Geocache

Do you geocache? Sounds like it might be a personal question, doesn't it. But really it is a treasure hunt kind of thing.

Geocaching frequently asked questions.

This is a web based GPS hide and go seek game where stashes of trinkets or small boxes of toys and a paper log are hidden in prominent locations. Usually on public grounds, and the GPS coordinates are entered in the geocache web site.

I know that many of you know much more about this than I do. I am truly a novice at this kind of thing. With that said, I have been looking for a geocache that is less than a mile from my house. Today was the second time I have gone over to the site and looked. This time I saw it.

I'm sure I was looking at it all along, but it was so small, that I didn't realize it was right there. It was smaller that a peanut, and painted the same color as its host object, that I am not supposed to give away. So it looked like another bolt head.

The little canister had a magnet in the bottom and it stuck like crazy to the under side of this host object. I took it to the seat of the truck, as it was 97 outside and the wind was like dragon breath. After some poking at it, I derermined that the lid screwed off.

Inside was a long strip of paper, that ID ed the item as what I was looking for, and had a secret number that is part of a larger puzzle. You are to send the owner of the stash, an email with the number as proof you found it. This in turn assures him that it is still there.

The clues were almost all wrong, as this is in an area destined to be new homes. It has been bull dozed and streets have been partially concreted.

The last time I looked, the weeds had overgrown the area so badly that it was hard to look. But since then, many of the areas had been mowed, including where the hiding spot is.

But the joke is on me since this is one of six caches containing numbers. Once you have all six, then you have to guess how to put the numbers together in order to find the main cache. I did enter the other waypoints into the GPS, but finding them will have to come another day.

Spending gas to go look for them seems foolish, but then I've done a lot of foolish things in my time. I have a pretty good idea where most of the others are, but finding a 3/16 inch round magnetic little tin canister, is like looking for that proverbial needle.