It’s called geocaching. The web page (geocaching.com) further describes it as “The sport where YOU are the search engine.” I call it ‘Treasure Hunt with a GPS’.

The basics are simple. Someone has hidden something somewhere in a waterproof container. Your job is to find it.

There are several types of caches: Standard (usually an ammo box, sometimes a Tupperware container), Micro (pill container or something equally small), Multi (two or more caches are hidden. The first has a clue to find the next), or Virtual (no container hidden. When you reach the site, you note something that you are asked to find. E-mail it to the cacher, and you receive credit. ) Some people search for benchmarks (those little pieces of metal left by the US Geological Survey when it surveys.)

Some caches contain Travel Bugs. These are a dog tag with a serial number, attached to an object. Frequently, these have tasks, such as visiting every state, or foreign countries. The one I sought today is the Turkey Trot Bug. It has the combination to a lock on a cache on Turkey Mountain. Its task is to move about Morris County, or the nearby environs. (Turkey Mountain is in Morris County.)

Each cache has a web page on geocaching.com. The page lists the name of the cache, the type of cache, the size, the handle of the person/s who cached it, and the compass coordinates of the cache (in degrees, minutes and decimal minutes, or in UTM). A map of the area is included, as well as a description of the area and the cache, sometimes with additional hints.

When you find a cache, you log into geocaching.com, and claim your find. If you find and move a Travel Bug, you log that here as well.

Simple? So you think! I read about geocaching in the newspaper, and tried it out the beginning of July on a cache located near the trail that I maintain. It’s called the Terrace Pond cache. I enjoyed searching for it, and found it with out too much difficulty.

Since my friend is still in Brasil, and I needed something to do today, I decided to go geocaching. I will admit that I spent a fair amount of time on the Internet searching for nearby caches, and printing out the web pages. I discovered a cache called Smokey’s Wallow. It is so named because the cacher found a bear wallowing in a bathtub-sized pond. This cache is in Passaic County, but contained a Travel Bug called Turkey Trot. Since it was in the wrong county, I decided to attempt to liberate it.





Smokey’s Wallow
Traditional Cache
Size: Regular
By Team Magster
N 41° 05.621 W 074° 27.473 (UTM: 18T E 545527 N 4549298)
In New Jersey United States
Hidden: 4/20/2003
Difficulty 3 stars Terrain 2.5 stars.
There followed a minimal description, including the fact that this is in the Newark watershed, and a hiking permit is required (I have one.) The encrypted additional hint suggested that if I got this far, I didn’t need a hint!

And, so, I set out.


  My NYNJTC trail map showed the easiest access to be from Parking Area P9, a mile or two in on a dirt road. Thence I proceeded along Clinton Reservoir on the white-blazed Bearfort Waters Clinton Trail. The compass coordinates were fed into my GPS, and I was on my own.

“Go To” showed the point to be 1.09 miles distant, as the crow flies. I followed the trail for a mile, until the GPS showed the point to be .25 mile to the left. Then I bushwhacked. After a bit, I found an ATV trail, and followed that. (It should be noted that motorized off-road vehicles are strictly prohibited!) When I reached what was obviously the bear wallow, my GPS told me that I had arrived. A GPS is accurate, in ideal conditions, to about seventeen feet. Next, I needed to find the cache. Caches are hidden (sometimes too well) to assure that only the seeker will find it. It took me twenty minutes to find it buried under rocks and leaves in a hole left by a dead tree.

I took the Travel Bug, and left a pewter dolphin (okay, so it was a very ugly pewter dolphin. I’m starting to think that geocaching is also a good way to dispose of those things that people give you that you just cannot throw away.) I re-hid the cache in its original location, and followed the ATV trail to the main trail. Total distance: about three miles. Total time: about three hours. And on to the next one…


  Needful Things is a traditional, regular sized cache, hidden behind the old water tower on Firetower Ridge Trail. I’ve hiked here before. After I arrived, I found the cache in ten minutes. (Those rocks don’t look right… Eureka!) I left a plastic cube with a globe in it. I took a small rubber whale.



