Two Goth Geeks Geocaching

While on holiday with my daughter, visiting my sister and her family in Dubbo, I decided to stop on the way to the Blue Mountains and find a Geocache for a quick break.

I had my iPhone 3GS on the dashboard monitoring the area and found a geocache not too far from the main road, so our deviation would not be too much on the long trip.

I parked the car and got out with my daughter.  We headed up the slope along a well-worn track towards Ground Zero.

We soon found a pile of rocks and quickly discovered the hidden treasure.  I stickered the log with my Two Goth Geeks “Found it” sticker and signed it as well.

I took some photos of my lovely daughter standing on the rocks and she hopped on my back for a piggyback ride back to the car.

She decided to be the GPSr and pointed the direction for me to walk back to the car.  She really loves Geocaching.. or “Treasure hunting” as she likes to call it.

Just a quick post this one.

Out on a longer lunchtime walk I headed to the area where this cache was hidden. I looked all over for about 15 minutes when a woman arrived and sat down on a park bench right nearby.  Well, this little alcove is not big enough for me to be pretending to do anything non-strangely so I walked away a bit and kept an eye on her in case she left.  I hid for a while under an overhang as the rain was on and off the whole time, but people kept coming to sit on the benches for lunch.  While looking at my GPS for something to do, I heard a guy next to me ask “Are you looking for something?”.  Hmm.  He turned out to be toadmeister7 out looking for the same cache.  I had noticed him walking up and down the stairs for a few minutes, but he could have been there for exercises.  I said “Yeah. My group name is Two Goth Geeks, what’s yours?”. He said “toadmeister7″ and that he had just started Geocaching that month with his son.  Since nobody was leaving soonish he headed off again. I stayed around for another 45 minutes, but had to get back to the office.  I logged onto the website to report the cache as missing.  Others had looked recently and had not found it either, so we assume it had been muggled. Unfortunately, it had a bunch of Travel Bugs in it which are now forever lost.  Oh well.  Later that afternoon I received an email from the cache owner who said to have a really good look as people misplace the cache in the wrong location nearby often.  I went back that afternoon after work and looked for another 45 minutes, but no luck.  I emailed the owner back and he said it must have definitely been lost then.  A while later I see he has replaced the cache so I will have to take another look some time.

I was out for my lunchtime walk, surveying the area for a new Geocache I had been planning for weeks when a new cache popped up on my GeoSphere application’s radar.  Hmmm. I was concerned for a minute as the area is not that big where I was surveying and I did not want another cache too close or I would not be able to find mine. However, this one was far enough away and from the name of the cache “Great Balls of Iron”, I knew exactly the area it should be in since I’d walked past the location many times.  It took me about 20 minutes to find the cache, but after waiting for some joggers to get out of the way I snagged it, stickered it and rammed it back home again. Add another cache to the list!

On the way back to work I walked past a cache called “Midway” which I had technically found before but could not retrieve due to it being hidden in a popular location for muggles to visit… a little park with some nice benches.  Well, this time nobody was around so I quickly fished it out of it’s hiding hole and marked the logbook and put it back again. Glad to have that one completed, I headed back to the office.

Today during my lunchtime walk I decided to give this elusive Geocache another looking for.  I looked over, under and around everything then tried something I never had tried before.  I looked further under than I expected and there was the dang Geocache.  I quickly retrieved it and opened it. The logbook was wet so I just stickered the side of the inside of the container and carefully.. oh soooo carefully back.  This cache has been lost before very easily and I can see why.  I secured the Geocache in it’s hiding spot and walked off, whistling non-chalantly.  I was very happy to have finally found this one as I had looked for it on about 10 different occasions.

This drizzly rainy day there was a Geocaching meetup called “Geocaching 101: Paperless caching”.  I drove to the Carlingford bowling club and sat down to listen to the lesson. They taught us a bit about the GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) program and we discussed other things about Geocaching.  Afterwards, I had a nice chat with some Geocaching people and grabbed a few Travel Bugs to drop in caches on my adventures.  I had a fantastic time meeting everyone and highly recommend it. I joined the Geocaching NSW group and got my Geocoin and badge. I was very happy.

