More Geocaching Excursions...

First off - ***SPOILERS*** if you're a cacher and don't want hidden spots given away then stop reading!


So yeah - I'm having a blast with this.  It now has it's own Label/Tab here on the blog.  It's so fun you guys!  I've also found that the community is super friendly and helpful.  I've emailed users for questions and asked some questions to forums and people are super cool!  It really seems to just be a lot of super outdoorsy folks!  They even have clean up events to help the environment!

1st one was out in the Santa Ana River Trail.  Mom and I had tried to find it but couldn't.  So I went back with Robin and we found it!  We looked for another one farther down the trail but no luck.  But I was glad to go back and change my sad face into a happy face!  (FYI - that's how they show up on cache map when you find or not find them).

So after this -  Robin has jumped on the Geocaching Train which thrills me since I kind of have an actual cache buddy now!  So we headed out to Irvine Park a few weeks ago since there seem to be quite a few there!

My caching Buddy!

 As we were checking out the caches we found there to be a bunch hidden called "Irvine Park Memories".  They were numbered 1, 2, etc.  One of the things I'm enjoying about these adventures is alot of times you'll find one person hides a bunch and they usually share a story or more about why.  They're so sweet and fun to read!  This person had fond memories here as a kid so she hid a bunch!

There was one right near where we parked so we hiked up the little hill and started searching around this tree.  It took us a minute but we did find it!

It was a little burned from the fires, but still there!

We looked up another one, but it mentioned TOTT which when we looked that up it meant "Tools of the Trade".  I wasn't sure what tools we needed so we skipped that one.  Although I've found out that it's usually just tweezers or a flashlight - so next time!

The next one we found was awesome!  It was under a rock that wasn't really a rock!  Or it was...but someone carved out a hole.  So cool!

Rad!

The next one led us to a fence and we searched forever!  We almost gave up but then found the little bugger!

We looked for another one that seemed like it was from a new user, and we couldn't find it and then weren't sure if it was legit so we headed up a trail to find another.  And we did!

The fire got to this one too, but some rad cacher person replaced the log that had been burnt.

By now it was getting dark and I can't see shit in dusk light so we called it a day.  So much fun though!!!  A way better way to spend a Monday evening than sitting at home!

My next adventure is a quick one - so I had a Dr. appt over at the place on Chapman.  It's next to the ER and I remember seeing one that had the ER title in it.  So I was early to the Dr.s and thought "Why not?!"  Sure enough - super easy grab!  This was my 1st parking lot one.  It was under a light post base!  I remember my friend telling me they hide them there sometimes!  Defiantly got to be super stealth though.

Parking Lot Cache!

 Next adventure was with mom.  We decided to take an evening and go walk Irvine Park again.  I wanted to try to find some of the ones we didn't find last time and now I had tweezers with me.  Sadly the fire fighters were using it as a staging area for the awful Holy Jim fire happening so it was closed.  We then decided to try Santiago Oaks Park since it was right down the street.  Again - most the trails were closed off due to the damn fire.  ACK!  Mind you I was also having car trouble so this evening was not turning out well.  We did look for one in the area where folks usually get married, but we couldn't find it.  We tried to head out to find about 3 more but each time the trail we needed to get to was closed.  UGH!  But - I had one more I thought I could try, since it looked to be more in the front...and the night got totally made when we saw 2 deer!!!

OMG Hai!!!!!

After we waited until the deer had passed us we headed over and found the cache!!

Leaving my dragon swag all over!

 The next excursion I'm adding in here is last night I did my very 1st multi cache!  Last night Robin and I decided to try one of these out.  I'd seen them on the map and read up a bit on them.  It's more like a scavenger hunt/puzzle.  You are lead to different locations - get clues that either send you to the next one or you collect.  Here's a little idea of the one we did last night:

It was all around Chapman  and each time you got to a location you had to figure out the letters.  The end result would tell you how to find the last cache.  None of the locations had caches, but there was a big one at the end!  We thought this would be a great 1st try since I'm familiar with Chapman.  We had a few struggles trying to figure it out but we did it!  It was so much fun!!

Our fountain in Attallah Plaza,  It's so pretty at night

We have a piece of the Berlin Wall on display on campus.  Super pretty at night

Cache them all!!!

I forget how much I used to love scavenger hunts as a kid and this made me think of that.  Robin and I make a great (giggling) team and had so much fun doing this!  At the end it's similar to the cache Stacy and I found at the Nature Center where you actually have to ask for it.  So cool!!

Since this was such a big cache it had a big log, so I wrote a little note!

So much stuff!!  I didn't take anything though, just left a little unicorn!

I can't wait to chat with the Library folks next week when we have our end of summer lunch for the reading program and ask if any of the actually cache!!

I'm having so much fun with this!