Geocaching...

Have you heard of this?!

I had not.

It's apparently been around since some dude named Dave placed the 1st "cache" in May of 2000.  Yeah.  I'm slightly late to the game.  But this is no surprise to anyone because I'm always late to every game.

Anywhoo -

I was hiking with my boyfriend (I do that now since I started dating a dude who likes to hike) and he hopped off the trail mumbling that he wondered if something was still there.

Huh?

He then explained to me what Geocaching was and proceeded to look at me like I was insane that I'd never heard of it.  Of course I never heard about it.  I seem to be completely oblivious to a lot of nifty shit that is out in our world, but that's besides the point.

Also...how cute is he and his little dog.

I digress....anyway - Geocaching.

So I of course found this totally fascinating and promptly downloaded the free portion of the app.  For the next week I researched, watched You Tube and read about what the hell this thing was.  Sadly I couldn't watch most of the videos since it was people running around with their phones video-ing and that makes me dizzy, but this guy was fun - Geo Dude and stationary so I could actually watch it.  I also love that he talks about leaving a personalized something, which I totally want to do!

Let me back up for those of you with me wondering what in the hell Geocaching is:
Apparently there are millions of these things ALL OVER THE WORLD!  They can range from small to large (mostly small).  They usually contain a "log" so you can log yourself when you find it and a lot of them contain little do-hickies.  If you take something you have to leave something.  (I'm thinking I'll get a bunch of little cat or peace sign something's and leave those!).  Some may contain a thing called a "trackable" which gives you a mission to find another "cache" in another country. There's a bunch of other cool little things that are explained way better on the link I posted above.  But in Jami language - There are little boxes hidden all over the damn world that you have to find via your app that has a compass and coordinates to help you find it.  How rad right?!  They seem to be mostly hidden in nature which makes sense because now a days if someone saw you putting back a "cache" in a light post or a wall or something in the city you may be arrested for suspected terrorism.

SO - there's one in one of our Chapman Parking Structures!  I decided to venture out one day and try to find it.  I was so ready and so excited.  But - I didn't quite get the compass...I was confused by the coordinates...and why did the "feet" keep changing...and I don't understand ....and what the fuck...and basically me:



and I just:



But I just cant:



So I gave up.

I need to wait and do this with someone whose done this before and they can show me the ropes.

My boyfriend and I were all geared up to try it out at Peter's Canyon because apparently a bunch are hidden there!  We got there - looked at the app - and no...the ones hidden there you can only see on the paid version.  There was one freebie but it hadn't been found since June 2011.  (On the app it'll say when the "cache" was last found) I've been told if it hasn't been found in a long time it's probably not there anymore.  Makes sense.  But DAMMIT!

So a couple weeks later my friend who also works at Chapman was available to go hunting with me in the Parking Structure.

Much better idea to do it with someone whose done this before on your 1st time.  She explained the coordinates to me, told me to be patient with the feet jumping around (sometimes it has to catch up ) and showed me how to work the compass.  She also showed me the best damn part - COMMENTS.  There's a place people can post comments leaving hints or tips or what not and it helped so much!

After we had scoured the parking structure we looked at the comments and realized:

***FYI SPOILER TO YOU GEO PEOPLE IF YOU ARE GOING TO TRY TO FIND THIS ONE***

that it wasn't actually in the structure, but next to it.  There were these big green electrical box things that it sounded like it may be in...but huh?  They say high voltage.  Some said "look low".  We looked all over the damn place.  Becks let me do most of the hunting (either because it was hot as balls or she was letting me find it since it was my 1st time).  She was giving me tips like look "in" things.  Are there pockets?  Etc.  I was seriously just about to give up when she heard me scream "OH MY GOD BECKS I FUCKING FOUND IT!"

I was so damn stoked

I was so goddamn excited!!!  There was a little rusted up altoid tin shoved under and in a little nook under one of these big green electrical box things.  I pulled it out and found the log (which is pretty much full) and it was full of little trinkets!

I had brought a pen to log my name, but not a trinket so I didn't take any.  But how fun right!!?

I logged our names and put it back in it's proper hiding place.  I then "logged my cache" on the app.  It was so much fun!

My Geo Caching Coach

Now that I've done it I can't wait to try to find more!!  I'll blog about each one of course - but I do need to get out and get little trinkets!

Hopefully this game isn't way too old and gone and still pretty popular, but it seems to be so we'll see!!

Happy Caching Friends!!!