How Geocaching Can be Romantic

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I know you must be asking yourself, "How can I use geocaching to let my someone special know they're someone special?"
 
Ok, you probably weren't asking yourself that.  It probably never even crossed your mind to mix geocaching and romance - but ah yes, it can be done!  Here are a few examples and ideas for you.
 
Two years ago for our anniversary, I arranged for babysitting and told DH we were going somewhere when he got home from work, and to change into casual clothes and sneakers.  I drove us to a nature preserve we'd never been to before.  I chose this place because it sounded like it was not too strenuous of a hike, it sounded like it would be beautiful, it sounded like it would be fairly quiet and not full of muggles, it was mentioned in a log that there was a picnic table or two, AND of course, most importantly, there were three geocaches to find - and I KNEW DH would at LEAST love that part! :-)  We did our geocaching and when we came to the picnic table, out of my backpack I took wine and shrimp and cheese and strawberries and other yummy stuff.  (You can see I used a towel for a tablecloth to add some "class", heh.)
 

 

  

And here was the view from our table

  

  
Our anniversary is in May, so obviously this idea won't work for Valentine's Day if you have a lot of snowcover, unless I suppose you're really creative! :-)  But another idea you could use is you could leave a note with coordinates and a gps for your loved one and tell them to meet you at those coordinates.  The location could end up being a nice restaurant or some other special place.  Or you could even hide a gift and leave coordinates for it (of course it would have to be in a very safe spot, or on your own property or the property of someone you know).
 
But, here's a REALLY romantic thing to do - imagine our surprise when we saw this log on one of our own geocaches:
   

"Our third find today. After a great hike and view, I snuck an engagement ring into the cache and proposed! (If anyone has to ask, she said yes.)"

  

And how cute is this - the new finacee left this as her log:

  

"Took engagement ring. Left TB.  Definitely the best find ever!! Thanks for the cache!!"

 

On a scale of 1 to 10 of "romantic-ness", I give that a 10!  Can anybody top that "romantic geocaching" story?

 

Geo Jamboree 7

 Picture from CT-A-Team's Geocaching Page

  
Well, with all the snow and frigid temps we've been having here in upstate NY we haven't been out geocaching as much as we'd like lately.  However, this morning I was consoling myself with thoughts of GEO JAMBOREE 7.  I know I've talked about "Event Caches" before, but this is one of THE major events in the northeast.  It's going to be June 13-14 at Kettletown State Park in CT.  A bunch of geocachers are going to be camping together and there are going to be tons of things going on BESIDES all the new geocaches that are going to be planted just for this special event.  Food - games - bonfire - night caching - swimming - boating - huge Sunday morning breakfast - a band - nametag and sign contests and even a "Leave No Trace" seminar! 
  
You can check out all the details on the cache page at Geocaching.com here ---> GC1K21P.  You will need to be logged in to view the page - if you've not signed up for the Geocaching.com website, why not? It's totally free and after you check out the Geo Jamboree page you can go to the home page and plug in your zip code and see all the geocaches near your home you never knew about!
 
(If you'd like to read more about an "Event Cache" and one we went to this summer, you can read about it here ---> Tri State Treasures Two.)
  

Are You Our Secret Arch Enemy?

If you're an active Geocacher, you might be! :-)

You see, DH likes to frequently check out our geocaching "rank" in our state (New York), and in the U.S., and in the world.  (Here's the website he uses: www.cacherstats.com )  It makes him happy to see us moving up, passing others.  Often times, especially in our state, for a time there may be another geocacher who is close to us in rank, who may at times pass us, and at times we may pass that person.  Well that person becomes our "Secret Arch Enemy".  We start becoming obsessed with trying to pass that person once and for all.  We'll come home from a good day of geocaching and check their profile and see if they've been out, sometimes we run neck and neck for weeks at a time, competing against this other Geocacher, who of course has NO IDEA we are secretly trying to beat their finds and ranking.  It ends up being fun motivation and I'm happy to say we have managed to conquer all our "Secret Arch Enemies" so far...

So next time you're out hunting the latest geocache and you feel the hair on the back of your neck tingling, you just might be our current "Secret Arch Enemy"!  Bwa ha ha.... ;-)

Geocaching in NJ

 

  

We were geocaching in NJ recently, and I have to tell you, we have had many occasions to visit NJ, and our impression was that NJ is mostly highways and houses on small pieces of property (and, ahem, if you REALLY want to, you can read about a really awful stop we had on the Garden State Parkway on my other blog here).  However, on this geocaching trip, we saw some really beautiful parts of NJ we didn't know existed.  We also found some very clever geocaches!

  

  

Would you have thought to look for a geocache in a nut and bolt?
 
How about in a log?
 

 

  

Do you see the geocache in this picture below?

  

   
We thought that was tree-mendously clever (har har) - can you see the little black pill-shaped nano stuck right on to the tree?  Those type of nanos are magnetic - so I would normally be looking for it to be hidden on something metal - in this case it IS on something metal - a screw, screwed into the tree to stick the nano on - that gets my "clever geocache" of the day award!
 
All in all, a really fun day geocaching in NJ - saw some really cool geocaches (and storing these ideas away for future use maybe in NY bwa ha ha ha!), and some really lovely parts of NJ.  New Jersey, I have a whole new appreciation for you!