Geocaching Adventures

So, many of you know that I am a big fan of geocaching. Well, some friends and I recently recruited my roommate, and she wrote this amazing note explaining why geocaching is so fun. So, with her permission, I copy it here for those of you who follow my blog more than my facebook. Enjoy, and try not to laugh so hard that your tears run down your legs! :D

I have recently become involved in a lesser known activity known as geocaching. For those that don't know what geocaching is, I will explain briefly.

Geocaching is a planned event occurring at any time of the day but normally late at night because that's when it is most fun. Typical tools needed for geocaching are flashlights, a GPS, and walkie talkies.

Before a geocache run is planned, one geocacher might say to another, "hey! Let's go geocaching down provo canyon!" while the second geocacher would say, "yeah, we should. I'm 3 short of my quota for the day..."

While this language may seem strange or foreign, I must add this is in fact the usual way geocachers begin to plan a run.
Once it has been decided they will make a run, another more important decision must be made. Who will the geocachers invite to come along? This is of course the most important factor in every geocache run for several reasons.
First, who you bring with you changes everthing. If you, say, brought along an expert geocacher, they could help you find the harder caches he or she has already found, thus cutting the search time in half leaving more time to find more caches. Second, the more people you invite to the cache run, the more people are there to look, also cutting down the search time leaving even more time to find more caches.

It is important to carefully examine who you bring with you on a run, because it also affects the mood. For example, its much more fun to bring along people that get along with each other and joke and laugh and throw up and have to go to the bathroom when they are in the middle of nowhere. These kind of geocachers are the quintessential kind. These seemingly random events make the geocache runs unpredictable, and therefore more exciting and fun. Not to mention hilarious. With the right geocachers present, one never knows when one might pee their pants from laughing so hard.

A typical geocache run lasts from around 10 PM til 1 or 2 AM, depending on everyones schedules the next day. And a run usually includes at least one of the following: waking up everyone on the block the geocache is located on, finding some kind of reptile or bug hiding in the shadows, talking on radios while driving up the canyon in separate cars (to keep in contact), or running accross a field to the car only to drive insanely fast to find the nearest bathroom with more than one stall.

Another form of geocaching is what's know as a geocache event. A geocache event is different from a run in several ways.

First, a run is generally planned the day of the run and is usually last minute, while an event is planned days, if not weeks in advance. Geocache events usually include some kind of delicious food and careful planning on the part of the geocacher in charge of the event. Both geocache runs and events have their own pros and cons, and both are fun in their own way. Runs are fun because they are more spontaneous and a great way to rack your geocache numbers up. Geocache events are fun because more cachers usually attend, and there is food involved. And the anticipation of a caching event makes it even more exciting, discussing beforehand the fun possibilities of the cache event.

A quick thanks to the following geocachers for making my first geocaches fun, exciting, and full of laughs. And lastly, for getting me addicted to caching.

grtcougarpianist
wordgirl77
JediMasterAilshie
ad0or
Dorkteam6

Thanks again,
4isThree