Christmas Gifts for Geocachers

I am always looking for geocaching gifts for DH for Christmas, birthday, whatever.  There are some nice things in the Groundspeak store, like geocaching.com t-shirts and geocache containers and stuff.   They even have the "fake rock" geocaches.  I got one of these one year for DH.
  

   
Geocoins are also always a fun gift.  (Except my DH never wants to "release" his, he likes to save them, which to me takes the fun out of them, but if it makes him happy, that's all that matters.)
  
This year I discovered the geocaching stuff at Cafe Press - there are some really great designs for t-shirts or mugs or whatever.  You can check them out here.
  
There are also some good gift items there in my sidebar to the right, sold by Amazon, that I recommend.  Listed is a beginner's GPS that we think is good, as well as our GPS, which was somewhat pricey but has the features we felt we wanted after having been at this sport for awhile, and it has great accuracy, I might add.  Also in that list is a first aid kit, which is a MUST, a Geocaching for Dummies book, and a backpack.  The first aid kit and Geocaching for Dummies are good gifts for the beginning geocacher. 
   
Finally, there's always a premium membership to geocaching.com if your loved one is not already a member.  Geocaching.com offers a Premium Membership gift certificate which can be used to upgrade a basic membership to premium, or if your loved one is already a member, they can use it to extend their current premium membership another year (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to see that option).  Great gift for the geocacher who has everything!
  
If you have any other good ideas for geocaching Christmas gifts, tell me!  :-)
  

Another Clever Geocache Container and "Boardwalk" Trails

 

Yes, that's actually a geocache!  I love clever geocaches and clever hides.  Even the "trail" was really fun - as you can see, DD is standing on decking.  That's because this part of the "trail" was like a raised boardwalk with railings and everything, and went through a marshland area.  It was really beautiful to walk amongst the tall reeds, and hear the wind rustling the grasses - there were all kinds of bird and frog sounds as well.  Not that these "boardwalks" are common on hikes, but we've come across this type of thing quite a few times before.  In fact, DH was just on a different hike that had a "boardwalk" (though this one is very low to the ground) and he took a really nice picture.  Here, I'll show you:

 

So anyway, DD thought that "bug" geocache was really cool and asked if she could re-hide it and DH and I said "sure".  So she's fiddling with it and then all of a sudden she says, "Uh oh, I dropped it!"  Yup, it fell down over the side of the decking onto the wetland below.  Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.  So I volunteered to climb over the railing and down the outside of the decking and lucky, lucky, lucky for me the ground was not super saturated and I was able to step on a log and sort of hang off the railing and retireve the geocache.  That's actually the first time I can remember dropping a geocache.  We've found some geocaches that are stuck to the underside of a bridge railing and if you're not careful it can easily go "kerplunk"!  I've heard of a few geocaches getting lost that way!

  
So today's lesson is: try not to drop the geocache!  :-)

   

My American Girl Doll Geocacher

 

  

DD and I call this Kirsten's "Geocaching Outfit".  (It's actually the "Adventure Outfit" from the American Girl Store.)  It even comes with the hiking boots, isn't it cute?  

  

This pic is from the current "scene" we have set up which we are calling "Girls on a nature trail", but I suppose they could be geocaching...  I wonder where I could get a doll size GPS?  :-)

  

A "Nano" Geocache

 

Yes, those are geocaches!  (One is open, one is closed.)  

  

This is a typical "nano" container, and this type is usually magnetic, which is good, because it narrows down the places it can be hidden.  If we are out hunting a nano geocache, we usually look for things that are metal, and search in those places.  Inside is a tiny, tiny piece of scrolled up paper where you can just about barely write your name and the date.  Obviously you have to bring your own pen or pencil when hunting one of these down.   

  

This type of geocache is good for an "urban hide" because it can be "hidden" on a signpost, a metal bench, etc. in the middle of a busy sidewalk, for example.  (I found one once that was on a leg of a post office mailbox which was clever, but in this day and age of fears of terrorism, and tampering with the mail and such, I felt very suspicious searching around it.  Not a very good spot for a hide, in my opinion.)

  

But sometimes they sure can be tough little buggers to find!  Some people "pooh pooh" the nano and micro geocaches because they feel geocaching is only fun if it means a hike in the woods, but we like all types of treasure hunts.  :-)

  

"It's Not About the Numbers"

That's what geocachers like to say.  They like to feel that it's about the sport, the fun of being out in nature, the experience.  That's it's NOT about the number of smilies... (finds)

DH says that no, it's not about the numbers....it's about the ICONS!  Heh!

(You often get new icons for different types of caches found and geocoins picked up.)

But c'mon.  For most of us, sometimes it *is* about the numbers!  :-P

Psst...In fact there's a website - www.itsnotaboutthenumbers.com...

Huckle Buckle Beanstalk!

That's a game we play while geocaching.

You see, a lot of the fun of geocaching is trying to find the geocache.  In our family there are three of us, so when someone finds the geocache, basically the fun is ruined for the other two who now don't get to find the geocache.  So to avoid this, we play Huckle Buckle Beanstalk.  Here's what you do:  when you find the geocache, you don't say anything.  You continue looking around nonchalontly and move away from where the geocache is.  After a moment or two you say, "Huckle buckle beanstalk!"  This lets the others know you've found it.  This way they get to keep trying to find it.  If one of them find it, they do the same thing and call out "Huckle buckle beanstalk!" and the last person can still have the fun of trying to find it.  Or they can just give up and ask where it is.  :-)  But it keeps it fun if you're in a group.

By the way, thanks to MSTzilla for a very fun geocaching event last week!