulled off the main road to hit a themed cache. After a simple enough hunt, we tracked down the "public safety" cache, and traded out a traffic cop playschool toy for a piece of crime scene equipment. (Okay, so it was a ruler, but it was a really snazzy one...) Not a bad way to celebrate another year.
~Brody
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Caching At Sandy Bottom
This past Tuesday, Kesara and I decided to go caching in Sandy Bottom Nature Park, a scenic little stretch of woods nestled in between Newport News and Hampton. Having spent the previous few days getting the hang of urban caches, we thought it would be a good idea to get out into the great outdoors and get a taste of geocaching the way it was meant to be.
We started by learning a small but important lesson when it comes to geocaching: Following the GPS is important, but looking away from it long enough to read trail signs helps too. We found ourselves 30 feet from the first cache of the day in no time. Too bad those 30 feet were through a pond. A quick detour later, we made our first find of the day.
After a short hop, skip, and a jump later, we found our way to cache number two for the day. In addition to what is probably the coolest cache so far, we also learned our second lesson: Tree canopies tend to make your GPS bounce like a second grader on a sugar buzz... After giving up on following our coordinates and deciding to follow our guts instead, we found this:
So far, this journey has only taken us about 30 minutes. Our next cache (our first attempt at a multi) tacked on another 90. We had a good idea of the area it was in, as it was our favorite place in the park. We approached with an obscure hint and more than a little confidence. Turns out that confidence was painfully misplaced. An hour and a half later, we were still empty handed and running out of daylight. We finally gave up and finished the circuit around the park, feeling much better after logging two more caches in the next ten minutes. On the walk out, we learned one more important, if somewhat more personal lesson: All the terminology Kesara has coined for when we go geocaching were swiped from assorted Syfy shows. I'm sure she'll be willing to share a few of her geekier moments if you ask her nicely...
~Brody
We started by learning a small but important lesson when it comes to geocaching: Following the GPS is important, but looking away from it long enough to read trail signs helps too. We found ourselves 30 feet from the first cache of the day in no time. Too bad those 30 feet were through a pond. A quick detour later, we made our first find of the day.
After a short hop, skip, and a jump later, we found our way to cache number two for the day. In addition to what is probably the coolest cache so far, we also learned our second lesson: Tree canopies tend to make your GPS bounce like a second grader on a sugar buzz... After giving up on following our coordinates and deciding to follow our guts instead, we found this:
So far, this journey has only taken us about 30 minutes. Our next cache (our first attempt at a multi) tacked on another 90. We had a good idea of the area it was in, as it was our favorite place in the park. We approached with an obscure hint and more than a little confidence. Turns out that confidence was painfully misplaced. An hour and a half later, we were still empty handed and running out of daylight. We finally gave up and finished the circuit around the park, feeling much better after logging two more caches in the next ten minutes. On the walk out, we learned one more important, if somewhat more personal lesson: All the terminology Kesara has coined for when we go geocaching were swiped from assorted Syfy shows. I'm sure she'll be willing to share a few of her geekier moments if you ask her nicely...
~BrodyWednesday, September 15, 2010
Busy Few Days
So the past few days has been very busy. All starting on Monday.
We decided to do a nice little walk to some local caches that weren't too far from the house... Well, that short little jaunt ended up in a VERY long walk around the area. Needless to say, we were so tired by the time we got home that we just collapsed and didn't even think about anything other than sleep.
We did, however, snag a cool Travel Bug. This particular TB, which is the grommet from a flag that was retired with honors in Florida by a Girl Scout Troop and is trying to make it to all the National Cemeteries. We picked it up at the St. Johns Church cemetery in Hampton, Va. We plan on getting a picture of it at the Yorktown National Cemetery and then dropping it in a cache at the Cold Harbor Battlefield. It is right beside the Cold Harbor National Cemetery and just a short distance from Arlington.
(You can read more about this TB as soon as I get the Travel Bug page up and running soon)
~Kesara
We decided to do a nice little walk to some local caches that weren't too far from the house... Well, that short little jaunt ended up in a VERY long walk around the area. Needless to say, we were so tired by the time we got home that we just collapsed and didn't even think about anything other than sleep.
We did, however, snag a cool Travel Bug. This particular TB, which is the grommet from a flag that was retired with honors in Florida by a Girl Scout Troop and is trying to make it to all the National Cemeteries. We picked it up at the St. Johns Church cemetery in Hampton, Va. We plan on getting a picture of it at the Yorktown National Cemetery and then dropping it in a cache at the Cold Harbor Battlefield. It is right beside the Cold Harbor National Cemetery and just a short distance from Arlington.
(You can read more about this TB as soon as I get the Travel Bug page up and running soon)~Kesara
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Night-Time Cache
Tonight we snagged a cache that we had accidentally marked the first run. So I officially deleted the log and decided that we would go ahead and snag it since it's close-by and we just felt that it really needed to be done anyways.
