I managed to do some geocaching along my route up from FL to MN and then from MN to the yard here in WI. On the run up from FL I really didn't have a lot of time to spend on it but did manage to find a couple of quick and easy ones.
Today I was able to take my time wandering across WI as I didn't really have to be anywhere at any certain time today. I'm not due in at the office until tomorrow morning. I plotted a couple of caches on my GPS that were along my route and stopped at both of them. One was beside a truck stop in Black River Falls. It was a "virtual" cache, meaning that there wasn't an actual cache hidden there. One was simply supposed to find the indicated coordinates, log the find, and email the "owner" with a description of the unusual or unique object or characteristic of the location. In this case it was a huge orange moose.
The second one was an actual cache. It was located in the woods beside a tiny little wayside park that was barely big enough for me to get my rig into. I had to hike up through the woods and around a large rock outcropping to locate the cache. It was a nice little hike through the woods, but I wish I'd had my hiking stick with me. I'll have to remember to put it in the truck next time I am home as I think it's going to come in handy with the geocaching.
The coordinates for the cache were off by about 50 feet but I was expecting this as someone else had already logged the fact. It took a bit of searching around before I finally located it hidden under a small brush pile. It was a Tupperware type container and contained the expected log, which I signed, as well as a collection of little trinkets which I left intact as I wasn't carrying anything with which to replace something I took. There was also a travel bug. My first travel bug find. It was pretty cool to find it as I had just been thinking earlier that day that so far I hadn't run across any.
A travel bug is a tag, like a dog tag, with geocaching information etched on one side and a serial number on the other.This one is attached to a tiny teddy bear LOL When you find one you look it up on the site and log finding it and where. The site for the TB lists the goals for that TB. In this case it's goal is to travel to all of the Big 10 schools and attend a game and be photographed there. From what I could see of the logs it's made some good travels although I found it a very long way from the last reported location. Someone had grabbed it, never logged it, and then dropped it at this cache. Probably today as the last person there had dated their visit with today's date. We may have just missed each other, who knows?
I'll move it along and try to find a cache close to or at least on the way to one of the other listed schools so that maybe it can find it's way to a game by the time the season starts again.
After I dropped my trailer and paperwork off at the yard I came down to the truck stop for dinner. Afterwards I did a quick search and found that there was a cache located just across the highway from here, about a half a mile away so I decided to wander over and see if I could locate it. I found it quite easily, signed the log, and returned it to it's hiding spot for the next person. The last person to sign that log did so yesterday.
Oh well, it's something to do and is a bit of harmless fun. I did have to remove a tick from my leg when I stopped to shower after the little hike through the woods. I need to pick up some insect repellent to use while doing this. I can't stand those nasty little bloodsuckers.
Enough geocaching for one day. My GPS tells me that the next closest cache to this location would require a good 2.5 mile walk or bike ride to get there and it'll be getting dark soon. Time to kick back and watch a DVD I suppose. Maybe do some knitting too.