Did you ever have one of those moments when your mind is set that you want to accomplish something even when it is bringing you nothing but annoyance and frustration? Have you ever found yourself at some random location in the middle of a forest, looking through and under prickly bushes for some mystery item, wondering what in earth you are doing and why you shouldn’t just go home?
Congratulations! You, like me, must have tried your hand at geocaching. And if you had much better success and actually found the cache, I applaud you – and ask for your tips so I can do better on my next kick at the can.
I’d long heard about geocaches, but had never tried it out on my own until recently, when inspiration struck on what to do during a quiet Friday evening at home with the kids.
We started off in town, with very little success at the first three locations until we found one in the centre of town, located in a locked box. We entered the combination code, as I felt the momentary thrill of feeling like a character out of a children’s detective series. The lock then gave way for the surprises inside – a couple of scuffed-up toys and a sexually explicit message that my eight-year-old saw first and kept repeating, trying to puzzle it out, before I grabbed it away. Oops.
Our next experience went better, as I recruited my hubby to join us, knowing that he has a much better set of eyes than me. I knew that the Iron Horse trail was Alberta’s first and longest Geocache Power Trail, with more than 1,400 caches hidden on the trail in 35mm film canisters and a few ammo boxes. For those who may not have been lucky enough to see the beautiful vistas from a more fast-moving quad, but rather who traverse it on foot, it’s a new way to experience the trail and add some excitement to the journey.
We parked in Ashmont and made our way down the trail, and sure enough, my husband’s eagle eyes picked out caches within seconds each time. We entered our names in the log books, and read what other people had written before us, where they were from, and their take on the journey.
Recently, we found ourselves in a cemetery that we stopped by on a trip to the river. The cache was labeled “the nicest place” and even though my daughter was dubious that a cemetery could ever meet that definition, I was willing to explore. My husband and I found ourselves in the middle of the woods, and while we couldn’t find anything inside, I looked up to see the light from the sunset streaming through the trees, a complete moment of peace and solitude and just understood why someone, somewhere, might have thought this was ‘the nicest place,’ close, perhaps, to the resting place of a loved one. I thought if we could just get away from the driving insanity of needing to find some ridiculous cache, we could have been in the spot just appreciating the beauty of our surroundings, off the beaten path.
While we haven’t had great success finding caches as of yet, the kids’ enjoyment at discovering the secret codes and prizes was a joy. And while we may not become big geocache enthusiasts, it’s something I’d encourage anyone to try, to explore your surrounding areas, visit spots you never would before, and hopefully, come home with a kick-butt My Little Pony or Hulk figurine to boot.
