An Ammo Box Kind of Day!

Yesterday we took advantage of the 50º January weather to head out geocaching.

My favorite kind of find....an ammo box!

This box was almost as big as Heidi!

Only the second giant ammo box I've found.
One of the reasons I rarely see them is because it takes a lot to hide it!

Hmmm, wonder where it is?

Don't be afraid to investigate!
Cache was inside black container.

Geocaching through Northern Indiana

We just wrapped up a weekend trip the Indiana Dunes & Northern Indiana. Successfully geocaching in 8 new counties, we now have 59 of 92 completed. Here are some fun finds -

Unsuspecting cache in plain sight

There it is!

I've never seen a bright yellow ammo box!

Where could this one be?

In a faux screw!
Inside is a tiny roll of paper to sign.
 The worst part is not finding it, but putting it back together!

Geocaching down the river

Jeff & I took an afternoon canoe trip down the river inspired by some riverside geocaching! They were ranked as some of the most difficult geocaches in the area, but together we found five of them. We are good team!

Stopping at the island for another geocache

Can you see this geocache?

There it is!

Geocaching Through Indiana.....Halfway!

In less than six months, we have reached the halfway point of geocaching in all of Indiana's 92 counties! 47 counties visited, 45 more to go! It'll be those little random counties (yes, that's right Ohio County!) that'll probably be most time challenging since they are off the beaten path.

And to show one of the more unique geocaches we found on our last trip....

One of our recent finds involved signing the
Wizard of Oz's yellow brick rather than a notebook.

More adventures in geocaching

Today had an unseasonably warm 68º on Leap Day!

 I took the kids out for some geocaching adventures...

Notice the rocks on the headstones at this local Hebrew cemetery?

Jews have the custom of placing rocks (as opposed to flowers) on a grave that they've come to visit. This stems from the modern-day Jewish custom of not having flowers at a funeral. It is Jewish custom to have simple funerals, and flowers are considered expensive, excessive, and they only last a few days. Cool fact!
(Oh and there were a couple geocaches here too!)

Couldn't find this geocache until I stepped back
and realized that a brick wall around a dumpster
did not need an electrical outlet. 

And I was right!
This little guy was just a magnetized treasure chest
with a faux pipe.

Geocaching in Northeast Indiana

Today we headed up north for a fun day trip (see upcoming blog). On the way, we found a few interesting geocaches...

My mom, the newbie, actually found this one.
Hidden in an empty utility box along the interstate,
she found the "World's Most Visible Cache".
Termed that because it is seen daily
by thousands of people who have no idea what it really is!

"Rebel Without a Cache"
We drive so close to his gravesite several times a year,
but had never seen it!

The sunset welcoming us home

Cache the Big Game!

Our county offered a geocaching challenge called the Cache the Big Game series starting today. Since it is Friday and the possibility of snow tomorrow, I wanted to try to get as many as I could. There is also a prize for the first 100 people to find them all!
Read here to learn more about it.

We, my mom, little ones and I, started out early for our big day. We ended up finding 5 out of the 8 on the challenge, plus 4 more. We collected a total of 9 geocaches! What's impressive about this is that it was 37º AND I had two little (bundled up, well-bahaved and happy) kids.

Checking them off our list!

Little cacher

Our micro cache
(There's actually a log book rolled up inside!)

We wore them out!

85 Counties to go...

A few of my wishes this year is to visit more local places. As a tourism major, I should remind myself that there's "more than corn in Indiana".  We've had some great memories stumbling across geocaches in unique places.

So with that said, I had an ambitious goal to visit each of the 92 counties in Indiana - AND find a geocache in each one! So, with that said, we have 85 counties to go. I'm looking forward to what we see and learn. And, I'm hoping, that we find out that Indiana really does have a lot to offer.

I'd love some input on fun places, cities, landmarks to help guide us. Contrary to high school, I love historic sites and little unknown places.  That's the beauty of geocaching is discovering new places! 

I've started with a few ideas -

Toboggan Run at Pokagon State Park 

Holiday World

West Baden Springs/French Lick

Shipshewana and Amish Country

George Rogers Clark National Museum (Vincennes)

Angel Mounds (Evansville)

Indiana Dunes

Indiana University, Ball State, Notre Dame, Indiana State

State Parks

Other Historic Landmarks

And after I started manually entering my statistics, I found mygeocachingprofile.com that allows me to see a map of my finds automatically. I love visuals!

Geocaching in Bear Territory

During our vacation, we decided we should get a geocache in every state we passed through. If you understand geocaching, it's a big deal to get state badges on our profile.

