skip to main |
skip to sidebar
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