About a mile away was Sierra Bravo 01-Clinton Road. I found the location easily. I never did find the cache. This is a small Glad container. I spent an hour looking, and gave up. Maybe another time?


  Next was Clinton Road Drive and Dump. It’s a micro cache just off the road. Even with the coordinates, I might never have found it without the clue. With the clue, it was easy. I left a quarter.

I had only planned on these four for the day, but I was disheartened by the one failure, And the Travel Bug did need to be relocated… So I went for Ski Bowl. Ski Bowl is listed as a traditional cache atop Bowling Green Mountain. Hints are to climb the old ski trails four hundred feet up the mountain. I went up the road to the cell tower instead. This is in Mahlon Dickinson Reservation, and within Morris County, so it seemed a good place to leave the Turkey Trot Bug.

I followed the GPS along the top of the mountain, on an unmaintained trail, and discovered … a man with the cache open on top of the foundation of one of the ski towers. (This ski area probably closed in the 1960’s.) “Oops”, he said.

Well, I found it, and I didn’t find it. I probably would have found it on my own. I left the Travel Bug, and a key ring from Harrah’s and took a carabineer. I had a nice chat with him on the way back down the mountain. His handle is Tiffany’s Slaves (or one of them, at least).

Not finding the cache myself left me needing an ego boost, so I drove up the mountain, into the reservation, and went hunting for: Remembering Gerima. This cache was left in memory of lakelady’s grandmother. I took a tape measure, and left some polished agates.



It was getting late, and I was almost out of water (I actually went through a whole three liters of water!), but .15 mile away was Needful Things VI (also cached by Skully and Muldur). The GPS lead me right to the small cave in the rocks. I took an Armorall, and left a small plastic dolphin.

I was home by 4 PM. I had a lot of fun, and saw some beautiful areas that I would otherwise never have hiked.

Now, what shall I do tomorrow? Den10, in Mount Freedom, has two Travel Bugs. Dude, where’s my Cache, in Succasunna, has one. I could leave the Iraq Bug in Not Mine, Maybe Richard’s, which is near the Arsenal. This is a patriotic Bug. It wants to go to Iraq to support our soldiers. I could trade one of the Bugs for New Years, at Ascension, in Berkshire Valley. New Years Bug came from the Netherlands. I’d like to leave it in New Hampshire, along with the Bug that wants to go to England…


***



  7/18/04. Occasional light showers with forecast for heavy rain later. It's time to try a few 'morning drive-by' caches.

den10 is in James Andrews Memorial Park, off Radtke Rpad in Mount Freedom. I've been down this road a lot, and there is no parking. So I parked in the trail head. Easy cache, set by the local boy scouts. I left a toy humvee, and took the "Back to the Old Country" Travel Bug. The trowel and dogtag want to travel to England. I may keep this one a few weeks, and leave it in New Hampshire. I did not take the Benjamin Franklin Bug.





  Next up: Dude, Where's my Cache? On the site of an old dude ranch in Succasunna. The Topozone map indicates coming in off Mark Ln. Quiet residential street. I found a trail that went over the Lamington/Black River. I followed the track, and discovered I was in the middle of a Triathlon. I had to keep getting off the track to let runners pass. Oh, well. GPS indicated that the cache was on the other side of the river. Back over the river. I thought this would be an easy drive by. It wasn't. .25 mile of bushwhacking. I disturbed a turkey hen and five chicks. I didn't bring my camera because of the showers. It was very muddy. The cache was in a tree trunk. I took a Travel Bug with nothing attached; left some polished agates.





~ Paul (AHikingDude@aol.com)

~
© July 2004
© Photographs by Paul (AHikingDude@aol.com)


 



BACK




If you use my graphics, please add my button and a link to this website.

http://readerscorneratmarilynsplace.com






Check these out:

Oh, Shenandoah

Home Sweet Home

Lost In The Fifties

Toad Of Willow Creek



Click HERE and visit my Graphics by Marilyn site.
http://graphicsbymarilyn.com