Once the meetup was over I wanted to find a Geocache. It was in my mind and I could not shake it.  They told me there was one out the back of the club, so I headed off.  I got to the bush behind the club and there seemed no way through.  Every time I went cross-country I found a lot of trees and bushes in the way, plus a LOT of orange and black scary-looking spiders.  I phoned up the GeoTalk phone number to record my attempt and plug my website I left a quick message about the “Cox Park” Geocache I was at for them to play on their next show.  After a lot of pacing back and forth I decided to try a different tact and headed to the far right of the park and found a trail.  I followed the trail along to not far from the cache and took a sharp left turn, headed down the next trail and got close to the cache.  I looked round and round where the GPS said it should be, while getting bitten by many mosquitoes and sweating like a pig!  I checked the hint and with some deduction looked in another area not too far away. Sure enough, there was the cache.  I stickered the log and left a Travel Bug I had picked up.  I phoned the GeoTalk hotline again and left another message about finding the cache and how much fun I had at the meetup.

I was just going to head home and decided to throw in a few other Geocaches before I got there. There are a group of them called the “M7 caches” along the M7 motorway.  First up was “Sh…it’s a brick” ( an M7 cache )”. I found it without too much trouble and dropped in a Travel Bug.  Next was “Mount Cecil ( an M7 cache )”. Another quick find and TB.  Two more, including “Just out of sight (an M7 cache)” and “Lighthorse” (an M7 cache)”.  More Travel Bugs dropped and my day complete. I was tired and wet from the rain on me, but had a nice time. I did, however slip and fall near one of the caches and bent my finger back at a bad angle, but that’s what happens when you are out adventuring on your own in the rain.  I also updated my “Jay and Silent Bob” Geocache with a new, non-broken container.  A really big Geocaching day, but lots of fun all the same.

I was so close to my 100th Geocache find that I could smell it and had to get out and about this afternoon.

First up was “Dad’s Pride”. I had gone to look for this one with Lord Striker in the past, but there was a guy nearby where I thought the cache was so we didn’t even bother. This time, however the park was totally empty. I followed my GPS arrow to where I had expected the cache would have been anyway. I had a quick look around and quickly had the cache in my hands. A quick stick of the Two Goth Geeks sticker in the logbook and a few photos at GZ and it was off to the next on the list.

I quickly drove to “Cinema Scope” for my 100th Geocache — what we in the business call a Milestone.  This one I found after about 5 minutes and quickly logged my find in the book.

I drove past a cache I had been near with Lord Striker before, but we weren’t keen on looking for it right next to a major road. This time, however I thought “STUFF IT!” and had a look. It was my 101st Geocache anyway and I could not resist the urge to up my total. Well, I looked around a lot and had to check the hint for this one as it was a tricky little bugger! I hunted around for another 15 minutes before I decided to try the logical thinking thing. I looked under where I knew it should be and there she be! A teeny, tiny little Geocache not much bigger than your fingertip! Well, I thought I had seen them all, but this one took the cake!  I unravelled the tiny tiny logbook carefully and put my sticker in, then rolled it back up and had to try and shove the damn thing back inside it’s tiny container. I shortly put it back and had a few photos then headed to my car.

I rushed home to update the website log as I wanted to have 100 Geocaches listed.

Out for a walk at lunchtime during a work day. I knew there were a few Geocaches around Hyde park so it was time to find them.

First up was “Jekyll and ????” (Hyde?) – This one was quite easy as you can walk straight up to it and see it there, plain as day! I’m very surprised it hasn’t been muggled yet. Perhaps it has in the past and has been replaced. Anyway, I opened the container and found the log book. It was very damp so I stuck my Two Goth Geeks sticker in there and headed off to the next one.

Next up was “Tolkein Tree”. This was a large tree with many nooks and crannies. I searched around in circles for a while then reached inside. Lo and behold, there was ye cache.  There was no Travel Bug inside as the log page had said but the logbook was there so I put my sticker on it and headed to “Shallow Depth”.

