Geocaching Adventures: 1
Warning: If you geocache, this post is pretty much a spoiler for Kenmore/Amherst area. Then again, we only found 4 geocaches out of the 8 that we hunted for. The spoilers are still kind of vague – read at your own risk.
Today was my first day geocaching and I had a great time. The start was a little rough. There were two geocaches very close to my house and I decided I’d go it alone before my partner got out of work. I took the dogs over there and I couldn’t find anything…only looking for about 3 minutes. It was the Crosby Field Micro geocache, apparently on a small pine tree – could not find it. I did find a string attached to a small pine tree, maybe it was taken down by a muggle. My partner got out of work and we looked for 10 minutes around those trees and still could not find it. Not a good start.
Next up was the Courier-Express geocache, and again we failed to locate the cache. Most of the comments said something to the effect of “got to the coords, couldn’t find it. looked around and saw the obvious location, grabbed it and signed log book.” I was a little unnerved that we couldn’t find our second one either…and we looked everywhere. Every sign, the bus stop, Kenmore related signs, fences…everywhere we could think. Bummer! I’m going to have to put a ‘watch’ on those two items to get notified if somebody else found them – maybe they’re just not there anymore.
Still with our heads up, we headed over to a different Kenmore suburb around Fayette Ave…and we were a little cautious at first because we saw a lot of foot traffic and a lady was standing outside in her driveway, talking to somebody who looked like they were about to leave in their minivan. The compass brought us to an electric pole with a ditch around it, but that would have been too easy. Our stealth obviously needed a lot of work because right then, the lady who was talking to the minivan was in her backyard smoking a cigarette and asked “are you two geocaching?” “yes…” “do you want a hint?” She gave us a hint and I probably could have found it after it but she just kept staring at us and it was making me nervous. She finally just pointed right to it – it was a small container that was velcro’d to the opposite side of a white fence…pretty much on her property. She said a lot of geocachers have come by and usually create a big stir everytime they come over, thanks to the dogs that live in the two houses that share the fence.
I still count that as a win. So what if we got a hint? We were 0 for 3 before she came along and I’d have taken all the help I could get at the moment. Still though, that hiding spot was listed as 1/5 difficulty…and it gave us an idea of how small the containers and how devious the hiding spots can be. Then again, it was hidden on a fence and the name of the geocache was “De-Fence.” 1 out of 3 geocaches, mafukas!
Next up was a pain in our ass geocache on Delaware Rd where there is a closed Walgreens and a car dealership. Looking around, there were really only a few places. The base of each lamp post in the parking lot was rusted and some of them were rusted so much that they made a nice hiding hole for any geocache – yet we weren’t having any luck. We walked around that place a dozen times before we saw a base of a lamp post that was oddly brand new. My partner lifted it up a little ways and revealed a small 35mm film canister with a logbook. Hell yeah! Our first no-assistance find! We signed the log book, watched for muggles and replaced the canister discreetly.
You know, I probably shouldn’t be detailing the location of these all. Well, it’s already written. My site is now a spoiler for 1 Kenmore geocache. Sorry. I’ll put a warning on the top of this post. Done.
Anyway, we got sick of geocaching in the suburbs because there was always a bunch of foot and car traffic and we were getting odd looks by passersby. We drove over to Ellicott Creek Park where we found our first ammo canister geocache by the water. It was an incredibly easy find and gave us some cool stuff. Wooden Nickel City was the geocache. Signed the logbook and took a Green Day keychain…not really sure if you can see it. Also, we failed at geocache etiquette by taking something and not leaving something of equal value. We plan on returning to plant our own geocache and right our wrong at this one in our next visit.
I think our next one was nearby at a Buffalo Wild Wings. I swear the GPS coords were placed right at the door of BWW so we searched around there for a good 10 minutes but had no luck. Searched all over a completely obvious phone booth and there was really nothing else nearby. On second thought, we never checked right under the phone booth – will have to stop by another day and check there. As we were leaving, Amherst police pulled up and were eyeing us like motherf’ers, driving by BWW real slow…then pulled out into the driveway and left. Stealth fail.
Our next geocache took us to a nearby Balley’s fitness, into the woods adjacent to it. I was getting so bit up by mosquitoes that I put my arms inside my short sleeved shirt just to make it until we found the cache – hidden in a tree where 3 branches come out of. It was a coffee can that let a bunch of water inside and the logbook was completely drenched and unsignable. Oh well. I took a cool toy bug in honor of getting bitten at least 5 times on the way to get it. Again, did not replace what I took. I’m really racking up a lot of debt at these geocaches. I’ll be better about it next time…I just didn’t expect just a plethora of toys that make my eyes twinkle and my fingers sticky. It’s definitely time to hit the dollar store for toys.
Our last geocache hunt was at a cemetary. I hear some geocachers have problems with people hiding caches in cemetaries, but this one had a series of 5 geocaches inside. We looked for #5 of 5. Could not find it. The comments said things like “was 40ft away from original GPS coords” – and “Mom found it walking to the car, looking for hints on the printout.” Guess we just didn’t have the eyes for it. It was a tiny film canister hidden in a place where we knew a general area and could have been in a radius of 50ft all around it. I looked in all sorts of trees, under rocks…and people were driving around staring at us. One car drove MAYBE 1mph and the passenger stared at us for at least 5 minutes…slowly turning her head as the car turned the trail. Scram! I’m geocaching! Did not find.
So we were 4 for 8 if my math is right…I could be wrong but I really don’t feel like counting. I just know we found 4 (logged on geocaching.com)…and we left a lot without finding them. Mosquitoes are rough out there and we weren’t prepared. Bug spray and toys for next time.
Also, we were inspired by this guy who regularly stocks his geocaches with custom-made poker chips – like “first to find” poker chips for the people who find his geocaches first. We want to do something like that but can’t really think of a cheap, easy theme to do. Any suggestions?
