Most of the time we set off to find geocaches and aren't quite sure what to expect. The GPS coordinates leading to the hidden treasures (as my kids like to call it) require a little bushwhacking on occasion. That's part of the game so it is not unexpected. But for the first time in our 25 geocache finds, we put ourselves in a difficult situation.
"This is the worst hike ever mom! I have scratches everywhere and I twisted my ankle 5 times!" said my 10-year-old.
We did end up finding the well-hidden - and well-stocked - geocache but we were definitely a little worse for the wear from the hike to get there.
What happened?
We followed the GPS navigating pointer rather than our common sense. Interpretating the trail and terrain with our own eyes should have been as important as the high-tech unit we were using. When we found ourselves in the middle of some very difficult terrain, we finally realized that we got so carried away with the GPS and the hunt to find the cache, that we stopped paying attention to where we were actually going. I can honestly say that I never thought I could be so, well - dumb.
But let me back-up and start from the beginning.
The day started off with a decision to broaden our geocaching horizons with a challenge. We wanted to see how many geocaches we could find in one afternoon. Each family member posed their guesses which ranged from three to six.
After some searching on www.geocaching.com, I found a cluster of geocaches in the Brunswick area. I chose a bunch with ratings in the 1-3 star range (1=easy, 5=most difficult) in both difficulty and terrain. This strategy has kept our treasure hunts fun for all of us.
After downloading the coordinates and printing out their respective information pages that included "hints," we set out to Brunswick to find the geocaches.
The first geocache was on Pleasant Hill Road just over the Brunswick border. We thought we had found the parking area (listed as "vague") indicated on the cache's information page because we saw a trail leading into the woods and our GPS showed the cache within 1/2 mile of our location.
We followed the trail for a few minutes but then our GPS unit started pointing us through the woods. We were pretty close, about three-tenths of a mile, so we left the trail and traipsed through the brush.
The trees and brush got progressively thicker while the GPS navigation pointer led us up a hill. At this point, we should have put our thinking caps on. Unfortunately, we didn't.
We climbed up that hill. We slid down another hill.
We ducked under tree limbs. We jumped over fallen trees.
We jumped over the winding stream; leapt over wider parts of another stream. And when we were lucky, walked on fallen logs over other wet areas.
Of course we could have given up the search but by the time we realized that trying to find this cache was a mistake, we were already in the thick of the woods and closer to the cache based on our GPS reading than we were to the car.
We finally picked up a narrow trail and found the geocache.
We took a short water break and with a unanimous vote, decided we would NOT go back the way we came.
We followed a small trail with sink holes and erosion (which we still thought better than the way we had come but hardly ideal) from the geocache to an open field and hiked along the edge of the woods. We eventually picked up another trail that lead us back to the car.
After a snack at the car, we decided that we would not be discouraged and continued with our initial plan to find more geocaches.
We chose our second cache based on the level of detail about the trail and the "Additional Hints" on the print-out I had made. The hints are clues that usually offer more details about the landmarks where the cache is hidden.
This geocache was further down Pleasant Hill Road at Crystal Springs Farm and we found it easily after a short hike. And there was a fun bonus in the cache -- silly big nose glasses and a fun photo album of people wearing them. Of course we had to take some of our own photos and even had Bunny try the glasses on.
On the hike back to the car my 8-year-old decided to make hand shadows. We all had some fun guessing what animals she was making and I was glad that everyone was feeling re-energized with this easy and fun geocache.
We ended our day finding only one other geocache near Bowdoin College. It was another easy one but by that time, we were all tired. The kids had found a fallen tree that looked like a boat so they climbed aboard and pretended to be sailors. They had quite a story going so we hung out for a while before heading home.
We all felt the day was a success. And although my husband and I were irritated initially with the first geocache, we realized that had we read the "Logged Visits" (they're basically reviews submitted by other geocachers) for that one, we would have realized that the name, "Dragons Be Here" contained a clue as to where to park (apparently dragons is the Brunswick high school mascot). Other geocachers who figured that out found a much closer place to park that made getting to that geocache much easier.
As with many of our outdoor adventures, we came away with some new learnings and a better perspective on our GPS unit. Just because you have coordinates to a location, it doesn't mean your electronic gadget is going to get you there as easily as you expect. But as I was reminded by a fellow geocacher recently, it would not be so much fun, nor the adventures as colorful, if the game were so simple.
Geocaching
Find Caches: To find coordinates to caches, go to www.geocaching.com
Learn More: Get answers to frequently asked questions about geocaching at www.geocaching.com/faq
Maine Geocaching: To chat about caches or find out more about geocaching in Maine, go to geocachingmaine.org
No GPS? No problem. If you don't have a GPS but want to find a geocache, follow this geocache map to find the cache my family hid last year at the Lowell Preserve Trail in Windham. Directions to the trailhead are at the bottom of the map. Don't forget to bring a swap for the cache and HAVE FUN!
Originally published in the Maine Sunday Telegram April 2006
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