On 05/02/2010 08:32 PM, Giles wrote:
So, I bought a gps about three years ago because.....um.....well,
because a boy NEEDS a gps.....right?

Turns out to be very handy. A bit cumbersome for road trips (this is
a handheld, presumably designed primarily for foot travel, bicycling,
kayaking, etc....at which it excels), but very useful nevertheless.
Becky thinks it's the cat's ass. Becky gets a gps.

Last October I suddenly find myself on the road a lot in unfamiliar
turf. The gps is not designed for this. Time to get another
one.....a dashboard mount, this time. Works splendidly. Becky adores
it. Becky gets another gps.

Nine days ago we are chatting: "Blah." "Ibbity." "Blah." "Yadda."
"Geocaching." "Hm?"

So, eight days ago, off we go. I google "geocaching." First hit is
http://www.geocaching.com/

Somewhere in there it says that there are more than a million
geocaches worldwide. ****.....subsequent research (entailing all of
three minutes) reveals that there are fourteen thousand within a
hundred miles of where I sit typing.....and that's just the ones
registered on this particular site (oh yes, there are others).

Saturday, the 24th, Becky and I venture forth, gps in hand, and
actually manage to find.....not just ONE, but SEVEN of the ten we
search for, all within the city of Burlington (well, actually, one is
technically outside the city limits by a couple hundred feet, bfd).

So?

So, Burlington is where Becky grew up and where I've spent a great
deal of time over the last forty years, having grown up about 25 miles
from there. One could honestly boast that we are both intimately
familiar with the environs. And over the course of little more than
half a day, we BOTH went to half a dozen places we'd never been to
before.....and this in a town of about ten thousand people!

So?

So, geocachers will hide their little log books and trinkets
ANYWHERE!......but, not so surprisingly, they tend to prefer out of
the way places which, not so surprisingly, tend to map pretty closely
over the kinds of places preferred by.....wait for it.....hunters,
hikers, skiers, bikers, climbers, birders, canoers, and......fly
fishers!

And, to top it all off, geocachers have their own little insular
world, replete with arcane terminology, convoluted ethics and
etiquette, thinly (if at all) veiled contempt for the rest of the
world ("muggles", not so surprisingly), a keen conception of and
appreciation for their own worth vis a vis the rest of the world, and
an agenda that doesn't actually promise but somehow or other
nevertheless manages to convey the notion that they will, in the long
run, single-handedly save the world......just like.......yep, you got
it.....fly fishers!

Huzzah!

giles
who, due to schedule differences, has fallen behind Becky by about
twenty caches or so.....but plans to make up the difference in the
next 5 days.

Cool! I started Geocaching several years ago just on the edge of when
that kind of thing was cool to my kids. When kids become teenagers
different things become cool--geocaching fell off of the list. We also
had a number of bad experiences with caches that had been muggled which
also dampened the enthusiasm. I've gone an found a few by myself, but
it's more of a group sport. One geocache did lead me to one of the best
streams I have ever fished.

Have fun. I think it is a great activity.

Russell