Category Archives: Geocaching

Geocaching – A Cold Restart

Yesterday, I was cleaning up some Apps on my iPhone and came across Geocaching. I haven’t used that app in a number of years but opening it, I got interested in the activity, once again. And today went out and found my 95th cache.

Here’s what I wrote in 2012:

“I was out looking for a bald eagle’s nest at Fountainebleau State Park when a Texas auto pulled up. The driver asked if I’d found it and having been there before, helped me locate it through my scope. When I asked if they were birders, he replied, “No, we are geocachers from Biloxi.”

Well, I knew what geocaching was since our grandson, Mac, had just gone on a Cub Scout geo outing. When my new friend asked, “Want to see one?” I followed him up to a little path into the underbrush. He reached down and lifted up a root, showing me the drilled hole in the underside, with a small cylinder inserted. He showed me the rolled up log sheet inside – and I was hooked. I went to his website (Gulf Coast Geocachers)read up a bit, downloaded an iPhone app, and was off and running.”

So this morning, Ginger and I went on a hike to try to find a nearby cache which I previously have looked for and never found. We zeroed in with the iPhone and here’s what the site looked like:

See the cache?
Small caches like this usually just contain junk items.

In addition to finding caches, you can also find and move trackables, that are found in some larger caches. Years ago, I put six trackables in play and one, Roaming Vizsla, has logged 2611.9 miles in the last eight years.

Presently in the UK, Roaming Vizsla has logged a lot of frequent flyer miles.

Geocaching is very compatible with dog walking, birding, even cycling or paddling – and well-suited for solitary Covid-19 outings. I’m hooked once again.

Geocaching Revisited – or – My Vizsla is in Spain

As I have noted in previous posts, I am an “on again, off again” geocacher who goes months between activities, then gets a spurt of activity for a bit, and then goes on to other things. I have about six trackables in circulation (see below) and every time one gets moved, I get an email.

Two of my trackables have logged over 5,000 miles.

Two of my trackables have logged over 5,000 miles.

Enroute to Bovina, I got an email telling me that my Roaming Vizsla trackable was heading to Spain. Here’s the goal that I set:

To sniff out caches in all 50 states (plus overseas if I get a long ride).  Keep me moving along and log my activity.

So Pablo, who found the Vizsla tag in a cache in New York state wrote these comments in the electronic log:

Although this traveler hasn’t made it to all 50 States, I think she might like to come home to Spain with me and visit my dog. We shall see.

I left your Visla in a beautiful, wide open area of Madrid, Spain. Hopefully there is enough room to roam!

Here is the tag and the goal picked up by a Spanish geocacher in Madrid yesterday. He said: Nos lo llevamos para que diga viajando. (We took him traveling.)

Here is the tag and the goal picked up by a Spanish geocacher in Madrid yesterday. He said: Nos lo llevamos para que diga viajando. (We took him traveling.)

I looked at the map to see the travel and as you can see, the trackable made a number of stops in the Northeast before leaving for Spain.

I looked at the map to see the travel and as you can see, the trackable made a number of stops in the Northeast before leaving for Spain.

That night at supper, I mentioned the email from Spain and explained a little about geocaching. I had forgotten how enthused our y0ung friend Julie can get but she was all over it – having heard a little about geocaching but always up for an adventure with her kids. I remarked that I didn’t know if there were any caches nearby but after supper, got my iPhone out and saw that there was one across the street and another a few hundred yards down the road at their church. That started things rolling.

Julie bought the app at once and while it was too dark to go out and search, she went home and did some reading and studying and first thing the next morning, both she and her two older kids were ready to roll. They found a two-part cache at the fire station and then had breakfast and with me, found the cache at the church. By now, they had enlisted two more friends who were psyched.

The two geocachers with me as they pause before their next venture. Photo by J. Hilson

The two geocachers with me as they pause before their next venture. Photo by J. Hilson

So, as we were leaving with the Airstream, Julie and her baby in a running stroller along with four kids on bikes were heading down the road on a half-mile to trek to a local cemetery to try to find the next cache. I think we’ve got another family of avid geocachers in the making. Meanwhile, it’s got my interest kindled again and I suspect I’ll crank up my searching in the next month. I’m at 88 caches found and would like to hit 100 before we head out for the Southwest. Check it out — it’s fun for all ages.

