The Golden B's

Isn't she precious?

(Published with permission)

Most interactions with geocachers are done online as we see who has hidden or found a new cache. We can see the 'geo names' of all the geocaching community.

One name that kept popping up as finding a lot of caches, and who was also the First to Find (FTF) on our Bibs and Fibs Cache that geo hubby and I placed, was, The Golden B's.

I sent them an email because they were our FTF, and I received a pleasant reply. Thus, we became a little more acquainted.  Seems they love Golden Retriever Dogs too, and they live a few miles from us. Their Golden goes on many of their geocache hunts.  They love geocaching and try to dash for the FTF on any new geocaches within the local area.

So, when a new geocache came out last week, I suggested that geo-hubby and I try to beat the Golden B's to the new cache.  I was slightly teasing because one never knows about these things. I told hubby to watch for a Golden Retriever because that would mean the Golden B's were in pursuit. 

We got to the location and found the path to be difficult. (Pictured below)

The GPS indicated we had to cross this 'stream' for the cache.

I said, "I don't think so!"

Just then we heard footsteps in the thicket, and down the path came a lovely, tail-wagging, proud but friendly, Golden!  "The Golden B's" (at least some of them) had arrived GPS in hand.   I ran over to the Golden and her master. I introduced us as "Starcatcher55 and CatsEye55" which she recognised immediately.  We greeted and petted the beautiful Golden.  We told her we were having trouble finding the cache in the deep thicket and canal of water. But, I said finally meeting them was just as exciting as finding the cache.

Because of the water, she went back to the road and came in from the other side.  Hubby crossed the canal on the small logs placed in the water. I waited with camera in hand.  Here they are across the creek looking high and low for the geocache. I took some photos as I waited on the other side.

(During this time, our son in Ohio called. I told him we were geocaching but we're always happy to chat with him. He wished us well and a good hunt.)

Then, I noticed that while taking pictures of Jim on the other side of the creek, I was also getting photos of a small muskrat nest right in front of me.  Maybe two. I could see the shiny fur of the muskrat in the larger opening to the right of the photo. (Maybe you can click on the photo for a close-up view.)

Soon, I became impatient, of course.  I walked further down the path and found a way over the water without getting a bit wet. I hurried to the area where they were crawling under bushes and around small trees. Their GPS's indicated they were 'right on top' of the small cache, but no one had found it yet. I decided not to crawl around in the thicket, but went over to check trees along the edge of the thicket, but off the grid for the GPS.

I'll bet we had searched for an hour when I yelled. "Waaa HOOO!!! I found it!!!" in the bark of this tree!
The base has a nice wood burrow to hide a geocache, but it wasn't there. You can't see it in the picture, but it's in the crack of the bark about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the tree. (And our GPS coordinates were not even close.)

So The Golden B's, CatsEye55 and Starcatcher55 became co-finders of our FTF.  How sweet.

It was really nice to finally meet The Golden B's, and how natural to meet in the forest of a geocache!

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda