Musings about Geocaching: All those DNFs got turned to smilies. :-)

Something came up that allowed me to have a free day, So, I decided to tackle those elusive caches along old Highway 80 today. I called my friend Rita and she also could take the time, so we took off. On the way, we stopped at "Bygone Byways" and it wasn't there! Darn. That was such a fun one and I wanted to show Rita how creative the cache owners were.

Before we took off, I thought to walk over to the other side of the bridge, and there it was. Someone had replaced it on the southeast side of the bridge, instead of in the northeast side where I originally found it. I was sure glad I discovered it was still there, even though it has "migrated," and promised to post a note to let the cache owners know the cache had moved.

When we got to the parking area, I knew where the first cache was, so without even using the GPSr, I grabbed it, signed the log, and returned it. Just after doing that, a Forest Service truck pulled in and Rita and I struck up a conversation with the 24-year veteran of Government Service. She had never heard of Geocaching. As I explained the sport/game/activity/obsession to her, she said, "I think I found one of those." About three months earlier, she found a DeCon container on the road, obviously out of place, and without a log book or "explainer" in it. She said it had a whistle and something else inside, and I remarked that was probably one of T.R.'s whistles because that is often what he leaves.

Unfortunately, since she didn't know what it was, the container ended up in the trash.

After an hour of nice conversation, we took off down the trail. We walked right past the first location, "On the Way to Ellis Wayside" and continued down to "Rebirth." I had an idea where this one was, and it didn't take too long to find it this time. From there we headed on down the trail to "Parts of old Thump Thump." Although it was very well hidden, we found it after fewer than ten minutes of looking.

See It?

See It Now?

"More Walking" was the next one that stumped me, and several other cachers, before. However, knowing it was another one of the DeCon containers helped us narrow the search considerably. This one was easy to see once I looked in the right spot because the cammo tape was shiny. After I signed the log, I put it back at a little different angle so the light didn't glare off the tape so easily.

I knew where "The Anchor" was, so I didn't even need the GPSr for that one. Although I looked around the area the week before, I didn't have any success since I didn't know what I was looking for because I didn't have the description in my Palm.

We turned around and headed back up the long hill and stopped at the one we walked passed on our way out. Boy, was I glad we didn't stop there first because we looked and looked and looked and still couldn't find it. Finally, after 20 minutes, I picked up the GPSr and moved out into the road and back again. I set it back down and this time the arrow pointed 14 feet to the northeast instead of 18 feet due north as it had before. Rita noticed a geotrail near a low-hanging branch and when she walked over there, she laughed.

I said, with surprise in my voice, "Did you see it?." I walked over, and there was the cigar tube, hanging down right in front of my nose.

See? Isn't it obvious?

After almost an hour of looking all around and over and through the trees, poison oak, rocks and boulders, there it was -- definitely in a "slap your hand to your forehead and say 'Doh!'" place.

What a relief! I was so thankful we found it so I could sign the log and call all six of those DNFs "Found Its," instead of only five of the six.

Since my original search another cache had been placed along the route and we found that one, so all together, I found seven today. I also logged an "Event Cache" about meeting with the "Authorities," so it turned out to be a "big number" day with a total of eight "Found Its."