Urban Geocaching Has It's Own Unique Challenges

Geocaching downtown Raleigh today and finding urban style caching challenging. Every hole and crease is used here.
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That Time of Year To Cleanup Your Geocaches

Yeah the new year has come and I am noticing that several of my caches have shown to be needing repair. Either the log books have been wet due to the snow or rain, several have just plain come up missing or they just need a boost of new swag to fill them back up. Either way I feel it is just good policy to make sure your caches are in fine working order and worthy of a find to others.

Today I was at the outer ridge of my territory and had noticed a couple of caches that I was either told the velcro was worn or the host was recently hit by a car and I should check them out, that sort of stuff. So on my lunch hour I validated that two of them were indeed in place and people are just not finding them, one was several yards from where it should be and put back in place and one was just gone. Not sure if it was moved or taken, though it was in a very non-muggle area.

I replaced the missing cache and then topped it all off by stopping by my geocache hotel and filled what I could back up with swag. Love that dollar store. I guess I am going to have to go through my other 94 caches to see who needs what. It might take a while but if I can provide quality geocaches to the finders. I did my job right.

How is your caches?

Great Day of Caching in Cary, North Carolina

It was a spectacular day geocaching in Cary, North Carolina today. If you caught my earlier posts from my phone you can see that I was out with Daughter Geoness working on our latest milestones. I want to reach over the 400 mark by the end of the year and Miss Geoness wants to get her first 200 geocaches found so she can officially be ranked in the state. In case you didn't know it, a geocacher can be ranked by State, Country and the World if you so desire but you have to have at least 200 caches minimum. The website for you to check your ranking is here.

Anyhoo, it was quite crisp out. We have been in a cold snap for a few weeks now and today's high was only around 45 degrees. The sun was out in force and we had a few moments of some gusty wind but with us tramping around in the woods seemed to cut that down quite a bit. Today we visited several parks and greenways. The micros were kept at a minimum and so only a couple of skirt hides were found. The majority ended up being small and regulars in the woods. Where we like to hike the most anyways.

All total we found 16 finds and three DNFs. Even managed to see an assortment of squirrels, rabbits and birds today. I know I will be sleeping like a baby with all that fresh air. Miss Geoness is already catching Zzzzzzs. The best thing out of it all was we had a great time and had fun hunting caches together.

Your Country Is Very Beautiful Here In New Jersey...

Greetings from the Garden State. I just flew into Newark, NJ late this afternoon and had just enough time to drive to my hotel in Piscataway, check in and grab a few of my first caches in this neck of the world. My first choice was a nice small sized cache about a mile from my hotel. I was so excited to be able to add another state to my list that I just could not wait until tomorrow. So I pulled out my etrex and drove right over. It was quite nice except for the briers nearby. Nice to know that some things do not change no matter where you live. Within a few minutes I spotted a potential hiding spot and sure enough there was the very well labeled cache.

In special tribute I left in the cache a brand new travel bug of mine and a pathtag. Took a couple of photos and put it back in it's well cammied hidey hole.

Before hunger and the eventual night fall took over completely I managed to find two other caches. One was a nice small size cache similar to the one pictured above and one nano. Now the nano was nicely place in a sign and normally would have been a sweet park and grab. In this case though I can't take all the credit for the find. You see I had help, in the form of a very curious doe.

This was so cool. I got out of my car and pretty much knew where the cache was going to be. So as I closed my car door I stopped and heard a sound to my immediate right. There about fifty feet away stood this very cute doe. As usual when I meet wild life I said "hello there" and snapped a couple of fuzzy photos. The sun was already going down and she was just out of range for the flash to do any good. So after taking the photos I walked over to the caching host and started looking around. Sure enough I found a nice little nano. I then took the log book out of the cache and was preceding to sign the last remaining spot. As I did so out of the corner of my eye I could see the deer acting quite curious as to what I was doing and walked right up to me. Now I know deer are all cute and cuddley 'n such on the other hand I have seen videos of them stomping some poor hunter as well. Let's just say I played on the side of caution and did not try to take the opportunistic photo at this time. Instead I talked quite softly to the vexxed venison right up to the point her friend dashed by from out of nowhere. At this point she took one look at me then one look at her friend and they then scampered across the road and into the nearby woods. Quite a fun experience I must say.

Well that is it for today. I am hoping to get in atleast a couple more caches before I leave on Tuesday for Boston, will keep you informed to what I do find.

HeadHardHat signing off from Noo Joi See....