I got to Ground Zero (GZ) of “Shallow Depth” easily enough, but searched for ages and could not find it. I tried getting clever and looking in areas the GPS didn’t say it was, but alas no cache.  I went round and round this cache location for about 45 minutes, not wanting to be beaten. In the end, however, I had to admit defeat and head back to the office.  All I ended up with was green fingers and hands from the moss growing around the location of the cache.  Perhaps another day I will have more luck. Many others have not found it since and it has since been taken offline for maintenance, but apparently it was definitely there when I was looking.

Yesterday morning I headed out to the shopping centre to drop off some work pants to have altered and I thought since I was out I may as well get some good ol’ Geocaching done.  I’d hopped in the car then looked at the sky and went back in the house for an umbrella. It looked like I’d get good use out of that.

I dropped off my pants and headed towards Nurragingy Reserve in Doonside, Sydney. I soon arrived and followed my iPhone Geosphere GPSr application to nearby the first Geocache, Lynched!

I had an idea where the Geocache may be hidden so searched around the area.  I saw what I thought may be the Geocache, but could not get it to move, so figured I was wrong and went back to the GPSr application. It kept pointing me around some trees, but I didn’t think the Geocache would be there.  I wandered around for about half an hour checking everywhere, but I think the clouds may have been causing havok with my GPSr.  The iPhone doesn’t have the best GPS device inside it, so you have to trust your judgement as to where a Geocache may be.

I decided to read the hint supplied, but it didn’t help at all.  I read through other logs and it became apparent I had been correct in my first assumption and wasn’t trying hard enough.  I gave it another go and soon had the tiny Geocache in my hands.  I stickered the log with our Official Two Goth Geeks log sticker and put the Geocache back.  I filled in the log and FOUND section in my phone to sync back to the Geocaching.com website later and headed back to the car.  There had been a gathering… a wedding or somesuch nearby the Geocache, but it was raining enough to keep people inside.  A few people walked by near where I was searching, but none were around when I was working on the actual Geocache.

I jumped back in my car and drove off to the next one on the list, N.R Hideaway. The description suggested parking near the Blacksmith’s hut, so I did and grabbed a small badge to add to the cache, got my umbrella and headed off down the track.  This one was along a track which had been built up to a platform and steps.  I came across a biker going the other way and said “Gday” as we passed.  Not far from the Geocache, I heard a lot of kids shouting and laughing.  Soon after, a bunch of them came riding by on pushbikes.  Two rode off in the direction of the Geocache so I headed that way, too.  They soon came back past me and rode to meet the others as I continued along the track.  I came across a brick pylon right next to a swamp, which was strange.  I might upload a photo of that to the Geocache page.  I soon arrived at the location of the Geocache and figured the most likely location.  I had a quick search before checking the hint and knew I was right next to the hiding place.  I picked up the Geocache and saw it was too small for the badge, so just signed the log, put it back and went to my car again.

Next one was THE FALLEN.  This was another short walk of about 600 metres.  I had to head off the track into the bush (or ‘woods’ as they say in the US of A).  I walked to where I figured was about the right location and checked my GPS but was about 100 metres off so headed closer and soon quickly figured what THE FALLEN was referring to.  After a quick search, I had the Geocache in my hands and the logbook stickered up.  I dropped the badge in this one, careful that the black plastic spider guarding the cache didn’t attack and put the Geocache back together.  Back to the car and off to the next Geocache.

By this time my car fuel warning light had been on for a while, but I knew I had a fair way I could go on that so drove to the first waypoint of a Multicache.  Multicaches have more than one location for you to visit before finding the actual GZ (Ground Zero — or the actual location of the Geocache).

