Mortaine’s Blog

John and I went geocaching today. We bought a GPS unit last night at REI and decided to try out one of the easier caches in our area.

The cache was on campus at UCSC. I printed out a map from Mapquest because I wanted to get as close as I could by road. Remember– I’m pathetically out of shape. I didn’t want to go hiking all over to hell and gone today. I also wanted my first geocache to be a success– no use in having an early disappointment.

So, I picked an easy cache with an easy terrain rating. The cache is called “Dead Presidents.” Basically, it’s a Where’s George? exchange point. I registered a bill before we left so I’d have one on me.

Before we reached the cache site, I stopped to take a picture from the great lookout point on Coolidge Dr.:

We drove up the hill, passed the site where the cache should be, and found parking up at Crown College. The meters weren’t working today, so we just left them and walked down to the cache. The cache is at a T intersection, and we started hunting around for it. We knew it was up high– somewhere above my head, almost certainly. Also, the cache was marked wheelchair accessible. Eventually, we concluded that it must be on the stop sign at the intersection, so we checked it over. Nope. No cache. Was it that weird-looking thing bolted to the light pole? That’s above anybody’s head!

John pointed out that there was a water drainage pipe directly underneath us, which I had dismissed because it wasn’t wheelchair accessible– from the road. Of course! It’s wheelchair accessible from the other side, over by the Bay Tree Bookstore! Ta da!

We went down into the pipe and John pulled out his little LED flashlight. But that was pretty useless, as there was just as much light coming in from the ends of the pipe. This pipe, by the way, was about 20′ in diameter– we were in no danger being down there.

Eventually, we figured out about where it should be, and we were looking above our heads. I found it– a little film canister resting on some sort of unused bracket, about 7 feet up. John jumped up and grabbed it, and we opened it up.

There was a dollar bill, a log sheet, and a bunch of little plastic trinkets (why? I don’t know) inside. We took the bill and replaced it with the one I’d already registered. I looked around in my pockets for a pen, but hadn’t brought one with me, so I couldn’t leave a log note. Note for next time I go geocaching: bring a pen always, and a more powerful flashlight. Also, don’t forget little outdoor notebook, cause that’s always handy to have along.

I took a photo of John replacing the cache:

On the way back to the car, I had to stop– scrambling back up the hill was not fun to my lungs. It was yet another wheezy, painful reminder that I am dreadfully out of shape. Sigh.