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Our first hunt!


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Recently I was trying to think of something fun for my family to do over the 4th of July holiday and stumbled across a forum post about geocaching and decided it would be the perfect activity for us. It would get my tv/video game/computer addict 11 year old outdoors and geocaching was something I had been wanting to do for awhile anyway!

 

So I began my research 2 days ago, decided on a gps unit (Garmin eTrex Venture HC), and within 3 hours of UPS delivery of it this afternoon we found ourselves walking around in circles, deep in the dark woods with no flashlight and no hope of ever finding the cache.

 

The sun was low in the sky when we'd left home so I picked what I thought was an easy, quick hunt. I wanted the first one to be simple and fun so that my son would really enjoy it and want to do it again. In hindsight we should have just waited until tomorrow, but I have little patience! And not much sense!

 

So there we were getting poked by sharp branches, walking up and down a path, then into the deep woods, then out again because the GPS was like a woman with PMS...okay, so maybe I was the woman with PMS who shoulda read the instruction manual before leaving home. ;) I hate instruction manuals.

 

We'd trekked through brambles and high grass, and both had sweat pouring down our faces in the hot late afternoon Texas sun when my son uttered the unthinkable, "What if we don't find it today?" I thought, "We HAVE to find it! The first hunt has to be successful or else he will go back to his video games and turn into a pasty white couch potato!!" But instead I said, "Of course we will find it!"

 

About that time I turned and there it was. I squealed and pointed and jumped up and down. I let my son have the honor of retrieving it and then began the mystery of how to open an ammo box! I tugged and pulled and finally got it open but by that time it was pitch black so it was hard to see the contents and sign the log book. Using the dim light of my cell phone and with sweat dripping onto the pages I wrote something down, now I have forgotten what it was because I was too excited to concentrate!

 

My son was thrilled about the baseball he found inside but when I began digging through the box I didn't see anything I really cared about. There were magnets, note pads, pens, beads, etc. Then I saw IT and had to have it....a playing card with a 3 of diamonds. Might seem silly but three is my lucky number and diamond is my birthstone. What a perfect souvenir for my first hunt!

 

We left a Harry Potter book and some other things, resealed and replaced the ammo box and headed back towards the car. My son was so happy and said he couldn't wait until tomorrow to do more! "And this was the best exercise ever!" he exclaimed!

 

Misson: Accomplished!

Edited by AxelDaltonGail
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Wow congratulations on your first find!

Our first hunt ended with a dnf it was about a 5 litre container how do you miss it! We have since found it and were soooo close to getting it the first time. Then we went continued on the first day to find our the following cache a small film cannister which is sort that are recommened to leave till you have more experience lol.

 

Just remember now that you have found one that it is ok to log a dnf or a note if you are no longer having fun. It's the journey (and the fact you got the 11 year old outside) that counts.

 

Hope you have as much fun as we do. :)

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i would have had trouble with that ammo box too. i know more experienced cachers will cringe, but i used google earth to start with and didn't even have a gps unit. now i use both and it gives me a idea of where i'm headed when the gps starts acting up. nothing is good in tree cover except maybe a trained bloodhound. i should have gone for the larger cache my first try, but ended up with a invisible micro that i was ecstatic to find. congrats on getting the teenager out. many more happy caches to you.

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Just remember now that you have found one that it is ok to log a dnf or a note if you are no longer having fun. It's the journey (and the fact you got the 11 year old outside) that counts.

 

Hope you have as much fun as we do. :)

 

Exactly! Getting him outside and having fun together was the most important thing. I was just glad the first one wasn't a DNF!

 

i should have gone for the larger cache my first try, but ended up with a invisible micro that i was ecstatic to find. congrats on getting the teenager out. many more happy caches to you.

 

 

Oh my heart! I'm not ready for him to be a teenager yet! LOL! That is still a year and a half away! :)

Thanks for the congrats! And wow, a micro on your first try, that is cool!

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i should have gone for the larger cache my first try, but ended up with a invisible micro that i was ecstatic to find. congrats on getting the teenager out. many more happy caches to you.

 

 

Oh my heart! I'm not ready for him to be a teenager yet! LOL! That is still a year and a half away! :)

Thanks for the congrats! And wow, a micro on your first try, that is cool!

 

lol sorry. no kids here so anyone between 10 and 20 is a teenager and requires the same amount of pulling teeth, unless of course car keys are a leverage tool. worked for my sister.

 

as for the micro, it was an empty parking lot. if i didn't find it, i was giving up caching for sure. i think it took 2-3 attempts in the same day. i'm quite sure i looked ridiculous. at least you had the cover of night. :)

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Congrats on your first find! I am also the mother of two video-game addicted boys, ages 11 and 12. We also thought this would be a great activity to get them out of the house... we get to get out, explore, see places we never would have seen otherwise, meet cool people we probably never would have met, and have fun as a family. I will warn you, it's easy to get addicted to this (and easy to use an entire tank of oh-so-expensive gas on a day of caching!) Have fun!

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I'm glad you found it! I cache with my 4 boys, ages 10 and below. So far, they absolutely love it, even if it means leaving all the electronic stuff behind.

 

Our first was a 3 stage cache with 2 micros at the beginning. It took us about 2 hours to complete even though all the stages were within about 500' of each other. But they were still some of the most clever micros I've ever seen. The fact that we found them on our first trip definitely got us hooked!

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