North Dakota geocoin

North Dakota geocoin
Originally uploaded by ZhenPanda

I love geocoins.

I own over 50.

This is one I was super excited to find! The seller on eBay advertised it as trackable... it's not.

Oh, well! It's still a neat coin.

Geocoin set

I had a minute

So I snapped a few pics of my geocaching necessities!

1. Geocaching goodie bag, 2. Geocaching backpack, 3. Geocaching stuff close up, 4. Geocaching stuff close up, 5. Geocaching stuff overall, 6. Geocaching humor (just to fill the space here)

How to have fun geocaching with kids

Maybe it's the teacher in me but when I take the hoards out caching I like to have "jobs" for each so they can feel like they are an important part of our outings.

Geocaching jobs:

1. the pointer - this is the top job because the person with the GPS tells us where to go & how far we should be from a cache. This person sits in the front passenger seat when driving to the cache they are assigned.
   
2. the tourist - I carry 4 or more cameras so this person gets to take all the photos they choose to with which ever camera (I have toy film cameras as well as digital cameras.) I usually stay closest to this person while we hunt a cache.
   
3. the scribbler - carries the pencil or pen and writes our info in the log.
   
4. the lookout - watches for muggles and tries to be the distraction if needed (not needed very often)
5. the guide - carries the printed sheet about the cache and reads/deciphers clues when needed (needed frequently when more than 3 people are caching)

Jobs change with each cache we hunt. If we are going after 5 caches everyone will have a chance to do each job. If there are more people I make up jobs to keep them busy.

What is geocaching, anyway??

(I stole this from Wiki)

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 800,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to the pastime. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.

For my kids it is just a fun thing we do on weekends and when the mood strikes!

Cachin' with kids

I usually try to recruit random kids to go out and geocache with me since after once or twice adults are bored....maybe it's just my husband.




These guys loved it! We have one more weekend before they go back home so I hope to get a couple more finished with them... maybe even a hide!

I wish my husband enjoyed geocaching as much as I do

It's so sad. I can hardly get him to do park & grabs!

Oh, well- His loss!

I'm going to do a cache machine!

And I'm going to have a ball!

I have a plan!

OK, I know that no matter how well I plan things happen. I will adapt, I will overcome. IF necessary.

My PLAN for this summer (since I will have to work most of it):

• Waymark the places within my town from the National Register of Historic Places. (I work in the middle of one district so that will be my noon walk!)
• Do more benchmarking within my town. (I have pretty much cached-out the immediate area)
• Finish the waymarks from my trip to Helena- over 45! (That should take at least 2 weeks)
• Attend the Lewis & Clark Festival/geocaching event on June 28, 2008.
  

So there's my plan.
Wish me luck!

Charles M. Russell

Charles M. Russell
Originally uploaded by ZhenPanda

So I found the last of the 3 "Famous people" buried in Great Falls. Woo Hoo!

They will be waymarked shortly!

St. Helena's Cathedral

St. Helena's Cathedral
Originally uploaded by ZhenPanda

Benchmarked. Waymarked.

Wow- if I could only come up with a great geocache this would have been a home run!

Today was a full day of geocaching, benchmarking, waymarking & Photography! Son#1 had an appointment at Ft. Harrison so I drove him. We found 5 benchmarks & 2 geocaches. I must have found about 40 items to waymark.

It was a great day!

Whiney Pete had fun geocaching

Whiney Pete had fun geocaching
Originally uploaded by ZhenPanda

I'm slowly getting out more.

Today was just fun to let one of my nephews find the cache!

Getting out and about again

I decided that whether my GPS wanted to work with my laptop or not I was going caching!

I found a easy one yesterday


Today I told the hubby i was going out and invited him along. he begrudgingly hopped in the car. We struck out on the first try- a micro I had attempted before without any luck. (Maybe the third time will work). Then we headed down by the river for a level 4 difficulty. I figured if we couldn't find that one we'd head home. We followed the GPS to within 10 feet and began the intense hunt. As we searched an older truck pulled within 15 feet, parked and the occupants sat watching the river nearby. A few minutes later the passenger tossed a bottle out her window in our direction. We moved away. They left shortly after and that is when the hubby spotted the cache. So we signed the log and headed to the 3rd cache. Super easy find. On to the fourth and final cache. Another easy find. We dropped a coin and singed the log.

As we headed to our victory ice cream stop the hubby started to discuss how it may be a good idea to look into a hang gun since the occupants of the truck did not appear to be very friendly. I am not opposed to guns and do not intend to carry a sidearm while caching but we went to look a few. I did not think we would purchase one but we did.

It's funny how easy it was- 45 minutes and here is his spiffy new toy.


Complete with the warning card.


Now I get to pick a really cool computer!!

Geocoin lost inventory

I thought it was only 1 coin (maybe two) lost.

NOT!

I have 4 missing coins.

Damn.

Caching in the Leaves
Masters of Space
2006 CITO
Meet & Greet

Why I am no longer releasing geocoins

I got a little Gun-ho about collecting and sharing geocoins about a year ago. It was cool to see where they went and how far or haw fast they moved.

Then the started to disappear.

1 is totally gone but the nice person who had it at an event replaced it.
2 are now questionable- I even sent emails to the cache owners to see if they might check their caches. One owner was very nice and helpful but the other was very rude. The second owner could not be bothered to read the cache log back further than the main page entries so they accused me of placing the coin in another cache (I didn't place the coin in the first place). When I pointed out the entry of when the coin was dropped they responded with "we have no plans to visit this cache until summer so you will have to go check it yourself." WOW! The cache is in New York & I live in Montana.

Thanks for the help fellow cacher!

(please excuse the sarcasm)

I will not be placing coins in caches anymore. I plan to display them at events but no more will I waste my time, money & effort to send them out on a journey.

IT SUCKS!

I'm Stumped

Stump
Originally uploaded by ZhenPanda

I haven't re-installed my GPS software since I had to re-format my computer. Since the problems are still popping up I'm afraid to.

I just can't find the motivation to get out & cache.

I really miss it.