One Year of Geocaching

Yesterday marked our one year anniversary of entering the world of caching. What better way to mark the occasion than by finding some new ones in the same area where it all began?

Dunes of Seagrove – Deer Lake State park (1/1.5 Traditional by mdbsharkman)

About four miles to the east of Seaside down CR 30-A is Deer Lake State Park, the home of our first cache of the day. We rode our bikes down the path on the side of the highway and the down the gravel road that led in to the park before dismounting to walk down the boardwalk. A little ways out over the dunes, there was a little alcove off the boardwalk with a roof and some benches, and a geocache.  Beach access was closed though, so sad.

Son of Point Washington Triangle  (3/1.5 Traditional by putt42)

Find number two on the day was hidden back in the Point Washington State Forest. As we rode into the forest, the gravel road gradually became a sandy road, making riding a bike a much tougher task. Eventually we came to a fork in the road, and here we found that which we sought. The cache was another itsy-bitsy-teeny-tiny magnetic container that had been painted red and stuck in a hole onto a bolt. A year ago, a hide like this would have vexed us, but not now.

Eastern Lake Trail (1/3.5 Traditional by HikingFish)

From there we headed further down the sandy roads and back into the forest in search of one more cache. After passing the trail we needed, we turned around and took the spur off the road and about 200 or so feet later we had the cache in hand. After that, the hard part was just riding back up to the paved road so we could head back to the house for some lunch. Thus began our second year of fiscal caching. Year one ended with 245 finds, a number we will try our best to top this time around the sun.

Halpert

Back in Seaside

This is where it all began for us, one year ago tomorrow. Down on the Emerald Coast for Spring Break, three of us decided to take some time to do a little geocaching, beginning our caching careers as the Stoogeteers. Now, two of us have returned for another week at the beach (Werner’s break didn’t coincide with that of X. Marx D’Spot and myself) and another week of geocaching. With this being our 366th day in the sport (yay for leap years), it was only fitting that we did a little finding today.

Trail 2 Where? (1.5/1.5 Traditional by Geauxtiger and son)

Find number one for the week was a cache that wasn’t around this time last year, or else we would’ve found it then. We hopped on our bikes after breakfast and rode a little over a quarter mile to the snag the smiley. It was an easy enough find, once we found the little trail it was on. The “camo” only really concealed it from one side and D’Spot had no trouble seeing it while I was walking right past it. We dropped off a travel bug I’d gotten in Crawford but took nothing for ourselves. How noble of us.

Used to Smell like Seattle (2/1 Traditional by The Killer Bees)

This cache will always be memorable for us. Last year when it found it, it became our sixth find ever. It took us two searches to locate, the first search consisting of about 30 minutes of “stealth” work that had us feeling under every chair and table and usually just sitting there wondering where the heck the cache was. Luckily, after finding I’m here if you need me… a little down 30-A later in the day, we had a better idea of what we could be looking for, and it turns out we were looking for the exact same kind of cache. There, sticking off the bottom of a door hinge, was the super-tiny-micro-magnetic container. Success was sweet, and we were hooked on caching.

This year, while I was searching for caches in the area, I noticed that this one had a new name (it used to be “Smells like Seattle”, I think). Turns out, the cache was moved after the Starbucks that hosted it closed down. The cache is still in the same general area, just a few doors down, so we decided to find it again. So we did, and that about wraps up today’s exploits. Hopefully less rain later in the week will equal more finds.

Halpert