UMSU Local 103

19/02/2012 By Kabutroid
Looks like I was following cjmom+dad around geocaching today... at least for this part of the U of M. Not only did I log the same two caches right after them on the same day, but I ended up grabbing both of the TB’s that they dropped. cjmom+dad indicates that they accidentally logged the geocoin into the wrong cache, but given it’s only a few hundred meters away, the problem with that is minimal distance-wise. And since I picked up both today, the problem pretty much solved itself on the same day. Can’t go wrong.

But enough of the TB’s, on with the cache! Given it’s been a bit over a month since my last cache find, I decided to make today a day to break that pattern. Not only was I planning on finding several geocaches, but I was determined to knock off my very first ever Geocache Challenge, as well as several more on top of that. At least it somewhat redeems me in the way of geocaching. Or at least that’s what I’m going to tell people ToungeOut .

I started out the caching day at the nearby ‘A View', followed quickly by my first ever challenge ‘Have you hugged your bearalope today'. Since this cache was so close to that pair, I figured I might as well tackle it while I’m at it. It’s a Sunday of a long weekend, so it’s nice and ridiculously quiet here... might as well make the best of the quiet by tackling the caches that would otherwise be quite hard to get without being seen by at least 800 students. Thus, booking it over here, I found myself nearing ground zero, veered a bit away when I had an incorrect assumption as to where it would be, and then quickly spotted the conspicuous thing that just about had to be a cache hiding spot. And all of this with only two people within sight, both of them walking away from me. One thing that I’m not concerned of is the integrity of the hiding spot ToungeOut .

So with the coast obviously clear, I quickly dove in and acquired the cache container. Opening it up, I found the aforementioned geocoin, and actually did ponder for a moment whether it may have been left by the same person, who I theorized was probably cjmom+dad, since geocoins I’ve noticed tend to travel pretty quickly from cache to cache. Yay for correct assumptions! Clearly I need to buy a lottery ticket today ToungeOut . Dropping the coin into my pocket, I quickly unfolded the ziplock bag, and found myself mildly amused by the fact that the bag was at least 10 times too big for the logbook itself. I’ve got to make a strong mental note for myself... I’ve seen little ziplock bags the perfect size for this type of thing at Michaels in the bead/scrapbook related section of the store. At the time I actually contemplated getting a pack of them so that I could swap out giant ziplock bags with a more appropriate one, but for some reason decided against it. I don’t know if they’re open tomorrow, but the next time they ARE open, I think I’m going to go and get them so that I don’t run into this situation again.

But I digress. With the cache found and the logbook signed, I replaced the cache dropped a chainmail ball in place of the geocoin. Taking a quick look around to see if the coast was still clear (shock and amaze, it was), I replaced the cache container and attempted to make the camouflage look as natural as was possible. In retrospect a sprinkle of snow on top of it would probably have helped a lot, but 20/20 hindsight and all.

With a successful caching of the U of M, I headed back to the car, deciding to leave the other caches scattered around the campus for another day. I’ve still got several more geocaching challenges to complete today. Thanks for placing both of the caches I found today BigSmile .

Took:
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball

EDIT: Bah, stupid UBB coding quirks.