I had really wanted to get this one because there was a geocoin in there but we weren't quite quick enough to the cache and it had already been snagged. Oh well, that gives me more time to work on getting things set up so I can make up some swag bracelets for the caches. Plus, I want to make up a special page to post pictures of the geocoins that I get. This way I can always have a visual log of what I found before I send them on their way to to another location.
I wish I could post pictures from this cache but it was just a quick jaunt and it was at night anyway. This was definitely a quickie cache. But I can at least show off the swag that I will using for trades.
These bracelets will be the same weave just in different colors. They are really quick to make so I can have a nice amount to have with me at all times. I hope to either make or have made personal coins that I can use as well. I really want to keep the quality of the swag at a higher standard and that way make it more fun for those who find the cache after us.
I had really wanted to get this one because there was a geocoin in there but we weren't quite quick enough to the cache and it had already been snagged. Oh well, that gives me more time to work on getting things set up so I can make up some swag bracelets for the caches. Plus, I want to make up a special page to post pictures of the geocoins that I get. This way I can always have a visual log of what I found before I send them on their way to to another location.
I wish I could post pictures from this cache but it was just a quick jaunt and it was at night anyway. This was definitely a quickie cache. But I can at least show off the swag that I will using for trades.
These bracelets will be the same weave just in different colors. They are really quick to make so I can have a nice amount to have with me at all times. I hope to either make or have made personal coins that I can use as well. I really want to keep the quality of the swag at a higher standard and that way make it more fun for those who find the cache after us.Thursday, September 9, 2010
First Cache
Well today was our first adventure. We decided to go and scout out a cache that was within walking distance to our house. This one cache turned into 2, since as we were marking off the one as found, we saw another that was just a short walk away.
The first one was at a small local park. Not really much there but a small playground and some benches. We found this amazing tree with a hole in it...
Kinda cool, huh? I kinda had a feeling it was there but I have to be honest, I really didn't feel like sticking my hand into a random hole. So I made hubby do it. Well I was right on and we found our very first cache!
So after we marked this one off our map, we saw that just a hop, jump and a skip away was another spot. We decided since it was really close by, we'd go ahead and snag, bag and tag it.
This one was at a library and it was also snuggled nicely inside a Myrtle Tree.
This one was fairly small about the size of a medicine pill bottle.
All in all, it was a very fun excursion and gave us both some great exercise. We can not wait for the next adventure.
~Kesara and Brody
The first one was at a small local park. Not really much there but a small playground and some benches. We found this amazing tree with a hole in it...
Kinda cool, huh? I kinda had a feeling it was there but I have to be honest, I really didn't feel like sticking my hand into a random hole. So I made hubby do it. Well I was right on and we found our very first cache!
So after we marked this one off our map, we saw that just a hop, jump and a skip away was another spot. We decided since it was really close by, we'd go ahead and snag, bag and tag it.This one was at a library and it was also snuggled nicely inside a Myrtle Tree.
This one was fairly small about the size of a medicine pill bottle.
All in all, it was a very fun excursion and gave us both some great exercise. We can not wait for the next adventure.
~Kesara and Brody
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Welcome To The Hunt
Welcome to the adventure!!
We are a husband and wife team who love adventure and this is our journal of the encounters we have seen... Okay, Okay, so we just found out about geocaching and have decided it would be some fun.
I am Kesara, I enjoy nature and exploring. I enjoy the hunt and thrill of finding hidden "treasures". My other half would be my husband, Brody. Together, we will hunt down and share our cache along with the beauty of the area in which it was hidden.
So if you love the taste of adventure, follow us on our journey.
Happy Hunting,
~Kesara and Brody
We are a husband and wife team who love adventure and this is our journal of the encounters we have seen... Okay, Okay, so we just found out about geocaching and have decided it would be some fun.
I am Kesara, I enjoy nature and exploring. I enjoy the hunt and thrill of finding hidden "treasures". My other half would be my husband, Brody. Together, we will hunt down and share our cache along with the beauty of the area in which it was hidden.
So if you love the taste of adventure, follow us on our journey.
Happy Hunting,
~Kesara and Brody
Welcome to the Adventure
Welcome to the adventure!!
We are a husband and wife team who love adventure and this is our journal of the encounters we have seen... Okay, Okay, so we just found out about geocaching and have decided it would be some fun.
I am Kesara, I enjoy nature and exploring. I enjoy the hunt and thrill of finding hidden "treasures". My other half would be my husband, Brody. Together, we will hunt down and share our cache along with the beauty of the area in which it was hidden.
So if you love the taste of adventure, follow us on our journey.
Happy Hunting,
~Kesara and Brody
We are a husband and wife team who love adventure and this is our journal of the encounters we have seen... Okay, Okay, so we just found out about geocaching and have decided it would be some fun.
I am Kesara, I enjoy nature and exploring. I enjoy the hunt and thrill of finding hidden "treasures". My other half would be my husband, Brody. Together, we will hunt down and share our cache along with the beauty of the area in which it was hidden.
So if you love the taste of adventure, follow us on our journey.
Happy Hunting,
~Kesara and Brody
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