Notes:
Please check out my Chapter Zero geocaching preview before reading on.
Chapter Zero and this Chapter 1 are available to everyone, but the rest of the HiddenKatie™ adventures will only be available to Paid subscribers. They will be (Unfiltered)!
So I was looking at the geocaching websites to see if there was anything new near me, when I found this brand-new listing from someone named HiddenKatie:
“I’ve just placed my first cache. I’ve hunted many, but never left one before. It is attached to the bottom of a bench, in a most unexpected place. I’ve posted the rules inside the cache, and really am hoping to build a community of visitors using trust and the honor system. The FTF (first to find) gets a present! Actually, there are two presents, a girl present, and a boy present, for the first guy and first gal to find it!”
I searched on her posted GPS coordinates for the cache, and there was good news and bad news. It was only a ten-minute drive to the nature preserve the cache was in. The bad news is that it was placed near the end of a 1 1/4 mile nature trail, an elevated boardwalk above the swamp. It was a 90/90 day… over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and 90% humidity, but I just had to be the first to find it, the FTF!
I drove. I parked. I walked. I sweated my balls off. But after walking through a mix of swamp, hammocks (swamp islands), and forest, I approached the destination represented by the little blue dot in my phone’s GPS. The promised land near the end of the boardwalk trail was a wooden-roofed hut, complete with a bench where the multitudes could presumably cool their own private parts before attempting the sauna-walk back to the parking area.
When my own location converged perfectly with that little blue dot on my phone, I knelt down and peered under the bench for the buried treasure, HiddenKatie’s new cache.
There it was. Attached to the bottom of the wooden bench was a toolbox/fishing tackle box-sized storage container, about 14 inches wide, by 6 inches high, by 6 inches deep. It was plastic with a water-tight snap-off lid, firmly hung beneath the bench using industrial-strength Velcro.
I tore it loose, and sat down to peruse the magical contents. Was I the first?
I lifted the snaps, and pried off the lid. Laminated inside the lid using clear tape were HiddenKatie’s Rules of the Cache.
Katie’s Rules
Welcome! I’m proposing these rules so that it works for all of us.
In my cache there is a removable tray on top. I have divided this into a Permanent Collection section, and a Take One/Leave One section.
The Permanent Collection is a my stash of items for others to visit. As you know, some of these items can become legendary destinations once a cache gets famous. I’ve started it off with a Boylan’s Cane Cola bottle cap, a playing card from the Golden Nugget casino in Vegas, a polished rock from upstate New York (where I got it is a secret), and a key. I no longer have any idea what the key was for. I may add items as time goes by.
The Take One/Leave One stash is a location to leave a trinket, and take a trinket. When you Take One and Leave One, please document it in the log. I have started this off with a golf ball, a AA battery and a keychain from my favorite BBQ place in Texas. Whoever trades for the keychain- try the brisket sandwich.
Underneath the removable tray, you will find I have divided the space into three sections. The first section is the length of the full box and is marked “Borrow Me”. Written details and rules will be found within that section. The two smaller sections are the Borrower’s Log section, and the Visitor’s Log section.
Please write about your “borrowing” in the Borrower’s Log, and your visit in the Visitor’s Log. There are pens and scrolls of paper there, but please help me keep these replenished. Tell me and the other visitors about your experience. What you took and left. What you borrowed. Please keep the details only within this cache’s logs. In other words, please only post on public geocaching websites the usual scant information, such as the time and date of your visit, and whether the cache was found in good shape. The details should only be seen by visitors.
Thanks for visiting! Enjoy my geocache!
PS: If you are the First to Find you will find special gifts in the Borrow Me space. One surprise gift for the first guy, and one for the first gal. Enjoy the gifts, and thanks for being my first!
Rules understood, I placed the lid to the side and peered at the top tray. Everything looked untouched, so I was hopeful about being the first visitor. Removing the tray, I looked down into the “Borrow Me” section, and found the two gifts! I was not only the first guy, but the first visitor!
Join me in Chapter 2, as we discover what the gifts were, and what was in the “Borrow Me” section!