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.... ;-)

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?  :-)

  

Funny Travel Bug we Picked up in Lake George

We were up in the Lake George area for the weekend and picked up this very unique travel bug!