So, a couple years ago, I begged my parents to buy me a handheld GPS unit so I could start geocaching. They provided. And I stuffed it into a drawer, intimidated, and left it there.

Until this morning.

Geocaching, for the uninitiated, is sort of a global treasure hunt. People hide caches all over the world, and upload their exact coordinates to a site like Geocaching.com for others to find. You plug those coordinates into your GPS, and go hunting, using the device to find the cache. You might think this is rather strange - like, what’s the fun in finding something if you know where it is? But you don’t, really - it’s one thing to have some exact coordinates to go by - it’s another thing entirely to FIND that spot, even with a GPS. Then to find the cache - which is often hidden, in part for fun, in part to prevent ‘muggles’ from tampering with it, or even walking off with it. And of course, part of the fun is the view - a lot of caches are hidden in the wilderness, in national parks and along historical or just interesting places in cities. It’s a great way to explore the unknown, and to see things you might not have had a chance to see otherwise.

So today, I checked out the website, and found that there’s two caches in town here - not bad for a tiny place like this! One was at the Lion’s Park, only a block north of me. So I dug out that yellow GPS and at length, figured out how to plug in the coordinates (I must have the most unintuitive bastard out there!) and went hunting at just about six this morning. I took with me my camera (just in case), and a small bag with a few trinkets in it, a fresh little Moleskine notebook, softcover, to use as my personal log, and a pen. And a screwdriver. Sometimes, I hear, caches can be hard to open.

Eventually, I found the cache - hidden well and camouflaged, too, so it took me a bit to find it. It was a small container, a little bigger than my hand, and contained a few trinkets and a logbook to sign. I signed it and dated it, and added the cache to my own logbook, and exchanged a rubber bouncy ball for a tiny flashlight keychain, and replaced the cache where I found it.

Cache #1 complete.

And then it was on to cache #2. This was, I suspected, in the main city park. I was right - my coordinates and the clues on the website led me directly to it, to a little corner of garden in it. And then everything went wrong.

Like, my GPS unit went psychotic. It decided North was anything but North, and directed me 20 feet south, but when I began to move in that direction, it changed its mind and said I needed to go 40 feet north, or perhaps 28 feet west, or maybe 30 feet east, or maybe any or all of these.

I spent a long time searching, but without better coordinates than “in the garden area, somewhere”, I didn’t have much luck. So I left. Soon as I left the park, the GPS acted normal again. What, does this thing have PMS? Sheesh.

Anyway, I’m gonna go back when daylight hits again, if I have time, and see if I can’t find this sucker again.

5 Comments »

1. Hey, come check out the cache at the 4H campground! I gave Rick one of those GPS units, but I use it more than he does. Tis fun!

   Comment by dobarah — July 8, 2008 @ 7:35 pm

2. You are such a nerd. I love it. Maybe the UFO’s were nearby. I hear they love to mess with electronic equipment!
   PS: What happened to Amber’s Blog?

   Comment by Janna — July 9, 2008 @ 9:11 am

3. She forgot to pay for her domain. It went ‘poof’. She hasn’t decided yet what to do about it.

   Comment by Katia — July 9, 2008 @ 11:10 pm

4. When I’m out geocaching, nothing frustrates me more than GPSr bounce. Sometimes it can be a cloudy sky, other times it can be power lines, but either way, I get mad when it happens. One thing that might help though, is make sure it’s updated with the latest firmware, and some people say that if you turn it off and then back on, it will settle down.

   If you ever make it up to Kalispell, let me know, and I’ll tell you which caches are the most awesome.

   Comment by Courtney — July 16, 2008 @ 1:19 pm

5. I love geocaching

   Comment by ZenPanda — June 20, 2009 @ 5:07 pm

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