It was my latest geocaching adventure.
It was a while ago, but it seems like yesterday when I had to walk through the godforsaken heat of the swamp to the end of this boardwalk-style nature trail for the first time.
But it was worth it! I found Katie’s box!
My first chapter in this adventure is coming soon, but before that you may need this geocaching primer!
About Geocaching
Geocaching is a hobby to some, an intense avocation to others. Think of it as a scavenger hunt of the GPS era, where someone "hides" an object, usually a container of some sort, and posts the GPS coordinates of the secret hiding place on one of several geocaching websites.
A typical container used to house a cache is typically between the size of a film canister and a shoebox, although some use surplus army ammo boxes, which are known for being rugged and watertight.
(The one I found that day was a waterproof plastic snap-top storage container, about the size of a shoebox.)
Every geocache has its own rules, its own purpose. The typical geocache contains souvenir-type trinkets- a doll, a keychain, an old coin, stickers, really anything you can imagine- left behind for geocachers to "visit".
Other caches do the same, but with a "take-one, leave-one" philosophy, where you take a trinket and leave a different one. Next cache you visit, you leave behind the item you took today, and so on and so on.
Also, when someone places a new geocache, they will usually leave a nice gift for the first person that finds it!
So… geocaching fans monitor the caching websites for caches they'd like to visit. They hunt them down, view the trinkets, maybe take one and leave one, sign the paper visitor log inside the cache, and then log in on the website to report their visit.
A typical website post might say, "It was easier to find than I thought it would be. I had fun seeing all the shit. Everything was in good shape, and I left it that way. TFTC"... TFTC being shorthand for "Thanks for the Cache".
Another internet report might read, "The thing was muggled (vandalized). I picked up the pieces I could find and put it back where I think it belonged."
You've perhaps noted from this that website reports of cache visits are brief and superficial. That's because the real visitor-to-visitor communications occur via the cache itself. That's where the good stuff happens.
Every geocache has a paper visitor log. But it's also common to see personal notes left behind on small scrolls of cash register or adding machine paper, or perhaps on one of those long, skinny sheets of paper torn from notepads designed to be used for shopping lists.
TFTC!