We went Geocaching, and we have pictures.
In my drastic attempt to find even more hobbies to prevent me from inadvertently twiddling my thumbs and staring at a wall, Marisa and I have taken up Geocaching. To the people that don't know what it is, instead of me having to explain the specifics aside from "It's like a scavenger hunt for adults with GPS units," I'll just redirect you here because the good folks at Groundspeak have a much better explanation for such questions as "why?" and "so what do you get out of it?" And if you really don't know why I would get into something like that, then why the hell do you accept that I consider yo-yoing a hobby?
Nevertheless, I picked up a Magellan hand-held hiking GPS, a new leatherman, a few other hiking-related tools, and asked a few people if they'd be interested in going. Nos and Cory were all for the experience and it wound up being really awesome. Eventually we packed everything, hopped in the car and drove to our first cache: Sunken Meadow.
We parked our car, fired up the GPS and the iphone, and started our hike. Off we went into the forest, following what we thought was the right trail because the cache description sounded pretty accurate, but it eventually led us to a path that our GPS mentioned was 50 feet through a dense thicket. We backtracked and found yet another weird off-the-beaten-path pathway, which lead us up a pretty steep incline, and eventually found it. We were very excited we wanted to find another one that was close by. Luckily geocaching is popular enough that there was one about 1/3 of a mile away, into an even denser forest. We brushed the ticks off and continued on.
We wound up hiking through a trail that lead us through a ravine and into a pretty clearing overlooking the long island sound. I snapped a picture of it but it didn't nearly do it justice, stupid iphone's 2-megapixel camera. Nevertheless, it reminds me that I have to bring "stupid fookin' rope" with us the next time we do some serious hiking that involves climbing. Oh, and don't wear flip flops when geocaching. Lesson learned. Not by me though.
We wound up going through some twisty hiking trails that put a thick forest to our right and a steep 50-foot drop to our left. All the while we heard the roaring of jetskis in the distance and had a nice view of the water. This trail got pretty rough towards the end, but after walking through some thorny bushes and finding yet another ravine, we finally found it almost under a log. Two for two, and we didn't even use the hint for this one.
We went looking for one that seemed like it was an easy park-n-grab, but after hiking across a park and finding the tree in question, we couldn't find the cache at all. The owner claimed it was still there and we just didn't see it, but oh well -- we'll check again later I suppose. No pic from that failure.
Next stop was Hoyt Farms. It's basically a pretty large forest-y area dotted with a few farm animal cages here and there. We found one which was 10 feet off the path, but the second one was up a steep hill and in the middle of a weird part of the forest. The second one we couldn't find, but after that one we were pretty satisfied that we were 3 for 5 the whole time.
Here's some pics:
Marisa found the first one. We were quite excited.
So excited that I wanted to get in on this picture-taking action.
This is on the way to the second cache. We were hiking through some thick forest when all of a sudden it opened up into a large ravine, and off in the distance was the Long Island Sound. To give you some perspective, this pic is actually looking down at a 45 degree angle for about 50 feet down.
Second find! This one was fun. We didn't even use the hint to find it. Though we did get a little bit lost trying to get back on the trail.
We climbed down the drop and came across this marshy area of the north shore. Nos mentioned it looked like Korea.
My first find. It was hidden under a hollowed-out log, about 10 feet off the trail. This was cool to look for, and especially fun trying to dodge the poison ivy. Which, I might add, is not fun.
That's about it. Everyone had a lot of fun and we're totally doing that again. It was great exercise and gives you an excuse to participate in a scavenger hunt.
Nevertheless, I picked up a Magellan hand-held hiking GPS, a new leatherman, a few other hiking-related tools, and asked a few people if they'd be interested in going. Nos and Cory were all for the experience and it wound up being really awesome. Eventually we packed everything, hopped in the car and drove to our first cache: Sunken Meadow.
We parked our car, fired up the GPS and the iphone, and started our hike. Off we went into the forest, following what we thought was the right trail because the cache description sounded pretty accurate, but it eventually led us to a path that our GPS mentioned was 50 feet through a dense thicket. We backtracked and found yet another weird off-the-beaten-path pathway, which lead us up a pretty steep incline, and eventually found it. We were very excited we wanted to find another one that was close by. Luckily geocaching is popular enough that there was one about 1/3 of a mile away, into an even denser forest. We brushed the ticks off and continued on.
We wound up hiking through a trail that lead us through a ravine and into a pretty clearing overlooking the long island sound. I snapped a picture of it but it didn't nearly do it justice, stupid iphone's 2-megapixel camera. Nevertheless, it reminds me that I have to bring "stupid fookin' rope" with us the next time we do some serious hiking that involves climbing. Oh, and don't wear flip flops when geocaching. Lesson learned. Not by me though.
We wound up going through some twisty hiking trails that put a thick forest to our right and a steep 50-foot drop to our left. All the while we heard the roaring of jetskis in the distance and had a nice view of the water. This trail got pretty rough towards the end, but after walking through some thorny bushes and finding yet another ravine, we finally found it almost under a log. Two for two, and we didn't even use the hint for this one.
We went looking for one that seemed like it was an easy park-n-grab, but after hiking across a park and finding the tree in question, we couldn't find the cache at all. The owner claimed it was still there and we just didn't see it, but oh well -- we'll check again later I suppose. No pic from that failure.
Next stop was Hoyt Farms. It's basically a pretty large forest-y area dotted with a few farm animal cages here and there. We found one which was 10 feet off the path, but the second one was up a steep hill and in the middle of a weird part of the forest. The second one we couldn't find, but after that one we were pretty satisfied that we were 3 for 5 the whole time.
Here's some pics:
Marisa found the first one. We were quite excited.
So excited that I wanted to get in on this picture-taking action.
This is on the way to the second cache. We were hiking through some thick forest when all of a sudden it opened up into a large ravine, and off in the distance was the Long Island Sound. To give you some perspective, this pic is actually looking down at a 45 degree angle for about 50 feet down.
Second find! This one was fun. We didn't even use the hint to find it. Though we did get a little bit lost trying to get back on the trail.
We climbed down the drop and came across this marshy area of the north shore. Nos mentioned it looked like Korea.
My first find. It was hidden under a hollowed-out log, about 10 feet off the trail. This was cool to look for, and especially fun trying to dodge the poison ivy. Which, I might add, is not fun.
That's about it. Everyone had a lot of fun and we're totally doing that again. It was great exercise and gives you an excuse to participate in a scavenger hunt.