I parked the car near WP1 (Waypoint #1. The first location to visit.) and strolled down the education trail.  It was not long before I came across the right spot and after a quick look had the location for WP2.  Back to the Cache-mobile and onto the next Waypoint.  I got to the second waypoint and got out, locked the car and proceeded down the trail.  While walking I thought I’d see if there was a way to mark where the car had been parked so I could find it easily enough when I returned.  After a bit of mucking about I had a location set in the Geosphere program and went to switch it back to searching for Waypoint 2 when I suddenly realised with a shock that I’d lost the location because I’d been trying to put the car’s location in. ARGH! I walked back to the car and quickly drove to WP1 again, fastwalked down the trail and this time added a new Waypoint to the Geocache entry in my iPhone and saved it. I also took photos of the numbers in case something happened again. In the car and it was off again to WP2 about 3 mins drive down the track.  Following the correct location direction I was off once again. It started raining, but I had my umbrella.  I walked past a group of people and up onto a road which it turns out I could have driven to somehow, but nevermind, it was only about 500 metres to walk to WP2.  I passed a council bus with a bunch of Islander-looking people playing guitar and singing at a BBQ spot.  I went past then and turned right down the road again and past a group of people with a sign something like “The Legion of Mary”. Huh… Past them and to WP2 I was soon searching for the numbers again.  I thought I was in the correct area but still checked the hint this time and knew I was correct. It was just a matter of finding the tiny printing of numbers.  After about 20 minutes I spotted it and entered the new location into my Geosphere application.  I also added a note to my iPhone note application with the numbers on it and walked back to the car.  Along the way it really started raining heavier than ever before and my shoes got soaked through.  I made my way sloshing through the rain and got in the car.  The fuel gauge was still assuring me I needed to fill up soon, but I was sure I only had one more place to go.

I filled my pockets with a few trinkets some friends had given me as they no longer needed them and followed the arrow on my GPSr to GZ (Ground Zero).  There were people walking around in the rain, some even with very young children in rain jackets.  I had hoped that the rain would keep muggles (non-Geocachers) away, but still had to wait until they’d all moved on before I started looking.  GZ was a big pile of rocks and after some long searching in the rain I checked hints and other logs.  I knew I was in the right area, but apparently you have to be very dexterous and flexible to get this Geocache.  I searched around, lying on wet rocks and reaching, feeling all around… hoping against hope that no creepy crawlies would attack my flesh.  After about 30-40 minutes I’d had enough.  I was quite wet by now and had had a headache for about the last hour and a half. (Okay, it was probably more like a hangover).  I decided I’d have to log a DNF (Did Not Find) against this and trudged through the mud back to my car.  I got in and drove home, only stopping for some petrol and a small amount of supplies for dinner.  I soon got home and downed a couple of Nurofen Zavance and had some food.  I watched a bit of television comedy (Scrubs) and soon was feeling much better.

A really good, peaceful day out Geocaching in all.

Today I got my shopping done and had some time to kill.  There was nothing on at the cinemas for a couple hours so I decided to kill time with Geocaching Always the best way to do it hehe

I changed my mind a couple of times but ended up starting with Our Duck Pond. It was only about 10 minutes drive from Blacktown. Maybe less. I was headed for one geocache but changed to this one.  I got out of the car nearby and walked down the path to where the geocache should be. There was nobody nearby so I guessed the area where the geocache might be and had a quick search.  The first place I looked contained the geocache.  I pulled out a rock and the geocache, stuck in our Two Goth Geeks sticker and signed the book with the date as well.  I shoved the geocache back in and jammed the rock in front of it.  I saw a couple of kids walk by but I think they didn’t see what I was doing.

I jumped back in my car and marked the street location of my next target: Can I entice you? This is an interesting geocache as mentioned in the description.  I soon found the location and retrieved the geocache.  It’s certainly unique. I’ve not seen one like it before.  I put our sticker in it and added a toy car, as this is a kids geocache.  It took me a few goes to get the lid back on, but I did and hid it away.

My last geocache of the day was Rouse Hill Regional Park # 2. I drove past the road for this one and had to go a ways before I could turn around. I got to the park and there were a lot of people around.  I parked the car and headed out to find Ground Zero.  This was the first geocache of the day I decidd to use the Hint to find the geocache.  It’s possible I would not need the hint but with people walking past from time to time and the kids playing nearby I wanted to find the geocache quickly.  I found the geocache and got the lid off and added a toy to it with the others.  I was about to walk away but read the geocache description again and it mentioned a Travel Bug in the geocache.  I turned around and got geocache open again and searched for the TB, but it was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t until I logged the find on the website that I discovered someone had already taken the TB a few days ago.  Because my data is up to a week old, I didn’t have the latest information. I might change the data query to run on Fridays so everything is as up to date as possible.

I’d really enjoyed my geocaching and decided I’d had enough for the day so headed on back home again.