Map it!

I'm such a map nerd. When I was a little kid I used to spread out maps on the living room floor and look at all the places you could go. On family vacations I would be in charge of the road atlas, and I would follow our route with my finger and announce loudly every five minutes or so that we were "almost" there. Nevermind that we were just leaving the state of Kansas, heading towards Florida and had several days, not to mention states, to drive through. I'm sure that Lewis and Clark had nothing over my navigational skills.

Lately I thought I had reached map heaven when I realized that AAA gives out free maps from a vending machine. You walk in, swipe a card and you get a brand new map still folded on the correct crease! Woohoo! Geographical nirvana! But that's old news. Because now I have a GPS. That's right. I've taken my map nerdiness to a whole new technological high with my own handheld global positioning system. And to complete my geekiness I've taken on a whole new hobby called Geocaching.


You put in the latitude and longitude of a certain waypoint, follow the directions on your GPS which in turn either lead you in circles or leads you to a hidden cache. It's a high tech treasure hunt for wannabe pirates! Arrgh, baby!


In the past couple of days I've searced for 6 caches and found 3. There's cache treasures everywhere; on the streets, in the parks, even at the library.


Here's my geocaching adventure #2
The cache is called Saratogo Creek Overlook, and it's a 1/2 mile away from my apartment, over by the park. The first time out, I made it within 20 feet of the cache, but could not figure it out. I knew it had to do something with the creek, and bridges, but there was a bridge on either side of the road and I couldn't narrow it down. I spent way too much time crossing back and forth on a busy street dodging traffic. The only unusual thing I found was this guy:



However I was drawing all kinds of attention to myself. I was wandering around in circles, back and forth with a bike helmet on, staring at my GPs muttering to myself "Now which way? That way?!? I just came from that way! Which way is North again?" Considering I was right across the street from Kaiser hospital and near a park known for homeless people I decided to give it a rest before I was visited by a friendly officer of the law.


I couldn't stop thinking about that cache though. The hint they gave was "fence". So I knew it had to be right at the creek fence. I headed back the next morning with fresh determination.



Found it!!! I was so excited, one minute I was hanging over the bridge looking down at the creek trying to imagine if he had actually stuck it under the bridge when inspiration struck..."I wonder if he could have put it there????" Eureka! And no I'm NOT going to tell you where it was, just in case you decide to look for it yourself one day.



I opened the cache, looked at the log and the people who had been there and signed before me




then added my name!


My next adventure I didn't have so much luck. The cache is called "at the crossroads" and is described as an easy find in the parking lot at the Saratoga Gap trailhead.



Again with my bike helmet on; which I found out is useful for protecting my head from branches. (Both off and on the bike actually...) I poked through branches, walked around in circles...



tried to think like a pirate "argh, shiver me timbers, where would I hide buried treasure?"



But no luck. That cache would have to wait for another day.


So I did what any self respecting pirate would do, I put away the GPS and went for a ride instead.







Because sometimes


you really don't need a GPS






to find treasure.