While crossing through Virginia, I directed Jeff to exit for a supposedly quick "park & grab" cache in the Jefferson National Forest.  As we are driving through this thick forest, Jeff claims he saw a bear. He throws the car into reverse until we reach a clearing. Luckily, Jeff's vision of a bear was a mere flock of these....

About 1/2 a mile later, we find a small gravel spot with a little trail leading off it. The GPS says the geocache is about 250' from the spot. Ryan is sleeping so Jeff tells me to jump out and get it. About 50' up the trail, I realize I can't see the car. My heart is still a bit jumpy from Jeff reminding me that bears live around here. Then at that moment, with my senses on full alert, I hear a stick break in the woods. Full panic sets in and I'm frozen with fear. I hustle back to the car. After telling Jeff my story and requesting backup, he refused to get out of the car. I think he said something along the lines of, "I'm not risking my life for a geocache!" So, needless to say, we came so close, but decided to pass on geocaching in bear infested woods!

* After Googling the bear situation, it is extremely rare that black bears attack unless provoked. However, I'm not one to test this evidence!

** And, in case you were wondering, we conquered 6 states of the 8 we passed through. 

I never thought I'd have so much fun with camo tape...

For those that know us, know that we are obsessed with geocaching. Maybe me, more than others, but we've had some great experiences, seen some cool places and made it a family activity. We planted our first geocache back in summer 2004. Since then it's been found by 192 people! All those people came to that spot to find our geocache and saw a place that they probably didn't know existed. This geocache called "Widows Peak" is in an old cemetery in our town.

We hid some others over the years, but they've never been as successful, mostly due to flooding. We've hidden two on pedestrian bridges - underneath with magnets, but unfortunately the creeks around here flood and recede leaving us unsuccessful.

This spring we are creating a geocache series in a local trail park. There are over 8 miles of trail and we are confident that we'll find plenty of opportunities! With that in mind, I set out to create our caches. I like to do things differently so I brainstormed some crazy hiding places. Here is what we designed...

Did I mention I love camo tape?

It didn't feel right making the incision....

but it was the only way to hide a film canister inside.

We'll see if we can find a place to hid him in the woods!

Old birdhouse with camo'd canister in hole

Suet cages covered in camo tape on both sides.
Great for hanging in trees

First Geocache Trip of '11

Today we resumed geocaching. We haven't been since three days before Ryan was born. I can't believe I was trekking through a field at 9 months pregnant, but I was probably trying to get him to come out! Regardless, after a 7 month hiatus, we were back to business! We found five geocaches today along Sheridan's Monon Trail. My favorite part of geocaching is finding new places I never knew existed. We have now have.....92! Only 8 more to find and we'll hit our milestone 100 finds....only 7 years after we started!

Off we go!

Treasure!

This one was called Medusa's Tree.

Our little cachers found it right away!

This is how Ryan feels about his first geocaching trip. 

Makes us proud!

Geocaching at Mounds State Park

We decided to geocache at Mounds State Park this weekend. We didn't have time to find all caches in the park, but we had fun trying! We are now up to 71 caches, including our first EarthCache, aka the Great Mound.

First cache of the day, and we noticed we were being followed.
This guy followed us down the trail. I tried feeding him,
but he was more interested in watching us. Cute little guy!

Navigating the dugout canoe at Mounds

Saw something we never would have imagined in an Indiana forest,
a blue tailed lizard, aka Five Lined Skink. Apparently they are more common
in Southern Indiana, but can be occasionally seen in our area too!

Geocaching

We found our 50th geocache located on Midland Trace Trail in July! After a 2 year hiatus
and 6 years after starting, we finally reached a milestone. Now...moving on to 100!

We are on a roll with geocache #60! On this night we found 5 out of 7 in a series. 

Geocaching

How can I explain geocaching without getting crazy looks? Geocaching is a "sport" of finding hidden treasure hidden by using your GPS system. Jeff & I have been doing it for 4 years ever since my parents gave us a hand-held GPS. At first we thought it was just a new fad, but slowly people would 'get it'. However, still to this day, when we tell people, they just think we are weirdos. And I guess it's true. Rather than enjoying a nice dinner & movie, Jeff & I trek through forests, weeds, mosquitos and sometimes scary places just to rack up our finds. The thrill of finding treasure is so fun. At first, we would walk in circles and get so frustrated. Now, we both balance each other out and have the instinct of where to look. Today we found 7 geocaches. I think that's been the most we've ever found in one day. Here's some other fun facts about our hobby...

~Our farthest find was in Wisconsin back in 2006.

~We've also hidden three caches of our own. Our most popular cache has been found by 130 people! That's 130 people who think it's just as cool as we do.

Hopefully by summer's end, we'll rack up a few more finds, as well as great stories!