Josh's First Cache

31/08/2008 By Kabutroid
I actually hadn't expected to find this particular geocache today. I figured tomorrow at the earliest, but hey... when opportunity knocks.

So I was at my mother-in-law's place not too far from here, just kinda chilling for the evening. Along came my wife's cousin (would that be my cousin-in-law? Does that term even exist?) and their kids. That's all fine and good, whatever. However, I happened to have taken the two kids out geocaching once before, and had asked them if they were up for going for another one. They were, and I happened to have my geocaching bag with me (from having found a different cache earlier today), so off we went! Apparently, the older one (I think they're 15 now) had done some geocaching through Red Rock Bible Camp, so he had a firmer grasp on things. The younger one (11 by now) knew the general objective, but was still kinda sketchy on things.

I let the older one generally hold the GPS and kinda lead the group. He was all fine and good right up until about 12 meters away. At that point, since I don't have the 60CSx gps unit... and thus not the electronic compass, he started to get confused as to which way to go. After a little bit of circling around (and the younger one wanting to climb that nearby tree with the steps nailed onto it... which I quickly put a stop to), I ended up getting the GPS and leading us the rest of the way. Not sure what GPS they had at Red Rock, but it must have had an electronic compass in it ToungeOut .

As we get to the coordinates, I spotted the cache in a few seconds. I told the kids it was close, and let them make the discovery for themselves. At which point, I found that they were still truly city-kids, and not yet trained for the outdoors. Both of them were pretty hesitant to put their hands into the dark, can't-quite-see-clearly-inside-of-it spot. The fact that it was about 8:10 at night so the sun was starting to go down didn't help. Seeing their hesitance, I decided to make the grab myself, confirming that what they were looking at was indeed the cache hiding spot.

Ahh, city-folk. Many of them can get acquainted and accustomed to the outdoors, but others (such as my wife) will do everything in their power to avoid bugs, bushes, or putting their hands near anything that may involve one or both of the above. The kids I was with weren't on the far end of the 'avoid' spectrum... but probably a little on that side of 'middle', anyway. ToungeOut .

After opening the cache container, the younger one (as it seems to always be with younger kids) wanted desperately to trade something for something. Anything, really. He ended up locking onto the golf-ball for some reason. He didn't have anything to trade of course. Or at least nothing sensible... he tried to trade one of his somewhat-expensive toys, or a $20 bill for it. He didn't seem to realize that he wouldn't be getting those things back. This was a kinda permanent exchange here. As tempted as I was to let him trade up in that manner, he simply didn't understand what he was doing. I told him that golf balls can be obtained by the truckload at his OWN HOUSE... for free... but none of it sank in. I ended up trading a micro-machine car for the golf ball for him. Whatever, it made him happy... somehow. Still haven't quite figured that one out yet ToungeOut .

Closing up the cache, we replaced it and gave it some 'natural camouflage', which ended up lying so well that had I arrived here with it like that, I might well have missed it for a bit.

Thanks for the forest cache. T'was a nice adventure, and an outing for some potential future geocachers Smile .

Took: Soccer travelbug, and golf ball shudder
Left: Logbook entry, micro-machine car, and chainmail ball