A Geo-Tree Full of Whistles

Geocaching never ceases to amaze me.  Today we set out to find a cache called, "Mondo's Little Secret".  Around where we live, it seems that Mondo (whoever he is) has hidden hundreds of geocaches.  This one suggested that it had found the secret to all Mondo's caches...

Yes, it was right beside a Wal-Mart.  It took me a slow few minutes to make the connection... Mondo must have gotten all his supplies to make those caches from - wait for it - wait to it - ...WAL-MART.

There's a lot of construction going on right where our GPS indicated the cache dedicated to Mondo should be. We walked around the spot picking up the signal and losing it several times.  Then I spotted something different hanging from the branches of what looked like a perfect giant Christmas tree.

Can you see them?  The tree had blue and white whistles hanging like Christmas decorations!  There must have been at least a dozen whistles hanging from black strings.

The "Cache" was also blue and white.  It was a large pill bottle and had goodies like balloons and small toys for kids.  We added three items, a wooden 'Spirit of Sheba" nickel, a star that represents my geo name (Starcatcher55), and one of Jim's blue catseye marbles.

Of course, Jim just had to have - a whistle!

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

My First Denver City Geocache

I had a Groupon Coupon for an almost FREE cut and color today, but it was in downtown Denver. While we have visited a lot of the mountain country, we've not been in the very busy, big city until today. I was going alone, so I wanted to be prepared, and I hoped to find at least one city geocache.

Mapping out my route, and visiting Google maps, I found the salon and metered parking right on time. During the appointment, the stylist told me how to find the city park on my way home. At the park, I found my first "city" geocache down by the river that runs through Denver.

The park isn't the best one in Denver, I'm sure. But, at least I didn't get lost!

 The view from the park path

 The path...I actually climbed down next to the river, but later discovered the geocache was up on the other side of this path under a rock by some trees.

 Ohhh, there it is as I moved a big rock right where the GPS indicated.

This cache is in need of maintenance as it had nothing in it. Not even a log to sign.

Click on this photo for a close-up of the water.

I'm sure there are nicer places that we will find later now that we've "ventured" into the city. This is where I parked. Even parking was a little un-nerving.

Take Care on the Journey,

~Linda

Hole In One

After lunch we took a little walk in a local park for a posted Geocache.

Little did we know what an unusual find we would discover.

See this most interesting 'find' in these photos.

We walked around this rock several times and didn't notice the big hole until my GPS indicated it was 'right here!"

 

 The extra bottle is to make the cache longer so we could reach it.

 This cache included a small calculator that worked! We added a wooden coin with Sheba's photo on the front and the words  "Spirit of Sheba" RIP on the back.

 Jim points to the secret hiding place. See it?

We couldn't figure out how the hole got there.

It looks like it was machine-made.

We think someone discovered it and said, "What a nice geocache hiding place!"

Take Care on the Journey,

~Linda

For John

 What do you think, John?

A good geocaching headpiece?

This little cache was almost never found. I had been there many times, but this time geo-hubby knelt on the ground and looked up and under to find this magnetic cache stuck way inside the container. The story on the web is that people have taken so long to find this that they have been accosted by the police asking what they are doing there.  One geocacher said he was delayed for two hours while they searched him, his pockets, his car, and demanded to see the website on his iPhone. I carry a brochure about geocaching in my car for those testy officers who've never heard of geocaching.

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda/Mom

Geocaching at Sunset in Denver

The sunset is brilliant. The cache is obscure.

For some, it may be easy. For me, it's usually a puzzle. But, a satisfying rush when I find it.

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Geocaching After Dinner February 4, 2011

I'm a Premium member of Geocaching.com and I've downloaded the app to the iPhone, and we have a nice Garmin GPS, so whenever we want to do a little treasure hunting, we're ready to go.

The other day after an early Valentines Dinner at Olive Garden, I suggested that hubby help me find a couple of Geocaches that were eluding me. Turning on the GPS, and selecting the caches we wanted to find, we started down the road.  The GPS brings up any caches in about a 3-mile radius so we were really surprised at how many were close by that I didn't know about! 

In fact, the little 'cache alarm' went off indicating that we were very close to one. "Another Rock Cache" was at the corner right where we were stopped at a stop sign!!! Turning into the parking lot and following the 'hint' to keep close to the edge, we walked along the edge of the rocks beside the parking lot until we found this little 36 mm film container under a rock. It was camouflaged and held only a little rolled up paper log for us to sign. Hubby (Geo CatsEye55) was going to leave one of his catseye marbles, but it wouldn't fit. Maybe if you click on the photo, you will see the film container. (All these photos were taken with my iPhone, so may not be the best quality.)

Here's the photo of Jim (Geocacher CatsEye55) putting the cache back in it's hiding spot under a rock. Gotta be exact so the GPS will be correct for the next geocacher!  Yeah, it was a bit chilly, but we enjoyed it anyway!

Next, we discovered there was one close to the Drivers License Building that was only a block away. The person who hid it there wrote that this was something a geocacher could do while waiting in the very long lines that are always at the DVM.  He said it was hanging in a cedar tree next to the parking lot, and as the snow is still quite bothersome, we were happy to search close to the roadway. 

Here's a picture of the TREE that our GPS indicated contained a "DVM Cache". Okay, who wants to climb the tree? 

After circling under the tree for a few minutes, Jim spotted the small 35 mm film canister hanging from a small wire on a branch. (Too high for me to reach.)  In the next photo, Jim is pointing to the canister. I'm hoping if you click the photo, you can actually see it. I won't know until I post this to the Internet. (The photo was too dark and had to be edited. Hope it works for this.)

Later, we found a couple more caches, but some will have to wait until the snow melts to find.  We spent about two hours in a 5-block area just enjoying all the mysterious caches!  I can't believe how many hundreds of caches are hidden within walking distance of our home. This Geocaching is really BIG.

Oh yeah, we almost found another one in a tree, but there were two bunny rabbits eating, and we didn't want to disturb them. We also saw a beautiful red fox who sauntered across the road in front of us.  Too fast for a photo through!

Until next time,

Take Care on the Journey,

~ Starcatcher55 (Linda) and CatsEye55 (Jim)

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