Geocaching with my Nephew

Since I started Geocaching I have taken only two trips the second one I will blog about here.

The trip started out going back out to the first place I was taken to geocache. I figured that since I am still so new to the whole game I thought it would be easier to manage.

On the concrete path amidst a steel tunnel we began our travels ...

We will walk in peace amongst the birds, the bees and the trees...




























Ahh aren't we proud his first "Cache"

Onward young Padowan. To your next find...

I know that secret lair button is here somewhere..

The path well travelled is the path worth taking.







Well now as I'm sure any good geocacher has found is that not all the paths are straight. So goes our story. I had programed my gps to go to the next location which I knew was just to the north east of us. However as I looked the system says go south.. So thinking maybe I had remembered wrong I trusted our handy dandy compass and we travelled south.



And low and behold where did we find ourselves but below our beloved starting point looking up instead of down.




Much to my chagrin I realized that I had told the system to go to our starting waypoint instead of our 3rd destination. However despite the wrong turn we we were rewarded with this beautiful seen.













Now at this part of the journey I gave my young apprentice a choice, go home or continue on your maiden voyage.



His choice was clear go forth and geocache...




So as the Sun set's on our journey we droppe a Australian coin as our gift to the community and with our prostesting limbs which have hiked a goodly number of miles this day













We bid you adieu ...

Takeing my nephew on his first Geo Cache experience

Although this post is being written on the same day as my first post the event actually occured 30 days later.





We started out my second and his first experience in a local park here in San Diego. We actually started by going out with the family to have a little fun with the new Garmin as shown below
.

We pulled over just a few hundred feet from where the 1st of 4 caches in the area was to be found.

We hiked down the small road away from the park while the wife and kids enjoyed a small picnic lunch.

So as my nephew and I cruised along the local road trying to avoid being obvious that we were planning on tracking through the local shrubbery in search of a tiny little cache hidden somewhere close by we chatted about the new world of geo cacheing I had stumbled into.

Well it only took us about 5 minutes to find our central point of reference.

It was an interesting experience since neither of us had any idea of what we were looking for. And since I had a experienced geo cacher with me the last time it made things a bit easier I think.

So we tracked around for a good 15 minutes or so digging through the bushes. We eventually triangulated where the cache should have been.

However we did not have any luck finding it. So after several cell phone calls from the wife wondering where we were we decided to give up and go onto #2 Cache.

So back up the road we trecked into the park central.

Leaving the wife and kids behind, which I later found out she was not happy about, my dad, my nephew and I went trecking around the Park.

Now a small description of this park since I didn't think to take pictures.. It's a big open meadow essentially surrounded by local area brush with small service roads and a small area for the kids to play on the play equipment.

We attempted to find the three other cache's that were supposed be located in the area. I would estimate a several mile hike around the outside rim of the park. Still now luck in reaching our goal of at least one cache that day.

With the first two still unfound I attempted to call my experienced teacher and ask him what to do since I was getting very discouraged.

His advice was not to worry since it wasn't uncommon to have abandon cache's and to just chalk it up to a good time with family and mark them on www.geocaching.com,where you can find all the cache's you want, as Did not Find. Now this will alert the owner that either it's been stolen or too hard to find.

So that's just what we did.

We then spent a little time at home and off to our next adventure. For me it was a revisit of the very first cache I ever went on and for my nephew his second adventure in geocaching. It was to be a better experience for both.

Be sure to read the next post to find out what happend. And this one I will include pictures.

Until then Peace be with You.

My first Geo Cache

I have decided to create this blog to talk about my new found hobby of Geo Caching Which for those who don't know geo caching is here is a good description


Geo caching is an entertaining adventure game for GPS users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a GPS unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet.

GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache
My first real experience with this new found hobby was with a friend from church who I knew went on these incredible outdoor adventures. I begged him for months to take me out and show me what this "geocacheing" thing was.

Well in December We finally went out. Myself, and My friend "Randy" and a associate from Randy's work. We did a 4 mile hike around a ;local wildlife preserve; which took us about two hours to complete.


Our goal was to complete what is called a multi-cache. Which is where you start with a initial starting point and continue using longitude and Latitude coordinates given as clues by the previous cache until your final destination point is found.


Wow what an experience.. The walk may have taken two hours but I don't think I even realized we were gone that long.At this point I had only two thoughts, First, was wow it's over already And second was when can I go again.



This is the GPS unit that was given to me as a Christmas Present. I found it exremely easy and intuitive to use. I read briefly over the manual but was able to figure out how to use it without it.

Good Luck on your adventures and tune in later for more on my Geo Cacheing adventures