The summer of 2009 will be remembered as the time I started geocaching as an active interest; I had access to a GPS and account on geocaching.com. I went online and was surprised to find two caches in our neighborhood park in Coulwood! I quickly printed out the two guide sheets, entered both waypoints N 35° 18.436 W 080° 56.484 and N 35° 18.412 W 080° 56.593 (sets of coordinates for locations of the geocaches) on the GPS, and headed out the door! It was not long before I discovered a few important things that a geocacher needs to consider before heading out on their first adventure.
I did not realize that you actually have to go off the main path and into a wooded area to retrieve a cache. As I walked the Coulwood Park trail and reading the direction and distance on the GPS, I thought, "Am I suppose to actually leave the walking trail and go into those woods?" After going down the trail different directions and not getting closer to the cache, the answer was, "Well yeah if you are going to find it!" There I was in shorts and flip flops! I watched every step I took on my trek to the hidden cache. Having to look down, I found myself running into a few spider webs and bushing into some plant branches. It was evident that I am more cautious in my old age.
I am extremely allergic to poison ivy so I know what it looks like and can spot it at a distance. I have found that when you geocache in the summer in North Carolina you will see an abundance of poison ivy. It is VERY IMPORTANT that every geocacher can identify poison ivy and poison oak. They both have only three leaves , are shades of green, and found in various sizes . We also have an abundance of Virginia Creeper, pictured on the right. It has five leaves like the fingers on your hand so it is safe to touch.
During my hunts I have found that it is evident that some caches are put out in the winter then when summer arrives, they are surrounded by poison ivy. The hint on the data sheet for one of the caches I planned to find was Base of Tree. It was the tree pictured below. Needless to say, I passed up retrieving this cache!
I did not realize that you actually have to go off the main path and into a wooded area to retrieve a cache. As I walked the Coulwood Park trail and reading the direction and distance on the GPS, I thought, "Am I suppose to actually leave the walking trail and go into those woods?" After going down the trail different directions and not getting closer to the cache, the answer was, "Well yeah if you are going to find it!" There I was in shorts and flip flops! I watched every step I took on my trek to the hidden cache. Having to look down, I found myself running into a few spider webs and bushing into some plant branches. It was evident that I am more cautious in my old age.
I am extremely allergic to poison ivy so I know what it looks like and can spot it at a distance. I have found that when you geocache in the summer in North Carolina you will see an abundance of poison ivy. It is VERY IMPORTANT that every geocacher can identify poison ivy and poison oak. They both have only three leaves , are shades of green, and found in various sizes . We also have an abundance of Virginia Creeper, pictured on the right. It has five leaves like the fingers on your hand so it is safe to touch.During my hunts I have found that it is evident that some caches are put out in the winter then when summer arrives, they are surrounded by poison ivy. The hint on the data sheet for one of the caches I planned to find was Base of Tree. It was the tree pictured below. Needless to say, I passed up retrieving this cache!
No comments:
Post a Comment