Wandering Birder – a Geocache Travel Bug

I first wrote of my interest in geocaching, and its compatibilty with birding and dog walking, back in February of 2012.  Since then, I’ve gone in spells where I am actively seeking caches and months when I hardly think of the activity.  It’s very much a nice “do it when you want to” hobby.

Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world.

I soon learned that there is more to geocaching than just finding and logging caches — there is a whole system of “trackables” which, with the help of people like me, make their way around the country, and the world — being moved from cache to cache by participants.  So of course, I felt I had to have a few of these of my own and in 2012, launched four of them.

The Travel Bug, with its unique code, is attached to an item.

The Travel Bug, with its unique code, is attached to an item.

The most successful one so far is the Travel Bug I named Wandering Birder.

Simply put, a Travel Bug is a trackable tag that you attach to an item. This allows you to track your item on Geocaching.com. The item becomes a hitchhiker that is carried from cache to cache (or person to person) in the real world and you can follow its progress online.

It’s really up to the owner of the bug to give it whatever task they desire. Or no task at all. The fun of a Travel Bug is inventing new goals for the Travel Bug to achieve. One Bug’s goal may be to reach a specific country, or travel to 10 countries.

In the case of Wandering Birder, the goal is to log a bird seen in 50 US states and 5 countries — and note what birds you see when you have the bug in your possession.  (Results are so-so but the item is certainly wandering.)  Here’s what the most recent finders said:

While we had this travel bug we saw birds that are common in northern NJ: robins, crows, turkeys, turkey vultures, red tailed hawks, flickers, downy woodpeckers, various sparrows, jays, cardinals, ring necked ducks, mallard ducks, blue heron, wrens, finches, orioles, black birds.

I launched this in Texas in March of 2012.  Since then, it has traveled  2299.7 miles.  (One of the geeky aspects of geocaching is that you can see every move and view a map — but I seldom bother to do it.)  Here’s the trek so far for this one:

The travels so far of Wandering Birder.

The travels so far of Wandering Birder.

As we prepare for our upcoming trip, I am bringing a few new trackballs to launch along the way.  For me,  it has been a nice “give it a try” activity. When birds are resting, it is a chance to get out the iPhone and see where the closest geocache might be. And perhaps, there’s a new bird waiting there as well.

My Latest Interest: Geocaching

I was out looking for a bald eagle’s nest at Fountainebleau State Park when a Texas auto pulled up. The driver asked if I’d found it and having been there before, helped me locate it through my scope. When I asked if they were birders, he replied, “No, we are geocachers from Biloxi.”

Well, I knew what geocaching was since our grandson, Mac, had just gone on a Cub Scout geo outing. When my new friend asked, “Want to see one?” I followed him up to a little path into the underbrush. He reached down and lifted up a root, showing me the drilled hole in the underside, with a small cylinder inserted. He showed me the rolled up log sheet inside – and I was hooked. I went to his website (Gulf Coast Geocachers)read up a bit, downloaded an iPhone app, and was off and running.

Here’s a little of what I learned (from Wikipedia):
Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world.

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name.

Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.


Geocaching is often described as a “game of high-tech hide and seek”, sharing many aspects with benchmarking, trigpointing, orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing, and waymarking.

Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. After 10 years of activity there are over 1,532,000 active geocaches published on various websites. There are over 5 million geocachers worldwide.

So, I’ve done some geocaching at Fountainebleau and Lake Fausse Pointe in Louisiana and at Village Creek annd Goose Island state parks in Texas. I find that it goes well with dog walking, biking, and birding and like the fact that it gets you outside. I also like the geeky aspect of gps and online record-keeping and tracking objects around the country and the world. I also like the inter-generational potential of it; kids love it.

So for now, it’s a “give it a try” activity to check out. When the birds are resting, it is a chance to get out the iPhone and see where the closest geocache might be. And perhaps, there’s a new bird waiting there as well.